Vegan Apples with Beans 🌱

When the farmers‘ market gives you wonderful purple beans and you get homegrown apples from your dear neighbors, this culinary creation in complementary colors is born. Bean purée: Blend boiled kidney beans. Taste with fleur de sel and a couple of drops liquid smoke. Apple sauce deluxe: Peel and seed apples. Simmer them in some…

Vegan Watermelon Nice Cream 🌱

Hot days call for cool treats – like this vegan watermelon nice cream. Watermelon nice cream: Peel watermelon and blend the pulp. Strain the juice through a fine sieve. Set some juice aside for the syrup and mix the rest with an equal part of coconut cream. Transfer to popsicle molds and freeze until firm….

Herb soup 🌱

Summer is long gone and autumn is taking over. The chilly temperatures turn nature orange; green will soon be a past memory. Before that happens to my kitchen garden, I collected the very last herbs and turned them into a hearty, plant-based soup. Peel and chop parsnip, parsley root, yellow carrot and shallot. Sauté the…

Caramel custard (Brönnti Crème) 🇨🇭

Caramel custard is my next dish for for the Swiss Food Discovery. In German, this dessert is called “Brönnti Crème” translating to “burnt custard” in reference to the burnt sugar and protagonist of the custard. The sugar is not burnt, though, but rather caramelized into a very rich and luscious syrup. And that’s the secret of…

Tomato consommé 🌱

And the series of food challenges continue. Today, I’m participating in the Int’l Food Challenge featuring tomatoes and bell peppers. I decided to create a plant-based dish around tomatoes, as these beauties ripen in our kitchen garden as I write. The herbs and flowers are also own-grown. Gently roast 1 kg chopped, sun ripe tomatoes,…

Curried Romanesco broccoli and cauliflower 🌱

Roasted Romanesco broccoli and cauliflower with tastes of India is one of my all time favorite vegan dishes. It’s incredibly palatable and flavorsome, yet light and low in carb. Thickly slice Romanesco broccoli and cauliflower. Drizzle with olive oil and taste with salt, garlic, coriander, cayenne, jeera, onion powder, tumeric, cinnamon and cardamom. Roast with…

Tea smoked duck with tamarind plums

I’ve been watching lots of The Chefs’ Line on Netflix lately. In one episode, the task was to prepare Zhangcha duck. I was intrigued by how uncomplicated it seemed to smoke meat at home and decided to give it a go. Remove silver skin and excess fat from a duck breast. Score the fat (just…

Minted tzatziki on citrusy lamb loin

Cucumber and garlic are two of the ingredients in this month’s Food Blog Challenge basket by Foodblogs Schweiz. Cucumber and garlic are also two of the key ingredients in tzatziki. In this dish, I serve it on beautifully seared lamb loin with pleasant citrusy notes. Shred and drain a cucumber. Drain 150 g Greek yoghurt….

Grilled squash flowers with cream cheese and baby herbs 💚

We returned to Switzerland earlier this week only to find our kitchen garden hideously overgrown. Time to turn the green treasures into something beautiful. Halve the squash still attached to the flower. Sear in olive oil and season with fleur de sel. Spread with cream cheese and decorate with baby leaves of basil, mint, lemon…

Blueberry and orange infused water 🌱

We had some friends over for afternoon tea the other day. To mark the occasion, I decided to fancy up my H2O. It turned out a real eye catcher, didn’t it? In a pitcher, place ice cubes, blueberries, orange slices and mint leaves. Squeeze in the juice of the orange ends and fill up with…

Lamb sirloin • Barley • Pomegranate • Mint

A sous-vide stick – what a game changer! Precise temperatures, impeccable textures, foolproof. Never has cooking been easier. And the outcome more perfect. Start with the meat. Sear lamb sirloin in oil and butter seasoned with garlic and rosemary. Season the meat with salt and black pepper. Transfer the meat and the herbs to a…

Sunshine bowl

It’s August, but summer isn’t over yet. The sun is still shining and I managed to catch some rays. In a bowl. Boil mountain lentils and quinoa for approximately 25 minutes. In the meantime, fry chopped salsiccia, carrot and yellow zucchini. In a separate pan, toast pine nuts. Season the lentil quinoa mix with reduced…

Gazpacho 🌱

Today, the sun has been shining from a clear blue sky. No clouds. No wind. It has been one of those hot, lazy summer days. Hot, lazy summer days call for cold soups. Like this raw food Spanish classic. For optimal taste, use organic, sun-ripened veggies. And for optimal refreshing effect, serve the soup chilled….

Halloumi stuffed bell pepper with mint oil 💚

Lunch usually needs to be quick. Correspondingly, the work steps mustn’t be complicated and the number of ingredients has to be small. This only five-ingredient dish is flavorful and comes together really easily. Add some edible flowers and you’ll have yourself a lovely lunch. Remove the top of your bell peppers (I used white ones)….

Loquat • Pistachio • Date • Yoghurt

I went to the market with my girls the other day and run into these amazing loquats. My younger daughter was immediately fascinated by them and – as a matter of fact – I couldn’t resist them either. I tried to emphasize the pleasant acidity of the fruits with sweet pistachio cookies and raw date…

Chicken with pickled lemons and green olives

A little over a month ago, I pickled cute small organic lemons and today, we finally got to try them. The flavor was intensely lemony. All sourness was gone and replaced by a mild tartness. Exquisite! I slow cooked them with chicken, olives, shallots, lentils and lots of spices. Mix chicken thighs with sliced, depulped…

Lamb burger with a warm feta cheese dip and tahini dressing

Today, the whole family cooked together. We – i.e. my girls – picked the dish: burgers. Burgers are great because the kids can help chopping veggies and kneading the meat. And an individual burger compilation means everyone gets exactly the burger he or she wants. My daughters chopped cucumber, tomatoes and shallots and placed them…