Inspiration

For my cooking nothing has been more inspiring than my time in London. So many young people opening beautiful cafés or offering their handmade products at food markets! I used to discover the town by venturing to a café in an area where I had not been so far – an adventure often rewarded with the most delicious brownies or sandwiches. At the same time I was thinking that I’d like to do something like this myself and inspired by the people around me more and more ideas were coming to my mind…
Despite eating inspiring food at various places, I love browsing through cookbooks. However I can be quite picky when it comes to choose one. For I discovered that I rarely cook the recipes step by step or find myself adapting the ingredients list. However the ones I do choose keep being an inspiration. Even after years I’ m always discovering something new when I flick through them. So here are some of my favourites:
Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty and Plenty More (I’ve just got it and fell completely in love, I don’t think anyone could cook more precisely to my taste.)
Sam & Sam Clark’s Moro East
Maria Elia’s The Modern Vegetarian
Inspired by the film Fork over Knifes I lived vegan for about two years. Being opposed to all highly processed foods I have never been a big fan of surrogate products like fake ‘sausages’. But since I never missed the meat flavour very much, I was happy to experiment with new found loves such as almond milk or miso paste. Lately however two books have got me thinking: I Quit Sugar and I Quit Sugar for life by Sarah Wilson as well as Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions. I can only recommend the knowledge about the preparation of whole foods that are (re-)discovered it this book as an invaluable base for everyone – vegan, vegetarians and meat eaters alike! What is more, having quit sugar has been (and still is) a truly great experience and was easier than I feared it to be. It also meant that I reintroduced some animal products, especially kefir and eggs, but also a little meat and fish in my diet. So, as you will see, this blog will be a celebration of a beautiful veggie cuisine with the main focus on whole, ‘real’ food!
Finally a list of my favourite food blogs. I am truly grateful for their inspiring voices. Especially Sarah Britton’s My New Roots introduced me to sprouting, making my own nut milk and fermentation – practices that now seem so natural to me that I don’t think about them anymore, but that were a true revelation when I started with them. So go ahead, check them out and be inspired too!
My New Roots
Green Kitchen Stories
Earthsprout
Sprouted Kitchen
The First Mess
101 Cookbooks
Dolly & Oatmeal
Local Milk 
Nourish Atelier
Gather & Feast
Happyolks
Krautkopf
My Darling Lemon Thyme
Princess Tofu
Will Frolic For Food
Sunday Suppers
The Year in Food
Nutrition Stripped