Recipe: Chocolate Fool

If you’re not British you might not be familiar with the concept of fool which is usually a kind of puree fruit dessert. This parfait was inspired by a Christmas fool using fruitcake posted to the BBC but also didn’t really fit the definition of “fool”. In the end it’s basically a chocolate cake with fruit and whipped cream in a glass and you can call that whatever you like but the name “fool” is cute for a dessert so it’s fine if that’s what you want to call it. I used this chocolate cake recipe which takes about 5 minutes to throw together but feel free to use store bought cake or your own favorite chocolate cake.

Chocolate Fool

Recipe: Squash-Carrot Soup

Technically you don’t have to roasted the squash before you make this soup but the flavor is much richer if you do and it’s easier to cut squash up if you roast it first. You can absolutely used pre-cut squash and roast that also. This soup is a real warm winter treat and can be topped off with crushed nuts, breadcrumbs, or grated cheese. Paired with a nice roll or a salad it can easily be a full meal.

Squash-Carrot Soup

Adapted from Lovely Little Kitchen

Recipe: Squid Ink Pasta with Crab Meat

Even though this looks like a very fiddly meal, it’s actually not a big deal. I’ve been making pasta quite a lot lately since I bought a pasta maker and it’s both really easy and satisfying. You can always buy the squid ink pasta and simply make the topping / sauce which make this a 15 minute meal if you have lump crab or canned crab. For sure this meal turns any night into a very fancy date night.

Squid Ink Pasta with Crab Meat

Adapted from Love and Olive Oil and FoodieCrush

Recipe: Donauwelle

This is such an interesting cake and it’s really delicious too. The layers are supposed to look like the waves of the Danube. I’m not entirely sure I understood how to achieve this effect the first time I made this recipe but it’s certainly good enough that I’ll probably give it another try in a few months. It’s not complex per se but it does have quite a lot of parts. I cut down on the amount of buttercream frosting used as well because I like more balance in my cake but if you feel like you need 6 leagues of buttercream on your cake, I’m not going to stop you.

Donauwelle

Adapted from Sunday Baker

Recipe: Miso Mushroom Pasta

Creamy, salty, umami bomb which makes a really exciting dinner in about 15 minutes. I made my own udon for this dish but you can easily use store bought udon or any pasta noodle (fettuccine would work just as well honestly). You can use a variety of mushrooms or just regular white ones if that’s all you have on hand. My only suggestion would be to start light with the miso so that the dish doesn’t get overly salty.

Miso Mushroom Pasta

Adapted from The Missing Lokness

Recipe: Romesco Chicken

I know it’s been a while but 2020 is certainly been a ride so I’ll try to keep thinking moving along quickly either way (for the -10 people who will ever see this anyway). I don’t usually post what I consider to be no-brainer recipes but this is such a simple “recipe” that it starts to fall into the lifehack category. Basically you cook chicken breast in the oven and you make a sauce using 2 ingredients one of which is a jar of roasted peppers. Don’t throw out of the jar though! Use it to store your leftover sauce for even easier dinners for the next 2-3 weeks. I served this with some rice cooked with spinach and spices as a full meal.

Romesco Chicken

Adapted from Easy Chicken Recipes

Recipe: Butter Chickpeas

Despite the title this is actually really easy to make a vegan recipe by replacing the butter with coconut oil instead. You can finish it with some almond milk if you like also. I like to mush half of the chickpeas with a potato masher to get a bunch of different textures and also I think it thickens the recipe without cornstarch. I might try adding more vegetables to this recipe in the future but I really liked its simplicity.

Butter Chickpeas

Adapted from The Iron You

Recipe: Banana Bread

It couldn’t be simpler to make banana bread and it’s what nature intended for all those bananas you seem to end up having leftover every now and then. Perfect with butter, jam, or a smear of cream cheese or even just by itself this recipe takes about 10 minutes to come together in a single bowl and the results are great. Add in coconut flakes, nuts, or even some chocolate chips to take it to the next level.

Banana Bread

Recipe: Apple Cinnamon Crepes

These are pretty easy to make and they seriously look impressive despite having only a handful of ingredients. I like the really delicious childhood flavors of apple and cinnamon together. You can top this with powered sugar instead of mascarpone if you prefer and feel free to make the apple topping as complicated or simple as you like (I added ginger, nutmeg, and cardamom and used honey instead of sugar) so just have a good time with it.

Apple Cinnamon Crepes

Adapted from Oh My Dish