Creamy Dill Chickpea and Sweet Potato (Vegan, Gluten Free)

 

This recipe is so good!  Creamy and filling, its inexpensive to make too!

Vegan Dill Sour Cream:

• 1 cup cashew cream (recipe here)
• 4 tbsp Lemon juice
• 1 tbsp Dried Dill  (If using fresh, use 2 tbsp)
• salt to taste

Creamy Dill Chickpea and Sweet Potato:

• 2 tbsp vegetable broth
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 sweet potato cut into 1 inch cubes and steamed 10 minutes
• 1 can organic chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 2 crushed garlic cloves

 

 

In a jar, mix the cashew cream, lemon juice, dill and salt, close the jar up and shake  till its combined.  Healthy saute the onion in the  vegetable broth 2 minutes, then uncover and cook 1 more minute.  Add in the  chickpeas, the sweat potato and the sour cashew cream sauce.  Cook 5 minutes, add in the garlic. (If you like your garlic a bit cooked, add it before you add the cream.)

 

From http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=58:

There’s now direct evidence about garbanzo beans and appetite! Participants in a recent study reported more satisfaction with their diet when garbanzo beans were included, and they consumed fewer processed food snacks during test weeks in the study when garbanzo beans were consumed. They also consumed less food overall when the diet was supplemented with garbanzo beans.

 

 

 

 

 

Pink Berry Tofu Smoothie

This smoothie will blow you away with its sweet taste, its so good that I gave some to my neighbor, who’s taken me on as her nutritionist, and swears she hates tofu, liked the sample I gave to her, although she said it was “different” (she’s not used to vegetable smoothies at all).  Her husband, however, said it was, “REALLY good!”   For those of you who are no beginner to the world of vegetable smoothies, you will only taste sweet pink goodness. Add half a cup of protein-probiotic goodness that is tofu, and you’ll be reaching for that second serving before you can stop yourself!

Pink Berry Tofu Smoothie

makes 2 servings

• 2 cups oat milk
• 1/2 cup silken tofu
• 1 red beet, peeled
• 5 kale leaves
• 1/2 cup broccoli, with about 4 inches of the stem
• 10 strawberries
• a handful of blueberries (about 1/3 cup)
• 2 dates
• 1 red apple, cored

blend all in a high speed blender (I use a vitamix) until its smooth.   I put the liquid, tofu, and beet and blended it up first, then added the rest of the ingredients so that it wouldn’t take too long to and get hot.

I love beets in smoothies.  Foods in the beet family (chard, spinach, and quinoa) have a number of properties that are not seen anywhere else. Raw beets are full of phytonutrients called belatinin.  The same phytonutrient is also in chard and rhubarb, but beets have it to the extreme.   That’s why the dye everything red!  Its a wonderful vegetable to add to your detox program because of this.  It’s also anti-inflamatory, and an awesome antioxidant.  After consuming raw beets your urine may turn pink, which can be caused by an iron deficiency.  (this happened to me the first time I started eating beets more often, I completely freaked out that I had internal bleeding lol)    From the Worlds Healthiest Foods website:

An estimated 10-15% of all U.S. adults experience beeturia (a reddening of the urine) after consumption of beets in everyday amounts. While this phenomenon is not considered harmful in and of itself, it may be a possible indicator of the need for healthcare guidance in one particular set of circumstances involving problems with iron metabolism. Individuals with iron deficiency, iron excess, or specific problems with iron metabolism are much more likely to experience beeturia than individuals with healthy iron metabolism. For this reason, if you experience beeturia and have any reason to suspect iron-related problems, we recommend a healthcare consult to follow up on possible issues related to iron status.

As it so happens, my doctor has put me on iron supplements in the past because I am in fact, a bit iron deficient.  However, since that first time of having raw beets, it hasn’t happened.

Later today I’m cooking up a vegan, gluten-free pizza, so make sure you come back to my blog, because its going to be awesome!

 

http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=49

Related articles

• Recipes: Why Red Beets Should Be A Part Of Your Life (newzaholic.com)
• Just Beet It (aroundtheworldin365.wordpress.com)
• The 7 Best Benefits Of Beets (blackdoctor.org)

Crock Pot Vegetable Broth

 

I go on and on and on about cooking things in broth, and today I made a new giant batch.  I came home from the farmers market and the broth had been cooking all night and day in my crock pot (sorry this picture doesn’t look so wonderful, it was a busy kitchen day and things get a bit messy LOL) and the house smelled AMAZING.  It’s awesome coming home to a good smell.  The reason I make my broth, and not just buy it premade is 1) its expensive and 2) I don’t like how much salt they add into it.  The brand I used to use was Pacific Organics, and 1 cup of broth has 22% of your RDA of sodium.  Here’s a tip when reading labels  anything over 20% is too much, especially when talking about salt.  Remember my post about electrolytes?  Just 1 tsp of table salt is all you need to hit your recommended daily allowance of sodium.   On top of that, making broth allows me to use up any loose ends that would have otherwise been wasted.  All the nutrients from the vegetables you use go into your broth.  After a day of cooking they turn brown and mushy, and tasteless.  That’s because all their flavor has been sucked out into your broth.  The recipe I’m going to share with you is a rough outline for how to make broth, because honestly it changes from week to week.   Lets say I’ve made smoothies with broccoli this week, well I usually buy a whole head of broccoli and cut off the long stem part, I leave about 2-3 inches of stem under the flower to use in my drinks, and the long stem goes into a Ziploc bag in the freezer.  When I use kale, sometimes I strip the middle tough part out and that goes in the freezer too.  (sometimes I just blend the stem in, its full of nutrients)  Have carrots that are about to go bad? or I’ve shaved half a carrot down to top my salad?  Into the freezer!  You get the idea.

 

Crock Pot Vegetable broth:

• 1 onion, you don’t have to peel it (the peel gives it a deep rich color), chopped into quarters
• 5 celery, leaves and all, cut to fit your crock pot
• 1/2 cup of potato skins  (potato skins have all the nutrients, you can use a whole potato but if you cook it too long it might turn to mush and that won’t be any fun to strain) *Potato broth is a wonderful healing drink*
• 1 large broccoli stem
• 5 Kale stems
• 3 bay leaves
• 3 carrots, if they’re organic you don’t even have to peel them, just wash them well
• 3 tbls dried oregano (or 6  tbls fresh)
• 1 very large bunch of parsley.  I never measure it, I just grab a big handful.  I’d say if I had to fill a measuring cup up, it would be about 1/2 cup squished in there.
• amino acids (I use about 1-tbls just for the salty flavor, but you can completely omit it)

 

Take all the veggies, frozen or not, the spices and the amino acids, throw them in a crock pot and cover it with water.  Put the crock pot to low and cook it at least 12 hours.  I usually just let mine go all night and into the next afternoon.   When its done, strain the veggies out in a colander, and put the liquid in  a large glass jar with a lid.  The amount you make depends on the size of your crock pot but I usually fill up two large mason jars.  If you are using plastic containers, wait until the broth has cooled down because the plastic will leach into your broth if you put it in hot.  (Gross, right?)  Throw out the veggies, or put them in your compost heap…or eat them..but they don’t taste very good lol.

 

Cold Soba Noodles with Healthy Sauteed Asian Vegetables

 

Today was an awesome day at the farmer’s market and I got an unexpected find: Bok choy!    I have to admit, I don’t know much about farming, and I’m always excited to see whats fresh and local in these parts of the woods.  I grew up in NJ and I’m pretty good with knowing NJ’s seasonal foods.   Pick your own farms was one of my favorite activities when I lived on the east coast.   So far WA hasn’t really thrown me any curve balls.  Finding organic baby bok choy was like winning the lottery, and it was for one simple reason, this recipe.  It is so good, and simple to make.  Buckwheat soba noodles are completely gluten free (just make sure they are 100% buckwheat as sometimes they are made with wheat as well) so don’t be afraid of the name.   The whole dish comes together in about 10 minutes.

Cold Soba noodles with Healthy Sauteed Asian Vegetables

This makes 1 large serving, but you can easily double it

• 1 bunch of soba buckwheat noodles (3 indivully wrapped sections come in 1 package)
• 3 tbls vegetable broth
• 1 crushed garlic (chop the  garlic ahead of time to release the enzymes, they should sit for at least 5 minutes)
• 1/4 inch grated ginger
• 2 baby bok choy bunches, cut the light green stems into 3/4 inch pieces and the leaves into 1/2 inch pieces.  Keep separate
• 1/2 red pepper cut into 1 inch strips
• 1/4 cup crimini mushrooms, sliced thin
• 2 tbls braggs amino acids (you can use low sodium soy sauce but braggs has 13 essential amino acids and it is salty without all the sodium)
• 1 scallion, chopped small
• 1/4 tsp sesame oil
• toasted sesame seeds

 

Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and when ready, cook the buckwheat noodles 4 minutes.  Remove, and run under cold water and set aside.  In a large wok with a cover, bring the vegetable broth to a boil, put in the bok choy stems, and pepper.  Cover and cook 2 minutes.   After 2 minutes, add the stems and the mushrooms and cook another 2 minutes, uncovered.  If you want to mellow out the garlic and ginger you can add these the last minute of cooking.  Now toss the sesame oil, 1 tbls amino acid, and sesame seeds with the cold noodles, and top with the scallions.  The other 1 tbls amino acids is for the veggies.

 

Farmer’s markets are amazing places, if you do not have the money or the room to grow your own food, please go out and support your local organic farmers.  The food is fresher which means its more nutritous, it takes less energy to get to your plate which means less pollution, and you will be helping to keep local businesses running.  Plus, they’re fun.  I got an awesome green juice today made from things I had never thought of  juicing before.  I’ll share that with you guys in a later post, I don’t want to give too much away! LOL  So I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, get out there, buy organic, buy local.  You never know what you’re going to find!

 

 

Related articles

• Storing and Preparing Bok Choi (happydayfarms.wordpress.com)
• Bok Choy as Superfood (expertscolumn.com)
• Why I Love Farmer’s Markets (stirringthingsupblog.com)
• Bok Choy:)enjoy (samabaeza.wordpress.com)

Vegan Cashew Lettuce Wraps with Healthy Sauteed Vegetables

Cooking in oil is a thing of the past, at least for me.  Heating oil to high temperatures changes its structural composition, changing from a healthy addition to a carcinogen.  Coconut oil, which is able to withstand high heat, is all the rage in the health world, however, it has its draw backs; it  raises LDL levels, which is the bad cholesterol.  Of course, coconut oil has its place.  I have some wonderful recipes using it in my cleaning recipes section, (see “So fresh and so clean {the non-toxic way}”)

Also, cooking vegetables in high heat breaks down vital enzymes and kills your food.   Below I show you how to healthy saute your vegetables, and the meal I made using this method.  Sauteing in stock cooks food at a much lower heat, retaining most of the nutrients and keeping those healthy enzymes in tact.

Cashew lettuce Wraps are a simple, fast and easy dinner to make that is so yummy you will make it again and again.  I learned this method in the book, “The World’s Healthiest Foods” by George Mateljan.  It was required reading for school, and I highly recommend it.

The first thing you want  to do is cut your vegetables in 1 inch strips.  This will make them cook up in about 3 minutes.

Next, bring 2 tbls of vegetable broth to a boil in a saute pan.  Put in all the veggies, cover it up, and let it saute 2 minutes.  No more, no less.   After 2 minutes, uncover, and let it cook another 1 minute.  The broth should evaporate out.

Vegetables wilted after only 2 minutes of healthy saute

That’s all there is to it, that is the healthy saute method.   I still use Extra Virgin Olive oil, but only to dress my already cooked vegtables.    Onions, peppers, celery, and mushrooms are all cooked using this method.  Usually I steam carrots, but for this meal I like to make everything in one pan.  Below is the full Recipe for Cashew Lettuce wraps:

Makes 1 serving:

• 2 tbls vegetable stock (I use homemade broth, but if using boxed, find low sodium organic)
• Half of 1 carrot, cut into 1 inch strips
• 4 slices red pepper, 1 inch thick cut length wise
• 1 scallion cut into two pieces, then  cut in half length wise.  Finely chop and Reserve about 1 tbls of the green sections.
• 4 crimini mushrooms, sliced thin
• 1/4 cup green beans (I used frozen for this recipe, and just threw them in at the end of cooking to warm them up)
• 1 tbls Thai Peanut sauce (I love the one pictured below)
• 
• 2 tbls raw cashews
• 2 large romaine leaves
• 1/4 cup mung bean sprouts

Healthy saute the carrot, pepper, scallion, and mushrooms 3 minutes as mentioned above, remove from heat and toss with Thai peanut sauce.  Mix well.  Lay the romaine leaves on a plate, one on top of the other.  Lay out the veggies so that the romaine leaves cradle around them.  Top with mung beans, cashews, and the reserved green scallion.  Drizzle with any remaining peanut sauce in the pan.

This dish is a hit with my meat loving husband and it is one that I go to again and again.   Although I do enjoy making my own peanut sauce, Annie Chuns is a real winner for its natural ingredients and taste.  Plus, its gluten free.   And when I’m pressed for time, I really enjoy having one less thing to think about in the kitchen.

Even if you don’t ever attempt this recipe, I hope that you take away how to healthy saute your vegetables.  I promise, you will never cook in oil again.