Stir-Fried Vegetables

Stir-frying has always been my favorite method of preparing food. You can experiment while you're cooking which is not possible when you fry or bake something. It's ridiculously easy and quick too, right? 
And, yeah, vegetables again! I'm a real veggie person so I always have a variety of vegetables in my fridge. It's something that I could not live without. I simply need vegetables. Every day. 
So this is another idea of a quick dinner which is ammmazingly delicious and filling. At the end of cooking, I added some teriyaki sauce and I loved it. It's good without it as well cause dried basil, oregano and thyme gives a nice flavor so you can try them without the sauce first. This makes enough for 2 people. Enjoy!

Stir-Fried Vegetables

2 tbsp oil (use olive or I sometimes like using sunflower oil)
1 medium onion, sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
400g cauliflower, chopped into florets
400g zucchini, diced
2 small carrots (110g), thinly diced
1-2 tbsp thinly sliced chili pepper (optional)
1/2 tsp each: dried oregano, basil and thyme
Pinch black pepper
Pinch salt
1-2 tbsp teriyaki sauce (optional) (I love using this one)

1) Heat oil in a heavy saucepan. Add onion and saute until softened, browned and fragrant. Add garlic and saute for another minute or two.

2) Add the rest of the ingredients (except for teriyaki sauce), cover the pan and let simmer over medium heat until carrots are cooked throughly, stirring occasionally. The cooking time is up to you. (The whole process including sauteeing onions took about 30 minutes for me). You can cook them less but I like my veggies very soft. When they're cooked throughly, add 1-2 tablespoons of teriyaki sauce. Serve immediately.

Recipe by collecting memories

Crispy Vegetable Fritters with Spicy Balsamic Sauce

Sometimes amazing things happen out of nothing! I created this recipe completely from scratch. I actually ran out of eggs and everything I had was onions, carrots, potatoes and lots of seasonings. Is it possible to make anything out of these few ingredients?? No cheese, no butter, no eggs..Yes! What I made is super simple and quick. But the crazy mixture of seasonings, small size of the fritters and the fantastic balsamic sauce made this simple dish outstanding. I basically shredded all the veggies I had and mixed in a variety of spices. Together they created an amazing combination and what I liked most was cinnamon! There was just a hint of it, you may not even notice it, but it did add some nice flavour. These were super crispy and yummy. I dipped them into my favourite balsamic sauce and enjoyed them all day long. Will be definitely making these again and again!

Crispy Vegetable Fritters with Spicy Balsamic Sauce

Olive oil, for frying
2 onions, finely chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 carrot, shredded
2 small potatoes, shredded
pinch salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp chili powder
1/3 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
60g flour

1) In a bowl, combine together all the ingredients.

2) In a skillet over medium-high heat, heat some olive oil to coat the bottom (don't be afraid to add a LOT, you want tour fritters to be crispy!)

2) With your hands, form little balls (4-5cm) and flatten them a little, place onto the hot oil and fry a few minutes until golden brown on both sides.

Spicy Balsamic Sauce:

1 cup water
4 tbsp balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp ground white pepper

1) In a saucepan, combine all the ingredients and cook on low heat until the quantity is reduced by half. Strain through a sieve to discard the garlic. Let cool completely.

Enjoy!!

Recipe by collecting memories

Pumpkin Fritters

Pumpkin Fritters 

400g pumpkin, grated

2-3 cloves garlic, minced

½ tsp dried oregano

½ tsp dried basil

½ tsp salt

1/8 tsp chili powder

1 egg, lightly beaten
100g flour

olive oil, to fry

sour cream, to serve

1)  In a large mixing bowl, mix together pumpkin, garlic, oregano, basil, salt and chili powder. Mix in the egg. Stir in the flour and mix just until combined.

2) In a skillet, heat olive oil. Cook fritters on both sides until nicely golden brown. Serve with some sour cream.

Makes 2 servings

Recipe by collecting memories

Homemade Tomato Sauce

Homemade Tomato Sauce

Makes about 1-2 cups

10 medium tomatoes, peeled
2 medium onions, finely chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
A handful of fresh parsley, chopped
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
1/4 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp salt
1 tsp red wine vinegar
Dash of olive oil (optional)*

*If using oil, you can saute onions in it before adding all the ingredients to the saucepan. They will enhance flavour. However, if you do not want to use oil just follow the directions below.

1) Prepare a large saucepan. Chop peeled tomatoes into small chunks. Add onions, garlic, parsley, oregano, basil, smoked paprika, ground pepper and salt. Cover and set over medium-high heat. Stir occasionally.

2) When the mixture comes to boil, lower the heat, uncover and let simmer until the liquid evaporates. Stir occasionally. Just before removing from heat, add red wine vinegar. 

3) Let cool completely and serve with pasta or pizza or whatever you like.

Recipe by collecting memories

Mushroom Patties in Pita

Mushroom Patties

400g mushrooms, finely chopped
1 small green bell pepper, finely chopped
1 small onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 tsp curcuma
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
50g flour
3 tbsp breadcrumbs
Olive oil, for frying

Pita bread
Lettuce
Tomatoes
Cucumber
Tomato sauce

1) Heat olive oil in a large saucepan. Add onion and bell pepper and saute until softened, stirring occasionally. Add garlic and mushrooms. Cover, reduce the heat and let simmer until the mushrooms begin to release liquid. Add curcuma, dried basil, dried oregano, smoked paprika, salt and parsley. Uncover, increase the heat to medium-high and leave to simmer until the all the liquid is absorbed. Stir occasionally.

2) Remove from heat and let cool 10 minutes. Add eggs, flour and breadcrumbs.

3) Heat olive oil in a skillet. Add a tablespoon of mixture and flatten a little. Fry until golden brown on both sides. 

4) Cut pita in half. Stuff with lettuce, sliced tomato and cucumber. Put one or two patties (depending on size)  inside and top with pasta sauce. 

Low Fat Onion Dill Muffins

So my experiments with healthier food continues. These muffins are made half from whole wheat and half from wheat flour. But the best thing is that there's no butter, only 2 tablespoons of oil and they're still very moist. These are packed with various seasonings but you can mainly taste dill in them. So the result satisfied me completely - they're delicious, guilt-free and super frangrant!

Low Fat Onion Dill Muffins

100g whole wheat flour
100g wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried basil
2 tsp dried oregano
1 1/2 tbsp chopped fresh dill
1 egg
2 tbsp olive oil
2 medium onions, chopped
3 cloves garlic, chopped
250ml whole milk
oil for greasing the muffins tins

1) Preheat oven to 180 deg. C.

2) In a bowl, mix together the first 8 ingredients.

3) In a saucepan, combine together 1 tbsp olive oil and onions. Set over medium low heat and leave. Stir time to time. When they're softened and golden brown, remove from heat. Mix in the garlic and dill. Let cool.

4) In a large bowl, beat the egg. Beat in the milk. Start adding the flour mixture. Finally, add the onions and mix just until combined.

5) Grease 9 muffin tins with oil. Bake for 15 - 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the muffin center comes out clean.

Makes 9 muffins.

Homemade Potato Garlic Gnocchi

It's gnocchi time! Making them is a very fun process even if I'm not very good at making these grooves. But anyway. Who cares? I knew I was going to fry them so it didn't really matter. And frying them in brown butter is the best part. Oh, no, eating is the very best part.

Homemade Potato Garlic Gnocchi

2 small potatoes, boiled
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried oregano
pinch pepper
large pinch salt
100 - 125g flour

1) Mash your potatoes with a fork and mix together with garlic. Add the egg and all the seasonings. Start adding flour and when it starts to be hard to mix the batter, transfer it to the board and start kneading. When it almost stops sticking to your hands, stop adding flour.

2) Roll the dough into a 1-2 cm thick log and cut it every 2-3 cm. Make grooves with a fork, make an indentation with your thumb or simply leave them as they are. (I'm not very good at making grooves so next time I'm not going to torture myself trying to make them). 

3) Cook in a salted boiling water. Just don't pack the pot! Cook half of these at first. When they come to the surface, let them cook for a few minutes and remove from water.

4) To make them crispy, melt about a tablespoon of butter in a large saucepan. Cover and let the butter brown over medium low heat, stirring occasionally. When It starts smelling yummy, add half of the gnocchi and increase the heat. Let cook until golden brown on both sides. Repeat with the remaining gnocchi and a tablespoon of butter.

Serves 2-3.

Recipe by collecting memories