It IS super easy, I mean it!

Last weekend we had two of N.’s new colleagues over for dinner and I was really happy to meet them. I also wanted to cook something special for them, because people are usually a bit hesitant towards veg food. This two though were awesome! They ate all my weird stuff and brought at a wonderful cake. Plus, even though we had wine for them, they didn’t drink at all, so that I wouldn’t get jealous. We had a great time that involved strange activities, like N. improvising musical themes on the piano, while watching Babar videos. (YES, we still party hard like that!)

Now, the blueberry pie…

Ingredients:

• 1 box of your favorite cookies. Digestive will do. If your favorite cookies are tiny, make sure to get two boxes, because you will need about 1 1/2 cups of ground cookie “powder”.
• 1 big tub blueberry soy yogurt. You can also use plain and blend in 1 handful of blueberries.
• 1 cup blueberries
• 3/4 cups blackberries
• 1 cup unsalted mixed nuts. I used raw, but roasted is fine.
• 1/2 cup margarine or other butter alternative that is firm when cool, like coconut oil
• 1 tablespoon olive oil or less
• 1 tablespoon raw sugar
• a bar of dark chocolate (optional)

I might have overdone it with the layers.

Instructions:

• Use your blender or food processor and blend the cookies until there are no chunks left. It should look like coarse flour.
• Melt the butter alternative in a pot or the microwave.
• Add the cookie powder in the melted margarine/coconut oil and stir. It should look like wet sand.
• Line your tart/pizza baking pan with baking paper. That is important, because the crust tends to stick. You won’t see any pics of the tart served, because it was a mess and half of it stuck on the pan.
• Use a spatula or the back of the spoon to spread the cookie crust across the surface of the baking pan. It should be thin.
• Bake it in the oven for about 5-7′. I am not even sure this step is necessary, but I did it as I thought it would help everything come together.
• Let the crust cool.
• Pulse the nuts a couple of times in the food processor. You just want them to look roughly chopped.
• In a pan put the nuts, olive oil and sugar and toss around for a couple of minutes. Let them cool.
• Pour the blueberry yogurt on top of the crust and use a spoon to make it even. If you want a firmer texture, you can always mix it with agar agar powder and make a more gelatin-like filling. I might try that next time, even though I liked the consistency this time as well.
• Patiently, arrange the blueberries in a pattern that you like. Do the same with the blackberries and nuts. Or just throw everything on the tart.
• If you want, use a straight knife to “shave” thin slices of dark chocolate, to make it even fancier. In order to do that, you need a block of chocolate. You hold the knife so that the blade is vertical to the chocolate bar and at the end that is furthest from you. Then, you firmly slide the knife towards you, keeping the blade perpendicular to the bar. It is really easy and looks somewhat professional.
• Freeze for at least 1 hour.

Ta-dah!

If you are curious about the other dishes, we made a cauliflower-potato soup and we used the blender to make it nice and smooth and we also made a quinoa pilaf, mixing in some of the multigrains featured in this post. We threw a bunch of fresh herbs in there as well and served it with roasted vegetables. I don’t have a picture of the pilaf, but you can enjoy the roasted tomatoes and peppers and make them at home as well. They are very easy to make. You basically just massage some olive oil and cook them until they look cooked enough for your tastes.

Simple roasted tomatoes and peppers