Lentil Soup à la Hatice

Yes, it's another soup recipe. I don't know how you feel about it, but in Winter I'm really into soups and eat some rich soup almost every day. Soups keep you warm and are the perfect Winter dish. 

This is a Turkish lentil soup, I followed recipe I gor from my friend Hatice and it's not only one of the best, but also the fastest lentil soup recipes I know. 

Serves 3-4

Prep & cook time: 45 minutes

• 0,75 liter vegetable stock
• 1/2 cup dried red lentils 
• 1 celery rib
• 1 hand full of celery leaves
• 1 yellow carrot
• 1 tsp fresh chopped ginger
• 1/2 onion
• 2 potatoes
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• 1/2 tsp ground curcuma

Grate carrot, chop onion, cut celery rib & potatoes into small pieces. Fry the vegetables with the ginger in a large pan until they start to brown. Add vegetable stock, lentils, potatoes, cumin, coriander and curcuma and cook for 20 minutes.

Enjoy your meal!

Girly Kitschy Winter Nails

Sorry for not posting for such a long time, December was a hell of a month but things are getting better now. Today I decided to make myself a wellness-and-beauty-evening at home and did my nails. There's no snow in Austria at the moments, but still - it's winter! So I need snowflakes on my nails! I'm also really into pink and purple, so I decided to make pink nails with purple glitter.

I followed the instructions of MissChievous' Sparkly Glitter Christmas Nails tutorial - and I think the result wasn't to bad for the first try! 

I used the following products: 

• Pink nail polish: MNY Maybelline New York 261
• Clear top coat: essence quick dry topcoat
• Purple glitter: De Cortions AD
• Snowflake stickers: Blue Elf Beautynail

And here's how to do it:

• Apply pink nail polish twice, let it dry really well.
• Stick the snowflakes to your nails. Use larger ones on larger nails and smaller ones on smaller nails. 
• Apply one layer of top coat, let it dry until it's still sticky but no longer wet. 
• Apply the pink glitter on the tips using a soft eye shadow brush. 
• Apply another layer of top coat.

Yours,

Cream of Carrot & Pepper Soup

My favourite vegetable are carrots - and I really love this creamy carrot soup. It's sweet and salty, spicy and keeps you warm on a cold winter's day.

I got this recipe from my host mum Sarah in England. I lived with her family in Cornwall when I went to school there many many years ago.

For 3-4 servings:

• 4 large carrots, grated
• 3/4 litre vegetable stock
• 2 teaspoons honey
• 1 teaspoon pickled green peppercorns
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2 pods star anise
• 1/2 teaspoon ground tumeric
• 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 4 tablespoons soy cream (you can use normal cow's milk cream of course, but soy cream tastes slightly different and I think it's better with this soup)

In a large cooking pot, cook carrots, peppercorns and vegetable soup until the carrots are soft. Purée the mixtrue using a blender. Put back into the cooking pot, add honey, cinnamon stick, star anise, tumeric, cardamom and cook for another 10 minutes. 

Stir in the soy cream. You can add some extra soy cream and some strips of carrot for decoration.

Enjoy your meal!

Caffè Latte with Nougat & Spices

This is a perfect winter drink: sweet, warm and flavoursome. 

For two glasses:

• 1/3 glass almond drink (almond milk)
• 1/3 glass milk
• 30 grams nougat 
• 1 teasppon brown sugar
• 2 very short espresso ("ristretto")
• 1/2 teaspoon coffee spice
• 1 star anise
• 4 pods green cardamom
• 1 cinnamon stick
• (ground cinnamon for decoration)

In a small cooking pot, heat almond drink, sugar, espressos, coffee spice, star anise, cardamom and cinnamon stick. Cut nougat into small pieces. When the mixture is boiling, add the nougat and stir until dissolved. 

In another small pot, heat the milk and whip to make some milk froth. 

Pour the almond-nougat-mixture in glasses, add milk and milk froth and sprinke with ground cinnamon. 

Enjoy!

Cinnamon & Orange Cookies

"Come to the dark side, we have cookies!"

Winter is coming fast and cold, so what's better than sitting in your warm living room with a cup of tea and some cookies?

These cookies are not the prettiest, but very fast and easy to make and they taste delicious.

I found the original recipe in a web forum and modified it a little bit - the original was without cinnamon and orange, but with raisins.