There is a small organic food store a few blocks from where we live. Apart from always having really nice fresh herbs and vegetables they also sell Turkish filo pastry hand pies called Börek, filled with spinach and feta cheese (similar to the Greek Spanakopita). And delicious mini baklavas. They make them daily and sell them waaaay too cheap. Almost everyone who visits their store leaves with a Börek in their hand and a baklawa tucked down in their bag. Us included. It is impossible not to. Every time we’ve been munching on them we’ve talked about making something similar at home. A few weeks ago we finally did.

Instead of going down the filo pastry route, we used the flavors from the Börek in a more westernized type of pie. The crust was made from ground oats and almond flour and turned out very light and delicious. We bought feta cheese from the same food store. Even though we are not cheese connoisseurs we can definitely recommend trying a better quality feta cheese than regular pre-packed store cheese. It certainly makes a difference. The pie turned out so much tastier than we expected. Full of flavor, rich but not too heavy. It is the perfect dish to bring on a picnic or a potluck, since it is just as good hot as it is cold. We recommend serving it with a simple tomato salad. The freshness from the tomatoes balances the richness of the pie perfectly.

If you are more curious about our neighborhoods we should add that we are working on a food guide to our favorite places in Stockholm. Or at least around the area where we live. So stay tuned for that.

Spinach and Feta Pie with an Oat Crust
Serves 4-8, depending on how large pieces you crave

For the crust
3/4 cup (65 g) gluten-free oat flour (buy or simply ground rolled oats in a mortar or food processor)
1/2 cup (45 g) ground almond flour
2 tbsp corn starch
½ tsp sea salt
3 tbsp cold-pressed coconut oil or organic butter
3 tbsp ice-cold water

For the filling
3 eggs
5 1/2 oz (150 g) feta cheese 
1 tsp dried oregano
½ tsp red chilli flakes
½ tsp grated nutmeg
2 tbsp olive oil
2 spring onions, finely chopped
1 garlic clove 
2 cups (150 g) fresh spinach, firmly packed 
Salt and black pepper

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4. Combine the oat and almond flours, cornflour and sea salt in a bowl. Add the coconut oil and ice-cold water. With your hands, work the dry ingredients towards the centre until a dough forms. Gather the dough into a ball, wrap in clingfilm, then chill for about 30 minutes.

Press the dough evenly into a 20cm tart case. Trim the dough flush with the edge of the case. Prick the bottom with a fork and blind bake for about 10 minutes. Reduce the oven to 170C/325F/gas mark 3.

Crack the eggs into a mixing bowl, whisk for 30 seconds, then crumble in the feta cheese. Stir in the oregano, chilli flakes, nutmeg and a pinch of salt and pepper. Set aside.

Heat the olive oil in a large frying pan on a medium-high heat. Add the spring onions and garlic and fry for about 3 minutes until golden. Add half of the spinach and a pinch of salt. Stir the spinach gently until it wilts, then add the rest and keep on stirring until wilted. Remove from the heat and pour into the mixing bowl containing the egg and cheese mixture. Stir well until everything is combined.

Spoon the filling into the crust. Bake for about 30 minutes until the filling is firm and golden. Let it cool for a while before serving.

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This recipes was first published in The Guardian’s article The 10 Best Picnic Recipes.

On page 113 in our book we have written a story about the old wooden dinner table in our living room. We rarely eat on it. Instead we have covered it with heave stone tiles and use it to shoot food on. I have always felt a bit sorry for our table (it is worthy of a better life), but now I feel even worse. A while back, one of its legs broke as I balanced on it trying to take a shot from above. At first I talked myself into believing that it wasn’t that badly injured, “If I don’t put so much weight on this side it can still stand on its own”. That wasn’t entirely true. So after a while I did what any responsible person would do. I took some wire and gave it my best 3-minute patch-up work. It of course only held together for a few minutes.

I wish I could tell you that the table is the only thing in our apartment that is in need of fixing. It is not. Doors squeak. Knobs are loose. Cloth hangers are falling off the wall. There are deep scratches in our floors and burn marks on our kitchen counter. Our whole apartment is in a constant state of half broken. And for every day that goes by it becomes less and less fixed.

That is perhaps why we only take close ups of food. It is chaos outside the frame.

Don’t get me wrong, our apartment has charming high ceilings, old wooden floors and beautiful windows. But when looked at closely, one can easily see that it is crying for rescue.

I often blame it on time, why I haven’t fixed all the things that needs fixing. But to be honest, I love it like this. Being surrounded by things that are slightly broken. Having a home that is not perfect. I tell myself that it makes us focus on other, more important things. We cook. We play. We laugh.

I’ll fix that table some other day.

I have almost reached the end of this post and I haven’t even started talking about this granola yet. Well, what can I say. It’s a pretty straight-up awesome granola recipe. With a kind of chunky, cookie-like consistency. And a mild banana flavor. As you can see from the photo above, we filled three large jars with granola. They didn’t last a month.

Banana Granola

3 cups / 250 g / 700 ml rolled oats (gluten-free, if needed)
1/2 cup / 80 g / 120 ml raw almonds, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup / 80 g / 120 ml raw pumpkin seeds
1/4 tsp vanilla extract or ground vanilla
1 pinch sea salt
3 tbsp coconut oil, room temperature
3 tbsp maple syrup, runny honey or date molasses
2 very ripe bananas, peeled and broken into smaller pieces

Preheat the oven 400°F / 200°C and line a baking tray with baking paper.
In a large bowl, combine oats, almonds, pumpkin seeds, vanilla and salt. In a separate bowl add coconut oil, maple and bananas. Use your hands to mix the ingredients completely smooth. Add the banana mixture to the dry mixture and combine well, using your hands, for about a minute, so all is well-coated and clumpy. Turn out and spread the granola in an even layer on the baking tray. Place in the middle of the oven and bake for 15 to 20 minutes, check at around 10 minutes and turn the granola over with a wooden spoon. Allow to cool completely before putting in a container. Serve with organic yogurt, preferable goat or sheep or almond milk and fresh fruit.

If you prefer it raw and have a dehydrator, this recipe will work too.

This recipe was originally created for the Swedish Ikea blog Livet Hemma. All bowls, plates and jars in the photos can be found on Ikea.

About a week after Luise and I first danced into each other, we shared our first ice cream. Or actually, I don’t think we shared. I had a so co called “gelato-disorder” at the time, so sharing wasn’t really on the agenda. But we did have ice cream together. I lived in Rome when we met, and Luise called in sick from her work in Denmark and bought a plane ticket to fly back and go on a date with me. First night we had dinner. Second night ice cream.

I’m not sure which flavors I had, but a not so wild guess would be coffee and pistachio. Luise had strawberry and chocolate. I remember that very clearly because I remember thinking that she ate it too slowly (typically me), so she spilled some chocolate on her skirt. She still has that skirt and whenever she wears it, it gets me thinking of chocolate ice cream.

I would love to say that ever since then, ice cream has had a special place in our hearts. But actually, I think my love affair with ice cream stopped when my love affair with Luise begun. Don’t get me wrong, we are still quite the ice cream eaters. But it’s not extreme anymore. We stick to the good stuff every once in a while. And when we do ice cream at home, we almost always make it yogurt-based. We have a really delicious coconut frozen yogurt recipe in our dessert app. With Summer around the corner, rhubarb and strawberries are starting to pop up everywhere. So we felt almost obliged to make a FroYo out of them.

The basics behind frozen yogurt are ridiculously simple. Yogurt, sweetener and flavor. You could add one or two tsp of vodka to make it a bit softer, but we prefer using a fatter yogurt and less freezing time instead. We use an ice cream machine (not a fancy brand), it’s the easiest and best way, but you can also make it by hand.

Strawberry & Rhubarb Ripple FroYo
Makes about 4 cups (1 liter)
Time: 20 minutes prep + freezing

We prefer our FroYo slightly tart and not overly sweet. You can adjust the amount of honey depending on your preference and on the tartness of the fruit. High season strawberries and rhubarb are generally sweeter than pre-season.

½ pound (225 g) rhubarb, sliced
1 pound / 500 g strawberries, coarsely chopped
1 vanilla pod, seeds scraped
1/2 cup (8 tbsp) honey, preferable raw
2 cups / 700 ml organic full-fat plain yogurt (greek or turkish style)

Place rhubarbs, strawberries, vanilla pod + seeds, and 4 tbsp honey in a medium size saucepan, cover and bring to a boil, lower the heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Remove the pod and use a fork or a stick blender to mash up the fruit. We like it slightly chunky but you could of course make it completely smooth if you prefer. Refrigerate for 1 hour or until completely cool. Combine yogurt, the rest of the honey and 3/4 of the fruit compote. Pour the FroYo mixture into an ice cream machine and follow the manufacturer’s instructions. When done, remove the ice cream paddle. Stir in the rest of the fruit compote carefully so you get a ripple effect. Pour the FroYo into a freeze proof container (we use a bread tin). Leave in the freezer until firm, or as long as you like.

We weren’t sure if we should call this a Veggie Tower or an Upside-Down Beet Salad. Both names are rather striking. Regardless of its name, this is a dish that you want to try because we are pretty sure that you are going to love it. You might actually fall off your chair. It’s that good. And with that said, we wanted to focus on something else now. Things we love. Stuff we have read. And other exciting bits and bobs.

• Vegetarian Everyday, the US edition of our book is finally in stores! Ask for it in your bookstore or get it on amazon.

• Elsa’s new shoes. She is literally the coolest cat in town now!

• One of our friends just launched her website with some wonderful vegetarian recipes and other beautiful things.

• The plate on the top shot is new to us but not in this world. The owner of the shop we bought it in, told us that it is almost 200 years old. Mindblowing.

• What the world eats. But what about Scandinavia?

• We have updated both our apps with new recipes and a new feature; there is now an option to hide non-vegan and gluten recipes in Settings.

• Luise is somewhat of a workout nerd. She is of course dying to try this.

• Just started subscribing.

• We are six months behind, but we recently watched Searching for Sugarman. Amazing story.

• Want to go to Paris now!

• Can’t wait for this cookbook to happen. Congrats Hannah!

• A very flattering review of our book, on Foodepedia.

So, back to the Veggie Tower. This is how it actually looks like before it is mixed around, stuffed into a container and turned upside down. It is loaded with flavors; lemon, cilantro, avocado and of course beets. We tried something similar on a restaurant in Mexico. Right there, after two days of tacos and enchiladas, this fresh dish was exactly what we needed.

After flipping the beet salad onto a plate we top it with goat’s cheese, pea sprouts and roasted pine nuts.

Veggie Tower (also known as Upside-Down Beet Salad)
serves 4

5 large lettuce leaves
4 raw beetroots
2 raw carrots
1/2 cucumber
1/2 red onion
3 avocados
5 cherry tomatoes
1 handful of cilantro (coriander) or flat-leaf parsley
2 tbsp olive oil
2 limes, juice (start with the juice from 1 lime and adjust to your taste)
sea salt & black pepper

Serving
4-8 slices goat or sheep’s cheese (depending on the size of the cheese)
2 tbsp pine nuts, lightly toasted in a skillet
1 handful of pea sprouts

Rinse the lettuce leaves and coarsely chop them. Place in a large mixing bowl. Peel beets and carrots and grate by hand or using the grating attachment on a food processor. Slice the onion and tomatoes very thinly. Chop the avocados and cilantro and place all prepared ingredients in the mixing bowl. Add olive oil, lime juice, salt and pepper and toss well, using your hands, so everything is coated in oil and lime and has a nice purple color.

Scoop one fourth of the veggie mixture tight into a 4 inch (10 cm) wide x 2 inch (5 cm) high, round container or bowl. Place a serving plate on top of the container and carefully turn it upside down, remove the container slowly. Top the veggie tower with slices of goat cheese, toasted pine nuts and pea sprouts. Repeat three times. Enjoy!

Some of you might remember that we were in Mexico a while back. We meant to take photos and do a proper travel post. But once we were there, David decided to leave the camera in his bag. I suppose we all needed some time off. Instead we used our phones for random documentation of our adventures. We have included a few shots from mine and David’s Instagram. And, if you scroll down we also share our favorite drink from the trip.

On our journey we tried so much wonderful Mexican food. Guacamole, ceviche, paletas, tacos and beans to mention a few. But one of our most rememberable food experiences was this amazing Chocolate, Rice & Amaranth drink that we had on a tiny restaurant somewhere along the Yucatan coastline. Once we got back to Sweden we decided to recreate it. This might not be exactly what we drank there, but from what we can remember it is pretty close. It’s cool and fresh, with a hint of sweetness from the rice milk and cinnamon, softness from amaranth and bitterness from the cacao. It is super simple to make and the perfect drink on warm days or as a quick energy boost.

Amaranth is a gluten free seed from Central America. It is even smaller than quinoa, but slightly higher in protein and has nearly all 9 essential amino acids. Perfect cooked as a breakfast cereal or served along other foods for lunch and dinner instead of pasta, rice or potatoes. You can buy puffed amaranth or amaranth flour in well-assorted supermarkets or in health food stores.

Mexican Cacao, Rice & Amaranth Drink 
serves 2

2 cups rice milk or milk of your choice
3 tbsp organic puffed amaranth (buy in health food stores or in well-assorted supermarkets)
2 tsp raw cacao powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
4 ice cubes

Place all ingredients in a blender and mix on high speed until smooth. Pour into two bowls or large glasses. Sprinkle with some puffed amaranth and serve.

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More exciting news!
I will be teaching a Nutrition & Cooking Workshop this summer as a part of a Yoga & Cleansing Weekend in Falsterbo, southern Sweden. The workshop will take place in a beautiful yoga studio in a villa near the beach and close to accommodation and cafés. See the flyer for more info and send an email for the full program and booking details. Hope to see you there!

In Health & Harmony
Luise

This last week has bean surreal. In a very good and absolutely mind-blowing way. We have been in London meeting lovely blog readers, signing books and doing more than a few magazine interviews. We had coffee on Columbia Road, Indian food at Broadway Market and Elsa danced her feet off to an Italian street band performance. We finally got to eat at Ottolenghi, it was just as perfect as we expected. We also tried The Gate, and it was almost as good. Food for thought was precisely as cozy and delicious as we’ve been told. We found our book in a real, old fashioned bookshop and actually felt like authors for a while. And when we thought our week couldn’t get better, we received an email telling us that Green Kitchen Stories is a finalist for Saveur Magazine’s Best Food Blog Awards, in the Special Diet category. We are accompanied by some of the most creative and talented bloggers that we know, so it is all pretty insane and unbelievable.

If you would like to cast your vote on us we would be MADLY grateful. Click here to vote! You need to sign in or register first, but it only takes 30 sec (and they promise not to spam you). Polls closes Friday, April 19. Thank you so much for your support!

And now on to the food. We have had Vegetable Literacy on the top of our book pile for a while. But just before we left, we finally got around to trying a recipe from it. Our eyes immediately fell on this braised fennel that is cooked in a tomato sauce and flavored with fennel seeds and saffron. It is one of those recipes that makes total sense, all the flavors are perfect together, it tastes sweet, warm and comforting. A truly wonderful dinner. Our only regret is that we didn’t come up with this recipe ourselves. Since we are a hungry family we also braised zucchini and added to the pan, and used ghee instead of olive oil for extra yum. The zucchini worked perfectly together with the fennel. We served it with brown rice, but quinoa would be great too.

Vegetable Literacy, by Deborah Madison, is a wonderful and beautiful book. It is all about putting the vegetables in focus and reminds us slightly of Tender, by Nigel Slater, another of our favorite books.

Braised Fennel Wedges with Saffron & Tomato
Slightly adapted from ‘Vegetable Literacy‘ by Deborah Madison

1 cup uncooked brown rice
2 1/4 cups water

1 large fennel bulb
a large knob of ghee or olive oil
1 zucchini
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 tsp fennel seeds
1/2 tsp (0,5 g) ground saffron
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 clove garlic, crushed
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 cup water
sea salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
1 handful fennel greens or flat-leaf parsley

Rinse the rice thoroughly, drain and place in a medium sauce-pan together with the water. Bring to a simmer, cover and lower the heat and cook for 40 minutes. Drain any excess water. Ready to serve.

Trim off the stalks and greens from the fennel bulb. (Minces the greens for a garnish, if there are none, you can use parsley.) Halve the bulb lengthwise and cut the halves into wedges about 1, 5 inches/4 cm at the widest part. Halve and divide the zucchini and cut into wedges.

Heat the ghee in a wide sauté pan over medium-high heat. When hot, add the onion and fennel seeds, saffron and thyme and cook for a few minutes while stirring occasionally. Add the fennel- and zucchini wedges and cook them until golden, turning them and the onions occasionally. Once they are well colored, add the garlic, stir in the tomato paste, and then add the water and salt & pepper. Scrape the pan to release the juices, then cover and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 15 minutes.

Serve with brown rice and fennel greens.

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PS. Here are a few links to some book related media clips and interviews from last week.
• An interview with Four Magazine.
• A Q&A with The Lifestyle Editor.
• Our book was “Cookbook of the week” in The Telegraph.
• Talked on the phone with The Lady.

Thank you for voting!

I suppose this must be the post where I tell you about fika, similar to the danish hygge. Fika is an essential Swedish expression, similar to coffee break but almost always including some kind of sweet bread – fikabröd. We take these coffee breaks at work, at a café or at home. This scandinavian tradition is different to the Italian coffee break, as they do it very efficiently. Often standing up with an espresso in one hand and a cornetto in the other. Fika is the opposite of effective. You sit down, drink your coffee slowly and talk about anything. You can do it any time of the day and several times a day.

It is often a spontaneous break and therefore requires that you always keep fikabröd (sweet bread) at home. I actually read somewhere, that in the old days you should be ready to serve at least three different freshly baked goods not to insult a Swedish guest. But I can assure you that those rules don’t apply anymore, so don’t be afraid to invite us in.

If you have followed us for a while, you probably know that we’re not the kind of family that keeps sweet bread in our home seven days a week. But for the last week we actually have. So when friends or family came by on spontaneous visits, we could offer them this banana bread for fika.

We have baked a few versions of banana bread throughout the week. The final result was a delicious vegan version that we only sweetened with bananas and apple sauce. Best thing about that, is that we have also been able to munch on a slice for breakfast. We brought home fresh cacao beans from Mexico, and they were perfect in this, but you could just as well add some cacao nibs or dark chocolate.

You can bake this either in a bundt pan or in a traditional loaf pan – we have tried both. It looks spectacular in the bundt pan, but is slightly more difficult to get it baked all the way through. If you are not an experienced baker, the loaf pan is therefore an easier choice. The bread require a longer baking time than other banana bread recipes because of the applesauce, but it will stay moist and delicious for days.

Vegan Banana Bread
Serves 10-12

1 cup / 140 g wholegrain spelt flour
1 cup / 130 g light spelt flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp sea salt
3 very ripe bananas
1 cup / 240 ml unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 cup /120 ml milk of your choice (we use oat or almond)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp vanilla extract or ground vanilla powder
1/2 cup / 100 g pecan nuts or nuts of your choice (replace with sunflower seeds if your are allergic)

Preheat the oven to 350°F / 175°C.
Combine flours, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a mixing bowl. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas with a fork, then add apple sauce, milk, vanilla and nuts and stir to mix. Fold the banana mixture into the flour mixture and stir to combine. Pour into a greased and floured 10×4 inch  (25×10 cm) loaf pan or 8 inch (20 cm) round bundt pan. Bake for 1 hour and 10 minutes, the baking time varies according to oven. Remove from oven and place on a wire rack in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn the pan to remove the banana bread and leave to cool completely for a couple of hours. Ready to serve. The bread will stay moist for days. Keep in the fridge.

PS! We’re flying to London in a few days to meet our publisher and do a couple of interviews. We will also sign our book! So, if you are in London on Wednesday April 10 and want to get a signed copy of our book – or just say hello! – stop by Heal’s at Tottenham Court Road. We will be there between 4.30–6.00 pm. No booking required. Hope to see you there!

Do you know what day it is today? It is the official OMG-we-are-releasing-our-cookbook-today-day! It should now be available in book stores all over the UK. Tomorrow it will land in Australian stores. And we are only one month away from the release of the US edition, “Vegetarian Everyday”. It’s ironic that it is released today (1 April) as this whole thing has felt like an April fools’ joke from the very beginning. But we’re crossing our fingers that the book will still be on our table when we wake up tomorrow.

We did this video to celebrate the release. It features a few of our favorite breakfast recipes from the book and is a pretty honest portrayal of an early Sunday morning in our home. Hope you like it.

Directed and shot by Albin Holmqvist. Styling by Belén Vazquez Amaro. (Thank you guys!!!)
The song is ‘End of the Road’ by Noonie Bao.

If you are disappointed at us for not having a recipe today, we will definitely make it up to you in our next post. Did anyone say vegan Banana Bread …? Stay tuned.

Ps. We did a short book interview with Observer Food Monthly, you can find it here.

Reading through your comments on our latest post and giveaway gave us serious goose bumps. We started this blog without any expectations that our recipes would ever be cooked outside our own kitchen. And all of a sudden they are in Japan, Austin, Hungary, Nova Scotia, Singapore, Seoul, San Diego, Brisbane, Hillerød and 787 other places. It is cool beyond words, this internet blog thing.

We are truly humbled by your massive response and encouragement. A huge congrats to our winner, Marie Boucomont from Paris! We are really sorry that we can’t give a blender to each and everyone of you. But we wanted to at least do something more, so we randomly picked 3 more names – Katherine Amelia from Sydney, Keilah from Nebraska, Candela from Argentina. You guys will get a signed copy of our book!

Given that so many of you listed your favorite GKS recipe, we of course had to count them all (pheeeeew). So, *drum roll* here is a list of your 15 most favored GKS recipes (starting from the top):

1. Raw Buckwheat Porridge De Luxe
2. Herb & Pistachio Falafel
3. Bean Chili with Walnut & Chocolate
4. Lemon & Coconut Bars
5. Yoga Pot
6. Immune Boosting Turmeric Lassi
7. Frozen Pink Cheesecake
8. Blueberry, Lemon & Almond Cake
9. World’s Greatest Vegetable Lasagna
10. Flower Power Cake
11. Banana & Blueberry Pancakes
12. Indian Lentil Soup
13. Hemp Protein Bars
14. Moroccan Quinoa Salad
15. Decadent Beet & Chocolate Cake

We’re curious how high today’s recipe would rank? It is not impossible that it actually might have made it on to the top 15. Even though it is one of our more messier creations, it is also a really wonderful mix of flavors and texture combinations.

Za’atar is an ancient middle eastern spice blend made from lightly toasted sesame seeds, sun dried herbs and ground sumac. If you haven’t heard of sumac before, we can definitely recommend trying it. Ground sumac comes from dried sumac berries and tastes like a groovy combination of tangy sour and fruity. Use it in marinades, dressings, za’atar spice blends or on oven roasted vegetables.

1 cup / 240 ml raw chickpeas / garbanzo beans
1 cup / 240 ml raw wheat berries, preferably freekeh (green wheat berries, buy in middle eastern store) or use kamut, spelt berries or barley
2 aubergines / eggplants
2 tbsp cold-pressed olive oil or coconut oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp ground sumac (buy in middle eastern store)
4 tomatoes
1 handful fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 tbsp cold-pressed olive oil
1/2 lemon, juice
2-3 tbsp Za’atar spice blend (recipe below)
1/2 cup (150 g) goat’s cheese, crumbled

Soaking and cooking chickpeas / wheat berries: Place chickpeas and wheat berries in two bowls, cover with twice as much water and let soak overnight. Rinse and drain, place in two cooking pots, cover with water twice the amount of chickpeas/berries, add a pinch of salt and pepper and cover. Bring to a boil, then remove the lid, lower the heat and let simmer for approximately 1 hour. Test to see if tender. It may vary in the cooking time. Drain and allow to cool.

Roasting the aubergine: Preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F. Cut the aubergine into 1/2-inch / 1 cm squares. Place on a baking tray, drizzle with olive oil, sumac and cumin seeds and toss with your hands so every aubergine are lightly coated in oil and spices. Bake in the oven for around 20 – 30 minutes or until golden and soft.

Making the salad: Mix cooked chickpeas, cooked wheat berries, roasted aubergine, tomatoes, parsley, olive oil, lemon juice and Za’atar in a large serving bowl. Toss with your hands until well combined, sprinkle with goat’s cheese. Serve.

Za’atar Spice Blend

4 tbsp lightly toasted sesame seeds
4 tbsp ground sumac
2 tbsp dried thyme
1 pinch of sea salt
(1 tbsp ground cumin is a really nice addition, but optional)

Making the  Za’atar: Place sesame seeds on a skillet and gently toast on low heat while stirring. Remove from heat, allow to cool and mix with the rest of the spices. Place in an airtight glass jar. Keeps for months.

PS. We just found out that Luise made it onto Babble’s Top 100 Mom Food Blog list. She is actually #3 on the list! Discover more blogs and see the full list here.

A while back we were asked to come up with a recipe that could illustrate the different functions of an immersion blender and food processor. Considering that we use ours everyday to blend soups, making pesto and mixing date truffles, you could say that we are somewhat experienced on the subject. After some twisting and turning we decided to make an apple tartlet. Our flour free version is made on oats, sunflower seeds and dates. Topped with toasted nut butter, beautifully arranged thin apple slices and a touch of cinnamon. It’s vegan. Gluten free. Delicious. And oh so simple. Hit your local market, load up on apples, oats and seeds – and you’ll have friends and family beaming from ear to ear. Recipe at the bottom of this post.

Electrolux used our recipe for their video campaign Now you’re cooking, which basically is a marketing event for the Ultramix Pro. All of the videos in that series are actually really beautifully done. It was fun to see how they interpreted our recipe. All the photos in this post are our own, but the video is entirely produced by Electrolux.

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Now to the groovy part – Hey hey, we’re doing a Giveaway! Update – The giveaway is now closed. We will notify the winner within a few hours.
Together with Electrolux we are giving away a Ultramix Pro ESTM6600. A stick mixer that comes with all kind of accessories. A 10 inch (25 cm) extra long mixing bar, double whisk, food processor, blades and the new slicer accessory which we used to make the apple slices.

To participate, just leave a comment with your name, where you are from and your favorite recipe from our blog (we’re sooo curious!). The giveaway is open for all our readers worldwide. We will draw a winner randomly on Tuesday March 26th. Good luck!

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Vegan (and G-F) Apple & Oat Tartlets
Makes 4 tartlets

Crust
½ cup gluten free rolled oats
½ cup raw sunflower seeds
8 fresh soft dates, pitted
2 tbsp coconut oil, room temperature
a pinch of salt

Filling
4 tbsp almond butter

Topping

3 small red apples
½ lemon, juice
1 tbsp maple syrup or runny honey
1 tbsp cold pressed olive oil
2 tsp ground cinnamon

Serve with
Organic vanilla ice cream (or vegan alternative)

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F.
2. Place rolled oats and seeds in a food processor and grind on high speed for about 30 seconds or until you get a crumbly oat & sunflower flour.
3. Add pitted dates, coconut oil and salt and blend for another 30 seconds until the mixture comes together to a sticky and crumbly mixture.
4. Grease four 4-inch / 10 cm tartlet pans with coconut oil. Divide the mixture evenly in the pans and use your finger to flatten it out on the bottom. It should be quite compact. Pre-bake the crust for about 10 minutes.
5. Meanwhile prepare the apples by dividing them in half and removing the core. Mount the thin slice blade on the food processor, and use it to slice the apples halves into thin wedges. Remove the lid and squeeze some lemon over the apple wedges to prevent them from turning brown.
6. Add 1 tbsp almond butter on each crust, then arrange the thin apple wedges in a circular shape on top. Tuck in the last piece under the first so it forms a seamless circle. Brush with maple syrup and olive oil and dust cinnamon on top.
7. Place the tartlets in the oven and bake for another 10-15 minutes, or until the apples are golden on top. Let cool slightly before serving.
8. Serve as they are or with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, nice both ways.