Berry & Almond Smoothie

I drank a smoothie very similar to this one in Chicago a couple of years ago. Unfortunately I can't remeber the name of the smoothie bar or where it was ...

Serves: 2
Prep and cook time: 10 min

• 100 grams raspberries (fresh or frozen)
• 100 grams blueberries (fresh or frozen)
• 1/2 lemon
• 2 table spoons honey
• 2 table spoons ground almonds
• 1/2 vanilla fruit
• 1/2 tea spoon ground cinnamon
• 300 ml almond drink 

Cut vanilla fruit lengthwise, remove vanilla pulp. Squeeze juice out of the lemon. In a blending container add raspberries, blueberries, lemon juice, honey, almonds, vanilla pulp, cinnamon and almond drink. Blend until it's smooth.

Enjoy your meal!

Almond & Orange Cake

This is a very light and fluffy cake. It's perfect to be served in the afternoon with a cup of coffee or tea. You can also freeze pieces of this cake and defrost them, whenever you need them.

• 2 oranges
• 6 eggs
• 250g caster sugar 
• 250g ground almonds 
• 1 teaspoon baking powder 
• icing sugar for dusting  
• peeled almonds for decoration
• oil for greasing the pan

Preheat oven to 190°C. Wash oranges and place unpeeled, in a pot of boiling water for 2 hours. Drain the water and allow the oranges to cool.
Break 6 eggs into a mixing bowl or blender. Add caster sugar and beat or blend together.Place the two oranges into the egg mix. Break up the oranges and then blend together to a smooth consistency. Add the almond meal and baking powder and blend.
Grease a square baking pan with vegetable oil. Pour batter into the pan and bake for 1 hour to an hour and a half or until the top is golden brown. Dust with icing sugar and decorate with peeled almonds to serve.

Enjoy your meal!

Rice & Almond Pudding with Raspberry Sauce

This is a lactose-free, vegan and vegetarian version of a popular lebanese recipe.

Serves 4

Prep & cook time: 15 minutes

• 200 ml rice drink
• 2 table spoons rice flour
• 2 table spoons ground almonds
• 2 table spoons sliced almonds
• 2 table spoons honey
• ½ vanilla fruit
• 100 ml raspberries 

Cut vanilla fruit lengthwise, remove vanilla pulp. Heat rice drink with 1 table spoon honey, vanilla fruit and vanilla pulp in a non-stick frying pan. When boiling, add rice flour and ground almonds. Cook for 5 minutes while stirring.

Pour the pudding into 4 tea glasses.

While the pudding is cooling, puree the raspberries with 1 table spoon honey. Add raspberry sauce to every pudding and top with sliced almonds.

Enjoy your meal!

Rice Pudding

In Arabic this dish is called aruz bi-halîb (أرز بحليب), which means "rice with milk". In Saudi Arabia this dish is prepared using Basmati rice, but I usually use whole grain brown rice. I think it tastes great with this recipe.

For 4 servings: 

• 1/2 cup whole grain brown rice
• 4 cups skimmed milk
• 5 tsp honey
• 1/2 tsp orange blossom water
• 4 tsp chopped pistachios
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3 green cardamom pods
• 1/2 tsp dried ground orange zest 
• 1 dash salt 

In a non-stick frying pan, add milk, 1 tsp honey, rice, orange blossom water, cinnamon, cardamom, salt and orange zest. Cook and stir on low heat for 40 minutes. If the rice is too dry or sticks to the pan, add some more milk.

Remove cinnamon & cardamom. Serve with honey and chopped pistachios.

Enjoy! 

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.