Hello guys,
We are back with our tasty column and since the hot season is here, we want to provide you with 5 easy (and delicious) recipes for this Spring/Summer season.
How many of you are going to have picnics in the beautiful Retiro Park or to host a cool dinner in your shared flat with all your friends and flatmates? Well, these are the suggestions you were looking for to impress all your guests in such an easy way!
The recipes we are about to reveal here are superfast and easy to do (keeping all the flavour), since we know you would rather go out and enjoy Madrid than stay in a hot kitchen to prepare complicated dishes.
So, get ready and fasten your apron!
1) We love pesto
Our first entry is a classical fresh pasta coming straight from Italy! Just cook your favourite pasta (we kindly recommend spaghetti or bow pasta) and at the end add the pesto sauce, some cherry tomatoes and enrich it all with mozzarella cubes and fresh basil leaves. No need to heat it in a pan, but in case you want the mozzarella to be a little melted, then put it a couple minutes on the stove.
2) Dorito Taco salad
Yeah, summer is coming and this sounds like the right compromise between the bikini body diet (with lettuce and meat) and an extremely flavoury Tex-Mex theme.
Just cook beef and break it up with a wooden spoon, till it’s browned and all fat is drained. Then add cumin, chili powder, salt and pepper to taste. Now you can assemble the salad in a huge bowl: lettuce, meat, cheddar cheese, avocado and...finally Doritos.
3) Hummus spicy wrap.
For a friends night let those useless sandwiches away and prepare a tasty and exotic spicy hummus wrap with veggies.
First, you need hummus: you can easily find it in every supermarket in Madrid or you can make a creamy smooth one just by following a few easy tricks here. After you have your hummus, wash and cut your veggies: both carrots and courgettes (or zucchini, for our American friends) in a tiny sticky shape. Same happens with lettuce and beetroot. Now it’s chili time: cut it in rolls and take the seeds off.
Then take a slice of cheese (we recommend the typical queso manchego) and put it on the whole-grain flatbread; add your vegetables and top it with the hummus. Wrap it all and put it on a pan for 1-2 minutes. Now you’re ready to serve your creation.
4) Au gratin tomatoes
Don’t worry, no need to use the oven - it’s too hot out there!
Put all these ingredients in a bowl: breadcrumb, parmesan, chopped garlic, parsley, oil and mix them all. Take quite big tomatoes and split them, taking the interior sauce and seeds off (not all) and fulfill them with the au gratin by using a spoon. Now cook them in a pan, avoiding both to burn them or to make them too mushy.
5) Yoghurt or Tiramisu? Both!
You can’t say “no” when it comes to the dessert! We suggest you this summerish and healthier version of the classical tiramisu. Prepare the wild berries cream first: put the fruit in a saucepan, add sugar and water (5 minutes.) and press everything; then drain it and chill it. Now it’s time for the yoghurt cream: whisk the cream to snow, add Greek yoghurt, icing sugar and granola...mix everything.
Now create your jars: yoghurt cream first, then some biscuits and the wild berries cream on the top.
Now you’re ready to invite your international friends in your shared flat and gather around a table full of multicultural food: pasta, salads, meat, fresh veggies… and many other dishes! From May till the end of the summer, fill up on the season’s finest with these quick, easy and seriously delicious recipes!
See you soon,
Your helpMadrid chefs team