I would argue that so far, I have enjoyed the summer months quite well. I took a swim in the sea twice, I´ve enjoyed the sun at the lakeside, went canoeing, had several barbecues, picked blueberries, ate tons of ice cream, went for bike rides and had the occasional glass of wine on my balcony. There was one thing missing though – I haven´t gone for a picnic yet.

Fortunately, there is a gorgeous forest right around the corner where I live, complete with a river and several streams that invite for an afternoon in the sun, taking a quick dip and having some snacks. All we had to do was wait for the sun to come back.

Well the sun did manage to let us down on our first venture. Just as we arrived at our picnic spot, the sun disappeared and the sky clouded up. We weren´t going to let that ruin our mood but it became clear, that we had to come back on a more sunny day. Yesterday the sun did make an appearance for a while so we took our bikes and went for it. So for everybody that lives in the Northern European hemisphere, if you are planning a picnic, this week should be pretty good. At least according to the weather forecast.

Notes to the recipe:

• We used a beetroot-horseradish spread for the sandwich. You can get delicious spreads at almost every store here in Germany, eggplant is one of my favorites to. If you can´t get a hand of them, you could also use butter or avocado.
• The crumble recipe makes for quite some leftovers. I didn´t mind though, the crumble was just as delicious the next day for breakfast.
• We combined the crumble with Skyr. Skyr originated in Island, I first tried it when I was in Sweden and ever since I was hooked. Fortunately, Skyr seemed to have made it´s way to Germany, my local super market carries delicious vanilla Skyr. If you can´t get a hold of Skyr, try Greek yoghurt instead, maybe sweetened with a little bit of honey.
• If you don´t have a juicer, you could make a smoothie instead. Just substitute the apples for bananas and add some liquid, preferably plant or nut milk until you have the desired texture.
• The most important aspect of this picnic are the ingredients. Go to your favorite bakery and get the best bread they have, do the same with the cheese. It just won´t taste as good when you use inferior ingredients.

For the sandwich:
4 slices of whole grain bread
Beetroot-horseradish spread
2 slices of cheese
A handful of chard
2 tomatoes
1) Top one slice of bread with the beetroot-horseradish spread. Add chard, cheese and tomatoes, top off with the second slice of bread.

For the crumble:
500 g blueberries
150 g rolled oats
50 g light spelt flour or grounded almonds
4 tbps. Maple sirup
50 g melted butter
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1) Wash blueberries, place in a spring pan and mix with two tbsp. maple sirup and cinnamon.
2) In a bowl, mix oats, flour, 2 tbsp. of maple sirup and melted butter. Top the blueberries with the mixture and bake in the preheated oven at 200°C for about 30 minutes. Let cool slightly.
3) Pour Skyr about half ful into a small preserving jar. Top with crumble and seal well.

For the juice:
2 apples
2 oranges
1 small piece of ginger
2 handful of fresh spinach
1) Place all the ingredients in a juicer. Pour the juice into two small glass bottles.

Merken

Merken

Merken