Creative Saturday: an eggplant, tomatoes and chickpeas bake

My Saturdays, unless I am at my day job doing the paperwork, it is another day at the studio - morning walk, cleaning, some crafting and cooking. I like finding new recipes and, by adding one new ingredient every month, I explore more and more yummy vegetarian dishes (we became vegetarian last Christmas, you can read more about our journey here).

 Last month I was cooking with kale - bakes, omelets...

This month I am trying to include chickpeas as I never cooked with them before. This recipe takes about an hour but it is worth the time spend on it! I done it in between tidying up my studio and didn't even notice how an hour went by!

I took 1 eggplant, 4 tomatoes (or use cherry tomatoes), one can of chickpeas, zest of one lemon, 2 cloves of garlic and handful of basil (mint will work as nicely).

Preheat the oven to 200C while cutting an eggplant in 2cm cubes. Place an oven dish with some olive oil to heat it before placing the eggplant cubes, it  helps to prevent the eggplant absorbing too much oil. Roast for 30 minutes, stirring once halfway. Then, add chopped tomatoes and roast for another 20 minutes, following by the drained chickpeas and garlic - roast for 10 more minutes. Finally, take the bake from the oven and mix in zest of one lemon. Leave to cool down a little and stir handful of shredded basil or mint. Done! Serve warm as a side dish (serves 3) or by itself (serves 2). 
This recipe adopted from "Hugh's Three Good Things", book by Hugh Fearnley.

Do you like chickpeas? 

What is your favourite recipe with them?

My favourite salad with Daikon

Back home, in summer, my mum use to make this quick and easy salad for us as a side dish at dinner time. It is very refreshing and light so it became one of my favourite lunch salads when I moved here.

The recipe is really super easy, just grade: 

one medium size Daikon 

one cucumber

Then, cut in 4/5 radishes, add a tablespoon of sour cream and season to taste! 

I love having a piece of crusty fresh bread with it. It's a lovely lunch for a busy crafter who tries her hardest not to skip lunches (that's my little goal this month). There is always half left in the fridge so I have it next day too. 

What is your favourite quick & easy salad?  

My favourite snack... Edamame

On a busy day when I skip lunch and have to keep myself going until the dinner time, Edamame is my favourite snack. I always have a few packs in my freezer and love that they are very easy to prepare, just boil for a few minutes and they are done! 
While browsing Pinterest the other day, I found a few recipes that looked very good and had Edamame in them. These are the ones I found very easy and interesting:

*Edamame dip with avocado

Picture & recipe via Scaling back blog

*Spinach and Edamame salad

Picture and recipe via Home Is Where The Cookies Are

What is your favourite healthy snack? 

Sunday baking: guilt free brownie in Thermomix.

I am going through my Thermomix baking section slowly but surely! I perfected banana bread and now moving on to an apple and pecan brownies. 

I must say, they tuned out so good and the best thing about this dessert, it is very low fat so I can have a few slices, right? 

 I did make a few substitutions though: used wholemeal self raising flour, didn't put any sugar (yep, non at all!), used juicy red apples and buttermilk instead of milk (just add tablespoon of lemon juice in one cup of milk and leave it for 2min and you will have a cup of buttermilk ready to use!).

So so yummy! 

You don't have to have a Thermomix to make them either.

Go here for the recipe. 

I would love to know your favourite brownie recipe!

Saturday crafternoon and winter salad

This morning, when I went to get a new issue of the Country Style and some fresh bread,  it felt like autumn is finally here! The air was fresh and cool but the sun still warm... 

It's truly my favourite season! 

Isn't the cover of this issue stunning?! I am looking forward to reading it this afternoon and doing some cross-stitch. The penguins are multiplying on my table in different colours! 

Cooler weather also means a change of the meals in our home with more soups, stews and yummy Russian winter salad back on our menu!  This salad is perfect as a side dish or by itself. We make it vegetarian but, traditionally, it's made with boiled chicken or sausage.

You will need the following ingredients (serves 4): 

2 medium sized potatoes (cooked in skin then peeled and diced) 

3 medium sized gherkins diced

4 eggs hard-boiled and diced

200g tined pees

4-5 tablespoons of mayonnaise

Optional: 

200g boiled sausage or chicken meat 

cut an onion and keep it in separate container to add before serving 

shopped dill

Mix all ingredients together and enjoy! 

Hope you are having a relaxing Saturday! 

Weekend baking: Rosemary and grape rolls

I am far from an expert baker or cook so I am always on the look out for an easy recipe, especially the ones with wholemeal flour that I like. I usually cut recipes out from the magazines and keep them in my recipe book. It makes it easier when I plan meals as I can just put them together without writing the page numbers etc. down  that I have to do with books (thanks to my friend's tip I never search for the lost recipe again;)  

This weekend I decided to bake something that we can have as a savory snack at work. These rosemary and grape rolls are very quick to bake but do need some preparation time. Recipe is from Good Taste magazine May issue 2009.

250gr (1 and 2/3 cups) plain bread flour - I've used spelt flour

240gr (1 and 1/2 cups) wholemeal flour

300ml warm water

1 tsp honey

1 sachet (7g) dried yeast

60ml (1/4 cup) olive oil

2 tsp sea salt

olive oil, to grease

12 small springs rosemary

12 red grapes - will use more next time as they are just so yummy:)

1. Sift combined flour in a bowl. Return husks to the flour.

2. Transfer 1/4 of the flour mixture to a medium bowl. Add water and honey. Whisk to combine. Sprinkle with the yeast. Whisk to combine. Set aside in a warm place for 10 min or until foamy.

3. Add the oil and salt to the flour mixture. 

Make a well in the center. Pour in the yeast mixture. Use your hands to bring the dough together in the bowl. Transfer to a lightly floured surface. Knead for 10 min or until smooth and elastic. Brush a large bowl with oil to lightly grease. Place the dough in the bowl. Cover with a tea tower and set aside in a warm place to prove for 1 hour or until double in size.

4. pre-heat oven to 220C. Brush baking tray with oil to lightly grease. Punch down the center of the dough with you fist. Divide into equal portions. Roll each portion into a ball. Place ball, side-by-side, on the greased tray. Cover the dough with a clean towel. Set aside for 30min. 

5. Use your thumb to make dimples in the dough. Press rosemary and grapes into the dimples. Brush with oil.

 Bake for 10min. Reduce oven temperature to 190C. Bake for 12-15 min or until golden. 
Cool them down for a few minutes and ENJOY! 
Hope you like them:)


I am lucky I've got mainly guys at work and they are willing to try anything I bake:) 
So far they loved my baking and I've got a few more recipes to try next week. 

Tuesday baking - pumpkin, ginger and walnuts bread

I love pumpkin! Roasted, in risotto or in salad... here is a new recipe that I discovered on my favourite Russian cooking website - pumpkin, ginger and walnuts bread. It's super easy and yummy! 

Ingredients:

butter 100 gr

brown sugar 50 gr 

(or more depending on the sweetness of your pumpkin)

120 gr of flour

100 gr of  grated pumpkin

1 tea spoon of grated ginger

1 egg

small pinch of nutmeg powder 

(I didn't have any so I just mixed some walnuts into the dough)

walnuts

1. Melt butter and whisk it with sugar. Then add egg, mix, add flour and nutmeg (or walnuts). Mix until consistent.

2. Add pumpkin and ginger and combine all ingredients together. If it looks a bit watery, add a bit more flour but not too much as mixture suppose to be "slushy". 

3. Pour into a lined cake or bread tin, decorate with a few walnuts and bake for 40 - 50 min until golden and when a toothpick comes out clean. Let it to cool down before taking it out of the tin for about 5 minutes, then take out and cool on the cooling rack.

Can be served with sour cream, honey or vanilla ice-cream. I like it just by itself with a cup of Earl Grey;)

Next time I want to bake it in cupcake shapes so it's easier for a lunch box or I am thinking about adding some noodles in it to make a bake....

Bon Appétit! 

Guest post - Cinnamon Muffin recipe by Just For Daisy

Hi! This is Rebekah from {Just For Daisy} - my blog is a place where I share my life and the loves of my life - one of my loves is cooking. This recipe is one that I developed from a very simple Cinnamon Muffin recipe which I found in an old recipe book. 

There's something about High Tea that just makes me smile. There's a feeling of sophistication; a warmth and maturity that come with slowly sipping cup after cup of hot tea along with those dainty desserts and pastries. My husband thinks I'm crazy, but I'm also a sucker for Cucumber and Cream Cheese Sandwiches! Here is my yummy muffin recipe to enjoy with a hot cup of tea at High Tea time or anytime.

High Tea - Stewed Apple & Cinnamon Sugar Muffins

ingredients

2 green apples

1 tsp castor sugar

1 tblsp water

2 tsp ground cinnamon

2/3 cup sugar

2 cups self raising flour

3/4 cup water

1 egg

2 tblsp golden syrup

method

1. Peel & slice apples, place in pan with sugar and water. Cook over low heat until softened. Remove from heat, chop roughly.

2. Mix cinnamon & sugar together. Set aside.

3. Mix remaining ingredients until just combined.

4. One third fill greased muffin pans with the mixture and sprinkle with two thirds of the cinnamon sugar. Place one teaspoon of chopped apples on top.

5. Fill pans with remaining mixture and sprinkle with the rest of the cinnamon sugar. Top with an apple slice if desired.

6. Bake at 200'C for 15 minutes.

I like to make these in mini muffin cases - High Tea and anything miniature is always a great combination. 

Thank you to Katia {Plushka} and wishing you a wonderful holiday! 

rebekah @ justfordaisy