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Big or small: Almost everyone likes meatballs. And the meatballs are versatile too. They cut a fine figure as a small snack between meals, but also as an accompaniment to potato salad. EAT SMARTER shows you how to make meatballs yourself. We also present a vegetarian alternative.

All of Germany is crazy about meatballs. While the ingredients remain largely the same, the name of the ultimate classic of German home cooking varies from region to region: in the north, they are talking about meatballs, in the east, the meatballs are called the button and in the south, they are called meatballs. Meatballs are even available in many variations abroad: in Greece as cevapcici, in Turkey as kofte and in Sweden as köttbullar. And one thing applies to all meatballs in the world: they taste best when you make them yourself!

Make meatballs yourself – general tips

Meatballs are made from minced meat – it doesn’t really matter whether it comes from beef or pork. Ground beef is a little lower in fat, but ground pork makes the meatballs juicier. It is therefore recommended to use the mixed hack. This has another advantage: You only need a little fat or oil in the pan to fry the meatballs.

Make meatballs yourself – this is how it works

Ingredients:

1 stale white bread roll
2 onions
800 g mixed minced meat
2 eggs
75 g low-fat quark
Salt
pepper
2 tablespoons oil

Preparation:

Soak the rolls in lukewarm water.
Peel and very finely dice the onions.
Put the ground beef in a bowl. Squeeze out the rolls thoroughly, add to the meat with the eggs and quark and mix everything thoroughly.
Add onion cubes and mix in.
Season with salt and pepper and shape into 12 small rounds with wet hands.
Heat oil in a coated pan. Fry the meatballs in it for 4-5 minutes on each side over medium heat.

Food

Make Macarons Yourself – Simply Delicious!

They’re colorful, cute, and damn delicious. And although macarons are becoming more and more popular with us, they are far from being available for purchase everywhere. We, therefore, reveal how to make macarons yourself. Et voilà!

Almond flour, egg white, and sugar – are the main ingredients for the fine Macaron dough. They are filled with fresh fruit puree, ganache, or buttercream, and there are countless macaron versions. The little delicacies are usually made red, yellow, or green with the help of food coloring. However, our two macarons variants get their color from natural foods such as matcha and cocoa. The two halves of the pastry are baked separately before they become a delicious double-decker with the filling.

While macarons aren’t as easy to make as a sponge cake, they’re worth the effort. Since macarons tend to be eaten with tea and coffee and not 10 pieces are eaten at once, the relatively high number of calories can be overlooked. After all, sometimes you have to treat yourself and enjoy something, right? If you don’t have the time to make macarons yourself, you can also order the delicious, colorful macarons online (www.feine-macarons.de).

Make macarons yourself: the recipes

Pistachio Macarons (ingredients for 35 pieces)

For the macarons:

140 g peeled, unsalted pistachios
2 egg whites
1 tsp lemon juice
150g powdered sugar
1 tbsp matcha

For the cream:

150 grams of butter
60 g powdered sugar
120 grams of cream cheese

That’s how it’s done:

Preheat the oven to 120°C circulating air. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a blender, grind the pistachios very finely and set aside 3 tbsp.
Beat the egg whites with the lemon juice until stiff and gradually sprinkle in the icing sugar. Continue beating until you have a firm, shiny mass, then carefully fold in the pistachios and matcha.
Put the batter in a piping bag with a large round nozzle. Squirt evenly distributed meringue dots onto the baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 10 minutes so that they are crispy on the outside and still soft on the inside. Take out of the oven, remove from the tray and let cool.
For the filling, cream the butter with the icing sugar and gradually stir in the cream cheese and the remaining finely ground pistachios. Fill the mixture into a piping bag with a small star tip and cover half of the macarons on the flat side with it. Cover with a suitable counterpart, press down lightly, and serve.

A pistachio macaron has 92 calories and 7 grams of fat.

Chocolate Macarons (ingredients for 30 pieces)

4 eggs
½ lemon
250 g of very fine sugar
125 g ground almonds
30 grams of cocoa powder
100 g bittersweet couverture
2 tbsp whipped cream
30 grams of butter

That’s how it’s done:

separate eggs. Squeeze half a lemon. Beat the egg whites with 2 teaspoons of lemon juice until very stiff (use the yolks for something else). Gradually drizzle in the sugar and continue beating until you have a smooth, shiny mass. Gently fold in the almonds and cocoa powder.
Fill the mixture into a piping bag with a large, round nozzle and pipe small hemispheres (approx. 2 cm in diameter) onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Bake the macarons in a preheated oven at 160 °C (convection oven 140 °C; gas: level 2) for approx. 25 minutes. Important: Leave the oven door slightly open.
For the cream filling, chop the couverture into small pieces and carefully melt in a hot water bath. Mix the cream and butter into small pieces with a whisk. Let the mixture cool down a bit. Spread half of the macarons with the filling, then assemble with the rest.
A chocolate macaron has 86 calories and 4 grams of fat.

Since the French candy hardens after just two days, it should be eaten quickly. The colorful delicacies are also wonderful as a souvenir or culinary gifts.

Food

Make Plum Chutney Yourself

Chutneys are a fine thing: they give cheese, meat, and savory bread that certain sweet and sour note. A great chutney can also be conjured up from plums. Today we will show you how to make your own plum chutney with a little ginger spiciness.

Plum cake, plum compote, plum jam: the variety is great when it comes to processing fresh plums. Try this fine plum chutney!

The mild sweetness of the ripe plums harmonizes wonderfully with chili, ginger, and onions. The chutney is also a hit as a lovely souvenir from your own kitchen.

Make plum chutney yourself: the ingredients

150g shallots
1 piece of ginger root (approx. 20 g)
1 red chili pepper
2 oranges (1 of them organic)
3 anise stars
500 grams of ripe plums
50 grams of brown sugar
Salt
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar (a little more if necessary)

Make plum chutney yourself: preparation

Rinse the screw-top jars (for a total of 750 ml content) with the fitting lids with boiling water and drain them upside down on a kitchen towel. Peel shallots, halve, and cut into fine wedges. Ginger peel and finely chop.
Cut the chili pepper lengthwise, deseed, rinse and cut crosswise into thin strips.
Wash the organic orange in hot water, rub dry and peel half thinly with a vegetable peeler. Cut the orange zest crosswise into very fine strips.
Halve both oranges, squeeze and measure out 200 ml of juice. Bring the orange juice to a boil in a saucepan with the shallots, ginger, chili, strips of orange peel, and anise stars. Cover and cook on low heat for 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, wash the plums, drain, halve, stone, and cut into thin wedges.
Add the plums and sugar to the shallots, bring to the boil again, and cook covered over low heat for another 10 minutes. Remove anise stars.
Season the chutney with salt and vinegar and pour immediately into the prepared glasses. Seal, flip and let stand upside down for 5 minutes. Turn the glasses over again and let them cool down. Closed and stored in the dark, the chutney will keep for about 2 months.

Enjoy your meal!

Food

Gluten-Free Bread: Baking it Yourself is Very Easy

Gluten-free bread is not available from every bakery. If you have to or want to do without gluten, you will find an uncomplicated bread recipe for everyday use here with teff flour, chia, and psyllium husks.

Those who cannot tolerate gluten-containing products must keep their eyes open when shopping. Getting gluten-free bread or rolls is anything but easy. In the meantime, however, there are baking mixes for gluten-free bread in health food stores, organic markets, or well-stocked supermarkets. If you don’t want to use a baking mix and want to bake your own bread, you can try this rather uncomplicated bread recipe.

Locust bean gum and psyllium husks ensure a nice bond. Organic psyllium husks in particular consist of up to 80 percent dietary fiber. They also contain mucilage. These swell in the digestive tract and bind up to 40 times their weight in water. Flea seed shells, for example, are great as an egg substitute for vegan baking. Why not try the organic psyllium husks from Steinberger! Alternatively, you can use chia seeds as a binding agent for gluten-free bread, for example, which swell into a thick gel when combined with warm water. Caution: The baking time will be slightly longer if you use chia seeds as a binding agent.

The types of flour can be replaced with other gluten-free flour; It is only important that the number of flour totals 500 grams.

Gluten-free bread: the ingredients to bake yourself

500 ml lukewarm water
1 cube of fresh yeast
1 tsp honey
200 grams of rice flour
150 g teff flour
150 grams of buckwheat flour
2 tsp locust bean gum
1 tbsp ground psyllium husk
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vinegar
2 tablespoons oil
a handful of nuts, seeds, or kernels (we used hazelnuts)
1 loaf pan (26 centimeters)

Gluten-free bread: preparation

Put water in a bowl, dissolve yeast and honey in it
Add the other ingredients and knead with the dough hook of the hand mixer until a viscous mass is formed. If the dough is still too dry, add some lukewarm water.
Grease the loaf tin with a little oil and pour in the dough. Cover with a kitchen towel and leave to rise for an hour in a warm place.
Preheat the oven to 220 ° C (fan oven). Place a small pan of water on the bottom of the oven. Brush the surface of the bread with some oil and put it in the oven for an hour. After 10 minutes, turn the temperature back down to 200°C.
Let the bread cool down and turn it out of the pan.

Food

Make Proats Yourself

After porridge and overnight oats, the next power breakfast is already on our list: Proats. The quick protein meal in the morning consists of the main components of oat flakes and quark, refined with your favorite fruits and nuts. Making Proats yourself is uncomplicated, delicious, and fills you up for a long time!

What are proats?

The name Proats is made up of the terms “proteins” and “oats” (Engl. oat flakes). Proats is similar in principle to the already known overnight oats. However, this variant is topped with an extra portion of proteins in the form of quark.

The protein and fiber-rich breakfast is quick to make yourself and is the ideal breakfast for morning grouches who don’t have time to make long breakfast preparations early in the morning and still want to start the day well-balanced and fit. Proats are prepared the day before and placed in the fridge overnight.

Proats are so delicious & healthy

After porridge and overnight oats come proats: we tested the trend breakfast in the EAT SMARTER editorial team and were all thrilled. Because the quark topping makes Proats taste a lot creamier than ordinary porridge.

The high protein content of the new breakfast trend provides the body with high-quality proteins that keep you full for a long time and prevent cravings – the latter also applies to oatmeal. The toppings in the form of fruit and nuts provide valuable vitamins and minerals. Here you can find out how to make delicious proats yourself.

Make proats yourself

Ingredients for two servings

80 g tender oat flakes
180 ml buttermilk
1/2 organic lemon
2 pinches of vanilla powder
2 tsp honey
250 g low-fat quark
2 figs or other fruit of your choice
2 tbsp brown almond butter
1 sprig of mint

Preparation

Place the oatmeal in a bowl with the buttermilk. Rinse the lemon in hot water, rub dry, grate some peel and squeeze out the juice. Add the lemon juice, vanilla powder, and honey to the bowl and mix well. Divide the oatmeal mixture into 2 glasses or screw-top jars. Add low-fat quark to the mixture and place covered in the fridge overnight.
Clean, wash and slice the figs the next morning. Take the proats out of the fridge and stir gently. Divide the figs and almond butter between the glasses. Wash the mint, shake dry and pluck off the leaves. Serve
Proats garnished with mint leaves and lemon zest.

Countless flavors

If you make the Proats yourself, you can refine them with many variations of toppings. Let your creativity and your preferences run free! Here are a few examples of our favorites:

Cinnamon + apple + toasted nuts
vanilla + blueberries
Vanilla + raspberries + toasted nuts
Vanilla + Plums + Almonds
cardamom + figs and/or dates
honey + banana
coconut + peach

Still, have an old jam jar handy? Then try it out and enjoy tomorrow morning! By the way: As an alternative to quark, you can also use skyr or Greek yogurt for an extra portion of protein.

Do you prefer overnight oats? Then try one of our recipes!

Food

Collect Chestnuts Yourself

When it smells seductively again at the weekly markets, then it’s the chestnut time! Did you know that you can collect chestnuts, or chestnuts as they are also called, yourself? So that you don’t confuse them with the common horse chestnut, EAT SMARTER has put together the most important information for collectors.

We probably all collected chestnuts as children to build little people with them or simply to enjoy the deep brown, shiny hand flatterers.

Unlike its noble sister, the chestnut, the horse chestnut is not edible. Not only does it taste unpleasantly bitter, it also causes stomach pains.

The chestnut is completely different: it is a delicious and healthy snack in autumn and winter. If you keep your eyes open, with a bit of luck you will find a chestnut tree around the corner and you can collect the prickly delicacies yourself.

Incidentally, sweet chestnut and horse chestnut are only related by name. Biologically, the two belong to different genera.

This is the difference between horse chestnuts and sweet chestnuts

Leaf shape: Horse chestnuts have finger-shaped, lush green leaves whose stalks can be up to 20 centimeters long. Sweet chestnuts, on the other hand, have single, elliptically shaped leaves with serrated edges.
Fruit capsules: Horse chestnuts are in light green to brownish shells that have individual spines. If you break it open, there is only a single chestnut in it. It’s different with sweet chestnuts: their shell is densely covered with green spines that later turn light brown. There are several fruits in the bowl.
Fruits: If you put a horse chestnut and a chestnut next to each other, the difference quickly becomes
clear: While horse chestnuts are uniformly round or oval, chestnuts have a clearly flattened side and taper to a point.

Where can I find sweet chestnuts?

Happy are those who live in the south of the republic: In Germany, sweet chestnut trees grow most frequently in the Palatinate, on the Nahe, Saar, and Moselle. You can also go on a chestnut collecting tour yourself in the western Black Forest, in the Odenwald, on the lower Main, and in the Taunus.

But with luck, you can also find some chestnut trees in the rest of Germany. The website mundraub.org offers a good overview, where users can enter the location of “abandoned” fruit trees, berry bushes, and even chestnut trees. Exciting: The makers of Mundraub also offer discovery bike tours in the city, on which you can discover fruit to pick yourself in unusual places – for example, chestnut trees not far from Alexanderplatz in Berlin.

Tips for collecting chestnuts

The greenish-brown fruit cups of the chestnuts lie in the foliage like little hedgehogs. And they are just as prickly. It is therefore best not to use your hands to crack the fruit cups. The heel of a stable shoe has proven itself. So you can collect the brown, shiny fruits without pricking yourself.

Chestnuts are ripe when the skin is evenly brown. Wrap fruits that still have white spots in the newspaper for a few days and let them ripen in a warm, dry place.

It is also best to store your collected chestnuts between two layers of newspaper. In a dry place, the fruits will last for several months.

How to prepare chestnuts

In my opinion, the simplest method is still the best for sweet chestnuts: cut the skin at the pointed end of the fruit crosswise (this works well with a serrated knife, for example, a bread knife).

Now place the fruit on a baking tray in an oven at 200 degrees for about 20 minutes. The chestnuts are done when the shells are lightly browned and the characteristic chestnut scent can be smelled.

Now let the chestnuts cool down a bit and use your fingers to remove the shells and the furry “skin” around the fruit. Serve with some butter and salt if you like.

However, the peeled chestnuts can also serve as the basis for more unusual types of preparation. For example, the French family I stayed with when I was a student liked to cook chestnuts in buttermilk – different, but not bad either. Chestnuts also taste great caramelized.

Interesting not only for people with gluten intolerance: chestnuts can also be used to make flour that gives bread and cakes a slightly nutty taste. Since this flour has no adhesive power of its own, it can only replace part of the flour.

Cooking Tips

Make Margarine Yourself

Don’t let the margarine take you off the bread – especially not if it was made with a lot of love. You can easily do this at home with a trio of ingredients: Here you can find out how you can make margarine yourself!

Margarine – vegetable fat spread

Germans consumed around five kilos of margarine per capita in 2014. Whether pure on freshly baked bread or as a basis for sausage, cheese, or jam sandwich is up to personal taste. Margarine is particularly popular with vegans: the fat spread consists mainly of vegetable oils and water – dairy products such as those used to make butter are not needed here.

If you want to make margarine yourself, you can choose between different oil variants – depending on how intense the vegetable fat spread should taste in the end. Above all, olive, linseed, and rapeseed oil are suitable for the production of margarine, as they have an optimal mixture of fatty acids.

Margarine is so healthy

“good” margarine contains up to 70 percent monounsaturated fatty acids. The body needs these fats for the metabolism and the elasticity of the cell membranes. About half of this percentage consists of polyunsaturated fatty acids. They are not produced by the body itself and must therefore be ingested through food in order to be involved in important metabolic processes.

Anyone who reaches for margarine from the supermarket should pay attention to the label “hydrogenated fats”: These can be unhealthy trans-fatty acids that can arise during the chemical hardening process of the margarine. It’s healthier to make the margarine yourself – that way you know for sure what’s in it! Nadine Burck from the blog dreierleiliebelei has a great and simple recipe up her sleeve for all margarine fans!

Make margarine yourself

The ingredients for 200 grams:

50 grams of cocoa butter
150 g rapeseed oil
a pinch of salt

The preparation:

Slowly melt the cocoa butter over a bain-marie at medium temperature and remove it from the heat as soon as it is liquid.
Now stir in the rapeseed oil and salt and pour into a sealable bowl and refrigerate until the margarine is firm.

Cooking Tips

Make Elderberry Juice Yourself

September is high season for elderberries! It’s worth picking the ripe, dark purple minis because they can be used to make all sorts of delicacies such as cakes, compotes, jellies, and even juice. The latter tastes particularly good as a sparkling spritzer in late summer or as a cold drink in the dark season. EAT SMARTER shows you how you can make elderberry juice yourself.

Elderberries

Now is the time to save summery elderberries, also known as lilac berries, for the fall and winter. Elderberry juice is particularly suitable for this: it is refreshing in warm temperatures as a spritzer, gives sparkling wine and cocktails a fruity note with a small shot, and is great for colds.

Elderberry juice is so healthy

There are lots of healthy ingredients in the tiny berries: They score with plenty of provitamin A, vitamins from the B group, vitamin C and essential oils. Elderberry juice has an antipyretic and diaphoretic effect, which is why it is considered a proven home remedy for flu and colds.

But be careful: elderberries contain sambunigrin, a slightly toxic substance that can lead to vomiting, diarrhea, and dizziness if the berries are eaten raw. Therefore, elderberries should never be eaten raw but heated beforehand. This is how the ingredient is rendered non-toxic.

Make elderberry juice yourself

The ingredients:

2 kg ripe elderberries
500ml of water
200 grams of sugar

The preparation:

Pick the ripe elderberries from the branches or carefully scrape them off with a fork and wash them thoroughly.
Place the berries in a large saucepan and fill with water. Let the mixture simmer gently for about 20 minutes with the lid closed until the berries are soft – let cool.
Strain the elderberry mixture through a fine cloth so that a clear juice remains.
Mix the elderberry juice with the sugar and heat again to at least 80 degrees Celsius. Now the finished juice can be filled into clean bottles and placed upside down to cool down.

Food

Make Cloud Bread Yourself

Cloud Bread – This fluffy bread is an indispensable part of the low-carb kitchen. The low-carbohydrate and gluten-free “cloud bread” is made from just four ingredients and is, therefore, a great alternative to bread for the evening and for all those who want to save on carbohydrates for fitness or health reasons. EAT SMARTER shows you how to make Cloud Bread yourself.

Cloud Bread – The fluffy low-carb bread

Many people consciously avoid eating carbohydrates for a certain period of time. Conventional bread is taboo for the supporters of the low-carb movement, especially in the evenings: After all, carbohydrates block the proper fat-burning process. If you still don’t want to do without your evening meal, you should definitely try the Cloud Bread!

The low-carbohydrate, high-protein, and gluten-free version of the flatbread is baked entirely without flour and is ideal as a temporary bread substitute. Refined with delicious spreads, it is perfect for breakfast or in combination with fresh vegetables as a sandwich for the lunch break. The cloud bread also tastes great as an accompaniment to curries or as a burger bun.

That’s how healthy Cloud Bread is

If you want to cut back on carbohydrates from time to time, you are welcome to use the homemade Cloud Bread. Thanks to its high protein content, it keeps you full for longer and stimulates fat burning – this is particularly beneficial in the evening hours. In combination with fresh or steamed vegetables, the low-carb flatbread is a delicious alternative to bread.

In the long term, however, Cloud Bread should not replace complex carbohydrates from whole grains or potatoes, as these also provide filling and digestive fiber – you won’t find these fibers in Cloud Bread. Here is the Cloud Bread DIY recipe.

Make Cloud Bread yourself

The ingredients:

3 eggs
100 g double cream cheese
1 teaspoon Baking powder
Salt

Preparing the Cloud Bread:

Preheat the oven to 150 degrees. Separate the eggs and mix the yolks with the cream cheese.
Now add the baking powder and mix thoroughly again.
Beat the egg white with a pinch of salt until stiff and fold into the egg and cream cheese mixture in portions.
Now put about six to eight round flat cakes on a baking tray lined with baking paper and bake for about 20-25 minutes – depending on the desired degree of browning. If required, the finished Cloud Bread can be sprinkled with herbs such as rosemary.

Food

Make Angel Food Cake Yourself

What is fluffy, not too sweet, and fits perfectly on every cake board? The Angel Food Cake! With a handful of ingredients, a little patience, and loving preparation, this cake sensation can be conjured up in a short time. And best of all: This pleasure is not a calorie sin! EAT SMARTER shows you how to make the Angel Food Cake yourself.

Fluffy cake love

The special thing about Angel Food Cake is its unique consistency: it is tender and soft, like a pillow you want to sink into. A piece of cake can be easily squeezed together without breaking into a thousand crumbs – it springs back to its original shape just as undamaged and is by no means rubbery but absolutely fluffy!

The angel cake is so healthy

If you would like to treat yourself to a piece of cake, you can cut yourself a slice at the Angel Food Cake! A piece of angel cake contains around 200 kilocalories and little fat – a treat that you can enjoy with a clear conscience! The topping made of cream and low-fat quark makes the Angel Food Cake extra creamy. The berries bring a subtle sweetness and the taste of summer to the plate.

Make Angel Food Cake yourself

The ingredients:

For the dough:

80 g wheat flour type 405
70 g cornstarch
270g powdered sugar
10 egg whites (use the yolk for something else)

For the topping:

200 ml whipped cream
100 g low-fat quark
1 tsp powdered sugar
250 g berry mix
Powdered sugar for dusting, if desired

The preparation:

In a bowl, sift the wheat flour, cornstarch, and 70 grams of the icing sugar finely four times. Then preheat the oven to 180 degrees top and bottom heat.
In a large bowl, lightly beat the egg whites until stiff, and then sprinkle in the remaining 200 grams of the powdered sugar. Continue beating until stiff and glossy.
Sift half of the flour mixture over the egg white mixture and carefully fold in. Do the same with the other half of the mixture.
Pour the batter into an Angel Food Cake mold (not greased), smooth it out, and tap it twice on the work surface to close the last air gaps. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes.
Take the Angel Food Cake out of the oven and turn it upside down on its metal feet – leave it to cool completely (at least four hours). If the cake has not slipped out of the mold by itself after this time, you can carefully help with a knife.
Whip the cream until stiff, stir the low-fat quark until creamy and mix together carefully. Stir in the powdered sugar. Spread the cream and quark mixture on the cake and garnish with berries and powdered sugar, if you like.