Some Unusual and Healthy Recipes

 

For some time now, I have been addressing the fact that what we eat affects our health. But it is not necessary to eat meals that are unappetizing. I am not interested in eating a Tofu burger! However, as I have stated in my post Positive Influence of the Mediterranean Diet on Colon Cancer healthy food is important. Here are a few recipes that are healthy and delicious.

 

Gazpacho soup

Gazpacho soup image Yana

 

Gazpacho Andaluz

Recipe by: Aubrey

“Direct from Spain. This recipe is simple and delicious. For this recipe, it is convenient to have a hand mixer with chopping blades, a food processor, or a blender. We can garnish this gazpacho with minced vegetables and parsley, or with a little-crushed ice.”

Ingredients

  • 8 cups cold water
  • 8 Large tomatoes – Peeled, seeded and chopped
  • ¼ cup minced onion
  • 1 clove garlic, minced
  • 1 cucumber, peeled and finely chopped
  • 1 green bell pepper, minced
  • 1 (1 pound) loaf stale French bread, cut into 1 inch cubes
  • ¼ cup olive oil
  • ¼ cup wine vinegar
  • 1/8 tablespoon salt

Directions

  1. Combine water, tomatoes, bread, and oil in a large stockpot. Set aside.
  2. In a food processor or blender, blend onion, garlic, cucumber, and green pepper to a paste. Stir into the stockpot.
  3. Using a hand mixer, blend until ingredients have a watery, pinkish consistency. Alternatively, put in a blender or food processor until smooth. Add vinegar, and season with salt.

Photo Source: Pixabay

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Traditional Chilled Andalusian Tomato Soup (Salmorejo Cordobés)

Recipe Submitted By Melissa Guerra

Spanish tables traditionally feature chilled soups, especially along the hot, southern coastal towns of Andalucía. A close cousin to gazpacho, this traditional Salmorejo can be enjoyed as a dip for vegetables, breadsticks, and works well as a midafternoon pick-me-up at work.

Ingredients for Salmorejo Cordobés

  • 2 pounds red ripe tomatoes (chopped)
  • 1-2 cloves peeled garlic
  • 2-3 cups cubed day-old bread
  • ¼ cup best quality Spanish olive oil
  • * Salt to taste
  • *Extra Spanish olive oil for garnish
  • 1 hard-boiled egg (chopped)
  • 2 ounces Jamon Serrano (thickly cut then diced)

Directions

  1. Using a food processor, puree the tomatoes. Pour the puree through a mesh strainer to remove the seeds and skins. Return half of the tomato puree to the processor, and add the garlic and a portion of the bread and olive oil (do not overfill processor). Puree the ingredients until smooth, processing in batches until all of the ingredients have been pureed.
  2. Store the Salmorejo in the refrigerator before serving. Salmorejo is best when prepared a day in advance. Stir in any desired added salt right before serving, as the flavour will develop while it is stored in the refrigerator.
  3. Serve in individual cups, each garnished with a few drops of olive oil, chopped boiled egg, and diced Jamon Serrano.
  4. TIP: Spend a little bit extra and get the reddest, ripest tomatoes available. The authenticity and flavour of your Spanish Salmorejo do not depend on a recipe but on the quality of the tomatoes. Also, the bread should be dense, artisan bakery quality bread for best results.

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Sacred Sauerkraut Recipe:

INGREDIENTS:

sauerkraut

Sauerkraut

1 head of red cabbage
1 1/2 tbsp. sea salt
Spring water (enough to submerge)
Juice from 1 lemon
2 mason jars
1 tsp. dill seed

TIP: For extra flavour, try adding a tablespoon of fresh thyme or rosemary to your sauerkraut mixture before securing the lid.

PREPARATION

• Using a large kitchen knife, slice the cabbage in half and cut out the stem core. Place each cabbage half on its flat side and carefully shred into thin strips. When finished, place shredded cabbage into a large ceramic or metal mixing bowl.

• Add sea salt, dill, and lemon juice to the mixing bowl and using your hands, mix all of the ingredients together. Squeeze and knead the cabbage shreds to really soften them up. Let this mixture sit for 30 minutes.

• Now it’s time to pack your mason jars with kraut! Using a serving spoon, scoop the cabbage mixture into each mason jar, leaving 2 inches of room at the top. There should be a line at the top of your mason jar, indicating how high to fill it with spring water.

• Drizzle a final bit of lemon juice over the exposed surface at the top of the jar. This will prevent the growth of any unwanted bacteria during the fermentation process.

FERMENTATION

• Seal each jar and place in a shady storage space that stays room temperature at all times. The fermentation process can take between 4 and 10 days depending on various environmental factors. Make sure to “burp” each jar every few days. To do this, simply unscrew the lid and let the effervescence release – then place the lid back on.

• After 4 or 5 days, start sampling the sauerkraut daily until it has reached the flavour and consistency you desire. Once you feel it has reached perfection, serve it up or place it in the fridge.

This ancient probiotic-rich food will stay good for months and makes for a highly nutritious topping or snack!

 

Photo Source: Sacred Science

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Recipe for Gluten Free Bread

In August 2015, I decided to go Gluten Free, not because I had any telltale problems but just because I thought it might be a good idea. It was a good decision I must say because I feel great. When going out, my better half and I do not take it too strict, so it might happen we eat something we do not eat at home.

I have a nice recipe which I have adapted to our taste. We eat this bread in the morning and whether or not we have it toasted depends on our mood I think. I have a PDF with recipes so if you are interested, do drop me a line on fincalaparra1@gmail.com and I will be glad to forward it to you.

 

My own Gluten Free bread

My own Gluten Free bread

 

Dark Rye Bread

When you start first put on the oven at 350o F or 170o C

2 cup Almond Flour
¾ Flaxmeal
¾ Oat Flakes
1 teaspoon of Himalayan or Celtic Salt
1 teaspoon of baking powder or baking soda
1 soupspoon of cream of tartar or mayonnaise
2 tablespoons of Caraway Seeds

All these ingredients you mix in a big bowl

6 Eggs
4 tablespoons of olive oil
½ cup of water

These ingredients you first mix in a small bowl and then add to the ingredients in the big bowl.
Let it rest for a while. In the meantime, you line a long cake form with baking paper.
Bake for at least 35 minutes in the oven, after turning the oven off leaving the bread standing inside for some hours.

 

Photo Source: Private

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Homemade Tomato Sauce

 

lovely ripe tomatoes

Lovely ripe Tomatoes

 

In case you do not have a sizeable amount of homegrown tomatoes available, I recommend you go to your local market and buy it there.

This recipe will give you approx 16 portions for 2 people. You can always cook it a little longer to make it thicker when you take it out of the freezer. I consider this as a base for pasta sauce or anything else which needs a good tomato taste. It is also ideal to start a soup with. Just use your imagination.

 

What you need:

A 15-litre stainless steel cooking pot

10 kg of ripe tomatoes

10 good size onions

3 big garlic heads

5 bay leaves,

10 peppercorns

10 cloves

olive oil

a small spoon of sugar, salt to taste and if you like red pepper powder

16 plastic containers with a lid, each container approx half a litre

 

How to prepare:

First, peel and chop into small pieces the 10 unions. Start to slowly cook them with the olive oil, take care it does not burn. Peel the garlic and add to the unions. Wash and cut the tomatoes in 4 to 6 pieces taking care to eliminate bad and hard spots.

When you have prepared about 1/4 of the total amount of tomatoes, you can add them together with the bay leaves, peppercorns, cloves, sugar and salt to the onions and garlic and bring to boil. It takes quite a while to start boiling so you have time to prepare the rest of the tomatoes.

Stir often and when everything is boiling reduce to a smaller flame. After approx 45 min it should have reduced to about half and you can fish out the bay leaves, peppercorns, and cloves if you see them. If you do not find them all, that does not really matter. Be careful while cooking, as some small drops could jump out and burn you. That is also why I use this big cooking pot.

When you are happy with the consistency, turn off the fire and let it cool down. After quite some hours it should have cooled off enough. You can place the cooking pot in a basin with cold water to speed up the cooling-off process. Take the hand mixer and puree everything.

Pour approx 3 ladles full in a plastic container, leave a small headspace and close. Put into the deep- freezer. Now you have a stock which supplies you with good tasting sauce for about 1 year.

 

Organic Orange Marmalade

 

Compare between normal and a huge orange

Compare between a normal and a huge orange

 

As I have a farm in the south of Spain, I make orange marmalade with my own organic fruits.

I started in 1981 with a ruin that was 150 years old. I had no clue about farming and made the disastrous decision to use Roundup. The results opened my eyes and from that time on I went organic

The huge orange in the photo was unique. The biggest there ever was on one of my 100 trees. All the leaves from the property are but on the field and together with the weeds are plowed at various times during the year.

Here you can read my recipe for Orange Marmalade.

 

I hope you enjoy it.

Before you leave, take a look at Recommendations. It is a special page I have made for you with a collection of things you could find interesting.

 

Source: My Life

Photo Source: Private

 

 

 

 

 

Comments

Ryanne

I am looking forward to your next healthy and Original spanisch recept

May 11.2017 | 05:05 am

    admin

    Good morning Ryanne,

    I certainly plan to post more healthy recipes in the future. Thank you for reading. Regards, Taetske

    May 11.2017 | 06:17 am

Diana

Love that gespacho recipe, and shall definitely be trying it. I now look forward to more recipes in the future.

May 15.2017 | 07:00 am

    admin

    Thank you, Diana, for your comment. The moment I come upon another healthy recipe you can be sure I will post it. Regards, Taetske

    May 15.2017 | 11:19 am

Linda Frankson

Hi Teatske, Love your recipe for Sacred Sauerkraut I will be making some soon I have always wanted to know how to make Sauerkraut. and it is a very good health food recipe. The properties in Sauerkraut are extraordinary especially the Purple Cabbage. send much regards
Linda

May 30.2017 | 10:08 pm

    admin

    Hello Linda,

    Thank you for stopping by. There are so many healthy things one can do if only people would hear about it
    and not been brainwashed by unhealthy commercials.

    All the best, Taetske

    May 31.2017 | 06:29 am

Michelle

Very mouth-watering recipes, I am curious enough to try! Thanks so much for sharing, Taetske

Aug 24.2017 | 08:14 pm

    Taetske

    Good evening Michelle,

    Nice of you to come for a visit. I think that healthy recipes do not have to taste bad, rather the contrary, these recipes taste great. My next one will be on orange marmalade, of course organically grown oranges. When you open the jar you can smell the 100 orange trees I have here.

    Regards, Taetske

    Aug 24.2017 | 09:18 pm

Lok Which

This recipe are so unsual and the funniest thing is that it is healthy. Seriously I’m not aware of all these because they seems to be uncommon but reading this has enlighten me and I will surely try this out. I will keep you posted for the result after I have tried it out.  Thanks for sharing this information.

Mar 03.2019 | 08:07 am

    Taetske

    Good afternoon Lok,

    Thank you for your comment. I hope you downloaded your free PDF?

    Spain is known for its healthy diet especially here in the South. Try these recipes as they taste great and are also healthy.

    Regards, Taetske

    Mar 03.2019 | 03:48 pm

Louis

It’s good to know that today’s day and time, many people are now awakened to the benefits of eating right.

I love the gazpacho and salmorejo recipe. looks a bit similar to something we prepare here in Africa. The ingredients are not scarce, so this will be an easy meal for me to try. Apart from bread, what else can I eat this recipe with? I want to try some rice or pasta, do you think it would be nice?

Mar 03.2019 | 08:11 am

    Taetske

    Good afternoon Louis,

    Nice to see you again. Thank you for your comment.

    Actually, Gazpacho and Salmorejo are considered a starter so the main course will come after that. Both recipes are easy to make and good for your health. 

    Regards, Taetske

    Mar 03.2019 | 03:37 pm

Cathy Cavarzan

Those are all very good looking recipes. I am especially interested in trying out the sauerkraut one. If I can get past the part about fermenting LOL . I know sauerkraut has many benefits when it comes to health plus it tastes great ! Do you have any other sauerkraut recipes to try out?

Mar 03.2019 | 08:12 am

sherry

Hi Taetske,

Oh my…these recipes all look so yummy! I look forward to trying these all actually, but I suppose one at a time would be wisest, lol. Maybe I’ll start off with the Gazpacho Andaluz, since we do love our soups here especially in the cold weather we’ve been having.

For awhile now my hubby and I have been trying to eat healthier, but I agree, I sure don’t want a tofu burger! It’s been a bit tiring eating the same old type of things, so this is great to find some new recipes. These all look like they’d be pretty easy to do even for me, and for the most part, I usually have most of these ingredients on hand, which is a plus!

A lot of other recipes I have, I end up having to go on a special shopping trip to buy so many different ingredients, it’s rather discouraging to try them. I’m so happy I found your post!

Thank you for sharing and I look forward to finding more wonderful recipes to try out here soon!

Keep up the awesome work!

Best wishes ~Sherry

Mar 03.2019 | 08:27 am

    Taetske

    Good afternoon Sherry,

    You are right, these recipes are good and easy to make. You do not really need fancy ingredients.

    Next time I make my organic orange marmalade I think I will make a photo and post it with the recipe.

    Thank you for your comment. I hope you have downloaded your free PDF?

    Regards,Taetske

    Mar 03.2019 | 03:28 pm

Achievers

I appreciate your time in putting down this article on unusual and healthy recipes. I will really like to try the spanish Gaspacho Andalus. I appreciate the recipes and directions posted as well. Some healthy food are not tasty but does wonders in the body. Thanks for sharing this article. 

Mar 03.2019 | 09:08 am

    Taetske

    Good afternoon,

    Thank you for visiting my website and leaving a comment. I hope you downloaded your free PDF?

    I can assure you that these healthy recipes are also very tasty. Just try them and you will see that I do not exaggerate

    Regards, Taetske.

    Mar 03.2019 | 03:15 pm

Mine Yapar

Thanks for these yummy and healthy recipes Taetske. I will certainly try them!

May 13.2020 | 02:07 pm

    Taetske

    Good afternoon Mine,

    Thank you for your visit and for leaving a comment. I hope you downloaded your free PDF? Tulip widget.

    As I live in the south of Spain I often make a thick Gazpacho in the summer. Very healthy and refreshing on a hot day.

    Regards, Taetske

    May 13.2020 | 03:36 pm

JJ

Wow. These are some exotic foods I am ready to try out. I could do with the marmalade, the tomato sauce, the gluten-free bread, and that lovely Spanish spicy-looking recipe.

I am recently retired and paying lots of attention to eating right. I buy organic and stay away from dairy, soy, and wheat. I am also looking for new ways to cook and to eat. Thank you for this information. Looking forward to more of these.

May 11.2021 | 02:39 pm

    Taetske

    Good afternoon,

    Thank you for stopping by and for your comment. I hope you downloaded your free PDF? Tulip widget.

    I do eat some dairy and especially like goat Kefir. I use it for my salad dressing mixed with virgin olive oil. Great idea to shop organic food. I also like to have things in my vegetable garden. What you grow yourself has a special taste. 

    Especially now, during this COVID-19 crisis, it is very important to keep your immune system strong. Lots of vitamin C, D3, and Zinc. Sitting in the sun every day for 15 to 20 minutes also helps.

    Regards, Taetske

    May 12.2021 | 02:28 pm

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