Healthy Sundays-Sunday 'Kashka'

It is September already. It is September already! Once again, it is September ALREADY!?Surely time flies faster when you are busy, but this summer flew away quick and imperceptibly. To be quite honest though, I am happy that autumn is finally here. I've been excited about autumn since August (which is probably not exactly what normal people do, but let's just casually ignore that last sentence). The air is slightly cooler, the sunlight is slightly more distant, but still warm, days become shorter, but nights become cosier.

This summer-autumn transition offers a great variety of fruits and veggies, which happens to be my favourite. This weekend, just like any other I popped into my local market and got inspired by the flavours of the season. I wanted to share with you my so called 'transition' sunday kashka or in other words barley porridge with cardamom honey figs topping.

For 2 bowls of 'kashka' you will need:

• 1 1/2 cup water

• 1 1/2 cup oat milk (or any nut milk that you like)

• 1 cup barley ( washed and soaked in water over night)

• pinch of salt

For the cardamom fig topping you will need:

• 2 figs

• 1 tbsp honey

• 1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon

• 2-3 crushed cardamom pods

• 1/3 cup crushed roasted, salted pistachios

Nutrition information per portion:

• Calories: 315 kcal

• Protein: 10g

• Carbs: 122g

• Fibre: 8g

• Sugar: 22g

• Fat: 7g

How to prepare the barley 'kashka'?

In a saucepan add the water and oat milk (or any nut milk that you like) on medium-high heat until they are just about to boil. Change to low. In the mean time, drain your barley. Add it to the boiling liquid, add a pinch of salt. Stir and keep an eye on it, as it does tend to run away quite quickly once forgotten... I speak from experience! Cook on low until the consistency becomes nice and creamy. That would be around 15-20min. Remove from the heat, let it sit for a minute and serve.

How to prepare the cardamom figs topping?

While the barley is cooking you can start making the topping. In a small saucepan add the honey, lemon juice and the crushed cardamom seeds over low-medium heat. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat to low and let it simmer for 1-2 min, so that the honey gets infused with all these lovely flavours. Remove from the heat and let cool for a few minutes. Cut the figs in slices and arrange on top of your 'kashka'. Drizzle with the honey liquid. Add the crushed pistachios. There you have it. Easy, peasy, lemon squeeze! A different summer/autumn bowl full of deliciousness!

Thank you Chaya Rapport for inspiring this recipe. You can find her take on the figs here.

I can't wait to share with you some more favourite seasonal flavours, so stay tuned-there's some apple pie 'thingie' coming up, as well as carrot cake toping... In the meantime why don't you check my other barley porridge that I posted a while ago. You can find it here.