Tuesday, July 13th, 2010
Next to lemonade and a nice brisk peppermint iced tea, this is my favorite summertime drink, combining two of my favorite summer foods - watermelon (which I could eat all day every day!) and cucumber.
Both of these vine fruits are water heavy, and therefore cooling to our bodies - perfect in the scorching summer heat. While this is perfect as-is, it would also make a bright and fresh cocktail or even a great popsicle!
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
This fruit compote is not only bright and flavorful, but its deep jewel tones are beautiful to look at! A simple recipe that can work with everything from pancakes to pork chops (or so I’m told). I particularly like this swirled into soft vanilla ice cream! Serve this over my Simple Vegan Pancakes for an extra special breakfast! (more…)
Tuesday, June 8th, 2010
Because vegans forgo dairy milk and eggs, regular pancake recipes just don’t fly. But cooking without them is a breeze, and this pancake recipe is proof positive! Full of flavor, and light and fluffy, these whip up in 3 minutes, so you really can have pancakes whenever the fancy strikes! Because a typical breakfast of pancakes, fruit and syrup doesn’t really provide you with anything other than simple carbohydrates and little fiber, this breakfast is not really going to “stick to your ribs”. I like to add a small amount of garbanzo bean flour to my pancakes to jack up the protein content, and add a subtle depth of flavor that plain flour just doesn’t provide.
Make a double batch of these, cool, wrap in parchment or wax paper and freeze for pancakes on the fly. Simply throw the frozen pancakes in the toaster, and wham! pancakes on a Wednesday morning? No Problem!
As always, serve this with 100% maple syrup, never that horrible ‘pancake syrup’ which is just corn syrup and flavorings. Ick! Add some fresh fruit (or make them blueberry pancakes!), or go fancy and add my Strawberry Rhubarb Compote for a sweet, tart kick. (more…)
Tuesday, May 11th, 2010
A few weeks ago I went to my friend Lucy’s house for a loose sort of pot-luck thing (I brought stuff for guacamole, and a chickpea & eggplant spread). Lucy is like me… concerned about the state of food in our country and due to some allergies of her own decided a while back to clean up her diet. She took out wheat because it didn’t really agree with her, something I know can be a very difficult and challenging task, especially if you’re still shopping at conventional markets. But my girl Lucy is a champ, and a good cook, and on that slightly chilly Saturday evening she introduced me to grilled flatbreads. You might think that someone cutting wheat out of their diet would have said farewell to breads long ago, but this is not your ordinary bread. It was extra-ordinary!
Making these flatbreads couldn’t be easier, and since that evening, I’ve been experimenting with making my own. I don’t have a big fancy grill like she does (sorry, like her husband does. That this is all Mike.), but my cast iron skillet makes a great substitute. I’d asked her how she made hers but could only remember snippets, so I set to find my own way. While she used two non-gluten containing flours, I ended up throwing some in mine, but really it’s good either way. We both started with Quinoa flour which, thanks to my coffee grinder (reserved solely for grinding grain and spices), gets whizzed up in about 8-10 seconds. My first attempt at a flatbread was pretty good, but not great. I paired garbanzo bean flour with the quinoa flour, some salt, herbs, oil, and water, and while the texture was nice and crisp, the flavor was a little too beany for me.
So I played around some more, and came up with the recipe below. The beauty of these kinds of breads is that they don’t need to rise, and they take about 5-10 minutes to grill up, which means you can whip it up while the rest of your dinner is cooking, or when guests are on the way over. These flatbreads go with just about any spreads, from hummus and tapenade, to guacamole or just a plain olive oil. You can use these flatbreads to make a grilled pizza, or an open-faced sandwich… really anything. As a bonus if you use quinoa and/or chickpea flour you’ll be packing a huge protein punch in a whole new way!
Ingredients
1/2 cup quinoa flour
1/4 cup garbanzo bean flour
1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 tablespoon olive oil
3-5 tablespoons water
fresh or dried herbs (optional)
Preparation:
1. Heat grill, or cast iron skillet over medium high heat.
2. In a bowl combine all the dry ingredients and whisk to combine. Add the oil and 3 tablespoons of water to start. Mix the dough using a wooden spoon, and add more water if necessary. If the dough becomes to wet or sticky, simply add more flour.
3. Turn the ball of dough onto a floured surface and knead a few times to smooth it out. Add more flour to prevent sticking. Flatten the dough out using your hands to a rough circle about 1/4 inch thick.
4. Place dough directly on an oil grill or oiled cast iron skillet and cook about 3-5 minutes on each side until golden brown.
5. Break apart, or cut into strips and serve.
Wednesday, May 5th, 2010
While the idea of eating 4 heads of raw garlic sounds insane, eating a puree of 4 roasted heads of garlic is pure heaven! Roasting garlic sweetens and mellows it’s otherwise pungent flavor, and makes an incredible puree perfect for crusty bread, salad dressings, or a robust soup.
Ingredients
4 whole heads of good quality fresh garlic
a little olive oil
sea salt
Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Remove any extra loose paper from the heads of garlic. Using a sharp knife, chop the top 1/3rd off, and discard.
2. Drizzle a little olive oil over each head, and wrap, cut side up, in a foil pouch. Roast for 45 minutes until garlic is completely soft and browned.
3. To serve, squeeze out each clove of garlic into a small dish and mash with the back of a spoon. Season with a little sea salt and enjoy smeared across a toasted baguette. Thin with a little extra olive oil and swirl into soups for a rich flavor boost.
Wednesday, April 7th, 2010
This is the perfect spring-time salad, complete with cleansing dandelion greens and radishes, and nutrient rich sprouts. Lightly dressed, this salad has a wonderful strong, zingy flavor, a welcome change after months of heavy winter foods.
Tuesday, March 9th, 2010
This is really flavorful dish with punchy flavors that cooks up pretty quickly. Using sweet white miso in this recipe is ideal and compliments the sweetness of the butternut and delicata squashes. This recipe is an adaptation of Heidi Swanson’s Miso Harissa Delicata Squash from her website 101.cookbooks.com
Ingredients
3 cups butternut or delicata squash (if butternut, peeled and chopped, if delicata, seeds scraped and sliced in half moons)
3 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons white miso
1 tablespoon harissa*
2 teaspoon lemon juice
4 cups kale, finely chopped
1 cup quinoa
1/4 cup chopped shallots
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups vegetable broth
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
2 tablespoons lightly toasted pine nuts (optional)
Directions
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a small bowl, combine the 3 tablespoons olive oil, miso, harissa, and lemon juice. Toss squash with 3/4 of the sauce to coat and roast for 20-25 minutes, stirring to brown evenly.
3. Place the finely chopped kale in a large bowl, and toss with remaning miso harissa sauce. Set aside.
4. Meanwhile, in a medium pot saute shallots and garlic over medium heat for 2-3 minutes until soft. Add the quinoa and stir to coat. Add the broth, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, until almost all the liquid is absorbed. Add the lemon zest, stir, and continue cooking until no water remains. Remove from heat.
5. When squash is golden brown, remove from the oven, add to the bowl of kale and combine.
6. Toss pine nuts and quinoa and top with roasted squash and kale.
*If you can’t find harissa, substitute any chili based hot sauce like Sriracha.
Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010
This recipes uses staples from your pantry and freezer… and you thought there was nothing in the house to eat! Recipes like this are infinitely adaptable. Try snow peas, water chestnuts, or mushrooms!
Ingredients
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts
4 tablespoons tamari (wheat-free soy sauce)
2 cups chopped (or diced) tofu, tempeh, or seitan
1 teaspoon honey
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon sesame oil
4 teaspoons fresh minced ginger
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 1/2 cups short grain brown rice, cooked and cooled
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 carrot, shredded
2/3 cup chopped scallions
Directions
1. Stir walnuts in a large skillet over medium heat until lightly toasted (3 minutes - don’t let them burn!). Drizzle 2 tablespoon tamari over the walnuts and stir to coat. Set aside
2. In the same skillet, over medium high heat, lightly brown the tofu, tempeh, or seitan in olive oil. Combine remaining tamari with the honey in a small bowl. Toss with the tofu, tempeh, or seitan and let stand 10 minutes.
3. Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add the tofu, tempeh, or seitan and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add the ginger and garlic and stir fry 30 more seconds. Add the cooked rice, red pepper, shredded carrots and sesame oil. Reduce heat to medium and cook until heated through, about 5 minutes.
4. Season with salt & pepper, and top with green onions and walnuts.
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010
We’ve all been there… door swung open, cool air quickly escaping, staring into the depths of the fridge, hoping that something magical and tasty will appear before our very eyes. Our brains do some quick computations, itemizing all the raw materials and shifting ingredients around until we can come up with a formula that sounds yummy.
Sometimes (certainly not always!), these are moments of magic, when often disparate ingredients come together to make a truly delicious meal, made all the more tasty as it seemingly was made of nothing (”there’s nothing to eat in the house!”). While there have been many a colossal failure (eaten anyway because I hate wasting), they are usually quickly forgotten. Probably a self-protective response to shield us from the horrors of our own bad cooking!
CSA season is over, so I’m left to fend for myself when stocking my fridge… (more…)
Tuesday, January 5th, 2010
This recipe comes from www.integrativenutrition.com. It’s easily adaptable so take out what you don’t like and add in what you do!
Ingredients
2 cups almonds, raw
1 cup pecans
2 cups walnuts, raw
2 cups pumpkin or squash seed, raw
2 cups dried cranberries (unsweetened)
1 tablespoon olive oil (optional)
Directions
In a bowl mix together almonds, pecans, walnuts and seeds. Cover with water and soak overnight.
Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
Rinse and discard soaking water.
Add cranberries and add olive oil. Mix until everything is coated well.
Spread the mixture out evenly on baking sheet and place in the oven for about 20 minutes or until you can smell the roasting nuts and they start to turn color a lot. Make sure they don’t burn!
Cool and store in air-tight glass container.
Notes:
* Try any nuts and dried fruits you like, but make sure the dried fruits are unsweetened and unsulphured.
* The nuts and seeds can be soaked for a few hours to help their digestibility
© 2009 - Lara Adler, New York, NY. All contents licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
