The Green Kitchen Project, recipe no.7

COLD RED BERRY SOUP

(serves 2)

500g red berries (I used 300g strawberries and about 100g lingonberries and 100g redcurrants)
125ml water
13 medjool dates (I used 16 fresh dates, which were a bit smaller than medjools)
cream for serving


Bring the berries and water slowly to boil on low heat. Mash the dates with a fork until smooth and add to the pan. Simmer for about 10 minutes; the berries and dates should almost have dissolved. Take the pan off the heat and mix the soup with a hand blender. Pour the soup through a fine sieve so the seeds are strained using the back of a spoon to help the thick soup through. Let the soup cool in the fridge for a few hours. Serve with cream.

This is absolutely one of my favorites from The Green Kitchen! I suppose the traditional danish recipe they adapted this from is quite like the finnish cold berry soup (kiisseli). Dates work so well here; they create a wonderful balance with the tart berries, sweetening yet not tasting like there were dates at all (I really like dates but I don't like tasting them when they're used as a sweetener. In addition to sweetening they also give this soup a thickness that would traditionally come from using starch). This is genius! And delicious!


Soundtrack for the recipe: Lovin' Arms by The Wood Brothers

The Green Kitchen Project, recipe no.5

I'd been waiting for strawberry season to get to try this recipe from the book! It was a sunny morning and we had the cake for dessert after breakfast on the backyard. It's good to have family around (some are leaving home soon but then others are coming). Tomorrow we're going to Ahola!

FROZEN STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE ON A SUNFLOWER CRUST

300g sunflower seeds
(2tbsp hemp seeds, optional)
12 fresh medjool dates, pitted (about 225g)
2tbsp coconut oil
1/2tsp sea salt

300g fresh strawberries
juice of 1/2 a lemon
120ml clear honey (or agave syrup, I put 100ml)
500g quark (or greek yoghurt or mascarpone)

250g fresh strawberries for garnish


Toast the sunflower seeds on a baking tray in 180 celsius for 6-8 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes and put them (together with the hemp seeds) in a food processor and pulse for about 20 seconds. The seeds should be chopped but not powdered. Add the dates, coconut oil and salt and process until the mixture comes together to a sticky crust. (I don't have a food processor at hand here so I chopped the seeds with a hand blender and mashed the dates with a fork until smooth. Then I first added coconut oil and salt to the dates and mixed them in by hand and last blended the seeds in by hand.) Cover the bottom of a 20cm spring-form cake tin with baking paper, closing in the paper with the sides. Press the mixture firmly over the base with your thumbs. Chill in the fridge while you prepare the filling.

Purée the strawberries, lemon juice and honey in a food processor or blender (hand blender worked perfect), pour into a large bowl, add the quark and mix well. Pour the mixture over the crust and put it in the freezer for about 90 minutes. You can keep the cake in the freezer for a few days but then let it thaw for about a half an hour before serving. Garnish the cake with strawberries (and a couple of edible flowers, as the Green Kitchen does). Serve the cake immediately; you cannot freeze it again and it doesn't really last in the fridge either.

We had the cake in the freezer for 2 days but next time I'd freeze it just before serving, I think the consistency will be better then. (I'm actually intrigued to play around with the recipe in order to just chill the cake instead of freezing it; it would be easier to keep.) Also next time I think I'm substituting honey for some cane sugar in the filling; honey's got such a strong flavour. And fresh blueberries or blackcurrants would make a killer cake I bet! I used 2,3% quark but I'm sure greek yoghurt would work well too. I really like the lightly toasted sunflower seeds in the crust, yum.


Soundtrack for the recipe: Onnellinen by Mikki Kauste