Refreshing summer X-mas punch (low GI, non-alcoholic)

This super refreshing punch is a mix of tea, fruit juices and spices. A friend of mine was (although she is slim with an active lifestyle) diagnosed with pre-diabetes 2 a couple of weeks ago. To avoid having to take medicine for diabetes, she is keeping a strict low GI diet. One of the things she served for her birthday tea recently was this beautiful, not sweet at all punch. It’s perfect for a hot summer X-mas day (like we have here in South Africa).

Makes 3 litres:

- 1 cup (250 ml) unsweetened orange juice

- 1 cup unsweetened (cloudy) apple juice
- 8 cups water (or more if you want to make it even less sweet)
- 2 cups unsweetened pineapple juice
- 4 rooibos teabags
- 3 sticks of cinnamon
- 10 cloves
- 1 cm fresh ginger root, grated

Bring water with spices and teabags to a boil. When it starts to boil, turn off the stove after one minute and let infuse and cool for about one hour. Pass through a sieve and mix in the juices. Refrigerate and serve cold.

Preserved salted lemons

Lemon and basil are just some of the beautiful ingredients I use frequently in my kitchen. Loving food and photography makes it easy to start a food blog, so everyone can enjoy the recipes and hopefully mouthwatering pictures of the food we love to eat at home.

I will kick off my food blog with these preserved lemons, because I'm using them all the time now! Really simple to make and makes a good gift too.

- an airtight glass jar 

- 5 (organic) lemons or limes (or more/less depending on the jar)

- course sea salt

Slice the lemons (or limes) lengthwise almost in half. Repeat and make a cross so you will end up with a lemon with four parts that are still attached at the bottom of the lemon. Open it a bit like the petals of a flower and generously sprinkle salt in between the parts. Close and put it in the jar. Repeat with the rest of the lemons and pack them tightly in the jar. If you have a lot of space in between you can even cut up a lemon, dip it in salt and squeeze it in between the whole lemons. The jar should be crammed with lemons. Add some extra lemon juice (up to about 1/3 of the jar). Now put the jar somewhere in the kitchen and wait. Wait and shake the jar every now and then.

After three weeks to one month the lemons will have released their juice and all the lemons will be soaking in the juice (if not -this depends on the juiciness of the lemon- add a bit of lemon juice). The peel is now soft and waxy and ready for use. You can use peel and flesh or only the peel. The juice can appear to be milky or to have milky strings in it, but that is fine. The lemons will last for at least a year.

Use some of it, (rinsed and) finely chopped, in hummus, soups, sauces, marinades, salads or to zing up a nice piece of fish or meat. The juice can be used in the same way.