I know, I know….two soup posts in a row. But ‘tis the season for warming foods! I’m planning to make this super simple recipe for Thanksgiving lunch before the main event. It also satisfies meat eaters with its thick creaminess and smokey flavor. Serve it with some warm bread and its a guaranteed room of happy bellies. Chipotle peppers help give the smoke to replace the flavor of bacon that is traditionally added to corn chowder. I added just one, but then later wished I had added two. So if you don’t want a little kick, stick with the recipe. If you like more, maybe add a half or another whole pepper and see what you get (and let me know!).
serves 6 small bowls or 4 main dishes
soup ingredients:
about a 12 second pour of olive oil
6 shallots
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
1 red pepper, diced
1 celery stalk, diced
1 dried chipotle pepper
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
5 cups of organic, low-sodium vegetable broth (or even better home made!)
4 1/2 cups of frozen corn
1 cup of raw cashews
water
garnish options:
3 tbsp minced chives
3 tbsp of cilantro
1/2 cup of diced tomato
1/2 cup roasted red peppers
In a large pot, heat oil for about 30 seconds on medium heat. Add shallots, carrots, celery, red pepper, and chipotle pepper. Stir often for about 10 minutes. Add stock, potatoes, bring to a boil and then reduce heat to a simmer until you can pierce the potatoes easily with a fork. This will depend on how big you diced the potatoes, but generally should take 15-20 minutes.
In the meantime, place the raw cashews in a blender and cover slightly with water (about a 1/2 inch). Blend until smooth. If the mixture seems super thick, add a bit more water and blend again. It should be thick and creamy, not dense.
Once the potatoes are tender, mash some of the potatoes against the side of the pot to thicken the soup. Then add the cashew cream you just prepared and add salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for an additional 15 minutes and then remove the chipotle pepper before serving. Add your choice of garnishes and a heft extra crank of black pepper and serve.
Martha Stewart is such an amazing force in the kitchen…even when it comes to non-meat dishes. This is a recipe of her’s that I’ve been making for the last 4 years and it never gets old. Even the meatiest of meat eaters that I’ve cooked for have been satisfied by this soup. Collard greens are a pretty tough and fibrous leafy green. But the incorporation of it in a soup really helps to break down the fibers and keep all the nutritional goodness at the same time. They’re an excellent source of iron, B1, B2, and B6 which are all nutrients vegans and vegetarians need to watch that they’re getting enough of. She serves it with parmesan cheese, which I always put out for the non-vegans at the table. Sometimes I’ll substitute that topping with nutritional yeast but it can give a weird almost chalky metallic flavor to things so be careful with the amount you use.
Warm hard crusted bread on the side is a must!
Click here for the recipe.
Watch out, these little guys are addictive! They make an excellent upgrade to your standard energy bar, which tend to add refined sugar. Those standard energy bars do give a good spike in energy but with the addition of refined sugar you also get a pretty good crash. Seems pretty paradoxical, right? So let’s approach this a different way. Call in the dates! Medjool dates are so naturally sweet and delicious, its hard to believe how healthy they really are for you. One ounce of dates provides more than 260% more potassium than oranges and 64% more than bananas. Why is potassium so important? Well, the short of the long of it is that potassium helps your muscles stay energized and functioning and balances the electrolytes in your body.
This super simple recipe is a good one to keep in your back pocket for more than just an alternative energy boost. They make a scrumptious dessert or healthy snack for your little one(s).
makes approximately 12 2-inch bites
ingredients
1/2 cup raw cashews
about 10 medjool dates
between 1/4-1/2 cup of raisins
2 tbsp raw almond butter (if its roasted…make sure there’s no added cane sugar)
1/4 cup unsweetened shredded coconut
2 tbsp whole flax seeds
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
dash of salt
to make:
In a food processor or blender, blend cashews until made into a fine powder. Place into a medium size bowl.
Open up the dates to take the seeds out. Start to mash and knead them together with your hands…almost like playdough. Place the dates, raisins, and almond butter in with the cashews and mix together well (again, this works best with your hands). Add the rest of the ingredients and continue mixing and mashing until a uniform consistency is attained. It should stick a little bit to your hands, but not so much that you’re caked in it. If that seems to be the case, add more ground nuts or go wild and add more coconut.
On a clean surface, flatten the mixture to a 1/2” thick square-ish form. Cut into 2-inch little bar bites.
The best vegan reuben sandwich I’ve ever had is at Muddy’s Coffeehouse in Portland, OR (seriously, its worth the plane ticket there). However, this one here gives Muddy’s a run for their money. I just got the book Everyday Raw Express by Matthew Kenney, as many of you know I’ve been on quite the raw food kick lately. However, after landing down on the US’s east coast my Baja body has been craving warm food. I made a couple of adjustments to the recipe to hit the spot. (If you want the raw version, I definitely suggest the book…its amazing.) The best part about this recipe is that its SOY FREE! Usually we tend to grab for tempeh to make up the heartiness that this sandwich requires. However, here we’ll use the heartiness of yummy substantial portobellos. Soooo good!
serves 2
mushroom ingredients:
2 portobello mushrooms cleaned and sliced into 1/4 inch stripp
1 tbsp nama shoyu, braggs, or soy sauce
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp olive oil
salt
1,000 island dressing ingredients:
1/2 cup of raw cashew
1 tomato
1 red pepper
1/2 cup of celery (which is about 1 celery stalk)
1 tbsp olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup of water
salt and pepper
sandwich accoutrement:
4 slices of sprouted grain bread (or really any bread you like), toasty warm
2 swiss chard leaves, roughly chopped (I actually just tore them by hand)
1/2 cup sauerkraut
do it, get to it:
Place the mushrooms in a shallow dish and cover with your nama shoyu (or nama shoyu variation), lemon juice, olive oil, and just a light overall frosting of salt (only if you’re using the nama shoyu, nix the salt for braggs or soy sauce). Allow that to marinate for 30 minutes or longer.
Meanwhile, blend all ingredients for the dressing on high, except for the water. Gradually add water until your desire of dressing consistency is made.
When the bellos are done soaking up the goodness of the marinade, place a medium sized pan over medium heat with a 3 second pour of olive oil. Add the mushrooms and the marinade to the pan and cook 2-3 minutes per side.
Grab your toasty warm bread and on one slice place half the mushrooms, half the sauerkraut, half the swiss chard and a generous drizzle of dressing. Top with the other slice of bread. Commence eating! Oh, don’t forget to make the second sandwich for your friend…but then again, you might just want it for yourself.
yes! i’m still cooking and alive. new look, new recipes coming oh-so-soon!! promise…
xoK
….oops! I meant olive burgers (with lentils!). Oh, and sweet potato fries.
I love Isa’s constant creative concoctions over at Post Punk Kitchen. I used her recipe for olive lentil burgers the other night and they were dee-lish-us! I bought a gluten free loaf of artisan bread made by Judd, our village baker in Todos Santos, and used that to substitute the breadcrumbs she called for and then sliced up and grilled the rest to use as buns. They were topped with red pepper aioli and a few basil leaves. Then I served it with sweet potato fries on the side. I’ll put my recipe for the fries and aoli below. You can get the recipe for the burgers here. Oh! And any extra aioli makes an incredible dipping sauce for the fries, so don’t worry about what else to use it for ;).
Serves 2
Red pepper aioli
Ingredients:
1/2 cup of white beans (cannellini, great northern, etc.)
1/4 of medium sized red pepper roughly chopped
1 garlic clove
3-4 tbsp of olive oil
juice from 2 lemons
salt and pepper to taste
Add all the ingredients in a blender until smooth. If too thick, add more olive oil. It should become the consistency of a thick mayonnaise.
Sweet Potato Fries
Ingredients:
1 medium sweet potato, cut into wedges
1 tbsp olive oil
salt
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Spread the potatoes in a baking dish. Drizzle with olive oil and then sprinkle with salt. Toss around to coat completely. Bake for 30 minutes flipping over half way through.
Two foods that I love setting up on a date on my plate are fried bananas and black beans. Realizing that I had them both at my disposal the other day, I pounced on the opportunity to get them together. The mixture of crunchy, mushy, fresh, sweet, and savory is all there, my friends. And its so easy to put together! Now, I realize that most of these ingredients are local for me, they should all still be available at your groceries stores.
Serves 2
Ingredients:
Any mixed organic greens for your salad
1/2 cup of black beans
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 banana
1/4 cup shaved jicama
1/3 cup pomegranate seeds
shredded coconut
2 handfuls of mint
2 tomatillos
1 cup coconut milk
juice from 2-3 limes
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 of a jalapeno seeded (optional)
salt
For dressing:
Quarter the tomatillos and place in blender with coconut milk, lime juice olive oil, 1 handful of mint, and 2 pinches of salt. Blend it up, add more mint or salt to taste and place to the side.
For salad:
Heat coconut oil (or oil of choice) in skillet. Meanwhile slice the banana in a nice thick pieces. The thinner they are, the more mushy they’ll becoming in the frying pan. Place the banana in the frying pan for 5 minutes, flipping after 2 minutes or until brown on one side. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
Divide greens into two bowls. Top with black beans and shaved jicama. Delicately lay the fried bananas on and sprinkle with pomegranate seeds, shredded coconut, and the other handful of mint (I like to chop the mint here…but your choice).
Top with dressing and a few wedges of lime! Yum!
The most common term I hear for these little guys are “bliss balls”. They’re usually made from an assortment of nuts, dried fruit, natural sweetener and range from what I call the “crunchy hippie” version of nuts, raisins, and bananas to a more decadent variations with cane sugar, cacao, honey and other naughty natural goodness.
The great thing about this dessert is that once you get the hang for the consistency needed to roll ‘em up, you can start to ad lib with pretty much anything you have in your cabinets that has crunch and sweet. I am pretty sure that I make them different every time, but I really went out on a limb a few days ago and the outcome is definitely worth posting.
Ingredients:
1 cup of almonds ground into a powder-ish consistency
1 cup of raisins
3/4 cup of honey or agave nectar
1/3 cup of cinnamon
2 tbsp coconut oil or olive oil
1/4 cup of cacao beans (ground to a powder) OR coco powder is fine too
1 tbsp of cardamom
1 tsp cayenne (more or less to taste)
For the balls:
Mix the ground almonds, whole raisins, sweetener (honey or agave), cinnamon, and oil together until completely moist. It should have a good sticky consistency. If it seems too moist to roll into balls, add more ground almonds, but just a little at a time to make sure you don’t overdo it. Take a small amount of the batter and begin rolling into balls about the size of a lime (I like to rub a little coconut oil on my hands before I start rolling to make the process smoother). They’re really sweet so be careful about bulking them up too much.
For the coating:
Mix the coco or cacao powder with cardamom and cayenne and pour onto a flat plate.
Take the yummy ball and roll it around in the yummier coating you just made. Tap lightly with your finger to rid of excess coating.
Place in the freezer for 1-2 hours or overnight in the fridge before serving.
Yes, I live in Baja. And yes, its sunny and beautiful year round. However….it still is pa-retty chilly right now despite the sun. But, don’t get me wrong, there is no snow and by no means do I think that I have it worse off than my east coast peeps. I’ve been reading everyone’s facebook posts about snow and cold weather and thought of how I would always get sick during east coast winters. Two things that really help boost your immune system during the cold season are vitamin A and zinc and the one thing that has both of these are pumpkins. The actual pumpkin flesh itself is rich in beta carotene, a nutrient that the body breaks down into vitamin A. Some researches show that vitamin A can help boost respiratory health which is good news during cold and flu season. Zinc, an essential natural immune booster when you feel the chills coming on, is found in the seeds of the pumpkin.
Last night I made this creamy curry pumpkin soup which was so easy to make. I’m not exactly sure about the precise measurements because at one point, I just started throwing stuff in…but I’ll try my best to guesstimate.
1 1/2 tbsp of oil (I use coconut…but sesame or olive would be fine too)
1 shallot
1 clove of garlic
1 1/2 cups of low-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth
1/2 can of diced tomatoes
1/2 can of pumpkin puree
1/2 can of pinto beans
1/2 cup of milk (cow, rice, soy….pick your poison)
1 tbsp of curry (approximately)
1 tsp of cumin
1 tsp of cinnamon (maybe more)
a couple shakes of cayenne pepper (if you don’t mind heat)
and a 3 second pour of maple syrup
handful of pumpkin seeds
cilantro sprigs (if you like for garnish)
Dice the shallot and garlic. Heat oil in the pan over low and add the shallot and garlic, stirring frequently to prevent burning.
After draining the pinto beans, mash them in a bowl with a potato masher or the back of the spoon. This is going to help thicken the soup and give you some good protein!
Once garlic is fragrant and shallots are slightly translucent, add the broth, beans, tomatoes, pumpkin, and milk together. Allow to heat up and continue to stir until well blended and smooth (its okay if there are still some whole beans in there). Add the final spices, taste, and adjust. Simmer for 20 minutes to boost flavors.
To serve, top with pumpkin seeds and cilantro sprigs. (a side of red wine goes pretty well also!)
Lots of healthy love to you!
