Boozy Cranberry sauce

An absolute Christmas must is cranberry sauce. Here is a easy recipe. The best I have tasted so fare version taken from "Eat, drink & be vegan" by Dreena Burton. But pimped by me, sorry I can't help myself!

Let get started!

• 2 cups of frozen cranberries or fresh
• 1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp Maple syrup
• 1 Tbsp Active Cherry concentrate (if you can't get hold of this, just add another Tbsp of maple syrup)
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup Vodka

Everything into a pot and cook for about 15 min, until the cranberries softened and the sauce start to thicken.
The can be made 1 - 2 days in advance, not to get stressed. Just heat up on the day.
I wish you all a very Merry Christmas.

Best Glogg in the world - EVER!

This glogg recipe will leave you with rosy cheeks and a permanent smile for quite a while.
I got this recipe from an old danish magasine, but as always pimped by me - to be even better.

Your supposed to make this 2-3 weeks in advance, but who got time for that !? So a week or even a couple of days will do. Lets get started!!

1 brown lager/beer + 1/2 cup of honey, bring it to the boil - and leave to cool.
You will need a large Kilner jar for the next step. Add beer/honey mix to the jar.
And now we are going to add the lethal stuff!
Add 1/2 bottle of vodka or Snaps and 1/2 bottle of red port wine.
Now add the following spices : 3 vanilla pods, 3 whole nutmegs (crush them), 4 whole cinnamon pods,
1 Tbsp cloves, 1 Tbsp cardamon.
Lid on and and leave it for as long as you can bear it. Turn it around every day to mix it.
 When your ready. Put the mixture through a sieve and add 2 bottles of red wine into a pot.
You can add some slices of unvaxed organic oranges and some extra honey, this is all a matter of your taste.
Put it on gentle heat. DO NOT BOIL!
And then a Merry Christmas to you and your lucky guests!

Pumpkin Cupcakes

I know Halloween is over. But it is Thanksgiving in the US, so I thought a Pumpkin cupcake recipe was appropriate.
 This recipe is from on of my favorite books "Vegan Cupcakes take over the world" - pimped my me.

There are many ways to get the pumpkin flesh, please look at the Swedish chef. But I prefer to buy a can of pumpkin instead.

Pumpkin Cupcakes

Mix all these wet ingredients together :
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/3 cup cold pressed rapeseed oil
3/4 cup Xylitol or sugar
1/4 cup Soy milk
1 teaspoon good vanilla extract.
.
Now all the the dry ingredients :
1 1/4 white flour or light brown self rasing
1/2 tsp baking powder +1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda,
1 tsp Cinnamon, 1/4 tsp salt, little nutmeg and a little ground ginger.
Stire it all together with a fork. DON'T use electric mixer- it will get rubbery!
Into the cups, 180 degrees in the oven for 22 min.

Virus Killer Soup

Flu season is here again! Some people swear to chicken soup to ease a cold, but I got my special weapon to fight the bugs - Virus Killer Soup!
The idea for this soup is taken from Patrick Holford book The New Optimum Nutrition Bible. He is not a chef , but a nutritionist.

This soup is so full of vitamin A, antibacterial garlic, anti inflammatory turmeric and ginger.
So cook a big pot and feed the family. And get those nasty flu bugs out of your life!


1 large onion, 3-6 cloves of garlic - chop and fry in coconut oil.
Add 4-6 chopped carrots, 2-4 sweet potatoes. You can also use a onion squash
Big knob of fresh ginger, 1 red chili, 1tsp turmeric, 1 tsp veggie stock powder and 1 tsp Thai spice mix (optional).
Add chopped red pepper and cover with water. Boil for 15-20 min. Then add tin of coconut milk boil another 5 min. Blitz with hand blender until smooth as velvet. Taste! add salt and pepper as needed.

Add some garlic croutons to get mare garlic inside you.
This soup will make you stronger and get over flu quicker.

Pimped Pirogger

You can find them all over the world with differnet names : Pasties, Empanadas - Pirogger.
A small "all in one" meal! They can be used for the lunch box or picnic - what ever.

I got inspired to bake these again after flicking through Viva Vegan by Terry Hope Romero

Here is the basic dough recpie :

•  3 Cups of light brown Self raising flour. I guess half white, half brown would work as well!
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 6 tbsp chilled nonhydrogenated vegan shortening
• 3 tbsp nonhydrogenated vegan margarine
• 3/4 cup cold water

I use my food processor : pulse the flour, salt and baking powder. Add the shortening and margarine - pulse.
It has to turn into a sand like mixture.Now mix with your hands, adding the water. Knead it.
It should be a soft and stretchy dough. Cover the dough and put it in the fridge for at least 2 hours.
You don't have to use all the dough immediately. I will keep in the fridge for 4 - 5 days.

Now the filling! Raid you fridge and be inspired!

The day I baked these, I had a sweet potato and some spinach to use. So I cubed the sweet potato - small cubes. Chopped a onion and some garlic. Stir fry this in a wok. Add some curry powder and continue until softer. Salt and pepper. Then I added some roughly chopped spinach into the potato mix until soften. Of the heat and crumble some feta into the mixture or some soy cheese if you are like me.

Now ready to make the pirogger!
Set the oven to 200 degrees. Roll the dough in to a small ball, smack it flat on the table top or use a rolling pin. Now add the filling, not too much or you won't be able to close it.

And close the Pirog with a fork - look at the picture.

Brush with a beaten egg or some soy cream and into the oven for 25 min.
So now your turn - Raid your fridge and pimp you pirog !

Monkey food with crocodile juice

Saturday mornings are sacred. If I am lucky the twins let me sleep late, in return for this I make them something special for breakfast. This morning an adaption of a recipe from Alicia Silverstone's book "The kind diet". When I was a child we used to call fruit salad for "Monkey food" (Abe mad). So here is my pimped version of one of Alicia's recipe.

Monkey food with crocodile juice

As many portions of fruit salad as you got people. Cut the fruit up in small bit size pieces or cheat as I did. I went to Marks & Spencer and bought 2 boxes of fresh fruit salad : Mango, strawberries, melons, pineapple, blueberries and apples.

Now he sauce : 2 tbsp non dairy milk (soy, nut etc.) 2 1/2 tbsp almond butter, 2 tbsp Maple syrup, 2 tbsp orange juice. Into a blender or hand whisk it.

Toast some coconut shavings. Drizzled some the lovely sauce over the fruit salad and sprinkle with toasted coconut. OMG - so good!! And the boys loved it.

Pimped Baby cookies

Got a trip planned to NYC with a good friend of mine in October. And there is a place which is on my top 10 of things to do - "Baby Cakes: Vegan, (Mostly) Gluten-Free, and (Mostly) Sugar-Free Recipes from New York's Most Talked-About Bakery" on lower East side.

I bought this book last year and couldn't really use a lot of her recipes. In all the recipes was used a special flour mix "Bobs red mill", you can only get this in the US - Ahhhh! But stubborn as I am, I research and found what is in this mix. Adapted he recipe to what I could buy in my shops. So this recipe is totally pimped!

So this lovely cookie recipe is for two lovely Finnish gluten free ladies I know :

Chocolate Chip cookies

Preheat the oven to 170 degrees. Mix together in a bowl all the wet stuff :
1 cup of coconut oil
6tbsp Apple puree (you can use unsweetened baby food)
A dash of salt and 2 tbsp good vanilla extract - I know it sounds like a lot,but trust me.
Then add 3/4 cup Agave Syrup. Put to one side.

In another bowl mix all the dry stuff :
1 1/4 cup Dove Gluten Free Self raising Flour
3/4 Cup Gram flour (Chickpea flour)
1/4 cup grounded flax seeds - I use a coffee grinder.
1 tsp Bicarbonate of soda

Mix the wet with the dry, using a spatula. The fold in 1 cup full of dark chocolate chips (I use dairy free).
Use a tea spoon or melon baller, and place nice little dollops on your baking sheet. Give them a little press to flatten. Into the oven for 20 - 25 min. Then out on a cooling rack. Don't start eating them until they are cold, if you can resist.

Pimped Muesli

When ever I buy ready made muesli, I always gets sooo disappointed. Too many mummified raisins, not enough nuts, just oat, I could go on. So today it is pimp your muesli and not a cookbook. Please forgive me. But you can do so much better than "Alpen".

So here is my muesli. I don't make too big a portion at the time. I want it nice a fresh.

Take 1 cup of oat, 1/2 cup flaked almonds - toasts it gently in a wok. I use a safepan, that is a brilliant non stick wok with no nasty side effects added when heated up.

The add 1/3 cup coconut flakes, 1/3 cup mixed pumpkin and sunflower seeds, 1 tsp w/top cinnamon, a dash of real vanilla powder (from a real vanilla pod) and add while still toasting a good squirt of Agave syrup or runny honey. Don't go mad with this, you only want it to stick together a bit. Take the wok of the heat!
 Now you can add some dried fruit of our liking. I like dried cranberries or sour cherries. Leave it to cool completely and put it into a airtight jar. Eat this muesli with in a week or two. Nice, simple and so yummy - and pimped! Alpen go home!

1001 Nights Pimped Pomegranate Salad

London is boiling in a heatwave. The perfect time for a BBQ. My husband LOVE to BBQ, but doesn't often think about what we are going to have with those kebabs or that grilled fish etc. So the salads and things that makes it all come together is my department.

This recipe is taken from a lovely cookbook called Crazy Water, Pickled Lemons by Diana Henry. But pimped by me!

You will need 1-2 fennel bulbs, that depends of the size. Clean them and cut them paper thin, use a food processor or kitchen mandolin if you got one. 1/2 Cucumber, peel it and scoop out the seeds and cut it fine.
Chop a small red onion or a small bunch of spring onion. Cut it fine. Remember a good salad is all about the cutting, that makes it delicious to eat.


Now make a the dressing : 10 ml White wine vinegar, 40 ml Olive oil, 1tsp honey and salt and pepper. Whisk it all together and pour it over all you choped up veggies. Cover it and put it in the fridge to marinate. At least 1/2 an hour or more.

Before serving add some fresh finely choped hebs : Parsley, coriander and optional chives. Crumble a 200 gram packed of real greek feta cheese (sheeps milk) and the seeds from a 1/2 to a whole pomegranate into the salad. Ready to serve!!
Fresh and lovely! Have a great BBQ

Pimped picnic Tabbouleh

Sometimes the best food happens, when you are preparing for a dish, and you find out you are missing some of the ingredients. This is where "pimping a dish" gets into action.

So yesterday I wanted to cook Tabbouleh for a picnic, using Nadia Sawalha’s very funny and great cookbook “Stuffed Vine leaves saved my life”.
I can recommend this book, just to read and have a laugh.

Didn’t have cracked Wheat, so I cooked some quinoa instead. My cherry tomatoes was getting a bit soft, so I oven dried them. And so on…!!

 And this pimped tabbouleh ended up being really, really nice. Almost better than the original. So here my pimped picnic Tabbouleh :

First the cherry tomatoes!  Cut the tomatoes right across the tummy (the fattest part) and leave them face up on a baking sheet. Drizzle them with olive oil and a few drops of balsamic olive oil. In the oven on 110 degrees for about 2-3 hours. Keep an eye on the little buggers! They need to shrivel up and get concentrated in their own flavour.

100gram (1/2 cup) Quinoa put it into a dry pot and toast the grains. When they start smelling slightly toasted and gives a popping sound, add water about 2-3 cm over the grains. Add 1 tsp veggie stock powder (marigold) an let in simmer under a lid for 10 – 15 min. Don’t let it stick to the bottom of the pot. When the qunioa is cooked, remove from the heat and leave to cool. Whisk in a separate bowl juice from ½ a lemon, 3o ml cold pressed olive oil, salt and pepper. And optional 1 tsp of thai fish sauce and a dash of vanilla powder, the real stuff from a vanilla stick – not the sweet baking concentrate. These two ingredients act as flavour enhancers. Trust me!

Chop up finely a huge bunch of parsley and some mint. It has to be chopped very fine, no cheating or it won’t be nice. Add a bunch of spring onions, chopped into small rings and a ½ peeled and deseeded cucumber chopped into small pieces.

Take out the cherry tomatoes of the oven! Leave to cool.

Mix it all together, taste! You might want to add more lemon juice and olive oil. Then add the oven dried tomatoes.

This is a great salad for picnic or side dish for BBQ.

Best-ever Chilli

World cup in football is here - no doubt about that! Here is a great vegetarian chili recipe. Cook up a big batch and put some the freezer. Then there are quick meals for all those football evenings. I make it hot and spicy, that is the way we like it. And my husband don't even moan about "Where is the meat??". It slides down his belly with a beer on the side, while the football roaring from the telly.

The inspiration for this recipe is taken from one of my favourite cookbook writer Rose Elliot "Low-GI Vegetarian cookbook", but not even her is spared from being pimped by me.

Start cooking!

Chop 1 large onion, 1 red and 1 yellow, 2 cloves of garlic, 1 mild red chili/or if you are more hardcore a scotch bonnet.
Chop and fry of in coconut oil for about 10 minutes.
Then add 1tsp ground coriander, 1 tsp ground cumin, chili powder(as much as you and your family can take) some honey , salt & pepper
and a tsp of Vegemite.
Add tin of chopped tomatoes, some veggie stock.
Cook for another 10 min - Add tin of green lentils + tin of Kidney or black beans.
Cook for another 10 to 15 minutes
Cook again - Serve with fresh coriander, red and brown rice and sliced avocado with some lime.

Now good luck with your football team, where ever you come from. I will put up my Danish flag!!

Walnut & Miso dressing

Eat your greens! I can’t say it often enough. This sauce/dressing can jazz up the most boring greens. So please try this one on your green beans, broccoli etc.

200 ml Mirin or good apple juice. Mirin you can find in the sushi section. Put the Mirin into a pot and bring it to boil. Let it simmer gently, to get some of the booze out, approx. 5 min.
Take the pot of the cooker and add 2 tbsp white miso – Whisk!
Toast 100 gr Walnuts.
Add liquid and toasted nuts into a blender. Add 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tbsp Apple Cider vinegar, pinch of Cayenne pepper and a teaspoon of Tamari or Bragg’s. You can add a tbsp of honey, but that depends of your tastebuds.
Pulse! But don’t turn it into baby puree. Keep some texture!

This sauce goes well with a lot of veggies. Experiment! And keeps in the fridge for some days if you are so lucky!

I have taken inspiration from one of my cookbooks “Enchanted Broccoli Forest” by Mollie KatzenThe New Enchanted Broccoli Forest (Mollie Katzen's Classic Cooking) – But as always pimped by me!

Fruit crumble topping

The weather is not brilliant at the moment and it makes me want to bake wintery stuff. So while we are waiting for spring to come back something to warm us up, here is a great version of a classic crumble.

This crumble topping is utterly delicious with rhubarbs, but can be used with apples, plums, pears etc.

Turn the oven on 175 degrees.

Chop 50 grams white (or dark chocolate) and 50 grams hazelnuts,if you have nut allergy you can use sunflower seeds.

100 grams oats, some real vanilla,50 gram Natural Molasses sugar, 125 grams butter or 60 grams coconut oil. 2 tbsp of flour, if coeliac use brown rice flour.

Mix all the ingredients with you finger into a sandy mixture. Then add the chocolate and nuts.

Cut up small 600 grams of the fruit of you choice + 2 tbsp of brandy or some other booze.You might have to add some sort of sugar, depending of which fruit you use. Not to much! Mix up and in to you pie dish. Add the crumble mixture and into the oven 25 min.

Eat it warm with ice cream, cream fraiche or other. I have it with Swedish Glace a lovely dairy free ice cream.

I have taken inspiration from a great danish vegetarian cookbook "Vegetarisk Vellyst" by Tina Scheftelowitz and Christine Bille Nielsen - Pimped by me.

Haddock Carbonara

As a student I worked in an Italian restaurant "Pulcinella". One of my favorite dishes was "spaghetti carbonara", full of cream, bacon, tons of cheese and white pasta. The only thing green in this dish was the microscopic twig of parsley on the top.But the taste.....!!!

So last night I cooked my version to let my tastbuds walk down memory lane, whiteout the cholesterol attack. Taken from a Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall recipe "kipper carbonara" - pimped by me!

Haddock Carbonara

This is for two hungry people :

Steam 225 gr smoked undyed haddock for 18 min. Remove the skin and flake the fish.
Cook 250 gr Kamut pasta/Wholegrain pasta or gluten free. No white pasta!!!
Cook it as advised on the packet.
Pour into another pan, 1 small carton of "Oatly dairy free cream" or soy cream.
Heat it up slowly. Add a big bunch of chives finely chopped and some quality Parmesan cheese 1/4 cup. I don't do a lot of cheese, but even a small amount of Parmesan gives a lot of flavour.
Add the flaked fish to the sauce and let it simmer to slightly thicken.
Add lots of pepper, but be careful with the salt!
Put the pasta in to the sauce and whirled it around.
Separate to eggs, we are only going to use the yolks! Keep the whites in the fridge to use for something else. Whisk the yolks!
Now add the yolks to the pasta dish and be quick! Mix it in over the heat for only 2 min. This will keep it together and add the extra creamy texture.
If you have no issues with dairy products, you can as extra add a small amount of smoked cheese.

Very yummy! And very much comfort food. Enjoy!

If you are coeliac : The company "Hale & Hearty" do a very nice gluten free pasta.

Scandinavian Crackers

In Scandinavia we love "knaekbrod" = crackers. Like Ryvita!
This is my sisters recipe, pimped from one of her cookbooks - she confessed.

1/2 Cup Oat, 1/2 Cup Sesame seeds, 1/2 cup linseed's, 1/2 cup sunflower seeds, 1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, 1 1/2 cup wholewheat spelt flour, 1 cup water, 1/2 cup oil, 1 tbs baking powder and pinch of salt.
All mixed together, preferably in a food processor. Separate into two batches, roll out between two sheets of baking paper - thin. Draw with a knife squares as the size you want your crackers to be.
Oven 200 degrees for 15 min. Allow to cool. Very nice - enjoy!

Blueberry Smoothie - Pimped!

Once or twice a week I make this delicious smoothie. You can make it summer or winter, the ingredients can be fresh or frozen.
I do have a "top of the range blender", it does need some watts/horse powers to get everything the right consistency.

250-300 ml milk of your choice Soy/oat/rice or normal milk, 1/3 cup Frozen or fresh blue berries, 1 tbsp golden linseed/flax seeds, 1 small fresh or frozen banana, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 1 scoop "whey to go" vanilla protein powder,1 tbsp liquorice root powder. In to the blender. Brzzzzz......

I buy my Liquorice powder in Denmark, but have found in "Holland & Barret" liquorice root tablets. Empty four capsules in to the smoothie. It just give a wonderful taste, that is maybe not for everyone. Liquorice root is so good for your adrenal glands.

This recipe is inspired from danish cookbook "Spis dig yngre" by Thorbjorg Hafsteinsdottir - pimped by me!

Welcome to Pimp my Cookbooks

I got around 100 cookbooks in my kitchen. And I have used them all.
But I always - always think I can do better than Jamie or Delia or Gordon....
So all my cookbooks is pimped! And this is what this blogg is about.

Cooking and food is such a big part of my life. How anybody can go a whole day and "just forget to eat" is beyond me
But the food we fuel our body with has to be good and pure. This is something life has taught me the hard way. When one of my twin boys got diabetes 2 years old, when I had my gallbladder removed in 2007 and over the years seen people I love me getting cancer.
What you put in your mouth has consequences!
But that doesn't mean it has to be tasteless and boring. I want taste, flavours, colors and textures - the full works.

So pimp my cookbook will give you (hopefully) good ideas for nice nosh!

Now I will pour myself a glass of wine and cook some Trout with sundried tomatos butter and some lovely veggies, for me and hubby!