Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

I have been cleaning the garden for planting and picked a few onion weeds with some nice juicy bulbs, plus some little potatoes and cavolo nero, so I put everything into a soup, with the addition of some asparagus, and vegetable stock. I blended everything (but left our a few whole steamed asparagus tips to add later) and used some onion weed and pansy flowers for decoration. Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

This soup is vegan and gluten free, and makes use of those onion weeds that grow everywhere in Auckland in spring. Forage the onion weeds from a safe and clean place and wash well. The bulbs are fat and delicious just like spring onions (plus they are free!) and you can also eat the stems, leaves and flowers.  Chop the bulbs, stalks and leaves of a bunch of onion weed and one bunch of asparagus, sauté with a drop of olive oil until fragrant, then add 1 l of vegetable stock and one big potato, peeled and finely sliced. Simmer until the potato is mushy and then add one cup of baby spinach leaves. Blend with an immersion blender and bring back to the boil for one minute. Adjust with salt and pepper and serve, decorated with onion weed flowers. Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

I am surprised when I see people buying already made soups, especially the very simple ones. Ok to buy them if you are going camping. Or if you are staying in a motel and don't want to eat out. Or if you don't have any cooking facilities, for whatever reason. Ingredients and instructions: peel and cut the potatoes, wash and cut the leek, put olive oil in the pot (for me, or you can use butter) to sauté the veggies, then add vegetable stock to cover and simmer. Blend. Done. Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Yes they do! I have a few recipes with Brussels, but the easiest way to cook them is in a soup, a bit like a minestrone, so that all the flavors from the other vegetables, plus the starch of pasta, 'improve' the distinctive taste of Brussels sprouts. Chop one onion, half a carrot and one celery stalk with leaves, sauté with a tbsp of olive oil and then add 1.5 l of vegetable stock. Simmer until the carrots are soft and then add the Brussel sprouts, a cube of frozen spinach and a handful of small pasta (like  stelline ). Simmer until the pasta and Brussels sprouts are cooked, add a little more extra virgin olive oil and black pepper to taste. Easy and yum!   Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

White button mushrooms are delicious raw, and they are vitamin rich, apparently they even have vitamin B12. These little savoury mushrooms 'macarons' make a tasty appetizer, and they look really fancy! All you need is mushrooms and some raw vegan nut cheese  (recipe here) . Remove the stalks from the mushrooms and peel off the top 'skin', the clean them well with a damp paper towel (do not wash). Fill with a little vegan nut cheese and close together like a macaron.   Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

This is commonly called Vegan cheese or nut cheese, although to me it feels more like a very 'intense' dip. Full of protein and spreadable, it stores well for a couple of weeks in the fridge. Ingredients: 120 g cashews 80 g macadamia 1 small shallot 2 tbsp lemon juice water (just enough to blend the nuts) salt and pepper to taste Soak the cashews for 4 hours, drain and place in a food processor (or use an immersion blender). Add the shallot, peeled and chopped, lemon juice and a little water. Blend until smooth, adding more water if necessary. Add salt and pepper to taste (I do this little by little while blending). Store in the fridge. Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

  Red beetroot soup with fresh goat cheese This  colourful soup  is incredibly quick and simple to prepare, but the flavour (and look) is almost restaurant-like, and everyone will ask you for the recipe! Ingredients: 1 celery stick with leaves half onion half carrot 1 l light vegetable stock one pack LeaderBrand beetroot fresh goat cheese to serve freshly ground pepper (optional) Serves 4 - Gluten free - Vegetarian Put the celery stick (cut), half a onion and half a carrot in a pot with the vegetable stock and simmer  until the carrot is almost soft (about 10 minutes from boiling point). Add one pack LeaderBrand beetroot and simmer for 5 more minutes, then turn the heat off and let the vegetables and stock cool down until lukewarm. Blend the soup in a blender and pour back into the pot, heat gently and dish. Top with a broken-up slice of fresh goat cheese, adding freshly ground pepper if desired. Photos and Recipes by ...

Something filling yet light, done in a jiffy! I had very little left in the fridge, just a bit of salad mix, but in the pantry I had some rice paper, vermicelli and dried gluten meat. So I put the 'fake' meat in a pot with a little vegetable stock (made with an organic veggie cube) and cooked it until soft. Then I cut it into little strips (actually, Arantxa did it - see photo).  I soaked the vermicelli in boiling water and then drained and rinsed them. To assemble the rice paper rolls you will need to line the table with clean tea towels, then soak the rice paper in hot water until soft, top with salad, the vermicelli and the gluten meat strips.  To see how to fold the rolls (step by step) you can have a look  here . If you have time you can fold the rolls adding herb leaves and flowers. Keep the rolls covered with a tea towel until ready to eat. Serve with soy sauce or sweet chili sauce. Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

I have two zucchini plants in the garden, one yellow and one green. They produce a lot, the yellow three times more than the green (I don't know why) and we have been eating zucchini in 100 different ways: grilled, sautéed, fried and tempura, in soups, with pasta… fortunately they are very versatile! Here I had a few big ones (sometimes I don't pick them for a day and they double overnight! But the important thing is that they don't get to the 'marrow' state - too big and bitter) so I decided to stuff them. I cut them into two and scooped out the flesh. Then I baked the shells upside down with a pinch of salt and a drizzle of olive oil for 15 minutes. In the meantime I blended the zucchini flesh and then added chopped parsley and chives (about 1 tbsp), salt and pepper, a tbsp of olive oil and enough breadcrumbs to make a stuffing (add the breadcrumb one tbsp at the time so that you don't add too much). The zucchini were fresh from the garden and therefo...

When I brought this plate to the table everybody laughed, and it is a fun recipe!  Finto pesce  means fake fish, the original recipe is a kind of pate made with potatoes, mayonnaise, capers and canned tuna (I think very 1960s!). My Mother made it, we lived in the mountains far from the sea, so fish was rare (and frozen or canned). Of course being a vegetarian I don't use tuna for this recipe, but seaweed. Brush and wash (but don't peel) 1 kg of mashing potatoes, then peel them and pass them through a potato ricer. Add a tbsp of capers, some nori seaweed, shredded, and a few tbsp of mayonnaise (to taste). Mix well. Shape into a fish and decorate with veggies and more nori ( I cut my nori with a flower cutter). Perfect for summer, and for kids! Do you have a dish that makes everyone laugh? Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

I wish this was one of my creations, but I cannot take the credit: it is in fact an appetizer (but also served as a cheese course, or with a good  vino da meditazione  (meditation wine) that I first tried in my village in Italy ( Sestola , an excellent Parmigiano producing area) about 20 years ago. It was very fashionable then, and it may be still now for all I know, I am not sure, but it is definitely very original, and too good not to share! All you need is real Italian Parmigiano Reggiano Stravecchio (over 30 months aging), good quality creamy honey and good ground coffee (espresso quality). If you cannot find 30 month old Parmigiano, look for a 24 month, or you can try with a younger Parmigiano, but really, here you have only three ingredients, and the better they are, the best the end result. Cut the Parmesan into bite size chunks, spread with honey and sprinkle with ground coffee. The pairing of these three flavours really works. I used Airborne Bush Honey  be...

These are much better than asparagus rolls (although I confess that I don't like asparagus rolls, I only eat them if I have to, i.e. I go to a 'high tea' and the only vegetarian sandwich are... asparagus rolls! High teas are not very imaginative in this part of the world). So yes, I like to boast that these are 100 times better than asparagus rolls made with buttered white bread!  I got the idea after doing  this  (another invention of mine :-)) and I though of adding a lightly steamed asparagus to each roll, and just a little Halloumi. For each roll you will need only one sheet of filo pastry, roll it up like a spring roll (closing the ends), brush with water (you can use melted butter or olive oil, but water is fine and no fat!) and bake until golden. Easy to make and I can assure you that these will go like hot cakes! Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Just cook the soba and top with the rest of the ingredients. To serve just add a drop of soy sauce. To make the nori tagliolini ... well look  here ! For the onion weed... just forage it, wash and cut (you can eat the flowers, stems and bulbs... the lot!). I bought the salted sakura (cherry blossoms)  here , I love them, a bit like salted capers really!   Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Do you get tomatoes plants that die and leave you with green tomatoes hanging there not ripening? I do! What a pity, but even if some veggie are ugly I can still manage to make a soup out of them! I don't know why the yellow zucchini plant is three times more prolific than the green one! Still, I am not complaining, look at the colour! My favourite additions to soups are beans, it is just so much fun shelling them and look at the beautiful colours. Pity that they become all brown during cooking. And here is the minestrone. No recipe, just wash, chop and boil, add salt to taste and extra virgin olive oil at the end. So tasty and healthy! Some of the photos are mine, but the prettiest are Arantxa's! Photos and recipe by Alessandra Zecchini and Arantxa Zecchini Dowling  ©

You can see them in the deli department of all the supermarkets, little red peppers stuffed with feta, and they are not cheap! But mostly, if you have a big party they go too quickly! But for a fraction of the deli price you can buy a couple of jars of sweet pickled peppers and a block of creamy feta, and then you just need a few herbs from the garden, and a little milk to thin down the feta. And a bit of patience! Cut the feta (goat or cow) and place in a bowl, then with a fork start to mix it, adding some milk until you have a paste as thick as Greek yogurt. If you cannot find feta cheese, or for a milder flavor, use cream cheese. Chop some herbs like basil, dill, chives and/or parsley (or what you have fresh in the garden). You can use just one herb or a mixture of herbs. Or you can use an already flavoured feta, or dried spices like black pepper and cumin seeds (a combo that I particularly like with cream cheese).  Mix the herbs with the feta mixture. In th...

Here there are some images form  a market in Montevideo , where I introduced the zapallito, a vegetable that looks like a round zucchini. Today I will show you a recipe we made during an Uruguayan cooking class  (offered by our Spanish language school  La Herradura ) . Faina is like a flan, but be aware: this is not like the  faina  that you get in pizzerias here (which is more like an Italian farinata made with chickpea flour - lots of immigrants from Liguria here!). These  fainas  are different and based on eggs an flour, plus different ingredients for flavor. A part from the faina de zapallitos we also made a faina de queso (cheese) and Arantxa and Max made a salchichon de chocolate (just like the Italian salame di cioccolato). Faina de zapallitos 500g zapallitos half onion 2 eggs 3/4 cup oil 1 cup milk 12 tbsp flour 1 tsp baking powder salt and pepper to taste butter to grease and breadcrumbs to sprinkle Ch...

 I just wished that I have thought of this before!)  We eat quite a bit of halloumi at home, easy to prepare and serve on a bed of sautéed vegetables or couscous, or with a salad. But I thought that there must be another way instead of always grilling it or pan frying it! So I cut it into slices and rolled it in filo pastry, a bit like for a Chinese spring roll. I brushed the pastry with water (this way it doesn't brown too quickly), and baked it! Some leaked a bit, but remained compact (unlike Edam that runs everywhere and burn!), and it was so delicious and easy to do that it is going to become a staple at home (also because it is nice cold too, and the kids had it in their lunch boxes!). Photos and recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Still in yogurt mood, and why not, it is hot and summery and I feel like eating refreshing food. I love making this yogurt sauce, I call it raita when I serve it with Indian food, and tzatziki when I serve it with Greek-Turkish food. The only difference is that when I make tzatziki I like to add mint. You just need some thick yogurt (otherwise strain it) salt to taste, finely chopped cucumber, and if you like, a few leaves of mint, broken with your fingers. So yummy on salad and hot or spicy food, and as a dip.  Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Ingredients 2 yellow capsicums (Bell peppers) 2 orange capsicums (Bell peppers) 1 red capsicum (Bell pepper) 1 garlic clove half carrot 1 small celery stalk 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil (plus more to drizzle at the end) 1 tbsp tomato puree A little water 1-2 tbsp capers salt to taste (if the capers are not too salty) chopped Italian parsley to finish Wash and cut the capsicums into thin strips. Peel the garlic and cut into two. Wash and chop the carrot and celery into small pieces. Heat the olive oil in a pan and sauté the vegetables, then add the tomato paste, a little water, the capers (rinsed) and a little salt (unless the capers are already too salty). Cover and simmer on low for 30 minutes, stirring from time to time, and adding more water if necessary. Adjust with salt at the end, if necessary, and finish with some freshly chopped parsley and another drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. Serve hot or cold, with some nice crusty bread ...

At the  Festival Italiano  I received a very special present from Naomi of  Aceto Downunder : a bottle of ABTM ( Aceto Balsamico Tradizionale di Modena ), the  extra vecchio  (25 years +). This  Balsamico  is the real thing, only sold in specially designed 100ml bottles, expensive but worth it, every drop of it. The first thing I made was this classic Italian salad: Rocket leaves (fresh from my veggie garden), shaved Parmesan, thin slices of crunchy pears, and a drizzle of ABTM. This salad is absolutely delicious, and perfect as an entree or a sophisticated yet easy and light summer main course. Thank you Naomi! Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©