Peas salad
Fresh peas, home made pesto and pasta rice are an awesome combination for lunch or accompanying a soup for instance. It’s quite a hearty salad with a refined taste. Now peas are not so boring any more. Quite nice for them, right?
Couscous salad
Red peppers under the grill is optional in this recipe, but frankly it’s not… It is the difference between an unforgettable couscous salad and an ‘okay’ salad. Just take the time to grill those red peppers. You will get rewarded in many ways.
White gold, asparagus
White asparagus are the best when eaten in the classical way. Nothing special, as pure as possible. With a fresh sour sauce en maybe some nice sturdy potatoes.
Quinoa risotto with mushrooms
Risotto is comfort food to the max. It is full of taste, such a nice mouth experience and the taste stays with you for a long time. There are endless possibilities but this one is really great. And because this time we make it with quinoa instead of rice, it is a light version.
Rendang
Rendang is slow food 5.0. The longer it can simmer the better it gets. I have made it with oxheart cabbage. And a well balanced combination of spices, classic in the Indonesian cuisine. One of the sons declared the other day that this is one of his favourite vegan dishes. Need I say more?
Pjadra
I grew up with it when we were living in Lebanon. In my uni years it became very popular among my friends: healthy, cheep en delicious. And my kids grew up with it as well and often long for it, even when they do not live with us any more. And Joris, he is also a big fan now. Logic, it’s comfort food.
Broccoli salad
It’s the fresh ginger, the red chili pepper and the roasted sesame seeds that do their trick in this salad…
Kibbeh de Batata
You do not only find potato eaters in the Netherlands. They are also very much around in the Middle East. Although they have a very distinctive way of preparing potatoes. Like here with kibbeh de batata. A crunchy exterior with a very surprising content.
Platano for breakfast
El Salvador is the second home country to my oldest daughter. And naturally, eating habits from that culture find their way into our home. So now we eat several times a week plantain for breakfast. Nice and sweet and crispy and healthy and simply delicious.
Stir fried Brussels sprout
Brussels sprout, they are so versatile. More than you would think. These stir fried Brussels sprout are a very good example.
Best risotto ever with sweet garlic and tomato
A great risotto stays with you for a while. You keep eating because of the intense taste. Living on the edge, I know. Risotto is an attention junkie, you need to stay by its side all the time. It keeps on talking to you when you prepare it. The advantage is that your guest at the table will be silent for while, terribly enjoying what they’re eating.
Courgette soup
What goes for my zucchini soup, actually is valid for all my soups. Whatever vegetable goes in. I start frying some onion and garlic. Then the vegetable of the day, some vegan chicken broth… some dried or fresh herbs in the pan. Some green or red pesto … and then … you’re done…
Filled zucchini
These nice and round courgettes are not very common, but sometimes you encounter them at the little Turkish or Moroccan shops. If I find them I immediately by 10 of them, I can’t help myself. With the tasty and licht filling, you serve a stunning meal. A real Sunday lunch candidate, if you ask me. Oh, and because of their round shape they are easy to fill up.
Parsnip soup
Some vegetables have a structure that are so nice in your mouth, parsnip is one of them. If you add the right quantity of moist to it it changes into a velvet substance. Lovely. This variation is somewhat Arab because of the herb mix.
Beetroot salad
Usually there are some beetroots in my fridge. Sometimes they have to lie there for a while, but often they are quickly used. If I open up the fridge and ask myself what I should prepare for my lunch and I suddenly see that red package, the answer is immediately there.
Bulgur and red pepper
For many years I had my fav little Turkish grocery around the corner as my go to place for fresh herbs, Arab ingredients, couscous and bulgur in all sorts of variaties. And the friendly face of mr. Ali. Only to learn the other day that he originally comes from the region where they grow bulgur. It is a grain that I use in Lebanese salads and in the kibbeh de batata, recipes you can also find on the website. In this dish with red peppersI use it as a pasta or rice. A real treat. Also when it has cooled off. Or the next day. In our home a hit from the first time it appeared on our table.
Kohlrabi à la Mediterannée
Sometimes you want to prepare a dish because you know your house will fill up with the nicest smell. That’s also the case with this dish. The fresh rosemary, the potatoes and the garlic work perfectly together and ensure that you get hungry.
Zuppa di pomodoro
I make this soup almost every week. There are always onions, tomatoes, garlic and broth in the house. And depending from what there is more, the soup gets more ingredients. It often ends in a table with little plates with basil, vegan cheese, pesto, croutons and other nice additions that guests can choose from.
Radicchio salad
Radicchio blood orange salad. Sometimes you know instantly that a dish will stay with you for a long time. The tastes, the juiciness, the combination of bitter and sweet and the picture perfect of course does the trick.
Thai curry soup
This is the best way of using red lentils. It is an extremely creamy soup with an addictive taste. You want to keep on eating. It is prepared just like that, which is also a nice to have right.
Spicy pumpkin in the oven
Squash and I are not team members. I am not such a fan of pumpkin soup for example. But in this dish pumpkin suddenly transforms into a very tasty meal that is interesting all the way. You have to be patient, waiting until it is cooked enough in the oven, but hey … slow food is the best thing.
Hummus
If I would talk about hummus 5 years ago, many would not know what I was talking about. Nowadays you can get it everywhere, and this sensational multifunctional little dish deserves that … as a dip, on a cracker with tomato, but also in dressings in stead of mayonaise for instance. You can get it in the supermarket in many tastes, but making it yourself is always better. You can keep it in the fridge for a week or so.
Pasta sauce from heaven
There are many dishes our adult children can request. Tastes they grew up with, dishes they were looking forward to as a child. And still. This pasta sauce is one of them. Sweet, soft, creamy. One day I had so many red peppers in the house that I decided to make this sauce. I twisted it somewhat over time, but it is still a hit. And if you have some sauce left over, the next day for lunch, with some bread…. so nice.
Fattoush
Look, Lebanese than this isn’t going to get any quick. Fattoush is a salad that you really eat everywhere in Lebanon or in a Lebanese restaurant. It is a fresh salad in which the Lebanese flat bread is crisply processed. The bread goes into the oven to get really crispy and is then put, broken into pieces, in the salad. It’s a find.
Green asparagus with an Arabic twist to it
Green asparagus with an Arabic twist. The harissa together with the zest of the lemon and the vegan honey, give a totally new taste to this well known vegetable. Really worth it.
Couscous on Fridays
After the Friday afternoon prayers the whole family gathers for the couscous, that has been prepared in a very caring way. It’s a very important meal, a break in the week. Couscous on Fridays is a phenomenon. In Morocco they steam the couscous in a traditional way, on top of the vegetables in a so-called couscoussière. Here you’ll find two ways for the preparation, a quicker one and the traditional one. One thing we do traditionally is to use 7 different vegetables in the couscous.
Tabouleh
Tabouleh should only be made with flat parsley. Otherwise we cannot speak of tabouleh, frankly. And just make it with bulgur and not with couscous or quinoa. Otherwise we cannot speak of tabouleh, frankly. And otherwise the finishing touch consists of raw onions with some white pepper on top of it… la classe …
Sweet and savoury tagine
Knowing that later in the day there will be a tajine ready, fills me with pure joy. I love true comfort food, food that takes its time to become freaking delicious. Tagines are this type of food. The combination of sweet and savoury is so powerful in this tagine. I have tagines in many shapes and sizes plus the traditional ‘container’ you need for the charcoal to cook it on. But you can also prepare it on your stove. Just make sure the fire gently heats the tagine.
Rice salade to die for
If we think of rice, we usually think of white rice in all its variaties. Or maybe brown rice. But red rice is not so known, and we are going to change that. Red rice is full of taste, has a nutty hint to it and the bite is fantastic. This salad is a great combination of tastes that bring out the best in each other. And like many other dishes, the next day it is even better.
Green, orange and red
I say it repeatedly when it comes to squash, but squash and me are no friends by nature. But what’s so nice about squash is that it can pleasantly surprise you. And then suddenly I turn into the biggest fan, because it an have it all: colour, different tastes and crispiness.