Klassískt eggjasalat

Classic egg salad

Classic Icelandic egg salad basically consists of hard-boiled eggs and mayonnaise.

This can be varied depending on taste and the ingredients available. Traditionally, pepper, lemon pepper, salt, garlic, dill, curry, or paprika are often used as spices , along with other ingredients such as onions, red onions, apples, leeks, cucumbers, bacon, grated cheese, sour cream, sweet mustard, and fresh chives or parsley. You can really go wild with this recipe according to your own personal taste!

I chose a version with red onion and fresh parsley, a little spicy and nicely flavorful!

Ingredients for 2 people

3 hard-boiled eggs

2 Tbsp mayonnaise

1/2 red onion

2 Tbsp fresh parsley

1 pinch of pepper

1 pinch of coarse sea salt

1 pinch of paprika powder

Preparation

Peel the hard-boiled eggs and cut them into small cubes.

In a bowl, mix the eggs with the mayonnaise.

Peel and dice the onion.

Wash, pluck and chop the parsley.

Add the parsley to the salad, season with salt, pepper and paprika to taste and mix thoroughly.

Let it sit in the fridge for a while, maybe half an hour, and then serve well chilled.

We ate the egg salad with Icelandic rye bread (rúgbrauð) for dinner.

[Translated from here.]

Pepperóní ostasalat

Salami and cheese salad

Today, for a change, I have another hearty recipe for you.

For this recipe for a salad or spicy appetizer, I used a pepper and spiced cheese (= píparostur) and a salami and spiced cheese (= pepperóníostur) from the Icelandic company MS (Mjólkursamsalan ehf.  , both of which I find very tasty and which I enjoy using in the kitchen. I recently served the salad to our guests as a starter, with salty crackers on the side.

Ingredients

200 g mayonnaise

150 g sour cream

150 g pepper and spice cheese

150 g salami spiced cheese

100 g ham

50 g salami

1 bunch of spring onions

50 g pickled cucumbers

salt and pepper

Preparation

Mix the mayonnaise and sour cream.

The two cheeses, ...

...cut the ham and salami into small pieces.

Finely chop the spring onions.

Cut the pickled cucumbers into fine strips.

In a large bowl, mix all ingredients together., ..

... season to taste and let the salad marinate in the refrigerator for at least 3 hours.

Then serve the cheese salad with crackers or fresh bread.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Salat með mozzarella, jarðarberjum og stökkri skinku

Salad with mozzarella, strawberries and crispy ham

Even though our new strawberry cookbook has been written for a while, we are somehow still in strawberry mode - and so for our wedding anniversary last week I picked out and tried out new Icelandic strawberry dishes as a special dinner.

The main course was this salad with strawberries, mozzarella, avocado and crispy ham. For the children there was also a herb baguette with the salad, so that everyone involved was full!

Ingredients for 2 servings

4 - 6 slices of Parma ham

200 g mixed leaf lettuce

250 g strawberries

1 avocado

150 g mozzarella pearls

2 Tbsp sour cream

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp lemon juice

1 Tbsp honey

salt and pepper

Preparation​

Preheat the oven to 350 °F (resp. 180 °C) upper-lower heat.

Place the ham on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake until crispy at 350 °F (resp. 180 °C) upper and lower heat for about 10 to 15 minutes.

Wash and pick the lettuce.

Wash and clean the strawberries and cut them into small pieces.

Carefully cut the avocado in half around the core, remove it from the shell with a spoon, remove the core and chop the flesh into small pieces.

Place the lettuce, strawberries, avocado and mozzarella pearls in a large bowl.

Cut the crispy baked ham into small pieces and add to the other ingredients.

To make the sauce, mix the sour cream with the olive oil, lemon juice and honey in a small bowl and season with salt and pepper.

Then pour the thoroughly mixed sauce over the salad.

Stir the salad again and then serve immediately while the crispy ham is still a little warm.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Salat með jarðarberjum og fræjum

Salad with strawberries and seeds

Friday is Valentine's Day (February 14th). And for many, strawberries are very romantic fruits. The intense color red alone makes you want more. Strawberries are also considered “natural aphrodisiacs” because of their high vitamin C and zinc content.

I don't know whether this can be measurably proven, but strawberries are definitely healthy, support the immune system and protect against cardiovascular diseases with their secondary plant substances and have an anti-inflammatory effect. Although they taste so sweet, strawberries are very low in fructose and calories (around 33 kcal per 100 g) and contain more vitamin C than oranges or lemons. Just around 200 g of strawberries cover an adult's average daily vitamin C requirement.

Plus, strawberries taste and smell so good!

Ingredients

200 g fresh spinach

150 g fresh strawberries

2 - 3 Tbsp lettuce seeds

1 organic lemon

1 cm fresh ginger

3 Tbsp olive oil

1 Tbsp honey

Preparation

Wash, dry and tear the spinach.

Wash, clean and cut the strawberries into pieces.

Place the spinach and strawberries in a large bowl.

To make the dressing, place the olive oil and honey in a small bowl.

Grate some lemon peel, then halve the lemon, squeeze it and add the juice of half a lemon to the small bowl.

Peel the ginger and grate it into the small bowl for the dressing.

Mix the dressing thoroughly and pour over the salad.

Roast the lettuce seeds in a pan.

Arrange the salad on the plates and garnish with the freshly roasted lettuce seeds.

PS:

Here in Iceland, these sweet fruits grow in geothermal greenhouses, so you can enjoy fresh, locally grown strawberries practically all year round and don't have to wait for the strawberry season from May to July.

[Translated from here.]

Túnfisksalat með skyri

Tuna salad with skyr

If you're looking for a delicious dip for New Year's Eve or another nice occasion, I could also recommend this one - that is, if you like fish.

In any case, the fish thing is a bit of a critical point for my family - the majority of people are fine with grilled salmon, but beyond that it becomes difficult...

No matter - I think this tuna salad with crackers is delicious! For the part of the family that doesn't like fish, there's the cheese and bacon dip that we had at Christmas. At least I can always use it for my youngest!

Ingredients

180 g canned tuna (drained weight)

180g pure skyr

80 g sour cream

4 hard-boiled eggs

1/2 red onion

1 red pepper

1 tsp mustard

coarse sea salt

ground black pepper

Preparation

Peel and dice the hard-boiled eggs.

Peel half the red onion and cut it into small pieces.

Wash and clean the red pepper and cut it into thin strips, then cut the strips into small pieces.

Place the skyr and sour cream in a large bowl.

Add all remaining ingredients...

... and mix the whole thing thoroughly. Season with a little salt and/or pepper to taste.

Serve the tuna salad with crackers or similar as a dip.

Bon appetit!

[Translated from here.]

Grænkálspestó

Kale pesto

In other countries, kale is a typical winter vegetable. It is often said that kale should only be harvested after the first frost. Kale doesn't actually need frost to convert starch into sugar; generally low temperatures are enough. Ripe kale contains hardly any starch that could be converted, but continues to produce glucose through photosynthesis. And “generally low temperatures” are not a problem in Iceland, where the low temperatures often exist all summer long.

Here in Iceland, kale grows outdoors and thrives particularly well. The harvest time is usually from July to December and the kale can then be bought fresh in the supermarket. Since there are not that many vegetables here that can grow without geothermal energy, kale is used in a variety of ways in Icelandic cuisine, for example fresh in salads, smoothies or juices, cooked in soups, fried as a side dish or casseroles. There are also kale chips - and they are also very suitable for fresh pesto.

Kale is also good for a healthy diet - like most types of cabbage, it is rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber and protein. It even ranks first among cabbage varieties in terms of its content of vitamins B, E and K, calcium, folic acid and iron. It also contains a number of phytochemicals that regulate cholesterol and blood sugar levels and strengthen the immune system.

Ingredients

100 g fresh kale

3 Tbsp fresh basil

60 g pine nuts

30 g parmesan

1 pinch of garlic powder

1 pinch of fresh pepper

1 pinch of coarse sea salt

80 ml rapeseed oil

Preparation

Wash the kale and basil.

Remove the stem from the kale and pick the basil leaves and cut everything into small pieces.

Place the kale and basil in a tall container, add the pine nuts, parmesan, garlic powder and pepper, pour the rapeseed oil over it and puree everything thoroughly with the blender.

If necessary, add a little more rapeseed oil and mix until the desired consistency is reached.

Finally, season with salt and pepper to taste. Be careful with the salt as the parmesan cheese is already quite salty.

We had the kale pesto as a side dish with the grilled meat and on buttered rye bread (rúgbrauð), both of which were very tasty!

[Translated from here.]