On warm (hot) days we have Gazpacho soup and on cold (and rainy) days we have Hot Chocolate with Churros!! 😉
If you follow me on Instagram, you know that I have been snap (and post) happy lately for all food that’s Spanish. For that, I am so thankful to Fred Meyer for reaching out to me to take part in the #TasteOfSpain challenge 🙂 It has been the most fun experience making several Spanish dishes at home the past two weeks – the ones that I had tried before and the ones that I had stayed far away from, thinking they weren’t the easiest to make (or that they won’t please a vegetarian). Boy, was I wrong or what!? Most of my #TasteOfSpain dishes are inspired by SpanishWorldFlavor recipes.
Hot Chocolate & Churros
It’s no secret that I am a sucker for a good (dark) Hot Chocolate and there are only a few places that make the ‘most divine’ hot chocolate that pleases my taste buds, so I usually just make my own at home (and, I make a healthy version of it at home everyday as I mentioned here). The first time I had Churros (a.k.a Spanish Donuts, basically fried-dough pastry) with Hot Chocolate was on our vacation in Australia, at San Churros (extremely popular) and I fell in love with it, but never did I think that I would to make them at home coz it just looked complicated (again, was I wrong or what!?).
Hot Chocolate
Serves: 2
Prep time: 10 mins
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons Healthworks Cacao powder (hence light-colored too, you can also use dark chocolate but I prefer cacao as it is healthy)
- 2 cups milk (you can also use non-dairy milk)
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- Sugar (add to taste)
- Dark chocolate for garnish (optional)
Instructions
- In a saucepan, bring the milk to a boil on low heat
- In the meantime, whisk cacao powder, cornstarch and sugar in 2-3 tablespoons of cold milk/water
- Now add the whisked mixture into the boiling milk and cook on low heat, whisk constantly until the chocolate thickens, approximately 5-7 minutes.
- Pour hot chocolate in serving mugs and drizzle with melted (in microwave) dark chocolate
Churros
Serves: 2
Prep time: 20-30 mins
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ cup all purpose flour
- 2 eggs
- Olive or canola oil for frying
For coating, mix together in a plate:
- ¼ cup sugar (since I do not use white sugar at home I dusted confectionery sugar on top)
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional)
Instructions
- Heat a saucepan on medium heat and melt the butter. Immediately add water, sugar and salt and bring to rolling boil
- Add the flour and stir vigorously over low heat until mixture forms a ball (approximately 1 minute) and remove from heat.
- Let it cool down, and then add one egg at a time stirring continuously until completely combined
- Heat oil to 350ºF in a pan for frying
- In the meantime, fill a piping bag with a star tip.
- Squeeze a few 4” strips (or make different shapes like me ;)) of dough into the hot oil, turn sides and fry until golden brown. Drain on paper.
- While still warm, roll them in sugar and cinnamon (if using) mixture.
- Ready to serve with thick and rich hot chocolate! OH YUMMY 😀
Gazpacho
Gazpacho is a cold vegetable soup (tastes a lot different from regular tomato soup). It is light and refreshing and perfect for all the warm/sunny days that are ahead (hey, one could hope!). I first heard of (and saw) this soup while watching Masterchef several years ago, even made some at home and loved it (but had completely forgotten about it for so long). Thanks to the #TasteOfSpain challenge, I was reminded just how much I love this simple, easy and super-tasty Gazpacho soup.
Serves: 2
Prep time: 10 mins
Ingredients
- ½ medium red bell pepper
- ½ cucumber, deseeded
- 4 ripe tomatoes
- ½ big red onion
- 2-3 cloves garlic
- 1 teaspoon. paprika
- 1 tsp. black pepper
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- ½ tablespoon. apple cider vinegar
- Salt (to taste)
- 2-3 slices of baguette bread
- Breadsticks or croutons
- For garnish: finely cut parsley, cucumber, green red pepper, red onions, avocado slice
Instructions
- Place the baguette bread at the bottom of a blender, add roughly chopped veggies and the remaining ingredients to the blender
- Let sit for 10-15 minutes to soften the bread
- Blend until smooth (you can strain the mixture once blended, but I do not)
- Chill for a few hours and garnish before serving
- Serve with breadsticks or croutons
Stay tuned as many more Spanish recipes will come to the blog soon…
“Cooking is love made visible”.
xoxo,
Kusum
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