Improve Your Well Being With Great Recipes

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 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

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

Dark Rye Bread

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

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 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