About a month ago I bought a 5 kg bucket of tahini. The amount of hummus or any other Mediterranean / Middle Eastern dip I made for my caterings that contains tahini exceeded all sorts of expectations and in the end when I saw that huge bucket, I just took it. And I already used more than half of it! And so here is one more dip / spread with tahini for you today. For this one, tahini meets butternut squash.
You know what? Since I started getting to know gluten free baking more than a year ago, I realised how great cakes and cookies and other baked goodies you can get without the use of regular flour. It is much more challenging, but it pays off always with each cake’s unique texture and taste.
As I am writing this blogpost, my windows are wide open, I have just a shirt and shorts on me and I’m drinking a cold glass of water with mint. It is, as the last I checked, 21 degrees in Helsinki right now, which means SUMMER! I’m not sure how long this lovely weather will last, so I will make use of it as much as possible.
Last week on Saturday I had a huge catering gig: a birthday dinner for 76 people. It was a big success and people loved the food, but I was utterly exhausted afterwards. So I spent this week giving myself time to rest and lunching out for the first couple of days. Thanks to this, I discovered a very nice little cafe in my neighbourhood and the delicious salad I ate there inspired me to make this one.
Back in February, I made a fully gluten free yoga brunch here in Helsinki. As usual, the brunch was vegetarian, and there were also many vegan options. This chocolate mousse was one of the sweets in that brunch, and it was a hit. Especially my friend Essi, who did the yoga part of the brunch loved it very much!
I absolutely love using citrus family in recipes. When I baked this cake the other day, my apartment smelled crazy with lemon and orange. It was the freshest moment of the week, to be honest.
I LOVE vegetables. I am not vegetarian, officially. But in practice, I actually lead a vegetarian life. My catering menus and eating events are also almost always vegetarian. Among all, there is one vegetable that I cannot live without: eggplant! (And I cannot go back and check now, but I probably said this over and over again in my previous eggplant recipes…)
I sometimes feel like Bugs Bunny – I cannot get enough of carrots. Then, for a while I completely forget about carrots, after that I remember again.. I generally like to make a simple salad with raw carrots and tomatoes: I just grate carrots, chop tomatoes and bring them together with a bit of salt, olive oil and lemon juice. This recipe though, is a whole new thing for me.
Red cabbage. A vegetable which is rather foreign to me. Sure I ate it many times in salads, but when it comes to using it as an ingredient myself, well, we generally look at each other in the market for a few minutes and then I move forward to another vegetable, continuing our mutual indifference. This weird relationship ended with this soup.
There are 3 dishes in my life that the word “shakshouka” has been associated with since my childhood. And they all point to different parts of my life.
Working for socially and ecologically just societies
Inspiring People Through Food
Food, movie reviews, arts and crafts, and life.
Science-based Tips on Weight loss, Fitness, Health, and Nutrition from a Ph.D. Scientist
My Wonderful Little World
Food for folks who have yet to figure it all out
Connecting to Friends, Old and New, Through Recipes, Gardens, and Dinner Parties
My Dear Kitchen in Helsinki 