Bonjour from Monaco! We've been here for a few days now and I must say the weather is pretty crazy here. One night we had a rain storm with thunder and epic wind. The yachts were bouncing up and down in the port and everything seemed so different. I've been here for a few times and I've never seen the rain before. But against all odds, we decided to give in to our burger craving. I heard that the nearby sports bar Stars 'N' Bars had a vegan menu and we had to give it a taste. When we sat down on the second floor, they gave us modern digital tablet menus and we started browsing.
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| A mobile photo from our dinner |
I ordered falafels with fries and sauce and my love ordered the vegan burger. We had high hopes but unfortunately it was a disappointment. The burger had no sauce and it was super dry. The patty was fine, though. My falafels were sour and rather raw inside. I have a thing with too sour food. I really don't like it. And when I'm making hummus for example, I only add a couple of drops of lemon juice. I think most of the store-bought hummuses are too sour or is it just me? But I must say that the goji berry sauce served with fries was really good. It was sweet and much more interesting than a regular ketchup. The bill was 50 euros including drinks and it's the standard here. But the more I eat outside, the more I appreciate homemade food! I can't wait what other adventures wait for us here. Today is rather calm and sunny outside. We will take a long walk and after that we're gonna go for some pizza and beer at the Brasserie de Monaco.
Today's recipe is an adventure on its own. It's definitely something different yet really delicious. I've been experimenting with nori for a few times to make vegan "fish" recipes. Like these crispy fish cakes for example. I've also tried different sea flavored soups, but now it's time to finally publish one here. Instead of salmon, I used a wonderfully soft sweet potato. Then I added some nori sheets to give it this "fish" flavor and the soup also gets its taste and texture from fresh dill, lemon and cashew cream. I really hope you're feeling adventurous and give this soup a try. If you do, I would love to read your impressions!
PS! I also deleted my Instagram in the end of the year, so I've been officially social-media free for some time now. If you want updates and recipes, this blog is the best place for it. And if you want to be really sure to get notified when I publish a new recipe, subscribe with your e-mail.
PPS! Erin from Olives for Dinner asked me to do an interview for her and I was more than happy to answer her questions. You can read about why I cook, who would be my dream dinner guests and how is the life in our forest cabin on HER BLOG!
Time: 25 minutes
Serves: four people
- 6 cups / 1400 ml boiling water
- 2 onions
- 3 Tbsp oil
- 2 ¼ cup / 275 g sweet potato cubes
- 2 medium potatoes
- 1 tsp dried dill
- 1 Tbsp grated lemon zest
- 2 ½ - 3 tsp salt
- 2 nori sheets
- ¾ cup / 175 ml vegan cream
- ½ Tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp unrefined sugar
- ground black pepper to taste
- fresh dill
Bring water to a boil (I used a kettle). Peel the onions, cut them into four chunks and slice. Heat up a thick-bottomed pot. Add oil and sliced onions. Cook for a couple of minutes. Add sweet potato cubes, regular potato cubes, dried dill and lemon zest. Cook for a couple of minutes. Add about half of the salt and nori sheets ripped into four. Add boiling water, stir, cover the pot with a lid and let it boil for 10 - 15 minutes, until the potato is soft. Remove the nori sheets from the soup. Add vegan cream, lemon juice, sugar, pepper and the rest of the salt. Boil for a couple of minutes. Add fresh dill and boil for half a minute. Taste and add salt, sugar or lemon juice if needed. Serve.
