This vegan side dish is full of flavors and contains powerful ingredients such as red quinoa, herbs, and eggplant, which will help your body to stay healthy and energized. Eggplant, my husband’s favorite vegetable, belongs to the nightshade family like tomatoes and bell peppers and is well known for its unique taste and texture. Every time I prepare this dark purple vegetable, my husband will smell it right away and walk by with a huge smile. It not only brings happiness to people who love eggplant, it also contains health-improving components such as fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants.
Have you ever heard of salicornia? Salicornia is a nutritious sea vegetable, also called sea beans or sea asparagus. It is a plant that grows in salty soil in shallow water along the shore. Its taste is crisp and crunchy with an intensely salty flavor. It’s high in protein and also a good source of vitamin A, calcium, and iron. You can eat it raw in a salad, steamed, or stir fried, like in my recipe. Make sure to not add extra salt when cooking with salicornia as it’s salty enough. Here I used coconut aminos instead of soy sauce to avoid making it too salty.
Potatoes or sweet potatoes are always a delicious gluten-free side dish. You can serve them in many ways, for example, baked, pureed, fried, or boiled. In this recipe, I spiraled the potatoes and baked them with the skin in the oven. This makes the outside edges very crispy and taste almost like potato chips, while the inside has a delicious soft and almost creamy texture. I created this recipe as a side dish for my Easter recipe Herb Crusted Lamb with Carrots and Broccolini.
I’m addicted to spicy food. In fact, when starting with a savory breakfast in the morning, some spicy chili peppers have to be on my plate already. The following recipe is my version of an Asian chili garlic paste that is free of refined sugar or artificial additives. I use this paste in my Asian-influenced dishes. Since I try to leave out sugar and artificial additives, I now work on preparing my own pastes and sauces. Because of the added coconut oil and vinegar, you can easily store the paste in your fridge for up to two weeks or freeze it in small ice cube portions.
I love the flavors of Middle Eastern food, especially from Lebanon, Turkey, and Morocco. To make this hummus, I added Zatar and a little chilli, which goes very well with the earthy flavour of the beetroots. Zatar is an herb that grows in the Middle East and tastes similar to thyme and oregano. In the Lebanese cuisine, it’s being used with sesame seeds and olive oil to create spreads for flat breads. Beetroots, especially when raw, are a very good source of vitamins and minerals. They are packed with antioxidants to keep our immune system healthy. A real super food!
