Since summertime arrived, I have the feeling our fridge is always packed. Cold drinks, all the good fresh fruits, vegetables and herbs… I just can’t resist to buy them all, and then the fridge seems to explode… So today I decided to have lunch with ingredients which were already there and need to be eaten, and it turned out to be a lovely, fresh and light meal. The salad was made within 5 minutes, and the smoothie… well not as fast. While making it I thought ” no way, this is a ridiculous amount of work just for a glas of smoothie”, but in the end… But that’s for later….
For the salad you’ll need 2 tomatoes, a handful fresh mushrooms, lemon juice, lot’s of basil, some good olive oil, vinegar, sea salt and pepper. Peel the tomato by pouring boiling water over it, the skin is easy to remove afterwards. Cut it in slices and place it on a plate. Clean the mushrooms and cut them into fine slices (I did it with my mandolin), toss them in lemon juice from half a lemon and put them on top of the tomatoes. Add fresh basil to your taste. Mix 2 tablespoons of olive oil with 1 tablespoon of your favorite vinegar and mix together until it is well blended. Pour the sauce over the salad and add salt and pepper to your taste! Enjoy!
The smoothie. Well there was a handful of red currants laying around in the fridge. Literally a handful, not more. And right next to them a lemon yoghurt. So instantly I was tasting a fresh and delicate smoothie, creamy or even silky in texture… And then I had to realize, two things: my blender (which is not at all a high speed blender) was blending the fruit flesh but not the seeds inside the red currant (and there are a lot inside these beautiful pearls). So the dream of a silky texture faded within seconds. And lemon yoghurt is not as sweet as it would be needed to cover the acid from the red currants… So my smoothie was “seedy” and way to sour!! I almost had the intention of leaving the whole thing to the sink, but I hate to waste food. I therefore passed the mixture through a fine strainer, to get rid of the unwanted seeds. My next step was to think about what could help and I thought about adding some sugar syrup and some crushed ice, to cut down the acid. Opening the cooler I found some frozen strawberries, left overs from making ice cream… So I crushed them with the ice cubes to add some natural sweetness. A teaspoon of sugar syrup, the red currant-yoghurt mixture back to the blender with the crushed strawberry ice and there it was – the smoothie I had dreamed of. So, I won’t really recommend it, because it is really a bit of a hassle, but if you want to try it – it is yummy! Very refreshing and full of good taste!
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