Easy winter soup

I've always said, I'm not a good blogger, spring has already come and I still have pictures of my winter dishes I didn't put on the blog. 

Ingredients:
3 patatoes
1 carrot
1 onion
160 gr pearl barley
water
olive oil
salt
pepper
chili powder

Soak the pearl barley in the water for at least 12 hours.
Cut the onion in small pieces and fry it until golden on a little bit of olive oil. Cut the potatoes in cubes and the carrot in very small pieces. Add the vegetables to the onion and add the pearl barley (without the water in wich it was soaked). Add some water (approximately 1 liter, but it depends on your taste), salt, peper and a little bit of chili powder (still depends on your taste). Cook stiring for approximately 1 hour (if you've soaked tha barney for 24 hous, in 40 minutes it should be cooked).

Serve hot with a slice of bread or just like that and enjoy your meal. :)

Oven baked samosa

I really like samosa, but they are deep fried and that's not healthy! I found some recipes online how to make oven baked samosa, I took bits and pieces of recipes and that's my version of oven baked samosa.

Ingredients (8 samosa)

Dough:
2 cups of flour
1 teaspoon salt
water
1 tablespoon semolina flour
1 tablespoon oil

Filling:
2 large potatoes
2 carrots
1 cup frozen peas
1 red chilli
1 onion
1/2 teaspoon curcumin powder
1/2 teaspoon masala powder
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
oil (1 tablespoon)

1 egg

Mix the ingredients for the dough and make the dough. Leave it aside for 20 minutes. Heat the oil in a pan. Add the cumin seeds until they crack. Add onion and red chilli (you've cutted them before of course) and fry it until golden. Add curcumin powder and masala powder and mix. Add frozen peas and mix until tender. Add the potatoes and carrots cut in cubes that you boiled in water before. Mix for a few minutes.
Work the dough with a rolling pin. Make it thin and round shape. Cut it in half, do a cone and put the filling inside. When it's full close it. Do all the samosa and put them on a baking pan. With a brush cover the samosa with the egg you've mixed before. Bake in a preheated oven on 180°C for 20-30 minutes.

Vegetable ginger soup

That's what I tried today for lunch, light and healthy. It turned out quite well. :)

Ingredients (4 persons - or more):

chinese cabbage (2 leafs)

onion (1)

carrots (3)

ginger (2 cm)

potatoes (2)

zucchini (1)

olive oil

salt 

white pepper

black pepper

curcuma

curry

chili powder

knorr cube

water (1,7 l)

emmer wheat (1-2 cups)

Cut the onion, potatoes, carrots and zucchini, slice ginger and chinese cabbage. Fry them in a pan on olive oil, then add the spices and the water. Cook for 30 minutes and blend it. Cook the emmer wheat in the soup and serve hot. 

Carrots and ginger soup

Yes, I'm still alive and yes, I still cook. :) I haven't posted here for ages, I guess I had other priorities. I just came back from my last trip, this time from the Bavarian capital Munich and I can't wait to try to cook their tasty potatoes.

While I'm waiting for the first experiments in the new year, I'll post some recipes I've done ages ago, but I didn't have time to write them down. I've done so many cookies before Christmas, but I didn't bother to take pictures, so I can't post them here without a picture. Maybe I should do all of them one more time. :)

That's a recipe I tried after my visit in Berlin last october. I'm not sure it's a typical german dish, but since I tried it in Berlin first for me it's gonna be from Berlin. It became an extremly popular recipe in my house and my boyfriend asks me offen to do it. Today I'm sharing it with you, my few fellows.

Ingredients (4 persons):

carrots (500 gr)
potato (2)
onion (1 small)
ginger (2 cm)
curry (1/2 teaspoon)
curcuma (1/2 teaspoon)
knorr cube (1)
water (1,5 l)
olive oil (1 spoon)
salt
sunflower seeds
pumpkin seeds

Chop the onion, cut the potatoes and carrots in small cubes and the ginger in slim slices. In a pan fry the onion on olive oil, then add potatoes and carrots. Continue to stir and add the ginger. After a minute add the salt, curry and curcuma. Cover it with the water and a knorr cube. (That's the lazy version of the recipe, you could actually add a clear vegetable soup you did before.) Cook for 30 minutes in a coveres pan. Then blend it. Now you should have a creamy soup. Serve with sunflower and pumpkin seeds on the top. You can also serve with roasted bread cubes.
I hope you enjoy this meal.

Lasagna with asparagus

Ingredients:

for the thin pankakes:

eggs (2)

flour (3 cups)

milk (1/2 l)

salt

oil (for frying)

for the lasagna:

besciamella sauce

onion (1)

asparagus (500 gr)

carrot (1)

olive oil

chilli powder

salt 

parmesan cheese

First of all you have to fry the thin pankakes. Mix the eggs and the flour, then add the salt and the milk until you have a creamy mixture. It shouldn't be too thick. If you need you can add more milk. Then fry the pankakes in a pan. Put some oil (really a little bit) in the pan and then add a dipper of the mixture and make sure that the mixture goes all over the surface of the pan. Do them really thin and don't fry them too long, because you don't need them crispy but soft. Here is a picture of the pankakes: 

 

Then prepare the vegetable mix. Put some oil in a pan, add the chopped onion and fry for a while until it changes colour, but add the other chopped vegetables (asparagus and carrots) before the onion is brown. Add the salt and just a little bit of chilli powder, mix and cook for 15-20 minutes. 

In the meanwhile you can prepare the besciamella sauce. 

Take a baking pan and first put some vegetables at the bottom. Add some besciamella sauce and on the top put the pankakes. Add the vegetables and the besciamella sauce again and cover with the pankakes. Continue to do the layers until you finish the besciamella sauce and the vegetables. Put some pankakes on the top and add some parmesan cheese (if you want it more creamy you can make more besciamella sauce). Bake in the oven until the top becomes crispy and brown (it should take about 30-40 minutes).

Here is the picture of the lasagna, fresh from the oven. It probably doesn't look nothing special, but even my brother liked it! :)

Lentils soup with amaranth

Some time ago I discovered amaranth, a cereal original from central America. I had some difficulties to find it here, where I live, but at the end I found it and I've tried a recipe that I found here. I've modified it a bit, as usually.

Ingredients:
lentils (1 cup)
amaranth (2 cups)
water
onion (1)
carrot (1)
salt
black pepper
chilli powder





Cook the amaranth in the water for 20 minutes. Cook the lentils in another pan for 10 minutes, cover them with water and put some salt, but at the end put away all the restant water. Put the lentils and the other vegetables (chopped onion and chopped carrot) in another pan and add the lentils. Add the knorr cube, some water, salt, pepper and hot chilli powder. Cook for 10-15 minutes and then add the amaranth. Cook for about 15-20 minutes, but check when it's ready. Then serve. You can serve with small pieces of garlic bread (but I haven't, I didn't have time to prepare them).