100 ayurvedic cookies

My dear readers, this is not a joke, I really mean one hundred cookies!

Antje passed by and brought me a nice little paper bag filled with some super healthy cookies. When I later asked her for the recipe, she sent me the below:

Ayurvedic cookies

18 cups oat flakes
3 cups sunflower seeds
3 cups raisins (soaked in warm water, strained)
3 ts salt
6 ts cinnamon
3/4 ts clove powder
3/4 ts ginger powder
3/4 ts pure vanilla powder
12 cups whole wheat flour, freshly ground
1 1/2 sachets baking powder
6 x 250g butter
1 1/2 cups whole cane sugar
3 cups honey

Mix the dry ingredients with the raisins. Melt the butter and dissolve the sugar in the liquid butter. Add the honey and stir well. Pour this mixture into the dry ingredients, stir and let cool down.
Stir again.
Presss dough into the plastic lid of a honey jar and discharge it on a baking sheet.

Bake the cookies for 15 minutes at 170-180°C.

A short extract of our email conversation: 

B: Are you sure about the quantities? It seems to be a lot..

A: Yes, yields about 80-100 cookies, depending on the size, and this is only half the recipe

B: what the hell do you do with so many cookies?

A: they make you come over the winter and people love them, they are a kind of Lembas, you know, the elves' bread in the Lord of the Rings...

kale crisps

I found this recipe here and it reminded me strongly of some pieces of kale I lately had topped my  pizza with. Even though I had blanched the kale before, the leaves turned brown with tendency to black, burnt , paperlike, ashy... and  only very few of them  got really nice and crispy. Definitely not an award-winning pizza topping.

BUT IF YOU

"preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Line the baking tray with  parchment paper.
 Remove the leaves from thick stems and tear into bite sized pieces. Wash and thoroughly dry kale.
 Drizzle kale with olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt. Bake for 10-15 minutes until the edges are brown        
 but not burnt"

YOU WILL GET some really delicious kale crisps!

The moment you put the first piece in your mouth it feels super crispy, salty, much lighter and thinner than a potato crisp, yumm..... then it becomes chewy (must be the healthy fibres), and if eventually you have eaten more than two or three of them, you may want to skip dinner. Promised!

kale crisps

1 bunch kale 

1 tbs olive oil

1 ts salt

a mug of sunshine: carrot soup with ginger and orange

After the opulent Christmas cooking I'm craving "clean" and simple food again. You know what I mean: a few ingredients like vegetable, fruit and  herbs can make such a quick and delicious (and healthy) meal. I put "healthy" in parentheses because in the past, the h-word was the most reliable motivation killer for my children to like my cooking. Healthy equaled "muesli" and uncool; in consequence: not desirable at all.
Once I learned to avoid the word in question things got immediately better. From then on only the taste decided!

After all, it's funny that the position of the family's health maniac has been seized by my sweet 20 year old daughter in the meantime. And - I must confess- better than I'd have ever been capable!

Carrot soup with ginger and orange 

750g carrots, chopped

1 onion, diced

a piece of ginger (walnut size), sliced

the juice of half an orange (or more to taste)

vegetable stock

salt and pepper to taste

oil to sprinkle over the soup (olive, flaxseed, argan, sesame...)

Put the carrots, the onion and the ginger in a saucepan, cover generously with vegetable stock.

Bring to a boil, then let the carrots simmer for about 15 minutes until tender but not pappy. Process with a hand blender until smooth.

Add the orange juice and stir.

Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle a teaspoon of oil  into each mug. 

Top the soup with a few stripes of green. I took portulaca leaves.

Instead of the greens you may prefer to top the soup with a cappuccino of milk foam.

Enjoy!

You have cold? I'll warm you up: Potato-kurkuma-sauerkraut

Well, Sauerkraut actually is fermented white cabbage, a VERY traditional German winter vegetable. (Some of you might have heard about it?)

The traditional way it is served with mashed potatoes and a piece of roast meat, or Bratwürstl, or goose...

The way I recommend to prepare it today is entirely without meat, a bit crossover (lentils, curcuma and apricots) and very warming. The perfect lunch for someone who has been outside the whole morning raking oak leaves, planting tulip bulbs and piling logs.... Although the sun is still shining (splendid november until now!), the air is getting chilly.

Here's the recipe: Potato-kurkuma-sauerkraut


500g sauerkraut (canned - or the fresh fermented kraut, which must be cooked before)
60g dried apricots, cut in small stripes
60g lentils
600g potatoes, in small pieces
1 onion, chopped
250ml vegetable stock
1 ts paprika
1 ts caraway seeds
1 ts kurkuma (turmeric)
1 tbs curry
1 tbs olive oil

Put the onion and the olive oil in a sauce pan and fry until golden.  With a wooden spoon stir in the paprika powder and then add the vegetable stock.
Add now potatoes, lentils, caraway, curcuma and curry, cover it and let it simmer for about 20 minutes until the lentils are smooth.
Finally add the apricots and the sauerkraut. Let it simmer for another 5 minutes to give the sweet and the sour time to blend in.

When I use freshly cooked sauerkraut I like to add a few spoonfuls of the delicious sauerkraut stock. And of course, for me a dash of Tabasco!

Moritzburg Schlossteich without water after the big fish harvesting