Roasted Chickpea Salad.

Every now and then I get a panic attack when I think of all the junk I sometimes eat during holiday season. After surviving 4 days of Dour Festival on booze and burgers my belly could use some detox-time. Healthy food in my opinion is never boring. With some internet research about how to make chickpeas more exciting I made this yummie salad.

désolé for the messy picture I didn't intend to make a blogpost about this one as I invent salads everyday but it was so yummy that not sharing it with the world would be considered a serious crime.

Ingredients:

-fresh parsley leafs

-1 small carrot

-1/5 cucumber chopped

-handfull of rucola

-50 grams of chickpeas (preferably canned, couldn't find canned ones @ Delhaize so I had to buy dried chickpeas, wet and cook them first (12 hours of work m*therf*ckers)

-1 grape tomato (or other sweet type of tomato)

-1 small red onion6 mushrooms plain

-olive oil 

-balsamic or other vinegar

-sugar

-salt pepper

-your regular salad herbs (I used oregano and some basil)

-curry powder

-garlic powder

Recipe:  

Preheat oven at 200°C

Line a sheet of aluminium foil with some olive oil on a baking plate.

Slice the carrot with a thinslicer in long slices (like linguini), slice mushrooms in slices of 3 mm thick.

Put all of the above in a bowl with the chickpeas and add a tablespoon of olive oil, half tablespoon of curry powder, salt, pepper and if you prefer other herbs (I used garlic powder and paprika powder). Gently toss with a spoon.

Spread this mix over the aluminium foil on a baking plate and pop in the oven for about 14 minutes. Watch it now and then, as every oven is different and I don't want you chickpeas to be black.

In the meantime grab a salad bowl. Chop tomato, cucumber and onion. Add a handfull of rucola and some freshly chopped parsley at your taste. Toss all together. Add your favourite salad herbs, a large spoon of balsamic vinegar, a pinch of sugar and salt, and finally pepper. When your oven veggies are ready add them too and gently toss again. Serve with a slice of buttered toast.

Food Cuteness.

Israeli artist Shay Aaron, made these eenie mini cute food sculptures. Handmade clay, yummy artwork. Eat that Barbie. 
Via FlavorWire and Shay Aaron.
You can buy these and others on Etsy shop.

May the muffins be with you.

Recipe after the jump...

Jicaro.

Today I visited the Miramar lab with Jessica, a Nicaraguan girl who just finished her studies as a Chemist Engineer and works over a year now for the company. In the lab they grow the shrimplarves which are then transported to the farms everywhere in Nicaragua. I was pretty impressed I must say.
Not only the landscape we drove through to get there but the whole lab was pretty cool.

JICARO TREE

The lab is situated just next to the pacific ocean and man those waves. Locals were surfing and selling fish on the beach. I didn't brought my camera, stupid me, cause I'm not allowed to photograph on the plants.


On the way back we chat a bit about the traditions of our countries, when I realised Belgium really doesn't have a typical dish, right? Anyway, Nicaragua has plenty of typical drinks, liquors, dishes, fruits,...
Papaya and Mango are what apples and pears are to us. So I'm in some kind of heavenly state of mind at breakfast time.
Jessica asked the guy who drove us to stop the car on the way back in the middle of nowhere. She jumped out and came back with this green mango-like fruit called "Jicaro". It grows everywhere here. I don't know if you're familiar with the milky soy-like drink "Horchata" they sell sometimes in Spain, well it's made of Jicaro seeds.
Here they drink a typical Nicaraguan horchata, "Semilla de Jicaro": Jicaro seeds, grounded mais, milk, cinnamon, vanilla, water and of course sugar. When we crossed a little grocery store, (we were back in the living world by then) she asked again to stop and jumped out and came back with a can of that drink for each of us and a bag of "rosquillas". Those are crunchy cookies made of maisdough, cheese and other stuff, but they're good. Must say, "Semilla de Jicara" is a damn good refreshing drink. And I love my Nicaraguan co-workers!

Semilla de Jicaro

So now I'm here with a Jicaro on my desk, ready to make some diagrams of today's lab visit. Fingers crossed that the hotel-owner allows tropical fruit as room decoration.

Komkommertijd Ghent

So I forgot to share some very "food-important" information with the world.
Last friday I had dinner with my mum and sister in a very "hippie-style" restaurant in Ghent: Komkommertijd.
It's an "all-you-can-eat" vegan restaurant, in the heart of the city. I actually hate the "all-you-can-eat" formula, because it reminds me of cheap all-in holidays with lots of greedy, lazy people eating and drinking all day long. But that's really not the case here.
Komkommertijd always serves soup for starters, then you can choose from a hot and cold buffet of vegan dishes and if there's some room left in your tummie there's dessert. The food is delicious, but you have to be in for special flavours and veggie food. So, it's a no go if you have carnivore friends. The soup they served friday was some Indian Curry Cabbage soup, really yummie. The dishes from wich you could choose were mainly composed of seasonal products. A lot of pumpkin-containing-dishes, butternut squash goulash, cabbage-salad, tofu meatballs, indian and thai spices, vegetable curries, chili sin carne, etc. were served and for dessert they served us a delicious vegan chocolate cake. Impossible to stick to just one piece of that last one. It's a green restaurant so they're are really ethically concerned about everything they do, that explains the use of their seasonal products and the discount you get when you're a "friends-of-the-earth" member. Despite of their "mixed-cliché" interior, this restaurant is highly recommended when in serious need of huge amounts of healthy, vegan, yummielicious dishes.

closed on monday and tuesday,
lunch: € 12
dinner: € 15

adress: Reep 14

          9000 Ghent
(close to the Belgacombuilding @ Oude Beestenmarkt)

comfort food on rainy days!

In Ghent there's a coffee shop named Barista where they sell delicious coffee's and pastries.
There are 2 establishments and one of them is very close to where I live. I go there when I'm working for school and I'm in serious need of some hot poppin' coffee stop, just like today.
 Must eat: they're lovely "broodpudding" Must drink: "Cookie Machiatto".