Tztatziki Sauce | Vegan recipe

Tztatziki Sauce | Vegan recipe

Yogurt, cucumbers, garlic, lemon and mint. What’s better on a hot day like this? A few ingredients for a simple fresh and quick sauce typical of Greek tradition: the tztatziki.

I often prepare this recipe, especially during the summer. It is very versatile and I love to combine it with falafel, to use it as a dressing for salads or just to enjoy on a slice of bread or spread on a pita.

This sauce is perfect as an appetizer or a snack. Its vegan version is much more appreciated and it keeps the same creamy texture and taste than the original. Moreover, between the basic ingredients of tztatziki sauce, there are cucumbers, as everyone knows, vegetables rich in beneficial properties. In fact, the cucumber is one of the plants with the highest content of water, rich in vitamins and minerals, useful for skin hydration and detoxification.

The recipe.
Ingredients for 4 people:

  • 500 g natural soy yogurt;
  • 4 cucumbers;
  • 2 garlic cloves;
  • Lemon juice;
  • Just enough salt;
  • 2 tablespoon mint leaves;
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil.

Instructions:

  1. Shave and grate the cucumbers with a large hole grater and put the pulp into a colander, pressing it down with a spoon, to eliminate water. (I prefer to set aside some chunks of diced cucumbers and leave them whole in the sauce);
  2. Finely chop garlic and add it to the yogurt, along with some lemon juice, salt and olive oil;
  3. Add to the mixture the cucumbers and finely chopped mint leaves;
  4. Serve cold.

My advice:

If you don’t appreciate the strong garlic flavour, you can halve the cloves, leave them to rest for half an hour in the yogurt and then remove them from it.

Instagram

Italian Blog

WebSite

Continue Reading

Pasta salad with avocado| Vegan recipe

Pasta salad with avocado| Vegan recipe

My house is blooming. I smell scent of lavender, daisy and sunflower. Last Sunday we dropped by the amazing Flower Market on Columbia Road and, as always, I didn’t resist to all those colourful tonalities and infinite pleasant scents. We came back home with a handful of Spring in our hands and now my living room looks like the mirror of my emotions and at the same time you can feel in the air the desire to sink down in multi-coloured fields.

An old blanket, a poetry book and a basket full of delicious food: today we will have a picnic under the shade of an oak tree. I will serve a cold pasta salad with avocado, cherry tomatoes, basil, mint and other flavouring. This dish is the protagonist of my day and it looks like a floral arrangement. I am enjoying it while I am reading Neruda’s poems and I keep quiet when tasting my pasta.

“Here I love you.
Here I love you and the horizon hides you in vain.
I love you still among these cold things” (P. Neruda)

Let’s enjoy the Sun. We will blooming as love poems.

The recipe.

Ingredients for 4 people:

  • 400 gr of Italian pasta;
  • 2 not too much ripe avocados cut into chunks;
  • 20 cherry tomatoes. Cut them into 2 parts;
  • Some mint leaves;
  • 200 gr of roughly cut basil;
  • A table spoon of fennel seeds;
  • Some lemon juice;
  • Just enough pepper;
  • Just enough extra virgin olive oil;
  • 200 gr of basil;
  • 1 chopped garlic clove;
  • 1/5 onion finely chopped;
  • 1 table spoon 100% maple syrup;
  • A pinch of salt;
  • Just enough balsamic vinegar.

Instructions:

  1. Cook the pasta, drain it “al dente” and pass it under cold water to stop the cooking process, then put it into a bowl;
  2. Stir cherry tomatoes together with basil, mint, garlic, onion, pepper, lemon juice, fennel seeds, maple syrup, vinegar, oil and salt: mix well all the ingredients and let it marinate for about 30 minutes. Stir the mixture occasionally;
  3. Add the seasoning to the pasta, add avocado and stir it well;
  4. Serve it cold.

Flower Market

Pablo Nerduda

Istagram

Italian Blog

WebSite

Continue Reading

Light Pancakes Recipe |Vegan Recipe

Light pancakes recipe| Vegan Recipe

We have all forgotten the importance of small gesture, the scent of naturalness and simple things. This morning, let’s take time for us… Let’s have breakfast in peace, like we used to when we were kids.

It’s Sunday and I woke up very early with the sunlight brushing my hair. Francesco is still wrapped in his dreams. Then I take a pan, some strawberries, some cream and chips of chocolate, and I add a flavor of love and feeling of empathy: these are the ingredients for a sweet awakening. I love having breakfast with fluffly and still warm pancakes, accompanied with fruits and a cascade of maple syrup or cream. A quick and easy recipe, that can really improve your day. Sometimes we underestimate the power of food and healthy tastes, which are the only ones able to spread the right daily positive vibes.

After we have reloaded with this abundant and healthy breakfast, we went for a long walk to the wonderful paths of Victoria park. Suddenly, we found ourselves surrounded by the green Nature of the park, the chirping of the birds in the background, the smell of the summer peeping out from the horizon. You don’t really need to go far away to smile. I mean, let’s not get lost in the conformity of everyday life, just be ourselves!

The Recipe

  • Our recipe replaces the traditional ingredients with oat flour instead of the white one, vegetable milk instead of cow’s milk, ripe banana instead of white sugar and baking soda and vinegar instead of yeast!
  • This recipe is great even for your kids, who can enjoy it for snack!

Ingredients for 5-6 (more or less) Pancakes:

  • 130 g of oat flour;
  • 230 ml of vegetable milk;
  • 2 ripe bananas;
  • A pinch of baking soda;
  • 1 tea spoon vinegar;
  • Some organic lemon zest;
  • A pinch of salt.

Instructions:

  1. Pour in a bowl the oat flour, baking soda, vinegar, a pinch of salt, vegetable milk, lemon zest and stir them well together;
  2. Cut bananas into small chunks and add them to the mixture. With the help a mixer blend well the dough;
  3. Preheat a non-stick pan with a diameter of about 10 cm;
  4. With a spoonful take the mixture and pour in the centre of the pan, then let it spread out;
  5. Let it cook for few minutes. When you see little bubbles, then your pancake is ready to be turned on the other side until it has browned. Help yourself with a spatula;
  6. Repeat the process until the dough is finished;
  7. Pile up pancakes on the top of each other and stuff them as you wish.

You can use for the topping the traditional maple syrup or let your imagination run free…

I used a vegan cream (the same one I used for the tart, you can find the recipe here), some strawberries and chips of dark chocolate.

My advice

If you don’t eat all your pancakes, save them in the fridge for about 3 days, then reheat and enjoy them again!

Victoria Park

  

Instagram

Italian Blog

WebSite

 

Continue Reading