An ideal salad for a barbecue party, simple and refreshing: a sun-kissed recipe with wonderfully aromatic coriander - pure summer!

It's finally here again, the wonderful season of colorful salads is finally beginning! Not that our hearts don't melt like a fragrant cheese fondue on the fire when we think of sumptuous and hearty winter dishes, but we're slowly starting to look forward to lighter dishes and everything that goes with them. A crisp salad becomes a welcome harbinger of the warm season, manifesting itself on the plate even before it appears on the calendar... The great thing is: when it comes to salads, there are no limits to your imagination – anything that tastes good is allowed, there is nothing that really doesn't go together, every combination is conceivable… what wonderful culinary freedom opens up here! I'd been eyeing the following recipe for a long time, and when the sun slanted through the window this morning, my appetite was instantly aroused. It loudly demanded this fantastic octopus salad with green beans, potatoes, and tomatoes. It's so easy and so quick. The result is also a poem! The colors alone... Ingredients for 2 - 3 people 1 - 2 cans of Pulpo , e.g. from Ramon Peña 2 handfuls of green beans 4 - 5 medium-sized potatoes tomatoes thyme Parsley Garlic salt and pepper olive oil lemon Preparation: Peel the potatoes, cut them into bite-sized cubes and cook them in salted water until al dente. Clean the beans and cook them in salted water for about 10 - 15 minutes, so that they are still nice and crunchy. Meanwhile, finely chop the thyme, parsley, and a small garlic clove. I think this recipe uses a good amount of thyme, but which of the three components predominates in terms of flavor is up to you. Wash the tomatoes and cut them into small slices, cubes or quarters, depending on your preference Place the potatoes, beans, and tomatoes in a salad bowl, squeeze half a lemon over them, season with salt and pepper, and drizzle with olive oil and the chopped herbs. Mix well. Open the can(s) of octopus, drain, and add. Mix gently. Serve lukewarm and enjoy. Bon appétit! Our wine recommendation: The Sauvignon de Touraine 2013 from Domaine Delaunay goes wonderfully with this salad. It is a beautifully fresh, fruity, yet mineral wine, the ideal accompaniment to seafood. -- The inspiration for this recipe comes from "The New Fish Cooking School. The Standard Work. Kitchen Practice – Product Knowledge – 150 Recipes" by Tillmann Hahn and Nicole Knapstein, Christian Verlag, 2014. Found on www.valentinas-kochbuch.de

For the second year in a row, I went to Denmark with friends over Easter this year to let the waves swirl me around and sweep me off my surfboard. On good days, you could even call it surfing. A few days out of the city, enjoying the rugged nature and the wide sky, spending the day wrapped up head to toe in 5 mm neoprene on the board and in the cold North Sea, and relaxing in the evenings with good friends by the fireplace... We always have a lot of fun cooking together! This time, I brought a few cans of sardines with me and was inspired by Danish eating habits to create a Nordic sardine dish – my version of smørrebrød! The recipe combines various sweet and sour flavors and tastes wonderfully spicy and refreshing. And because we all enjoyed it so much, I made it again at home in Berlin to share with you. Ingredients (1 - 2 people) 1 can of sardines in olive oil (e.g. Sardines La Molénaise from Les Mouettes d'Arvor ) lemon Sour cream 1 apple Pickle(s) Carrot(s) salt and pepper preparation Drain the sardines, cut them lengthwise, drizzle generously with lemon juice, spread with sour cream, season lightly with salt, and let them marinate. Meanwhile, finely chop the apple (or grate it if you prefer), finely chop the gherkin, and finely chop the carrot. Mix everything together well and pour over the marinated sardines. Serve with crispy toasted brown bread. Then it's up to you whether you want to eat the bread with the sardine preparation or top it with the sardine, as is traditionally done with smørrebrød. After trying both versions and finding both fantastic, I can only say one thing with certainty: Bon appétit, or rather, Velbekomme! Our wine recommendation: To accompany this dish, we recommend Les Terrasses Blanc from Château Pesquié, a refreshing white wine from the Rhône (Côtes du Ventoux) with a fresh, fruity bouquet and a wonderfully crisp acidity. Another classic is the combination of Sauvignon Blanc with fish, which also works wonderfully in this case. Choose, for example, the Argadens Blanc , a 2013 Bordeaux Superieur with a high Sauvignon content, delicate oak notes, and a beautiful, long-lasting freshness. -- And because every meal tastes so much better in the right ambience, here are a few more impressions: (Photos by Pascal Gemmer and Jan-Ole Schmidt)

Algae are the “food of the future”! They grow much faster than land plants and do not take up valuable agricultural land. They are also low in calories and full of proteins, carbohydrates, vitamin B12 and polyunsaturated fatty acids. But most of all, we love seaweed because it’s so delicious! We especially like the creations of Poisson d'Ouest. We use two of them in these simple and quick recipes: Pulpo salad with celery, cucumber and seaweed and feta baked with seaweed. Mmmmh!

Have you ever combined lentils with tuna? We actually haven't yet, but we're so excited about our new discovery that we can already guess what we'll be having for lunch this autumn. By the way, this is also one of those salads that taste almost even better the next day, when they are really well-infused! A clever and quick idea for the party buffet, for brunch, for lunch or on the go...

Who says life isn't a cake buffet? We prove the opposite with this quick and delicious walnut cake with Armagnac, for which we use the good walnuts from Grenoble. Juicy, fluffy, aromatic ... you will be amazed! It keeps in the fridge for a few days and freezes wonderfully. However, we don't think that will happen...

Who said that we always have to do French? Asian cuisine in particular knows many dishes with fish and we like to be surprised! This week, our head chef Thomas Vetter was inspired to create a culinary encounter that is perhaps second to none: there are fresh summer rolls with Breton sardines - a recipe made for spring. Freshness, sharpness, pep and everything to simply pick up and enjoy!

Unfortunately, spring is still a long way off, stoking our hopes with bright rays of sunshine and laughing up our sleeves as we tie our scarves tighter around our necks once again. The nice thing about this stalemate is that we're still craving real comfort food, and we're not even half off track. Our recipe today is a fusion of tender, cooked octopus from Spain with "batatas ao murro," a typical Portuguese way of preparing popped potatoes, which are either battered with a fist or traditionally thrown against a wall to burst. With such a chance to let off steam, the term "comfort food" takes on a second meaning... The octopus I use for this recipe comes pre-cooked from Catalonia to us in Berlin – and it's freshly cooked once a week. Anyone who's ever tried to cook a squid tenderly and failed will be delighted to know that this batch has already been taken care of for them. But don't worry – in Portugal, there's a proper job for this: that of the pulpeiro, who spends all day doing nothing but cooking the octopus tenderly. Ingredients: potatoes Octopus olive oil rosemary Salt and pepper or Piment d'Espelette for color Depending on your mood, a green salad as an accompaniment Preparation: Sprinkle the peeled potatoes (clean them first) with coarse salt and bake them in the oven at 250°C for about half an hour until cooked through. After baking, hit the potatoes with your fist or the heel of your hand until they burst. Alternatively, you can actually throw them against the wall... :) Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to a boil. Remove the pot from the heat and heat the octopus in its packaging for about 15 minutes. This gentle heating allows the octopus to soak in its juices and prevent it from drying out. Arrange the potatoes on a plate, slice the octopus, and add them. Sprinkle both with salt and Espelette pepper. Serve with a green salad, if desired. Our wine recommendation:

The pissaladière is a thin onion tart, similar to a pizza, topped with anchovies and plenty of black olives in addition to onions. The pissaladière comes from Nice and, along with the socca (a kind of hearty pancake made from chickpea flour), is one of the local delicacies that can be found freshly prepared on every street corner and that people like to have on hand. The pissaladière is perfect for a summer picnic or a party!

Both sweet and pungent, Lautrec pink garlic releases its aroma in a subtle way, without overpowering the other ingredients in the dish. It is also known for its long shelf life: if stored properly, it can last up to a year. We celebrate the new harvest every August and look forward to being able to offer the fresh produce for a few weeks. Our employee Jens has prepared three delicacies from it for our garlic festival, the recipes of which we are sharing with you here so that you can enjoy them at home too. Be inspired and don't be afraid of too much garlic - for once, the principle "less is more" doesn't apply here!

Lautrec Garlic Soup, also known as "Soupe à l'ail rose de Lautrec", has its roots in the traditional cuisine of the Lautrec region in southwest France. This region is famous for its unique Lautrec garlic, which gives the soup its special flavor.

This week's recipe of the week is more of a kind of "serving suggestion" or "guide to feasting without much effort" for the days when we just don't want to spend long in the kitchen. The rosé has already been chilled, the evening sun bathes the balcony in golden light and the visitor is already waiting? Or the weekend is ahead of us with a promising blue sky and we fancy a spontaneous picnic in the countryside? Bingo! This menu takes less than 20 minutes, but will keep you full and happy, I promise!