Tag Archives: healthy

Mini Appetizer: Goat Cheese Balls

Goat cheese must be the most controversial cheese. One does like it, another hate. What about you, dear reader? Do you like goat cheese or its odour is too pungent for you?

Whatever you goat cheese stance, I suggest you to try it! May be you will find you earthreal cheese! 🙂

I couldn’t find a good goat cheese, when I lived in Russia, there was no any variety even in supermarkets. You could find the goat milk, which was sold by farmers in the countryside, but usually only milk, they didn’t produce any goat cheese. There were plenty of soft and hard farmer cheeses but made from cow milk. Thus many people haven’t try goat cheese. Of course the situation has changed now.

I was amazed how many goat cheeses are sold in Dubai: fresh, soft and creamy, aged, etc, which are brought here from Europe (usually from France).

Once I watch a food-show and chef made a salad with mini cheese balls, covered with parsley. I liked the idea.. After several days I created my own appetizer to impress my guests.

It looks like a gourmet appetizer, and it’s certainly good if you don’t want to hang around the kitchen for hours. 😉

Mini Appetizer: Goat Cheese Balls

Servings: 5-6
Difficulty: easy
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If you want to make it ahead of time, you can roll the balls and roast beetroots 1 to 2 days beforehand.

Ingredients:

150g soft goat cheese (I used honey-flavoured)

1 Tbsp cream cheese

a pinch of sea salt

1/3 tsp white or pink pepper, freshly ground

1-3 Tbsp walnuts, finely chopped

1-3 Tbsp fresh thyme, sage, flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped

1-2 small beetroots

1-2 small tomatoes

Dressing:

1 Tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp wholegrain mustard

1/2 tsp liquid honey

Method:

Wash and clean beets, cover with a foil and bake in preheated oven 200C/400F for 30-45 minutes, depends on the beets’ size.
Cut the beets and tomatoes into equal circles, and arrange them on a serving plate.
In a bowl combine goat and cream cheeses along with salt, pepper and walnuts. Spoon cheese mixture and form into balls (you can use table or teaspoon, depends on a size of your choice).
Gentle roll the balls in herb mixture, coating well. Place onto vegetables.
Serve immediately (with fresh arugula or young chard leaves, if desired), or cover and refrigerate until ready to serve.
Optionally, you can make a dressing and pour over cheese balls and salad.

TIP: You can add 1-2 fresh or dried finely chopped figs into the cheese mixture.

I’m bringing this dish over to FF tonight! Hopefully, someone has brought a good bottle of wine.. 😉 And don’t forget to bring the good mood to the party!

ENJOY!

5-star Salad

I feel very honoured that I took the 1st place in the challenge held by Angie – Thenovicegardener. This was my first time I won in food-blogging contest and hope not the last. Thank you all who stopped by my post and made comments about kulebyaka. The kulebyaka is so Russian and delicious pie, and I hope one of you will make it one day. 😉 Feel free to ask me if you have any questions about the kulebyaka preparation.

Is it Friday yet? Oh, yes! That means one more party at Thenovicegardener. Does anybody would like ‘a 5-star salad’? Why 5-star, because it looks posh and the portion is so small like from a high-class restaurant. Moreover, it’s healthy and tasty.

Actually, I made it from the cauliflower remains, when I cooked this soup. 🙂

5-star Salad

Servings: 1
Time: 10-15min
Difficulty: very easy
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Ingredients:

7-9 small cauliflower florets

1 red or yellow capsicum

1 small shallot

1 clove of garlic, smashed

1-2 tsp almonds, sliced and roasted

1/4 tsp fresh thyme leaves

1/4 tsp fresh parsley or basil, chopped

1 Tbsp olive oil + 1/3 Tbsp butter

The dressing:

1/2 tsp wholegrain mustard

1/2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp small capers

freshly ground sea salt and white pepper

In a frying pan heat the olive oil and butter. Add the onion and cook until soften but not browned for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the capsicum, garlic, thyme, and sauté for 5 minutes or until the pepper is soft and browned. You can add the cauliflower along with capsicum and sauté it too, or leave it raw. Pick out and discard the garlic.
In a small bowl or glass, combine all ingredients for the dressing and give it a good stir.
Arrange the vegetables on a serving plate, sprinkle with almonds, parsley or basil; pour over the dressing.

Enjoy!

You can also check out these recipes, using the capsicums: the salad with chickpeas and Russian stuffed capsicums.

Healthy&Light Vegetable Soup with Chicken

I guess we all didn’t like veggies when we were kids 🙂 kids mostly love fruits and so was I, because fruits are sweet and veggies are not. But, despite our childhood preferences my today’s post is about vegetable soup which I could probably like many years back if I would tried it before. My today’s soup is light, smooth and simply delicious.

When I made it first time and tried, it was love from the first spoon. 😀 In Russia soup has another look (like Schi I posted about earlier), but creamy soup have different consistency and taste. Needless to say, that soup with fresh veggies and plenty of protein in chicken breast are always a healthy choice for a general well-being and also for those who look after their body shape.

Such soup for dinner can be a weekday lifesaver, especially if you make a huge pot ahead! 😉

This soup can be made completely vegetarian, or based on chicken stock (nothing beats the flavor of homemade chicken stock!), or it’s good way for using leftover chicken. Do what works best for you. 🙂

Ingredients:

Cooked or raw chicken breast – 2, medium size

Zucchini – 1 large

Bell peppers – 2-3

Tomatoes – 3

Onion – 1

Garlic clove – 1

Dry thyme – 1 tsp, optionally

Bunches of dill and/or parsley, finely chopped, or 2 tsp dry

Olive oil – 1 Tbsp

A pinch of chilli or cayenne pepper

Salt, pepper – to taste

Preparation:

If you make this soup with raw chicken breast follow next step, otherwise go to the step 3.
First of all, put the chicken breasts into a pan and cover with water (1l/34oz or so). Add bay leave, whole small onion and several peppercorns; bring to boil, simmer for 20 minutes or until the breasts are ready. Discard herbs and onion. Take the chicken out, cool it, then cut into small cubes and set aside. Reserve the stock. You can do it a day or two ahead.
In a soup pot, heat the olive oil. Add the onion and cook until tender for 5 minutes.
Cut bell peppers into cubes, add to the onion and saute for 4-5 minutes.
Cut the zucchini into cubes, add to the veg-mixture and saute for 2 minutes more.
Add chopped garlic, herbs* and chili pepper, stir and cook for 30 seconds more.
Chop the tomatoes, add into the pot along with chicken stock (or water), season with salt and pepper and simmer for 10-15 minutes.
Puree the soup until smooth. Put chicken cubes* into soup, bring it to a boil. Cover with a lid and simmer over moderate heat about 10 minutes.
Ladle the soup into bowls, garnish with fresh dill or parsley and serve with baguette slices.

*I recommend reserve some chicken and herbs for garnish.

Enjoy!

And now, would you like a dessert? Have a look here!

Velvety&Luscious Cauliflower soup

Vegetables play an important role in our lives. Let’s do it more healthy and cook this velvety and creamy cauliflower soup.

Sautéing capsicum and roasted cashews is great topping to the soup, infused with spices.

! Don’t forget to adjust the level of chilli seasoning to make the soup less or more spicy. 🙂

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

1 medium head of cauliflower (600-700g/1.5 pounds),

cut into medium-size florets

1 capsicum

1+1 garlic cloves, a slightly crushed

1 small onion

1/2 Tbsp butter

1+1 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp cream cheese

100 ml single cream

100 ml vegetable broth (or water) + some warm water

3-4 Tbsp cashews, roasted and crushed

1 tsp dry basil

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (or 1/4 tsp nutmeg powder)

2-3 tsp chilli flakes or chilli seasoning

3-4 tsp chopped parsley and/or basil

Salt&pepper

1 tsp olive oil per plate, for dressing, optionally

In a soup pot, heat 1 Tbsp of olive oil and butter. Add the onion and cook until soften but not browned for 3-4 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the cauliflower and garlic, cook for 5 minutes. Pick out and discard the garlic.
Add the broth and water, season with basil, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat the oil on a frying pan, add the capsicum and garlic and sauté for 5-6 minutes. Pick out and discard the garlic.
Purée the soup until very smooth. Season with the nutmeg. Stir in the cheese and cream.
Rewarm it over medium heat (just few minutes). If necessary, add more water to thin the cauliflower soup.
Serve with capsicum on the top; sprinkle with fresh basil, parsley, chilli and cashews.
Drizzle over the olive oil, if desired.

Bon Appetit!

The soup can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.

Russian schi (cabbage soup)

Today is 3rd day of Butterweek (Rus.-Maslenica) in Russia. It’s spring festival, saying goodbye to the winter, and the week before Lent. During the week we bake pancakes (we say exactly bake, not cook, even though we fry them on a pan) almost every day, invite relatives and friends, and our hearts fill with a joy of the upcoming spring.

Every day of Butterweek has the name and meaning. Today (Wednesday) is ‘Lakomka’ – Gourmand. When wife’s mother invites son-in-law and treats him with pancakes. Unmarried boys and girls usually went to slide from snow hills. Old folks bantered with guys, who hadn’t married that year and played various pranks to them. And guys bribed with pancakes and candies.

More you can read in my previous post here.

I’d like to tell you about another no less famous Russian dish – Schi, it’s cabbage soup, similar to Borsch (with cabbage and beetroots). Everyone knows and enjoy it. 😉

Schi is the main hot Russian dish over a millennium. Peasants started to cook it a long time ago in the 9th century when cabbage has begun to cultivate everywhere in Russia. In spite of the fact that people’s tastes have been changing, the soup is always been eaten.

Of course, schi was not the same for all social classes. Full of content, with meat and thick cream, was called ‘rich’, other ‘empty’, as it was cooked only from cabbage and onion.

To create a special and unique schi’s taste, it was prepared in clay or cast-iron pot in Russian petch/oven. ‘Schi’s spirit’ was always in homes, that means everybody cooked it. The Russian proverb says ‘Schi and kasha is our food’, as they were eaten every day.

Schi consists of six major components: cabbage, meat (or mushrooms rarely), roots (carrot, parsley), spice part (onions, garlic, bay leaves, black pepper) and sour part (sour cream, apples or cabbage brine). First and last parts are essential and absolutely compulsory. Thus, the simplest schi could be done from cabbage and sour cream 🙂

The notable feature of schi (that you cook not just a simple cabbage soup) is a slightly sour taste, which usually archived by adding sour cream, sour/salted cabbage, and brine or salted mushrooms into the soup.

Originally, flour was added as well to make schi thicker, but such ‘dressing’ spoiled the taste and then began to add potatoes or buckwheat.

Considered that the ideal schi is so thick, that if you put a spoon into the soup, it holds vertical position and doesn’t fall. 😀 or when a huge piece of meat is risen above a plate of schi.

Health-giving properties of the soup allowed to consume it frequently. There are many schi versions: ‘summer schi’ with fresh cabbage or sorrel, ‘winter schi’ with sour cabbage, ‘lenten/lean schi’ without meat and etc. Mine is with fresh cabbage and meat.

For the meat part better to choose fatty beef, belly or rump, bone in. Even you can add some pork. I used boneless lamp, because couldn’t find a proper piece of beef.

When the soup is ready, leave it for 15-30 minutes to get the enhanced flavor. A similar principle is brewing tea, we keep it for 3 minutes to get a wonderful aroma. So, you can make a big pot of schi and eat it all week long. 🙂

Russian schi

Servings: 5-6
Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

500-600g lamb or beef

300-400g cabbage

3 medium potatoes

1+1 onion, for broth and frying

1+1 carrot, for broth and frying

2-3 tsp tomato paste

small bunch of parsley and/or dill

2 bay leaves

5 whole peppercorns

2 tbsp. sunflower oil, for frying

1 garlic clove

sour cream, good quality

rye or wholemeal bread

salt, black pepper to taste

Preparation

- Put the meat inn a large soup pot, cover with 3 litres of water, bring to boil and remove the foam.

- Meanwhile, grate carrot and dice onion. Sauté vegetables until they are soft for 10 minutes. Stir in tomato paste and sauté for 3-4 minutes more.

- Take and throw carrot and onion out, we won’t use them anymore.

- Take the meat out as well. Cut into small cubes and keep aside.

- To get the clear soup, you can strain the broth through cheesecloth (optionally).

- Season the broth with salt and black pepper to taste.

- Slice potatoes, add into the broth and boil 15 minutes.

- Thinly shred the cabbage and add to the potatoes (when they are half way done) along with meat cubes.

- Again bring to boil and simmer for 15-20 minutes until vegetables are soft.

- Add sautéed carrot and onion to the pot along with bay leaves, whole peppercorns (you can smash them little bit), salt and pepper. Simmer for 10 minutes.