In a continued effort to make healthy meals for the fam, I borrowed The Sneaky Chef and Deceptively Delicious from the library. If you didn’t already know, the ‘trick’ behind these two books is to puree healthy fruits and veggies and add them into regular-looking meals so no one notices that they are eating ‘healthy’. Now the only part of this that I think is a little silly is that often only one tablespoon of puree is in one serving but whatever…it’s something I guess! Of course I had to veganize the recipes to make them truly veg-friendly.
Raw Food Wednesday 4/22
Red Bell Pepper Empanadas
White Asparagus
Gazpacho Shooter with Baby Cucumbers
Mixed Micro Greens Salad
Strawberry Pie
Utilizing more of the bounty from Farmer Lee Jones…
The red bell pepper empanadas use the tortilla recipe (below), stuffed with greens, cashew cheese, scallions, walnut taco filling and diced tomatoes. The white asparagus was trimmed, peeled, tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper and dehydrated for 2 hours @ 105F. They retain some of the crunch, but are very tasty…
Red Pepper Tortillas
(makes approximately 8 tortillas)
1/2 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup water
1 cup red bell pepper, diced
1 tbs. olive oil
1 tbs. nama shoyu
1 jalapeño, diced
1 tsp. Mexican oregano
1 tsp. fresh ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste
Soak the flax seeds with the water and let sit for 15 minutes. Put the flax seeds and the rest of the ingredients into the Vita-Mix and process on high until smooth — this will tax the machine, but that’s why you bought it in the first place. 
Spread out the mixture into 7″ rounds with an offset spatula and dehydrate around an hour on 105F. Carefully flip the tortillas and dehydrate for an additional 30 minutes or so. Take a peak at this point to make sure they’re not too dry — you want them flexible enough so you can roll them later. You can make these a day in advance and store in the fridge if needed.
The gazpacho shooters (tomato, red bell pepper, cucumber, onion, garlic, nama shoyu, lime juice, olive oil) were brightened by the addition of the colorful baby cucumbers. They were almost too cute to eat. Almost
If the shooters aren’t enough to quench your thirst, we also made a larger bowl, adorned with a cucumber slice and a popcorn shoot. The best way to describe the popcorn shoot is that it tastes mildly like corn for the first 5-7 seconds, and then you’re hit with an almost candy-like sweetness… really unique and fun!
The baby radishes were served as a crudite with a little sea salt to dip them in and then they were eaten whole — the green tops were extremely tender with just a hint of radish bite.
The strawberry pie used a quick almond/cashew/brazil nut/salt/agave crust pressed into a tart mold, layered with sliced strawberries and a little extra raw agave, which was then chilled for a few hours.
I finally, FINALLY came across vegan spring roll wrappers in a local grocery store! All the wrappers I had seen before contained egg; these contain flour, coconut oil, and salt — that’s it. Time to whip out the Fry Daddy!
I had never made fried spring rolls before, but back when I was 17 I cut out a recipe from our local newspaper, and I still had that yellowing slip of paper in my recipe binder. I swore one day I would get around to making them, and today it was finally time to get on a roll (doh)!
The filling is a mix of blanched cabbage, carrot, and mung bean sprouts mixed with fried onion and cellophane noodles. The wrappers were easy to work with and needed just a nudge to stay sealed when they first went in the fryer.
The dipping sauce is a mix of sugar, vinegar, and sweet chile sauce from the Asian market.
Below the spring rolls we have my other recent discovery at the grocery store: enoki mushrooms, roasted in olive oil and tied with green onion stems. I placed the enoki bundles (they look like sheaves of wheat to me, wouldn’t that be cute in a harvest-themed lunch box?) on a bed of brown rice. A serving of Japanese Spinach (from Vegan Lunch Box) is along the base.
Verdict: My husband was thrilled with the sudden appearance of a deep fryer in our kitchen this morning (it’s just on loan from mom, so don’t get used to it). He ate at least four rolls for breakfast at 6:00am before heading out for work. At lunchtime, he showed off his lunch and reports the rolls and sundry were fantastic. The mushrooms, however, were a bit chewy. 4 stars.
Here’s a quick food idea for you that is very nourishing. I’ve been eating it most mornings recently, after having my green smoothie. As with my last post, hemp seeds are the star here. This time, it’s as simple as topping some non-dairy yogurt with a whollop of those nutritious hemp seeds!
I use a soy yogurt, since that’s the only non-dairy yogurt available in my area, but if you can try it with coconut or rice yogurt, I’m guessing it might be even better! My mornings are hectic, and breakfast is the only meal that I eat “on-the-go” during the week (well, some weekend mornings as well). Yogurt + hemp seeds is about as quick as you can get!
And, honestly, I don’t think I’d bother eating the yogurt if it wasn’t for the hemp seeds. I realize I speak about hemp more than other vegan cooks, and really, it’s not like I eat hemp foods all day long (really, I don’t)! But, it has its place in some recipes (especially healthful baked goods), and also for quick snacks through the day – such as this one. And, I really enjoy the slightly-sweet nuttiness that the hemp seeds bring to the yogurt. In fact, I can eat far more hemp seeds in proportion to the yogurt. Two tablespoons of the hemp seeds offers up 11g of protein, along with essential fatty acids. I tend to go generous with the hemp seeds, and it’s easy for me to use 3 or 3 1/2 tablespoons. Pair that with a small amount of soy yogurt and you have a very nutritious bite! Admittedly, after taking this photo, I realized that this was much more yogurt than I usually eat and I couldn’t finish it all… but, as for the hemp seeds, I sprinkled on a lil‘ more!
Guess it was that parfait glass throwing me off. Whoops…. I mean the size of that parfait glass. I always use a parfait glass… you do too, right?
Tips:
- try a sprinkle of cinnamon with the hemp seeds too!
- also, if you find hemp seeds expensive in your area, consider ordering them directly in a larger quantity, such as the 5 lb container – if you have somewhere cool to store the seeds!
My husband Jon is a card-carrying brownie lover. Not just any brownies — he especially likes chocolatey brownies with lots of nuts, and he prefers a cakey texture (as opposed to fudgy). Perhaps second only to his penchant for cakey nutty brownies is his devotion to all things coconut. The idea of combining these elements to create his “dream brownie” was the inspiration for “Nutty Chocolate Brownies,” which will appear in my upcoming book, 1,000 Vegan Recipes, coming out later this year.
Jon couldn’t even wait for these brownies to cool out of the oven, much less until the book comes out, so you shouldn’t have to either — the recipe is below. Another great thing about these brownies is their versatility: if you’re not a fan of coconut, leave out the coconut extract and shredded coconut and use soy milk or other non-dairy milk instead of the coconut milk. If you don’t like pecans, swap them for another nut. You can even leave the nuts out entirely, but then they wouldn’t be very nutty brownies, would they?
Nutty Chocolate Brownies
This recipe is from 1,000 Vegan Recipes by Robin Robertson © 2009.
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup neutral vegetable oil
3/4 cup coconut milk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon coconut extract
1/2 cup coarsely chopped raw pecans
1/2 cup vegan semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup shredded sweetened coconut
1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease an 8-inch square baking pan and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, mix together the sugar and oil until well blended. Stir in the coconut milk, vanilla and coconut extracts, and blend until smooth. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, stirring to blend. Fold in the pecans, chocolate chips, and coconut.
3. Scrape the batter into the prepared baking pan, and bake until the center is set and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Let the brownies cool 30 minutes before serving.
My wife just shared some great news with me: Cornell University is offering a Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate, which you can obtain completely online.
The three-course series (with each course running two weeks) is led by T. Colin Campbell, author of The China Study.
The program looks really interesting. The only downside? The price: $795.
Here’s some information about the course that my wife received in an email from an Enrollment Counselor at Cornell:
Plant-based nutrition represents a forward-looking view of nutrition that Dr. Campbell developed during his more than 40 years experience in experimental research and 20 years in public policy. This course series presents a different paradigm, considering the topic of nutrition both as a science and as a component of the practice of medicine. It is an expansion of NS 200, a successful Cornell course approved by the Department of Nutritional Science and offered for 7 years. This new online series offers the best of his work as well as the latest information from leading experts in the field.
This certificate series is designed to introduce the ability of properly executed nutrition to maintain health and prevent disease. These courses would be of interest to healthcare professionals, corporate policymakers, individuals wishing to improve health, parents, teachers, and school administrators
Course topics include:
1) Nutrition Fundamentals
2) Diseases of Affluence
3) Principles in PracticesHow the Course Works:
In our 2 week long courses you will learn through watching lectures, participating in discussion boards and taking evaluations. The coursework is available to be completed 24 hours a day, 7 days a week on an asynchronous platform so you do not have to be online at the same time as the instructor or other students in order to complete the coursework.
I’m strongly considering enrolling, even though I’m broke right now. I think this would be very useful information to have.
If you’re interested you can get more information on the program at eCornell.
What could be better than a creamy bowl of savory soup? Lentils are so delicious when their earthy sweetness is paired with the tart bright tang of lemon and cilantro. It is thick and creamy, but I added more liquid than I would if I was just making a dense dahl because I wanted this to be lighter and more soup like. Every bit of this soup is perfectly balanced in your mouth, which only leads to you eating more and more and more! But go ahead and enjoy because this dish is as healthy as it is tasty.
This soup was the first time I had tried cooking with Kalonji Black Onion Seeds and WOW – these are what has been missing every time I cook Indian food. Yes, your meal can be great without them, but they pack such a subtle, aromatic mouthful of flavor in each tiny bite you should really try to find them. They are what always made me go ‘hmmm…what is that?’ every time I ate Indian food. Just a few days ago we went and ate at my favorite Indian restaurant Anand Bhavan and I closely examined every dish and found these tiny black seeds studded throughout everything! Now I know and they will be an indispensable part of my kitchen from here on out!
Ingredients
1 yellow onion – diced fine
4 cloves garlic – diced fine
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp kalonji black onion seed
1 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
salt and pepper to taste
2 cups lentils rinsed
6 and 1/2 cups of water
3 cups of unsweetened soy milk
1 Tbsp vegan butter
2 lemons zest and juice
3/4 cup cilantro chopped
-On medium heat in a large soup pot in a drizzle of olive oil gently saute the onion and garlic for 5 minutes
-After 5 minutes add the lentils and all of the spices and cook and stir for another 3 minutes
-After 5 minutes add the water and the soy milk to the pot and simmer gently for 20 – 30 minutes until the lentils are soft but still have a bite to them. This part of the process is really subjective. I like my lentils still a bit firm, you might want them completely soft. I wanted my soup not too thick and broken down, you might. Just adjust the heat/water amount/cooking time and have fun with it.
-Once the consistency and lentils are to your liking, around 25 minutes, add the butter and stir though.
-Remove the pot from the heat and add the lemon juice and zest and the cilantro and serve with a side of naan, chapati, or paratha bread. Enjoy!
Vege Island