Kohlrabi and carrot sticks with hummus

I haven't just been tasting whiskys (previous post), I've also had a taste of healthy life with lunches such as this assembly of kohlrabi and carrot sticks. I love all sorts of vegetable sticks enjoyed with homemade hummus. Onto this plate I also added some homegrown tomatoes. Do you often enjoy such light lunches? I should definitely do it more often.

Somehow I never seem to get kohlrabi in this country. What's up with that? So now that I saw these beautiful specimen in my local health food store, I just had to grab a few. I hope they'll have them for a while yet, because I really got into the taste again. I prefer them eaten raw with a dip, that is just divine.

By the way, how do you like my hiding deer?

Have a great start to the weekend everyone!

Your VegHog

Mixed fruit and berry smoothie

A fresh smoothie is always a great way to start the day and the possibilities are limitless. Lately I've made more of them, and always feel energetic and light all day after such a breakfast. I like making them in this season, because many fresh berries are still available. I've frozen some berries for later use, but the fresh and local ones are always the best.

Today I had these fruits and berries available for a smoothie:

1 passion fruit

1 apricot

6 strawberries

1 tsp sea-buckthorn powder

150 g Greek yogurt

Blend the ingredients together and enjoy the freshness of the smoothie.

Have a great week!

Your VegHog

5 breakfast bowls

For the start of a new week I want to introduce to you five different breakfast bowls that I've had recently. They are not all from last week as I also really like to have salty spelt, oat or barley porridge in the mornings. Also my weekend breakfasts tend to be more unhealthy than these.

So anyway, a nice bowl of yogurt with fresh berries and fruit, maybe granola or muesli is a very fine thing. At the moment I try to go for a fast paced walk in the park every morning, and when such a healthy breakfast awaits, it's just a wonderful feeling. Alone the looks of such bowls will make you feel cheerful.

Here are five different breakfast bowls that I assembled, but you can get really creative with this and use all your favourite ingredients. I find the berry powders a really good addition, as they are super healthy and add loads of taste.

I. Raspberries, sea-buckthorn powder, granola, yogurt

II. Mango, fig, yogurt

III. Blueberries, dried apple crisps, sea-buckthorn powder, yogurt

IV. Apricots, blueberries, granola, yogurt 

 

V. Pomegranate seeds, strawberries, yogurt

Good start to the week to everyone!

Your VegHog

Sea-buckthorn bread

Sea-buckthorn is the healthiest berry I know, a real super berry, and it's taste is very interesting. I've been looking for a sea-buckthorn bread recipe since I bought some ground dried sea-buckthorn powder in Finland, and finally I've found an idea here that I wanted to try out. The sea-buckthorn berry powder adds a really nice flavour to this bread, and I must say that this is one of my absolute favourites. I changed the recipe a little bit, so here is my version of it.

Recipe for 2 loaves

500 ml water

50 ml melted butter

1 tbsp maple syrup

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp dry yeast (about 1 small bag)

8-9 dl bread flour

3 dl stoneground oatmeal

0,5 dl sea-buckthorn powder

Mix the dry ingredients, melt the butter and heat the water lukewarm. Add the butter, water and syrup into the dry ingredients and knead into and even bread dough. Add more flour or liquid, if the texture isn't satisfactory.

Let the dough raise for about 15 minutes under a tea towel. Then shape it into 2 loaves of bread or into smaller rolls. Let them rest under a tea towel and double the size.

Sprinkle a little water on the top and bake the breads at 220C for about 20-25 minutes (depending on the size).

Let them cool a little and then enjoy with butter and cheese, or save some for later.

Your VegHog