cook to impress! - 3 super easy recipes

Okay, the flan can be a bit of work if you really want it to be. But the others are definitely super easy and so compensate, thus the title is justified. These recipes really work the pure taste of good, simple ingredients - and they all look great. You can also use all three of these to make a healthy, light meal. Well, except for the dessert, depending on how much you eat ;)

First: zuppa di zucchini e salmone
Second: torta tricolore
Third: dessert piu facile del mondo ;)

Courgette soup
This has got to be the easiest soup in the world. But it is really tasty and again, with a teeny extra effort, you are sure to impress people with your extraordinary culinary creativity!

- 3 or 4 courgettes
(you can also use more courgettes and less water)
- vegetable bouillon cube
- spring onion or small leek (optional)
- salt and (white) pepper
- smoked salmon
- saté stokjes (sorry, don't know what these are called in English!)
- optional: light cooking cream

Sautee spring onion in a pan in olive oil until translucent. Chop courgette into course pieces, add to pan. Cover. After 10 mins or so, add bouillon cube and water (depending on how much soup you want, but don't add too much to allow for optimal courgette taste; I guess no more than about 1 liter (?)). Taste - if it is too bland add another vegetable bouillon cube. Add white pepper. Puree with staafmixer, add cooking cream if you want. Serve in bowls. Then, as a somewhat pretentious but fun finishing touch: 'thread' a strip of smoked salmon (approx 3 or 4 cm wide) on a saté stokje in a zigzag pattern. Lay one stokje diagonally on each bowl of soup. A tiny dollop of cream in the middle of the soup - and again: so simple, so tasty, and looks great!

Torta tricolore
I am not a big fan of pastry products so I transformed this quiche into a 'flan'. But you can also use filo dough or something to line it, and you can use 1 less egg (maybe). The taste and the color of this flan will definitely impress anyone, it looks really, really great, it's light and very tasty! Apart from the peppers (and even then, see my footnote...), it is super easy to make.

- 1 green pepper, 1 red pepper, 1 yellow pepper (paprika)
- 2 pieces of soft goat cheese
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup milk* (approx.)
- 1 cup light slagroom (or just do a bit more milk if you don't want to use this)
- Italian herbs or herbes de provence (of course)
- optional: lightly roasted pine nuts

• Roast and peel paprika's. Cut into very thin, narrow slices and mix colors.**
• Crumble goat cheese into a large mixing bowl, add milk, cream, herbs and eggs, and whip lightly with a fork.
  
• Pour into a greased baking dish. Drop the paprika slices onto flan to get a nice colorful mixed up pattern.
  
• Bake in pre-heated oven on about 180-200 degrees for about 25 mins until it is set (check frequently to make sure it doesn't color too brown as this will ruin the colorful effect - if it is coloring too brown cover with foil). Serve luke warm.
• You can also throw in some lightly roasted pine nuts but make sure not to burn them while roasting (I always, always do!)

Served with for instance a salad of blanched haricot verts, sundried tomatoes (optional: artichoke hearts and pine nuts if you haven't already used the latter in the quiche) and a light dressing of yoghurt-mayonnaise, walnut oil, olive oil, salt and pepper, this makes for a nice light dinner or elegant lunch.

* (literally 1 cup, not the American size because I have no idea how much that is. I kind of just add some milk etc. to get a nice consistency and amount.)
** now that I have kids, I skip this, because it's too much work! Either buy preroasted, or just sautee narrow slices in olive oil until soft. It really doesn't make that much difference.

source: Marielle (this is, of course, a variation of the original)

The easiest dessert in the world
This is a great summer dessert.

1. Buy profiterolles or 'soesjes' (or make them yourself. Yeah right!)
2. Buy strawberries, cherries, blueberries - whatever tasty fruit there is available
3. Put profiterolles on a nice dish
4. Add fruits to dish among the profiterolles, arrange them to look nice together
5. Sprinkle a bit of icing sugar over the top.

This is so tasty, and looks very gezellig. So tell me, is this not the easiest dessert in the world..?