

@detoxlife
Dinner for a Valentine's date night at home.




Food & Garden
A Sustainable Valentine’s Dinner Menu By Johanna Ljunggren
Whether you’re celebrating Valentine’s Day just you, or with a date, this menu can be served. It’s perfect for two people or you have great leftovers for the next day! The mocktail will stain your lips with just a hint of red and I love to drink it with the pie. This menu can be served as dinner or lunch, why not max out on good treats this Valentine’s Day?
Johanna Ljunggren, @in.aurea
Ingredients
(Serves 1-2)
1 orange
2 blood oranges
1 tablespoon of fresh pomegranate seeds
5 – 6 leaves of radicchio salad
1 slice of chevre
1 teaspoon pomegranate molasses
Rose pepper
Olive oil
Method
Peel and cut the oranges into cubes, put them in a bowl and into the fridge.
Wash the radicchio and cut the leaves in half. Peel the pomegranates and separate the seeds from each other.
Choose a plate – even if we are just a two I like to serve this dish on one family style.
Drizzle the olive oil on the plate, place the orange cubes, and then put the radicchio in between.
Using two warm spoons when you add the chevre, scoop the cheese from the inside out of the slice.
Add the pomegranate seeds, molasses and rose pepper.
Ingredients
(Serves 2)
5-6 potatoes
1 leek
Olive oil
Thyme
Salt
Butter
Hemp string
For the sauce
1 decilitre of cream
1 garlic clove
2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
4 tablespoons of roasted almonds or hazelnuts
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon olive oil
Salt
Method
Heat the oven to 225° Celsius. Put a parchment paper on an oven tray and drizzle with some olive oil.
To cut the leek, start from the root and work your way to the green top. Preferably using a small knife, shred the leek until it is in thin strips that are easier to braid.
Braid from the root to the green top and tie gently with hemp string. I like to stick thyme in between the braids for extra flavour.
Place knobs of butter on the parchment paper and place the leek on top.
To cut the Hasselback potato, use a cutting board for stability. Place the potato next to the end side and cut almost through.
I massage the potatoes with olive oil, salt and thyme. Place the potatoes next to the leek and add more olive oil and butter on the top.
Place the oven tray into the oven, depending on the size of the leek and potatoes set timer for 45 minutes.
Meanwhile, prepare the sauce. Place all the ingredients in a mixer and blend until smooth.
Chill sauce in the fridge until the leeks and potatoes are done.
When setting the table, place the leek gently on a serving plate with the potatoes around, drizzle the sauce on the leek.
You can serve this dish as it is or add fish, meat or poultry of choice. An excellent vegetarian meal can stand on its own though and I like to make the vegetables the centerpiece here. But if someone wants to add animal protein, it’s easily done!
Ingredients
Pie crust (pre-bought or homemade)
10-20 thin slices of quince
100g of almond paste (can be pre-bought)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon salt
Coconut oil
Method
If you can’t find quince, feel free to use apples, persimmons or even oranges – think winter fruits!
This recipe is so easy because I buy a pre-made crust – sometimes I prefer to have time for other things than making a pie crust from scratch.
Heat the oven to 225° Celsius, and make sure the pie crust is room temperature. This pie is baked straight on the parchment paper and on the oven tray.
Place the bottom part of the pie crust on the tray, brush some coconut oil and press the almond paste evenly over the crust.
Sprinkle the vanilla, cinnamon and salt on top, and some more coconut oil.
Place the quince fruit in a circular shape on top and add the top part of the pie crust.
Brush coconut oil and using a fork pinch small holes in the crust and bake in the oven for 40 minutes, sometimes I lower the heat half way through the cooking time.
Using a small sieve, sprinkle the pie with icing sugar and serve with coconut cream.
Ingredients
1 beetroot
1 knob of ginger
2 lemons
1 bottle of soda water
1 decilitre of sugar
2 decilitre of water
Maldon sea salt
Ice cubes or chunks of pomegranates
Method
This drink will leave your lips stained with just a hint of rouge from the beet!
Make sure the soda water is chilled and that you have ice cubes in the freezer. Sometimes I take a chunk of pomegranate and freeze, it makes the cocktail extra beautiful and less watery than with ice.
Pour the water and sugar in a pot and bring to a boil, chill the liquid completely and put aside.
If you have a juicer you juice the beetroot, 1 lemon and ginger. Otherwise, you can grate them on a cheese grater using the coarse side.
Press the root-flesh through a sieve using a spoon to make the juice clear.
Squeeze the juice of the other lemon and place on a plate, save some of the beetroot flesh from juicing and put this in the lemon juice.
Take a glass of choice and place it with the rind down, so it is moist with juice and do the same with a plate of Maldon sea salt and sugar, like you’re making a Margherita.
Mix the half of the chilled sugar water with the beetroot juice, save the sweetened water for another time in the fridge.
In the glass, you place ice cubes or the frozen pomegranates.
Pour the beetroot juice in half the glass and top of with the soda-water.
Words and imagery by @detoxlife