Here is an idea. If you haven’t got any kids yet and you aren’t sure if you are ready to take care of a pet, maybe a sourdough starter is a good thing to start out with? If you nurture it right it can help you create infinite amount of breads, it can live forever (we’ve heard rumors of living sourdoughs that date back to early 1800′s), and you only need to feed it once a week. Doesn’t it sound like the perfect companion?

If you don’t know what a sourdough starter (also known as Levain) is you can read all about it here. But shortly explained it is a mixture that contains a living Lactobacillus culture, which you use instead of yeast in baking. It is especially effective when you bake with rye. You can grow it yourself or get a small part of someone else’s.

The sourdough gives the bread a special tangy taste that we really love in our family, but depending on what ingredients and flours you mix it with you can achieve all kind of different flavors. In this recipe we have added some dried figs to give a sweet balance to the tanginess.

Sourdough is in almost every aspect healthier than cultural yeast, but it is not merely as used since it is a lot more time consuming to bake with. We urge you however give it a try, you won’t regret it. And once you have your sourdough started, what’s the point of going back to yeast? Also, the starter makes a great going away gift.

We would love to tell you the story about how we grew our sourdough starter ourselves several years ago. And how we have been feeding it regularly and singing songs for it ever since. But that would be a Big Fat Lie. We have tried growing sourdough starters many times, but we have managed to kill every one of them somewhere in the middle of the process. Starting a sourdough apparently isn’t one of our greater talents. So instead we actually bought a starter (we know, it’s cheating) that we now have been feeding for a few weeks. And we can finally  report that it is thriving in our company. Just see (above) how happy and bubbly it looks.

We won’t tell you how to grow your own starter since we are such losers on the subject. Instead we will just give you some links to some different starter recipes, try this, this or this. Or you can ask your friends, relatives or colleagues if anyone has a sourdough starter tucked away somewhere that they are willing to share. You can also buy a starter online here or here or in certain bakeries.

Walnut & Rye Sourdough Bread (adapted from the book Surdegsbröd by Martin Johansson)
2 breads

This bread has go a thick crust and a great taste, with lots of walnuts inside. We added figs to the original recipe to give a sweet hint to the tanginess from the sourdough.

Day 1, evening
80 g (1/3 cup) rye sourdough starter (read above how to get/make/buy one)
240 g (1 cup) lukewarm water
150 g (1 cup) rye flour

Mix sourdough starter, water and flour in a large bowl. Cover it with plastic and set aside on a warm place over night, around 73F – 75F (22°C – 24°C) degrees.

Day 2, morning
Sourdough from yesterday
480 g (2 cups) cold water
340 g (2 1/2 cups) fine rye flour
500 g (4 cups) wholegrain wheat flour
20 g (1 tbsp) sea salt
250 g (2 cups) whole unshelled walnuts
150 g dried figs, roughly chopped 

Add all ingredients, except salt, walnuts and figs in a large bowl or a stand mixer. Stir with a wooden spoon for about 10 minutes or use the stand mixer (with dough hook) on lowest speed. Add salt, walnuts and figs and knead it for about 5 minutes. Place it in the bowl, cover and let rise/proof for about an hour.

Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and divide it into two pieces. Kneed them into two round doughs that you leave to rise for about 3 hours. Use round rising baskets/bannetons if you have. Dust the baskets generously with flour before placing the dough inside them. If you don’t have a rising basket, place the breads on parchment paper and cover with a clean towel. Preheat the oven to 525F (275°C), place a baking sheet or a baking stone in the middle and a baking sheet on the lowest possible.

Slash the top of the bread a few times with a sharp knife. Take the hot baking sheet from the oven, dust it with flour, and carefully transfer the risen dough to it by tipping it out of the rising basket, upside down, on to the sheet (or place the parchment paper on it). Place it in the oven and put a few ice cubes on the lower sheet, close the oven and lower immediately the temperature to 490F (250°C). After 15 minutes lower the heat to 400F (200°C), open and close every 5 minutes to get the steam out. Bake for 20 minutes more, or until golden and sounds hollow when you tap its base. Leave to cool on a rack.

With only a few days left until Christmas we wanted to share one last holiday recipe with you. This jam is actually a perfect Christmas gift (or a perfect gift for any occasion). It is simple to make, and if you use small jars one batch will be enough for supplying your whole family. We don’t eat a lot of jam in our family, most of them are too sweet for us. But when we do we always go for the naturally sweetened or unsweetened kind. When you heat pomegranate seeds and raspberries they become quite sweet on their own, so this jam doesn’t need much sweetener at all, we just added a little agave syrup in the end. The fresh thyme gives it a nice twist, and it blends unexpectedly well with the fruity flavors. So basically, all we want to say here is that you should give this jam an hour of your life and you will both have a delicious treat for breakfast and your last Christmas gifts all wrapped up and ready. Enjoy!

Pomegranate, Raspberry & Thyme Jam
Makes 6–8 small jars

We don’t blend the seeds since we like our jam crunchy. But you can easily blend them to get a smoother jam .

3 pomegranates
250 g frozen raspberries
1/2 lemon, juice
1 handful fresh thyme leaves
1/2 cup agave syrup (or more to your own taste)

1. Divide the pomegranates in half and transfer them to a large bowl, in which you discard the peel and the membranes so that only seeds and juice is left. This is kind of messy so don’t wear your favorite shirt. You could also fill the bowl with water and do this with your hands below the surface, but you will lose some of the juice in the process.
2. Transfer the juice and seeds to a large pot. Add the raspberries and agave and heat slowly until it boils. Stir well so that all is mixed.
3. As soon as it boils, lower the heat, add the thyme leaves, stir around and let everything simmer for 20-30 minutes.
4. Meanwhile sterilize the jars by boiling them in hot water for several minutes.
5. Add the lemon juice. Let it stay on the heat for one more minute.
6. Transfer it carefully into the sterilized bottles and close the lid. Allow it to set at room temperature.
7. Refrigerate when set. Stays fresh for a few weeks.

 Ps. BIG HUGS to all of you. Hope you have a great Christmas! Elsa is at least super excited about celebrating her first real Christmas (last year was in Thailand). She (kind of) sings Christmas songs all day long.

A while back we spent a weekend on the island Gotland in southern Sweden. One of their traditional dishes is baked saffron pancake with whipped cream and dewberry jam. The pancakes are made on rice porridge, mixed almonds, whole milk, eggs, sugar, flour and saffron. They taste incredible, but won’t win any healthiest cake awards. Whenever we come across a great tasting dessert we always ask ourselves: “How could we do this our way?“, and last week we decided to give this one a try.

We have replaced quite a few ingredients in our recipe. They are significantly healthier now, and as far as we can remember they taste quite similar to the original. Maybe a little more dense, but on the other hand you can now eat them as breakfast as well, even though they were originally intended as a dessert. That’s always a good quality from a dessert! The saffron, the pieces of almonds and the shredded carrots are just great together. Warm, sweet and saffrony.

Since dewberries almost only grow on Gotland we instead made a jam out of the only berries that you can get in Sweden this time of the year. Frozen. During the summer we fill our home with as many fresh berries as we can get hold of (and afford). Nothing beats fresh berries, right? But frozen berries are not to be underestimated. They are both beautiful and a real life saver during the winter. Make sure they are unsweetened (in Sweden most berries are). We made a 15-minute-jam with a bag of frozen forest berries (with the beautiful Italian name “Frutti di Bosco”) and only sweetened it with some dried prunes. Ridiculously simple. If you have the pancakes for dessert, a dollop of mascarpone cheese tastes a lot better than whipped cream. You could also go for some turkish yogurt.

Swedish Saffron Pancakes
Makes 6 tartlets 

1 banana, large and ripe
4 eggs
½ cup (1,2 dl) soy milk
½ cup (1,2 dl) rice flour
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
0,5 g saffron
2 carrots
½ cup (1,2 dl) almonds

coconut oil for the tartlets

Making the pancakes: Preheat the oven to 350F (175°C). Mash the banana with a fork, add the eggs and whisk together. Add soy milk, rice flour, baking powder, salt and saffron and stir around. Shred the carrots and chop the almonds roughly, add to the mixture and stir around. Grease the inside of 1 large baking tin or 6, 5-inch tartlet tins with coconut oil. Pour the batter into the tins and bake for about 20 minutes. Serve the pancakes while they are warm, together with forest berry jam and a dollop of mascarpone cheese.

Forest Berry Jam
Makes 1 small jar 

2 tbsp water
1 lime, juice
15 prunes, finely chopped
250 g frozen berries
1 tsp cardamom, grounded

Warm water, lime juice and chopped prunes in a small pot on medium heat. Let it boil carefully for 5 minutes while stirring. Add berries and cardamom and let it simmer for 10, stir occasionally.

Ps. Since today is Black Friday we have reduced the price for our iPad app to $0.99. Today only. So if you haven’t checked it out yet, today is a good day to do it. Download it here!

Baking gluten free bread can be quite challenging. The ingredient list is often so long (and expensive!) that I 9 times out of 10 give up after reading it. It often calls for many different flours, flakes and seeds, and the process always seems to be So Very Complicated. I recently made a gluten free rye bread that took 3 days(!) to make and the ingredients cost me a fortune (it tasted d-i-v-i-n-e though). So, I dedicated this month to try out a variety of different recipes and share the healthiest, most delicious and easiest with you. Meet the Blue Bun, our new family favorite! It is easy to make and the ingredient list can be adjusted to whatever you have at home. We have also been experimenting with some different flavors for it. My favorite was when I added vegetable juice and thyme. David was crazy about the cardamom and raisin bun. Elsa doesn’t seem to have an opinion, she eats them all. Next time we talk about trying lavender and rosemary. Let us know if you try them with some other flavors.

Elsa has got a terrible cold, so I also came up with this Pink Super Food Smoothie for her. It is filled with C-vitamins and antioxidants. She loved it and so did we!

Blue Buns
Makes around 12 buns

You can substitute the brown rice flour and amaranth flour for a gluten free flour mixture or other gluten free flours; amaranth, millet, corn …

4 tbsp psyllium seeds husks
2 tsp natural xylitol, honey or stevia
a pinch of salt
25 g active yeast
3 3/4 cups (9 dl) lukewarm water (or half vegetable juice and half water)
1 1/2 cup (200 g) brown rice flour
1 1/2 cup (200 g) amaranth flour
150 g mixed seeds (we used pumpkin, sesame, flax, sunflower)
75 g dried coconut flakes
1 tsp ground spice (cardamom, thyme or turmeric)

3 tbsp blue poppy seeds, to sprinkle

Combine psyllium, natural xylitol, salt and yeast in bowl, add lukewarm water (and vegetable juice) and stir around until you get a gel like consistency. Measure all flours, seeds, coconut and spices and mix well. Add the dry mixture to the gel and stir around with a spoon for a couple of minutes and then kneed it by hand. Make 12 round buns and place them on a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Sprinkle with the poppy seeds. Let them rise for 30 minutes and bake them for 1 hour and 10 minutes at 350°F/175°C. Let them cool before serving. We always make two batches of bread and throw one in the freezer, for emergencies.

Pink Super Food Smoothie

1 1/2 ripe banana
2 handful blackberries/raspberries
2 inches ginger
1 tbsp goji berries
1 tbsp flax seeds
2 tbsp dried nettle
1/2 tsp ground vanilla
1/2 cup cranberry juice (unsweetened)
1/2 cup water or young coconut water
1 cup milk (soy, almond, rice or oat)

Just mix it up in a blender! Pour into bottles, add ice and serve!

Did you know that the clear coconut water from young coconut is full of electrolytes (mineral salt)? The electrolyte balance found in coconut water is similar to that found in our blood, therefore great as a hydrating drink when you are sick. If you don’t live in parts of the world where you can get young green coconut in the vegetable department, you can buy them in small boxes in health stores.

We are back in our kitchen. Trying new recipes. Thinking back on six unbelievable months. While it is snowing outside. Snowing. In April. That is weird even for Sweden.

As you can imagine we are boosted with Asian inspiration. We have for example got a major crush on lemongrass, look out for it in our future recipes. But for a while now we have decided to take a short break from everything Asian. You know when you have been out traveling, and all you can think about on the plane home is a peanut butter & jam sandwich in the morning? That was us a couple of days ago. Except from that the sandwich in our case was rye bread. And instead of peanut butter & jam we dreamed of this super delicious Apple, Ginger & Cardamom Compote. Apart from being perfect on a piece of rye bread, it can also be used in a tart, or enjoyed as a fresh dessert together with some yogurt. It is sweet, but not sweetened. How sweet is that!?

Apple, Ginger & Cardamom Compote
Makes 2 jars
This compote is completely without sugar and preservatives, therefore it needs to be in the fridge in a closed glass jar. As long as you don’t open it, it will stay fresh for weeks (maybe even months), but after it is opened you probably want to finish it within a week.

2,2 lb (1 kg) apples
1 1/2 cups (4 dl) water
2 tbsp fresh ginger, finely chopped
2 tbsp cardamom seeds
2 tsp cinnamon grounded
2 cinnamon sticks
30 leaves of lemon balm, chopped
1/2 lemon, juice & zest

Chop the apples (with peel). Place apples, water and the rest of the ingredients in a pot. Bring it to a boil, then turn down the heat to medium and let it simmer for 40 minutes. Stir occasionally. The compote is done when the water is gone and the apples are tender. Clean the jars in boiling water. Pour the compote in the jars while it is still warm and seal the jars right away.

Photo by: Johanna Frenkel

Our little baby turns 1 today, so this text is to her. Maybe in a couple of years, she can go back and read this (if our blog still is online). But until then, don’t be a stranger, read it, leave her a comment, and dig in on some pancake cake!

Dear Elsa, if one word would define your first year, it must be Change. During this year, you have learned how to breath, nurse, point at, laugh, sit up, eat, crawl, play, grab, kiss, hug and walk. Every skill learned was soon replaced with a new one. It has been a constant evolvement. A constant change. And as we went on this trip around the world with you, change got a whole new meaning.

You have been flying 15 times during your first year. You have been on 3 different continents. You have been moving from 80°F heat one day, to 5°F and snow two days later, and then on to 100°F one week after that. During this trip you have slept in 47 different locations. 47! Imagine being 9 months old and being put in a new bed, in a new room, in a new city, twice every week. And we haven’t even counted how many time zones that you have crossed. When we think about it, we realize that you could have been seriously messed up by know. But how have you instead reacted to all this change?

Like a total angel. It’s unbelievable. You hit the high score in The-Most-Perfect-Baby-With-A-Backpack-Contest. On the airplanes you always put on a show; you stand up in your seat, wave your hand like a princess, and smile at everyone. And every single person on the airplane always waves back at you. It’s hilarious to watch. You have made new friends everywhere, and at the age of one, you have also become a global food enthusiast. You have been playing in the snow, in the ocean and on the beach. You are not fond of playing alone, but as long as we are close, you are happy. And you have been sleeping for 12 hours each night, no matter where you were. You adapt to change like a chameleon. If you would have been different in any way, this trip would have been much more complicated, or even impossible.

Thank you Elsa for putting up with all these changes, and for changing our world. Happy birthday, we love you more than anything.
/Mom & Dad

Now, let’s eat birthday cake!

We can go on and on about how you should not give small children sugar, sweets or even anything that is sweetened with refined sugar. They don’t need it and they don’t have any natural craving for it. Come to think about it, we will actually go and on about it, but not today. We will save that for another post.

Since we didn’t want to give Elsa a traditional sugar-flour-jam kind of cake, but we did want to give her a treat that she loves, this pancake cake was perfect. It was also perfect since it was the only cake that we could make without an oven or a blender. It is gluten free and sugar free. It is topped with a lovely thai-inspired coconut cream, and served with lots of fresh fruit. You might remember that we also did a pancake cake for Luise’s birthday, you could use that almond & date filling in this cake too.

Coconut & Banana Pancake Cake
10-12 pancakes (6 inch)

4 bananas
6 eggs
1/2 cup (1,2 dl) coconut milk
2/3 cup (2 dl) dried coconut flakes (unsweetened)
coconut oil
fresh fruit

Mash the bananas with a fork in a bowl, whisk in the eggs, add the coconut milk and flakes and stir around. Heat coconut oil in a pan and fry the small pancakes a couple of minutes on each side. Let the pancake cool off, one by one, on a big plate. To arrange the stack of pancakes, you start with one, place some mashed fresh fruit, nut butter or jam of your desire, add the next pancake and so on. We varied mashed papaya and mashed mango between the layers. Pour over the Coconut Cream (recipe below) just before serving. Garnish with flowers, Happy Birthday!

Coconut Vanilla Cream (inspired by a recipe on Honest Fare)

2 cups (5 dl) coconut milk
1 vanilla pod
1 stick cinnamon
1 thin slice fresh ginger
2 dates (divided in half)
2 tbsp corn starch, tapioca starch or arrowroot

Put coconut milk, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger and the dates in a pot. Let it boil on medium heat, while stirring, then turn down the temperature so that it simmers. Mix starch with 2 tbsp water in a small bowl, add to the cream and let it boil for another 20-30 minutes. Remove the cinnamon stick, vanilla pod, ginger and the dates. Transfer the cream to a bowl and put it in the fridge for about 30 minutes. It will become a little thicker when it’s cold. Enjoy this super tasty Coconut Vanilla Cream, it is the perfect match to a fruit salad or a cake!

Give a warm welcome to Jacqui from So Good & Tasty. She is the last blogger to do a guest appearance here before we will be back ourselves with new recipes, stories and photos. It has been so much fun sharing some of our favorite healthy food blogs with you, and we hope that you have found their recipes as inspiring as we have. Now we are very much looking forward to get back in a kitchen again (hopefully we have found one by next week).
Jacqui has a very similar food philosophy as us, it is all about whole grains, nuts, fruit, vegetables, and making the most of everyday. If you are looking for delicious cookie recipes only using spelt, whole wheat and unrefined sugars, So Good & Tasty is definitely the place to go. Although this time she shares a comforting warm winter recipe perfect for the weekend breakfast. Here is Jacqui, telling you about it herself:

Winter in the Pacific NW is very rarely white and full of days below the freezing point, but we do have plenty of gray, wet days that still give that bone chilling feeling and need for warmth and a comforting meal. Days like this make me crave oatmeal in the morning more then usual because of its stick to your ribs and warming qualities.

Oatmeal has been a staple in my morning routine for as far back as I can remember. My sister and I would wake up early and get ready for school, all while my mom would be in the kitchen setting out our bowls and preparing our oatmeal. On the weekends or special occasions, oatmeal was baked in the oven over a bed of fresh fruit. Sometimes it was apples or pears, other times it was bananas or berries, but every time it was filled with spices and the sweetness of brown sugar.

I now make this same oatmeal in my kitchen, but I replace the brown sugar with pure maple syrup, almond milk for the cows milk, and use coconut butter instead of real butter to get the same creamy, slightly sweet effect, but with the ingredients I use from day to day.

What I love most about baked oatmeal is it’s versatility. You can use any fresh seasonal fruit and you can change out whatever kind of nuts and/or seeds you fancy. It’s all based on personal preference. I love meals like that. It makes enough for four hearty bowls, but if there happens to be only two of you or less, make it early in the week and enjoy the leftovers re-warmed for the next few days.

Baked Oatmeal with Pears
Serves 4-6

2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
1/4 cup pepitas (hulled pumpkin seeds), toasted
1/4 cup hazelnuts, toasted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground clove
pinch of fine sea salt
1 egg
2 cups almond milk
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 ripe pears, diced
1 tablespoon coconut oil, melted, plus more for greasing pan

Preheat the oven to 375˚F. Grease the bottom of a 10×8-inch baking dish with the coconut oil, set aside.
Place the rolled oats, nuts, baking powder, spices, and salt in a medium mixing bowl.
In a separate bowl beat the egg. Add to it the almond milk, maple syrup and vanilla, stir well to combine.
Spread the chopped pears into an even layer in the baking dish. Pour the oat mixture to cover the pears, then slowly pour the wet ingredients over the oats so everything is evenly soaked. Drizzle the melted coconut oil over the top and bake for 30-35 minutes. When it’s done the oatmeal should be set and lightly browned on top and your kitchen smells like cinnamon. Let cool slightly before serving.

Text & photo by So Good & Tasty

It is time for our second guest on Green Kitchen Stories. This time we asked Coco from Roost – one of the most beautiful blogs we know – if she would like to share a recipe. She came up with this delicious combo that she will tell you more about herself. If you haven’t visited Roost before we strongly encourage you to do so. It is such a serene place with the touch and feeling of another century. Her recipes are always refreshingly pure, easy and wholesome, and the light in her photos is incredible. Enough said from us, here is Coco:

I have always found it rather strange that citrus fruits rise to their peak amidst the bleak, winter season. While these sweet, golden orbs are maturing the rest of us are hibernating, longing for warmer days. And just when the lull of winter has set in I find refuge in the fruit aisle at my local market. Clad in rain gear from head to foot I walk out into the Seattle squall with a bounce in my step and a bag of clementines in my hand.

My husband and I can consume an entire bag of clementines in just a few days, but I thought I would broaden my repertoire and pursue a more sophisticated snack, one perhaps Fanny Brawne would have while reading Keats’ latest verses :)

Traditionally marmalade are an equal weight of fruit and sugar boiled together, which often lends a nice congealed texture. Rather than dousing my clementines in sugar I chose to enhance their flavor with vanilla bean and just a touch of honey. The result, surprisingly, resembled a true marmalade and tasted like one too!

To accompany this fine spread I thought a simple biscuit would be fitting. Although nothing can ever replace a true flaky, butter biscuit I have found almond flour biscuits to be a delicious and healthy alternative for those who are grain/gluten sensitive.

Clementines and citrus alike are a beautiful reminder of the sweet days to come. So come out of your winter dens, take a break from your root vegetables and enjoy the fruits of the season.

Clementine Vanilla Bean Marmalade
Yields about 2 cups

7 clementines
1/2 cup fresh clementine juice (I ran three clementines through my juicer and it yielded exactly 1/2 cup of juice)
1 vanilla bean, split, seeds scraped
1/4 cup honey

In order to remove the bitter taste from the peel you first needs to blanch the clementines. Slice the clementines as thin as you can and place them in a pot with cold water. Bring to a boil, reduce and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain. Pour more cold water into the pot, bring to a boil, reduce and simmer for 10 minutes. Drain and let clementines cool in the pot.

Chop clementines into small pieces and return to pot. Add juice and honey. Bring to a boil and boil for about 20 minutes or until the temperature gets to about 220F. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla seeds. Allow to cool before adding to clean jars for storage.

Rosemary Almond Meal Biscuits
4 larger or 6 smaller biscuits

2 1/2 cups almond flour, plus 1/2 cup for dusting the dough
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup grape seed oil
2 eggs
1 tbsp  honey
1/2 tbsp freshly chopped rosemary

Combine almond flour (2 1/2 cups), salt, rosemary and baking soda in a bowl. Mix together the oil, eggs and honey in a separate bowl. Mix your wet ingredients into your dry until a nice dough forms.

Roll your dough between two sheets of parchment paper, sprinkling extra flour to avoid sticking. For larger biscuits roll dough to about 1 inch thick and cut biscuits using a biscuit cutter or the mouth of a mason jar. For smaller biscuits roll dough to about 1/2 inch thick.

Place biscuits on a baking sheet lined with parchment and bake on 350°F for 12-15 minutes or until golden brown on the outside.

Remove from oven, slather with marmalade and enjoy!

Text and photos by Roost

Elsa and I spent almost all of August in Denmark. We lived in my mom’s house north of Copenhagen and enjoyed most of the days in her beautiful garden. We have  just returned to Stockholm — happier, more relaxed and with a bunch of new food experiences. Elsa has learned a lot of tricks and skills and she is funnier than ever! She tastes everything that we put in front of her (including iphones and remote controls), and she seems to always be hungry for more. She truly is a food loving baby so it is hardly a surprise that her new favorite toys are the herbal jars …

August turned out to be a healthy month for me, focusing on body and mind and on getting back in balance after the pregnancy. I went to see a Homeopathic doctor, and even though some people judge it as hippie nonsense I have had major results! And talking about hippies, we have to tell you about our new morning obsession – this super nutritious quinoa porridge with nettles. It’s packed with vitamins, minerals, iron and proteins, and it’s gluten free! It is quick to make and you can easily adjust it to whatever you have at home. We know that it is a little bit late for the nettle season but I found this big bag of dried stinging nettles while I was in Denmark, so now we can try nettle recipes all year round. And no, they don’t burn your mouth …

Quinoa Porridge with Nettles
Serves 2

2 cups water
1 cup quinoa flakes, rinsed (or any kind of grain you prefer, like millet, oat or spelt)
3 tbsp coconut flakes
3 tbsp nettles, dried
1 apple, grated
1 tsp mint leaves, dried or fresh
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla powder

Serve with: thin slices of apples or plums, chopped hazelnuts and a dash of oat milk

Bring the water to a boil in a medium sized pan. Add the quinoa, lower the heat and cook gently for 5 minutes while stirring. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook for a couple of minutes more. Serve with fruit, hazelnuts and a dash of milk.

Today is my birthday. I turn 29. And since Luise and Elsa still are in Denmark I didn’t really feel like baking myself a cake. Instead I bought a big big box of fresh Swedish blueberries and made myself a blueberry coconut super smoothie. It’s quick, easy, delicious and also super nutritious (seriously, look at the ingredient list). That’s a pretty good way to start your birthday, right?

Blueberry Coconut Super Smoothie
2 glasses

1 cup fresh blueberries
1/2 cup coconut water
1 frozen banana
a big chunk fresh ginger, minced
juice from 1 lime
2 tbsp coconut flakes
a handful of walnuts

Throw all the ingredients in the blender. Blend it for half a minute. Taste it and add more ginger if needed. I used almost 2 inches, but I like it quite strong.