Category Archives: Blog

Lemon-Tahini Dressing

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It’s been a long time since I posted a recipe! Not that I haven’t been creating in the kitchen – I’m always doing that.  Just life.  You know how it is.  Anyway, I love tahini dressings but they are usually so high in fat.  Tahini, or sesame seed paste, is high in fat of course because seeds are high in fat.  Tahini, and other seeds and seed pates are very healthy but can easily be overeaten.  However, there is a way to use tahini in dressing, still get that flavor, and cut the fat.  The secret is in the BEANS.  Yes, beans.  They not only help cut the fat, they add creaminess, body, nutrients, fiber and protein.

I made this dressing with a salad in mind, but I ended up pouring some over my steamed kale and sweet potato, and it was tasty!  You can use any kind of soft, white bean.  I had made my own flageolet beans the day before because I like to have a batch on hand, but you can use cannellini, great northern, etc.  If you use canned be sure to rinse and drain them.  NOTE: I get a lot of my dried beans from Rancho Gordo. They sell the BEST heirloom beans!  You can purchase from their website at ranchogordo.com.

Chickpea Curry Lettuce Wraps with Tamari-Lime Sliced Almonds

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If you’ve ever made my Mock Chicken Salad you’ll already have an idea of how this dish is made – it’s the same process.  I set out to make the Mock Chicken Salad but I was feeling creative and wanted to change it up significantly.  I absolutely LOVE what I ended up with. SO delicious.  And, it’s really easy to make!! No cooking required for the filling.  Though, if you would like it warm and/or find raw celery and onion too crunchy or strong, feel free to sauté those first.  I made these for lunch on a fairly warm day but I think the warm/cooked filling would be nice on a chilly day or at dinner.  It’s up to you! Experiment….I did!

Feel free to use this filling for a sandwich instead of lettuce wraps.

They are only a garnish, so a small amount is used, but the Tamari-Lime Sliced Almonds are AMAZING here.

Winner of Better Than Vegan Cookbook Giveaway!

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As part of the contest to win Del Sroufe’s new cookbook Better Than Vegan, I asked you to  tell me how many vegan/vegetarian cookbooks you own.  It was fun to see your answers.  I decided I would play along so I counted my veg cookbooks as well.  Let’s just say I’m a bit of a book collector. I love books, period.  I knew I had a bunch of cookbooks but even I was blown away by the number: 54. (Gulp).  This doesn’t even include books that are half informational and half cookbook, or e-books.   Yep…I know, I have a problem.  The worst part is I don’t use them very often since I’m usually determined to create my own recipes.   Geez.

Anyway, on to announcing the randomly chosen winner!  Congratulations to Cynthia Carignan!  She now has 2 veg cookbooks!!  Enjoy, Cynthia!! Thanks to everyone who played along.

Smokey Black Bean Bisque from Chef Del’s “Better Than Vegan” AND Cookbook Giveaway!

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Imagine being vegan and weighing nearly 500 lbs.  Seems impossible doesn’t it? Most people associate vegan with healthy.  For many that is the case, but the opposite is also true.  Potato chips? Vegan.  French fries?  Vegan.  Soda? Vegan. Vegetable oils? Vegan. See where I’m going with this?  Vegan (the absence of animal foods) is only healthy when the diet is comprised of whole, low-fat, plant foods.  Vegan junk food is how you get sick and in Del’s case, to 475 pounds!  This is the meaning of the title of Del’s new cookbook, Better Than Vegan.  Being vegan isn’t enough if you want to achieve optimal health and weight…you must be Better Than Vegan!  Del has managed to drop nearly all of his extra weight but doing just that!

RECIPE REVIEW:

Del’s recipes are easy to follow and execute, and of course they’re delicious! To give you an idea of how tasty and easy his recipes are, I made the Smokey Black Bean Bisque (recipe below) and it was phenomenal! Truly.  I’m not generally a non-chunky soup fan but the flavor of this soup was fantastic, and even though it’s not chunky, its still nice and thick.  Del instructs you to toast and grind the cumin seeds and I’m sure this really contributed to the rich flavor – so don’t skimp and use bottled, ground cumin if you can help it.  He also calls for fresh oregano which I didn’t have and couldn’t find at the store, so I used dried.  If you do that remember to cut the amount in half.  So, instead of 2 tsp fresh, you would use 1 tsp dry.  I soaked and cooked my own black beans ahead of time, but canned would be fine – just remember to rinse them.  I did not garnish with cilantro because I despise it and think it tastes like perfume.  Bleh! For leftovers the next night I roasted delicata squash, filled it with wild rice and kale, and topped it with the bisque – YUM!

Chef Del’s Smokey Black Bean Bisque from “Better Than Vegan”

To be the lucky winner of this great book simply answer the question following the recipe to enter yourself in the drawing.  One winner will be randomly chosen on Wednesday, 1/15/14.

Contest Question: How many vegan or vegetarian cookbooks do you own? 

Happy New Year AND my guest blog post at Yummly.com featuring my delicious Zucchini Oat Muffins Recipe

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HAPPY NEW YEAR!!  I hope you all had wonderful holidays and are getting back into the groove, ready to take on 2014!  It sure got here quickly, didn’t it?  For those of you who have made a resolution to eat better (and, let’s be honest, who hasn’t), I’m hoping you will utilize my website more often.  I have big plans to revamp and improve it, making it easier for recipe searches, etc.  As well, I begin my plant-based cooking school this month and hope to come up with lots of new dishes.  Let’s get things started off right with a low-fat, gluten-free, vegan, tasty zucchini muffin recipe (see below).

I came up with these on a Sunday morning when I was feeling that creative cooking bug that pokes at me so often.  Seemed like a good time to create a muffin of some kind.  I opened the fridge to seek inspiration only to have the zucchinis practically throwing themselves at me.  Hence this Zucchini Oat Muffin recipe was born.  Many recipes I come up with require tweaking and a second or third go around before I can share, but not this one! I got lucky first time around.  And now you’re getting lucky!

For this recipe, I used a combination of gluten-free flour (I really like Trader Joe’s brand)  and oat flour made with certified gluten-free oats.  You can make your own oat flour by using your blender to grind the oats.  Super easy! These muffins are only slightly sweet and are especially delicious warmed, with a TINY bit of vegan butter if you’re feeling dangerous, (and I was).   🙂 I find these keep best refrigerated after the first day, wrapped in a cloth napkin.  Also, if you are feeling adventurous, sub some of the zucchini with carrot!

Feel free to leave out the walnuts if you don’t like them or are eating an extra low-fat diet.  I love their flavor and texture in this dish, and the nice dose of Omega 3’s they (and the chia seeds) provide.  Enjoy!!

I’ve posted this recipe to Yummly.com as a guest blogger.  Please visit my post at http://blog.yummly.com/blog/2014/01/healthy-vegan-gluten-free-zucchini-oat-muffins/  Enjoy!!

Approximate nutritional info: with walnuts – 153 cals, 3.75 fat grams; without walnuts -125 calories, 1 fat gram.

UPDATE: I made these muffins with ALL oat flour when I was out of gluten-free all purpose and they were great!! 

Chocolate Cran-Cherry Granola

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There is no shortage of granola recipes on-line, though I’d never heard of a chocolate variety so when it popped into my head as I was working out, I jumped on it. Many of my recipes come to me during exercise – weird. Anyhow, I got the idea to use cacao nibs and cocoa powder to make the granola chocolatey.  Sure, I could use chocolate chips but this is granola, it’s supposed to be healthy!

For those not familiar with cacao nibs, they are basically raw chocolate, pieces of cacao beans that have been roasted, hulled and prepped to the point where all that there is left to do is process them into bars.  Like dark chocolate, they are somewhat bitter and they are very pure with no added sugar.  I like them in the granola however because there are plenty of other sweet elements.  The bitter, nutty flavor of the nibs with the cherries, cranberries and maple syrup and/or date paste is delicious.  Best part?  Your milk in the bowl ends up like chocolate milk!  Who doesn’t love that?

Cacao beans, and thus cacao nibs, are one of the best dietary sources of magnesium — a mineral needed for more than 300 biochemical reactions in our bodies — with 272 milligrams per 100 grams.  Cacao nibs are very high in antioxidants, and have about 9 grams of fiber per 1 ounce!

Since they will melt like any other type of chocolate, you need to wait until the granola is cooled before adding the cacao nibs.

Lemon-Maple Roasted Brussels Sprouts

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Roasted Brussels sprouts are really popular right now and we eat them a lot in our house.  Wanting to change up the flavors just a bit, I decided to add some sweet (maple) and sour (lemon).  I think this is my new favorite way to eat them.  I made them on the same night I made Spicy Butternut Squash Soup.  The soup was a bit too spicy for me and I found myself taking bites of soup and sprouts together to tame some of the heat.  Ultimately I dumped my entire plate of sprouts into the soup.  I may eat it this way forever.  Really good.

Spicy Butternut Squash Soup

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Spicy Butternut Squash Soup with Lemon-Maple Brussels Sprouts

Most butternut squash soups are a little sweet for me. Honestly, I’ve got a major sweet tooth but some things, like my soups, I want to be more on the savory side.  So, this soup is still sweet of course, but the jalapeño and cooking sherry (or white wine) create some interesting flavors that help offset the sweetness.  And, while I don’t generally cook with oil, I added a tiny drizzle of truffle oil before serving – YUM.  Since I was a little heavy-handed with the jalapeño (by my definition – remember, I’m a spice wimp), I dumped my Lemon-Maple Brussels Sprouts in the soup to offset the heat.  Delicious!  In the future I will leave the seeds out of the jalapeño – this time I used half of the seeds and the soup was really spicy.

Cinnamon Vinaigrette

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One of our favorite vegan restaurants in our area has an amazing fall salad with a cinnamon vinaigrette that I absolutely love. It’s lighter than most, however as is standard operating procedure for most restaurants, the dressing is oil-based.  Oil-based dressings can add an extra 300-500 calories to an otherwise healthy, low-calorie salad, so we try our best to stay away!

Anyway, I set out to recreate the dressing without using oil, and I succeeded!! This will go beautifully on our Thanksgiving salad.

Cinnamon Vinaigrette

1/3 cup plain soy yogurt
2 TBS brown rice vinegar
1 TBS maple syrup (you may need more if your yogurt is unsweetened)
Juice from 1/2 lime
1 tsp low-sodium tamari or soy sauce
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp smoked paprika
pinch ground cloves
1 TBS cashew butter or about 2 TBS soaked raw cashews
water for thinning, if desired

Combine all ingredients in blender and mix until smooth.