Lunch

COLESLAW- that’s how a classic cabbage salad from childhood is called. Finely chopped cabbage and carrot (or even without it) dressed with oil, vinaigrette sauce or mayonnaise. The Netherlands is considered to be its homeland, but now its spread almost all over the world.

For example, in Germany, it usually cooked with pickled cabbage, in Italy with ham, and in Ukraine or Russia, they usually add apples and cranberry to the cabbage.

We’ll cook an English variation of this salad from Jamie Oliver with apples, onion, and mayonnaise dressing.

What You Need to Cook Cabbage Salad Coleslaw from Jamie Oliver

INGREDIENTS:

• • ½ cabbage
  • 2 carrots
  • 1 apple
  • 1 onion
  • 1 lemon
  • 2 tbsp of mayonnaise
  • Salt, pepper

EQUIPMENT:

• nothing, that you wouldn’t have

How to Make Cabbage Salad Coleslaw from Jamie Oliver: Step-by-Step Instructions🔪

Cut the cabbage into thin, long slices. In order to do that, cut the half of cabbage in half, cut off the basis, and then cut every piece in half again. As a result you should get 4 parts.

Separate for about a half of inner leaves and put aside.

The rest put together and slice at a low angle.

If you have a shredder or knife-mandolin – that even better, use it.

Slice 1 onion into a thin halflings (for about ½ cm) by a ‘pole to pole’ method.

Cut 2 carrots into thin slices (julienne).

The same way cut 1 apple. For that cut off the bottom part for additional stability. Cut in circles and then slice.

Throw the seeds away, but don’t bother with an apple core.

Now add all the sliced ingredients in a big bowl and mix.

Add juice from half a lemon and mix again. This way you’ll add a pleasant sourness and the apples won’t get dark. Taste, if it isn’t sour enough, squeeze ¼ or ½ of a lemon.

When ready to serve, add 2 tbsp of mayonnaise, salt, pepper and mix again.
If it seems not enough of mayonnaise, (salad looks dry) add more.

Also, you can serve it undressed, put mayonnaise next to the plate. And guests will add themselves as much as needed.

Other dressing options can be your favorite vegetable oil or vinaigrette dressing. In case you’re using vinegar-based dressings (vinaigrette), you should give up the lemon juice so that a salad is not too sour.

Caprese is an Italian classic. Its popularity is partly owed to its own color block, which reminds the colors of the Italian flag. I don’t know what the author build his recipe on, the flag or taste combinations, but the result is really great.

That’s so easy, you know, it just combined traditional Italian ingredients: tomatoes, basil, and mozzarella.

You need to know a few nuances for an ideal caprese.

The tomatoes need to be ripe, juicy, and tasty. The hothouse sort of tomatoes
not gonna fit, it’ll definitely affect the final taste. If you can’t get the good ones or it’s not a season, use cherry.

Only the first cold-pressed olive oil and the best one you can afford. Use large sea salt or ideally- Fleur de Sel. Only freshly grounded black pepper, not packaged ones.

What You Need to Cook Classy Caprese Salad

INGREDIENTS:

• 2-3 ripe tomatoes
• 150 g of mozzarella in brine
• A few leaves of basil
• Virgin olive oil
• Salt, pepper

EQUIPMENT:

• nothing, that you wouldn’t have

How to Make Classy Caprese Salad: Step-by-Step Instructions🔪

2-3 tomatoes slice into 0,8-1 cm circles.

You can either slice 150 g mozzarella into circles too or tear into small pieces.
Put tomatoes on a plate in a circle.

Alternate the cheese with tomatoes if you’ve cut it in circles. If you teared it up, just place evenly on top.

Add a few leaves of basil on top.
Salt with sea salt and pepper. Finely sprinkle with a first cold press olive oil and serve.

Burgers are not usually cooked with chicken, but it doesn’t mean it’s bad. Chicken fillet is lean meat and unlike beef burgers, you’ll get fewer calories.

I’d like to touch the rolls and cheese sauce in more detail. I use in this recipe home-made rolls, you can find their recipe on the website. The same thing goes for a cheese sauce. If you don’t want bake rolls yourself, you can just replace them with bought ones. Nevertheless, I recommend cooking sauce yourself, according to this recipe.

Next, what about lettuce? Instead of it, I used a Chinese cabbage. In my opinion, it perfectly matches with chicken breasts. But if you don’t like the cabbage, replace it with anything else you like.

The specified amount of ingredients, in the beginning, is good for 2 burgers, but if you wanna make more, for example, for a group of friends, just multiply the ingredients in the desired number of times.

I’ve identified this dish as the most suitable for big groups of people. Because the increased number of servings won’t lead to any significant increase in cooking time.

Also, you can serve it as a constructor, that is, all the ingredients separately so that everyone could make the burger they like. In this case, increasing the number of servings, say up to six, will take you only five additional minutes.

What You Need to Cook Hamburger with Chicken Fillet, Mushrooms and Cheese Sauce

INGREDIENTS:

For 2 burgers:

• 1 medium chicken fillet (250-300 g)
• 2 hamburger rolls
• 100 g cheese sauce
• 100 g Chinese cabbage
• 100 g mushrooms
• 6 canned gherkins
• 6 slices of bacon or brisket
• 2 tsp ketchup
• Salt pepper

EQUIPMENT:

• Nothing, that you wouldn’t have

How to Make Hamburger with Chicken Fillet, Mushrooms and Cheese Sauce: Step-by-Step Instructions🔪

STEP 1. PREPARE THE CHICKEN FILLET

Before frying, you need to cut 1 medium chicken fillet (250-300 g) as a ‘butterfly’ and beat.

First, cut off the extra, then place on the cutting board, slightly press with a left hand, and holding a knife parallel to the table, cut in half, but don’t cut till the end, leave for about 1 cm. Open it.

Now you need to slightly beat the meat. Cover it with a food foil in order to keep kitchen and item, you’ll beat with clean.

Take a rolling pin or a bottle or anything else you want and beat the meat. You need to make it even in every part.

After these actions, all we need to do is to add a pinch of salt and pepper and put aside. You can either salt and pepper on both sides right away or salt the other one when it’ll be on the frying pan.

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STEP 2. PREPARE THE FILLING

Cut 6 gherkins longwise, if you’re using bigger ones, cut in circles.

Wash the Chinese cabbage leaves (100 g ) and slice into 1 cm pieces. I almost don’t touch the firmer white part, I think as lettuce replace it’s too tough as for burgers.

Thinly slice the mushrooms (100 g ).

If you’ve bought the bacon or chicken breasts as a whole piece, thinly slice them too.

Don’t forget about the cheese sauce. It’s good if it’s ready, if no, cook using this recipe. You can add a bit more milk to make it more liquid.

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STEP 3. FRY THE MUSHROOMS AND PREPARE THE ROLLS.

Finely heat the frying pan on the medium-high fire, add 2 tbsp of oil and add the mushrooms.

Don’t rush to stir, place them evenly on the frying pan and let to fry until golden for 1 minute. Add a bit of salt and pepper. Mix and cook for another minute or two.

Meanwhile cut 2 rolls in half, add a drop of olive oil on every half, and rub on the inner side.

When the mushrooms are ready, put them to the vegetables, clean the frying pan with a paper towel, lower the fire, and place there the rolls with an inner part down, slightly press with a hand.

The rolls need to be fried so they don’t get wet from the sauce, vegetable juices or meat while remaining naturally soft.

Fry for 1-2 minutes.

Put the rolls on the serving plates.

Shake the crumbs off the frying pan, clean again with a paper towel, and put back on fire. Increase to medium-high.

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STEP 4. FRY THE CHICKEN FILLET AND MAKE BURGERS.

Add a few tbsp of sunflower or olive oil and put the fillet on the frying pan.

I’ve already brought the question partially of how to cook the perfect fillet in the recipe of roasted chicken breasts in the balsamic sauce. Here we have a slightly different situation. We have a thin piece of meat so there’s no use of a thermometer, so we don’t need it.

Here’s what you need to know:

• The frying pan should be finely heated, it’ll take 3 minutes at least.
• Take in mind, that you need to fry for 2-3 minutes on either side.
• Watch the meat cut: as soon as you place the meat on the frying pan, watch how it’s fried, when the half of fillet is done (whitened) – turn it over
• After that, look on the done side and draw your attention to the color – that’s how you know when the other side is ready. Just pick up the meat from time to time to see how the color changes. In fact, the other side fries for a half a minute less, as the inner temperature is already higher than before, so the second side should be fried a bit less.
• When it looks like it is ready to take off, pick the meat up with tongs above the frying pan. If you see that meat releases juice, which dripping into frying pan make the oil hiss and spatter everywhere – that’s another indicator that the meat is ready.

Here’s how fried the first side should be.

When the fillet is ready, take it off the frying pan and let rest for 3-4 minutes. Meanwhile, start making burgers. Grease the bottom part of roll with 1 tsp of ketchup and cover with Chinese cabbage.

A few slices of mushrooms on top.

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STEP 5. FRY THE BACON AND FINISH BURGERS

The frying pan, where the chicken was cooking clean with a paper towel and lower the fire. Place 6 slices of bacon or thinly sliced breasts. I took 3 slices per serving.

Cook for 2-3 minutes on both sides, so that extra fat melts and bacon look fried and crusty.

Put the slices on a paper towel to absorb extra fat.

While the bacon is frying, go back to the burger.

As I said before, chicken fillet needs to rest for 3-4 minutes on the cutting board or plate. After that, cut it in 2 even parts. You can also slice it if you want.

Place a piece of chicken on top of the cabbage.

On top of a chicken a few slices of pickled gherkins.

Finish with bacon on top and greased roll half with a cheese sauce (100 g ). If the sauce became thick, microwave.
Serve burgers with baked potato and beer.

Okay, I agree, the first impression is very weird. Garlic? Soup? Moreover, with oranges? But if you are interested in this recipe, if you’ve already opened a page, you definitely should read till the very end and try it.

The taste is incredible. Smooth texture coupled with a bit of almond gives a sweet creamy taste and a light garlic flavor…

This recipe is one of those that amaze with taste, a combination of ingredients, and simplicity. Therefore this soup is a perfect choice if you want to cook something special for your friends or close ones. 

Surprisingly, but if you wanna impress your loved one, this soup is a perfect match too. No bad garlic breath after! 

For the first time, I’ve tried something similar in Kyiv at the place called “Oliva”. Looking for a place at foursquare to eat, I saw this spot and a remark “Make sure to try a garlic soup ”. And exactly because of that we went there. I liked it very much and decided to repeat it at home.

Pretty fast I’ve found a recipe of the same soup from Jamie Oliver. Unlike the “Oliva” Jamie’s recipe also contained almond and orange, which excited me even more.

Alternatively,  to make it a bit cheaper, you can cook without almonds. You lose nothing – the taste will still be incredible.

So, let’s start.

What you Need to Cook Garlic Soup with Almond and Orange

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 large bulbs of garlic
• 1 white onion
• 285 ml cream 10-15%
• 1 ciabatta
• 1 l chicken or vegetable broth
• 2 tbsp sherry or white wine vinegar
• 150 g almonds
• 2 oranges
• olive oil
• black pepper
• salt

EQUIPMENT:

blender (hand or stationary)

How to Make Garlic Soup with Almond and Orange : Step-by-Step Instructions  🔪

STEP 1. PREHEAT THE OVEN TO 180 DEGREES, PUT A POT ON A FIRE

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, and put a pot with some water on fire. We need to boil an almond to peel it easier. 

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STEP 2. PEEL THE GARLIC AND PUT INTO THE OVEN 

Peel 3 bulbs of garlic, but don’t peel the cloves. Cover the baking sheet with foil or parchment and put the garlic there. When the oven is heated up, put the baking sheet in there for half an hour.

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STEP 3. CHOP THE ONION, PUT TO THE POT WITH BUTTER ON FIRE AND FRY UNTIL GOLDEN

Chop finely 1 onion. Take a thick pan, put on low heat, pour 4 tbsp of olive oil, and add chopped onion there.

Fry for about 10 minutes while stirring every 2 minutes.

Cook until it turns golden.

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STEP 4. PEEL THE ALMOND AND DRY IN THE OVEN FOR 10 MINUTES

If the water in the next pan has boiled, put 150 g of almond in there for one minute.

Then pull out and peel.

To do it quickly, use a towel. Spread it out on the table, put the almond on the one half and cover with the other. Then rub it between two layers. If there is some peel left, repeat again, or finish it by hand.

8-10 minutes before taking out the garlic add almond to dry and roast it a bit.

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STEP 5. ADD THE BROTH AND CREAM TO THE ONION. BOIL FOR 10 MINUTES. ADD FLESH OF CIABATTA AND GARLIC

When the onion is golden pour 1 l of broth and 285 ml of cream, then stir and boil.

Make the lowest heat and leave for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, take a ciabatta,  cut off the crust and tear into small pieces. Take the garlic off the oven, let it cool a bit, and pill it. Then add to the pan with a ciabatta.

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STEP 6. ADD THE VINEGAR. COOK FOR 5 MINUTES

Add 2 tbsp of sherry or wine vinegar and leave on the low heat for another 5 minutes. Meanwhile, prep 2 oranges: peel and split into slices.

Also, I recommend putting the rest of the ciabatta to the oven for 5-8 minutes. Sprinkle it with a bit of olive oil, salt, and pepper. 

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STEP 7. ADD THE ALMOND AND MASH

Pour everything into a blender bowl if you’re using a stationary blender, add the almond and mash for a couple of minutes. However, if you’re using the hand one, just add the almond to the pan and mash everything there for a couple of minutes.

Try it. Add salt or pepper if needed. 

Done! Serve on plates with orange slices and sprinkle well with olive oil. Additionally, serve the crackers!

You can decorate with orange zest, mint leaves and\or cilantro.

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SOMETHING, I WANT TO ADD

• In summer, or when it’s hot, you can cook the cold version of the soup. Just let it cool to room temperature and leave it in the fridge for a couple of hours. It tastes pretty good too.
• Depending on the season, use seedless grapes instead of oranges.
• If you’ve read till the end, but still cannot decide, do it quickly. It tastes really amazing. 

 

The main advantage of this soup is that you don’t need any exotic ingredients. The one that you might have problems with finding is buckwheat noodles. In case you are the one it has happened to, on an exceptional basis I’ll let you replace it with rice or wheat Chinese noodles.

The taste of soup highly depends on the broth. Preferably to cook it yourself, but in this case, we’ll waste time and mobility. Personally I used a bouillon cube, but it’s totally up to you.

If you have already cooked or frozen broth – that’s perfect, if no – 1 or 2 bouillon cubes and you’re done. But use only high-quality cubes.

What you Need to Cook Light Asian-style Soup with Buckwheat Noodles and Salmon

INGREDIENTS:

• a bunch of spring onion (5-6 pcs)
• 1,2 l chicken broth
• a thumb-sized piece of ginger root
• 1 anise star or 1\2 teaspoon of anise
• 2 tbsp of soy sauce
• 1 tsp of red wine vinegar
• 200 g buckwheat noodles (soba)
• 4 salmon fillets 150-200 g each or one whole piece
• olive oil
• salt, pepper

EQUIPMENT:

nothing unusual is needed

How to Make Light Asian-style Soup with Buckwheat Noodles and Salmon: Step-by-Step Instructions  🔪

STEP 1. CHOP THE ONION AND GINGER, PUT THE BROTH ON THE FIRE

First, let’s take 5-6 spring onion stalks and finely chop them. For soup, we need a white and light-green part (3-4 cm above white). The rest part put aside, we’ll use it later for decoration.

Peel and slice 5 cm of ginger as thick as a thumb.

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STEP 2. SCENT THE BROTH AND COOK FOR 10 MINUTES

When the broth boiled, add: chopped onion (white and light-green part) and ginger, 2 tbsp of soy sauce, 1 tsp of red wine vinegar, 1 anise star or 1\2 of anise. Then make a low-heat and leave for 10 minutes.

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STEP 3. STRAIN THE BROTH AND COOK NOODLES

Strain the broth into a separate container using a sieve, strainer, or gauze and then pour it back to the pot.

Boil and add 100-200 g of buckwheat noodles. Cook for 4 minutes and take off.

How many noodles exactly do we need, you can ask? It depends on what you wanna get: soup with noodles or noodles with soup. The thing is, noodles will soak up some fluid. But we haven’t got much of it already.

If you add 200 g of noodles, we’ll have only 120-150 g of broth per serving. That’s more like noodles with soup.
In the case, we add 100 g of noodles, it’ll remain 200-250 ml of broth per serving.

A specified amount of ingredients is good for 4 servings.

As now you’re fully informed, I totally trust you with a decision on how much noodles to add.

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STEP 4. FRY THE SALMON

Properly warm up a small frying pan.

Salt and pepper a piece of salmon, add some olive oil and put it to the frying pan. Cook for 4 minutes on either side.

If you have one whole piece of fish, cut it according to the number of servings. For example, I had 2 servings, that’s why I fried 2 pieces of salmon.

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STEP 5. PLATE THE SOUP AND ADD A SALMON

Prepare 4 bowls (or as many as you cooked).

Pull the noodles out from the pot with broth using metal tongs and serve into plates equally. Then do the same with broth.

Put into each plate a piece of salmon and decorate with spring onion. Serve right away.

 

How about lime soup? Yeah, you’ve heard it right, lime soup, the soup with limes. Okay, keep calm, it’s not the only ingredient. Actually there are very few of them, but thanks to their specific flavor, it’s enough to add a bit of summer freshness. 

Another outstanding thing about this Mexican lime soup it’s the amazing broth.  Cinnamon, clove, allspice, black pepper, and oregano make a mind-blowing flavor combination, and won’t leave anyone indifferent. Extra spices are compensated with citrus ingredients: lime and grapefruit juice adds a bit of soreness and therefore we get a balanced taste. 

I use a chili pepper to add more spiciness. A hot soup becomes even hotter and tastier with chili pepper, what could be better? But, sure you don’t need to use it if you don’t wanna. 

There is one more nuance, I would like to clarify before cooking. In the original recipe, we use tortilla chips for serving. We fry them with butter and add specifically before serving. They become something like corn noodles when soaked.

But as it turned out, that’s not that easy to find them when needed. I didn’t find them in any of the three big supermarkets. As all the other ingredients were bought, I wasn’t ready to give up the idea. So I took the liberty and bought plain pita bread.

In general, I was more than satisfied with the result, so if you have any difficulties with finding tortilla chips too, feel free to replace it. Of course, a corn tortilla is still the best option, so you don’t need to replace anything if there is no problem to get it. 

What you Need to Cook  Mexican Lime Soup

INGREDIENTS:

• 2 limes
• 1 grapefruit
• 1 onion
• 500 g chicken or turkey breasts 
• 8 cloves of garlic
• 4 bay leaves
• 3 clove flowers
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 5 allspice peas
• 15 black pepper peas
• a pinch of oregano
• 1l chicken broth 
• 2 small tomatoes 
• corn tortillas (or you can replace with pita bread)
• vegetable oil
• salt, pepper

EQUIPMENT:

nothing, that you wouldn’t have

How to Make Mexican Lime Soup: Step-by-Step Instructions  🔪

STEP 1. COOK THE BROTH

The first thing you need to do is to make zest and citrus juice. You can do it later but it is better to have it at your fingertips.

Make a zest of 2 limes and a half of a grapefruit with a vegetable peeler. It’s better to make bigger pieces as we’ll simmer it and then remove from the pot. Really, it’s not much fun to wring out the tiniest bits. Put aside.

You no longer need the remaining juice, so feel free to use it for any other purposes. 

For the broth cut an onion in a half. Put one half to the pot and the other put aside, we’ll use it later.

Measure the spices: 4 cloves of garlic, 4 bay leaves, 3 clove flowers, 1 cinnamon stick (approximately 7 cm in length ), 5 allspice peas, 15 black pepper peas, and big oregano pinch. 

Pour 1 l of chicken broth to the onion, add 2 chicken breasts and spices to the pot. Simmer for 30 minutes after boiling.

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STEP 2. BAKE GARLIC WITH TOMATOES

We’ll do it on the open burner. That’s an interesting method, which adds a fire smell and reveals the taste in a completely different way. And most importantly, it’s super easy. You’ll need metal tongs or two forks in a pinch. In the case of garlic, forks are even more suitable. Put the vegetables on the fork (I used fondue forks), make the bigger fire and fry well.

For our soup take 4 cloves of garlic and 2 tomatoes. You don’t need to peel the garlic- peel protects the pulp from burning and helps to bake it evenly.

 

Cook for 3 minutes to get charred all around while constantly flipping it. 

From 30 seconds to 1 minute is enough for tomatoes.

When it’s ready, the peel should be mild, roasted, and easy to remove. Put the vegetables on the wooden cooking board and let them cool down.

When they’ve cooled, remove the peel and chop finely. Chop the other half of an onion and 1 dry chili pepper too (if you’re planning to make it spicy).

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STEP 3. STRAIN THE BROTH AND SIMMER IT WITH A LIME AND GRAPEFRUIT ZEST

When the chicken is ready (right in a half an hour after boiling), lay it out of the pot. Strain the broth through the sieve. 

Put in there a lemon and grapefruit zest and let it simmer for about 10-15 minutes.

 

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STEP 4. COOK THE SOFRITO

While the broth is simmering let’s cook the sofrito. This is a sauce based on tomatoes, onions, and garlic.

Melt a few tablespoons of butter in the pot and add chopped vegetables from the previous step. Cook for about 10 minutes on the low-medium heat while constantly stirring.

You need to catch a moment when the liquid evaporated but the mass itself didn’t become brown.

 

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STEP 5. MIX ALL THE INGREDIENTS FOR THE SAUCE

When sofrito is ready, pull the zest out of a broth and pour it to the pot with sofrito. Add juice from step 1 and mix. Taste it and add salt if needed.

The last thing you need to do is to slice the corn tortilla (or pita bread) and roast with unsalted butter until golden.

 

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STEP 6. PUT THE SOUP TOGETHER

Tear the chicken up to the small pieces and put on the bottom of the plate.

Pour the broth as much as needed and place the tortilla chips on the top.

Decorate the soup with a slice of lime and some green stuff like parsley or cilantro.

 

Many of you know the classic French recipe of onion soup. The one which is traditionally served with croutons and cheese. It has a sweet, rich flavor that you definitely can’t associate with an onion. Caramelization unbelievably changes the taste and makes it completely different from the typical and boring onion taste everyone is used to. This recipe is about an onion soup too, but a different one.

We’ll cook it with a leek and potato. The recipe is pretty different from a French onion soup, actually it’s a completely different dish with a few similarities.

Firstly, the foundation of both soup is onion but different kinds. Secondly, while preparing, taste significantly changes, sharpness and bitterness replaces with sweetness and cream flavor.

The soup is very light however filled with interesting taste combinations. And despite almost 100% vegetable foundation, it is very hearty. You can exclude milk and cream, if you want or depending on your personal views.

What you need to cook Leek and Potato Soup? 🍲

How to Make Veggie Leek and Potato Soup: step-by-step instruction 🍽️

Step 1. Prepare the ingredients

Wash the onion (cut in half lengthwise and hold it under the running water for a while. Remember, the dirt often hides among the green leaves).

Wash and peel 200 g of potatoes.

Cut potatoes into thin slices, put into a strainer and wash under the running water for a couple of minutes. And now some routine work with a knife: cut into thin slices all 750 g of leeks. Use a food processor if you have one ( and why did it occur to me only now?).

Measure a 200 g of onion, peel it and slice into thin half-rings.

Measure 1l of vegetable broth into a small pot and put it to warm up on a small fire.

STEP 2. PREPARE THE FOUNDATION OF THE SOUP (POTATO, ONION, LEEK)

Melt 120 g of butter in a large stew pot or a saucepan.

Add sliced potato and onion. Cook it for 10 minutes stirring from time to time.

Add all sliced leek and cook stirring for another 5-7 minutes. When the leek becomes mild, shrinks, and there would be no smell of fresh leek – move on to the next step.

Meanwhile, find a minute to make a bouquet garni. Take a few stalks of parsel, thyme, one stalk of rosemary and tie them up.

STEP 3. ADD A BROTH, LET IT BREW WITH A GARNI AND MASH IT.

To the pot with simmering ingredients pour warm broth, put a garni bouquet, boil and then turn down the fire.

After that pour 100 ml of cream and 50 ml of milk. Cover the pot and cook for another 10 minutes.

Take out a garni bouquet and mash the soup. I recommend doing it with a high-power stationary blender in order to get a perfectly smooth creamy texture. You can also use a hand blender, but it’ll take a bit more time.