Ilse's Kitchen - culinary adventures of a girl who loves to eat

I had a craving for fruits, for lightness and freshness today. This dessert met those needs perfectly - four kinds of fruit and just the right amount of bite. Oh yeah, and it’s no work and still looks pretty cool. Ingredients (serves 2): 1 big round slice watermelon, about 1.5 cm thick 2/3 cup Greek yoghurt 1.5 tsp maple syrup 1 cup mixed berries 1/2 passion fruit a bit of honey Instructions: 1. Slice the watermelon into wedges diagonally. 2. Mix the yoghurt and the maple syrup. Spread on top of the watermelon, leaving a bit of the outer rim yoghurt-free. 3. Top with the berries and passion fruit. Drizzle the honey over and serve immediately.

I had in my hand one zucchini, and one want. After gobbling up an entire pizza yesterday, that want was a strong desire to go (practically) carb-free today. Carb-free, but not cheese-free - I don’t think I’ve wanted to go cheese-free a day in my life thus far. I don’t see them coming either. So what I came up with after some googling is zucchini ravioli. I found a lovely recipe at Half Baked Harvest, played around with it to adjust it to what I had at home, and voila. I think I gobbled it all up in under five minutes. Ingredients (makes 4 zucchini ravioli and serves 2 as a starter or 1 as a main): 1/2 large zucchini 1 cup cherry tomatoes 1 large clove garlic 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar 1 handful fresh oregano, plus some to garnish a few sprigs fresh thyme, plus some to garnish salt and freshly ground black pepper 1/3 cup ricotta cheese 1 tablespoon goat cheese 1 tablespoon parmesan cheese 7-8 basil leaves, chopped Instructions: Preheat the...

Some days, the sun shines so brightly it calls for food that is tropical, colourful and makes you feel like it’s summer, even if it’s still cold out. I like to look up recipes by searching for combinations of ingredients I have in my fridge, and this time I had mango and pomegranate. In my search I came across a lovely recipe by Seasonal Sprouts that combines the savoury and sweet, and has a lovely bit of bite. Ingredients (serves 2): 60g rocket salad (arugula) 1/2 mango, peeled and sliced 150g peas 2-3 tablespoons pomegranate seeds 1/4 red onion, finely sliced 1 teaspoon sesame seeds (I like black, but you can also use white) Dressing: 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 teaspoon lime juice 1/2 tbsp fresh mint, roughly chopped 1/2 cm fresh ginger, grated 1 tsp tahini Instructions: 1. To make the dressing, throw all the ingredients together in a small glass jar with a lid, and shake well. If you don’t have a jar, you can also just throw them in a glass and s...

Today is a special day. I have reason to celebrate today and am feeling grateful and in an especially festive mood, so I’m going to share with you one of the best recipes I’ve come across so far. I made it last night. The funny thing is that until quite recently when I was lucky enough to enjoy a beautiful eggplant dish made for me by a dear friend of mine, I was convinced I didn’t even like eggplant. I don’t know what I was thinking. I  bought a stunning purple and white striped version and set out to see what else I could do with it. This Ottolenghi recipe looked to good not to try, and it turns out it tastes as good as it looks. I adjusted the recipe just a little - I didn’t have fresh buttermilk so made a substitute, I added some tahini, and the result was incredible. I literally ended up licking my plate. Ingredients (serves 2 if you give each person 1/2 an eggplant. I ate this as a main and had the whole thing myself): 1 egg plant (aubergine) seeds of 1/2 pomegranate...

Usually, I buy my ingredients and then think of recipes to make with them. This time, I saw a photo of asparagus in puff pastry that left my mouth watering so badly there was no saying no - I just had to go out and get some more asparagus. Having enjoyed the white ones this past week, I went back to my favourite of all - the green. Ingredients (makes 4): 12 green asparagus stalks (slightly thinner ones are preferable to really thick ones) 150g brie 20ml runny honey 1 egg chunky sea salt  1 tsp sesame seeds or chia seeds  Instructions: Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. 1. Remove 4 sheets of puff pastry from the freezer and let them defrost.  2. Slice the brie into very thin slices of brie and cover the the puff pastry with it.  3. Cut the rough bottom 1 cm off the asparagus stalks, then press them into the brie - 3 on each piece of puff pastry. 4. Drizzle the asparagus with honey, then sprinkle with a bit of salt. Fold ...

After my lentil stew leftovers for lunch today (yum), dinner time called for something lighter. Something that was lighter, and made use of the celery stalks I still had sitting in my fridge. And preferably something for which I had everything in the house, as the fridge is still plenty full and I’m trying to limit the number of visits I make to the supermarket. Willow Arlen’s recipe was the answer. This is a slightly adjusted version. Ooo, and also - one of the first vegan recipes on this blog. Yay ;) Ingredients (serves 2 as a starter or side, or 1 as a main): 4 stalks celery, chopped 1 cup cilantro, chopped 1 cup lamb lettuce 20 or so mint leaves, chopped 2 spring onions, chopped (use the bulbs and part of the green stalks) 1 red chili pepper, deseeded and chopped juice of 1/2 lime 1 tablespoon sesame seeds 1 tablespoon rice vinegar 1 tablespoon runny honey (if your honey isn’t runny, heat it to make it run) 1 teaspoon sesame oil Instructions: 1....

Recently, I shared a rocket pesto recipe with you. Here’s an example of what you can do with it. :) Ingredients (serves 2): 120g penne 1 small red onion, finely chopped 300g cherry tomatoes 2 handfuls arugula (rocket lettuce) 15g shaved parmesan 6-8 tbsp rocket walnut pesto Instructions: 1. Prepare the pasta according to instructions. 2. Place onion in a large skillet and sauté for 3-4 minutes, then add the cherry tomatoes and sauté for another 2 minutes. 3. Add the penne and the pesto and mix over low heat for a couple of minutes, then remove from heat. 4. Toss in some fresh arugula, divide over two plates and serve topped with parmesan shavings.

I used to make home made pesto all the time - the kind we all know so well, with pine nuts and basil. But sometimes it’s nice to try something different. Substitute rocket lettuce (arugula) for the basil, for instance. Or substitute walnuts for pine nuts. Or do both, and then you get this recipe - inspired by (and an almost exact copy of) Gavin’s recipe at AnotherFoodBlogger. Ingredients: 75g rocket lettuce (arugula) 30g walnuts 30g grated parmesan 1 clove garlic, minced 1 tbsp lemon juice 100mL olive oil Instructions: 1. Lightly toast the walnuts in a skillet. Watch out that they don’t burn - it always tends to happen right at that moment when you stop watching the pan, and then fast. So keep an eye on the pan. 2. Add all the ingredients to a food processor and blend, until you get the consistency you like. (In theory you could add salt and black pepper, but it doesn’t really need it.)

It’s Saturday morning and day 6 of working from home is officially behind me. Izzy and I have survived week 1. Life is weird, and getting weirder, and as a counter to all the free-floating anxiety out there, corona humor is circulating full gear. Laughter’s still the best remedy. Now there’s research out there that found that eating lots of vegetables (and fruit) makes us happier. Studies have shown that the more vegetables people ate, the happier they felt - and also that these happiness benefits increased far more quickly than the health benefits. I’m sure there’s a limit to all of this, but if you keep it within the bounds of reason then maybe, just maybe, veggies are second best. Ingredients (serves 2): 2 zucchini 2 eggs 2 cloves garlic, minced 4 tbsp milk Salt and pepper to taste 100g parmesan Handful of grated regular cheese (I used old Gouda) Olive oil Instructions: 1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Slice the zucchini and place in an oven dish for 10 ...