Fall food

Yep, it's for sure. Fall has begun. A good excuse to stroll around outside with my camera (you know, daily dose of daylight and such):

It's good that there are a lot less people outside nowadays, because otherwise I no doubt would have gotten many strange looks because of my photographing stances (i.e. almost lying on the street/ground).

Lately, I've tried to ward off my cold-wheather-induced cravings for comfort food by making some healthy lunch meals and snacks

The age-old saying goes: eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince and dinner like a pauper. Well, this soup would certainly qualify, as after I forgot to prepare my grain porridge ingredients the evening before, I ate the leftovers of this soup for breakfast. And, here in the Netherlands, orange is the colour of the royalty, so there you have it: breakfast like a king!

I love to eat bulghur for lunch. It's healthy, warming and not to mention very tasty.

I tend to forget to eat the fruit in our fruit basket. Trowing it in the blender is a perfect solution for that. This smoothie from just one banana, one mango and some water is simple, healthy and perfect for sweet cravings.

In all my 'health-food' plannings, the ones below can be considered absolute failures, but ah well... I suppose I'll just have to forgive myself ;).

Chocolate truffles, always a treat.

I never made chocolate mousse before: reason enough to try it out! I don't like the idea of raw egg in my food, so I went for a recipe with just chocolate, whipped cream and chocolate mints. Without the chocolate mints, because I don't really like chocolate mints, actually. Thus, a most basic version of chocolate mouse, which tasted rather good actually!

Okay, recipe time!

I always buy organic pumpkins, so I won't have to worry about pesticides when I throw in the peel as well. Which is easier, faster and it even tastes better!
For the soup, I wash the pumpkin, remove the seeds, cut the pumpkin in parts, together with an union and some garlic, bake then for five minutes, then add water, laurel leaves and cumin (maybe ginger or a bouillon tablet as well). Let it boil for 30 minutes, take out the laurel leaves and use a hand blender (Dutch: staafmixer) to turn it into a smooth soup. Add some salt & pepper (and perhaps even some shoyu/soy sauce) and you've got a delicious soup.

For a lunch meal, I take about 60 grams of bulghur, wash it in a strainer (Dutch: zeef), then let it simmer in a pan with water (bulghur to water volume is 1:2) on low heat with the lid on top for about 15-20 minutes. I usually throw in some vegetables, this time green beans (Dutch: sperziebonen) and a tomato. Spicing everything up with turmeric (Dutch: kurkuma/geelwortel), salt and cayenne pepper, it becomes a delicious warming lunch meal. I often combine bulghur with turmeric and shoyu/soy sauce, it's one of my favorite combinations, but the shoyu didn't really match with the vegetables this time.

For the truffles, boil 175 ml of unwhipped cream, take it off the fire, add 400 g of dark chocolate (in small pieces or chopped) and stir until the chocolate has melted. Add 75 gr butter until melted and 3 tablespoons of Cointreau. Put the mixture in the fridge for several hours, then roll small balls of the mixture and roll them through pure cocoa powder.

The original recipe (4 portions) asks for 200 grams of dark chocolate, 300 ml whipped cream (in its not-yet-whipped phase, if you know what I mean) and 8 after-dinner chocolate mints. I used a third: 75 grams of dark chocolate and 100 ml (un)whipped cream for 3 portions, because even I have to think about my waistline now and then, and the dessert is heavy enough already.

Melt the chocolate au bain marie, whip the cream and stir it together (it might take a while before you get a solid brown colour). Scoop the mousse in cups and put it in the fridge for an hour. Voila, easy peasy.