WARMING CURRY PUMPKIN CREAM

As we are slowly coming to the end of summer and the days are becoming colder I thought it is the right time to share my ultimate curry pumpkin cream soup. A while ago I have shared carrot cream soup and I still love it, however, this recipe has a much more define and interesting taste. 

To be honest I was surprised how well it turned out, a bit spicy yet still flavorful and with a little bit of sweetness to it. I would only recommend to use a well sharped knife and same goes to the vegetable peeler to peal the pumpkin. The skin tends to be very hard and without using one the process can be very dull and annoying - I tired and trust me it was no fun until I found my knife sharpener..  If you are really lazy you could use ready pumpkin puree but the taste will be much more blunt, hence I’d say it is worth the extra effort. 

HEALTHIER SPINACH FALAFEL - baked not fried

I have never been a big fan of falafel, back in school it was served tasteless and with basically no spices. This experience made me very skeptical for years, until I tried it in a simple, probably very unhealthy takeaway - all it needs is a bit of spice to it! Now as I learned how easy it is to do it yourself and I have it at least once a week. It is so convenient you can make it into little bites, like the once I did for this recipe, or into burgers. 

Falafel can be made with so many variations, with spinach, plain, with peppers, olives literally whatever you fancy and therefore it does not get boring quickly. It is the biggest alternative for vegetarians in so many places, sometimes so over priced thus I reckon it is good to know how to make it at home. Besides that, chickpeas are very high in protein and fiber - best of both worlds. In addition it has a low GI (=30) so it is safe for diabetic and the fiber itself regulates glucose level in the blood. 

COCONUT BANANA ICE CREAM

I finally managed to go on an trip to the fresh market down in the city of Leeds. I was really tempted to get whole lot of delicious fruits and veggies but I had the image of carrying heavy bags all the way up to my flat stuck in my head. This definitely stopped me from going crazy shopping.
 Maybe for the better, as I completely forgot how quickly fresh and not loaded with chemicals fruits go bad. Since being at uni I usually shopped in the supermarkets, it's close, it's cheap - it's convenient. I got used to the fact that my bananas can sit in the cupboard for days and don't even go brown, that wasn't the case this time. Having said that, you can probably guess I found myself stuck with  more than a few bananas that were literally on a verge of being inedible. I really had to figure out a way to use them up, I mean seriously how many bananas can you eat in a row....  

5 WORST EATING HABITS

We all are guilty of some bad eating habits, as the saying says "nobody is perfect". Below I mentioned 5 routines I consider the worst in terms of nutrition and health of your body. It is good to at least be aware of them, it may also be helpful when trying to lose weight. Improving even one or two can have a very positive impact on your lifestyle.

Warming Carrot Cream Soup

To be fair I have never been a fan of soups. I did not like the fact it is simply water with vegetables inside, how can you even get full eating that? My opinion has changed after trying cream soups. They are way more filling and it seams like the taste is much richer. 

As you probably know, here in UK, it is quite common that it is raining, it is windy and generally the weather is not the greatest at all times. Since I moved to Leeds, there were more days when I have been ill then days where I felt OK. Probably I just have to get used to that climate but that is not what I want to share. There is nothing that warms me better then a delicious cream soup. It helped me to feel better and warm up on these rainy days. 

Green Lunch Mix

Recently I have moved out of home and begun my university life in Leeds students halls. As you can probably guess it is much harder to prepare a lovely meal full of fancy ingredients and spices because when living on your own it is your responsibility to buy everything! Also not to lie some foods might be very expensive and hard to get. 

Sweet Amaranth for breakfast

Are you fed up with boring porridge for breakfast? I would like to share my quite simple, a little time consuming, yet delicious recipe for Amaranth "Porridge". It is a very healthy plant full of vitamins such as B, C, E and what is very important on vegetarian diet it is high in proteins. It will easily fill you up and give you a lot of energy to start up the day.

Personally, I prefer it as a sweet breakfast but amaranth can also be cooked salty and used as an addition to meals. The topping is more or less optional, however, I like to add kiwi since the maple syrup is pretty sweet and the kiwi adds a little sourness.

Quick Mushroom Sauce

Probably everyone knows how to prepare a mushroom sauce, however, I decided to share my recipe with a tiny twist. Due to several health issues my diet has to be based generally on low-fat meals and hence I try to avoid products such as thick cream, which is a common ingredient in mushroom sauces. To replace it, I used unsweetened yoghurt. On the other hand if you are vegan you might try this recipe by substituting milk-based product with soy milk!

What is more, I cherish spicy food thus to add more flavor to this sauce I added some chilli peppers but if you prefer softer tastes just omit this step!
Hope you will enjoy it :)

Gluten and diary-free cornflour pancakes

Yes. I am an admitted pancake-lover - I simply cannot survive without them. I mean, I can, yet I love myself (or at least try to) to much to deprive myself of them. However, as I decided to exclude gluten from my diet in order to help my digestive system recover from numerous ailments, I am not able to indulge on these delicious white wheat pancakes anymore. I used to feel sorry for myself, until I tried them made with cornflour and my grandma's house. They were DELICIOUS! Actually - though I am not sure if it was not caused by a long pancake rehab - I think they are even better this way. So, if you are non-gluten eater and you thought there is no hope for you - this recipe comes as a rescue! Let me know in the comments how you liked this variation of one of the best dishes in the world.

Ingredients

2 cups cornflour

1 cup water

1 cup almond milk

1 egg

1 tbsp oil (I used flaxseed oil)

1 tsp sugar

pinch of salt

+ oil for frying

Preparation

1. Mix all dry ingredients, then add the wet ones (you can alter the amount of liquids added, depending on your preferences regarding the texture of dough).

2. Preheat the frying pan with a small amount of oil. 

3. Pour dough with a ladle onto the pan and fry pancakes from both sides. You can place them on paper towels later on, in order to remove the fat.

Enjoy!

Veggie (almost vegan) buckwheat pizza

I recently experienced this heavy urge to eat some junk food. Unfortunately, due to my lovely allergies (milk/gluten) I am not able to scoff that margheritta at Pizza Hut next corner or indulge on pink-iced donuts for $1.50 from Tesco. Gluten-free veggie burger + fries ordered yesterday for lunch did not satisfy me. That is why, as soon as I got home after the last exam this week, I headed to the kitchen in order to create that little beauty below. It is almost vegan, but I added some creamy goat cheese as an addition. However, you're free to skip it or replace it with, for instance, hummus or tomato sauce or whatever you like.

Before baking:

After baking (not much of a difference, though):

Vegetable soup with kale / Zupa jarzynowa z jarmużem

Ingredients

2 handfuls kale

2 sweet peppers

2 carrots

4 young potatoes

1 handful green peas (fresh, bean pod)

1 handful goji berries

allspice

bay leaf

salt

pepper

1 litre water

1 bouillon cube*

* I used the one with low amount of salt and without preservatives.

Quick broccoli pasta / Szybki makaron z brokułami

With all the exams and semester deadlines coming up, it's been very difficult to find time for a good meal. The inevitable is coming up: finals. Although cooking relaxes me it is hard to find time for it. Pasta with broccoli is the perfect alternative! It's quick and easy in preparation and tastes delicious! Is February also a busy month for you?

Ingredients

Thai Mango Noodles / Makaron z mango po tajsku

Yum

Ingerdients

200g of rice noddles

100g of tofu

1 tablespoon of grinded ginger

2 cloves of garlic

1 chili pepper

3 spoons of sesame

1 mango

Around one tablespoon of any vegetable oil

11 stycznia - Polski Dzień Wegetarianizmu

Dzisiaj, czyli 11-go stycznia, polscy nie-mięso-żercy obchodzą swój dzień. Z tej okazji chciałyśmy podzielić się z Wami różnymi informacjami i ciekawostkami dotyczącymi wegetarianizmu w Polsce i na świecie. Mamy nadzieję, że poniższe punkty Was zaciekawią, pomogą lepiej zrozumieć ideę wegetarianizmu, a może nawet zmotywują do przejścia na "zieloną stronę mocy" :) Zapraszamy do lektury.

1) 3,2 % - odsetek wegetarian w Polsce, czyli ok. 1 mln osób, z czego większość to kobiety

Greek salad / Sałatka grecka

I truly love winter, with all of those cozy reindeer sweaters, woolen socks, evenings spent on watching "Love Actually" and "The Holiday", with a cup of hot cocoa by your side. It is even better when wonderful, huge snowflakes start falling outside the windows. I have to admit, that even then, I sometimes feel the longing for a bit of summer in winter. That is when I prepare a total classic summer dish - a Greek salad, which reminds me of sun, heat, beach and that soothing sound of Mediterranean waves.