Delicious Side-Dish with Okra, Rice-Shaped Noodles, Garlic, Tomatoes and Aleppo Pepper

Okra is such a versatile and not always easy to match vegetable, especially for people like me, who didn't grow up with. As many other food-related products, I've discovered okra relatively late, but through trials and errors, I've discovered my own dish combinations. 

But I haven't try anything new for a long time, maybe for too long. It is not always easy to find the fresh product - and I am not a supporter of frozen veggies anyway - and most of the shops selling it are located quite far away from me. Sometimes, I was simply not in the good mood for paying the full attention requested by preparing a recipe with an ingredient so unfamiliar to my usual eating habits. 

The wonder happened yesterday and I was not only happy to taste okra again, but also to scribble fast the main directions of a new recipe. 

You can use this as a side dish - a good company to a meaty meal - or if you want more consistency, to add some shredded yellow cheese to make it into an autonomous meal. It suits very well white fish.

It is easy to prepare - you only need 45 minutes - and delicious for the palate, as well as healthy.

Ingredients

200 gr. fresh okra, finelly cut in rondels

2 tablespoons olive oil

6 cloves garlic, finelly cut

5 middle-sized tomatoes, finelly sliced

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon Aleppo Pepper

100 gr. rice-shaped noodles. it goes very well with rice

2 tablespoon cooking oil

Directions for preparing the okra mix

Warm the oil in a pan at medium heat. When it start sizzling, add the okra and keep mixing in order to have them fried on both sides. After 5 minutes add the garlic and keep mixing. Sprinkle the salt and add the tomatoes. Mix well for another 5 minutes. When ready, add the Aleppo Pepper, mix well and put it on the side.

For the rice-shaped noodles

In a pot, add the oil and warm it for a couple of minutes. Add the rice noodle and mix it well with the oil. Pour water, at a ration of 2 cups of water for a cup of rice noodles. Mix it well and leave it boil for around 15 minutes.

When the noodles are ready, add the okra mixture and mix it well while heated at medium size temperature for another couple of minutes.

Now, it is ready to be served, either as an independent dish or as a side dish to meat or fish.

Serves: 3

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 30 minutes

Bon Appétit!

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An Easy Nourishing Pumpkin Cream Soup

I am so bad with soups. I hardly have any favourite myself and I haven't cooked too many in my life. Time for a challenge! My plan is to make the next days and weeks, until mid-December, the latest, the days of soup, putting my imagination and modest cooking skills at work, while preparing at least once the week a nourishing soup for me and my lovely little family.

The first installment in the series, a nourishing pumpkin cream soup as you never ever tasted before (be aware, there are many spices involved - as usual).

Ingredients

- 1 medium sized pumpkin, without seeds, sliced into quarters

- 50 gr. unsalted cashews, turned into powder in the food processor

- 1 tablespoon salt

- 1/2 tableespoon Aleppo Pepper from Spice Kitchen UK, part of their Brand Ambassador Program

- 1 teaspoon grated ginger

- 1 teasopoon turmeric

- 2 tablespoon olive oil

Directions

In one lukewarm liter of salty water at 250C, add the pumpkin and let it boil until very soft. When ready, add it to the food processor together with the ginger and turn it into purée at medium speed for at least 2 minutes. In a pan, add one by one the purée, the turmeric, the oil, salt, Aleppo Pepper, cashews and 1/3 cup water. Simmer slowly until boiling. Let it boil for another 5 minutes.

The taste of all this? Eclectic, nourishing and complex. The ginger brings some sparkle where the cashews and pumpkin and the olive oil are nourishing. The Aleppo Pepper and salt are the spicy balance that you need to lighten out, while the turmeric adds a special taste and colouring. I would bring some sesame salty crackers as a company, but maybe the next time, as this time, excitment was so great that I hardly had the patience to snap some pics for the blog.

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour

Serves: 2

Bon Appétit!

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Non-alcoholic Spicy Tomatoes and Aleppo Pepper Cocktail

Since I tried for the first time Aleppo Pepper, a spice I've heard so many good things about and which did not disappoint me at all, I was thinking how I can use this versatile pepper in a new combination. And it seems that my mind needed at least two months until I finally took a decision. What about a cold tomatoes spicy summer cocktail, now when the weather finally looks much friendlier than a couple of weeks ago?

The results were more than satisfying and with a very special spicy result. By adding Aleppo Pepper to your tomatoes you can create an unique juice, healthy and energizing with an unique taste. The preparation takes minutes and unless you want your drink a bit more cold, you can drink it immediately. Accompanied by a meal or just as a refreshment, this non-alcoholic cocktail brings exotic tastes and impressions into your life. For yourself, a party or for a tasty date.

Ingredients

25 small heart-shaped small tomatoes, halved

1/4 teaspoon Aleppo Pepper from Spice Kitchen UK

1 pinch black pepper

1 full teaspoon brown sugar

300 ml. cold water

Directions

Add all the ingredients, one by one, into the blender and mix them at medium speed for 2 minutes. You can pour the juice into a straw first if you want to have a completely clean drink, but I personally preferred to keep the tomatoes skin as well. 

You can drink it within minutes after preparation or wait for at least half an hour with the drink kept in the fridge. Both variants are fine.

Before taking the first sip, be ready for an unique experience: elegant taste with unique spice traces, a beautiful colour and a genuine sweetness (the reason I wanted to avoid the white sugar and use the brown one; honey can also work).

Serves: 3
Preparation time: 10 minutes

Disclaimer: Spices offered by Spice Kitchen UK as their Brand Ambassador for review, but the opinions are, as usual, my own

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