Tender and Spicy Green Soup

What I love about a plate of beautiful light soup is that everyone can choose their way of eating it. If you want to be filled for long then take a bun or add croutons and enjoy, if you need a light dinner - eat it just as it is and find pleasure in the lightness inside your body while it gets all the goodness from the vegetables. To my mind, an ideal choice for a late dinner!

Ingredients (serves 2):

4 celery stalks

1 yellow onion

1 green bell pepper

5 big handfuls of spinach

2 garlic cloves

1/2 teaspoon cardamom

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon dried mint

1 l water

cream or coconut milk (optional)

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Boil water in a pot and add sea salt to your taste. You will need 1-1.5 l water - you can boil 1.5 l, cook your veggies and before blending the soup pour out excess liquid not to have your puree too thin.

Chop your celery, onion, bell pepper and spinach and add them to the pot. Cook the vegetables over medium heat covered with a lid for 15 minutes until they soften.

Turn off the heat, add 2 whole garlic cloves and blend your soup - raw garlic will give it a nice contrasting hot note.

Pour the soup into the plates, add some cream or coconut milk if you want, sprinkle with some more freshly ground black pepper and enjoy!

Gorgeous Roasted Broccoli with Tahini Dip

People who just start eating healthy or do not eat healthy at all use to complain that greens are so untasty and empty in the taste that they will never be able to eat them with pleasure. To this I have a permanent response - with a good dip you can eat anything! Literally, anything. Start playing with dips and after a couple of months your body will ask for vegetables itself. You will discover their genuine taste and there is no doubt - you will love them.

Another tasty tip of cooking vegetables is roasting them. We are all used to see carrots, cabbage, onions and other gorgeous veggies in a soup, and most of the time - I'm sure - it's an over boiled soup, there is no surprise no one would love to eat those. My advise is to start with roasting - it's incredible how widely the taste of vegetables opens up when you put them in the oven.

Today's recipe combines both these tips - we have a beautiful dip and roasted broccoli. Tahini dip is an awesome way to enrich any vegetable dish. It's rather fatty but it contains only useful unsaturated fats, tahini itself is one of the top 10 fatty but necessary products for human body. So I promise, it's vegetable and it's tasty.

Gorgeous Roasted Broccoli with Tahini Dip

Ingredients (serves 2):

For broccoli:

1 medium broccoli head

10 garlic cloves

olive oil

sea salt

toasted sesame seeds for garnishing (optional)

For tahini dip:

1 heaped tablespoon tahini paste

2 garlic cloves

60 ml water at room temperature

juice of half a lemon

1 teaspoon sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 200ºC.

With the tip of your knife cut off the smaller stalks of broccoli from the larger central stalk, remove whole florets and then slice them into same sized pieces for even cooking.

Peel and wash the garlic cloves and add them to broccoli.

Toss the vegetables with some olive oil and sea salt and lay on a baking tray.

Roast your broccoli and garlic for 25 minutes.

To make tahini finely chop your garlic and mix it with all the other ingredients. Done!

Lay roasted broccoli and garlic on plates, sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds and drizzle with tahini. Put the bowl with tahini dip beside and dig in!

Warm Lentils and Brussels Sprouts Salad

I made this salad yesterday for dinner, it was something like taking everything what was left in the fridge and mixing it all together in a bowl. And when I tasted it I couldn't believe I made it just like that - it was so tasty and delicious and tangy I hardly resisted having another plate!

The biggest trick here is a combination of cilantro and balsamic vinegar. It gives such a strong tangy taste - very much sour still live and green, it's just fantastic, you should definitely try it. It goes perfectly with a harsh flavour of roasted Brussels sprouts and mild green lentils. And in addition to a wonderful taste it's a smart balanced meal - you get proteins from the lentils and priceless dietary fiber from the vegetables and greens. Ok, run to the kitchen!

Warm Lentils and Brussels Sprouts Salad

Ingredients (serves 4):

400 g Brussels Sprouts

3 cups cooked green lentils

a bunch of cilantro

a little bigger bunch of flat-leaf parsley

1 red onion

balsamic vinegar

extra virgin olive oil

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 200ºC. Wash and cut your Brussels sprouts in halves, toss them with some olive oil, lay on a baking tray, sprinkle with freshly ground black pepper and place in the oven for 25 minutes until they become tender.

Thinly slice your onion, chop the greens, add about 1 teaspoon sea salt and mix together all ingredients in a bowl.

Generously dress the salad with balsamic vinegar, add a little olive oil for a milder flavour and serve.

Bon Appétit!