Related Posts

• Simple Confit Tomatoes

  

  Confit means baking something in fat. In this recipe, the tomatoes are not fully submerged in the oil, because I just find it unnecessary. I think it is enough to make sure the bottom of the tray is covered in oil and then just move the tomatoes around halfway through the cooking. Of course, if you feel like splurging, you can always add more olive oil – the oil will be infused with tomato flavor and herbs if you are using them, so you can use it to season salads, pasta, and simple sourdough bread…. So feel free to do this. Here in Estonia, the summer is slowly arriving, but our tomato season is still a few months away. But even the imported tomatoes already taste better compared to the mid-winter ones that taste like nothing.

• Lightly Spiced Tomato Soup

  

  I have had a problem for a few months already, but it is one of those good problems – how to eat all the beautiful produce I get?! In Estonia summers are rather short, which means that most of the crop is at its best at the same time – zucchini, tomatoes, cucumber, kale, you name it! And, even if I have my rooftop garden, my mother’s garden and my grandmother's garden, I still also like to go to the farmers market too, because, well, I love going to the market to look at the abundance of produce. I do need to hold myself back with shopping, though. I really really hate throwing away food and always try to eat everything from root to leaf, so I always try to make the most of everything I have. Oh, I wish I could somehow spread the harvest over the whole year! But I can’t, so this time of year my 5 portions of fruit and vegetables a day is easily 15 or 20 portions of fruit and veggies, and everything else has to wait until I run out (although I do miss lentils and pasta already).

• Tomato and Nectarine Gazpacho

  

  In today’s soup, the sweet nectarines meet up with ripe homegrown tomatoes. It may seem a bit strange at first – especially with the onion in the mix, but I promise – it is so so so delicious! As there is no real cooking involved, all the ingredients must be at their best ripeness. During the wintertime in Estonia, where I live, this kind of soup would be impossible to enjoy as the store-bought winter tomatoes taste like plastic. So at the moment, I am enjoying as much fresh produce as possible. This recipe here is one of those where it is not important to follow the ingredients' exact amounts. I give you a recipe, but feel free to play around – if you only have 5 tomatoes, go with 5. If you have 3 nectarines waiting to be used up – use them here. The same with seasoning – just make sure to taste the soup after the first seasoning and decide if you may like a little more vinegar or little more salt. With seasoning, I recommend adding a little at the time as it is easy to add in more, but once you add too much, it is not possible to remove the extra seasoning.

• Chocolate CBD Sea Salt Brownie Bites

  

  These little brownie bites are simple, sweet, salty, and totally delicious – perfect for a Valentine’s Day dessert. Plus, they contain a secret superfood ingredient: CBD oil! CBD is one of the hottest health supplements right now. If you're interested in learning more about CBD and its benefits, check out our interview with Plant People Founder Gabe Kennedy, on our website, here!

• Simple Soba Bowl with Seared Salmon

  

  Sometimes the simplest meals are the best, and this bowl full of goodness is a perfect example. The recipe is even simpler to prepare when you have cooked your soba noodles in advance. I often cook a larger batch of chickpeas, lentils, or rice over the weekend and then use throughout the week for my meals. I would never consider cooking pasta in advance, because pasta cooked yesterday…. well, it is just not very nice. Soba noodles, on the other hand, work very well cooled down and in fact, I sometimes deliberately cook soba in advance for chilled salads on hot summer days. It is important not to overcook the soba and mix it with a drop of oil, so the noodles would not stick together. For this recipe, however, you do not need to chill the noodles – they are just as good warm.

• Grilled Chicken with Tomato Free BBQ Sauce

  

  BBQ! The go-to meal for summer cookouts and gatherings. What’s better on a lazy weekend afternoon than a big plate of finger-licking BBQ sauce-covered meat or veggies? Unfortunately, most store-bought BBQ sauces are laden with added sugars and other impossible-to-pronounce-ingredients. For our cleansers, who are keeping tomatoes off their plates during cleanse-time, it’s also a dish that they’ve long had to avoid. Not anymore! We’ve developed a cleanse-friendly BBQ sauce that is so smoky and delicious you’ll never miss the original. We’ve replaced the tangy-sweetness of the tomato and sugar with beets; the only added sweetener is a little bit of blackstrap molasses. Seriously, it’s so good you’ll want to slather this stuff on everything! We went traditional with this recipe and used it on grilled chicken, but you could go vegetarian or vegan and put it on grilled or roasted veggies too. The possibilities are endless!