Oven baked veggie patties

Ingredients:
- 1 big courgette (zucchini);
- 2 carrots;
- 1 egg;
- 4-6 Tbsp flour or bread crumbs.

Peel and grate the vegetables, then drain them well (by either squeezing them with your hand or using a strainer or a clean cloth). Add the egg and 4 Tbsp bread-crumbs or flour and mix well. You have to get a thick mixture that can be shaped by hand. Depending on the size of the egg and veggies, you might need to add 1-2 extra Tbsp of flour or bread-crumbles. Once you get a firm enough texture, wet your hands and form the patties. Place them on a tray lined with baking paper and flatten them gently with your hand (if they are thinner they will bake faster).
Place the tray in the preheated oven (180 degrees Celsius) and bake for about 1/2h (depending on the size of the patties). Enjoy!

Carrot and walnut cake

The week before Christmas, my older daughter saw in town some snowmen cakes. She loved the idea so she asked me to prepare something similar at home (they were not so easy to reproduce, as the cakes in town were decorated with chocolate and marzipan). 

I thought that a carrot and walnut cake would be the perfect solution for this challenge so I baked a very thin cake (the recipe is super quick, inspired from here), out of which I cut round shapes using a glass. I covered the small cakes with Greek yogurt and I decorated with red forest fruit (blueberry would have looked better but I couldn't find any).

I barely managed to take a few pictures, that the snowmen "melted" (in the bellies) :)))))

Ingredients for the cake:

- 300g grated carrots;

- 150g wheat flour;

- 150g ground walnut;

- a few raisins (optional);

- 1 tsp of cinnamon;

- 1/2 tsp nutmeg;

- 1 tsp orange zest powder (bio);

- 1 tsp baking powder;

- 3 large eggs;

- 50 ml oil;

- 50 ml milk.

Method:
In a bowl mix the dry ingredients (flour, spices, baking powder, ground nuts and raisins).
In another bowl or in the blender mix the eggs, milk and oil and, in the end, add the grated carrots and stir with a spoon. Add the moist mix to the dry one and stir until you get a thick batter.
You can bake the batter in a 20 cm cake tin if you want to get a normal, round cake. I wanted a larger, very thin cake, from which to cut round shapes. So, I used the big oven tray, I lined it with baking paper and I spread the mixture with a silicone spatula until I got the thickness I wanted (about 2 cm).
Bake in the preheated oven, at 180 degrees C, for 30-40 minutes if you make a thin cake or for up to 60 minutes if you use a smaller tray. The cake is ready when it passes the toothpick test.
You can decorate it with natural whipped cream or with cream cheese and fruit.
Enjoy!

Carrot and sweet potato soup with hazelnuts

Ingredients:
- 6 big carrots;
- one parsley root;
- one celery stalk;
- 1/2 big sweet potato (or one small one);
- one medium onion;
- one garlic clove;
- optionally, you can add the following spices (if you cook for kids, use less ginger as it gives a spicy touch, otherwise I advise on using all spices): 1 cm ginger (either whole - if you want to remove it in the end - or grated if you want to blend it in the soup), 2 fresh lime leaves, zest of 1/2 lemon (organic), a pinch of cumin, a few fresh coriander leaves (before blending the soup you will remove the coriander and lime leaves and you can also remove the piece of ginger if you don't want the soup to be too spicy);
- one handful raw hazelnuts (or peanuts).

Method:
In a big pot place one liter of water and bring to a boil. Add the carrots and sweet potato, peeled and cut in thick slices, the parsley root (peeled, whole or cut in half) and the celery stalk (whole or cut in half), onion and garlic (peeled, whole). Reduce the fire, put the lid on and simmer over low heat for 20-30 minutes, until the vegetables are soft. Add the spices and let simmer for 5 more minutes and then let the soup cool (lid on the pot).
When the liquid has cooled enough to be blended, remove the celery stalk, parsley root, garlic, lime and coriander leaves and (if you want) ginger. Pour the soup and the remaining vegetables in the food processor and blend until you get a smooth paste (you can also use a hand blender).
Serve with sour cream and chopped hazelnuts (for a crispy texture) or with ground hazelnuts (for children it is recommended to serve the hazelnuts ground, to avoid choking). If you want to go vegan, skip the cream or replace it with a vegan version.

Enjoy!