takeaway salad & one olive oil address

life is too short for bleak lunch boxes.

unless you

a) don't have a canteen with a star rated chef

b) can't whip up enviable in between meals at home or

c) don't have the time to eat anyway,

take your own salad every now and then.

it cannot be stressed enough that the dressing is the key.

take the finest oil and vinegar that you can get (and that you hardly get in the supermarkets here) and they will turn the most trivial salad components into a top notch dish.

especially when some vegetables aren't in their peak season.

in this context i must thank my dear friend LEA (advent greetings to the big apple!!) who indicated this very charming olive oil dealer. after missing the opening hours several times i finally made it there.

(and now that i passed on an oil supplier, any suggestions where to get sherry vinegar? anybody??)

a tip beforehand:

when filling the storage container begin with the "firm" components like pulses or grains and it won't be necessary to take the dressing separately. i make a dressing by shaking it in a twist-off glass in which it can be stored for several servings.

once you get used to this little procedure, it will be done so quickly that you can do it while brewing your morning coffee. promise.

an ordinary suggestion:

layer chickpeas (a couple teaspoons, precooked and frozen), carrots, (would have liked stalk celery, too but had none), tomatoes, shallots and herbs (chopped in with a scissor; never waste the stem parts just cut them very thinly). pour the dressing in and layer salad lettuces (don't have any preferences here as long as they are pretty) on top. shake the container before eating.

a treat like this once or twice a week and i am no longer upset about my checkless intakes of sweat white yeast breads! :)

wraps with quinoa, lentils and beetroot

after having devoured

1) half a pound of good old dr. oetker's marble cake during the weekend (do you think of excuses when making a huge buttery chocolatey plain white flour cake? i sometimes do. in this case that was "after this new-fashioned-pastries-wave it's high time to make a classic marble cake. it's been years since you had the last one. otherwise you will even forget that taste.... ahh, horrible imagination! :) )

2) together with a bulk of my favorite biscotti (the only store-bought sweets that are currently admitted to my household)

i had to make up some fresh compensatory meals asap.

lovely beetroots are in season now and pretty as always. the easiest way is to eat them raw. if you have a good vegetable peeler, a mandolin slicer (yes, in this case kitchen gadgets are a real blessing), a pair of thin rubber gloves and if you deal with the beetroots carefully you can quickly produce vegetable sticks without causing a "stain accident".

i made a simplified version of these wraps (a page that has never failed me when in need of healthy inspirations): lettuce, beetroot sticks, red onions, fennel and cinnamon scented quinoa with raisins, lemon scented beluga lentils, flat parsley and goat cheese crumbles wrapped up in a big tortilla.

if you've stocked up on cooked lentils in the freezer, this wraps come together in no time. btw, it's essential that lentils and quinoa are cooked in gentle heat, i.e. simmering water.

combine the stuffing as a salad and it will make up a wonderfully filling glutenfree meal (hi basti, you hear me? :)

definitely worth trying, even without a cake feast prior to that!

my sweet vegan diet

this is a long time planned but very retarded post. during mid of july and august i lived five weeks nearly vegan.

the only exception being the milk in coffee grabbed outside.

normally i am almost vegetarian but i have never cared about veganism before.
now i am what alicia silverstone calls "flirting with veganism":)

although i understand those who live completely vegan for ethical reasons i would, could never do so.

the problem is not that animal products are somehow bad but that in times of mass production we have unlearned to value them enough, to spare them for special occasions rather than consuming all the time and to pay for them what they are really worth.

we should go a step back to the past, when without mass production the traditional nutrition was naturally to a big part animal free. back then it wasn't necessary to worry about one's eating habits and to make up categories like being vegetarian, vegan.

as a gal who usually doesn't hesitate to process several pounds of dairy at once it was a very revealing experience to impose restrictions on myself:

- i nourished on more raw and fresh goods than ever. of course facing summer season was helpful in this regard.

- i tried out new veggies, pulses, grains and learned how to cook with them.

- i was surprised that altering a familiar dish into a vegan was mostly not a big deal.

- without butter i stopped with my habit of producing insane amounts of pastry week by week.

- without parmigiano i checked my pasta addiction.

- and so on and so on.

in the end i felt more alive and kicking than ever. detox (something i don't believe in and would never do) must feel like that :))

i can recommend a temporary vegan diet to anybody for the sake of broadening one's nutrition horizon and to bring some changes into one's eating habits.

now that i got lots of ideas on how to do it, i keep more parts of my daily diet vegan while enjoying it even more to have a steak of salmon, an old swiss cheese and a buttery viennoiserie for special occasions :)

here i introduce you one of my favorite lunch boxes from the diet:

crisp broccoli with smoked tofu, glazed onions, cashew nuts and a dressing made of almond butter and orange juice.

i have tried all sorts of "european tofu" from the supermarket (i use this for western style dishes, not the "real tofu" that you get at the asian store ;). a lot of brands tasted either dull or odd so here is a picture of my preferred tofu brand.

also see my favorite soy rice drink, there were odd tasting soy milks as well. and finally, if you haven't tried almond butter yet, give it a go. it's absolutely delicious.

Soba Noodles with Mentsuyu

At the moment I can't think of a better lunch than cold soba noodles with dipping sauce.

Whereas I devoured fantastic handmade noodles in New York (Soba Nippon - where Michael Jackson has eaten, Inakaya, Sobaya) I haven't come across a soba noodle bar in Berlin yet (the city is just flooded with sushi bars) but I should search more thoroughly.

Until then I will settle for this self-made dish with store-bought noodles. Nice side-effect is that one bowl of bliss does not cost 20 bucks.

With a prepared dipping sauce (mentsuyu) lunch will be ready in 10 minutes.
It is light, fat free and you will not be lulled after the meal.

As to the mentsuyu recipe I have seen various suggestions online as well as in my cookbook but it is always a mixture of kaeshi (soy sauce + mirin + sugar) and dashi.

I. Mentsuyu

1) For the kaeshi bring

4 tbsp hon mirin to a boil, turn down the heat and let it simmer a little, add
5 tbsp sugar and let it melt, then add
250 ml soy sauce and let it simmer.

2) In another pan prepare 250 ml of dashi stock eather by bringing 250 ml water with

a small piece of konbu and 1 tbsp bonito flakes OR
2 tsp dashi granules

to boil for a couple of minutes. Strain the dashi if made with konbu and bonito flakes.

3) Pour the kaeshi to the dashi stock and let it boil for a further couple of minutes. After cooling down you can store the remaining mentsuyu in the fridge - it should make up for about 8 servings in total.

II. Cook the soba noodles until just soft. Then drain and wash it in cold water.

III. Meanwhile prepare the toppings that are on hand. Everything should be sliced as thinly as possible.

Suggestions:
- spring onions
- nori shreads
- daikon radish
- spinach leaves
- carrots
- shiso leaves

Or any veggies that happen to be in your fridge (as shown in the picture). I also like to add either roasted tofu flakes or omelette slices for the protein factor. But I cannot guarantee if these proceedings will be approved by a Japanese :)

IV. As to the groceries: all ingredients can be found in the Asian store.

Unfortunately in the two Asian stores in Berlin Mitte my favorite Japanese brand (see pic in the middle of another Japanese brand) for noodles seems to have disappeared and the only one available (last pic) were made in China.

This is annoying as I would only use Japanese products for a Japanese dish, Korean products for a Korean dish and Chinese products for a Chinese dish (isn't that too logical? :) ).

The thing is that Korean and Chinese buckwheat noodles contain more wheat flour than buckwheat flour. And the purest quality is desired here. I also found out that one Chinese brand contained 50g less than as it was declared on the package.
So keep an eye on the ingredients' list!

lunchbox - not selfmade

Times Square, where my temporary work is, turned out to be a snacking heaven. A secretary told me right away about the amazing salads, burgers, noodles, soba and sandwiches that are close by. Being intimidated by the range of choices I just jumped into the very first deli. To see that they had EVERYTHING, you could think of for a quick lunch, with a buffet to begin with. As a teenager I loved buffets in Korean festival halls so it was a reminiscence to those days. I had to have this kind of lunch box several days in a row, so I didn't make it to the next deli even. It is fast food by nature but still fresh, tangy and crisp.
Ps: The sour fruit gums naturally provide for a complete week.
Ps: In terms of sustainability this meal is evil of course (the massive production of waste is an omnipresent illness here).