Cauliflower cream soup — two ingredients — Easiest soup ever

This has to be the easiest soup ever: cauliflower cream. Two ingredients: cauliflower and vegetable stock (simmer the cauliflower in the stock and blend). Decorate with a drizzle of olive oil and freshly ground black pepper (if you want to make it into four ingredients!). 

Vegan, low carbs, low fat, gluten free, delicious. 

  Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Candied violets - violette candite, step by step

 

Pick the violets, rinse and drain. Place in a bowl and cover with boiling water and a drop of lemon juice. Cover and leave overnight. Drain and save the purple water into a pot. Add equal parts of sugar (I had 200ml water, 200g sugar). Boil until the syrup bubbles and add the violets. Patiently pick them up with a teaspoon and let the dry (it may take a few days). I used the leftover sugar to candy chestnuts, but any other fruit would do. Store your violets in a jar. 

  Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Lentil salad with onion weed

It is onion weed time again! Possibly one of the easiest plants to forage in New Zealand because it grows like a weed in many gardens and fields - so you can pick it and weed the garden at the same time. 

Bulbs, stems and flowers are edible (discard the flowers with the hard seed though, a bit tough). Eat raw or cooked. Here I used it in a brown lentil salad, just cooked lentils, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and chopped raw onion weed. Quick, easy and delicious!

 Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Risotto with radicchio

 

Sauté a small chopped onion with olive oil until translucent, then add chopped radicchio and a pinch of salt. Keep stirring. 

When the radicchio is soft and your Italian ancestors whisper to you that the time is right, add the rice. If you don’t have Italian ancestors then gently sauté the radicchio for about ten minutes, or until you lose the bitterness but not the taste. Add vegetable stock little by little until the risotto is ready. Adjust with salt and pepper five minutes before the end. It tastes great with a drop of Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena, if you have it.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Fennel salad with chicory flowers

 

I am not a huge fan of chicory, but I love chicory flowers. And I love fennel salad. I generally don't mix fennel with other vegetables, unless it is lentils (I love lentil salads with fennel). Usually I really like to keep a fennel salad nice and simple, dressed with a pinch of salt and a drop of olive oil. But it is so ... white! To make it more 'photogenic' today I added some chicory flowers I have foraged in my field in the mountain. They only have a tinge of chicory taste which goes well with the sweet and aniseed taste of fennel. Good combo for digestion too :-)

Pick the flowers and drop in a bowl of water to rinse, then on a paper towel to dry. Sprinkle the petals over your favourite salad (not necessarily a fennel one).

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Edamame Basil dip

 This is so easy: I used frozen edamame beans, blanched them in boiling water and then blended them with garlic, fresh basil, lemon juice, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper. Keep a few whole edamame for decoration. Tip: the more oil the better (for me, I love olive oil!)

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Kiwi fruit: green, gold and ruby red

Well, it may seem silly but I never seen kiwi fruit disappearing so fast as when they were served this way! And I swear that they taste better sliced like this that eaten with a spoon...

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

 

Kawakawa liqueur - liquore al kawakawa

I have been planning to make a kawakawa liqueur for a while now, so when I went to Italy I bought back a bottle of 70% alcohol for this purpose (they didn't have the 95% in the shop, but 70% is more than I can find here in NZ anyway, where pure alcohol for making homemade liqueurs is not sold).

So this is my first attempt:

Pick, wash and pat dry 5 leaves of kawakawa

Place in a jar and add 200ml of alcohol (I used 70%)

Leave for 10 days in a dark place

After 10 days make a syrup with

100ml of water and 100g of sugar

Make sure that the syrup is clear before turning the heat off

Let the syrup cool down completely and then add to the alcohol and leaves

Leave for 10 more days

Filter and bottle

Leave for a couple of days to settle and taste!

Well, it is delicious, the colour is green and the aroma is strong (can't believe that just 5 leaves can give you so much flavour!!), not sure if it is too sweet or not for my taste (as sweet as limoncello really) but in one month and a few tastings I will decide how to make a second batch. I am pretty sure that it is good for digestion, and blocked nose! But let me 'experiment' a bit longer :-)

  Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

 

Tè al ribes rosso - red currant tea

 

More than a recipe this is a tip: fresh red currants make a delicious tea, just wash the berries and add hot water, let them sit for 5-10 minutes and then serve, with lemon slices if you like, and sweeten if you wish (sugar, honey, maple syrup...)

  Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Vegan and sugar free chocolate mousse

I am on a diet but really wanted some chocolate for Mother's Day, something mostly raw, low carb and healthy. This dessert is so easy and delicious that I made it two days in a row, once with hazelnuts and once without. I'll share the basic recipe:

12 dates

a little water to cover the dates

1 heap tsp cocoa (I used Dutch cocoa)

half tsp vanilla essence

1 firm avocado

berries to decorate

Remove the stones from the dates and place in a nutribullet or blender and add enough water just to cover them. Soak for 20 minutes, then add cocoa (a real heap tsp of it) and vanilla. Blend. Add the avocado, sliced, and blend again. Divide into three serving bowls or glasses, top with berries (frozen ok) and refrigerate until serving time. Decorate with edible flowers if you like, I used Alyssum here. If you want to add hazelnuts you will need about 8, toasted and grounded, to add to the date mixture. 

My husband couldn't believe that it was made with avocado and no sugar! The texture is just like a mousse, you can increase lightly the cocoa for a more bitter-chocolate flavour, increasing the dates (or using dates that are too big) will make it sweeter but may give out more of a date rather than cocoa flavour. If the mousse is too thick add a drop of water and mix again.

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

 

Green smoothie with feijoas... and more flowers from the garden

Like most people in New Zealand I am loaded with feijoa this April. A good way to use them is in smoothies, and this is a particularly good one: feijoa, banana, spinach leaves and coconut water. Quantities to taste!

And now some flowers from the garden for my Pinterest board!

  Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

Colourful beet salad

 

These baby beets (and a couple of baby purple carrots) were boiled and then peeled (the skin comes off easily) and dressed with olive oil and salt, plus a sprinkle of fennel leaves. I added onion weed, borage and calendula petals to complete the salad. Very yummy, and pretty! 

Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

A round vegan custard slice, step by step

Thanks to my friend Ray I have recently discovered these sweet Spanish Ines Rosales' tortas (there is also a savoury version). And noticing that they are vegan I thought of making a quick dessert, a bit like a custard slice, which I love, with them!

For the custard I used oat milk (barista style).

Ingredients:

1 tbsp flour

2 tbsp sugar

250 ml oat milk

a few drops of vanilla essence

2 sweet Ines Rosales pastries

Amarena cherries (optional)

Icing sugar to sprinkle

Fresh Fruit to serve (optional)

Mix the first three ingredients together and bring to a simmer, stirring constantly. Add the vanilla at the end. You should cook this custard until it is quite thick, and then keep stirring after cooking until it is lukewarm and no more steam comes out. Make sure that is thick, not runny!

Pile the custard on one of the pastry

I had some amarena cherries so I though of adding 4 to the custard, but any fresh or preserved fruit would work too. Just don't add too much 'juice'.

Place the second pastry on top and press lightly, smoothing the custard on the sides with a small spoon, if necessary. Sprinkle with icing sugar and refrigerate for a few hours.

This actually served three people, and we had fresh cherries on the side. I'll definitely make it again, probably with berries or with fruit preserved in alcohol! Yum! A real treat!

 Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©

And now some flowers for my Pinterest board!

 Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini ©