feel food club

Diet-Specific

Oven baked Sweet Potato Fries

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Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside. With a little hint of roasted garlic and paprika. Sprinkled with a little sea salt. That’s what I call the perfect side. No matter with what, a burger, a salad or just by itself. It is so good. And so simple. You will never want to go back to making sweet potatoes differently.

More Sweet Potato inspiration…

I absolutely love sweet potatoes. In any form. Baked as a whole and stuffed, mashed, boiled, fried, baked in little chunks or whatever. They are just so tasty! I already have a few recipes on my blog with it like the Miso sweet potato with coconut rice or the Thai sweet potato cauliflower soup or the fall tabouleh stuffed sweet potatoes (which honestly are so good) and one of my favourites, the harvest buddha bowl with apple chicken! But all of those were a while ago so I knew it was time to make something new.

Are sweet potatoes healthy?

Sweet Potatoes, as the name says, are potatoes, and taste very similar to regular ones, just a little sweeter. Because of that they are also sometimes used in desserts or sweet dishes. But they are just as common in savoury ones. They are extremely high in Fibre, Vitamin A, Vitamin C and Protein. Plus, they are very high in antioxidants, meaning they support your gut healthy. All in all, super healthy.

How do you make them?

It‘s really simple! Cut into thin strips. They should be rather small and thin because this way they’ll get crispier in the oven. If you have the time for that I would recommend soaking the strips in water because that helps to remove some of the starch to make it crispier (this wasn’t my idea, i learned it at pickuplimes blog). And of course, you need to pat them dry afterwards, very dry, because obviously, water will make them soggy. Next step, which I do recommend, is tossing them in a little cornstarch. I also love making this with my tofu (like in my vegan glas boodle salad recipe) because it really binds the water in the food. 

Spice it up!!

Next up: spices! This is really important because the key to good food are good spices! The spices used really depend on what you serve the potatoes with. For example, if we serve it with a burger, I would recommend using paprika and garlic. If it is a side to some grilled halloumi, some herbs like rosemary and oregano work really well. If you are making wedges and want to make them a bit extra (in winter this is so good!), you can add some cinnamon. This surprisingly works really well!

Tossing them in spices is really essential. They add so much flavour. So last on the list is some oil. I would recommend using olive oil or another one that is neutral in taste. The oil adds more flavour and helps crisping them up. The potatoes are now baked on very high heat in the oven, for really not long. After taking them out, you can sprinkle some sea salt and serve them with a delicious sauce.

Why not frying them?

The reason we are making them in the oven is fairly simple. Because it is way healthier. While they do get a little crispier when deep fried, they also soak up way more oil. This means way more fat and calories. Of course, once in a while it is super good, but when making it more often, baking them in the oven is just way healthier.

I hope that you will love this recipe as much as I do and your family or friends do so too. In our house, they are always gone, and not a single fry is a leftover! Enjoy!

Happy Cooking,
Katie // Une Petite Cuisinière

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Sweet Potato Fries from the Oven

Crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and perfectly spiced! The ideal side for anything!

Course lunch, Side Dish
Prep Time 10 Minuten
Cook Time 20 Minuten
Total Time 30 Minuten
Servings 4 sides
Calories 230 kcal

What you will need

  • 600-800 g Sweet Potatoes 2 smaller ones or 1 big one
  • 3 tbsp corn starch
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 6 garlic cloves
  • 3 tsp paprika
  • 2 tsp garlic powder
  • some sea salt

How to

  1. Preheat the oven to 220°C.

    Wash the sweet potatoes. Cut them into about 1cm thick strips, about 8cm in length. Place them in a large bowl and cover with water. Let sit for at least 5-10 minutes. This helps to remove the starch.

    Drain them and place on a kitchen towel or kitchen paper and tap them dry. They need to be really dry.

    Place them in a clean bowl and toss with the cornstarch and spices.

    Spread them onto two baking trays and make sure they have enough space. They should not touch each other. Drizzle the olive oil and add the garlic cloves (they do not need to be peeled). Sprinkle some salt on top.

    Bake for 10 minutes, then flip them. Bake for another 5-8 minutes. Take out and serve. Enjoy!

    P.s.: If you want, you can squish out the garlic from the peel and mix with some mayonaise to get a garlic dip!

Vegan Coconut Mango Panna Cotta

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Take a creamy panna cotta but image it being healthy and with a twist of coconut and mango. And there you go! This incredibly flavourful dessert is what you should make next! The layers are just THE BEST!

Why is Panna Cotta not healthy?

Panna Cotta is, besides Tiramisu, my favourite dessert. I love the creaminess, the consistency and the taste. It just is so good. But, unfortunately, it is not very healthy. IT contains a lot of cream and sugar which really make it a treat but it is not very good for you.

What is this „Panna Cotta“ like?

But as I still want to get that amazing creamy consistency and that sweet taste, I decided to make one that is healthy and a little different. It still has a rich and creamy consistency but also a nice gel-ly like layer of mango, which is so refreshing and sweet.

How to make it healthier:

To make it healthier we need to substitute a few ingredients. Instead of heavy cream we use coconut milk or coconut yoghurt. To cut out the processed sugars, we do not use white one but we use maple syrup or honey. I would not recommend using fresh dates because that would ruin the nice whitish colour. Contrary to maple white sugar, maple syrup and honey also do have some other vitamins and fibre which makes them easier to digest and they are absorbed slower into your blood.

How can you make it vegan?

Since we are wanting to make it vegan, we are of course not using gelantine. If you are not that strict on using vegan products you can also use it. But in this recipe we are going to use agar agar, also known as plant based gelatine. This helps to bind everything together and achieve the pan cotta consistency. We will use this both, for the coconut and the mango layer.

The mango layer:

The mango layer also is super simple. We blend, either fresh or frozen and thawed mango up so it gets saucy. If you like to have a few chunks left, you can blend it a little less. Depending on how sweet your mango is, and how sweet you want it to be, you can add a little sweetener here too.

How to serve them?

I like to poor them in really small jars or bowls so you can have one (or probably more) as a small snack or a dessert. I love how cute they look when serving them and they also have a nice serving size. If you do not have such on hand, you can just pour it into a large dish and scoop a bit out whenever you want to enjoy it.

Final important words:

As already mentioned, it works great as a snack or dessert! Half an hour before serving it, take it out of the fridge. This is an important step. If you serve it cold, it has way less flavour, which would be sad because it tastes really amazing when served at room temperature! The fresh flavours make it a really nice thing to have during hot days in spring and summer!

I hope that you like this recipe and it gives you some inspiration to cook healthy!

Happy cooking,
Enjoy,
Katie // Une Petite Cuisinière

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Vegan Mango Coconut Panna Cotta

A healthy and vegan version of the italian classic! WIth an exotic twist, it is just an amazing snack or dessert!

Course Dessert, Snack
Cuisine Italian
Prep Time 10 Minuten
Cooling time 1 Stunde
Total Time 1 Stunde 10 Minuten
Servings 6 servings
Calories 164 kcal

What you will need

  • 450 g coconut yogurt alternatively: Coconut milk
  • 4 g Agar Agar or 2 pieces of gelatine
  • 50 g maple syrup
  • 450 g mango (can be frozen and thawed)
  • 50 ml water
  • some shredded coconut

How to

  1. In a small pan add the agar agar and the water and heat it up.

    Meanwhile pure the mango so it has a sauce consistency.

    Bring the agar agar mixture to a boil. Once boiling, reduce to a simmer and cook for 1 minute, stirring continuesly. Take off the heat and divide it into 2 bowls. In one bowl mix in about 1/3 of the coconut yoghurt or milk and stir through until well combined. Then add the agar agar coconut mixture to the remaining coconut yoghurt/ milk and combine.

    Repeat his process with the mango.

    Into small jars or a large dish add the coconut layer first and make it even. Then add the mango layer on top and put it into the refridgerator for at least an hour.

    Half an hour before serving, take it out and sprinkle with some shredded coconut.

    Serve (at room temperature) and enjoy!

Best Cauliflower and Parmesan salad with Parsley vinaigrette

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Nothing beats a good side to go along with any meal. Adds the extra wow and takes anything to the next level. Just like this cauliflower and Parmesan salad. Its one of these non- boring but super easy sides that you will start wanting to make with everything.

I git the inspiration for this dish when I was out eating at a restaurant in Dubai. I order a side, a veggie salad and something really similar to this recipe arrive, and it was bomb amazing. I knew I had to recreate it but at first I wondered if anyone else would like it because I have a taste for very healthy things that barely anyone likes but my family loved it too! They enjoyed the recreation even more. 

Salads are always a great side dish, i believe. They are light, refreshing, and full  of vitamins. Just as this salad is, just without the greens. And it will even get people who don‘t enjoy eating vegetables a lot, to eat it because the parmesan in the dish really turns everything around. It does not taste super healthy anymore. 

And let me tell you so much, it is ready in 5 minutes. At least if you have a food processor, if you don‘t then you probably need 10. yes, it is that simple. You can just prepare it while your fish is sizzling in the pan or somethings roasting in the oven. The making, essentially is, cutting the cauliflower into really fine chunks, or pulse it in the food processor because it will save you a lot of time. Other, you simply need to grate some parmesan cheese and chop it even a bit smaller, finely chop some parsley and combine the ingredients for the vinaigrette. And its done. 

This „salad“ goes best with a simple main dish. A baked fish or a grilled chicken breast or anything Italian inspired because the cheese in the cauliflower salad matches the Italian spices a lot. Surprisingly, it even gies well with some asian inspired dishes such as my steamed salmon in chili lime sauce. It really works with most dishes, but these are the ones I would recommend! 

It also works for meal prep if you want to prepare it ahead of time and enjoy it throughout the week! Just, do not add the vinaigrette before, only when you want to eat it because otherwise it will get soggy and wont taste as good anymore! 

I hope that you will enjoy this recipe and make it oftentimes because it really is that good! 

Enjoy,

Katie // Une Petite Cuisinière

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Best Cauliflower and Parmesan Salad with Parsley Vinaigrette

Not your average side but much better. fresh cauliflower, hearty parmesan cheese, light and herby vinaigrette. Goes perfect with anything. A must.

Course Appetizer, Salad, Side Dish
Prep Time 5 Minuten
Total Time 5 Minuten
Servings 4 sides
Calories 142 kcal

What you will need

  • 1 head cauliflower
  • 40 g parmesan cheese
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1/2 large lemon, juiced
  • 1 tsp honey
  • 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley

How to

That is how it works:

  1. Cut the cauliflower into small florets. If you have a food processor, place them in it and pulse until they are fine chunks. If you do not have one, finely chop them into rice-sized pieces and place them in a large bowl.

  2. Grate the parmesan on the rather large side. Then roughly chop it again, to also reach the size of the rice corn. Add it to the cauliflower and generously salt.

  3. In a small bowl combine the olive oil, parsley, honey and lemon juice. Toss the "salad" in the dressing.

    Serve in bowls and enjoy!

Honey Eggplant and chickpea salad with grilled halloumi

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Sounds like a lot and it is. So many flavors, so much goodness but still so simple and quick. Leave the boring salads behind and start making those next level ones. Salads have never tasted that good! 

Sunmer ist getting closer and closer, which means many people try to live and eat healthier. And whats the stereotype thing to do in order to eat healthiet? Salads! But contrary to commin believes, the plain ones only containing leaves and a dressing, maybe a piece of chicken, are bot the healthiest ones! 

Why are conventional salads not necessarily healthy?

Because they will fill you up for an hour maximum and wont leave you satisfied! Whats the problem with that? If you are not filled and satisfied for long, you will start to get hungry again very soon and snack or binge eat on unhealthy things as you will develop cravings for that. In order to bot develop these, it is important to have a filling, nutritious and delicious meal. And I know that this can be difficult with salads but believe me, this one is everything else than boring. 

Whats in it?

You bake the chickpeas and eggplant in the oven, with a slight olive oil and honey drizzle to get them crispy and a bit sweet. Honestly, life changing! If you habe never done chickpeas or eggplant with honey, I‘d say you should head straight to the kitchen and get started! And its so simple! You place the main components of the salad in the oven for 20 minutes and you are already half way there. 

The most extra dressing

The remaining base of the salad is some basic spinach. Bot a lot, just to add some color and vitamins! But whats a salad without a dressing? My brother would say rabbit food! And he is right. It is boring and plain. I do not get those people who skip on salad dressings because they literally are the easiest thing ever and add a ton of flavor. Honestly, don‘t skip on that. In here we have a super extra, still super simple dressing. 3 ingredients (!!) so much flavor! The ingredients are purred tomatoes (the ones from the can or box), Tahini and lemon juice. I do not know why I have never thought of making dressing with tomato sauce before but it is good. I wouldn‘t do it with a green side salad but on top of buddha bowls or italian inspired ones or ones that are pretty extra, as this one, this is so good! Highly recommended!

The star of the show

Last but definitely not least, the grilled halloumni. I have never had halloumni up till a few months ago and from then on it is a must in my diet! So addictingly good. On salads, on bowls, on pasta, on everything. It really adds this last pinch of salt to anything. Like here. It adds the extra wow, the saltiness and satisfying touch. We essentially only need to grill it for a few minutes on each side and thats it! Assemble! You can serve it with some bread, although I believe that this is not necessary because it is amazing and filling as is! 

You can meal prep it, just leave the dressing extra and keep in mind that the halloumni won’t be as melty and good but it still tastes pretty solid. My recommendation: make it fresh, it is better.

I hope that you will like this recipe and that it will change up your regular salad routine a little! 

Enjoy,

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Honey Eggplant and Chickpea Salad with grilled Halloumi

Next level salad. Has nothing to do with the boring image of salads you have in your head. Sweet and tangy eggplant & chickpeas, combined with salty fried halloumi and the most extra dressing. Enjoy now & Thank me later!

Course Appetizer, bowl, lunch, Salad
Prep Time 5 Minuten
Cook Time 20 Minuten
Total Time 25 Minuten
Servings 4 servings
Calories 366 kcal

What you will need

  • 2 large handful spinach
  • 160 g chickpeas from the can, rinsed, drained, and pat dry
  • 1 eggplant
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tbsp honey
  • some salt & pepper
  • 200 g halloumi
  • 1/2 lemon juiced

For the dressing:

  • 2 tbsp Olive Oil (just pured tomatoes from the can/ boy without anything)
  • 1 tbsp Tahini
  • 1 lemon juiced

How to

That is how it works:

  1. Slice the eggplant into about 2 cm sized cubes. Drain, rinse and pat the chickpeas dry. Place both in a bowl. In a seperate bowl combie the olive oil, lemon juice and honey. Generously salt and pepper the eggplant and chickpeas and then toss in the dressing. Bake for abou 20 minutes at 180°C.

  2. Meanwhile combine all the ingredients for the dressing.

    Heat up a grilling pan to high heat. Slice up the halloumi in about 0.5 cm thick slices. Just before the chickpeas are done baking, fry the halloumi on it for about 2-3 minutes on each side until it gets some grilling marks and melts nicely.

  3. When the tray is done baking, combine the ingredients with the spinach and the dressing. Seperate on bowls and top with the grilled halloumi!

    Serve and enjoy!

Katie // Une Petite Cuisinière