Healthy Saturday Treat for Everyone

Another great weekend in London! Its getting really chilly here and we are expecting some snow… I have to say I am excited about that! I spent half of my Sunday at Winter Wonderland with friends and it was a great fun!

Since Christmas is just round the corner I am getting into a festive Christmassy mood and therefore I organised a little Christmas tree decoration evening on Saturday. It was a great evening with a lovely, tasty and healthy little dinner.

I love Baltic Herring and we eat a lot of this salty fish back home and it always reminds me of Christmas because my mum prepares it in loads of different ways at this time of the year. I chose the simplest way of preparing the fish and it was really lovely. Herring is rich in vitamins necessary for our daily diet and it has fewer calories than meat, it is also rich in oils and calcium! It is a good evening snack, but only if it’s not too salty!

Simple Baltic Herring marinade

My mum usually sends me some Baltic Herring and it’s marinated in the oil already, but this recipe is ideal for a fresh Herring!

The marinade is so easy to make, very tasty and refreshing!! Try it yourself:

2 Herring Fillets
1 large onion
0.5L of water
3-4 spoons of vinegar
5-6 potatoes
fresh dill

Pour some water into a deep dish, depending on the quantity of fish you will be marinating, then mix it with a few spoons of vinegar. This time I used cider vinegar and it tasted great! Don’t pour too much vinegar as marinade will taste very sharp, If it does just add more water. Roughly chop one onion and place it into the dish together with the chopped Herring. Cover the dish and place it in to the fridge. Job done! Keep it for a few hours until the fish soaks in this lovely marinade sharpness! Serve it with hot potatoes sprinkled with fresh dill!

Hummus treat

I have also made 3 different types of hummus to complete my evening and my friends loved it! Hummus is great and it’s filling and healthy! My new blender works great and it’s a pleasure mixing soft chick peas with roasted pepper or caramelised onions!

My plain hummus was truly lovely and I was proud of it, it is my favourite. To make it you will need:

2 cans of chick peas
2 cloves of garlic
2 table spoons of sesame seed paste
1/2 of lemon juice
a little bit of dried Basil
salt and pepper
a dash of Olive oil

Boil chick peas for a few minutes and place them in to a large dish together with minced garlic, lemon juice, olive oil, sesame seed paste, salt and pepper. Blend it well with a small amount of the left over water from your boiled chick peas. The smell is gorgeous and it tastes so much better then a supermarket one!

The red Pepper Hummus

You will need:

1 roasted pepper and all the same ingredients as above

The process is the same! Just roast red pepper for a little bit and blend it with chick peas and the ingredients used for my plain hummus. Red roasted pepper enriches hummus with its lovely taste and red colour.

Caramelised Onion Hummus

I am not a fan of caramelised onion hummus but I made it because my boyfriend loves it! And I have to say it turned out really good as it wasn’t as sweet as the one I once bought in a shop! It is fun making caramelised onions! To make it you will need:

                                          

1 onion

2 table spoons of brown sugar

        2 table spoons of vinegar

Just finely chop one onion and fry it a little bit with olive oil. Add vinegar and mix it all with brown sugar! Blend half of the caramelised onions mixture straight in to the hummus and just add in the other half to give you chunky bits of onion for texture.

At the end of my little dinner the caramelised onion hummus was voted as the best one from the three I made!

Crunchy suggestion:

This is how we enjoyed our warm tortilla wraps with hummus and crunchy fresh salad:

1 packet of tortilla wraps

2 tomatoes

0.5 cucumber

1 yellow pepper
1 red pepper

1 packet of fresh lettuce

Warm up tortilla wraps and spread a generous amount of hummus on them. Then stuff your warm wrap with freshly chopped tomatoes, cucumbers, crunchy colourful pepper and lovely green lettuce! It’s finger licking good!

It was a beautiful dinner and it’s a very comforting food when the temperature is below zero outside!