Category: Easy Recipes

Easy Homemade Tzatziki

Easy and delicious, that’s what this homemade tzatziki is!  I use my homemade yogurt for it, and strain it to make a Greek yogurt.  It’s great for dipping lightly grilled pita, and for souvelaki.  You just have to plan a few hours ahead so you can strain the yogurt, unless you’ve bought some already thick Greek yogurt.

What you need:

2 cups yogurt, not low-fat

cheesecloth for straining

1 clove garlic, minced (or more if you like it really garlicky)

1/2 english cucumber, grated

salt and pepper to taste

fresh mint, optional

What you do:

1.  Line a sieve with cheesecloth and place the yogurt into the cheesecloth.  Refrigerate for a few hours or over night to and allow it to drain.  Pour off the liquid that is drained.

2.  Grate the cucumber and squeeze it so you get as much liquid out of it as you can.

3.  Add the garlic, salt and pepper to taste, and optional mint.  Mix it all up.

I like it best when it’s not served straight out of the fridge, so if you keep it in the fridge, you might want to take it out a little while before serving.

French Rhubarb Cake

Last year I planted rhubarb in my garden, so this spring I harvested the first stalks.  For Mother’s Day I made this cake, and my mom really liked it-she even asked for the recipe!  She likes a simple cake that’s not too gooey or sweet.  Perfect fit for her!

This recipe comes from the website My Kitchen in the Rockies.  There are helpful tips on this site for high altitude baking.

What you need:

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1 & 1/4 cups sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

3 eggs, room temperature

1 & 2/3 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/8 teaspoon salt

4-5 cups rhubarb, chopped into 1cm chunks

1/2 cup slivered almonds

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 375 F.  Grease a 10 inch springform pan.

2.  Beat the butter and sugar for a few minutes, then add the eggs, one at a time, and beat until fluffy.  Beat in the vanilla.

3.  Stir in the dry ingredients until just incorporated.

4.  Fold in the rhubarb, making sure you don’t mix it too much.

5.  Pour the batter into the springform pan and smooth the top.  Sprinkle the almonds on top.

6.  Bake for about 40 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Let it cool on a wire rack.

Cilantro Pesto

Often, when I don’t know what to cook, I open up my Rebar cookbook.  I’ve tried a lot of the recipes, loved a lot of them, but only blogged a few.  This pesto is a nice change from the usual, with cilantro, pumpkin seeds, lime juice and jalapeno peppers.  I served it tossed with some baked spaghetti squash, but it would also be great on regular pasta. This recipe is half the original, and makes about 2/3 cup of pesto, plenty for a few people.

What you need:

1 bunch clean cilantro, stems chopped off

1/4 cup toasted pumpkin seeds

1/4 jalapeno pepper, chopped with seeds

1 garlic clove

2 teaspoons fresh lime juice

2 tablespoons grated parmesan or asiago cheese

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons olive oil

What you do:

1.  Toast the pumpkin seeds slightly in a dry frying pan.  They toast really fast, so just turn the heat to medium-low and shake them around every half a minute or so.

2.  Put all the ingredients except the olive oil into a food processor.  I just have a little handheld one, and that works fine. Puree until everything is chopped to little bits.

3.  Pour in the olive oil, a little at a time, until it is combined.

Ready to go!

Fig & Anise Crisps

Terra Breads makes this fabulous fig and anise bread.  I just made up a mixture of olive oil and maple syrup, brushed it on and toasted it to makes these darlings.  They were delicious with some salty olive tapenade on top to play off the sweetness of the figs and maple syrup.

What you need:

part of a loaf of fig & anise bread, thinly sliced

olive oil

maple syrup

What you do:

1.  As thinly as you can, slice the bread.  Place the slices onto a baking sheet.

2.  Mix some olive oil with some maple syrup, less syrup than oil.

3.  Brush a little of the mixture onto each piece of bread.

4.  Toast them in the oven on about 250-300F, watching closely so they don’t burn.

They were great with the olive tapenade, but I would imagine a sharp cheese or some cream cheese would be fantastic.

Addictive Chocolate Sea-Salt Cookies

I’ve been enjoying Lindt’s sea salt chocolate bars lately, so when I found this recipe for yogurt-cocoa cookies I knew I needed to mimic those chocolate bars with this recipe.  I did this by adding a little sea salt to the tops of the cookies.  They are definitely addictive, being chewy inside and crispy outside, super chocolatey, and then there’s the little hit of salt on top.  Not too sweet, and a definite must for chocolate lovers!

What you need:

1 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/8 teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons butter

7 tablespoons cocoa

2/3 cup white sugar

1/3 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup plain yogurt (not low-fat!)

1 teaspoon vanilla

sea salt for sprinkling

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.

2. Melt the butter and remove from the heat.  Stir in the cocoa and sugars.  Stir in the vanilla and yogurt.

3.  Add the flour, baking soda and salt all at once and stir it in.

4.  Line cookie sheets with parchment paper, then drop the cookie batter on by tablespoonfuls, or use a small ice cream scoop.  Leave space between the cookies.

5.  Bake for about 8 minutes, then remove the pans from the oven and let the cookies sit for a few minutes.  Then let them cool on a rack… but you’re going to want to eat some right away.

Corey’s Amazing Mango Salsa

I was treated to an amazing feast recently!  This salsa was so fresh and tasty, brought to us by guest blogger Corey Knott.  He served it with tilapia, which paired perfectly with it.  Corey started with fabulous fresh ingredients, highlighted by the best mango I’ve ever tasted, and the most beautiful.

What you need:

1 ripe mango, diced

1/2 red onion, diced finely

1/2 red bell pepper, diced

juice of 3 limes

1/2 a bunch of cilantro, chopped

What you do:

1.  Combine all the ingredients and… it’s ready to go!

Homemade Olive Bread Croutons

I bought a loaf of bread from the fabulous Terra Breads the other day, and since I couldn’t use the whole thing, I threw it in my freezer.  Later I pulled out a couple of slices to make these yummy croutons.  They were fabulous on top of a caesar salad.

What you need:

a few slices of olive bread

1-2 cloves garlic, finely diced

1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh sage

olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

What you do:

1.  Cut the bread into cubes.

2.  Heat a frying pan to medium-low and drizzle in some olive oil, then throw in the garlic, sage and bread.  Toss the bread around so it gets coated in oil.  Add a little more oil if you need it and toss it again.

3.  Toss the bread from time to time until it gets a little browned and crusty.

4. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Throw them on your favourite salad!

Lebanese Chocolate Anise Cookies

When I lived in Halifax circa 1995 my friend and I ate a Lebanese feast every weekend at Mediterraneo Restaurant.  We were so addicted to their food that we were devastated to find they weren’t open on Easter weekend.  Luckily for us there was another Lebanese restaurant across the street, called Beirut Beirut.  I don’t think either of these places exist any more.  It was at Beirut Beirut where the owner, Peter, asked us to sample some of the desserts.  When we tasted these little unbaked chocolate cookies he made us guess what was in them.  We couldn’t, but after many visits and special orders for these cookies, he shared the recipe with me.  This is only my best imitation of the real thing, as I never actually saw him making them, so I had to guess at some of the process.

Instead of baking, you toast the ingredients, then mix them with some honey.

Today I made them into Easter egg shapes because it’s that time of year, and it was Easter weekend when I first tasted them.  Peter made them into small logs, or shaped like a Hershey’s Kiss.

This recipe makes about a dozen small cookies, but they are packed with flavour, so you don’t need a lot at one time.

What you need:

1/4 cup raw peanuts

1/4 cup raw almonds

1/4 cup raw walnuts (I used half walnuts, half pecans when I ran out of walnuts)

1/4 teaspoon mint leaves

a pinch of thyme

2 teaspoons anise seed

2 tablespoons flour

2 tablespoons cocoa

honey

a little icing sugar for sprinkling on top

orange flower water, optional

What you do:

1.  Grind the nuts, anise seeds, thyme and mint.  I used my electric coffee grinder to do this.  Spread this mixture on a baking sheet and toast at about 250F for about 15 minutes.  Every 5 minutes you need to give them a bit of a stir, and make sure they don’t burn.

2.  Mix the flour and cocoa with the nut mixture in the baking pan.  Toast for another 5 minutes or so.

3.  Let the ingredients cool, then place them into a bowl.  Mix honey in, a little at a time, until you get a firm mixture that you can make into shapes.

4.  Shape the cookies into logs, eggs, “kisses,” or whatever shape you desire.

5.  Sprinkle with a tiny bit of orange flower water, if you are using it, then dust a little icing sugar on top.

Homemade Yogurt

For the last few years I’ve been making my own yogurt.  It’s really easy to do, it is way cheaper than buying yogurt (1L of yogurt for the cost of a litre of milk), and it tastes amazing.  I eat it for breakfast most mornings, but I also use it to make yogurt cheese, dips, and as an ingredient in many recipes like this, this, this and this.  I also eat a lot of yogurt as a source of calcium, because as a person who is lactose intolerant I am always trying to include calcium rich foods in my diet.  The culturing process eats up most of the lactose, so it doesn’t hurt me.

The brand of my yogurt maker is Deni, and I like it because it’s the perfect size for a quart canning jar.  I just took out the little jars and insert that came with the machine, and make it in the big jar – fewer jars to wash up!

What you need:

1 litre milk, I use whole or homo, from Avalon Dairy

1/4 cup plain yogurt or yogurt starter

What you do:

1.  Heat the milk in a pot, stirring to avoid scorching.  Heat until just before it boils (110F if you want to be exact).

2.  Let the milk cool to room temperature.

3.  Mix a little of the cooled milk into the yogurt, then add a little more milk, stir it in, then mix all the rest together.

4.  Put the milk into a clean jar and screw the lid on tight.  Place it in the yogurt maker.  This keeps it a constant temperature.  I like to keep it in for 8 hours, but you can keep it in up to 12 hours.  It will taste more tangy the longer you keep it in

5.  Refrigerate the yogurt to stop the process. You can eat it a few hours later. I like to just cut up some fruit and put it in a bowl with the yogurt – a delicious and healthy breakfast or snack!

Lamb Chops with Pistachio Tapenade

These little chops are so easy and tasty – I’ve fallen in love with them.  I don’t cook lamb very often, so I wanted to find an amazing recipe, and after much searching I found it at Smitten Kitchen.  Olives and nuts, well right there you’ve got an amazing combination that works so well with the lamb.

If you want to try out this recipe on someone, feel free to invite me over!

I served them with tiny baked potatoes roasted with some duck fat, rosemary and salt, along with a green salad with vinaigrette, strawberries and toasted slivered almonds.

What you need:

1 rack of lamb or 6-8 chops

1/3 cup unsalted pistachios, toasted

1/3 cup pitted green olives

1 & 1/2 tablespoons capers

1 clove garlic, chopped

2 teaspoons fresh oregano

1 & 1/2 tablespoons parsley

olive oil

zest of 1 lemon

salt and pepper

What you do:

1.  Cut the rack of lamb into chops, the salt and pepper each one.  Let these sit while you prepare the tapenade.

2.  To make the tapenade, place the pistachios, capers, garlic, oregano, parsley and lemon zest in a food processor.  Add a little olive oil at a time to make it into a thick paste.

3.  Preheat the oven to 425 F.  Heat a frying pan to medium-high, then add some olive oil.  Cook the lamb chops for 2 minutes per side, or until they are browned.  Remove the chops to a baking pan and smear some of the tapenade on each.  Place the chops in the oven and cook for 4-5 minutes, which will give you lovely rare chops.

4.  Remove the chops from the oven and let them rest 5 minutes before serving.  Savour!