GAZPACHO

  Gazpacho is a cold soup very typical in Spain, mostly in Andalucía. I really really love it and I would like to share with you the recipe my mother taught me as it is so simple and tasty! It is not the original one but I´m sure you will enjoy it!

 Ingredients:

  3-4 tablespoons of Olive oil
  2 tablespoons of Vinegar (Wine vinegar and apple cider vinegar are the ones I find here in the UK)
  1 glass of cold water
  1 Can of chopped or plum tomatoes (You can use natural tomatoes instead)
  1/2 Cucumber
  1/2 Pepper
  2 cloves of garlic
  1 little onion or 1/2 medium one
  Salt
  Cumin

  You can also add some bread but I usually make it without it!


Method:

  Just blend all the ingredients up! Keep it in the fridge for a couple of hours or add some ice and enjoy!

VEGETABLE EMPANADA (EMPANADA DE VERDURAS)

                      


     INGREDIENTS:

     For the pastry:

       350g of flour
       150g of olive oil (or another vegetable oil)
       150g of water
       1 teaspoon of salt
       *Optional (but I love it!) : 1 tablespoon of Pimentón dulce

   There is so many different recipes of pastries that you can use in this recipe. This is the one that I´m using now, but I wanted you to know that you can find lots of them!

   Stuffing:

    You can made it with any vegetable you can imagine, but I really recommend to use always onion (so much onion indeed) and pepper to get the typical flavour of a good empanada and chopped tomatoes for the succulence.

  For this one I used:

     1 tin of chopped tomatoes

     1 pepper

     1 courgette

     1/2 aubergine (if you have an entire one use it all!)

     1 and 1/2 onion (medium size)

     2 leeks (just white part of them)

     

    

  METHOD:

    Chop all the ingredients and poach them. I used 2 tablespoons of olive oil and added the salt in this step.

                           

    Add the tin of chopped tomatoes and cook everythin together until reduce the water.

   The stuffing must be cold before using it, so now, we can start with the dough.

  Now mix all the ingredients for the dough and knead them well. Divide the dough in two parts (one for the base and one for the top). Follow the process in the pictures:

 Poke the dough with a fork and make a hole in the middle of the top

 You can decorate it, this is a very typical decoration for the empanada in Galicia

Bake it for between 15 and 30 minutes (you can check it if you need) and it is done!

With this recipe you can also make empanadillas. You can bake or fry them, it is up to you, in both ways they are delicious!

                            

VEGETABLE SOUP (CREMA DE VERDURAS)

I know this is a very simple recipe, but I LOVE IT, so I would like to share it with you!

You will need:

Courgette

Potatoes

Leek

Onion

Garlic

Carrot

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

Method

 Method:

 Just chop everything into pieces, add 3 or 4 tablespoons of olive oil, salt and pepper and water just to cover them all. Cook until soft (around 20-30 min) and wait until it gets cold.

 I like it thick so I drain a little bit of water (maybe 1 or 1 and 1/2 cup). Then blend it up and that's it!!

 Obviously you can add any vegetable that you like. I love it with butternut squash too :D

Serve it with a little bit of olive oil and enjoy!!

QUICK, EASY AND DELICIOUS BREAD!

                          

        

      YOU WILL NEED:

        

        175ml of water
        1 tablespoon of olive oil
        1 sachet of fast action dried yeast
        300gr of Wheat flour (aprox 2 and 1/2 cups)
        1/2 tablespoon of salt

        You can also add any seeds, nuts, oats...

    

      

        METHOD:

        

          Mix water with olive oil and heat in the microwave for 10 seconds aprox

          

          Add Yeast and stir until get a good mixture

     

                            

     

   

         Mix everything in a bigger bowl

      

                          

   You don´t have to knead it too much, just for 3-4 minutes until get the shape that you are looking for (If the dough stick a lot in your fingers just add a little bit of flour) 

                             

         Put oil in a mould and spread it!

       

         

         And now the most important step:

       

         Put the dough in the mould, paint it with some olive oil and a pinch of flour. With a knife mark some lines on the top of the dough as you can see in the pic

                         

            Cover the mould with aluminium foil (It has to be well covered)

           Introduce it in the COLD oven. DON´T PRE- HEAT IT.

           

           Now 230º for at least 45 minutes. You can check the colour removing the foil and then cook it for more time if necessary. My oven is a bad one so I need to cook it for one hour.

                                                 

CINNAMON, BANANA AND PEAR CAKE

 

 INGREDIENTS:

   1 cup of sugar (I used brown sugar but you can use what you want!)

   1 and 1/2 cups of plain flour 

   1 tablespoon of baking powder

   1/2 cup of vegetable milk (I used soya milk)

   1/4 cup of sunflower oil

   2 pears

   1 banana

   1 and 1/2 tablespoon of cinnamon

METHOD:

  

  At first mix all the dry ingredients (sugar, flour and baking powder)

  

  Blend pears and banana up until get a baby food texture (no lumps)

  

  Now add all the wet ingredients (milk, fruit, oil) and the cinnamon

  

  Mix everything very well

  

  Now put in the oven 170º - 200º during around 30-40 minutes. It depends on your oven so just check it! 

  My cake was in the oven for 40 minutes - 190ª

  

                        

   

COURGUETTE IN GARLIC, VINEGAR AND OLIVE OIL (CALABACINES EN VINAGRE)

This is a very typical tapa in Spain, usually made with anchovies. I love anchovies and that is why I want them in the ocean, not in my tapa!

 

 

   You will need:

   

   Courguette

   White wine vinegar

   Garlic

   Olive oil

   Salt

   

   

   Method:

   

    It is so easy and the results (if you like vinegar, of course) are amazing!

    

    Just cut finely courguette slices, I used a potato peeler to make it easy:

    

    Put them in a tupper and cover them all with vinegar. 

    

    Keep the tupper in the fridge for at least 4 hours and then drain all the vinegar.

    

    Put them again in the tupper and cover them all with olive oil, garlic and parsley as you can see in the pictures.

    

    After 2-3 hours they are ready! They get better with more hours!

VEGAN CHORIZO

   I loved chorizo! I tried many recipes to get the best vegan chorizo and this is one of my favourites. I think that pimentón is the principal ingredient in this recipe. If you can´t  find pimentón you could use paprika (I saw Pimentón in M&S, Morrisons and Tesco but I´m not sure about them having it always. You can also find it in Amazon or Ebay).

  

 For 3-4 Chorizos you will need:

   1 cup of textured soya mince

   3 tablespoon of olive oil (or another oil)

   Wheat flour

   3-4 tablespoons of Pimentón (I used 2 of the spicy one and another one of sweet Pimentón)

   1 tablespoon of cayenne (just if you like spicy!)

   2 tablespoons of oregano

   2 tablespoons of garlic powder

   2 tablespoons of parsley

   1/2 pepper

   1 tablespoon salt

   *Vegetarian gravy (optional)

  Method

   

   Hidrate 1 cup of textured soya mince in hot water with vegetarian gravy for 10 - 15 minutes. Then drain it well.

  

                          

Mix all ingredients except flour. I made two differents types of chorizo, one of them with a little bit of curry paste (I think this one shouldn´t be called chorizo, maybe curry sausage?).

  

     Add flour to get a texture as the one in the picture

And now... it is time for rolling it up!

                           

                           

                           

                           

                           

   Next step is boil your chorizos 45 min or 1 hour. Then let them get cool and they are ready.

   I usually cook them with some oil or in the oven. And I use them in pizzas, sandwiches...You can freeze them and use later if you want!