Poke bowl

When I moved to the Netherlands 2 years ago I was pleasantly surprised to see that Dutch people eat A LOT of raw fish. All around you could find various sushi restaurants, dozens of options of eating out or ordering, and what I think surprised me the most was the fact that you could buy relatively cheap and good quality sushi from the supermarket.

After a while the trend emerged to the so called "Poke Bowl" which I have first heard of when I saw a restaurant delivering it. What is a Poke Bowl? Basically, "Poke" represents a traditional Hawaiian dish which consists of raw fish cubes mixed with oils and spices and served as an appetizer or main course. This dish later evolved into modern version, known as "Poke Bowl", which is a mix of raw fish, rice and vegetables. It makes you think of it as a deconstructed sushi roll. Take the fish, rice, seaweed and whatever else you add to your sushi roll and put it in a bowl with some dressing, like you would do to a regular salad, and taa-daa, here you have it.

What I personally love about this dish is the freshness of the ingredients and that I feeds you without being too heavy. Below I propose my favorite healthy, classic version which takes no more than 15 minutes to prepare.

Ingredients (for 2 portions):

• 200 g smoked salmon;
• 1 medium carrot;
• 100 g seaweed salad;
• 1 ripe avocado;
• 1 spring onion;
• 1/2 English cucumber;
• 200 g steamed rice;
• 150 g soy beans; 
• soy sauce;

TIP for those of you living in the Netherlands!

You can easily find all these ingredients at Albert Heijn, that's where I bought mine from. They always have fresh soy beans, smoked salmon cubes which go right into your dish and one tasty seaweed salad. Moreover, for this recipe I used Basmati Rice form Tilda, which already comes steamed, you don't have to cook it anymore. Getting all your all ingredients from one place and ready to be served it's really convenient and it saves you a lot of time.

 I started by preparing the vegetables. I finely chopped the spring onion, removed the cucumber's seeds and sliced it in small cubes, sliced the avocado and peeled thin strips of carrot. *If you are not getting your rice already steamed, prepare it according to the packaging instructions. Then I added all of them in bowl together with the rest of the ingredients, sprinkled some soy sauce and that's it. Super fresh, healthy, quick and delicious meal.

 

 Enjoy!

Goat Cheese and Mushroom Pasta

It's pasta time (again)! Recently I came across a Facebook video of a goat cheese pasta sauce recipe, which basically involved mixing warm pasta water with cheese, and that gave me an idea for a very quick and affordable dish. However, I did not want just plain pasta and sauce, maybe some extra seasoning, so I threw some more ingredients in there which I had around and also felt they would make sense. The result surprised me and made me ask myself why I did not think of that earlier, especially since I am a huge goat cheese lover. ( I have it in my fridge almost 90% of the time). Anyhow, now I can add on my list a new tasty recipe that only takes 15 minutes, so better late than never, right?

Ingredients (for one portion):

• aprox. 65 g dried pasta
• one hand of sliced mushrooms ( I used a mix)
• 2 slices of ham
• 60 g creamy goat cheese
• pasta water
• one garlic clove
• parsley
• salt and pepper 
• Parmesan (optional)  

I started with pasta the water. I usually boil it in a water cooker and then put it on the stove, because then it takes less than 5 minutes to reach the optimal boiling point, so everything moves way faster. Don't forget to properly salt your water.

In the meantime I sliced the mushrooms, the ham and chopped the garlic and I roasted them in one teaspoon of olive oil. When my water was boiling I added the pasta and I cooked it until al dente, according to the packaging instructions. 

After the pasta was cooked I added it over my roasted ingredients, turned off the heat, and then added the goat cheese and a little bit of pasta water, while giving it a proper stir. I kept stirring (and gradually adding water if it was necessary) until de cheese melted and a beautiful soft and creamy sauce formed. I ended by adding fresh parsley, seasoning with salt and pepper, and sprinkling some Parmesan.

                                                  Enjoy!