Raw Blackberry Flaxseed Jam

no sugar blackberry jam recipe

During the last autumn berry season, I found an interesting jam recipe posted by a lovely couple on their blog called Food view Berlin. It was fascinating for me to discover that this recipe doesn’t include any cooking or artificial thickeners like traditional jams do, and also it has no sugar – just a few ingredients that need to be grinded, mashed and mixed together, and after just a couple of hours this jam can be the main filling for your morning pancakes or thick spread on a favorite muffin. Although the recipe from the blog foodviewberlin uses raspberries as a main ingredient, I instantly thought on my blackberry bush, …

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Posted in breakfast, desserts, spreads, vegan dishes. Tagged with , , , , , .

Vegan Sour Cherry Strudel

healthy sour cherry pie

When the springtime is gently turning into the first real hot days of summer (hot in all-day-barefoot way), and the trees decide to change their enchanting flowers into the first voluptuous fruits, everyone knows that’s the time for a first true treat made from the fresh sour cherries. At least it was the case (still is) in my entire life, and I guess in the lives of many Europeans – especially in Hungary and Austria, where bakeries and coffee shops are famous for this kind of delicacy. Its name is the sour cherry strudel. Germans call it Weichselstrudel, and Hungarians Meggyes Rétes. Many cooks that I know make it with …

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Posted in bread and pastry, desserts, vegan dishes. Tagged with , , , , , , , .

Baked Sauerkraut with Brown Rice and Prunes

Our life paths and most of our achievements are shaped in early stage of our life, and the country we are born in can ease our progress, or make our life challenging. Growing up in Germany had many advantages and even more peculiarities. My childhood was nice, filled with good people who made me apple pies, nutella bread or my all time favorite Die Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte dessert. I mean, as all other kids in the world, I loved all things sprinkled with sugar or covered with chocolate, so when early winter came, my parents had trouble to make me even sit down at the table when some acidic meal was …

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Peanut Sweet Corn Rice Salad

basmati rice salad

It feels good to wake up in the morning during the spring, summer or autumn, pick up some goodies in your small garden or take a bike ride for a quick stop to your local market and few minutes later, while whistling your favorite song (in my case a few repetitive notes from enchanting My Sister by Tindersticks these days) and make a huge, colorful and refreshing vegan salad, which will substitute your whole meal. During the winter, though, it’s kind of a challenge to come up with a perfect salad recipe. But I love challenges, so a few years back I started to improve my winter salad selection and …

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Posted in main course, salads, side dish, vegan dishes. Tagged with , , , , , , , , .

Lemon Balm Zucchini Soup

dill zucchini soup

Creamy zucchini soup is something every household with at least one zucchini plant makes frequently during summer months – or it should be. You don’t even have to own a garden, it is enough to have a friend or neighbor with zucchini craze, and you will have a few zucchinis weekly on your table, I’m sure. This is because one humble plant produces abundance of zucchinis if there are enough sunny days in your part of the world. Italians have great climate for zucchini’s growth and I think they are the ones that invented this type of soup many moons ago ;) I suppose some gardener just looked around his …

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Posted in main course, soups, vegan dishes. Tagged with , , , , .

Canning Sour Cherries

pop-top jar of sour cherries

Many people think that canning fruits and veggies is a tricky business, but in my experience, nothing can be further from the truth – especially the water bath canning. This preservation technique is easy, safe and it is a simple way to save the ripest and juiciest gifts of nature for those pale winter months. Many people also think that you need a fancy equipment, specially made just for water bath canning – and that’s great helping gear if you have lots of stuff to can, but I do it successfully without it. As a kid, I watched how my grandmother preserves sour cherries with my aunt Eva, who was …

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Posted in canning and pickling. Tagged with , , , , .

One Lovely Blog Award

lovely blog award

  Being fairly new to the blogosphere, I was pleasantly surprised when Jas from all-thats-jas nominated me for the One Lovely Blog Award. I didn’t came across this kind of posts earlier, but as I see, the whole idea behind it is to introduce people to some of the blogs you love to visit, and to share some of your quirky, personal things. And as a nominee who accepts this award, I should: thank the Jas for putting me on her list among the other great blogs, add the One Lovely Blog logo to the post, write 7 things about myself, make a list of 15 blogs that I find lovely …

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Shiitake Mushrooms

(lat. Lentinus Edodes) When we hear the word shiitake, we all somehow know that it’s related to our health and well-being. And that’s true, while shiitake is a Japanese word used for one of the few truly unique superfood in form of a mushroom, and its great secret lies in an ability to feed itself with various nutrients from a bark of a shii tree (Castanopsis cuspidata) rather than a soil, and because of that the original taste of these mushrooms cannot be compared to any other food item found on our beautiful planet. Shiitake mushrooms grow naturally throughout Southeast Asia, where they have been known as a food and …

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Mushroom Goulash

Over the last few years I have tried many mushroom goulash recipes, and to be honest, none of them buzzed my taste buds. Some of them were nice and creamy, but I made it all just once, and didn’t have the urge to make them again. But, one cold, rainy afternoon, I looked into my pantry, took various vegetables, spices and mushrooms with me to the kitchen and managed to combine this dish, which can be categorized as the perfect vegan mushroom recipe for the rainy days. Now, this recipe is a little bit more complicated than usual goulashes, but that’s just because it contains a little bit more ingredients. …

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Sour Cherry Carob Brownies

sour cherry dessert recipe

I have to admit that unlike most of the people, I prefer sour cherries rather than sweet ones. It all had to do with my parents’ garden and few big sour cherry trees, growing there proudly for many years. Actually, they have been in the garden since I can remember, and at first I liked to climb on them and eat chocolate bar in their crowns, and just later I started to appreciate their tiny gorgeous fruits. Nowadays, I go to visit my parents’ house each time when the sour cherries are in season, and I pick them with joy in large amount. There is one problem with them, though. …

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