A Healthier Potato Salad and Cheesecake

Both recipes inspired by Petite Kitchen 

Potato Salad:
3 large potatoes of choice
1 small-medium cucumber
2-3 medium gherkins/pickles (chopped small)
A handful of dried blackcurrants
1/2 cup of raw pistachios (chopped small)
A large handful of fresh mint (roughly chopped)
Juice of one lemon
4 tbsp natural yoghurt
a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Pepper

Scrub potatoes well then cut in to small cubes. Place in a large saucepan, cover with salted water and bring to the boil. Then simmer, uncovered until just cooked. Be careful not to overcook!

When ready, strain potatoes and set aside to cool.

Once cooled, combine and toss all ingredients in a large bowl.

Cheesecake: 
6 free-range eggs
1 cup natural yoghurt
1 cup of mascarpone cheese
1/4 cup of honey or maple syrup
1/4 cup of almond meal/almond powder
juice of half a lemon
1 tsp vanilla essence

Topping:
Note: alternatively, you can use 100% store-bought fruit jam. 
1 cup of fresh or frozen strawberries
2 tbsp honey
1/4 cup of water

Decoration:
Silvered almonds and flowers

Preheat oven to 180C

Grease a round cake tin then line with baking paper -grease that a little bit too.

Combine all cake ingredients in a food processor and blitz until combined. Since my blender couldn’t fit/handle all the ingredients at once, I managed this part by blending in batches at a time.

Pour batter into a cake tin and bake for about 45-50 min or until set. Note: batter will be very runny, this is normal.

Keep a good eye on the prize, if the top starts prematurely browning because your oven is shit like mine, use a sheet of tin foil to cover the top.

As your cake bakes, add all topping ingredients to a saucepan, bring to the boil then simmer until juicy and thick- set aside to cool.

Once both topping and cake have cooled, bring the two together in the most perfect union using the back of a tablespoon..

Decorate with silvered almonds and small flowers. Last but definitely not least, Instagram it.

A big shout out to Daniel and Mariko for having me over, listening to all my Japan problems and giving me kind brotherly and sisterly advice and my tummy, vegetarian gyoza and perfectly cooked brown rice!

Persian-inspired spinach loaf

Housebound and food-obsessed. Can’t stop baking! Don’t worry I’m not eating everything (seriously) but instead sharing with my wonderful neighbours, friends and colleagues. Yes, I’m sooo lovely.

This savoury loaf is super easy to prepare and tastes/reminds me of a childhood and typical Persian dip: mast o seer (literally: yoghurt and garlic). It’s deliciously fragrant of yoghurt, garlic, turmeric and cumin. Mmmmm I feel I’m back at home with my mama when I’m having it.

3 free range eggs
1/2 cup of yoghurt (you can use dairy-free if you wish)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large grated carrot
1 clove of garlic (mashed)
200grams spinach (roughly chopped)
1 1/2 cups of wholemeal flour (or any GF variety will do)
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp sea salt and black pepper
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp of cumin

topping:
1/4 cup of pumpkin seeds

Start mixing ingredients together, one by one, in above order.

Pour into a greased or lined loaf tin

Top with pumpkin seeds and a sprinkle of black pepper then bake for 45-50 min at 180C.

Enjoy warm 5 minutes after taking it out of the oven.