Potato Blues

What I hear very often from my friends is that they miss their potatoes, rice, bread and pasta so much, that following a healthy diet is just too much to handle.
There are a couple of ways to deal with the potato blues, all at your finger tips. Have a look around.
Check out the vegetables that will help you forget all about the french fries and pasta bolognese.  All of the ones listed below have a low glycemic index and because of it, get the thumbs up to either bake in the oven or mash.

•sweet potato
•celery root
•white carrot
•carrot
•(butternut) squash
•pumpkin

Peel the tuber and then bake in the oven with some oil, pepper and (Himalayan) salt. Or steam the vegetable, mash it, and add some almond milk. Then pour in a few drops of good quality virgin olive oil to enrich the taste. Salt, pepper and voila! Or add coconut milk to your pure (instead of almond milk and olive oil). That will work beautifully too and give it an exotic twist!
Be adventurous, experiment and try putting in additional herbs and not just to enhance flavor...  Check out their incredible medicinal qualities:

•oregano
•tarragon
•rosemary
•thyme 
(these go best with vegetables prepared with olive oil)
•cumin
•turmeric
•curry 
(for mash prepared with coconut milk)

Taste Buds Kicking Tuna Relish

If you cannot do without a steak -but do not eat meat-, tuna is what you need. I don't know any other kind of fish that comes closer to a piece of "moo'!
Grilled in a iron skillet pan is definitely the best way to go. Make sure to first heat it up to piping hot temperature. Then add a few drops of (coconut) oil and give it a 'vuelta y vuelta' (Argentine's use this term for 'searing' meat a few seconds on one side and then a few more on the other).
You like your tuna to be 'more than just pink', even a bit raw in the inside, otherwise it will dry out and taste like...cardboard :-D
Depending on the thickness of your steak, it will take a few seconds more or less (keep an eye on the side of the piece and watch the heat penetrate the fish).

Some (preferably Himalayan) salt and pepper from the mill will do. But if you are looking for something to kick your taste buds, here is an amazing relish for you to try out:

Ingredients (for 2 tuna steaks)
•4 sundried tomatoes in oil -cut in strips
•1 medium shallot - finely chopped
•1 anchovies in oil -minced
•1 tsp of agave syrup
•2 tbs virgin olive oil
•1 1/2 tbs of red wine vinegar
•2 tbs of dry sherry (if you use medium dry sherry instead, you can omit agave syrup)
•5 basil leaves

Putting it together
•put all ingredients in a bowl and let all the ingredients soak up flavors for at least 1 hour
•just before serving, take some scissors and cup up the basil leaves in the mixture and stir

Remarks
There are different ways to serve this:
a) You can either make individual steaks and top it with the relish or
b) You can slice the tuna steaks, arrange them carefully in a flat dish and then pour the relish on top. This way the tuna will get cold quickly, but that's fine. It will taste awesome as a 'cold' tapa dish as well!

Not quite T.R.'s Celery Root Soup

Number three on my list of favorite winter soups is my own adaptation of Tal Ronnen's celery root soup. Tal Ronnen is a well known American cook, and a master at creating gorgeous meatless meals. My mother-in-law brought me his beautifully photographed cookbook called The Conscious Cook (2009) from the US a while ago, and his celery root soup (quoted by Oprah, as being 'the most popular soup she makes'), is one of the recipes I adopted but adapted to better fit my needs.
Don't let the looks of the root put you off... This soup is delicious!

You need

•(Vitamix®) blender

•large saucepan

Ingredients 

(for 12 cups/3 l of soup)

•2 tbs of virgin olive/coconut oil

•2 medium celery roots, peeled and cut into cubes

•2 medium onions, chopped

•3 l ( cups) of vegetable stock

•2 tbs of white almond butter

•1 bay leaf

•freshly ground salt and pepper

•a few green celery leaves (for decoration)
•fresh salt and pepper

Putting it together

•In a large saucepan, warm the oil and add the chopped onion over medium heat. Sauté until soft for a few minutes. Stir frequently until slightly see-through;

•Add the celery root and continue to sauté, stirring frequently until slightly softened (about 5 minutes)

•Add the vegetable stock

•Bring everything to a boil and let it simmer till vegetables are soft

•Add almond butter

•Remove bay leaf

•Let it cool a bit and then blend until smooth

•Return to the saucepan and season with black pepper and/or salt to taste

Presentation

Place a spoonful of very finely chopped celery leaves in the center of each serving. 

Pimped Broccoli Soup

Here is another amazing winter soup. Without a doubt, this one is my husband's all time favorite! Quite basic at first sight, but wait and see what you can do to it!

You need

•(Vitamix®) blender

•large saucepan

Ingredients 

(for 12 cups/3 l of soup)

•2 tbs of virgin olive/coconut oil

•1 leek (including tender green part), chopped

•1 medium onion, chopped

•850 g (1.9 lbs) of washed and trimmed fresh broccoli florets and stalks

•2 l (8 cups) of vegetable stock

Toppings (per serving)

•1 tbs of parmesan cheese or

•50 g of smoked salmon, diced

•1 egg

Putting it together

•In a large saucepan, warm the oil and add the chopped leek and onion over medium heat. Sauté until soft for a few minutes. Stir frequently until slightly see-through;

•Add the broccoli and continue to sauté, stirring frequently until slightly softened (about 5 minutes)

•Add the vegetable stock

•Bring everything to a boil and let it simmer till vegetables are soft

•Let it cool a bit and then blend until smooth

•Return to the saucepan and season with black pepper and/or salt to taste

Presentation

Return the pan to the burner and reheat the soup gently (do not let it boil). Crack a raw egg (per serving) and poach it (approx. 5 min.). Ladle the soup into the bowls, making sure not to break the egg. If this is not your thing, you can opt to garnish your broccoli soup with 1 tbs of Parmesan cheese (my husband's favorite). If you prefer to stay off dairy, like I do,  top your bowl with cubed smoked salmon. This soup makes the perfect winter lunch!

Joanna's Carrot Soup

As the days get colder, windy and rainy, nothing gives me more comfort than to prepare and then savor, a good bowl of homemade soup!

Soups are nutritious, easy to freeze, you can take them to work and if you dress them up a bit, they can make the perfect opening to your three course meal at Thanksgiving or Christmas.

I will be sharing a few soups 'with a twist' the coming weeks, starting with my godmother's, classic. She introduced us to this recipe during our first visit to Sherborne, where she used to live. It is simple, but with a few extraordinary ingredients, it turns into the dish everybody goes crazy for.

I must be honest with you, if you like thick soups to be smooth, silky and very creamy (like the ones served in good restaurants), you will need to save up and acquire a Vitamix®. There is just no blender in the world that even comes close to the performance of this machine. It is an investment, yes, but if you love cooking and health food, put it on your wish list. You will not regret it. It is an investment for life.

Of course you can prepare soups with other (hand)blenders, they will just turn out more grainy.

You need

•(Vitamix®) blender

•large saucepan

•frother

•zester/paring knife

Ingredients 

(for 1 gallon/3,8 l of soup)

•2 tbs of virgin olive/coconut oil

•2 medium onions, chopped

•1,5 kg/8 cups of washed and cubed carrots

•3 l/12 cups of vegetable stock

•the zest an orange (one big curl will do)

•1 inch piece /1 tbs of grated fresh ginger

•cold almond milk

•salt and pepper

Putting it together

•In a large saucepan, warm the oil and add the chopped onions over medium heat. Sauté until soft for a few minutes. Stir frequently until slightly see-through;

•Add the cubed carrots and continue to sauté, stirring frequently until slightly softened (about 5 minutes)

•Add the vegetable stock

•Add the fresh ginger (if you have a strong blender, you will not need to grate it first);

•Bring everything to a boil and let it simmer till vegetables are soft

•Let it cool a bit and then blend

•Return to the saucepan and add black pepper and/or salt to taste

Presentation

I have served this soup for Christmas before in a cappuccino cup, then added frosted almond milk on the top. Not only does it look amazing, I was surprised to see how it also keeps the soup warm (giving you plenty of time to serve everybody). Finally, you can add a couple of fine orange zest curls for looks. Always a success!

If you don't have a frother, there are alternatives for foaming milk that will work for almond milk as well, and help you get the same result!

Complementing Wild Salmon

Fish is one of my main sources of protein. I eat it every day. From my carnivore friends I often get the question: 'what fish can you recommend that is not ... fishy?'.
If possible, always smell raw fish before you buy it. If it smells 'fishy', it is probably not kosher. The catch of the day should be odorless.
I have to admit that complimenting fish with the perfect sauce, salsa and/or herbs can be kind of a challenge. What works for one type of fish might not necessarily work for the other.
I love wild salmon! Here in the Netherlands, where I live, it gets flown in all the way from Alaska! Like any animal living in freedom, Alaskan salmon gets tons of exercise and is quite lean. So it cooks super fast (approx. 6 to 8 minutes) and, if you don't eye hawk the oven, it will dry out.

Here is an easy recipe to compliment oven baked wild salmon :

Ingredients
•1/4 cup (59 ml) fresh lime juice
•a handful of fresh cilantro leaves
•1/2 cup (120 ml) good quality virgin olive oil
•salt & pepper
•2/3 cloves of garlic
•1 red chili pepper

Putting it together
•crush the garlic cloves into a bowl
•add lime juice
•whisk in the olive oil
•deseed the red chili pepper and chop it finely, then add it to the liquids
•add pepper and salt to taste
•cut the cilantro with scissors into the bowl
•put the slightly salted salmon (no skin) in a greased oven dish and pour the mixture on top of it, just before putting it in the oven.

Remarks
•I advise to prepare this marinade a few hours in advance and cover it. Add the cilantro half an hour before pouring the mixture on the fish.
•the amounts here will give you enough mixture to cover a large piece of salmon (good for 6/8 people).
•cook the salmon in a very hot oven (450F/230C) for aprox. 6/8 minutes.