My Mom's Spinach in Garlic-Tomato Sauce ("Spinat in Knoblauch-Tomaten Tunke)

This is another little recipe from my Mom. This spinach tastes delicious! Can't get enough of it when she cooks it. With spinach I often have the problem that it tastes bland. Not this one. My Mom serves it with French Fries, I am using fried potato cubes, but it basically is the same. However, I have put my own little twist on the spinach by adding onions and a little feta cheese. Also, I discovered (as I had some leftovers) that it tastes really good on pancakes or crepes.

Ingredients:

 Spinach and Garlic-Tomato Sauce:

• 500 gram fresh spinach
• 5 cups water
• 3 tablespoons salt
• 2 tablespoons oil
• optional: 1 onion - finely chopped
• 4-6 cloves garlic - minced
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon harissa (spicy paprika paste)
• 1/2 cup water 
• salt
• optional: 1/4 cup feta cheese - cubed

Side of Potatoes (substitute for French Fries):

• 5-6 potaoes - cubed
• 1 liter salt water 
• 1 tablespoon oil
• salt

Preparation:

1. Prepare the spinach. Bring the water to a boil in a large pot. Add the salt and the fresh spinach leaves. Boil for about 10 minutes, just so that it starts to wilt. Then remove from heat and drain in a strainer. Set aside.
2. Prepare the sauce. Heat the oil and sauté the onions till almost translucent. Add the garlic, stir and fry for 2 minutes. Be careful that it doesn't turn brown. Add the tomato paste and harissa and stir. Cook for another minute. Then add the water, not too much. It is supposed to have sort of a creamy consitency.
3. Mix the spinach and the sauce. Add the spinach to the sauce, stir in feta cubes. Mix everything and heat up for a couple of minutes till the cheese is melted Add salt to taste. 
4. Prepare the potatoes. My Mom actually uses French Fries, but I deciced to go with freshly fried potato cubes. Cut the potatoes in little cubes. Heat up a small pot of salt water and boil the potatoes for about 10 minutes. They should not be completely soft. Then drain the potatoes. Heat up oil in a frying pan, add the potatoes and fry for 5 minutes. Don't stir too much, so that the bottom part of the potato cubes get real crispy.
5. Serve the spinach with the potatoes. If you want to be adventurous, serve it on top of a pancake or crepes.

Note: The onions in Step 2 are actually my addition, my mom immediately starts with the garlic and does not use onions. The feta cheese in Step 3 are also my idea and optional. 

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Red Quinoa Chili

I was looking for another dish wish lots of vegetables and I love chili con carne. So far, I have never cooked with quinoa myself, so this quinoa chili looked interesting. I bought a fancy red quinoa that was called "Grain of the Inkas". After having been to Mexico, this kinda spoke to me :)

The important part of this recipe is the spice mix - fresh spices (garlic, ginger, chilis, cilantro), ground seasonings (chili, cumin, coriander, paprika, sugar, cayenne, salt and pepper) and the pastes (tomato paste as well as harissa).

As I am not a big fan of using only "half" a bell pepper, or "half" a can of beans, this recipe will serve quite a few people, maybe around 6, but it does freeze well :)

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup uncooked quinoa 
• 2/3 - 1 cup salt water
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 1-2 onions - chopped
• 3 cloves garlic - minced
• 1 tablespoon ginger - minced
• 3 chilis - sliced
• 2 carrots - diced
• 1 bell pepper - largly diced
• 1 small zucchini - diced
• 1/3 cup white wine
• 1 (14 oz) can diced tomatoes
• 2 cups water
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon harissa (chili paste)
• 2-3 tablespoons chili powder
• 2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 2 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• salt, pepper to taste
• 1 (15 oz) can red kidney beans
• 1 (15 oz) can black beans
• 1 (15 oz) can corn
• optional: 1 (15 oz) can chickpeas or navy beans
• 1/2 chopped fresh cilantro
• juice of 1 lime

• optional toppings: fresh cilantro, sour cream, cheese, taco chips, bread

Preparation:

1. The first step is to boil the quinoa. You will need about 1.5 cups of cooked quinoa. Therefore use about 1/3 cup of uncooked quinoa. Rinse the quinoa in a fine meshed sieve with hot water, it might taste grainy or soapy otherwise. Bring twice as much of water to a boil (2/3 cups of water) and add the quinoa and 1 teaspoon of salt. Cook for about 20 minutes, then drain.
2. Heat oil in a separate pot. Add onions, fry for 5 min till almost translucent. Add the garlic, ginger and chilis and fry for another minute. Add the carrots and bell pepper, fry for about 3-5 more minutes. Stir to prevent burning. Add the zucchinis and a splash of white wine. Keep frying for 2 more minutes and stir. 
3. Now, add the diced tomatoes, fill up with the water and vegetable broth and add the spices (tomato paste, harissa, chili powder, cumin, coriander, paprika, sugar, cayenne pepper). Stir and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat a little bit and let simmer for about 15 min. 
4. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Drain and rinse the beans (kidney beans, black beans, corn, navy beans and/or chickpeas), add to the vegetable-tomato-chili mix. Add the cooked quinoa and the fresh cilantro and heat up for a few minutes. Sprinkle in the juice of the lime.
5. Serve with optional toppings (fresh cilantro, sour cream, cheese, taco chips, bread).

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Minted Pea Soup

This is another great recipe from the "Ultimate Vegetarian". I was craving a pea soup but didn't want to go boring. So, this minted pea soup with nice toppings sounded delicious.

Ingredients:

• Oil
• 2 onions - chopped
• 4 potatoes - chopped
• 4 garlic gloves - crushed
• 1 inch fresh ginger - peeled and chopped
• 1 red chili - chopped
• 1 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tbsp flour
• 1/4 cup white wine
• 3 1/2 cups vegetable stock
• 1 lb frozen peas
• 3 tbsp chopped mint
• salt, pepper, cayenne pepper
• 2/3 cup plain yoghurt
• 1/2 tsp cornstarch
• 1 1/4 cups milk

• Toppings: mint sprig, chili slices, drizzle of plain yoghurt, dash of cayenne pepper, crumbled feta cheese 

Preparation:

1. Heat the oil, add the onions and potatoes and fry for about 3 minutes till onions are translucent. Stir frequently. 
2. Add the garlic, ginger, chili, coriander, cumin and flour and stir. Cook for 1 minute. Add the white wine and cook for another minute.
3. Fill with vegetable stock. Add the peas and mint. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat. Let simmer for 15 minutes. 
4. Blend the soup till smooth and add pepper, salt and cayenne to taste. I used a hand immersion blender. Before I blended it, I took a few tablespoons of the pea - potato mix and set it aside for later. I like to have a few chunks in my soup. 
5. Blend the plain yoghurt till smooth as well as it sometimes has little chunks in it. Add the cornstarch and mix. Stir the yoghurt-cornstarch mix into the soup, add the milk and heat up until it almost boils. Cook for 2 minutes. 
6. Serve with some toppings and crusted bread. You can now also add the pea-potatoe mix that we set aside before blending. I especially loved to put in the crumbled feta cheese.

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"Zum dritten Mann" - Brunch Experience Austrian Style

Brunch on Sundays are very famous here in Berlin. So, today we also looked for a nice brunch place here at the Prenzlauer Berg area. We walked around a bit and honestly, I did not know how to decide for a good place where we wouldn't need to wait too long... But then my friends noticed a place that advertised a Julius Meinl coffee, a vienna coffee type that they knew and liked from their vacation in vienna and haven't had for a while. I have never been to Vienna but always wanted to go. We tried it out and perfect decision. Table was a little small, but no wait time and great food. This cute little vienna coffeeshop/restaurant at the "Kollwitzplatz" is called "Zum dritten Mann".

The name "Zum dritten Mann" is based on the 1949 British film noir "The Third Man" with Orson Wells and produced by Carol Reed which is set in postwar Vienna.

This restaurant offers austrian style cuisine. For our brunch we ordered the "Wien für 2 Personen" (Vienna for 2) that came with several austrian kinds of salami, ham and cheese and a bread basket and "Linz" which was more a sweet choice with crepes. This was a good mix and plenty of food.

In a Galaxy far far away...

Amazing gift from my friends! Who wouldn't love this? I think the pictures speak for themselves... Can't wait to try it out :)

Kiymet's Red Lentil Soup

This is another recipe from my work colleague (check also out her Börek and Poğaça recipe). It's a very quick and easy recipe and we used a few spare minutes at work to prepare it for lunch. It tasted delicious and made for a good team lunch.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 1/2 cups red lentils
• 1 onion - diced
• 1 potato - diced
• 1 carrot - diced
• 1 tablespoon paprika paste
• 1 1/2 l vegetable broth
• salt, pepper
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon curry
• 1 teaspoon coriander
• 1 teaspoon dried herbs (e.g. mint, rosemary, parsely, thyme)
• 1 lemon
• crusty bread

Preparation:

1. Heat the oil. Add the red lentils, onion, potato, carrot and paprika paste and fry for about 5 minutes. Keep stirring frequently. Add salt and pepper.
2. Fill with the vegetable broth (or water and 1 tabelspoon ground vegetable broth seasoning). Boil with closed lid for about 15 minutes.
3. Add the remaining spices. Squeeze the lemon over the soup and serve with the bread.

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Apple-Walnut-Cranberry Salad

It was time for another salad. I tried to recreate the apple-walnut-cranberry salad from our Thanksgiving dinner. The vinaigrette is slightly different as I made use of what I had at hand :)

Ingredients:

• 5-8 cups mixed salad greens (baby spinach, romaine, red leaf, arugula etc.)
• half of a green apple - thinnly sliced
• 1/3 cup dried cranberries
• 1/3 cup feta cheese - crumbled
• 1/2 cup walnuts - halved/chopped

Vinaigrette:

• 2 tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 tablespoon orange juice (from an orange or a tangerine)
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1-2 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard
• salt, pepper

Preparation:

1. Combine the salad greens, apple, cranberry, feta and walnuts. Toss it through. 
2. Whisk all ingredients for the vinaigrette together. Mix well. 
3. Pour dressing over salad. Enjoy :)

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