Beat the winter blues with these warm and comforting recipes

A delicious idea for lunch or dinner. We need unsweetened applesauce (125 mL), almond milk (75 mL), oatmeal (375 mL), eggs (2), maple syrup (15 mL), vanilla extract (5 mL), baking powder (10 mL), ground cinnamon (5 mL), nutmeg, and salt (a pinch each). Blend all ingredients into a smooth mixture. Then add grated carrots (250 mL), chopped walnuts (60 mL), and raisins (45 mL). Mix.

Pour portions of the mixture onto a pan with heated ghee. When the pancakes become golden and bubbles appear on their surface, flip to the other side. Serve them American-style with maple syrup and melted butter. They also taste great with fruit or whipped cream.

In winter, it's worth eating salads with warming additions like ginger. How to prepare an aromatic dressing from it? Blend freshly grated ginger (5 mL) with olive oil (60 mL), apple cider vinegar (15 mL), Dijon mustard (15 mL), maple syrup or honey (15 mL), and season with salt and pepper.

Toast pecans (250 mL) on a dry pan until golden, then chop. Arrange arugula leaves on a large plate, sprinkle with nuts and crumbled feta cheese, cover with thinly sliced apple and pear, add pomegranate seeds, and drizzle with ginger dressing just before serving.

In stores and markets, we can increasingly buy butternut squash with a characteristic shape (like a large peanut), thin skin, and sweet-nutty flavoured flesh. We will prepare a delicious dish from it, perfect for a winter day.

Cut two medium squash lengthwise in half, scoop out seeds and fibres, then place on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and bake in the oven at 200°C for 40 minutes.

Meanwhile, prepare the stuffing. Heat olive oil in a pan, add fresh, chopped spinach (about 280 g), smoked paprika, and chili powder (each 1 mL), cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes. Then add crumbled feta (about 200 g), mix with spinach, and season with salt and pepper.

Let the baked squash cool slightly, scoop out the flesh with a spoon, and add it to the spinach and feta mixture. Mix. Fill the squash with the stuffing, sprinkle with toasted pine nuts and fresh herbs: thyme and rosemary.

A tasty dessert-snack, perfect for a gloomy winter day.

Blend two peeled sweet potatoes, condensed milk (375 mL), brown sugar (125 mL), lightly beaten whole egg, four egg whites, oil (30 mL), freshly squeezed orange juice (30 mL), ginger, grated or ground, ground cloves, and allspice (each 1 mL), and a pinch of salt. Pour the mixture into a baking dish, cover with aluminum foil, and bake for 1.5 hours at 180°C. After that, remove the foil, sprinkle with coconut flakes, and bake until they brown and the pudding sets.

We usually stuff them with meat, cabbage, or cottage cheese with potatoes. However, dumplings are open to experiments – you can stuff them, for example, with aromatic tangerines.

First, prepare the dough. Add a pinch of salt to about 300 g of wheat flour, then slowly pour in melted butter (about 20 g), stirring constantly. Next, add a beaten egg and knead everything into a smooth mass. Set the dough aside for half an hour, and in the meantime, prepare the tangerine filling – peel, remove the membranes and seeds from a few ripe fruits, cut into smaller pieces, and add to ground cottage cheese (about 300 g), previously mixed with two yolks whipped with sugar (15 mL) and vanilla extract (5 mL).

Divide the dough into several pieces, rolling each into a 2-3 mm thick disk. Use a glass to cut circles, where a heaping teaspoon of filling is placed. Finally, carefully seal the dumplings and drop them in batches into boiling, salted water with a teaspoon of oil. When they float to the surface, cook for about two more minutes.