My vegan Bailey's

I used to love Bailey's before going vegan. And while my love for other 'old times' foods, e.g. cheese, quickly faded away or turned into a 'how could I ever eat that?' feeling, my affection for Bailey's has stayed. Usually I am very much against trying to make vegan substitutes of non-vegan dishes. Why would I ever want to eat something that's supposed to taste like a cow or fish? I'd rather not, really, even if it's 100 percent vegan. But in case of Bailey's I see it differently, the only non-vegan ingredient is cream, which isn't the dominant taste in the drink as such. So I thought I would give it a try and make my own vegan version of it. I had a look at some online ideas, I compared them with my own memories of the taste, and here's what I came up with:

Vegan Bailey's

1 cup creamy coconut milk (I used 'extra creamy coconut milk' from Santa Maria) 

1 cup coffee

1/2 cup Irish whiskey

1 tsp. vanilla extract

3 tbsp. agave syrup (I think brown sugar would also work)

Blend all the ingredients at high speed, pour over ice and serve! Easy, right? ;)

It tastes great! The only difference is the consistency, the original is a bit thicker. I think it this could be achieved with coconut milk creamer, but that's unfortunately very hard to get here. But the taste for sure makes up for this little difference.

Cheers :)

Seitan piccata with white wine and caper sauce

This is my favorite seitan recipe. It is very elegant, perfect for serving for guests, yet it is pretty simple and not very time consuming. It comes from The Candle Café Cookbook.

Seitan piccata with white wine and caper sauce

(serves 4 to 6)

6 seitan cutlets

whole wheat flour, for dredging

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/2 cup diced shallots

1/2 cup diced onions

1 tsp. chopped garlic (I used more, 4 cloves)

1/4 cup drained capers (I used double the amount)

1 cup dry white wine

1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1 cup vegetable broth

2 tbsp. unbleached flour (I used whole wheat flour)

4 tbsp. soy margarine (I used 2)

1 cup chopped parsley

1 tsp. salt

freshly ground pepper, to taste

Dredge the seitan cutlets in the flour. Heat up 2 tbsp. of olive oil and fry the seitan, until crisp and golden brown on both sides. Put the seitan aside. Heat up the remaining olive oil in the pan. Add the shallots, onions, garlic and capers, sauté and stir until softened. Add the white wine and cook until reduced by half. Add the lemon juice and cook until the sauce is reduced a bit more. Add the broth and the flour. Bring to boil and then simmer for 1 minute. Stir in the margarine, parsley, salt and pepper. Pour over the seitan cutlets and serve.

I usually prepare the seitan and sauce (without the parsley) earlier and then just add the parsley to the sauce, put the sauce over seitan in a flat baking dish and heat it up in the oven just before serving. This way you can prepare it in advance. Today we had it with oven baked potatoes with fresh rosemary and cucumber-sesame salad. It also tastes great with roasted root vegetables and rice.

Lentil soup with lemon and garlic

Let's face it - after a really beautiful and warm autumn in Brussels, the winter is just around the corner. It is getting colder and darker every day. But so far it hasn't been raining too much and that itself is a reason to be happy ;) I have to admit that this is the time of the year when I don't always feel like preparing some elaborate and time-consuming dishes on weekdays. Often after coming home from work I prefer to lie on the sofa with a good book or go for an evening run, rather than spend a lot of time in the kitchen (which on the other hand I very much enjoy at the weekends). But I still like to eat, and I like to eat nice. Soups are a fantastic solution here, as I usually make enough to last for three days. Then we have them with dark break or rolls with some nice vegan spread on top. A fast, but super delicious and super healthy dinner.

Today I made one of my favourite soups: lentil soup with lemon and garlic from The Complete Book of Vegan Cooking by Tony and Yvonne Bishop-Weston:

(serves 4; I post the original recipe here - I doubled the quantities)

3 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 celery sticks, chopped
1-2 carrots, sliced

4 garlic cloves, chopped

1 potato, peeled and diced

250g red lentils, well rinsed

1 litre vegetable stock

2 bay leaves

1-2 lemons, halved

1/2 tsp ground cumin, or to taste

cayenne pepper or Tabasco sauce, to taste

ground black pepper

lemon slices and chopped fresh flat leave parsley (I used regular parsley), to garnish

Heat the olive oil in a large pan, add the onions and cook for 5 minutes. Add the celery, carrots, half the garlic and the potato. Cook a few mintues until they begin to soften. Add the lentils and the vegetable stock and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer under cover for about 30 minutes. Add the bay leaves, remaining garlic, half the lemons and cook until the lentils and vegetables are tender (10-15 minutes). Remove the bay leaves (I also removed the lemon halves, blending them later didn't really appeal to me...). Squeeze the juice from the remaining lemons into the soup and stir. Blend the soup, season with the cumin, cayenne pepper or Tabasco. Heat up the soup again, pour into bowls and serve garnished with chopped parsley and lemon slices.

And yes, it tastes as good as it looks ;)

Curried potato-spinach soup

Yet another great recipe from the Candlé Cafe Cookbook. Perfect for a chilly autumn evening.

I modified the quantities a bit - I used a whole onion instead of a half, 4 garlic cloves instead of 2, I added one sweet potato and more spinach.

Curried potato-spinach soup

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 tbsp. curry powder

1 tsp. fennel seeds (I ground them in a coffee mill)

1 tsp. ground coriander (as above, I ground whole coriander seeds)

1 tsp. turmeric

1 tsp. ground cumin

1/4 tsp. cayenne 

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 celery stalk, chopped

4 medium potatoes (in the recipe Yukon Gold), peeled and chopped

1 large sweet potato, peeled and chopped

1 cup chopped cauliflower florets

3 quarts (2.8L) vegetable broth

2 large handfuls of spinach, rinsed and coarsely chopped

1-2 tbsp. sea salt to taste

chopped cilantro for garnish

In a soup pot heat up the olive oil over medium heat, add the onion and all the spices. Fry until the onion becomes translucent. Add the garlic and celery and sauté for a few minutes, until the garlic becomes fragrant, but be careful not to burn it. Add the potatoes and cauliflower, mix them well with the spices. Add the broth, bring to boil and simmer until the vegetables are tender (about 40 min). Add the spinach, remove from the heat and set aside to cool. Blend the soup, then reheat, add salt to taste, garnish with cilantro and serve!

Roasted Roots

The original recipe for this delicious side dish comes from The Candle Café Cookbook, one of my all-time favourite cooking books. The authors are the owners of Candle 79 vegan restaurant in New York. I used a bit more vegetables and garlic, I also made more marinade. Here is the slightly adjusted recipe:

Roasted roots (serves 4 as a side dish)

2 medium carrots, cut into 2 cm pieces

3 parsnips or root parsleys, peeled and cut into small chunks

2 beetroots, peeled and cut into small chunks

2 yams or sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into small chunks

2 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced

3 tbsp. olive oil
3 tbsp. tamari or shoyu soy sauce
pinch of dried basil, oregano, thyme
freshly ground pepper
1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Place the vegetables on a shallow baking sheet. In a small bowl combine the olive oil, soy sauce, herbs, pepper and salt, mix well. Pour over the vegetables and mix well. I do it with my hand, in fact sometimes I put all the marinade ingredients directly on the vegetables and mix. It saves time and a bit of washing up ;) Bake until tender, it usually takes about an hour.

Grapefruit and pear juice with a kick

This is my attempt to recreate a juice from the Saf Restaurant and Bar at Whole Foods Market Kensington. Both shopping for some vegan ingredients hard to get in Belgium and a lunch at the restaurant are a must for me every time I am in London. I wish they opened one in Brussels, but so far my requests have been ignored... ;)

The rather unexpected ingredients in this juice are flaxseed oil and cayenne pepper. They do give it quite a kick ;) Flaxseed oil (otherwise known as linseed oil) contains Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids, both needed for our health. Still, the juice will also taste great and be very refreshing if you don't like flaxseed oil, which has quite a special taste, or if you don't like the idea of a spicy juice altogether. Either way, if you like grapefruits and feel like a bit of help to wake up in the morning, go for it :)

Ingredients for 1.5L of juice:

6 grapefruits, peeled
6 pears (I use conference)
1lemon, peeled
a piece of ginger
1 tsp. flaxseed oil
a pinch of cayenne pepper (a very small pinch ;)

Juice all the fruit, then add the oil and cayenne pepper, mix well, pour into glasses and enjoy!

Vegetable curry with quinoa

Vegetable curry with quinoa (serves 4-6)

2 tbsp. olive oil
1 onion, chopped
6 cloves of garlic, minced
3 tbsp. freshly grated ginger
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp. ground cumin
2 tbsp. dry coriander
1 pack (375g) firm tofu, cubed
800g frozen vegetables (mine included green beans, carrots, zucchini, red peppers, onions, cucumbers, broccoli, green peas, vegetable bullion, green olives, powder garlic, pepper, basil, oregano, thyme)
2 cans chopped tomatoes
Salt, pepper, cayenne pepper or chili
½ cup sunflower seeds
2 cups quinoa
A bunch of parsley, chopped, for serving

This is a very simple and fast recipe I came up with for dinner today. Usually I serve curries with rice, but it actually worked really well with quinoa. I think thanks to the quinoa the dish feels quite light, but at the same time it is actually filling. Very healthy and very tasty, nothing more I could want from a nice dinner ;)

Heat up the olive oil in a wok and fry the onion, garlic and ginger for a few minutes. Add the balsamic vinegar, cumin, coriander and fry for another 2-3 minutes, add the tofu and fry until it’s well covered in the garlic/ginger/spices mixture. Add the frozen vegetables and cook over low-medium heat for about 10 min, then add the canned tomatoes, sunflower seeds, salt, pepper and cayenne pepper or chili. Cook until the vegetables are done, but still crispy. In the meantime prepare the quinoa according to the instructions on the package. Serve the vegetable sauce over quinoa, topped with chopped parsley.

Fruit salad with basil

We are still on Sardinia, enjoying the beautiful late summer. Today it has been really hot and after a long biking trip, I felt like something light and refreshing. I simply combined all the fruit I had at hand with some chopped fresh basil leaves, lime juice and maple syrup. A very nice dish on a hot day! Last time I made it, we had it as dessert and then the following day I combined the leftovers with some mixed greens. It turned out to be a fantastic side salad to the grilled tofu, eggplants and zucchini we had for dinner.

Fruit salad with basil

1/2 small water melon
1/2 melon
1 orange
2 peaches
1/2 small pineapple
a handful of chopped basil leaves
juice of 1/2 lime
maple syrup to taste

Kamilla's signature sandwiches ;)

I love sandwiches. There are many combinations of vegetables I like using as toppings, but for sure a classic one for me is tomatoes and avocados. A simple but delicious combination which I discovered during my trip to Chile and Argentina in January/February this year. It started with a few hotel breakfasts, where I quickly realized that the usual options include toasts, jam, ham, sometimes cheese, some great fresh fruit, at least ten types of cakes and absolutely no vegetables, which is what I would normally have with the bread in places where no other vegan options are available. So I started bringing my own tomato and avocado for breakfast ;) I would also use this easy to prepare combination for my road trips sandwiches. And those I ate a lot of, as we covered hundreds of kilometers by car every day. In a way I feared I wouldn't be able to look at avocados and tomatoes after coming back to Brussels, but that wasn't the case, it's one of the things I seem not to be able to get bored with. I just wish the vegetables I buy in Brussels reminded more of the South American ones ;)

Some of my favourite choices for other ingredients to go with the avocado/tomato combination are listed below. The tofu is optional. I often keep some marinated tofu slices in the fridge, but they all taste great without it as well:

- hummus, mixed greens, tofu, tomato, avocado, salt, pepper
- any vegan bread spread, tofu, tomato, avocado, salt, pepper
- hummus, vegan 'ham' slice, tomato, avocado, salt, pepper

Right now I'm on Sardinia, where the tomatoes and avocados are just so divine that it would feel like too much of a waste not to eat plenty of them every day. Below just two examples of some Sardinian interpretations of my tomato-avocado sandwich:

a slice of durum semolina bread with sundried tomatoes, vegan sundried tomato spread, mixed greens, tomatoes, avocados, salt, pepper, chili powder

a slice of durum semolina bread with sundried tomatoes, grilled tofu, tomatoes, avocado/grilled zucchini, pepper

04.09.2011 - update ;) A friend of mine from Denmark sent me a recipe and photos of his version of the avocado/tomato sandwiches. They for sure look fantastic! I have never tried artichoke pesto, but I will definitely see if I can find it in Brussels once I'm back, so that I can also try this very tasty looking combination. Thank you, Kim!

Brown bread or toasted white bread, some artichoke Pesto from Irma, tomatoes, avocado in slices, basil leaves

Breakfast pancakes

After a long break, I finally pulled myself together and so here comes a really delicious recipe for vegan pancakes, ideal for a lazy weekend breakfast ;)

Ingredients:

½ cup buckwheat flour

½ cup spelt flour or all-purpose white flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

1 tbsp. cinnamon

1 cup soy milk

¼ cup vanilla soy milk (or rice milk instead of both types of soy milk)

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tbsp. olive oil

1 tbsp. agave syrup

2 bananas, sliced (I used frozen banana pieces that I keep in the freezer for making quick smoothies, I just defrosted them by putting the plastic bag with the bananas in some hot water)

Mix all the dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a separate bowl mix the wet ingredients and the banana pieces. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and mix together. Heat a nonstick pancake pan over medium-high heat and pour a portion of the batter, the amount depending on how big you want the pancakes to be. Cook until the underside is lightly brown, then flip to the other side. Repeat until you have used all the batter. I served them with some mango and peaches, agave syrup and extra cinnamon. They are absolutely delicious, I will for sure be making them often.

Mango and tomato salad

This is another invention I came up with after returning from a holiday and realizing there isn't much food at home. I had never tried to combine mangoes and tomatoes, but it tastes really good. I think it would be even better with some fresh corriander and maybe some avocado slices. Next time!

1 ripe mango, cubed
3 tomatoes, cut into wedges
1 tbsp dried basil
salt
pepper
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp red wine vinegar

Mix all the ingredients in a salad bowl. I served it with potatoes with dried rosemary, salt and pepper, garlic cloves (peeled) and red onions (cut into wedges), all baked in the oven.

Beetroot, strawberry and pineapple juice

Ever since I discovered that my local supermarket has strawberries at 1.5 euro for 500g, I have been a regular customer ;) Of course they don't taste as good as the 'real' stuff in June, even though for a few years now I've had an impression that strawberries are just not what they used to be... Still, I love them and I have not only been eating a lot of them, but also juicing them a lot. The idea to combine beetroots and strawberries in a juice started as a purely esthetic consideration about the colour I would get out of this mix. Well, the colour is fantastic, red with a bit of purple shades, but what's more important, the juice tastes great. Especially if you like the taste of beetroots, of course ;) In fact the beetroots taste is not very strong, very much overwhelmed by the strawberries and the pineapple, but if you 'hate' beetroots (like my husband ;), it might still be too much. I love it.

1 pineapple, peeled and chopped into chute fitting pieces

500g of strawberries, washed

500g of packed, pre-cooked beetroots
half a lime, peeled

Juice everything trying not to make too much beetroot juice mess ;)

Sundried tomatoes, basil and tofu quiche

400g silken tofu
375g firm tofu
10 sundried tomatoes (if you use the ones in olive oil, drain them first, if you use dried ones, put boiling water over them for a few minutes, then drain)
1 yellow pepper, cut in stripes
1 red onion, cut in wedges
1 can of artichoke hearts, drained and cut in halves
5-7 cloves of garlic
a bunch of basil
10 cherry tomatoes, cut in halves
a pack of puff pastry
pepper, salt, chili to taste
olive oil

Preheat the oven to 220°C. Place the yellow pepper and the red onion on a baking sheet coated with olive oil, roast them in the oven for about 10 min. At the same time, or when the vegetables are ready, bake the puff pastry for about 15 min, until it turns light brown.

In the meantime place the sundried tomatoes, silken tofu, half of the firm tofu, garlic, basil (leaving aside a few leaves) and two spoons of olive oil in a food processor and blend until smooth. Crumble the remaining half of the firm tofu into the mixture, add salt, pepper and chili to taste. Put the tofu filling into the pre-baked puff pastry bottom, arrange the cherry tomatoes, red onion, artichokes and yellow pepper on top. Bake for another 25-30 min. Garnish with the remaining basil leaves. Serve with a mixed greens salad (I used mixed greens, green olives, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, olive oil and balsamic vinegar)

Strawberry and pineapple juice

I love strawberries and can never get enough of them. So when I came across the idea to use them for juice, I thought is was brilliant and I had to try it. I chose pineapple as the other main ingredient, as I thought this combination would give a great sweet and creamy juice. And it did. An addition of lime breaks the sweetness a bit and makes the juice fantastically refreshing.

I think the best recommendation for this recipe is my husband's reaction when he tasted it: Wow, this is for sure one of your masterpieces ;)

Strawberry and Pineapple Juice

1 pineapple, peeled and cut into chute fitting pieces
500g of strawberries, washed (I left the green leaves)
2 apples (Royal Gala)
1 lime, peeled

First juice the pineapple pieces and strawberries (pineapple, a few strawberries, pineapple again and so on), then the lime and finish with the apples. Enjoy!

Spinach and tofu quiche

1 pack of puff pastry

350g of fresh spinach, rinsed

400g of tofu, crumbled with a fork (I used silken tofu, but I think regular would work as well)
1 red onion, chopped
1 leek (white part), sliced
6 cloves of garlic, crushed
salt, pepper, nutmeg, fresh thyme to taste
olive oil

Fill a medium quiche pan with the puff pastry and put it into the oven heated up to 210°C for about 5 min, just until it begins to become a bit brown. Remove from the oven.

Heat up the olive oil in a large frying pan, add the onion and leek. Fry for about 5 min on low heat, until soft. Add the garlic, fry until fragrant. Add the spinach and cook on medium heat until all the water has evaporated, then add the tofu, salt, pepper, nutmeg and thyme, mix well. Cook for about 10 min, stirring frequently. When all the ingredients are well mixed and all the liquid gone, transfer into the pre-baked puff pastry bottom, spreading evenly. Bake for 15-20 min, until the top becomes slightly brown. Take out of the oven, let it cool for a few minutes and serve with a fresh salad. I used a mix of green leaves, cherry tomatoes, sunflower seeds with olive oil, balsamico, salt and pepper.

Blood orange, pineapple and carrot juice

6 blood oranges, peeled

1 large pineapple, peeled and cut into chute fitting pieces

500g of carrots, well washed, unpeeled

1 lime, peeled

1-2 cm of ginger

A very nice and very refreshing juice. If you prefer yours to be more sweet, use less lime or skip it altogether.

welcome from holidays to an empty fridge dinner ;)

I have just come back from a great trip to South America and one of the challenges (other than getting used to winter again) was the empty fridge and an absolute lack of time for shopping. Yesterday we got a falafel take away, which is nice but not too often. So today I searched through all the drawers and cabinets in the kitchen and here is what I managed to cook:

Bean, nuts and tomatoes with buckwheat and rice

1 bag of dark rice
1 bag of buckwheat kasha
2 cans of chopped tomatoes

1 can of chickpeas, drained

1 can of soya beans, drained

a handful or two of unsalted peanuts

5-6 cloves of garlic, crushed
salt, pepper, cayenne pepper and dried basil to season

oilve oil to fry

Heat up a few spoons of olive oil in a large pan, add the garlic. Fry over low heat until fragrant, add the beans, nuts and spices. Fry for a few more minutes, then add the tomatoes. Cook over low heat for 5-10 min. In the meantime prepare the rice and kasha according to the cooking instructions. Serve and enjoy, it was really good!

Orange, pear, apple and grape juice

3 oranges, peeled

3 pears (Conference)

3 apples (Royal Gala)

500g of grapes (half white, half red)

half a lemon, peeled

Live and let live

I have been vegan for over a year and a half now, after being vegetarian for over 10 years. So it's time for a few reflections.

I have to admit that at the very beginning I was a bit uncertain about how it was going to work. Don't get me wrong - I knew I was doing the right thing. Having been vegetarian for many years before for ethical reasons I realised that you cannot be against eating meat and at the same time continue to eat cheese, eggs or drink milk, it's just pure hypocrisy. The animal suffering involved in the dairy and egg industry is even more terrible, if possible, than the one in the meat industry, for the simple reason that the animals live and suffer longer. Most people still have this image of happy chickens or happy cows running around green fields and happily providing us with milk or eggs. Nothing more misleading, even if the 'product' is labelled as free-range or ecological. There are not enough people in the world to make sure that every single animal is treated in a 'humane' way (and anyway, what is a humane way of killing someone, which sooner or later happens to all of them, for example the dairy cows being turned into low-quality burgers, soups or pet food?)

What stroke me after I have made this decision are the various attitudes I have encountered when people learn about me being vegan. I would assume that making a life choice that doesn't in any way hurt other people shouldn't result in others being hostile towards this choice. After all I never attack people who eat meat or whatever they want, I believe we all should be able to make our choices. Yes, I can discuss it with anyone if they want to, but that's not an attack. But it doesn't always work the other way. After quite some time of dealing with various attitudes among my family, friends and complete strangers, I could put them into following categories, some of them funny, some irritating, some even scary:

- 'but you can't be serious' - people who seriously and honestly don't believe you can live without eating at least cheese. I mean, come on, pizza without cheese, what kind of freak are you? Well, it does in fact taste delicious, if you know how to make good pizza.

- 'you will grow out of it' - I kind of like this one in fact, it makes me feel like I'm 16 all over again ;) Well, I won't grow out of it, sorry.

- 'but how do you survive???' otherwise known as 'and what the hell do you eat???' - this one is difficult to understand for me, as I really don't look undernourished or starving (unless you have my grandma's standards of what it means to be healthy looking, of course ;). And here people can be divided into those who are in fact willing to listen and learn about all the 'weird stuff' that we vegans eat and those who just assume that we eat nothing but grass and so there's no point talking to us about it. The best way to deal with the 'what do you eat' question is always just cooking some nice food and letting people taste it. The chances that they will still think we eat nothing but grass are not too high. They usually come back for dinner ;)

- 'but you are going to start eating 'normal food' when you get pregnant/get a child?' - well, no, I'm not, because why should I? I believe that being vegan is not only right from an ethical point of view, but also that it is healthy. There are numerous studies showing than plant based diet reduces the risk of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, certain cancers, obesity. Why shouldn't I want what I consider best for my children, as all parents do?

- 'but you are so poor' - certain people, including some vegans, actually believe that it is a huge sacrifice to adopt this way of living. They see us as martyrs choosing to suffer for the sake of animals. They feel sorry for us because we cannot eat all the good stuff. Well, who says we cannot eat whatever we want? If I feel like it, I can eat a pig, I can eat a cow, I can eat a chicken or any other animal. But I don't want to. So how is that a sacrifice, not doing what you don't feel like doing?

These are just some of the attitudes I have encountered when telling people I am vegan. At the beginning it did feel a bit strange, because in fact most people don't know what 'vegan' means. And I don't blame them for that, there are not that many vegans out there. Not yet ;) But I don't see that as a problem. As I said before, I believe we all should have a choice of how we live. I respect other people's choices, but if they ask me why I live the way I do, I will explain it to them. And if someone doesn't like it or doesn't approve of it, well, it's not really my problem, is it? Live and let live, that's the principle I wish we could apply to all living beings, people included, and the world would be a much nicer place.

Summer sunset in winter or orange and carrot juice ;)

Oranges and carrots is a classic juice recipe and very good in itself. However I usually try to add something extra to make the flavour more interesting. Today I used the following (it makes around 1.5L of juice):

1kg of carrots

8 oranges, peeled

2 pears (conference)

ginger (2 cm)

a bunch of fresh mint

1 lime, peeled

Juice in any order, remembering only not to juice the mint or ginger at the very end (so follow with a few oranges, for example).

I love the bright orange colour of this juice, just looking at it might considerably improve your mood :)

Pineapple, apple and kiwi juice

This juice has two of my favourite ingredients - pineapple and fresh mint.

For approximetaly 1.25L of juice:

1 medium pineapple, peeled and cut into chute fitting pieces

2-4 kiwis, peeled

3 apples (I use Royal Gala, they give a lot of juice)

Half a bulb of fennel, green top and hard root trimmed, outer layer removed

Half a cucumber

A bunch of fresh mint

I tried leaving the peel on the kiwis, it's no problem for the juicer, but in prefer to remove it anyway. You can somehow 'feel' it in the juice a bit. In fact the kiwi flavour in this juice comes out quite strong, so I suggest trying with 2 and possibly adding more later.

Juice the pineapple, kiwis, fennel, cucumber, mint and apples. When using leafy vegetables or herbs, such as mint, parsley or spinach, it's important to follow them with some fruit or vegetable giving a lot of juice – this way you will get as much of the green stuff as possible into your juice.

Enjoy :)

Pear, orange and fennel juice

I have been making freshly squeezed juices for over three years now and I just cannot get bored with it. The only homemade juice I remembered from my childhood was the apple and carrot one. Still one of my favourites (with an addition of ginger and lemon or lime), but somehow the world of juicing was a complete mystery to me until I bought a few books by Jason Vale, otherwise known as the Juice Master – a guy with a lot of great ideas for juice recipes, even if he can be considered annoying by some people (like my husband ;) for his overenthusiastic attitude to juicing and life ;) So in fact I started with buying one of his books, Turbo-charge Your Life in 14 Days. I never followed the 'turbocharge' program, but I liked the recipes a lot (although I think his best book for beginners is probably Keeping It Simple: Over 100 Delicious Juices and Smoothies). Then I got myself a juicer he strongly recommended - Philips HR1861. I have to say I could not be happier that I got convinced to get this particular one – it’s been working great for a few years now, it’s easy to use and what’s even more important, easy to clean. You can put whole fruit and veggies into its chute – no need to peel carrots, apples, ginger, etc. Of course citrus fruit should still have the peel removed.

The great thing about juicing is that after you have been following recipes for some time, you start to ‘get it’ and you can create endless variations using your favourite fruit and veggies. The one below, for example, is something I had never thought of before, but it was a good choice ;)

It's a very simple and fantastically creamy juice:

6 conference pears

4 oranges, peeled

Half a bulb of fennel (or less or more, depending how much you like its anise-like flavour) - green top and hard bottom part trimmed, outer layer removed

Juice all the ingredients, that's it ;)

The above ingredients make over 1L of juice. I normally make juice in the evening and store whatever we don't drink right away in a tightly closed aluminium water bottle (I have a couple of SIGG bottles). This way we can finish it the next morning or bring it to work.

Pineapple and tofu curry with banana rice

Pineapple and tofu is one of my favourite combinations for a curry. Probably the best one I've had in Brussels is served at Anis & Vanille – a great Asian restaurant in Etterbeek, 5 minutes walk from my apartment ;)

I have been craving a nice hot curry the whole day today – as it happens often when I have a cold and when the weather is quite depressing.

Unfortunately I didn't have a yellow curry paste, which is the best for this kind of coconut milk based curry. Well, I used what I had to replace it or maybe rather create a new kind of yellow curry ;)

Here's what I used, it's a very simple recipe provided you have the yellow curry paste ;) It makes 4-6 servings.

700g of tofu, cut into cubes
1 medium pineapple; peeled and cut into cubes

450g frozen green peas (or fresh green beans, or carrots, or any other vegetables you think might go well with pineapple and tofu)

1 yellow and 1 red pepper, cut into 2-3 cm pieces

3 cans of coconut milk

Fresh coriander, chopped

Instead of the missing yellow curry paste I put the following in the blender (yes, much easier to remember to buy the paste next time ;):

2 cm piece of fresh ginger, minced

4 garlic cloves, minced

½ tsp turmeric

½ tsp white pepper powder

1 tsp chilli powder

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp curry powder

½ tsp cinnamon

1 tbsp prepared lemongrass (available in jars in Asian supermarkets)

2 tbsp agave syrup

Coconut milk – just enough to let all the ingredients blend well

To serve:

Cooked brown or jasmine rice

2 bananas, sliced

Heat the wok, pour half a can of the coconut milk and let it simmer for a few minutes, until it starts to thicken a bit. Add the yellow curry paste and stir up to 1 minute, until fragrant. Add the tofu and vegetables, stir well until they are well coated in the coconut-yellow curry mixture. Add the remaining coconut milk, turn down the heat and simmer until the vegetables are cooked but still tender. Adjust the seasoning if necessary, add the chopped coriander and serve over your choice of rice. I add sliced bananas into the rice – they give an extra interesting flavour to the pineapple-tofu curry.