Category: Lunch

Easy Parmesan Tagliatelle Recipe

The greatest lesson in life is to know that even fools are right sometimes.

W.S.C.

Ingredients:
– 250 g tagliatelle;
– 50-60 g butter;
– 70 g grated Parmesan;
– coffee cup of pasta broth.

Method:
1 Cook tagliatelle Al dente, spare one coffee cup of broth.
2 Melt butter in the skillet, slowly mix in grated Parmesan. Add pasta broth and cook for another minute while slowly mixing until smooth.
3 Add tagliatelle to the sauce and mix well.
4 Sprinkle with black pepper or some more grated Parmesan and serve!

Bell Peppers Stuffed with Chicken and Rice

“Are the days of winter sunshine just as sad for you, too? When it is misty, in the evenings, and I am out walking by myself, it seems to me that the rain is falling through my heart and causing it to crumble into ruins.”
― Gustave Flaubert, November

Ingredients (3-4 servings):
– 3-4 red bell peppers;
– 500g minced chicken;
– 80g rice;
– 200g tomato passata;
– 1/3 bunch dill;
– 1 tsp salt;
– 1/2 tsp black pepper.

Directions:
1 Mix minced chicken with rice, salt and black pepper.
2 De-seed red bell peppers.
3 Stuff well red bell peppers with the meat mixture.
4 Transfer the stuffed peppers to the large pot with the tops from bell peppers. Add tomato passata and water to cover the bell peppers.
5 Cook at medium heat for 40 minutes.
6 Serve with a half a soup ladle of broth

Quick Homemade Basil Pesto Pasta Recipe

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.
― Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays

Ingredients (2-3 servings):
-250g pasta
– 1 bunch basil
– 100g cashew nuts
– 2 garlic cloves
– 90ml olive oil
– 1 tbsp lemon juice
– 1/2 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper

Method:
1 Cook pasta al dente in salted water; drain water
2 Pesto: combine basil leaves, cashew nuts, garlic cloves, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and mash with a blender until smooth
3 Combine pesto sauce with pasta, carefully mix and serve

Creamy Salmon with Knedlíky Recipe

“There is no perfection only life”
― Milan Kundera, The Unbearable Lightness of Being

Salmon ingredients (2 servings):
– 200g salmon
– 1 red bell pepper
– 100ml cream 33%
– salt to taste
– 0.5 tbsp sunflower oil

Knedlíky ingredients:
– 500g boiled potatoes
– 150g flour
– 50g wholemeal floor
– 2 eggs
– 1/2 tsp salt

Method:
1 Salmon
1.1 Preheat 0.5 tbsp sunflower oil in the skillet
1.2 Fry salmon (fully defrosted) one side until golden
1.3 Turn the salmon over, add salt, add chopped red bell pepper – fry salmon until golden
1.4 Add cream and cook for another 3-4minutes
2 Knedlíky
2.1 Mix boiled potatoes, flour and salt: mix until smooth.
2.2 Form two sausages 5cm diameter.
2.3 Put the sausages in the boiling water, covering the sausages. Boil for 20 minutes at medium heat.
3 Serve salmon with Knedlíky and dill

Flammkuchen Recipe with Smoked Salmon and Sour Cream | Easy Homemade Delight

I’m not much but I’m all I have.

― Philip K Dick, Martian Time-Slip

Tarte Flambee

Dough ingredients:
– 220g wheat flour
– 1 egg yolk
– 2 tbsp olive oil
– 100ml water
– 1/3 tsp salt

Filling ingredients:
– 150g sour cream
– 2 small onions
– 100g smoked salmon
– 1 red bell pepper
– chopped parsley for serving

Directions:
1 Preheat the oven to 200C
2 Mix dough ingredients and knead the dough for 3-4 minutes
3 Roll out the dough into an oval, 3-4mm height
4 Put the dough on the baking paper and bake at 200C for 8 min
5 Chop onion, paprika and salmon
6 Spread the sour cream over the baked dough base, then add chopped onion, paprika and salmon slices
7 Bake Flammkuchen for 10 minutes at 200C
8 Serve with chopped parsley

Bell Peppers baked with Chicken: quick and healthy lunch

Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.

Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

Ingredients:
– 3 bell peppers
– 400g chicken breast
– 2 tsp sour cream
– 50g cheese
– salt/pepper

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Deseed the bell peppers, cut in half and put into the baking form
3 Chop chicken breast, mix with sour cream, salt and pepper; transfer into the bell pepper halves
4 Grate the cheese on the bell pepper halves
5 Bake for 25-30 minutes
6 Serve with rice

Baked Garlic Potatoes with Tuna sauce !

Ah, it’s my longing for whom I might have been that distracts and torments me!

Fernando Pessoa, The Book of Disquiet

Potatoes ingredients:
– 1 kg potatoes
– 3 clothes grated garlic
– 1 tsp paprika
– 2/3 tsp salt
– 1/2 tsp black pepper
– 2 tbsp olive oil

Tuna sauce ingredients:
– 1 can tuna
– 1 chopped red onion
– 2 tsp mayonnaise
– 1 tbsp lemon 🍋 juice
– 2 tbsp cream cheese

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 180C
2 Boil potatoes for 3 minutes, drain water and left them cool down for 5 minutes
3 Mix semi-boiled potatoes with grated garlic, paprika, salt, black pepper and olive oil
4 Transfer the potatoes pieces on the baking paper and bake 30min at 180C
5 Tuna sauce: mix tuna, cut onion, mayonnaise, lemon juice, cream cheese and mash with a blender
6 Serve with fresh tomatoes and cucumbers ! Enjoy !

Simple and Healthy Soup with Broccoli and Meatballs !

Courage is found in unlikely places.

J.R.R. Tolkien
Soup with broccoli and meatballs

Vegetables etc. ingredients (4-6 servings):
– 12 small (8 medium) potatoes
– 10 carrots
– 1 broccoli head
– 1 tsp salt
– chopped parsley for serving

Meatballs ingredients:
– 400g minced beef
– 2 eggs
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 4-6 tbsp millet powder
– 2 tbsp floor for dipping meatballs

Method:
1 Peel and cut vegetables and put aside
2 Mix meatballs ingredients and form meatballs with hands, dip each meatball in flour and put on the plate
3 Boil 1.5-2l water, add 1 tsp salt and meatballs: cook for 20min, medium heat
4 Add vegetables to the soup and cook for another 20min, medium heat
5 Serve with chopped parsley !

Spinach and Feta Fatayer: amazing with coffee !

What really knocks me out is a book that, when you’re all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn’t happen much, though.

J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

I love spinach fatayer: they are simple to make, amazing in taste. They serve great as an appetizer or as a snack with coffee or with soup!

Dough ingredients:
– 1 cup (1 cup=250ml) wheat flour
– 1/4 cup water
– 3 tbsp olive oil
– 1/2 tsp salt

Filling ingredients:
– 90g fresh chopped baby spinach
– 90g Feta cheese
– 1/3 cup chopped walnuts
– 1 tbsp lemon juice
– 2 tsp olive oil
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 1/4 tsp pepper

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 220C
2 Filling: combine all filling ingredients and mix well with the hands
3 Dough: combine all dough ingredients in a bowl: knead the dough
4 Divide dough into 8 equal pieces and form a ball out of each of them
5 Roll out each ball into a 8-10cm diameter circle: put 1 tsp filling in the centre of each circle
6 Lift up ends of each circle to the centre to form Fatayers with your fingers
7 Put the Fatayers on the baking paper (sprinkle with Provence herbs or pepper or a little of olive oil): bake for 18 minutes at 220C
8 Serve with a cup of black coffee or black tea !

Chicken Nuggets with Red Bell Pepper and Pineapple !

Pour vivre heureux, vivons cachés

Jean Pierre Claris de Florian

Chicken nuggets ingredients:
– 350g chicken breast
– 2 red bell peppers
– 200g canned pineapple (weight without juice)
– 2 eggs for batter
– 1 tsp chilli 🌶 pepper powder for batter
– 1/2 tsp salt for batter
– sunflower oil for frying

Pineapples-red bell pepper sauce
– 3-4 tbsp all-purpose flour for batter
– 1 tbsp liquid honey for the sauce
– pineapple juice from the can with pineapples for the sauce
– 3 garlic clothes

Method:
1 Chop chicken breast in 1.5 cm cubes
2 Combine and mix well eggs, salt, chilli pepper powder in 1 plate and put flour in another plate for dipping
3 Preheat two skillets (skillet 1 for chicken nuggets, skillet 2 for the sauce) and add some sunflower oil
4 Dip each chicken breast piece once in eggs mixture, once in flour, again in eggs mixture, again in flour – transfer to skillet 1 and fry for 4-5 minutes until golden
5 Fry red bell pepper stripes and pineapple pieces in skillet 2 for 4-5 minutes
6 Transfer chicken nuggets to red bell peppers and pineapples, add pineapple juice and cook for 6-7 minutes
7 Add chopped garlic and honey: cook for another 2 minutes
8 Serve with chopped dill or parsley!

Turkey-Pineapple Pancakes !

I am a mathematician, sir. I never permit myself to think.

John Dickson Carr

Ingredients:
– 400g turkey breast
– 200g canned pineapple pieces
– 1 egg
– 50g grated cheese
– 3 tbsp flour
– 1 grated garlic cloth
– salt and pepper to taste

Sauce:
– 200g sour cream
– fresh chopped parsley/dill
– chopped garlic

Method:
1 Combine chopped turkey breast, chopped pineapples, egg, grated cheese, flour, grated garlic and salt/pepper: mix until smooth
2 Preheat the skillet, add sunflower oil: pour 1tbsp of batter for each pancake-to-be. Fry 5-6 min each side or until golden, medium heat
3 Switch to minimum heat and cook pancakes under the lid for 10 min
4 For the sauce combine and mix sour cream, chopped garlic, chopped parsley/dill
5 Serve!

Hungarian Paprika-Potato Pancakes with garlic sauce !

I had for breakfast more paprika, and a sort of porridge of maize flour which they said was “mamaliga”, and egg-plant stuffed with forcemeat, a very excellent dish, which they call “impletata”.

Bram Stoker, Dracula

Pancakes ingredients (15-16 pancakes):
– 500g boiled potatoes (weight boiled)
– 1 red onion
– 2 eggs
– 3 tbsp flour
– 2 tsp paprika powder
– 1/2 tsp salt
– 100g breadcrumbs
– sunflower oil for frying

Garlic sauce ingredients:
– 200g sour cream
– 3 tsp mayonnaise
– 3 garlic cloves
– parsley

Method:
1 Boil potatoes
2 Potatoes-batter: combine boiled potatoes, chopped onion, eggs, flour, paprika powder and salt – mix well until smooth
3 Preheat the skillet with some sunflower oil
4 For each pancake drop 1 tsp of potatoes-batter in bread crumbs and fry for 2-3 minutes each side, medium heat until golden
5 Garlic sauce: mix sour cream, grated garlic, mayonnaise and chopped parsley
5 Serve pancakes hot with garlic sauce and chopped parsley !

Veggie chips with blue cheese sauce !

You must remain. I must depart.
Two autumns falling in the heart

Yosa Buson

Veggie chips ingredients (for 2-3 servings):
– 6-8 medium potatoes
– 4 large carrots
– 2 beetroots
– 1 tbsp sunflower oil
– Herbes de Provence to taste
– salt to taste

Blue Sauce ingredients:
– 200g sour cream
– 125g blue cheese (Saint Agur blue)
– chopped dill and parsley

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 190C
2 Pill and cut veggies into thin strips
3 Mix veggie strips with Herbes de Provence, salt and sunflower oil: transfer to the baking paper
4 Bake for 50-60 min at 190C
5 Blue cheese sauce: combine sour cream, blue cheese, chopped dill & parsley: mix until smooth. Put the sauce in the fridge until the chips are ready
6 Serve veggie chips with a blue cheese sauce !

Salmon-Kohlrabi soup: simple and healthy

When I am not reading Kafka I am thinking about Kafka. When I am not thinking about Kafka I miss thinking about him. Having missed thinking about him for a while, I take him out and read him again. That’s how it works.

László Krasznahorkai
Salmon-Kohlrabi soup

Ingredients:
– 200g salmon
– 1 Kohlrabi
– 4 medium potatoes
– 4 medium carrots
– 1 red onion
– dill for serving
– 1 tsp salt

Method:
1 Pill vegetables, chop vegetables and salmon into 1-2 cm cubes
2 Put vegetables and salmon in a pan, add water to cover + 1cm more, add salt: cook at medium heat 18 minutes after boiling
3 Serve with chopped dill !

Cheesy Potato Pancakes !

I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.
“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring
Cheesy Potato Pancakes

Pancakes ingredients (16 pancakes):
– 700g potatoes
– 100g cheese
– 1 big red onion
– 2 tbsp flour
– 2 tbsp breadcrumbs
– salt and pepper to taste
– sunflower oil for frying

Garlic sauce ingredients:
– 200g sour cream
– 1 tbsp mayonnaise
– 2-3 minced garlic cloves

Method:
1 Combine grated raw potatoes, grated cheese, chopped onion, flour, breadcrumbs, salt, pepper: mix until smooth
2 Preheat the skillet with sunflower oil
3 One tbsp batter for one pancake: fry 3-4 minutes each side until golden, medium heat, transfer on paper towels to absorb extra oil
4 Garlic sauce: mix sour cream, mayonnaise and minced garlic
5 Serve warm pancakes with the sauce and enjoy !

Simple and healthy sweet potato and cauliflower soup with beef !

Have you also learned that secret from the river; that there is no such thing as time? That the river is everywhere at the same time, at the source and at the mouth, at the waterfall, at the ferry, at the current, in the ocean and in the mountains, everywhere and that the present only exists for it, not the shadow of the past nor the shadow of the future.

Hermann Hesse
Sweet potato and cauliflower soup with beef

Ingredients:
– 400g minced beef
– 3-4 large sweet potatoes
– half a head cauliflower
– 1 tsp salt
– pumpkin seeds for serving

Method:
1 Boil minced beef for 25 minutes in 2-2.5l salted water
2 Wash and peel sweet potatoes and cauliflower
3 Add finely chopped sweet potatoes and cauliflower to the broth with beef and boil another 15 minutes
4 Mash the soup with a blender until smooth
5 Serve the soup with toasted pumpkin seeds and enjoy !

Warm soup in the pot with red bell peppers, carrots, beef and pearl barley !

花より団子

Japanese saying

Ingredients (6 pots):
– 400g minced beef
– 3 red bell peppers
– 5-6 carrots
– one large red onion
– 1 glass (250ml) pearl barley
– 2 tsp salt
– 5-6tbsp tomato puree (pure tomatoes, not salted)
– 300-350ml water in each pot

Method:
1 Grate carrots; chop bell peppers & onion
2 Combine vegetables, 1 glass not boiled pearl barley, tomato puree, salt: mix well
3 Preheat the oven to 190C
4 Distribute minced beef equally in the pots
5 Distribute vegetables & pearl barley mixture in the pots equally, over the minced beef
6 Add 300-350ml water in each pot
7 Cover the pots with lids and put in the oven for 60 minutes at 190C
8 Enjoy delicious soup!

Quick and healthy lunch: pasta with gorgonzola, zucchini and dill !

Bien sûr je te ferai mal. Bien sûr tu me feras mal. Bien sûr nous aurons mal. Mais ça c’est la condition de l’existence. Se faire printemps, c’est prendre le risque de l’hiver. Se faire présent, c’est prendre le risque de l’absence. C’est à mon risque de peine, que je connais ma joie.

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Ingredients (2 servings):
– 250g full grain penne
– 200g gorgonzola
– 100ml 33% cream
– 1 small zucchini
– bunch of dill for serving

Method:
1 Start simultaneously boiling penne (2) and making sauce (3)
2 Boil penne al dente in salted water
3 Pour cream in the skillet, add gorgonzola cut in 2cm cubes and cook at medium heat for 5 minutes, then add grated zucchini and cook for another 5 minutes
4 Drain water from penne and add penne to the sauce: mix well and cook for another minute
5 Serve penne with fresh chopped dill and enjoy !

Cannelloni baked with Chanterelles and Leek !

Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.

Lao Tzu
Cannelloni baked with Chanterelles and Leek


Notes: inspired by Jamie Oliver Mushroom Cannelloni

Cannelloni & filling ingredients (4 servings):
– 200g cannelloni
– 250g leek
– 250g chanterelles
– 1 onion
– 1 tbsp butter
– 3/4 tsp salt

White sauce:
– 500ml milk
– 100g cheese
– 3tbsp flour
– 1 tbsp olive oil

Method:
1 Filling:
1.1 Wash, peel and chop chanterelles, onion and leek
1.2 Pre-heat the skillet with butter and fry onion 3-4 min, add chanterelles and cook for 10 min
1.3 Add chopped leek, salt and cook for another 10 min
2 White sauce:
2.1 preheat olive oil in the skillet, add 3 tbsp flour: mix well
2.2 Pour milk to flour & oil: cook 2-3 min until smooth constantly stirring, add grated cheese and cook for another 2-3 min: sauce is ready!
3 Cannelloni:
3.1 Preheat the oven to 190C
3.2 Fill cannelloni with filling (I used chopsticks for that)
3.3 Transfer filled cannelloni in the baking form and pour the white sauce over them
3.4 Bake cannelloni for 30-35 min at 190C until golden & serve with fresh greens!

Baked Meatballs with Italian Herbs served with Red & White Sauces !

Easy, take it easy! Is there anything to eat? A few meatballs, perhaps? Or a little cream cake?

Astrid Lindgren, Karlson Flies Again
Baked Meatballs with Italian Herbs

Meatballs ingredients (4 servings or 24 meatballs):
– 400g minced beef
– 2 eggs
– 4 tbsps flour
– 1 tsp salt
– 1 tsp Italian herbs

Red sauce:
– 100g cranberry jam

White sauce:
– 200g 10% sour cream
– 3 grated garlic cloves

Method:
1 Preheat the oven to 200C
2 Combine minced beef with salt, eggs, Italian herbs and flour: mix well until smooth
3 Form meatballs with your hands and put them in the baking form (no oil needed!)
4 Bake meatballs for 40-45 minutes at 190-200C
5 White sauce: mix grated garlic with sour cream
6 Serve meatballs with red & white sauces and enjoy ! 🙂