Yummy and healthy dish

I can still remember the very first time I came upon Bea’s blog La Tartine Gourmande. I was awestruck to say the least. Those gorgeous airy photographs! Delicate, flowery and with a clear style. I was hooked. We’re literally talking years ago. It must have been 5 years ago, I think. I honestly don’t know. Do you know or remember that very first moment you saw a food blog and thought, wow, maybe that is something I should be doing too?

Why do people decide to start a food blog? To begin with there should be a clear interest in food, otherwise; what is the point but there are tens of thousands of people out there that have a strong love for food, but absolutely no inclination to start a food blog. Mine is not even that old. With a mere 3 years it’s a medium aged blog. A lot don’t survive past a year, a few make it to more then 5. But what is it, that makes you start a blog? Most of the people reading my blog are probably bloggers themselves and a lot of them I follow too. And I love it. I love to follow all your blogs (if only there was more time!) and I love to write in my own blog too.

Juicy tomatoes and pink quinoa

There is nothing more satisfying for me then to have a clear idea on what I want to make, shoot it and then write about it. Let’s face it; a food blog is not only about food. That would probably make it slightly boring. I made this and that and it tasted good, bad or ugly. No one is going to want to read that more then once. It’s always funny to notice that the posts I write that have nothing to do with food, are often the ones that get the most amount of comments or the most traffic. The funny stories that is. Or the ones that are deeply personal. It’s at those moments that the blogging community can be at it’s best, I think.

I think I’ve said it before but blogging has brought me so much! I’ve met so many wonderful people along the way, both in real life and through twitter and Facebook and obviously through the blog itself. People that are now part of my life and that I love dearly. How cool is that? So to everyone who thinks blogging is weird I would say; try it first (but with your heart and soul in it!) and then judge.

Coming back to Bea; I’ve had the pleasure of meeting her in person at Foodblogger Connect last year and while that was too brief and in a large group of people, I would have loved to chat a bit more with her. She seems to be the same person you ‘see’ online when you meet her. With that lovely French accent.

So naturally when I found out that she was going to make a book I just had to have it. And even though I think I had to wait for about two years to actually hold the book in my hands; it is here now. And it’s every bit as gorgeous as I had expected it to be. The photos are just gorgeous but the recipes. O the recipes are even better!

Juicy tomatoes and pink quinoa

So when I found out that Nurit from Family Friendly Food had the same book, we quickly agreed on both cooking something from the book and blogging about it. We haven’t shared which recipe we’ve cooked, so for both of us it’s a surprise..;) Nurit and I have done a similar thing a while back where we picked pancakes recipes from around the world and made blintzes, blinis and some other yummy pancakes in the process. So it’s fun virtually cooking together again!

You would want to buy this is you saw it right?

In the name of health I picked this gorgeous recipe. And guess what happens; I had beets in my veggie box this week so figured I’d roast those and then use these for the salad. So early this morning I wrapped them in aluminum foil and roasted them for a while. (1,5 hour as they were big) And guess what? Turns out they’re yellow beets! Now that was not what I wanted! This quinoa salad is so pretty because it’s pink. And yellow beetroots, ladies and gentleman, do not become pink. So I cheated a bit and bought a precooked beet at the supermarket this morning. Tsssk. I did still use the yellow one which is why the salad is not so pretty and pink as I wanted to, so I made up for it with the props used.

The salad itself is absolutely delicious with the sweetness of the tomatoes and the salty feta. Yum! The book I can only recommend as I plan to cook much more from it and I know Nurit has already done loads of recipes and was enthusiastic over most, if not all!

You can read Nurit’s post here.

La Tartine Gourmande – Recipes for an inspired life

Beetroot and quinoa salad with feta

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Serves	4-6
Prep time	10 minutes
Cook time	15 minutes
Total time	25 minutes
Dietary	Vegetarian
Meal type	Lunch, Salad
Misc	Pre-preparable, Serve Cold
From book	La Tartine Gourmande

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons pinenuts
• 200g quinoa (uncooked)
• 475ml water
• seasalt
• 1 cooked beet (large, peeled and diced and make sure it's red)
• 100g cherry tomatoes
• 90g feta (crumbled)
• 1/4 piece red onion (finely chopped)

vinaigrette

• sea salt
• pepper
• 6 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons flat leaf parsley (chopped)
• 1 tablespoon cilantro (chopped)
• 1 tablespoon chives (chopped)
• 1 tablespoon mint (chopped)

Directions

Toast the pinenuts in a frying pan over medium heat for 2 minutes or until lightly colored and fragrant, remove from the heat and set aside to cool.

Rinse the quinoa under cold water and drain it in a colander. Add it to a pot and cover with the water or broth and a pinch of seasalt. Cook for about 12-15 minutes until most or all of the water is absorbed. Turn of the heat and let it stand for a further 5 minutes with the lid on.

Transfer the quinoa to a bowl and fluff it up with a fork and make sure it cools down. Add the beet and toss gently. If you do not mistakingly have a yellow beet then your quinoa will turn lovely and pink. Add the tomatoes, onion and cheese.

vinaigrette

In a small bowl, combine the sea salt and pepper with the olive oil and lemon juice and whisk to combine. Stir in the herbs. Dress the salad with this vinaigrette and adjust the seasoning to your taste. Serve with the pinenuts

Note

It's funny that I only now find out that I totally forgot to add pinenuts. It was still very lovely. I left out the onion, as I don't particularly like raw onions but I used spring onions instead. I also used spring onions in place of the chives as I had those left in the fridge.

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Baked penne dish

Did you know that the Dutch are known as ‘cheese heads’ (kaaskoppen)? I’m quite sure it is not a term a Dutch person would use for themselves but it is an internationally known term. I wasn’t entirely sure how we got to be called that, other then the fact that we sure do eat cheese a lot.

As it turns out, our friendly neighbors the Belgians, came up with that name in the period of the “Belgische Opstand” (1830-1939) when they no longer wanted to belong to the Netherlands and were calling us names. You guess what one of those names was; ‘kaaskop’. The thinking was that the round cheeses produces looked a bit like a head.

Gooey goodness

In fact when going a bit further into detail there appear to be several stories about the origin of the word but in general it is definitely something the Belgian’s call us..:) And that’s fine; there is quite some name calling involved in the relation between Belgians and the Dutch! Lol…

Now having said that; I LOVE cheese. Seriously. Any cheese really but I have a strong preference for Italian cheese, French cheeses and strong cheeses. But then I also love Old Amsterdam (strong old Dutch cheese, which is delicious!) or well, like I said all cheese.

So when I was approached by Sargento to feature one of their recipes on my blog I did not have to think long and hard. I mean… it’s cheese! When browsing through the collection of seriously yummy recipes on their site I kept going back to the one featured on the front page, which was an oven dish with baked penne and eggplant featuring some lovely mozzarella cheese. I used minced veal in this dish but the original is vegetarian so check it out here if you’re more a veggie person!

Baked penne

My father in law was coming for dinner last night so this is a good dish to serve if you have an informal dinner party. You can prepare the dish upfront and just pop it in the oven half an hour before you’re ready to eat. Tom thought it was a tiny bit on the cheesy side, but then he is not a big fan of cheese (weird man, that man of mine!!) but he did find the flavors here lovely, so this will definitely be made over and over again.

Baked Penne with eggplant, tomatoes and cheese

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Serves	4
Prep time	10 minutes
Cook time	1 hours, 5 minutes
Total time	1 hours, 15 minutes
Meal type	Main Dish
Misc	Serve Hot
Region	Italian
Website	Adapted from Sargento

Ingredients

• 4 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon garlic (minced)
• 4 tablespoons fresh oregano (chopped)
• 3 pieces tomatoes (chopped into cubes)
• 3 sprigs thyme (leaves only)
• 1 shalot (finely minced)
• 350g minced vealmeat
• 400g penne (or other type of pasta)
• 1 courgette (chopped in cubes)
• 150ml tomato sauce
• 200g mozzarella (chopped or grated)
• 100g old cheese (grated)
• 1 eggplant (cut into cubes)

Directions

Preheat the oven to 180 C. (350 F) Brush a large enough baking dish with 1 tbsp of olive oil.

In a heavy skillet first brown the vealmince first until cooked. Bake the eggplant separately until cooked and set aside. Add the chopped onions to the veal, with the garlic and zucchini and bake until cooked. Add the eggplant back in and add the chopped tomatoes. Leave cooking until the tomatoes have lost most of their liquid at which point you add the tomato sauce in. I use a sofrito tomato base for this.

Mix in chopped oregano and thyme and season the dish to your liking with salt and pepper and remove from the heat. Cook your penne pasta in 11-12 minutes until al dente. Drain, rinse and add a little olive oil to the pasta to prevent it from sticking. Add the pasta in your vegetable mixture and fold in 2/3 of the grated cheese. Transfer to the baking dish. Put the mozzarella on top of the dish and finish with the remaining grated cheese. Bake this dish for 25-30 minutes in the oven. If it becomes to brown then you can cover it with aluminium foil.

Junglefrog Cooking disclosure: This post was sponsored by Sargento. Though I have been compensated to write this post, all opinions expressed are my own.

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Yummy sandwich

I think I’ve said it before but I’ll say it again; sometimes the best things in life are the simplest things… Now take for example this delicious bruschetta. Made with some of the leftover contents of our fridge and voila, you have a perfect lunch sandwich.

Not sure how the weather is in your part of the woods but here it is currently grey and boring… I’m glad all the snow and ice are gone as I am soooo ready for spring at the moment! We still had all the snow on Saturday, on sunday the temperatures rose quite dramatically from -10 to +5 C and the snow disappeared equally fast. Within a day virtually all was gone, except for the ice on the rivers. Some of that still remains even today but the majority is gone. And while I was fed up with the snow at least it gave the world a slightly more cheerful look. Now when I look outside it is grey and well, boring.. I have a little bit of green from the evergreen shrubs in the garden but that’s about the only green I see. Are you also ready for spring?

I have visions of warm summer nights, bbq-ing with friends in the garden. And light, lots of light! Especially in the evening. Although you can tell that the evenings are getting longer in terms of light, it is still no where seriously light… In any case, these delicious little sandwiches give you a hint of spring since tomatoes always make me think of spring (don’t ask me why, they just do..)

It’s incredibly easy to put together and while you certainly don’t really need a recipe to make a bruschetta I thought I share the ingredients of mine with you anyway. So if you want to you can make this yummy sandwich yourself too. It has tapenade on it, cheese, ham and roasted tomatoes and topped with just a few mustard-cress. I love growing those by the way. Within days you have a pot full of any cress and they really do add taste as well as looks to almost anything!

Sourdough bruschetta

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Serves	2
Prep time	5 minutes
Cook time	10 minutes
Total time	15 minutes
Meal type	Bread, Lunch
By author	Simone van den Berg

Ingredients

• 2 slices sourdough bread
• 4 slices Prosciutto
• 1-2 tablespoon Tapenade (I used a variant with olives(green and black), tomatoes )
• few slices cheese (I used a variety called charmeur cheese but you can use any cheese you like)
• 50g cherry tomatoes
• salt, pepper
• 1 tablespoon mustard cress

Directions

Preheat the oven to 200 C. Put a thick layer of the tapenade on top of the bread. You can make it yourself or buy a good version at a delicacy store. Cover the tapenade with the cheese. Put the bread in the oven. Put the tomatoes in a small baking tray, sprinkle with olive oil and pepper and salt and put them in the oven too.

Remove the bread once the cheese is melted and leave the tomatoes until the skin cracks. Line your melted cheese with a few slices of prosciutto (or other ham) and add a few of the grilled tomatoes. Sprinkle with some mustard cress and you're done!

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Delicious couscous salad with puy lentils

I can feel myself slipping.. Slipping into the muddy waters of the overweight and out of control people… Slipping because… well, because food is just too damn tasty… and I have little to no self-control. A pretty cupcake makes me drool, when I see a gorgeous photo of a tiramisu I want to make it too and yes, I even start to have serious cravings when I see a pretty salad. And I am weak… So weak… If you’ve paid any attention to the little weight counter on the right you’d already noticed it went from -10 pounds to -7 pounds. A clearer sign you could not get!

I found out I gain weight when I’m really busy. No time to eat properly so I snack. I come home and don’t feel like cooking, so I make bad choices. As soon as things quiet down a bit I become a better me again. But then last night we signed the contract for our new kitchen, plus Tom and I were having our 20th anniversary (and no, we’re not married..) so a celebration was in order. And in our household, a celebration means wine.. Lots of wine. You get the picture!

I guess it’s the continuing story of our life; ups and downs.. But enough faffing around, time to get back on track again. And join the ranks of ..slightly less obese people.. I’ll get there. It might take some time, but in the meantime, I get to share these gorgeous salads with you. This one takes a bit of effort. It’s not done within half an hour, so there is some planning needed in order to get the best results, but if you take that time you will not be disappointed. It features very healthy ingredients such as puy lentils and couscous, tomatoes and arugula so what’s not to like? In the meantime; I do need some buttkicking done, please…

Mediterranean couscous and lentil salad

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Serves	4
Prep time	10 minutes
Cook time	30 minutes
Total time	40 minutes
Dietary	Vegetarian
Meal type	Lunch, Salad
Misc	Pre-preparable, Serve Cold
Website	Epicurious

Ingredients

• 1 cup puy lentils
• 3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 1/4 cup water
• 1 cup Couscous
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 garlic clove (large, minced and mashed into a paste with 1/4 tsp salt)
• 1/2 cup fresh mint (finely chopped)
• 1 bunch arugula (rocket) (stems discarded and leaves washed well, spun dry and chopped)
• 2 cups vine ripened cherry tomatoes (halved)
• 1/4lb feta (crumbled)

Directions

In a small saucepan simmer lentils in water to cover by 2 inches until tender but not falling apart, 15 to 20 minutes, and drain well. Transfer hot lentils to a bowl and stir in 1 tablespoon vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. Cool lentils completely, stirring occasionally. In a saucepan bring water to a boil and add couscous and salt. Remove pan from heat and let couscous stand, covered, 5 minutes. Fluff couscous with a fork and transfer to a large bowl. Stir in 1 tablespoon oil and cool completely, stirring occasionally. In a small bowl whisk together garlic paste, remaining 2 tablespoons vinegar, remaining 3 tablespoons oil, and salt and pepper to taste. Stir lentils and dressing into couscous. Chill salad, covered, at least 3 hours and up to 24. Just before serving, stir in remaining ingredients and season with salt and pepper.

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Quick and healthy..

O god no… I can hear you think… not yet another salad!! Yes, sorry, it is another salad.. Isn’t January the official salad month? The month where half the nation wants to lose a little here and a little there so turns to ‘boring’ salads? Now let me correct that immediately; salads are amazing, salads are so versatile you could eat salads for the rest of your life and never have the same one twice.

True, when I was growing up, my conception of salads was also quite boring; iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, throw in a boiled egg for good measure, make a dressing from one of those little bags they sell in the supermarket (it’s called salad dressing, add 2 tbsp of mayo and 3 tbsp of water and voila, you have a dressing) and if you go really wild you might add a few pieces of ham. That was my salad growing up. That was – I fear – the only salad mum ever used to make.

Essential; a good homemade dressing!

When I left the house to go study as a nurse (yes, yes… that’s how my working life started!) at the age of 19 we had to live in a ‘sisterflat’ where all girls had there own tiny room (2 by 3 meters) and a kitchen that wasn’t worth mentioning. The only cooking equipment we had was an electrical plate and that’s all we had to prepare a healthy meal. Ofcourse the idea was that all girls would eat the hospital fodder.. Something we weren’t all that keen on, so we did try to cook a little bit. For years I was under the solid impression that salad was the above described uninspired meal.

There are still a lot of people out there who have the same strange ideas about salads. Let me tell you people; salads are amazing! I never eat iceberg lettuce anymore; it’s banned where-ever we can. It’s boring and tasteless and why bother if there are so many different and tasty varieties out there that are preferable in any given situation?

This salad came together from random ingredients I had in the fridge and needed to use. It’s simple and the delicious dressing makes this salad a winner, any time of the year. I’ve used a special sweet muscat vinegar for this dressing that was kindly given to me by Didi from Made In Spain (she has some amazing Spanish articles in her webshop, check it out) and it really complemented the dressing and the salad!

Lamb’s lettuce with feta

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Serves	1
Prep time	10 minutes
Dietary	Vegetarian
Meal type	Lunch, Salad
Misc	Serve Cold
By author	Simone van den Berg

Ingredients

• 100g lamb's lettuce
• 50g feta
• 1 small handful tablespoon sunflower seeds (roasted)
• 3 tomatoes (cut into quarters)
• croutons (from 1-2 slices of stale bread)
• 1-2 tablespoon grated parmesan
• 1-2 tablespoon Olive oil

Dressing

• 2 tablespoons homemade ketchup with bellpeppers
• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
• 1 teaspoon coarse grain mustard
• 1 tablespoon sweet muscat vinegar

Directions

Cut the tomatoes, wash the salad and roast the sunflower seeds. Make the croutons by cutting the bread into small cubes, put these in a bowl with some olive oil and grate some parmesan cheese on top of it. Mix and then roast these in a hot frying pan until golden brown and crispy. Drain on a kitchen towel

Arrange all the separate ingredients together on a plate and put all the ingredients for the dressing together in a bowl or small jar. Shake or stir well to combine, taste and add seasoning where needed

sprinkle some of the dressing on top of your salad and enjoy!

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