The Food Obsessive

Halloumi, Broad Bean and Pea Salad

Halloumi, what can I say? I love Halloumi! (Let’s just park my dairy ailment for the sake of this post – no I am not eating this. Most sadly.) The very first time I tried Halloumi I was hooked. This is an amazing cheese. It is what I see as perfection between feta and mozzarella….

Poppy Seed Cake (Lake Cake)

Poppy seed cake! I am so excited about this recipe, as it featured heavily in my upbringing. It was one of my mother’s signature recipes and was also famously referred to as “Lake Cake”, amongst some dear family friends. (This was because it was made most weekends for our visits to our lakeside cabin.) I…

Vegetable & Lentil Soup

This is probably the very first soup I ever made. It is very simple to make and very hearty. I have a preference for soups which are chunky. They make me feel like I have eaten something, which means I can have them alone as a meal and feel satiated. This soup is great both…

Coco-Berry Smoothie & Almond Smoothie

We consume a lot of smoothies in this household. Really, a lot! Half of our freezer is filled with frozen fruit and we buy at least three bunches of bananas a week, never mind the kilograms of superfood powders, nuts, seeds and medjool dates. But then there are five of us, which makes huge amounts…

Maple-Mustard Sausages

For a time, when I was living in London, I helped out a friend by taking a few shifts in her lovely, cornflower blue food shop in South Kensington. In addition to her successful catering business, she ran a lovely food shop which was popular with the locals. The window was filled with platters of…

Carrot, Apple & Ginger Juice

When you start out juicing, it is really easy to be overwhelmed and not know where to start. I remember going to my first juice bar and walking away embarrassed because I didn’t know what to order and nothing seemed appealing. It wasn’t until I went with a friend who introduced me to this…

Blueberry Crumble Cake

Much of my childhood was spent at our family lake-side cottage. Most weekends through the summer and a few through the winter. There were no other children nearby, so I spent much of my time at our neighbour’s (and dear friends) cabin, baking. This is almost certainly where I shaped my association with relaxation and…

Blue Cheese Burgers

I love barbecued food. Eating al fresco, even drinking al fresco, has got to be one of my favourite things. In my early 20’s I was living in Vancouver. My first flat was on the 8th floor with a balcony overlooking the harbour. The flat itself was tiny, where the balcony was almost the same…

Spicy Lentil & Carrot Soup

This soup recipe came about when a couple of my foodie friends and I went out for lunch, when we were all between jobs. We went to a little cafe which had the most generous selection of cakes and yet, the surprise was the soup. We loved it so much we asked for the recipe…

Alioli (Ali-Oli, Garlic Mayonnaise)

I remember as a child, my father would occasionally sneak into the fridge for food, this was significant as he wasn’t a grazer or prone to eating out with mealtimes, so it was a rare sight when it did happen. There were two things that would lure him, leftover cooked sausages and alioli. For the…

Taco Salad

This has got to be one of my favourite salads. The honey-lime dressing is light and refreshing. The salad ingredients provide a mixture of textures. It feels like it should be naughty and yet, it also feels very healthy. I could easily eat this most days. I have been using turkey mince in lieu of beef,…

Asparagus Tortilla (Spanish Omelet)

When the asparagus season arrives I am always reminded of my time living in Spain. I went to live there in my early twenties, to indulge in my family heritage and spend some time with my paternal grandparents (my Abuelos). My Abuelos had some horticultural land nearby Valencia and they would grow their own asparagus,…