Lemon bars

Adapted from David Lebovitz

Minimalistic desert, in terms of presentation, taste as well as the work which is required to make them.

Lemon bar is a wonderful sweet treat for lazy cooks who want to impress guests but don’t like to stand in the kitchen baking for half of the day. I love these lemon bars because they have such a condensated, strong taste that you need to eat just a tiny piece to fulfill your dessert craving. Extremely lemony-tasting, sweet and refreshing the same time – they make a perfect finish after a heavy dinner.

I like my lemon bars very flat, so I use rather big baking dish (25x20cm). When I made them once in a smaller baking dish, the crust was too heavy and the topping to thick for my taste. You need to find the balance which suits your taste best.

Jerusalem Artichoke Salad

What is it?

It is not an artichoke and certainly it doesn’t come from Jerusalem. It is a species of sunflower (Helianthus tuberosus) native to North America. It can be also called sunroot, sunchoke, earth apple or topinambur. It is cultivated for its tuber, which is used as a root vegetable. The knobby sunchoke tubers look similar to ginger roots, with light brown skin which may be tinged with yellow, red, or purple depending on the soil they are grown in. Prime season - from October to April, and they are best dug after a light frost. So go ahead and try them, the time is now!

Kale Cake

Adapted from Spinach cake recipe from the book A Platter of Figs and Other Recipes by David Tanis

Kale – probably the best thing you can consume in winter to boost your vitamin levels. A real super food in humble cabbage family. To be honest, I’m struggling a bit with this healthy veg: I would love to get all the vitamins and other goodies from kale leaves, yet I am not thrilled with its taste and tough texture. Some brave and very healthy looking people put raw kale in their smoothies... Well, I am not that brave yet, so I decided to put it into a savory cake. The effect was surprisingly tasty. Even my meat-loving boyfriend approved it (bacon did the trick I guess!)

Kale crisps

Inspired by My New Roots adapted from all over the net.

My 3 year old son doesn't like most vegetables. My boyfriend is not better – his favorite veg is bacon, as he says. It is a real drama for a mom who tries to feed her family healthy. I have no choice but to play food tricks and smuggle greens into my boys’ diet.

Kale is well worth smuggling! It is off the charts when it comes to nutrients. It’s the best green in terms of antioxidants. Not surprisingly, kale has been linked to preventing cancer. It is a real superfood we all should be eating regularly. And now the kale season is approaching!

Cooked Salsa

Adapted from Mark Bittman

If you feel like having not so healthy tacos, try at least to deep them in a yummy and healthy salsa!

My man likes junk food*. Not that he eats a lot of it, but still. I have to deal with unwanted things occupying our fridge. Certain things I have to accept – like ketchup for example. But some things have to go – cheap supermarket salsa is one of them.

We do like to munch on tacos from time to time, so it is a good idea to have some salsa for a dip. But the kind I had found in our cooler is simply not acceptable. Color is the only thing which it has in common with tomatoes. To me, it tastes like vinegar with some salt and E-124. Shitty food.

Beet Root Chips

Adapted from Tofu for Two

As a mom of 2,5 years old I really care about proper nutrition of my child. My toddler, however, constantly refuses to eat vegetables. No luck in smuggling greens into his diet so far. Oh, well, he is untroubled to eat my carrot cake or chocolate-beetroot cake (he is even begging for second portions of these), but let’s face it: this is not exactly the nutrition I am willing to give him on daily basis. After many unsuccessful approaches of veg-smuggling, finally a big success came unexpected - in the form of a beet root chip!

Yes, these chips make a lovely, alternative snack, easy to make and surprisingly tasty. Baking the beets in the oven instead of deep-frying makes them much healthier; they tend to shrink a lot, that’s why it’s a good idea to choose the biggest beets you have. To save energy and preserve nutrients I bake them long in low temperature, but you can try to do it faster in higher temperatures.