Cod Fillet with Long Beans Puree and homemade Hummus

Healthy, simple,nutritious and tasty, this is what I want from my dishes and this is what I got from this meal. Ingredients:

- 2 haddock fillets

- baby carrots

- long beans

- asparagus

- 1 tin of chickpeas

- lemon

- sesame seeds

- rye bread

- curly parsley.

I cooked the cod in the oven for 15 minutes at 180 C in a sauce of lemon, curly parsley and rice oil. In the meantime boil the long beans and separately the carrots and asparagus adding some salt to the boiling water. Once the long beans are soft enough drain them saving a bit of water then blend them until you have a nice and smooth puree. For the hummus you'll need to drain the chickpeas putting aside some of their water. Blend them with the water, squeeze lemon, sesame seeds and a pinch of salt. At this point, the cod should be cooked and you can add all the ingredients to the baking tray or plate you choose for the serving.

Apple Crumble

Given that summer in the UK has already finished (actually it never started this year) and today is quite cold I was craving something warm that smelled of cinnamon so I decided to make this Apple Crumble, obviously my own way!

Ingredients for 4 moulds:

- 5 apples

- lemon juice

- cinnamon

- 50 g caster sugar

- 4 tbs honey

- 70 g spelt flour

- 30 g oatmeal

- 1 small avocado.

I know that the crust should be made with butter but I really don't like so I always try to substitute it with avocado. Preheat the oven at 180 degrees. Start chopping the apples and put them in a saucepan with a 2 tbs of lemon juice and a couple of spoon of caster sugar, cover the pan and low heat for 10 minutes. In the meantime place the flour, sugar, oatmeal, honey and the mash avocado in a bowl and mix with your fingertips until the mixture looks like a moist breadcrumbs. Turn off the hob and add some cinnamon to the apple, stir gently. Take 3 or 4 spoons of apples out of the saucepan and blend it until you have a smooth cream that you'll pour again into the saucepan, stir again to obtain a nice and moist apple mixture. Then pour the apple mixture into the moulds and cover it with the crumbles. Bake for 25 minutes. 


Find more sweet recipes on my "Desserts" page..

Veggies, Cereals and Tofu Salad

I'm in love with veggies!!! And I alway try to figure out a different way of cooking or serving them alone, with cereals, fish or in this case...tofu! I'm not a big fan of it but I tried to make it more tasty with some tomatoes and spices, take a look of my recipe below.

Ingredients for the tofu salad:
- cherry toatoes
- spinach
- tofu
- onion
- tumeric.

Ingredients for the cereals and veggies:
- 2 peppers
- cherry tomatoes
- 4 courgettes
- chestnut mushrooms
- stem broccoli
- 80 g quinoa
- 60 g spelt.

Tofu Salad:in a saucepan, make the soffritto and after a few minutes add the chopped tomatoes, fry it and add the turmeric. Once it has dried add, turn off the hob, add the spinach and cover the saucepan. 

For the cereals and veggies: slice 2 courgettes and peppers and grill them. In the meantime pan-fry the other 2 chopped courgettes, the stem broccoli and the mushrooms for a few minutes. Cook the quinoa and the spelt as suggested on the package. Once you have all cooked enjoy plating!

Find more Vegan recipes on my "Cooking Vegan" page..

Pasta with Avocado pesto

As an Italian, I can't claim that this is a real pesto of course! It is a creative alternative to the classical version but really tasty and it's a different way of eating my favourite super food: Avocado. It is so rich in nutrients that  should be a staple food in every mainly vegetarian diet so try this recipe and let me know how if you like it!

For 2 people you'll need:

- 180-200 g of pasta (here I used trofie but I would also recommend wholemeal      pasta)

- 1/2 red onion

- 1 tbs rice oil

- 1 and a half ripe avocado (or 2 if they're small)

- 10 cherry tomatoes

- basel

- 30 g walnuts

- 1/2 lemon.

As usual, start doing the soffritto in a pan and while the onion gets brown, dice the cherry tomatoes then add them into the saucepan. Let the onion and tomatoes fry for a few minutes over low heat, in the meantime mash the avocado in a mortar with some leaves of basel and the walnuts. Once you have a smooth cream squeeze half a lemon in it and stir. Put the pasta into the boiling water and a couple of minutes before draining it pour the avocado cream into the saucepan with the onion and tomatoes, and simmer. Add a couple of spoon of the boiling water of the pasta into the saucepan and stir (the starch helps to bring all your ingredient together). Drain the pasta when it is stil "al dente" and add it into the saucepan. Stir well until you have a delicious blend of pasta and avocado cream. Enjoy!