The asparagus season is remarkably short. You may buy the most beautiful and fresh asparagus at the turn of May and June, but the first ones have already appeared in markets towards the end of April. Asparaguses are healthy, low calorie and essentially very tasty. They are a rich source of vitamins B and K, ascorbic acid, mineral salts, iron, potassium, phosphorus, beta carotene and folic acid. They improve the concentration and memory, purify the body and have a positive effect on the liver and kidneys.

I like green asparagus best, but I know that white ones have their admirers. They are an excellent ingredient of salads and soups and you can eat young and thin asparagus raw. Today, I have a proposal for a combination of green asparagus with typically spring vegetables: cucumbers and radishes. This salad served with a light yoghurt dip could be a low-calorie supper or snack food on a summer day.

Ingredients (for two people):
2 fistfuls of lettuce
2 small cucumbers
4 radishes
10 green asparagus
3 eggs
a fistful of minced chives
1 teaspoon of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt

When we have ingredients in the fridge that seemingly clash with each other, it is worth giving them a chance sometimes. Extraordinary combinations sometimes lead to surprising results. So it was this time. Until recently, beetroots and herring were for me products which did not belong together on one plate.

An excess of baked beetroots and inspiration from http://www.kobieta.pl/gotowanie produced a very tasty supper. Salad with beetroots, herring, red beans and gherkins can be combined at once, but it looks slicker served in layers in a glass.

Ingredients (for two people):
Red layer
3 beetroots
half of a tin of red beans
¼ of a red onion
a half of a big apple
salt and pepper

Valentine's Day is coming. For some of us this is purely about selling commercial products, but for others it is an excuse to rejuvenate their relationship with their sweetheart. Do you know who Saint Valentine (from whom we get the name Valentine's Day) was?

A doctor and priest lived in the III century in the Roman Empire under Claudius II. The Emperor disqualified young men from marrying because without families they were better legionaries. This interdict was broken by Saint Valentine, who performed marriage rites for couples. He was thrown into prison where he fell in love with the blind daughter of his guard, who apparently girl regained her sight due to this love. The Emperor condemned Valentine to death. Before the execution Valentine wrote a letter to his beloved signed "from your Valentine". Valentine was executed on 14th February in the year 269.

I have never been interested in teddy bears with red hearts, but I like spending Valentine's Day in a more romantic way than on other ordinary days. Now that we have children, we prepare a candlelit dinner at home. Maybe you will like my proposal for a Valentine's Day menu. Today I would like to share with you a recipe for a salad with prawns. The next blog entry will be a recipe for something sweet for dessert.

Ingredients:
salad
400g of large cooked prawns
mixed lettuce
1 orange
1 grapefruit
1 avocado
1 fistful of cashew nuts

Today's recipe is for an amazing salad. In this dish everyone may find something for himself. This salad is equally soft and crunchy, juicy and mealy. Every bit brings a different expressive taste. Does it sound strange? Try it and see that it is possible.

The only obstacle you may face during the preparation of this salad is hulling the pomegranate stones. The biggest treasure of this fruit is the easily assimilable polyphenols belonging to antioxidants. A pomegranate has three times more of them than you may find in green tea or red wine. Additionally, due to the phytohormones content, the pomegranate softens the signs of PMS and menopause. Pomegranate, reckoned to be an aphrodisiac, has stones hidden under its hard skin and between its white membrane. We should roll the pomegranate on the table, slightly grinding it. Cut it into halves and rap with a wooden spoon on the skin so the stones fall out, or turn the halves inside out and delicately take the stones out.

The recipe comes from an online cookery book of Lidl.

Ingredients:
salad
250g green lentils
2 medium sticks of celery
1 small chili pepper
1 orange
1 grapefruit
1 pomegranate
200g of feta cheese

In the wild, oyster mushrooms grow on tree trunks. We can find them in forests on dead deciduous trees literally all over the world (except Antarctica), but their homeland is China.

Oyster mushrooms have amazing health benefits. They supply easily assimilable protein, folic acid, amino acids, Vitamin B and mineral salts. Substances which reduce cholesterol and sugar level in the blood have been detected too. Japanese scientists demonstrated that extract from oyster mushrooms could decrease tumors. Slovakian scientists extracted from them a substance which improves the immune system.

Young mushrooms are the best for cooking. Older ones could be stringy. You should keep cleaning to a minimum because they easily soak up water. Oyster mushrooms can be fried or baked and they are an excellent filling for crepes and dumplings.

Up to now I have fried oyster mushrooms in butter and served with garlic and dill. For the first time, I decided to bake them. From a few ingredients I made a very tasty and distinctively flavorsome salad.

Ingredients (for two people):

250g of oyster mushrooms

100g of fresh young spinach

8 dried tomatoes in olive oil

2 tablespoons of dried thyme