Spring Pea Soup with Roasted Radishes and Sweet and Salty Cashews / Sopa de Ervilhas com Rabanetes assados e Cajus agri-doces.

Around Christmas time, Kyle Books threw a "Advent Cookbook Quiz" on Instagram and I was the lucky winner.

I had to choose 3, from 7 available books and one of the books I chose was Rita Serano's "Vegan in 7".

A delightful book, full of delicious vegan recipes and very straightforward and unpretentious.

Recipes using only 7 or less ingredients, beautiful gorgeous photos and simple, but delightful, recipe introductions.

You all know I'm not vegan or even vegetarian, but you all also know that I love to have and make vegan and vegetarian meals whenever I want and that's one of the reasons I chose this book as one of the 3 books I had to choose from.

Honestly, I have a handful of vegan and vegetarian books but this one, is truly adorable and my favourite so far!

If you want to know more and win one copy of this gorgeous book, have a look at Kimberly's, The Little Plantation blog as, she is not just offering a copy of the book but, she's also sharing another delightful recipe from the book.

I've marked down several recipes to cook and share from the book but, as a soup lover, this soup had to be the first recipe to cook and share.

Try it and feel healthy and green!

Note: Rita suggests to serve the soup with an optional swirl of Cashew Cream, but I opted for a scatter of the sweet and salty cashews, for crunchiness.

Toffee and salted cashew cookies / Cookies de caramelo e cajus salgados.

This recipe is easy to make and it is very delicious and the best thing is that you don't even need to turn on your oven to make it, which is a good thing!

ingredients (makes 22 rounds):

250g individually wrapped toffee sweets

2tbsp double cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

300g salted cashew nuts

method:

Cut a 40cm piece of baking paper and set aside for later.

Unwrap the toffees and place them in a medium pan with the cream and vanilla extract.

Put the pan over a medium heat and stir all the time until the toffees have totally melted into a thick toffee sauce.

Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cashew nuts.

Spread the mixture out into a long sausage shape in the centre of the baking paper (about 22cm long) and wearing rubber gloves and working quickly, roll the paper up to wrap the mixture.

Massage it into a neat sausage shape and twist the paper ends to secure.

Leave to cool for about 30 minutes and then chill in the fridge for at least 1 hour or until firm.

Once set, peel the paper away and using a sharp knife, cut it into 22 slices about 1cm wide.

The cookies can be stored for 3 to 4 days, layered between baking paper in a airtight container in the fridge.

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Esta receita é fácil de fazer, uma delícia e melhor que tudo, nem é preciso ligar o forno.

É preciso sim é ter muito cuidado e usar mesmo luvas de borracha no momento de enrolar pois queima que se farta!!

ingredientes (para 22 cookies):

250g caramelos dos moles embrulhados individualmente

2colheres sopa de natas para culinária

1 colher chá de extracto de baunilha

300g cajus salgados

preparação:

Cortar um pedaço de papel vegetal com cerca de 40cm e reservar.

Desembrulhar os caramelos e colocá-los dentro de um tacho, juntamente com as natas e a baunilha.

Sobre lume médio e mexendo o tempo todo, cozinhar até que os caramelos estejam todos derretidos e tenham formado uma pasta espessa.

Retirar o tacho do lume e adicionar os cajus, mexendo bem para incorporar tudo.

Espalhar a mistura sobre o papel vegetal e tentar obter uma "salsicha" com cerca de 22cm de comprimento.

Usando luvas de borracha e manuseando a misura o mais rapidamente possível, moldar bem a mistura e enrolar a "salsicha de caramelo" no papel vegetal. Alisar bem  o cilindro e enrolar bem e fechar as pontas do papel as pontas.

Arrefecer por 30 minutos e depois refrigerar no frigorifico por, no mínimo 1 hora, ou até a mistura estar firme.

Quando firme, desembrulhar e com uma faca bem afiada, cortar em cerca de 22 rodelas com cerca de 1cm de espessura.

Os cookies podem ser conservados entre 3 a 4 dias no frigorífico, separados entre si com papel vegetal e fechados num contentor de fecho hermético.

Recipe / Receita: