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.