Veggie burger

Hi sunshine!! So I've been trying to eat less meat and I've always be curious about veggie burgers. Once I tried a quinoa burger, and I didn't like it, extremely dry... augh horrible. I've also tried a polenta burger... it wasn't that dry but it lacked texture... so I thought I could make my own, It couldn't be so hard, right? So I watched a couple of videos, read some recipes also went to serious eats... and tried some ideas... and this is the final results, let's go to the recipe then ^^

Ingredients

• 150 gr of shiitake mushrooms
• 1/2 Onion
• 1 Cup + 1/4 Cup Kidney Beans
• 2 Tbsp of miso paste + 2 Tbsp of water
• Salt, pepper, paprika and garlic powder to taste
• 2 Tbsp flaxseeds
• 1/4 Cup cooked quinoa
• 1/4 Cup bread crumbs + 1 Tbsp
• 1/4 Cup water
• Optional: marmite and maggi sauce to season the mushrooms

Process

• Cut the shiitake mushrooms into slices and then into cubes.
• In a saucepan add a little bit of vegetable oil and cook the shiitake until they are soft, then add your favourite spices, I added garlic powder, paprika, black pepper and salt. Then to give it an extra flavour I added miso paste, but first I diluted it a little bit with water. Add the miso to the shiitakes and mix, you can also add Maggi sauce or marmite if you have some.
• Now add a little bit more of oil to the saucepan and sauté the onion, you can do this in the same saucepan, cook until it is translucent and a little golden brown.
• Now rinse the kidney beans to remove the starchy liquid that comes with them. I used kidney beans but you can use any other kind of legumes.
• To bind all the ingredients together, we are going to prepare a paste with water, a fourth of a cup of beans and the flaxseeds, process everything together and set aside.
• In a bowl put the kidneys beans, and smash them lightly with a fork, then add the onion, the shiitake mushrooms, the paste, and the cooked quinoa, and mix very well, since it is too wet we are going to add some bread crumbs.
• Depending on the size of your buns, divide the mix into 6 or 4 portions, and then give them a patty shape.
• Finally fry the veggie burgers, since all the ingredients are cooked you don’t need to wait until it is cooked in the centre, just wait until they are golden brown and then flip them over.
• And that’s it now make your burgers with your favourites ingredients, tomatoes, lettuce, onion, pickled cucumbers... and so on :p

Rainbow Smoothies

Hi everyone!! Spring is already here (at least in Barcelona)!!! I'm so happy to go back to my spring clothes, I don't like to wear layers of clothes in winter, but in spring I just use one or two and that's it hehe. Well clothed things aside, what about the spring foods?? I love all seasons when it comes to food, but the good things is that I can go back to eat smoothies, yaaayy!! That's why I made 5 different recipes of smoothies all of them with different colours and different ingredients, I hope you like these 6 colourful smoothies.

Before the list of ingredients I'd like to explain some of the ingredients I'm using in this recipes.

Flaxseeds

Flaxseeds are one of the best foods you can eat, they have a ton of fibre (2.3 gr) which is good for digestions and to feel satisfied after a meal. It also has a good amount of good fats 28.7 grams of the total 42.2 grams of fat that flaxseeds contain are polyunsaturated, and that's really good. These polyunsaturated fats are the omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, since western culture eat too much oil which is full of omega-6 fatty acids we need to compensate eating more omega-3 fatty acids, and flaxseeds are awesome for that, they have 22813 mg of omega-3 and 5911 mg of omega-6 and that's awesome :) they also have a good amount of proteins (18.3 gr). All the data is per 100 grams of flaxseeds.

Turmeric powder

In theory this one has a lot of benefits and all of them come pretty much thanks to the antioxidants in it. I don't know a lot about antioxidants, and the studies seem to not be 100% sure about their benefits, I don't think that this is a cure for everything, because on the internet they say it's like the holy grail and can treat even cancer... that's a very foolish thing to say in mi opinion. I think antioxidants are good, but not that good.

Purple sweet potato or ube

Ube is a great source of vitamin A, and vitamin C, magnesium and potassium. It also have fibre which can help with digestion. As all purple coloured foods ube has anthocyanin, which is an antioxidant and therefore it has all the good benefits from them. Again I won't go all crazy about the antioxidants because we don't know their benefits for sure, but at least berries and ube taste great :)

Raspberry Smoothie (I couldn't get vibrant red, so hot pink it is)

1/2 Cup coconut milk (unsweetened)
1 Orange
1/2 Banana
1 Cup raspberries
1/4 Cup rolled oats
1 Tbsp flaxseeds
2 Tbsp dry shredded coconut
Sweetener

Energy: 421.6 Kcal

Carrot Smoothie (Orange)

4 Medium size carrot cut into chunks
1 Cup almond milk
1/2 banana
5 Walnuts
1/4 Cup rolled oats
1/2 Tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 Tsp Cinnamon powder
Sweetener if you like

Energy: 346 Kcal

Mango Smoothie (Yellow)

1 Cup coconut milk (unsweetened)
1 Mango cut into chunks
1/2 Banana
1 Tsp turmeric powder
1 Tsp flaxseeds
2 Tbsp dry shredded coconut
1/4 Cup rolled oats

Energy: 369,5 Kcal

Pear Smoothie (Green)

3/4 Cup almond milk
2 Small pears (the juicy kind)
1/2 Banana
10 Pistachios
1 Tbsp flaxseeds
1 Tsp matcha powder
A handful of spinach
Sweetener

Energy: 375 Kcal

Chocolate Smoothie (Brown)

1 Cup of coconut milk (unsweetened)
2 Tbsp cocoa powder (defatted if possible)
1 Orange
1 Banana
90 grams silken tofu
1/4 Tsp vanilla extract
1/4 Tsp ground coffee
Sweetener

Energy: 330 Kcal

Purple Sweet Potato Smoothie (Purple)

100 gr Purple sweet potato
1/2 Banana
3/4 Cup cooked quinoa
1 Cup coconut milk (unsweetened)

Energy: 376.6 Kcal

Process

Toss all the ingredients into a blender and process everything together, enjoy!!

Buddha Bowls

Hi everyone I don't know if you have seen any Buddha bowl, but I loved the idea when I saw it on Pinterest. Since it has some rules it is easy to make a dish that has all the micro and macronutrients that you need, so I think it is a very good idea to keep healthy eating habits without having a lot of knowledge about nutrition. In theory Buddha bowl should be vegetarian, because lots of Buddhists are vegetarian, but I think that since vegetarians have veggie burgers... why don't we meat eaters can have Buddha bowls :p That's why today I'm going to show you how to make three different Buddha bowls so you can get some ideas to make your own or make the same that I make, I hope you like it!

Recipe #1 Mexican meaty Buddha bowl

Ingredients (1 Person)

• 100 grams of lean beef
• 1/2 cup of corn
• 1/2 cup of cooked black beans
• 150 gr of white button mushrooms
• 1/2 Tomato
• 1/4 Onion
• 1/4 Avocado
• 50 grams of yogurt
• Chopped cilantro
• Lime
• Salt and pepper to taste

Process

• The first thing we are going to do is to wipe the dirt off of the mushrooms using a paper towel,
  let's remove the roots, and now cut the stem and the mushroom into 4 pieces. Stir fry the
  mushrooms until they are cooked and a little golden brown.
• Let's prepare a pico de gallo, in a bowl put together some chopped tomatoes, chopped onion and cilantro, add some salt and pepper and something to spice it up, I used some cayenne pepper.
• Since I didn't want to add more fat I didn't used oil to cook the meat. I just placed it in the grill
  at high heat to get a nice crispy crust. Then I cut it so I could eat it without using a knife.
• Process together the yogurt, avocado, cilantro, little bit of lime juice and a pinch of salt and the dressing is ready!
• Time to place everything in the bowl. First the black beans, the corn, the mushrooms, the pico de gallo we made, the meat and of course the dressing.
• This bowl is kind of a mix of a lot of things, it has fresh and earthy flavours so is the best of both worlds hehe. In this case I didn't use a grain per se, but it was because corn and black beans already have complex carbohydrates so I thought it was redundant to add another source more.

Recipe #2 Earthy Buddha bowl

Ingredients (1 Person)

• Half medium sweet potato
• 100 gr of chicken breast
• 1/2 Cup brown rice
• 150 grams spinach
• Half a zucchini/Courgette
• Romesco Sauce

Process

• Put the sweet potatoes in a pot with plenty of water and cook them, do the same with the chicken breast.
• Prepare the brown rice.
• Cut the zucchini into cubes. In a sauce pan put a little bit of oil and stir fry the zucchini until it is soft but not too soft, we want it to be firm.
• Remove the zucchini and in the same saucepan without adding any more oil add the spinach,
  and cook it until it gets wilted.
• The sweet potatoes should be ready by this time, so peal them, cut it in half and then into
  chunks. You can cut the chicken breast into slices or as I did here into cubes.
• And now we just need to assemble our Buddha bowl. Finally I added a Romeo sauce, this sauce is made with nuts, tomato and olive oil and it's delicious and compliments really well this dish.

Recipe #3 Easy Vietnamese flavoured Buddha Bowl

Ingredients

• 3/4 Cup of basmati or jasmin rice
• Pickled daikon and carrots (if you don't have this you can use just fresh carrots)
• Half a cucumber
• Mint leaves
• Cilantro leaves
• 1/4 Cup roasted cashews and pistachios nuts
• Hoisin Sauce

Process

• Here I used basmati rice since it has a floral fragrance, then add some pickled daikon and carrots if you don't have this just use fresh julienned carrots.
• Add a bunch of cubed cucumber they will add a lot of juicy freshness to this dish.
• In this case the source of proteins and healthy fats comes together in the form of nuts, some roasted cashews and  pistachios
• To make it more fragrant I added some mint and coriander leaves.
• Finally I added two tablespoons or so of hoisin sauce, you can find this sauce in any oriental market. If you can't find it you can use peanut butter and maybe reduce a little bit the nuts.
• This this is all about crunchiness, freshness and fragrances.

Half-buried eggs

Hi everyone! I hope you are having a great week, I've been really busy this week, that's why I didn't upload anything yesterday (I'm sorry), better late than never, right? Today I'll show you a vegetarian dish that has a lot of things that I like a lot, veggies, mashed potatoes and eggs hehehe, lets see how to make these half-buried eggs.

Ingredients (for two)

Mashed Potato

400 Potatoes
Butter
Milk
Salt to taste

For the veggies

1 Cup cubed zucchini
1/2 Cup diced carrot
1 Small diced onion
1/2 Cup of green pepper
1/2 Cup of green peas
1/2 Cup of corn
1 big or two small minced garlic clove
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tsp Italian seasoning
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper to taste

1 Egg!

Process

• First we are going to peel the potatoes and then cut them into chunks. In a pot at high heat cook the potatoes with enough water to cover them and a little salt.
• Now let’s prepare all the veggies, since the carrots need to be peeled lets do that first. Then cut the carrots, the zucchini and the green pepper into sticks and then dice them. Also chop an onion in small pieces.
• By this time the potatoes should be soft, remove the excess water and then mash the potatoes, then add some milk, butter and salt to taste. I know that in America you make your mashed potatoes with a light consistency, but try to make it denser.
• In a skillet, add some olive oil. Once it’s hot add the onion, and stir fry it a little bit and then add the minced garlic. Stir fry until it is translucent and then it’s to add the carrots. Stir fry for about 1 minute, and then add the pepper, stir fry a little bit and then add the zucchini, once it is soft, add the corn and the green peas. Stir fry until everything is soft and now we are finally going to add the some extra flavours. I used some tomato puree, Italian seasoning and black pepper and salt, but you can use whatever you want of course. Mix everything together and then add half a cup of water.
• In an oven safe dish add the veggie mixture and spread it evenly. On top of that add the mashed potatoes, and spread it along the dish, in the centre of the dish make a hole and this is why I told you to make it denser, because if it’s too light you will not be able to make a hole. Once your hole is done, put and egg inside it. And now to the oven it goes at 180 ºC until the eggs are done. Let it cool for about 5 minutes and its ready to be served.

Oven Baked Falafel

Hi everyone, so lately I’ve been trying to eat less meat and I thought I could make some falafel, but I don’t really eat deep fried things, so I made this falafel recipe in the oven, adjusting the ingredients a little bit.

Ingredients

• 1 Cup home cooked chickpeas.
• ¼ Cup chopped cilantro
• ¼ Cup chopped parsley
• ⅓ Cup chopped onion
• 2 Big or 3 small garlic cloves (minced)
• ¼ Tsp cumin powder
• ¼ Tsp Paprika
• Salt to taste
• ½ Tsp baking powder
• Little Olive Oil

Process

• Chop the cilantro in tiny pieces and do the same with the parsley and the onion.
  Divide the cup of chickpeas in half and place one of the halves in a bowl and the other half in a food processor.
• Process the chickpeas with a little water to form a paste similar in consistency to hummus.
• Using a fork, smash roughly the chickpeas we placed in the bowl (we don't want this to be a paste, we want it to have texture). Add the minced garlic, the cilantro together with the parsley, the onion a little cumin powder, paprika, and the baking powder and some salt. Mix everything together and add the chickpeas paste and mix very well until it’s very well combined
• Now form six equal balls using your hands and place them on an oven plate covered with oven paper. Flat the balls, if they lose their shape, shape them like a patty.
• Finally brush them with a little olive oil. Bake the falafels on a 190 ºC preheated oven for about 10 minutes. After those 10 minutes, remove them from the oven, flip them over (they might stick to the paper, so if you want to use wax paper, or something better go ahead!), brush them again with a little olive oil and return them to the oven and bake for another 10 minutes.
• You can eat them just like this together with a salad for example, or you can make a falafel sandwich using pita bread, onion, tomatoes, lettuce and a delicious yogurt sauce.