Every cafe and restaurant always has seasonal dishes and desserts on the menu, namely dishes made using seasonal vegetables and fruits. This is a very cool idea, because as a rule, such vegetables and fruits are cheaper, and more importantly, it is during this period that they contain the highest concentration of vitamins and nutrients. Today we will share with you an excellent version of a summer dessert made from seasonal fruits, which will not leave anyone indifferent who tries it. This dessert is plum pie. A delicate melting shortcrust pastry crust and a juicy plum filling, which is sweet and slightly sour at the same time. This pie is quite simple, but we will share with you the secret of how to make it more elegant.You should start preparing this pie by preparing shortcrust pastry. It is prepared using butter, yolks, sugar and flour. It is best to use butter very chilled, now we will explain why. If the butter is hard, you can grate it, thus mixing it with flour, you will get crumbs, which will make the dough more crumbly. To prevent the butter from sticking to the grater, sprinkle it with flour. Beat the yolks with sugar until light and combine with mashed butter and flour, add baking powder and vanilla sugar. We also recommend adding lemon zest to the dough; it will make the dough more aromatic and have a slightly yellowish tint. Knead the dough well until it holds together well and is smooth on top.Wrap the dough in cling film and refrigerate for about an hour or two. A little advice, before rolling out the dough, pull it out a couple of minutes faster so that when rolling it is not so hard, because in this case it will be difficult to roll out and crumble..The filling for our pie is very simple. Take about half a kilogram of plums, remove the seeds and cut into large cubes. Another tip: since plums are very juicy, which interferes with baking the pie, add half a glass of sugar to them and let them sit for about an hour, so the excess juice will come off. For best results, place the plums in a colander for a couple of minutes before adding the filling. If you love a rich lemon flavor in your baked goods, add a little more lemon zest to the filling for a flavor bomb.Now you can start baking our pie: grease the baking pan with butter, roll out the dough and put it in the pan, form high sides (the entire height of the pan) and lay out the filling. Place the pie in a well-heated oven to bake. And now, as we promised, we are sharing the secret of how to make a simple pie more elegant. Beat the remaining whites into a good, stable meringue. To make the meringue whip well, add a little lemon juice to the whites. The meringue should be placed on the pie 10 minutes before it is completely ready. Place the meringue on the pie and use a spoon to form peaks, this will look more interesting....

Now we are in summer, one of the most favorite seasons of the year for many people. Since summer is a very hot time, you want to eat something lighter and refreshing, because you have no appetite for heavy fatty foods. This is why we want to share with you one incredibly easy, interesting and healthy recipe for cold Spanish soup - Gazpacho. This soup is one of the favorite dishes of vegetarians, as it does not contain animal products. This soup is as easy to prepare as it tastes. Gazpachois prepared really very quickly, since it does not need to be boiled, but only chopped with a blender, but we will talk about this a little later.To prepare this Spanish dish you will need: tomatoes, cucumbers, red bell peppers, onions, garlic, lemon juice or apple cider vinegar, water, salt, pepper. We begin our preparation by preparing vegetables for the soup, here we have several stages. First, we need to bake the sweet peppers a little to make it easier to remove the skin. Add a little olive oil to a baking sheet, place the whole bell pepper on it and sprinkle a little more oil on it. You can add a little salt to the pepper. This method of preparing bell peppers not only helps us peel the skins more easily, but also ensures a richer pepper flavor in the dish itself. Next we need to peel the tomatoes, for this we need to use the blanching technique.For those who don’t know what blanching is, it’s a process of processing food with boiling water. As a rule, it’s a fairly short-term process, but it all depends on the product itself. It is enough to blanch the tomatoes for no more than four minutes; after this manipulation, the skin of the vegetable is removed very easily and quickly. Cucumbers should also be peeled. Cut all the prepared vegetables into large cubes and place them in a blender bowl for blending. You need to beat until smooth. Add chopped onions and garlic to the chopped vegetables, add salt, vegetable oil and apple cider vinegar or lemon juice. By adding lemon juice you get a more refreshing aroma and light sourness.When all the ingredients of our soup have been brought to a homogeneous consistency, you can strain the entire soup through a strainer so that there are no large particles of vegetables in it that have not been completely mixed..Gazpacho is served cold with slices of fresh cucumber or croutons. The croutons for this soup are usually made from white bread. And they are prepared very, very simply: cut white bread into cubes, sprinkle with olive oil, add spices (Suneli hops work well here, for example) and fry in a frying pan over low heat....

Today we will share with you a recipe for the most authentic oriental dish, which is known all over the world. And what kind of dish is this? That's right - hummus. It can be served as an appetizer or a side dish.  Hummusit is not only tasty, but also very healthy for our body, since it contains very useful substances. Hummus contains iron, zinc, phosphorus, calcium, as well as vitamins B1, B2 and many others. This product is considered incredibly useful for the blood, as it can reduce cholesterol levels in the blood. Also,Hummushas proven itself in vegetarian cuisine.And so, this dish is prepared with the following products: chickpeas, tahini, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, spices (cumin, suneli hops, hot red pepper). Preparing hummus is very simple and quick; the main thing is to have a blender. As a rule, hummus is made from chickpeas and it is very important that the chickpeas are of high quality. Very often, housewives are faced with the fact that chickpeas remain hard after cooking. This suggests that the quality of the product is quite low. The most important rule when cooking chickpeas is to soak them in cold water overnight, this will cook them faster. The chickpeas cook for about two hours; it’s very easy to check whether the chickpeas are cooked; you just need to try crushing the chickpea grain with your fingers.While the chickpeas are cooling, you can prepare the garlic. The head of garlic needs to be washed and the top part cut off by approximately 3-4 mm. Grease the head of garlic with vegetable oil, add a little salt and wrap it in a sheet of foil. You need to bake the garlic in the oven at 200 degrees for 10-15 minutes. After the chickpeas have cooled, blend them in a blender bowl to a paste-like consistency. It is also important to prepare the spices for our Hummus. Zira (cumin) should be fried in a dry frying pan and ground in a mortar to a powder, so cumin will be more aromatic in our dish.Next, add salt and spices, baked garlic, olive oil and tahini (sesame paste) to the chickpeas in the blender bowl and mix everything thoroughly. At the end, add lemon juice, add a spoonful of olive oil and blend again with a blender. It is important that all the spices in our dish open up and become as aromatic as possible.You can serve hummus either on toast or in a beautiful dish with pita bread. It is better to choose a dish with a small indentation, it will be more convenient to eat. Before serving, hummus can be sprinkled with red pepper petals and sesame seeds and sprinkled with lemon juice and vegetable oil....

Porridge is a very healthy food, we have known about this since childhood. It is consumed by both children and adults as it contains many nutrients and elements.  There are different porridges and each has its own taste and appearance. Today we will talk to you about preparing delicious pearl barley porridge. It is useful because it has a good effect on the digestive tract.  To prepare the porridge, we will take rolled pearl barley. Since it has a solid and nutritious core.First, we need to sort out the cereal from unnecessary grains and small particles. Rinse well under running water. Pour clean cereal with cold water overnight to swell, which will help us speed up the preparation of the porridge. In the morning, drain the water, fill it with clean water and put it on low heat to cook, stirring from time to time. When the porridge boils, we salt it to taste and add a piece of butter. Cook the porridge for about half an hour. Cover with a lid, turn off the heat and bring to readiness. With this cooking process, it becomes soft and crumbles well.Now we will prepare the vegetables for our porridge. We will need onions, carrots, tomatoes. We put a frying pan on the fire and pour in vegetable oil. When the oil is hot enough, add the finely diced onion. Saute it until golden brown and add carrots grated on a coarse grater. Fry everything until done. When the carrots become soft, add finely diced tomatoes. Add a little salt, black pepper and dried basil. Mix everything well and leave to simmer on low heat for a few more minutes. The last step of preparing barley with vegetables is to combine the porridge with a mixture of vegetables. Place the porridge in a frying pan, stir in the vegetables and cover with a lid. Leave for a few more minutes on low heat to allow the flavors of pearl barley and vegetables to combine. The porridge is ready and we will serve it with pickles or tomatoes.For those who don’t like to eat just porridge, we will prepare a white sauce from champignons and sour cream. To do this, we melt a little butter in a saucepan and place peeled and chopped champignons on it. Cover with a lid and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Then add finely chopped onion, sour cream, salt, cover and simmer for a few more minutes until done....