Autumn Story: Dinner with Poets

Today I let the pictures do the talking and share two great recipes with you. This Autumn Story is inspired by poets and melancholy of the season. Autumn is the season of contrasts, warm buttery pie crusts and cold winds. It is the best time of the year to gather friends together and organize a bohemian style evening party. Usually letter shaped cookie cutters are used when making sugar ornaments or other sweet treats. You can experiment with the cutters and cut sliced veggies or decorate a savory cabbage pie with pastry letters. Choose your favorite verses and surprise your friends with a creative way. Fun idea would also be to decorate each one's plate with one word and then combine the words to a poem in a group. 

I am sharing two recipes to add to the evening menu. Traditional Finnish Cabbage Pie is a must for the Autumn season when new white cabbages come to the stores. Butter and quark in the crust make this dish super tasty and fulfilling. Fresh bulgur wheat salad gets it's character from lemon and lemon pesto. Letters cut from beetroots or carrots fit in perfectly. Just let the beetroot letters rest for little while before adding to the mix. Otherwise you will have red salad instead of pretty green and yellow. All recipes are relatively easy. Cutting letters is the task that takes most time. You can begin by cutting the veggie letters you need and keep the letters moist in cold temperature before serving. Lets get cooking, baking and crafting!

Poem on the pie: 

Läpi yön käy yrttien henki 

ja kuuma huokaus maan. 

Nocturne by Kaarlo Sarkia.

Poem on the salad:

Turhaan, oi turhaan

     tartun ma hetkehen kiini;

riemua ei suo

     rattoisa seura ei viini.

Elegia by Eino Leino

Traditional Finnish Cabbage Pie

To the crust

250 g butter

250 g quark

4 dl wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

Filling

one small cabbage

3 carrots

2 onions

water

0,75 dl broken barley

3 tbsp dark syrup

veg. oil

2 tsp apple vinegar

1 tsp white pepper

1 tsp marjoram

salt

black pepper

Step 1. Mix together flour and baking powder. Add butter in cubes. Mix flour and butter with fingers.

Step 2. Add quark and mix properly.

Step 3. Cover the pastry with cling film and let it rest in the fridge.

Step 4. Prepare the filling. Mince onion and cabbage, grate carrots. Sweat the onion in oil on a big kettle. Add little bit of water and small part of the cabbage. When the cabbage becomes slightly softer add more cabbage and grated carrots. Cook barley in a separate kettle.

Step 5. When the veggies are soft mix together barley, syrup and spices.

Step 6. Take half of the pastry and roll it to the bottom. Spread the filling on top. Roll the other half of the pastry on top. Cut off extras and secure the seams.

Step 7. Use the extra pastry to the letters. Attach the letters with a little bit of water. Use fork or barbecue stick to make small holes to the pie's surface. Egg the surface and bake the pie in 200 Celsius degrees preheated over for about 30 minutes.

Bulgur Wheat Salad with Lemon Pesto and Letters

Bulgur Wheat

Lemon Pesto

Lemon juice

Lemon peel

Plum tomatoes

Paprika

Courgette

Veg. oil

Kalamata olives

Salad cheese

Beetroot/ Carrot

Cavolo Nero sprouts / other green salad or herb

Step 1. Peel and slice beetroot/ carrot. Cut letters with cookie cutters. 

Step 2. Cook bulgur wheat. Mince courgette and sweat in veg. oil. Mince paprika, olives and tomatoes. Wash and grate lemon peel. Wash cavolo nero.

Step 3. Mix together cooked bulgur, pesto, lemon juice, olives, minced veggies and salad cheese cubes. Decorate with lemon peel, cavolo nero and beetroot/ carrot letters.

Have a Great Last Week of September!

Sannu

Beetroot Rye Burger

Rye bread is essential part of Finnish food palette. When Finnish voted for national food rye bread got the first place. I tend to eat about 1-2 slices of rye bread every day and I seldom choose white bread from the store. It is just something I learned from home. One of my favorite evening snacks is rye bread with hummus, it keeps hunger and tastes great. Now that we are heading towards the colder days fulfilling foods like rye bread, roots and spices begin to feel like a good idea. Stores start to fill with colorful roots, berries and sweet apples. One eats with their eyes. I browsed Pinterest for Autumn home decor inspiration and saw quite a few pumpkin related displays, cups of tea and deep warm colors. I got hungry. I created a picture of myself sitting inside, under a blanket, reading a book, rain pouring towards the windows and some sweet pumpkin cake almost ready in the oven spreading it's rich spicy scent. Can not wait that pumpkins come to the stores! While having pumpkin orange dreams I turn to roots that offer equally as great opportunities for cooking and baking.

Sometimes we tend to see cooking too complicated when with great ingredients it is actually simple. Vegetarian patties and steaks can be made with very different methods. Today, because it is Monday, we are going to make the most simple version of vegetarian steaks. This means we just slice fresh beetroot, dip in egg and breadcrumbs, fry in oil and sprinkle little salt on top. Quite many veggies can be prepared this way to create simple and quick steaks. Sweet hummus and fennel add taste to this dish. Potatoes take care of them selves in the oven. Tasty Monday luxury in it's best. Because I think when ever there is a home cooked dinner made from healthy ingredients, it is luxury in this fast food filled world.

Beetroot steaks, paprika hummus, fried fennel, green salad, pickles and radish form a great burger between rye bread. Potato wedges make the dish complete. Actually, now I have to take a lunch break and reheat some leftovers from yesterday.. yummy!

***

Back to business. First we make the hummus because it can stay in the fridge when potatoes, steaks and fennel are prepared. 

Sweet Paprika Hummus:

230 g cooked chickpeas (one can when water is poured out))

1/2 paprika

1 onion

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp lemon juice

salt

cayenne pepper

chili

Step 1. Mince and sweat onion and paprika in veg.oil.

Step 2. Put chickpeas, minced garlic, 1 tbsp olive oil and lemon juice to a bowl. Mash with hand mixer.

Step 3. Put in onion and paprika and stir with mixer (leave a bit rough). Mix in spices (salt, cayenne pepper and chili) according to taste. Put to fridge.

Potato Wedges:

potatoes

veg. oil

salt

Preheat oven for 200 Celsius degrees. Slice the potatoes. Massage potatoes with oil and salt. Bake in the oven until soft and a bit golden.

Fried Fennel:

fennel

veg. oil

salt

black pepper

Cut and open the fennel to get smaller pieces. Fry on a pan in veg. oil until it gets a bit color. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on top.  

Beetroot Steaks

beetroot

1 egg

breadcrumbs

salt

veg. oil

Peel and slice the beetroots. Dip one at the time to egg and then to breadcrumbs. Fry on a pan in veg. oil on both sides until the surface is golden brown. Sprinkle some salt on top. Beetroot steaks are supposed to be left al dente inside.

Make the burger:

Spread some hummus to the rye bread, put in salad, radish, pickles, fennel and beetroot steaks. Serve warm with potato wedges.

***

I bought a bag of beetroots so I am already thinking about making borscht from the rest. It is also great with rye bread. Although at the moment I don't remember any dish that would not benefit from rye bread :)

Have an inspiring start for the new week!

Sannu

Quinoa and Veggie Stuffed Courgettes

Happy Friday! Today I made these tasty stuffed courgettes and now I want to share this easy recipe with you. Stuffed courgettes are a healthy treat for the end of the week and perfect for enjoying the evening with good food. Somehow I think stuffed courgettes are luxury even though the ingredients are affordable and it is relatively simple to prepare these. These would also be perfect for a spring or summer buffet as it is easy to make bigger amounts if needed. 

***

Quinoa and Veggie Stuffed Courgettes:

1,5, dl quinoa

3 medium size courgettes

1 paprika

1 carrot

1 onion

100 g cherry tomatoes

0,5 dl fresh basil

2 garlic cloves

0,5 dl Kalamata olives

2 tbsp lemon juice

Salt and pepper

Vegetarian oil

Feta cheese

Step 1. Cook the quinoa as told on the package. Mince the onion, paprika and carrot. Slice the cherry tomatoes. 

Step 2. Split the courgettes in two. Carve out the inside. Place the courgettes on a baking tray.

Step 3. Sweat the onion, paprika and carrot with oil on a frying pan. Add in the tomatoes and contents from courgettes. Let cook until the veggies are a bit soft.

Step 4. Mix together veggies, quinoa, chopped olives, minced basil and garlic, lemon juice, salt and black pepper. Stuff the courgettes and bake in a preheated oven in 200 Celsius degrees until the courgette covers become softer. Serve with crumbled feta cheese. 

***

Today I prepared 3 courgettes and my plan is to have a home evening with a good book. I love to read and I make lots of must read lists. For the past two years I have been reading less that I would like to because I have felt that I don´t have time. To be frank to myself time is not the main reason why I haven´t read that much. I have also had difficulties to slow down and concentrate. Especially more challenging books need time to open. Minute every now and then is not enough for me to soak in to the book´s world. Instead of just listing must read good books I have decided to take action and read 100 pages every day. It is a good amount to get in to reading mood and now that I have been following this rule for few days I have read actually more that 100 pages per day. Evening is the best time for me and I have taken the reading time from telly time. It is a great pleasure to read interesting classics and new books with current topics. Books give a lot to think about and it is always fun to be able to take part to book conversations. Now I have been reading A S Byatt´s Possession. A Romance and Margaret Atwood´s The Handmaid´s Tale. The Handmade´s Tale is now also as series. I haven´t seen it yet but it made me curious to read this book from 1985 to learn why is it so current. Maybe I will watch the series afterwards, the cast is amazing!

Have a Wonderful and relaxing weekend!

Sannu

Mission Possible 800 g Veggies Per Day

Have you heard about a research made by scientists from Imperial College London that suggests we should be eating even more veggies and fruits that just 500 g per day? Here is how the Guardian wrote about the subject. According to this study proper amount would be 800 g per day to get the maximal benefits. First I learned about this research on Finnish television program Prisma Studio where they talked about the study and tested eating 800 g veggies per day. As a vegetarian my attitude towards veggies and plant based products is positive. About 90 % of the food I eat is plant based but of course not all that food is plain veggies. I eat a lot of grains, meat substitutes, tofu and beans. This is why I wanted to examine how much veggies I am already eating and give a try how difficult it is to achieve that 800 g from veggies and fruits. So decided to take 800 g per day challenge for the first week of May. First I had to begin with the amount, how much is actually 800 g? I decided to weight my veggies to have a better clue to what kind of amount we are talking about.  I wrote down the amounts and some of my thoughts during the week. It is easy to estimate the daily amount a bit over and when I thought about my daily meals I found out that I could definitely eat more. 

Note that I am only listing the meals that include veggies, so this was not all that I have been eating!

For example my breakfast is usually oatmeal porridge, soy yogurt, coffee with oat milk and juice. All is plant based but there is no veggies or fruits. To get this fixed I replaced the yogurt with 100 g berries and added 100 g carrot bites.  This was easy and delicious way to get 200 g of the daily 800g. 

1.5. Day One

800 g veggies does not have to be raw but on the first day I chose to make a salad. I had a plan to eat a green salad as a lunch and then something cooked as a dinner. Usually I eat just one main meal per day and it is some grain or potato with sauce or veggie patties. I do add veggies to sauces, casseroles or what ever it is that I am preparing but to achieve 800 g the amounts would be too small. Also I would have to eat for example potato and vegetarian sausage sauce quite a pile to get enough veggies. Simple food plate model that advises how you should compose the plate with potato/ grain, sauce and salad is excellent. Here are some inspirational food pyramids from all over the world listed by HUFFPOST. Here you can see the Finnish dietary guidelines.

On the first day I sort of divided the food plate eating my salad first and the other side of the plate (tofu) with veggies later. When I weighted my salad I saw that I am doing a bit over. I thought 800 g is a massive amount when actually it is not. Green salad does not weight much, so if you choose to eat just that for your 800 g you will have a tough time. I combined grapes, paprika, avocado, cucumber and tomatoes in my salad and eating little bit of this and that made it easy to achieve 575 g.  I felt that eating plain green veggies made me quite energetic and I didn´t feel too full after the lunch. Still I decided it would make sense to divide the veggies to every meal and snack instead of eating all at once in a salad.

In the evening I fried some tofu and courgette slices. I also ate chopped cauliflower for snack.

960 g was the amount of veggies for the first day because I was maybe too eager to achieve the 800 g.  I was quite hungry between the meals because veggies seem to melt quite quickly and I was not prepared to that. It would have been a good idea to have some healthy snack in the fridge for these kind of occasions when you are hungry but preparing food takes time. Even on the first day it was clear that when I plan the meals it is easy to achieve the daily goal.

2.5. Day Two

On the second day I ate a snack between breakfast and lunch. I mashed an avocado to a rye bread and added some tomatoes and cauliflower chops. 

Spicy chickpeas, spelt, grated carrot, tomato, cucumber and onion. As an evening snack I ate fruits. 

On second day I achieved 856 g veggies and fruit and managed to divide the veggies to different snacks and meals instead of over eating on one meal. I noticed that is is easy to add veggies when you prepare the food yourself. Sometimes when I am hungry I might choose a ready meal from store. Most of those meals have quite a little veggies and are packed with potato or pasta. What comes to snacks it is easy to chop cauliflower, carrot or turnip and eat one or two pieces every now and then. In my childhood these were called veggie or root bites and they were common in my home and school lunch. I wonder where do these kind of good habits vanish when you grow older. 

3.5. Day Three

 I had spicy chickpeas and spelt left in the fridge so I mixed them and ate with a salad.

Evening snack was rye bread with sauerkraut, paprika, turnip & cauliflower chops. 

I was surprised when I counted 954 g for this day. It seems that by eating various veggies it is easier to collect a big amount. My evening snack turnip and cauliflower chops weighted 226 g so that was an easy extra for the day. Best thing is that by eating different veggies you get the best benefits as you can see from the study I linked. I don´t know if it is just a coincidence but when I started eating more veggies I have become more productive and it feels like my brain is working better. I have a need to go outdoors and move all the time. Even though weighting and taking pictures from every veggie meal takes time I have managed to do it. All in all I have got lots of tasks done and I have got more plans for the following weeks than I usually do.

4.5. Day Four

Lunch salad with warm fried courgette slices. Below rye bread pizzettas. I also ate some fruit. I achieved 803 g veggies that day.

On fourth day I had more ideas on what to cook and eat to get more vegetables to my diet. At the same time I felt that it took maybe a bit more time to prepare the food. I have a habit of eating just one main meal and lots of snacks. With my veggie challenge on I had to keep proper mealtimes and cook real food. Keeping lunchtimes is actually a very good thing because one of my bad habits is eating chocolate, daily. Now when I have practiced mealtimes I have noticed that eating real, healthy food regularly has kept me away from candy department more often. I don´t have as much cravings for candy as I usually have. HEUREKA! You might add :D Stomach full of real food takes your mind off from thinking what should I want next. I do have to say that taking this 800 g veggies challenge my intention was not to lose weight and I don´t own a scale. I was curious and my point was purely to test how it is to eat this much veggies every day and if is it possible in real life.

5.5. Day Five

This lunch is a good example on how to combine ready meal and home made salad. Vegetarian tortilla is from store and makes a basic light green salad more like a lunch.

Dinner veggies with cheese and tortellini. 

On fifth day I ate 851 g veggies and it came quite without any special effort. It began to feel like a routine and I had so much energy that I thought about keeping the habit of eating more veggies. At least I haven´t heard about any negative effects that veggies could have. More research is needed about exactly how much veggies we should be eating in the future. In the meanwhile this could be a good diet for me. After the challenge week I won´t be using a scale to weight my veggies. Instead of that I am using the experience I got and try to remember the right amounts and routines to add veggies to every meal.

6.5. Day Six

On sixth day I prepared a salad and ate with the tortellini leftovers. I also made same kind of rye bread pizzettas as on the day four.  I achieved 834 g veggies. 

Shopping real food and good ingredients is the key for success. I tend to buy too little veggies compared to other cooking ingredients. On challenge week I decided to buy bigger amounts of veggies so that it was easy to prepare food and take a snack from the fridge. Instead of one package of cherry tomatoes I bought two, instead of one small courgette I bought 3. I also took two different salads, other veggies and fruit. This meant a heavy shopping bag on a way home but it has felt inspiring to open the fridge and see all beautiful and colorful veggies.

7.5. Day Seven

Spinach courgette pancakes and spelt salad.

On the final seventh day I ate 889 g veggies. The first week with new routine was a learning process. I needed to see how much is actually 800 g instead of just guessing if I eat a proper amount. I learned that even though my diet is 90% plant based it could include more fruits and veggies. During the week I ate green veggies more than usual and got used to that. In the future I would like to keep eating more salad and lunch salad could be a good way. To eat this much every day needs a plan and rhythm. I noticed that good old mealtimes are great invention that I want to follow more precisely in the future. I am also considering to prepare snacks and salad to the fridge for those moments when I am super hungry and feel like going for old habits of skipping meals and eating candy.

Have you tested how much veggies you eat? Are you as keen as I am to learn about new studies and improve your life?

Have a good start for the new week!

Sannu