❄️ Winter Panzanella — a warm bread salad

Winter panzanella is a cozy salad of Tuscan origin, where toasted bread meets fragrant seasonal vegetables and a warming dressing. The perfect dish for cold days: hearty, healthy, and full of flavor.

After all, bread is not just the basis of a meal, but a whole story of the work of farmers, millers, bakers, and those who create warmth in every slice.

💫 Easy Seafood Paella

Ingredients:

4 small lobster tails
3 tbsp olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 cups rice
4 garlic cloves, chopped
2 large pinches of saffron threads soaked in ½ cup water
1 tsp sweet paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
½ tsp chile pepper flakes
salt
2 large tomatoes, chopped
200 gr green beans, trimmed
300 gr large shrimp, peeled and deveined
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley for garnish

Instructions:

Boil the lobster tails very briefly (2 minutes) in 3 cups of water. Remove the shell and cut the lobster into large chunks.

In a large skillet heat 3 tablespoon olive oil. Add onions and saute for 2 minutes, add the rice and cook for 3 more minutes, stirring regularly

Add garlic and the lobster cooking water. Add the saffron, paprika, cayenne pepper, and salt. Stir in the chopped tomatoes and green beans. Cook on low heat for 20 minutes

Spread the shrimp over the rice and cook for another 10 minutes. Finally, add the cooked lobster chunks

Vegetable stew with cabbage
(from Denmark)

Ingredients:
fresh white cabbage — 400 g
potatoes (medium) — 3-4 pcs.
carrot — 1 pc.
onion (medium—sized) - 1 pc.
garlic — 4 cloves
vegetable oil — 3 tbsp
ketchup (can be replaced with tomato sauce or tomato paste) — 1 tbsp
salt, a mixture of ground peppers — to taste
bay leaf — 1 pc.

Preparation:
Peel the carrots and onions. Cut the carrots into thin pieces and the onions into small cubes. Heat the vegetable oil in a frying pan, then add the chopped onions and carrots and fry the vegetables over medium heat for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Remove the top leaves from the cabbage, and then cut into thin strips. 

Put the chopped cabbage in a frying pan with fried vegetables. Fry the vegetables for 5-7 minutes, stirring the contents of the pan from time to time. 
Peel the potatoes and cut into medium cubes (the side size of the potato cubes should be about 2.5 cm). 

Transfer the fried cabbage, carrots and onions from the pan to a large saucepan (or saucepan, or cauldron), add the chopped potatoes.
Add chopped garlic, bay leaf, ketchup (can be replaced with tomato paste or tomato sauce), salt and pepper to taste. 

Pour boiled water into a saucepan. You do not need to completely fill the potatoes and cabbage with water, otherwise you will get a soup, not a stew. The vegetables should be covered with water for about 3/4.
Stir the contents of the pan, put on high heat, and after the water boils, reduce the heat to a minimum. 

Cover the pan with a lid and simmer the vegetable stew for about 25-30 minutes. The potatoes should become soft.
When serving, you can sprinkle the stew with additional fresh herbs.

💫 Italian Baguette
Ingredients :
Fresh baguette
Cherry tomatoes
Butter
Garlic
Salt, sugar
Italian herbs

Preparation:
Cut the baguette into slices, dry in a dry frying pan.
Melt the butter and fry the cherry tomatoes until soft. Break them, add salt, sugar (to taste, to make it salty and sweet) and Italian herbs. Turn off the heat, add finely chopped garlic.
Put the baguette in a heat-resistant form, top with tomatoes, cheese and put in the oven at 200 degrees for 5 minutes.

💫 Grilled Eggplant and Spinach Salad

Ingredients:
1 large eggplant cut into round slices
1 Tbsp each chopped fresh mint, parsley, oregano, shallot
1 Tbsp sun-dried tomatoes chopped
1 (150 gr) package of spinach

Dressing:
1-2 cloves garlic minced
1 tsp tahini
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt & pepper to taste
60 ml olive oil

Instructions:
 
Slice eggplant in 1.5 cm thick rounds and lightly salt both sides of each slice.
Make the salad dressing by whisking all dressing ingredients together.
Heat up grill to medium-high heat.
Prepare the other salad ingredients (chop the herbs, sun-dried tomatoes, and shallot), and add them and the spinach to a large salad bowl.
Brush both sides of each eggplant slice with olive oil prior to grilling.
Grill eggplant on medium-high heat for approx. 3-5 minutes per side. Cut each slice into quarters.
Add the eggplant to the salad and toss everything together with the dressing. Serve immediately.