Red Currant, Orange & Mint Mojitos

Perfectly refreshnig comfort summer drinks red currant, orange and mint mojitos!

Use Your Noodles - Red Currant, Orange & Mint Mojitos

Let’s have a drink!

I’m having one for sure. Hopefully, tomorrow my splint is coming off and that’s a big reason for celebration. It’s about time, I’m not really fond of walking on three legs 😛

So join me for a glass of delicious summer cocktail. One sip and you won’t be able to stop. 

Perfectly refreshnig comfort summer drinks - red currant, orange and mint mojitos!

We love hanging out on our balcony listening to the birds in the cherry tree, playing board games, eating scrumptious chocolate brownies and drinking refreshing fruity drinks. One of our favorite summer drinks is mojito. In any form. We usually drink a traditional lime and mint mojitos, but sometimes we make some changes. Like adding other seasonal fruit.

There’s a big bush of red currants behind the house, full of perfectly sweet and sour tiny fruits 🙂 So I replaced lime with red currant and got a super delicious and refreshing mojito. I added some freshly squeezed orange for some sweetness and the citrusy taste. The combo of red currant and orange is not something I’ve tried before, but I must admit they make a wonderful pair.

Mental note to self – make cookies!

Use Your Noodles - Red Currant, Orange & Mint Mojitos

What I like about this cocktail recipe is the colour. If you’ve seen my other recipes, you’ve probably guessed that I like my food colourful 🙂 and seasonal 🙂

Use Your Noodles - Red Currant, Orange & Mint Mojitos

To make these lip-smacking red currant, orange and mint mojitos all you need is some fresh fruit, a bottle of rum, sparkling water and mint. And of course lots of ice!

The recipe calls for fresh red currants, that you blend into a puree, which means you keep all of the goodies from the fruit. If you don’t mind about the little seeds, you don’t need to strain the puree.

Now, let’s get the party started!

Use Your Noodles - Red Currant, Orange & Mint Mojitos

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

I’d love to hear what your favorite summer drink is. Write it in the comments below 🙂

Perfectly refreshnig comfort summer drinks - red currant, orange and mint mojitos!
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RED CURRANT, ORANGE & MINT MOJITO

Course Cocktail, Drinks, mocktail
Prep Time 10 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes
Servings 4

Ingredients

MOJITOS

  • 2 cups red currants stems removed
  • 2 cups orange juice freshly squeezed
  • 1/2 – 3/4 cups white rum
  • 3 cups sparkling water
  • 2 tsp unrefined cane sugar Optional
  • handful of mint
  • abundance of crushed ice

GARNISH

  • 1/4 cup red currants
  • 4 mint springs

Instructions

  1. In a blender, blend red currants to get a pureé.
  2. Use a muddler to crush mint to release the mint oils. Add 2 TBSP orange juice and unrefined cane sugar and muddle a little more.
  3. Divide red currant pureé into 4 glasses, add ice, mint mixture, remaining orange juice, white rum, and sparkling water.
  4. Decorate and serve immediately.

Notes

Mocktail version: Replace rum with orange juice.

Also try these tasty summer drinks:

Grapefruit-Lime Cocktail With Rosemary And Ginger

Roasted Peach And Strawberry Fizz

Use Your Noodles - Red Currant, Orange & Mint Mojitos

Cherry, Brie & Bacon Grilled Quesadilla

Are you ready for a seriously delicioius sweet and salty grilled quesadilla?

Use Your Noodles - Cherry, Brie & Bacon Grilled Quesadilla

Spending time outside was a big part of my childhood. It was the time, when we didn’t have computers. And even  when we got a second hand computer, it only had two games – Prehistorik and Prince of Persia. 

Instead of playing those two (totally awesome) games, I prefered hanging out the kids from my street. I lived (and still do) in a street with almost no traffic, which meant the parents let us run around like crazy all over the place.

Our favourite game was hide-and-seek. We’d wait until it got dark and then played it. Much harder, much more exciting!!! 🙂

A simple recipe for the perfect grilled quesadilla with cherries, gooey brie and bacon for a summer barbaque party.

During the day, we played cards. We even invented our own games or even make our own board games 🙂 I still have some stacked somewhere in my closet!

A big part of spring/summer days on the street was hanging ut in our cherry tree. No treehouse necessary, just an old wood board placed between two branches and we got our fun.

The cherry tree is still majestically standing in front of the house. No kids hanging on it, but it still produces the best cherries around.

Sorry neighbours… 🙂

Use Your Noodles - Cherry, Brie & Bacon Grilled Quesadilla

Grilled quesadilla with cherries anyone?

Today’s recipe is dedicated to the delicious sweet red cherries from that very tree. And they are in season now 🙂

I stuffed them in a quesadilla!

I never order quesadilla in a restaurant. Why? Because it is always too small (I eat a lot!) and overpriced. But I love it so much. So I made these cherry quesadilla with brie, bacon and arugula. I added some crushed chilli for spiciness and balsamic vinegar for acidity. And that’s it! 

It is gooey, smokey and sweet. Can it even get better? Oh, yeah. It is spicy too 🙂 

You can pop it on the grill, while you’re having a barbaque party. I assure you, everyone will thank you 🙂

Use Your Noodles - Cherry, Brie & Bacon Grilled Quesadilla

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

Let’s get this bbq party started!

A simple recipe for the perfect grilled quesadilla with cherries, gooey brie and bacon for a summer barbaque party.
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CHERRY, BRIE & BACON GRILLED QUESADILLA

Course Appetizer, Main Course
Keyword tortilla
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 2 people

Ingredients

  • 8 small tortillas
  • 200 g cherries
  • 200 g brie
  • 60 g /12 slices bacon
  • a handful arugula
  • chili flakes to taste
  • balsamic vinegar to taste

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 175 °C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
  2. Deseed the cherries.
  3. Place deseeded cherries on one half of the tray and bacon on the other. Make sure there’s a little space in the middle.
  4. Roast for 10 minutes or until the bacon gets golden and crunchy.
  5. Place brie, bacon, cherries, arugula, and chilly flakes on a tortilla and drizzle with balsamic vinegar. Top with another tortilla and press down.
  6. On a grill or in a grill pan, grill for 2 minutes each side, until they get golden and grill marks are visible.

Also try these recipes at your next bbq:

Simple Fish Sliders With Roasted Garlic Sauce

Homemade Tomato Ketchup

Use Your Noodles - Cherry, Brie & Bacon Grilled Quesadilla

Elderflower Cookie Bites With Raspberries

These cute elderflower cookie bites are what elderflower season is all about. Flowers and girliness!

Use Your Noodles - Elderflower Cookie Bites With Raspberries

It’s finally here!

Elderflower season.

I probably can’t express how anxiously I’m waiting for it every year. Elderflower is my definite favorite spring thing, apart from the sun 🙂 Why? Firstly, it smells heavenly. Second, the possiblities to use it are endless. Thirdly, it’s so girly. 

These cute elderflower cookie bites are what elderflower season is all about. Flowers and girliness!
These cute elderflower cookie bites are what elderflower season is all about. Flowers and girliness!

First of all, I need to tell you a crazy story…

The last time I posted here, was the day of my brother’s birthday picnic party. Before it even began, me and my husband went to the picnic place and started throwing frisbee. After the second throw I tripped and fractured a bone in my foot. How lame! And to make matters worse, our dance show premiered the next day. So instead of partying, I spend three hours at the emergency and instead of doing the whole show the next day, I danced with cruches in only a few parts. 

Lesson learned. I’m never playing any sport the day before the show ever again! I promise!

Use Your Noodles - Elderflower Cookie Bites With Raspberries

Anyway, a fractured bone can’t stop me to go picking elderflower.

Check out the proof on my Instagram. 

Use Your Noodles - Elderflower Cookie Bites With Raspberries

These cute elderflower cookie bites are made of three layers:

  • buttery cookie with elderflowers
  • white chocolate cream with rose water
  • freeze-dried raspberries.

The recipe is insanely easy. The cookies are done in 25 minutes from start to finish. All it takes is to decorate them and they are ready to be served 🙂 And even if you don’t feel like putting anyhing on, they are delicious also without the cream and raspberries. 

If you do decorate them, make sure to make a deep enough hole before baking, because they will expand in the oven and the hole will be shallower after they are baked.

These cute elderflower cookie bites are what elderflower season is all about. Flowers and girliness!

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

Now, let’s go bake some elderflower cookie bites!

These cute elderflower cookie bites are what elderflower season is all about. Flowers and girliness!
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ELDERFLOWER COOKIE BITES WITH RASPBERRIES

Course Dessert
Keyword cookies, thumb cookies
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Resting time 15 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Servings 32 cookies

Ingredients

COOKIE BASE

  • 8 eldeflower heads thick stalks removed (use 8 TBSP dried elderflower if not in season)
  • 160 g all purpose flour
  • 50 g unrefined cane sugar
  • 1/4 tsp vanilla seeds
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 80 g cold butter cubed
  • 4-5 TBSP milk

CHOCOLATE CREAM

  • 50 g white chocolate
  • 2 TBSP whipping cream
  • 1 tsp rose water

TOPPING

  • 32 freeze-dried raspberries

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 180 °C.

Cookie base

  1. Chop elderflower heads and add them to a food processor. Add flour, sugar, vanilla seeds, and baking soda. Pulse a couple of times to get an even mixture.

  2. Add butter and pulse until you get a dry cookie mixture.
  3. Add milk and mix well, until a ball of dough starts to form. Scrape the sides if necessary.
  4. Divide the dough in half, half it again, and so on, until you get 32 identical pieces. Form balls with your palms and make a deep hole in the center with your finger.
  5. Place on a baking paper-lined baking tray and bake for 15 minutes or until light golden color. Move them to a wire rack and leave to cool down for at least 10 minutes.

Chocolate cream

  1. While the cookies are baking put whipping cream and white chocolate in a small bowl and place it over a small saucepan of simmering water. Stir occasionally, until the cream and the chocolate form a smooth cream.

  2. Remove from heat and add rose water. Mix well and place in the fridge to cool for 10 minutes, then bring to room temperature.

Decorating

  1. Using a teaspoon or a piping bag, place about 1/2 tsp of cream into the hole in each cookie and top with freeze-dried raspberries.

Notes

Make sure you make deep holes in the cookies before baking, because the cookies will expand and the holes will get shallower.

Also try these delicious spring desserts:

Spring Strawberry Layer Cake in a Glass

Peach And Celery Ice Lollies

Use Your Noodles - Elderflower Cookie Bites With Raspberries

Roasted Peach and Strawberry Fizz

Delightful spring mocktail – roasted peach and strawberry fizz!

Delightful spring mocktail - roasted peach and strawberry fizz with no added sugar. Click to find the whole recipe or pin and save for later!

Yey, so excited about this recipe!!!

This drink to me is like pie. You know the feeling, when you take out a pie and all the syrupy juices are sizzling around the fruit? And the smell… so good 🙂 This is like a pie in a glass 🙂 

And I love it!

Delightful spring mocktail - roasted peach and strawberry fizz!
Delightful spring mocktail - roasted peach and strawberry fizz!
Delightful spring mocktail - roasted peach and strawberry fizz!

This roasted peach and strawberry fizz is soooo simple. Sometimes, I can’t belive, how many great thing you can do, with so little. This is definitely one of them! 🙂

All you’ll need to do is cut peaches and strawberries in half, roast them and blend them. Then add a little apple juice, preferably homemade or organic, and some sprakling water. And there it is.

A perfect spring drink!

While we’re on the spring subject. Spring has been awfull this year in Slovenia. Ugh, my tomato, pepper and chilli plants are barely holding on in thir tiny cups, just waiting to be planted outside.

But its so COLD. I mean, I make drinks like this, just to feel like it’s spring. It’s a crime!

Delightful spring mocktail - roasted peach and strawberry fizz with no added sugar. Click to find the whole recipe or pin and save for later!

But good news… Today it is sunny and we’re having a big picnic party for my brother’s and friend’s 30th birthday.

Lots of people, lots of good food, beer, friends. That’s what I call spring. Hopefuly, the weather will hold and let us have the party we deserve 🙂

Delightful spring mocktail - roasted peach and strawberry fizz with no added sugar. Click to find the whole recipe or pin and save for later!

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

Now, go on… try the the recipe 🙂

Delightful spring mocktail - roasted peach and strawberry fizz!
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ROASTED PEACH AND STRAWBERRY FIZZ

Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Cooling time 10 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Servings 6 people

Ingredients

  • 3 peaches
  • 600 g strawberries
  • 1 1/2 cup apple juice
  • 1 1/2 sparkling water
  • abundance of crushed ice

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 175 °C.
  2. Cut peaches in half and remove the pit. Cut strawberries in half. Place the fruit on a baking tray lined with baking paper and roast for 25 minutes.
  3. Take the tray out and leave to cool for 10 minutes or more.
  4. Remove the skins from peaches and blend the flesh together with apple juice in a blender to get a smooth pureé.
  5. Blend the strawberries separately.
  6. Divide the strawberry pureé into 6 glasses and add ice. Pour the peach and apple juice mixture over ice and add sparkling water.
  7. Serve immediately.

Also try this refreshing drink:

Grapefruit-Lime Cocktail with Ginger and Rosemary

Delightful spring mocktail - roasted peach and strawberry fizz with no added sugar. Click to find the whole recipe or pin and save for later!

Simple Fish Sliders With Roasted Garlic Sauce

Humble fish sliders with a little twist are the best way to treat your family!

Humble fish sliders with a little twist are the best way to treat your family!

Oh, who am I kidding. They are actually a treat for you. Others can watch and be jealous 😉  And if they behave, they get a bite!

I’m declaring my love to fish. 

I’d choose fish over meat in almost any given situation. They are so tender and delicious. One thing I hate, though, is dry overcooked rubbery fish. Yuck, bring me a glass of water, please!

Humble fish sliders with a little twist are the best way to treat your family!

The beautiful thing about these fish sliders is that you can use any fish you like. This one in the photos is perch, but any white fish or other type would work perfectly.

Ask for a filet and make sure all the bones are out, before cooking it. You don’t want to bite into one. I don’t own a fish bone tweezers, so I use regular tweezers and they work just fine.

Use Your Noodles - Simple Fish Sliders with Roasted Garlic

This is a dish, that takes some time, but basically no effort or special cooking skills… read a book or dance around the house, and in the meantime it’s all cooking. At the end quickly blend the sauce and cook the fish and you’re done. Suuuuper easy! I promise 🙂

I used to be so scared about preparing fish, what if they get stuck on the pan or are undercooked or even soggy. So I avoided making them. But after a few tries, I realised, that they are so easy to work with. Also so much faster to check if they are done or not, than meat. The flaky flesh allows that. 

If you want it to be crispy on the outside, sprinkle with some flour or starch. It will pull out a little moisture from fish and form a really thin layer of batter, which will fry crisp in the pan.

Use Your Noodles - Simple Fish Sliders with Roasted Garlic

Have you ever tried roasted garlic? Before trying these fish sliders, I added separate unpeeled garlic cloves to my roaseted veggies and they turned out o be the most delicios part of the meal.

So I decided to use garlic in a different way. Roast it and make it in a yummy sauce!

I noticed how people are roating whole garlic heads. So, I tried that. Just cut of the top of the garlic head, sprinkle a little oil over, wrap entirely into aluminium foil and roast until it’s soft and fragrant. One of the garlic heads fell apart while I was removing the top, but it roasted as well as the others. 

So, that’s it. The final fun part is squeezing the soft garlic out of the peel.

You can use roasted garlic in many ways. I promise, I’ll do more recipes with it, because it’s awesome!

Use Your Noodles - Simple Fish Sliders with Roasted Garlic

I topped the fish sliders with roasted tomatoes. Again – a little oil, salt and pepper. Throw in the oven and forget about it for half an hour. They add sweetness to the sliders. Top with some mint – I used peppermint, but any would do.

I’m usually the one to complain about lack of crunchiness in burgers, but I’m so into this delicate fish, that I actually prefer not biting into anything hard and spoil the enjoyment 🙂 You can add some chopped nuts or seeds, of course.

Let’s go eat!

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

Humble fish sliders with a little twist are the best way to treat your family!
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SIMPLE FISH SLIDERS WITH ROASTED GARLIC SAUCE

Course Appetizer, Main Course
Keyword burger, burgers, fish burgers
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Servings 8 sliders

Ingredients

ROASTED GARLIC SAUCE

  • 2 heads of garlic
  • 1/2 cup crème fraîche or Greek-style yogurt
  • 1 1/2 TBSP lemon juice
  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • salt by taste
  • black pepper by taste

ROASTED TOMATOES

  • 120 g cherry tomatoes ~2 cherry tomatoes per slider
  • 2 tsp olive oil
  • salt by taste
  • black pepper by taste

FISH

  • 400 g white fish filet cut into 8 square pieces
  • 3 TBSP any flour
  • 1 tsp salt
  • black pepper to taste

FISH SLIDERS

  • 8 slider buns
  • fried fish
  • roasted garlic sauce
  • roasted tomatoes
  • handful mint

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 200 °C.

Roasted garlic sauce

  1. Peel away the outer skin of the heads of garlic. Trim away about 0.5 cm of the top, so all cloves are exposed. Place the two heads on separate aluminum foils, sprinkle the exposed parts with olive oil, and wrap in the foil entirely. Roast for 30 – 40 minutes until they are golden and soft.

Roasted tomatoes

  1. Cut cherry tomatoes in half, place them on a baking tray. Sprinkle with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Toss around, to coat them entirely with seasoning. Reduce the oven temperature to 190 °C and roast for about 30 minutes, until they are fragrant and have shrunk a little.

Roasted garlic sauce

  1. Squeeze out the soft parts of garlic into a food processor. Add crème fraîche or Greek yogurt, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Blend until the sauce is smooth.

Fish

  1. On a big plate sprinkle the fish with flour, salt, and pepper. Move them around the plate, so they get coated on all sides evenly.

  2. Over medium-high heat fry the fish on a tablespoon of oil, 3-4 minutes each side, depending on the thickness.

Assembly

  1. Cut the buns in half, spread on the sauce, add one fish piece per bun, top with mint leaves, and roasted tomatoes. Serve immediately.

More delicious lunch ideas:

Pizza Stuffed Sweet potatoes

Sardine Pate + Wild Garlic Sandwiches

Turmeric Falafel Wraps

Teriyaki Eggplant With Plum Wine

Humble fish sliders with a little twist are the best way to treat your family!

Peach and Celery Ice Lollies

Refreshing fruity peach and celery ice lollies on sticks are always welcome at our house!

Use Your Noodles - Peach and Celery Ice Lollies

I bring you summer… on a stick. It’s not a joke!

I hope, wherever you’re from, you’re having a hot summer weather. It was crazy here over the last ten days. We’ve had all weather imaginable. Snow, sleet, fog, rain, sun, wind… We planned to escape to Sarajevo during the holidays, but it was covered with snow, so we’re saving the trip for warmer times. 

It took me about two days to get comfortable with doing nothing and switching to my off mode. But then it was actually kinda nice to lay back, watch some TV and not feel guilty, go walking in the snow and then biking to a nearby mountain the next day, watching the 1st of May bonfire, and squeeze in a little dance practice. It was all good 🙂

Refreshing fruity peach and celery ice lollies on sticks are always welcome at our house!
Use Your Noodles - Peach and Celery Ice Lollies

Now, to the recipe already!

I remember having ice lollies in a long plastic wraps, when we were little. For the first few moments it tasted delicious and sweet, but then after we sucked all the juice out, we were left with a block of flavourless ice. How dissapointing! That’s not the case with this lolly – all flavour, no tasteless icy leftovers.

Use Your Noodles - Peach and Celery Ice Lollies

These peach and celery ice lollies are so easy to make and it’s a nice way to get yourself or the kids to eats more fruit. Cuz, who doesn’t like an icy treat, am I right?

The idea for this recipe actually came from my husband. He said, why not pair a fruit with some unexpected greens, like celery. So we did, and boy was he right. It tastes amazing! I’m not exaggerating. This combo works so well.

Give it a try!

All that’s required is to blend all the ingredients and pass the mixture thorugh a sieve, to give it the silky texture. Wait a few hours until the lollies set and you got yourself a fruity refreshment 🙂

Use Your Noodles - Peach and Celery Ice Lollies

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

Refreshing fruity peach and celery ice lollies on sticks are always welcome at our house!
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PEACH AND CELERY ICE LOLLIES

Course Dessert
Keyword ice cream, ice pops, peach ice cream
Prep Time 5 minutes
Freezing time 6 hours
Total Time 6 hours 5 minutes
Servings 6

Ingredients

  • 3 ripe peaches
  • 25 g celery stalk chopped
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1/2 cup water

Instructions

  1. Add all ingredients in a blender and mix until smooth.
  2. Pass the mixture through a sieve. Discard solids.
  3. Fill the molds up to 5mm from the edge.
  4. Freeze for at least 6 hours.

Notes

The number of lollies depends on the size of the molds, this recipe yields 1 + 1/2 cups of silky lolly mixture.

Also try these refreshing fruity recipes:

Spring Strawberry Layer Cake

Grapefruit-Lime Rosemary and Ginger Cocktail

Use Your Noodles - Peach and Celery Ice Lollies

Pizza Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

These sweet potatoes are filled with a cheezy pizza stuffing. A perfect way to make pizza without the crust!

Use Your Noodles - Pizza Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Pizza is one of my favorite foods. I can eat it in any form, regular crust, cauliflower crust, loaded with cheese or only with a deliciously simple tomato sauce. You name it, I eat it! 

Sweet potatoes go into same category. I can eat it whenever, breakfast, lunch, dinner or midnight snack 😉

So this week I’m bringing those two together. In the shape of a decadent pizza stuffed sweet potatoes. Are you excited? I sure am!

These sweet potatoes are filled with a cheezy pizza stuffing

We’ve been working hard on our dance show, which will premiere in a month. If you are interested in how it looked the previous years, go see Tribal Bizzare site. As you would imagine, we’re spending a lot of time practicing, sewing costumes and making props for the show. It’s an exciting time! Stresfull, but fun at the same time. If you’ve got some interesting hobbies of your own, I’d love to hear about them in the comments 🙂 🙂 🙂

Use Your Noodles - Pizza Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Ok, back to the sweet potatoes! This recipe is a little quicker that the usuall stuffed sweet potatoes. I cut the potatoes in half before baking, which shortenes the baking time and it makes the top of the sweet potato flesh even sweeter. After it is baked I mash the flesh and add A LOT of stuffing, then press it in the potato, so I can add some more on the top. Haha! These here, look almost roud, I pressed so much stuffing in. But that’s ok, right? 

Sweet potatoes are basically quilt-free comfort food. All sweet and yummy, but with a low IG and loads of vitamins and minerals. 

I love the fact that we can eat the skins. When I was a child, my mum would allways peel the potatoes (note: sweet potatoes were nowhere to be found in Slovenia at that time). We’d only eat the spring potatoes with the skin still on, otherwise it was chopped off! Later I realized that the skins are actually the best part of a potatoes. ♥ It goes the same with sweet potatoes.

Use Your Noodles - Pizza Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

And now…drumrolllllllllllll…the recipe –>

These sweet potatoes are filled with a cheezy pizza stuffing
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PIZZA STUFFED SWEET POTATOES

Course Appetizer, Main Course, Side Dish
Keyword stuffed potatoes
Total Time 45 minutes
Servings 3 people

Ingredients

  • 1 kg sweet potatoes
  • 100 g champignons or any other mushroom that you like sliced thinly
  • 200 g mozzarella cheese 1 cm cubes
  • 100 g cherry tomatoes deseeded and cut into small pieces
  • 30 g olives sliced thinly
  • a handful of basil chopped

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 200 °C.
  2. Wash and dry your sweet potatoes. Cut them in half and oil it on both sides with olive oil. Add a little salt and pepper.
  3. Place potato halves cut side down on a baking tray lined with baking paper.
  4. Bake sweet potatoes for 30 minutes, or until they are soft when poked with a fork.
  5. 10 minutes before the sweet potatoes are done fry the mushrooms in a pan with a little oil, until they get golden. This will take a couple of minutes.
  6. In a bowl, prepare the stuffing. Mix mushrooms, mozzarella cheese, cherry tomatoes, olives, and basil.
  7. When sweet potatoes are done, take them out of the oven and turn them around.
  8. With a fork, mash the flesh and add seasoning if necessary. Stuff them with cheese mixture and press it down firmly. Add any left mixture on top.
  9. Return to the oven for 5 – 10 minutes, until cheese has melted and got a light golden color.

Use Your Noodles - Pizza Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Grapefruit-Lime Cocktail with Ginger and Rosemary

A cold grapefruit-lime cocktail with ginger and rosemary to take you to your favourite beach!

Use Your Noodles - Grapefruit-Lime Coctail with Ginger and Rosemary

Have you ever sat down in a nice cozy chair on a sandy beach somewhere far far away, having a waiter bringing you a cocktail whenever you ran out of the previous one. If your answer is YES – you’ve got my admiration and a bit of jealousy 😉 . I haven’t done that yet, but it is on my THINGS-TO-DO-BEFORE-I-DIE LIST. Until then, I’m making my own coctails, or if I’m feeling extra adventurous, I’ll go out and order a mojito!

This cocktail I’m showing you today is not a mojito, but it also contains white rum. Yum, right?

Use Your Noodles - Grapefruit-Lime Coctail with Ginger and Rosemary
Use Your Noodles - Grapefruit-Lime Coctail with Ginger and Rosemary

Well, being a fan of sunny days and cold drinks, it’s kinda hard to watch out of my window. You guessed it right – it’s raining. Blah…

Luckily, I have a whole fridge of these delicious grapefruit-lime coctails in my fridge. 

Let me tell you, where the hidden trick is. It’s all in the ginger and rosemery syrup. It’s a syrup that you can prepare in advance and keep in the fridge for a week, so you’ll have it on hand, whenever you feel like having a drink. It’s a pretty simple syrup. You boil the water with ginger and rosemary let steep and add some honey. 

I’m not a fan of super sweet cocktails, unless that’s because of the actual sweetness of the fruit. I normally use honey or unrefined cane sugar, because I love how they make everything taste caramely.

Use Your Noodles - Grapefruit-Lime Coctail with Ginger and Rosemary

Why do I love this recipe so much? Because it is as delicious in a mocktail version as in the one shown in the recipe. Simply omit white rum or replace it with sparkling water and you got yourself an everyday treat!

Are you thirsty already? I sure am! 🙂

Use Your Noodles - Grapefruit-Lime Coctail with Ginger and Rosemary

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Use Your Noodles - Grapefruit-Lime Coctail with Ginger and Rosemary
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GRAPEFRUIT-LIME COCTAIL WITH GINGER AND ROSEMARY

Course Cocktail, Drinks
Keyword mocktail, pink grapefruit cocktail
Total Time 30 minutes
Servings 4

Ingredients

GINGER AND ROSEMARY SYRUP

  • a big chunk of ginger ~30g
  • 10 small rosemary stems ~10g
  • 4 TBSP honey

GRAPEFRUIT-LIME COCKTAIL

  • 2 cups freshly squeezed pink grapefruit juice
  • 1 cup lime juice
  • 1 cup ginger and rosemary syrup
  • 1/2 – 3/4 cup white rum
  • abundance of crushed ice

DECORATION

  • 4 stems of rosemary
  • a slice of pink grapefruit cut in quarters

Instructions

Ginger and rosemary syrup

  1. Cut ginger in thin slices and vigorously roll rosemary between your hands. Place them in a small saucepan and add 1 cup of water. Cover and bring to a boil, then remove from heat and leave to steep for 20 minutes.

  2. After 20 minutes add honey.

Grapefruit-Lime Cocktail

  1. Pour grapefruit and lime juices in 4 glasses. Add ice, almost to the top of the glass. Pour over the ginger and rosemary syrup, and white rum.

  2. Decorate with stems of rosemary and slices of grapefruit.

Notes

The recipe for the syrup is for 4 glasses. If you are making a batch, you can multiply it.
Mocktail version: Omit the white rum or replace it with sparkling water.

Use Your Noodles - Grapefruit-Lime Coctail with Ginger and Rosemary

Sardine Pâté + Wild Garlic Sandwiches

An excelent way to use leftover fish or you can make it from scratch – beautiful sardine pâté. It takes literally no time and it tastes very fancy!

Use Your Noodles - Sardine Pate and Wild Garlic Sandwiches

Hi, there! It’s been a while and it felt even longer. I’ve been a busy busy bee. Among other daily work I’ve had the privilage to spend some time in my favorite place of ’em all – the forest.

Mmmm, the fresh smell of moss and spring flowers, and the birds singing in the trees. I could be there all day! Luckily the weather has been nice and warm so we went hiking to a nearby mountain. We love going there this time of the year, because the slopes are completely covered of wild garlic. We get all crazy and eat tons of wild garlic right there, freshly picked.

Use Your Noodles - Sardine Pate and Wild Garlic Sandwiches

Today I’m sharing with you a recipe, that you are gonna love, because it will show you a wonderful way to use leftover fish.

I hate throwing food away, I’m sad when – very rarely – my food goes bad. This is the recipe I created for when I’m left with cold fish from lunch. Cold fish to me is … meh. Not very appetizing. I mix it up with spices and tomatoes and virgin olive oil and it turns into posh food 🙂 How about that!

Use Your Noodles - Sardine Pate and Wild Garlic Sandwiches

For this recipe you can go two ways. Use leftovers or cook fresh fish. Both of those ways are super quick. 

I’ve even prepared a little idea for how to use sardine pâté. Sardines go really well with eggs and like all fish – with garlic. Since it is spring and I’ve been telling you about my wild garlic obsessions, I’m adding that too 🙂

Use Your Noodles - Sardine Pate and Wild Garlic Sandwiches

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

Enjoy these sunny days, folks!

Use Your Noodles - Sardine Pate and Wild Garlic Sandwiches
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SARDINE PÂTÉ

Course Appetizer
Keyword dip, fish spread, spread
Prep Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes

Ingredients

  • 250 g leftover sardines deboned
  • 1/2 cup virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 cup tomato purée
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 4 tsp dijon mustard
  • 10 g / 2 dried tomatoes
  • 1 TBSP dried or fresh oregano
  • 1 tsp sweet pepper powder
  • 1/4 tsp black pepper
  • 1/4 stp cayenne pepper
  • 2 tsp lemon juice
  • salt to taste

Instructions

  1. Add 1/4 cup virgin olive oil, garlic, tomato purée, dijon mustard, dried tomatoes, oregano, sweet pepper powder, black pepper, cayenne pepper, and lemon juice into a food processor and blend well. Add the rest of the oil if necessary to get a smooth paste. Salt to taste.
  2. Keep in the fridge, but take out half an hour before serving.

Notes

If you are using fresh sardines, dry them first. Fry them in a pan with a little oil 2 minutes on one side, 1 minute on the other. Transfer to a cold plate and wait for five minutes to cool down a little, debone and use like leftover sardines.

Use Your Noodles - Sardine Pate and Wild Garlic Sandwiches
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SARDINE PÂTÉ AND WILD GARLIC SANDWICHES

Course Appetizer, Side Dish, Snack
Prep Time 3 minutes
Cook Time 2 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes
Servings 6 people

Ingredients

  • 4-5 eggs
  • 1 TBSP oil
  • sardine pâte room temperature
  • 2 baguettes
  • 10 wild garlic leaves chopped
  • chilly flakes to taste
  • pinch of salt
  • pinch of pepper

Instructions

  1. Crack the eggs in a jug, add a pinch of salt and pepper, and beat them together with a fork.
  2. Heat a pan over medium heat, add oil and eggs, and stir slowly with a wooden spatula until the eggs are soft and almost a little undercooked. Remove from heat. The eggs will continue cooking in the hot pan while you prepare the sandwich.
  3. Cut the baguette into 1 cm thick slices and spread the pâté over.
  4. Divide the scrambled eggs between the slices and top with chopped wild garlic leaves and chilly flakes.
Use Your Noodles - Sardine Pate and Wild Garlic Sandwiches

Spring Strawberry Layer Cake in a Glass

This light and fresh strawberry layer cake is a perfect healthy indulgence for the sunny spring days!

This light and fresh strawberry layer cake is a perfect healthy indulgence for the sunny spring days! This no-bake dessert is inspired by traditional Slovenian dessert prekmurska gibanica. Click to find the whole recipe or pin and save for later!

First thing that comes to my mind when I think of spring is fresh fruit. Strawberries and cherries to be exact. Red is one of my favourite colours. So passionate and warm. So for this spring dessert the choise was quite obvious – strawberries. 

A few weeks ago first slovenian culinary & lifestyle magazine Redegunda asked me to make a reinterpretation of a traditional Slovenian dessert. Now, if you recall me mentioning that Slovenian cuisine is mostly heavy with lots of carbs and fats, you’ll imagine it’s not easy making a light dish. I took traditional Slovenian dessert prekmurska gibanica (which is delicios by the way!) and made it into a lighter fresher and healthier dessert that you can make very quickly with almost no cooking.

This light and fresh strawberry layer cake is a perfect healthy indulgence for the sunny spring days! This no-bake dessert is inspired by traditional Slovenian dessert prekmurska gibanica. Click to find the whole recipe or pin and save for later!
This light and fresh strawberry layer cake is a perfect healthy indulgence for the sunny spring days! This no-bake dessert is inspired by traditional Slovenian dessert prekmurska gibanica. Click to find the whole recipe or pin and save for later!

Prekmurska gibanica is a layer cake has 4 layers, with phyllo pastry between them:

  • poppy seed layer
  • cottage cheese layer
  • wallnut layes
  • apple layer 

I kept the four layers, but changed the ingredients quite a bit. Instead of cottage cheese I used honey and greek style yoghurt. I replaced wallnuts with hazelnuts and almonds and roasted them to make a crumble. Since it is almost spring I ditched the apples and added some fresh strawberries. That’s it. Soooo simple, but even more delicious 😀 Plus, you can showcase your lovely glassware!

This light and fresh strawberry layer cake is a perfect healthy indulgence for the sunny spring days! This no-bake dessert is inspired by traditional Slovenian dessert prekmurska gibanica. Click to find the whole recipe or pin and save for later!

Now let’s enjoy the Easter holidays, get the dishes dirty and have a strawberry layer cake!

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

This light and fresh strawberry layer cake is a perfect healthy indulgence for the sunny spring days! This no-bake dessert is inspired by traditional Slovenian dessert prekmurska gibanica. Click to find the whole recipe or pin and save for later!
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SPRING STRAWBERRY LAYER CAKE IN A GLASS

Course Dessert
Keyword dessert in a glass, layer cake, quick dessert
Prep Time 40 minutes
Cook Time 5 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Servings 6 desserts

Ingredients

HAZELNUT LAYER

  • 75 g hazelnuts
  • 45 g ground almonds
  • 20 g butter
  • 50 g / 3 TBSP honey
  • 1 tsp dried thyme

POPPY SEED LAYER

  • 145 g ground poppy seeds
  • 100 g / 6 TBSP honey
  • 180 ml milk

STRAWBERRY LAYER

  • 300 g strawberries

YOGHURT LAYER

  • 400 g Greek-style yogurt
  • 65 g / 4 TBSP honey

Instructions

Hazelnut layer

  1. Chop the hazelnuts coarsely. In a skillet fry chopped hazelnuts, ground walnuts, butter, honey, and thyme for a couple of minutes, until they become golden. Stir every 10 seconds. Remove from the heat and stir for another minute, then transfer the mixture to a big plate and lay it out evenly. Wait until it cools down.

Poppyseed layer

  1. Boil milk and pour it over poppy seeds. Add honey and mix well.

Strawberry layer

  1. Cut strawberries into very small pieces of approx. 0,5 cm.

Yogurt layer

  1. Add honey to yogurt and mix well. If you are using crystallized honey, melt it over a saucepan of simmering water.

Assembly

  1. Take six 2 dl glasses and divide half of the poppy seed mixture on the bottom. Continue with half of the strawberries, yogurt, and hazelnuts mixture. Continue with the other half of the mixtures.

  2. Serve immediately or cool in the fridge and serve later.
This light and fresh strawberry layer cake is a perfect healthy indulgence for the sunny spring days! This no-bake dessert is inspired by traditional Slovenian dessert prekmurska gibanica. Click to find the whole recipe or pin and save for later!

Guinness Caramels With Salted Peanuts

St Patrick’s day is coming closer and we’re making yummy gooey Guinness caramels with salted peanuts. If you don’t know what to snack on while drinking beer – sweet or salty – you can have have both! 

Use Your Noodles - Guinness Caramels With Salted Peanuts

With St Patrick’s Day just a couple of days away I thought I’d share these gooey Guinness caramels with you. Before I decided I want to do something sweet with Guiness I’ve never made caramels before. Experimenting and lots of tasting has brought me to this amazing recipe.

Beer… A few years ago Slovenia has known mostly lagers. You could get Guinness and a couple of other non-lager beers, but that was it. Now it’s like spring here with new beers blooming all over the place. Which is kind of nice, because I was getting tired of the same old same old. Now there’s so much to choose from, but for these caramels Guinness is the right choice.

With the rich caramel flavour it enhances the sweetness of the caramels and adds just a little bitterness. Peanuts and salt add another layer and the saltiness bring out even more sweetness. I know it sounds strange, but caramels without salt don’t do it for me.

Use Your Noodles - Guinness Caramels With Salted Peanuts

Before trying for the first time I was a bit scared. I was sure I was going to fail. But making caramels is actually unbelievably easy. There’s not even any doing, there’s mostly waiting 🙂 So don’t be scared like me and go for it!

If you don’t have a clip-on candy thermometer I suggest investing in one, it’s not that expensive and candy-making will be so much easier and precise.

But if you don’t have one and still wanna make some delicious Guinness caramels you can do it without the thermometer and test if the caramels have reached the hard ball stage with the water test. 

Use Your Noodles - Guinness Caramels With Salted Peanuts

Now, let’s do this 🙂

Imaginary-glass-full-of-Guinness-caramels cheers!

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

Use Your Noodles - Guinness Caramels With Salted Peanuts
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GUINNESS CARAMELS WITH SALTED PEANUTS

Course Dessert
Keyword chewy caramel, soft caramel
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 55 minutes
Cooling time 1 hour
Total Time 2 hours

Ingredients

  • 2 cups / 0.44 l can Guinness
  • 80 g butter cubed
  • 80 ml whipping cream
  • 1 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 cup unrefined sugar or brown sugar
  • 1 tsp fine salt
  • 100 g roasted and salted peanuts

Instructions

  1. Butter the sides and the bottom of a 25×18 cm (10×7 inch) pan and line it with baking paper.
  2. In a saucepan (2 l or more) reduce Guinness over medium-low heat to 1/2 cup. This will take about 30 minutes.
  3. Add butter and melt completely. Add whipping cream and sugar. Stir until well combined.
  4. Place in a sugar thermometer. Don’t stir from this point on.
  5. Over medium-low heat cook until the temperature reaches somewhere between 118 °C and 121 °C (245 °F – 250 °F). This will take about 25 minutes or more, but keep an eye on the caramel all the time, because at the end the temperature will rise quickly.
  6. Remove from heat immediately.
  7. Stir in salt and peanuts and pour into the baking tray.
  8. Refrigerate for an hour.
  9. With a sharp knife cut into desired size pieces.
  10. Store at room temperature.

Notes

Keep in mind that when the sugar starts heating it will expand to two or three times the volume, so adjust the saucepan size. But don’t use a saucepan that’s too large, as your thermometer will not be submerged and won’t show accurate temperature. If you double the recipe, adjust the pan!
I cut my caramels into 3 cm squares and wrapped them into 10x12cm baking paper pieces.

Use Your Noodles - Guinness Caramels With Salted Peanuts

Turmeric Falafel Wraps + Wholegrain Spelt Tortillas

Fresh and healthy lunch with lots of colours to fill our daily rainbow – turmeric falafel wraps! And my favourite recipe for homemade wholegrain spelt tortillas!

Use Your Noodles - Turmeric Falafel Wraps

It’s March!!! Hmmm, it’s been March for more than a week, but my brain just grasped that.

Ah, I love March. Why? Because I start growing my veggies from seeds. I first tried it three years ago and  I produced some tomatoes, but the plants were looking a little sad and small. Last year, though, it’s been incredible. I’ve produced toooo many tomato plants (not enough space in the garden) and added bell peppers and chilies. The summer was unbelievably sunny and warm and we had a gazillion of homemade tomatoes and chilies. No complaints here. I’ve grown bell peppers in a container on my balcony near lice infected parsley and cilantro, so imagine the disappointment. Hopefully, this year the bell peppers will join the growing madness 🙂

Okay, now. Let’s get to the recipe!

Use Your Noodles - Turmeric Falafel Wraps + Wholegrain Spelt Tortillas
Use Your Noodles - Turmeric Falafel Wraps + Wholegrain Spelt Tortillas

I’m going double recipe today. Wholegrain spelt tortillas that you can use like regular white flour tortillas and a beautiful bright yelllow turmeric falafel.

What I love about these wraps – besides the obvious deliciousness 🙂 – are the colours. Colourful food makes me smile. If you like them use the sides that I used in this recipe or choose whatever coloured veggies you like. But choose a variety. Reds, greens, purples, yellows… Whatever you find, toss them in!

Use Your Noodles - Turmeric Falafel Wraps + Wholegrain Spelt Tortillas

We’re making a tahini sauce to go with falafels. If you’re a dishwashing maniac like me, stop right now! By dishwashing maniac, I mean insanely washing every dirty dish that I see while I’m cooking. I hate washing dishes after the meal, I’m not crazy 🙂 My point was, there’s no need to wash the food processor after making falafels. Just add the ingredients for the sauce and the liquid will clean it up. Yep, we saved a little time right there 🙂

Use Your Noodles - Turmeric Falafel Wraps + Wholegrain Spelt Tortillas
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TURMERIC FALAFEL WRAPS

Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Servings 4 people

Ingredients

FOR THE FALAFEL BALLS

  • 2 cups cooked chickpeas
  • 1 handful parsley
  • 6 cloves garlic
  • 1 small onion
  • 2 tsp ground coriander seeds
  • 1 tsp ground caraway seeds
  • 1 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • salt to taste

FOR THE SAUCE

  • 1 handful parsley
  • 4 TBSP tahini paste
  • 4 cloves garlic
  • 1/4 big medium-hot chili
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 2 TBSP lemon juice
  • black pepper to taste
  • salt to taste

TO SERVE

  • 1/4 medium-size red cabbage
  • 1 big carrot
  • big handful parsley
  • 1 TBSP lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup salted pistachios
  • medium-hot chili slices to taste
  • 8 wholegrain spelt tortillas approx. 15 cm

Instructions

  1. If you are making homemade tortilla wraps (recipe below), make the dough beforehand and leave it to rest while you make the falafels.

Falafel balls

  1. Preheat the oven to 200 °C and line a baking tray with baking paper.

  2. Pulse all ingredients in a food processor until well combined. It should have an almost creamy texture with some small crumbs.
  3. Divide the mixture into quarters. With slightly wet hands, form six balls from each quarter. Wash your hands if they get too messy, otherwise, the mixture will start sticking to them.
  4. Place the falafel balls on the baking tray and bake them for 20-25 minutes or until just slightly golden. These falafels are very delicate, so treat them carefully.

Sauce

  1. In a food processor or a blender combine all ingredients and pulse until the mixture is smooth.

Sides

  1. Chop red cabbage and carrot into thin slices and drizzle them with lemon juice. Chop pistachios and parsley coarsely.

Wraps

  1. Divide the dough into 8, roll them and cook them 30 seconds each side.

  2. Serve falafel balls with sides and tortillas while they are hot.
Use Your Noodles - Turmeric Falafel Wraps + Wholegrain Spelt Tortillas
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WHOLEGRAIN SPELT TORTILLAS

Course Appetizer, Side Dish, Snack
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Resting time 30 minutes
Total Time 55 minutes
Servings 8 tortillas

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 cup wholegrain spelt flour
  • 1/4 + 1/8 cup lukewarm water
  • 2 1/2 TBSP olive oil
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda

Instructions

  1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl, then transfer it to a flat surface and knead it for 5 minutes.
  2. Cover with plastic foil and leave it to rest for 30 minutes at room temperature.
  3. Divide the dough into 8 balls, flatten them with the palm of your hand and roll them out on the lightly floured surface to 15-20 cm in diameter.
  4. Don’t stack the rolled tortillas or they will get soggy.
  5. Brush off excess flour. Cook on a griddle or big pan over medium-high heat for about 30-second each side. If flour starts to accumulate in the pan, wipe it off with a paper towel.

Need more ideas for colorful lunch recipes? Here they are:

Rainbow Cabbage Soup

Spicy Pea Soup

Millet And Carrot Salad with Creamy Almond Dressing

Turkish Chicken Feast

Use Your Noodles - Turmeric Falafel Wraps

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Use Your Noodles - Turmeric Falafel Wraps + Wholegrain Spelt Tortillas
Use Your Noodles - Turmeric Falafel Wraps + Wholegrain Spelt Tortillas

Teriyaki Eggplant With Plum Wine

This scrumptious, flavor-filled teriyaki eggplant is going to wake up your taste buds. 

Use Your Noodles - Teriyaki Eggplant With Plum Wine

Teriyaki Eggplant. We are going Japanese today. Well, not exactly. I’m not gonna lie. This recipe is not a super authentic teriyaki recipe. After all the star of the dish is eggplant instead of meat of fish.

But it is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! I could eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And the next day for breakfast, lunch… I think you get the point 😀

Use Your Noodles - Teriyaki Eggplant With Plum Wine

Teriyaki is actually a method of cooking in Japan, but here we know it more as a type of sauce mainly made with soy sauce, sake, mirin and sugar. Teriyaki is made by marinating or basted meat or fish wit teriyaki sauce and then grilled, roasted or broiled. This gives the dish a nice shine, which we all like, right?

You could basically use whatever veggie you like. To me eggplant is one of the most meat-like vegetable there is. If you’ve never grilled it outside in the summer, please try it, you won’t regret it. 

One of my favourite thing about this recipe is adding plum wine. Aaaah, the smell 🙂 I’m giggling, from the alcohol in the air. No, really, I’ve tried making eggplant with soy sauce and teriyaki sauce, but adding plum wine was a winner for me.

Use Your Noodles - Teriyaki Eggplant With Plum Wine

On the more personal note, I’m busy making promo material for the new dance show we’re making with my lovely fellow ladies from Tribal Bizzare Dance Troupe. It’s gonna premiere in May. We had our photoshoot more than two weeks ago and now I finnaly have some time to work on those photos. Happy me.

Now, let’s roll up our sleeves and get to work!

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

Use Your Noodles - Teriyaki Eggplant With Plum Wine
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TERIYAKI EGGPLANT WITH PLUM WINE

Course Appetizer, Main Course, Side Dish, Snack
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Servings 6 people

Ingredients

  • 2 big eggplants
  • 1 big onion
  • 4 TBSP coconut oil + extra if necessary
  • 3 TBSP sesame oil
  • 3 TBSP plum wine
  • 3 TBSP teriyaki sauce
  • chopped parsley to taste
  • chopped chili to taste
  • salt to taste

Instructions

  1. Chop onion and eggplant into 1 cm cubes.
  2. In a big pan fry onion on the coconut oil until it gets translucent.
  3. Add sesame oil and eggplant. Fry for 5 minutes or until the eggplant is soft. Add extra coconut oil if necessary.
  4. Add teriyaki sauce. Stirring all the time, fry the eggplants for 2-3 minutes until they get a nice golden color.
  5. Add plum wine and cook until the liquid has evaporated. Remove from the stove and add salt if necessary.
  6. Top with chopped parsley and sesame seeds and serve hot with cooked rice.
Use Your Noodles - Teriyaki Eggplant With Plum Wine

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Use Your Noodles - Teriyaki Eggplant With Plum Wine

Homemade Tomato Ketchup

After you see how easy it is to make tomato ketchup at home, you’ll never want to buy it in the store again. It takes so little time and almost no effort. 

Use Your Noodles - Homemade Tomato Ketchup

I used to be a ketchup addict and I mean every word. I could eat it on bread without anything else until my mouth was burning from all the sugar and acid. Then one day I realised that it is actually junk food, so I stopped eating it. But of course, pretty soon I was craving it again, so I decided to make my own using whatever was in my pantry.

Use Your Noodles - Homemade Tomato Ketchup
Use Your Noodles - Homemade Tomato Ketchup

There are a lot of different ketchup recipes out there, from the ones that only use garlic and onion, to the ones that use a variety of spices. There are some that use fresh tomatoes, to the ones that use canned and dried tomatoes. This recipe is using lots of spices and tomato purée, because I want ketchup to be done in mintues. When I need my ketchup, I need it immediately! 🙂

For me the key ingredient in homemade tomato ketchup is clove. It adds a deep, sweet aroma. But, you really need to be careful, because too much of it can make your ketchup tarty. 

The trick here is to leave the tomato purée uncovered while it is cooking, so it can thicken quickly. And you’ll want to stir it constantly, otherwise you’ll have a messy kitchen and you can get burned.

Tag #useyournoodles so I can see your beautiful UYN creations. Also, stay in touch on Facebook and Instagram or subscribe to get the recipes directly to your mailbox ♥

Use Your Noodles - Homemade Tomato Ketchup
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HOMEMADE TOMATO KETCHUP

Course Side Dish
Keyword condiment, dip, fish spread
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes

Ingredients

  • 700 g tomato purée
  • 2 TBSP lemon juice
  • 1 TBSP balsamic vinegar
  • 2 bay leaves
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 2 tsp onion powder
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • pinch of nutmeg to taste
  • pinch of black pepper to taste
  • 3-4 TBSP honey

Instructions

  1. Put the tomato purée in a pan and add the rest of the ingredients except honey.
  2. Stirring constantly, cook over medium heat for about 25 minutes or until the ketchup has thickened to about two thirds.
  3. Remove from the heat and leave to cool for about 5 minutes, then add honey and stir well.

Notes

Keep in mind that ketchup will thicken a little when it cools down and it will taste sweeter.

Use Your Noodles - Homemade Tomato Ketchup

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Use Your Noodles - Homemade Tomato Ketchup

Immune-Boosting Elderflower Turmeric Tea

The cold weather can sometimes get to us. But not with this immune-boosting turmeric tea with elderlower and some other amazing healthy ingredients.

Use Your Noodles - Immune-Boosting Elderflower Turmeric Tea

We got a little snowy surprise yesterday, so I ran out to shoot my immune-boosting elderflower turmeric tea. I was soaking wet in a matter of minutes, but luckily I had this (already cold) tea right at my hand. 🙂

Let me tell you what’s in this tea. Only good stuff, I promise. 

Use Your Noodles - Immune-Boosting Elderflower Turmeric Tea
Use Your Noodles - Immune-Boosting Elderflower Turmeric Tea

There’s elderflower, one of my favourite kinds of tea. I pick it myself in spring and keep it airtight for whole year. It’s amazing for your immune system and for detoxifying your body. Another great ingredient – thyme. We usually use it in cooking, but it taste amazing in teas. Just be careful not to add too much or your tea might taste like soup. You can excange it for wild thyme, in that case you should double the amount, because it is milder. Thyme is one of the easiest herbs to grow at home, so I suggest you head to a gardening store this spring and get a thyme plant.

Use Your Noodles - Immune-Boosting Elderflower Turmeric Tea

This tea gets its colour mostly from turmeric. I used to hate the taste of turmeric, it kind of felt strange and too strong. But as I introduced it little by little it grew on me. Now, I love it! In cooking and in tea making. So turmeric tea in any form is amazing and super beneficial. And if you add some pepper to it, your body can absorb the good stuff much better. Ok, we got to honey. We all know honey is so much better than white sugar, because it contains lots of vitamins and minerals. But, buying just any honey at the supermarket is wasteful. It has probably been heated over 40 °C to remain liquid, but that also means it has lost a lot of its functions. Try to find a local producer that doesn’t heat honey. My favourite is linden honey.

Use Your Noodles - Immune-Boosting Elderflower Turmeric Tea

Like all other ingredients in this tea ginger is mindblowingly good for immune system and so much more covering from cancer to weight loss. And here’s our last ingredient – lemon. If you were like me, lemon was the first thing your parents gave when you were ill. And it was for a good reason.

There you have it, my immune-boosting elderflower turmeric tea. Helpful if you are ill, but also a good way to keep your health in check!

Head on to the recipe and let me know what kind of tea do you like to drink to boost your immunity system in the comment section.

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Use Your Noodles - Immune-Boosting Elderflower Turmeric Tea
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IMMUNE-BOOSTING ELDERFLOWER TURMERIC TEA

Prep Time 10 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes
Servings 2 servings

Ingredients

  • 2 cups boiling water
  • 2 cups room temperature water
  • 2 heap tsp dried elderflower
  • 1/2 tsp dried thyme
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 1/4 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1/4 tsp ground ginger
  • pinch of black pepper
  • 1 TBSP lemon juice

Instructions

  1. Put dried elderflower and thyme in a tea infuser and steep it in boiling water for 5 minutes. Keep it covered.
  2. Remove the infuser and add room temperature water, honey, turmeric, ginger, black pepper, and lemon juice. Stir well and pour into cups.
Use Your Noodles - Immune-Boosting Elderflower Turmeric Tea

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Use Your Noodles - Immune-Boosting Elderflower Turmeric Tea