The secret to perfect guacamole is ripe avocados. If you prefer a smoother guacamole, use a blender. Personally, I prefer avocados crushed with a fork with finely cut tomatoes, onions, and cilantro.
Chunky Guacamole
Ingredients
- 3 ripe avocados
- 1/2 lemon (or lime)
- 2 small tomatoes
- 1/2 oignon
- 2 cloves clove garlic
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1-2 pinches cayenne pepper (or chili powder)
- Fresh cilantro
Instructions
- Slice the avocados in half along its length and dispose of the seed and skin. Crush the flesh of the avocado using a fork. Drizzle with the lemon juice.
- Chop the onions, tomatoes, and cilantro. Crush the garlic.
- Mix all the vegetables and avocados together. Salt, pepper, and add the cayenne pepper.
- Put the guacamole in a bowl and serve along with tortilla chips or sliced vegetables.
Spinach Salad with Strawberries
This spinach salad with strawberries is seasoned with a delicious homemade sauce, made with balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and a little jam. A perfect summer salad!
Spinach Salad with Strawberries
Ingredients
Salad
- 200 g baby spinach
- 1/2 red onion thinly sliced
- 100 g strawberries
Dressing
- 3-4 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper
- 1 tsp jam (strawberry, raspberry, apricot)
- 1-2 pinches paprika (optional)
- Some sliced almonds or walnuts (optional)
Instructions
- In the bowl, combine the spinach, red onion and strawberries.
- In the jar, whisk together olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper, jam and paprika, to make a smooth sauce.
- Drizzle the salad with dressing and serve immediately.
- If you want, you can add some almonds or other roasted nuts.
Almond Flour Banana Bread
This banana bread gets its amber color and caramelized taste from brown sugar and the taste is amplified by the almond flour. This is not gluten-free recipe, you need to add a little of all purpose flour too.
If you don’t have almond flour or brown sugar, you can try our famous Chocolate Chip Banana Nut Bread.
If you are looking for gluten-free recipe, try our Chocolate Chip Banana Nut Muffins.
Almond Flour Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 2 very ripe bananas
- 200 g brown sugar
- 4 eggs
- 200 g almond flour
- 100 g unsalted butter melted
- 80 g all purpose flour
- 2 pinches salt
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 100 g chopped walnuts
- 60 g chocolate chips (60%)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180C). Grease a large bread pan and set aside.
- Mash bananas with a fork and mix them with brown sugar.
- Add eggs and mix well.
- Add melted butter,
- and almond flour.
- Then add all purpose flour, salt and baking powder. Mix well.
- Add walnuts
- and chocolate chips.
- Pour the batter into bread pan and bake for about 55 minutes.
- Banana bread is ready when a knife inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool the bread in pan for 10 minutes. Remove from pan to wire rack to cool completely.
Chocolate Sauce
After trying to make this chocolate sauce at home, you will never go back to store-bought syrup again. No weird preservatives or ingredients like the ones in the store. You will need two ingredients to make this delicious sauce.
Watch this quick video to make your mouth water.
Chocolate sauce
Ingredients
- 125 ml milk or heavy cream
- 150 g dark chocolate (60-70%)
Instructions
- In a small saucepan bring milk (or cream) to boil. Remove from the heat and pour the liquid over the chocolate. Allow it to sit for 1 minute. Whisk to combine.
- The sauce will stay loose while its hot. But you can always reheat it. Spoon the chocolate mixture into a heatproof bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water. Heat the sauce for about 3-4 minutes stirring constantly or until it has become liquid again.
Tomato Rounds With Garlic & Cheese
It’s a super simple and fantastic 10 minutes appetizers, that I could eat a plateful. And when it comes to cheese, you are the boss. You can choose any hard/firm cheese that you like, as long as you’ll be able to grate it.
Tomato Rounds With Garlic & Cheese
Ingredients
- 4-6 tomatoes
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to aste
- 1 clove garlic
- 100 g hard cheese
- some olive oil (optional)
- some fresh herbs parsley, green onion, dill,
Instructions
- Wash and cut the tomatoes into circles and layer them on the plater. Sprinkle with some salt and pepper to taste.
- Grate garlic, using microplane, sprinkle it on top of the tomatoes. Using the same microplane shred the cheese. Evenly layer on top of the tomatoes.
- Drizzle with some olive oil and garnish with fresh herbs.
Cucumber Tomato & Green Onion Salad
Looking for a “quick” salad to make? This cucumber and tomato salad is not just fast and easy salad to make, it is also a great summer side dish that goes perfectly with fish, potato, rice, omelet or just by itself.
Cucumber tomato & green onion salad
Ingredients
- 1-2 cucumber sliced
- 5-6 tomatoes quartered
- 1 clove garlic pressed
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- Some green onions chopped
- 2 Tbsp sour cream
Instructions
- In the bowl, combine the cucumber, tomatoes, garlic, green onion, salt and pepper. Add the sour cream and gently toss. Serve right away.
Hard-Boiled Eggs Loaded With Tuna
Very simple and quick recipe to make, from the ingredients that you’ll always find in your pantry. Eggs, tuna, pickles and mayonnaise. Perfect appetizer for any event or pre-dinner snack.
Hard-Boiled Eggs Loaded With Tuna
Ingredients
- 7 hard boiled eggs
- 1 can (180 g) tuna in its own juice
- 1-3 medium pickles
- 4-5 Tbsp mayonnaise
- salt and pepper to taste
- 1 pinch paprika
- fresh herbs
Instructions
- Place raw eggs in a saucepan and cover with at least 2-3 inches of cold water. Place the saucepan over high heat until it reaches a boil. Boil for 10 minutes on medium heat. Remove from hot water and transfer them into ice cold water for 5-10 minutes.
- Grate 2 pickles, using a microplane cheese grater. Cut one pickle into thin slices.
- Carefully peel the eggs and cut them in half lengthwise. Remove yolk from 6 eggs.
- Mash 6 egg yolks and one whole egg with fork until crumbly.
- Drain and mash the tuna, combine with mashed eggs. Add shredded pickles, mayonnaise, salt and pepper and mix until incorporated.
- Spoon the mixture into the egg whites. Garnish with paprika, fresh herbs and sliced pickle.
- If there is some extra filling left, serve it on the fresh bread or crackers.
Berry Charlotte Cake
This is a famous French dessert made of ladyfinger biscuits, light mousse and topped with fresh fruits. My Berry Charlotte Cake is very easy to make, although it seems like not. The only downside to a charlotte is that it is not always easy to assemble the ladyfinger in the spring form.
Berry Charlotte Cake
Ingredients
- 500 g berries raspberries, strawberries or blackberries…
- 50-70 g sugar
- 500 ml heavy whipping cream ( 35%) very cold
- 8 g gelatin
- 24 Ladyfingers
For decoration
- 1 Tbsp cocoa powder
- Fresh berries
- Fresh mint optional
- whipped cream optional
Instructions
- Rinse and drain berries, add sugar and puree until smooth.
- Pass the puree through a fine sieve, to remove all tiny seeds.
- You will need about 1/2 cup of puree for dipping the ladyfingers. The rest pour into the saucepan.
- Add 4-5 Tbsp of cold water to gelatin, and set it aside.
- Place the saucepan with berry mixture over medium heat on the stove (don’t boil), remove from the stove and add gelatin. Whisk well until the gelatin is dissolved. Let it cool to room temperature. …
- Pour the very cold heavy whipping cream into a large bowl and whisk, until the cream reaches the soft peaks stage. Do not over beat!
- Once the berry puree is completely at room temperature, gently fold it into the whipped cream and set it aside.
- Line the inside and walls of a springform pan with parchment paper or plastic wrap. …
- Measure the length you need.
- You can trim off one end of each ladyfinger.
- Dip one side of the ladyfinger in the puree mixture. Let the excess syrup drip off, then line the ladyfingers (dipped side needs to be inside) in a tight ring, cut side down, around the spring form pan.
- If you having trouble fitting the last ladyfinger in, you can cut it in half.
- Pour the berry mousse into the springform. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.
- Carefully remove springform walls and plastic wrap. Transfer cake to the plate.
- Dust with cocoa powder.
- Garnish with some fresh berries, fresh mint, whipped cream and shredded chocolate.
- You can decorate with ribbon, but don’t forget to remove the ribbon before cutting the cake. 🙂
Chocolate Chip and Nut Cookies
Excellent Chocolate Chip Walnut Cookies. I’ve tried a lot of different chocolate chip cookie recipes, and this one is the best one by far. They have the right balance of flavor and texture. My kids remove them from the oven as soon as the edges turn gold. They don’t look done when they are, so be carefully not to burn the bottoms.
Chocolate Chip and Nut Cookies
Ingredients
- 225 g butter softened
- 100 g brown sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar (optional)
- 100 g sugar
- 330 g all purpose flour sifted
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 eggs
- 350 g chocolate chips
- 50 g walnuts
- 50 g hazelnuts
- 50 g almonds
- 50 g pumpkin seeds
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 380 degrees F. Cover 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Beat together butter, brown sugar, granulated sugar and vanilla sugar.
- Add eggs.
- Little by little add sifted flour ,mixed with salt and baking soda.
- Add chocolate chips and mix well.
- Spoon out the cookie dough using a cookie scoop(use your hand if you don’t have cookie spoon) and place on the parchment lined baking sheet. Divide the nuts and seeds on top of the each cookie and gently press down on the dough ball to flatten slightly.
- Bake for 8-10 minutes, until the edges are set but the middle is still soft.
- Let cool cookies for few minutes then transfer them with a spatula to a rack to cool completely.
- Enjoy it with glass of milk or your favorite tea.
Fresh whipped cream with blackberries
Treat yourself with this mini dessert that is perfect for any occasion. It takes minimum time to make and looks fabulous. Fruits can be fresh or frozen, don’t worry : it will taste the same. This fresh whipped cream with blackberries will be perfect with a cafe gourmand!
Fresh whipped cream with blackberries
Ingredients
- 1 cup blackberries
- 1 cup heavy whipping cream very cold
- 2 tsp granulated sugar
- 1/4 tsp cocoa powder
Instructions
- Whip heavy cream fluffy, until soft peaks form, but not too firm.
- Equally divide washed fruits into prepared glasses. Using the piping bag or small spoon, equally spread the cream into the glasses. Refrigerate if not serving it immediately.
- Before serving, dust it with cacao powder.
