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!

A HEALTHY Persian Salad Olivieh

Come on Persians, let’s face it, there’s a reason our fathers and uncles have those pot bellies; Persian food. It’s one of a kind, always saliva inducing, forever flavourful and smothered in barberries, pistachios and mayo. Salad Olivieh, our version of potato salad calls for at least 2 CUPS of mayonnaise and that particular recipe claimed to be a “healthier” version of the original. And, as if that ain’t heart-attack inducing enough, we Iranians like to spread even MORE mayonnaise on top. My dilemma is, it happens to be one of my favourites. So, my mission? To healthify the shizz out of it.

First, abort chicken – the original recipe calls for shredded chicken.

Next, abort mayo and use a combination of 100% natural yoghurt and avocado instead.

3 free-range eggs, hard boiled
3 medium potatoes, boiled
2 cups of frozen peas, corn and carrots, thawed
1 cup of Persian gherkins, chopped small

Dressing:
1.5 cups natural yoghurt (I used Greek yoghurt)
1/2 large avocado
juice of half a lemon
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper

Grate the eggs and potatoes and transfer to a large bowl.

Next, add peas, corn, carrots and gherkins then mix well.

For the dressing, combine all dressing ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

Reserve 1/4 cup of dressing then add remainder to the salad.

Mix mix mix again.

To finish, transfer salad to a nice dish, smooth top using back of a spoon then decorate pretty.