Vegan Moroccan Carrot Salad

This is one of my favourite summer staples as you can enjoy it alone, or add it as a topping to other salads, stir it into a bowl of hot quinoa or put a hearty scoop into a wrap for a burrito. Crazy versatile, and keeps in the fridge for over a week in a resealable container (we use those glass ones with the super clippy lids).

You'll want a food processor to make this, one that has a 'shred' setting or else (and trust me on this!) you'll be very, very sick of hand-shredding carrots by the end of this.

THE SALAD

• 1 lb of carrots, scrubbed and top/tailed. No need to peel if you use a firm bristled scrubbing brush, like I do. Peels are good for you! 
• 1 cup of fresh dill, minced. 
• 6 parnoosh dates, pitted and diced. 
• 1/4 cup sundried tomatoes, diced. 
• 1/4 cup raisins (you can also use dried cranberries, diced dried apriots...you get the picture!) 
• 1/4 cup slivered almonds

Shred all the carrots in the food processor and toss with the dried fruits and the dill. You'll want a very large bowl for this part. 

THE DRESSING

• 1T or more of cumin (see, I love cumin so I'll add a ton of it. I probably use closer to 2T but that's just my taste)
• 1/2 T red chili flakes
• 1tsp or so ground black pepper
• 1/4 cup of maple syrup
• 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar

combine all the ingredients and mix really well; you'll want to maybe let the dressing sit for an hour or so to combine the flavours well before mixing into the salad. 

Hardest part of making this? Not eating the rest of the packet of dates, thereby ensuring you're not hungry for dinner when you're done making the salad. Ooops...

Lemon Dill Roasted Mushrooms.

While the name says it all, it doesn't take into account the tangy savoury chewy awesomeness in a casserole dish that this engendered. This was a super successful experiment!

What I used:

a pound of whole cremini mushrooms, srubbed and quartered.
1 lemon, scrubbed very well and sliced into rings
2 T apple cider vinegar
2 T Braggs
2 T veggie broth
3T of dill
1T minced garlic
1T pine nuts
sprinkle of rosemary
ground black pepper (to taste)

combine and marinate overnight in a tightly sealed container.

Transfer to a 8" round casserole dish with a lid, add another 1/2 cup or so of veggie broth and bake at 350 for about 25 minutes. Serve over quinoa or brown rice to take advantage of the amazing sauce!

Simple Vegan Stir Fry Recipe.

I'm asked a lot about what I do for quick, simple hot and hearty meals. My answer is: stir fry! One pan, minimal clean up and, best of all, limitless possibilities. Here's the basic outline of what I do, and you can fill in the vegetable blanks for yourself, depending on what you have in the fridge.

Enjoy!

1) rustle through the fridge and see what veggies you have. Wash/core/peel them as required. A good sample of what goes into my stir fry is:

1 medium onion.
1/2 lb cremini mushrooms
2 T minced garlic
1 red pepper
1/2 head of kale, collard greens, 3+ cups baby spinach etc.
carrots
celery
broccoli
sesame seeds
veggie broth
Braggs or soy sauce
dash apple cider vinegar
a diced chili pepper

I almost universally start with sauteed onions. Hard to go wrong. Heat a 1/4 tsp of your fave oil in a deep sided frying pan (I use coconut oil, usually) and add your diced onion, toss to coat lightly and sautee on high. HINT: adding the tiniest pinch of salt will cause the onions to release their moisture faster.

while this is happening, chop the next thing you want to cook. If I have them, the next step is always mushrooms. Slice 'em thin and toss 'em in, stir. You'll want to add the minced garlic at this time, so the mushrooms will soak up the oniony garlicky goodness as they cook.

After this, the world is your vegan oyster. The best rule to follow is to add the remaining ingredients in order of firmness- i.e., what will take longest to cook, or what you want cooked the most. Carrots and broccoli tend to be pretty firm, and take a while to break down, ditto peppers although not quite as long. Remember if you slice them thinly, they'll cook faster!  I've been known to use diced sundried tomatoes in a stir fry and they were delicious.

once all your veggies are in there, throw in what spices you want and toss thoroughly. I usually use black pepper, crushed dried red chilis, ginger, maybe a dash of cinnamon, maybe some parsley or some mustard seeds or whatnot. Sautee with a healthy dash of Braggs and some vinegar (or about 1/2 a cup of cooking wine.) and maybe a dash of lemon or lime juice, until things begin to sort of want to start sticking to the pan. This is your cue to pour about 1/2 cup of veggie broth in there and mix it really well, getting the bottom of the pan clean again and coating all the veggies.

The last thing you'll want to add is your greens. Allow less then 5 minutes for them to cook, although collards can take up to 15 to get pretty soft and spinach cooks almost instantly.

Serve with your favourite condiment (Sriracha, Mint relish, mango chutney, anything!) and you've a super fast, hot healthy and diverse meal, with maybe even leftovers for lunch tomorrow.

You get extra points if you start rice or quinoa in your rice cooker as you start cooking- and it's done as your stir fry is done.

lentil casserole with sweet potato (and winter squash) crust/topping thinger.

Most Awkward Title Ever.

This is sort of like a vegan shepherds pie, but it's not really and if you say shepherds pie, people's mouths will expect that...and then be disappointed. This is really tasty, but say it's a casserole and spare yourself the pain of false expectations.

This is the original recipe I used: Casserole!

But I changed it, somewhat. I figured out that two huge sweet potatoes makes 3 mashed cups of mash. Which absolutely won't cover the top of a 9x13 pan, just so you know in case you're expecting a thick sweet potato crust on top. I added a cup of mashed winter squash to lighten the texture of the yams up a bit, which was also delicious. I used a 8x11 pan to make it deeper and crustier.

Here's what I ended up with.

• 2 large (5-6" long, 2-3" diameter) sweet potatoes peeled and chopped
• 1 cup brown or green lentils, washed and picked over
• 1cup dry steel cut oats
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 tsp olive oil
• 1 pound cremini mushrooms, divided
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 carrot, chopped
• 2 celery stalk, chopped
• 3 T minced garlic (what? I love garlic. Sue me)
• 3/4 cup low-sodium vegetable stock
• 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
• 2 T tomato paste
• 2 T Braggs 
• 2 teaspoons smoked paprika
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 T nutritional yeast 
• black pepper, rosemary, red pepper flakes, sage and oregano to taste. 

This recipe is not for those of us who are strapped for time. Just roasting the yams and squash takes an hour, and then the assembled lentils and yam crust takes another 30 minutes in the oven. But it's well worth it! Hearty and super healthy, this bad boy serves 8 and comes in at a rich satisfying 230 calories a serving. Seconds are guilt free! Here's the whole casserole nutritional stats. if you're as much of a food nerd as I am.

some notes:
I diced the onion, celery, garlic and carrots really, really fine. By hand, because Johnny was napping and I didn't want to use the food processor and wake him up (it sounds like a jet engine!) It would be a lot faster to bung 'em all in the food processor, but there's also something pretty meditative about dicing. Music is required, though.

When I was laying out the yams and squash for roasting, I sprinkled them with rosemary, freshly ground black pepper, red pepper flakes, and some garlic salt. The first time I made this according to the original recipe, I felt that the crust was a little bland.  The filling gets extra black pepper, sage and oregano. Of course, I am a self-admitted spice whore and can be guilty of over-seasoning things (herbs are delicious! I will also eat a parsley salad, so caveat emptor). You can also use dried parsley, not fresh in the recipe and I promise, no one will come to your door and take you away.

I mixed the apple cider vinegar with the Braggs before adding it- I was out of red wine, this was my substitute. Red wine in this recipe is also delicious but this hits all the same notes in the final product.

after you have poured the filling into the pan and spread out the mash crust on top, sprinkle some nutritional yeast over the crust to give it a faint, delish cheesy flavour which smells amazing when it's baking!

The upside to making this huge pan of casserole that takes a couple of hours from start to finish is that you'll have dinners in a blink for the rest of the week; and like so many things, it tastes better the next day. You can wait until it's totally cooled and cut individual slices and freeze them in tupperware (I use those glass ones with the clip on lids).

This bad boy is best served with a deep glass of your fave red wine and a huge bowl of field greens salad (with slivered almonds, lemon tarragon dressing and roast pear slices. For instance.)

Vegan Collard Greens, Home Cookin' Style.

In case you missed the boat on this one- move over kale, collard greens are my new favourite Green Thing to have mass quantities of. I predict, dear foodie friends, that collard greens will experience a renaissance from charming Southern side dish to main course superfood within the next year.

Why?

Collard greens elicits a wealth of beautiful wide, flat leaves with a pleasing firmness and texture, like high quality thick paper or parchment. They're easy to dice up or to leave whole as a burrito or cold roll wrap. When cooked, they don't shrivel to nothing like spinach or kale does; no! Collard greens have too much personality and pluck. A dish made primarily from these green divas will pleasingly fill your bowl with texture and substance. But that's not all!

Let me tell you what is in these beautiful babies, nutritionally.
one tiny (packed) cup of cooked collard greens holds:

vitamin K1045%

vitamin A308.3%

vitamin C57.6%

folate44.1%

manganese41.5%

calcium26.6%

fiber21.2%

tryptophan15.6%

choline14.2%

iron12.2%

vitamin B612%

vitamin B211.7%

magnesium9.5%

vitamin E8.3%

protein8%

omega-3 fats7.5%

potassium6.2%

phosphorus5.7%

vitamin B35.4%

vitamin B15.3%

vitamin B5          4.1%

(Chart comes from this website: http://www.whfoods.com/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=138)

Amazing, RIGHT??? 

Per densely packed cup of collard greens, there's more calcium than in MILK. Take that, Milk Board (tm).  

To celebrate this, let me present to you my new favourite collard greens dish: 

Vegan Southern-Style Collard Greens. 

1 head of collard greens, washed very well and cut into 2 inch chunks, roughly. 

1 large onion diced

1 block of tempeh crumbled/diced 

2 stalks celery diced 

1 green pepper diced

2 cloves garlic 

1 c. veggie broth

1 T red pepper flakes

1 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1/8 tsp oil 

1 generous dash lemon juice. 

1 dash (or to taste) liquid smoke

Heat oil in a deep frypan and saute the onions until translucent. 

grind the black pepper over the onions, and add the garlic, celery and green pepper. 

Cook for 2 more minutes. 

add the tempeh and the liquid smoke and about 1/4 of the veggie broth. Cook for another couple of minutes, stirring regularly. 

Add the lemon juice and red pepper flakes, and cook for another minute. 

Add the rest of the veggie broth and deglaze the pan, moving the mixture well. 

Add the diced collard greens and stir until the greens are well coated. Cover and steam for 20 minutes or less. 

I dare you not to eat the whole pan. I did last night!! 

raw granola breakfast

Guys, I'm having the greatest breakfast right now.  Check this out:

1 diced banana
1 diced apple
1 diced 1/4 cantaloupe
1 T raw oats
1T raisins
1T raw shredded coconut
1 T raw slivered almonds

mix until all the fruit is lightly coated in oats and coconut and GO! Tastes like granola with fruit but without the metric load of oil that generally comes with this 'healthy' food.

Obviously you can add whatever fruit you want- tomorrow is going to be strawberries, blueberries, apple banana and pear.

Low Fat Vegan Carrot Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Maybe it's the fact that it's 40 km/h winds outside (and blowing snow), but it feels like fall, rather than spring out there today. I was really REALLY hoping to feel productive in the yard today and get some spring cleaning done out there... but I also feel super pouty about the weather so I'm staying in.

But rather than sulking, I'm going to work out, clean the house AND make myself some fall-inspired muffins to solace myself with.

These beauties have a cool 100 calories and 1 gram of fat each because I am awesome. If you add nuts or something (and why wouldn't you? Nuts are delish!) it's a bit more but not much. I didn't add raisins because Johnny hates cooked raisins and muffins are for sharing (or else I will definitely eat all 12 myself and suffer Food Regrets).

I got the basic recipe from The Internet (seriously I looked at about a dozen carrot muffin recipes. I wish I remember the one I took the most inspiration from. Sorry, muffin lady/man for not crediting you specifically). This is what I used:

THE MUFFIN. (preheat oven to 400)

dry stuffs
1 3/4 all purpose unbleached organic flour.
1/4 cup raw organic sugar.
1 T ground flax seed
1tsp baking powder
.5 tsp baking soda
1 T cinnamon (I love cinnamon. You might want to use less. Or more.)
1 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp sea salt, fine.

wet stuffs
3 T Light Table syrup (we're out of real maple syrup, mea culpa)
1 cup pureed canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling, just pure pumpkin).
1/4 cup fresh squeeezed orange juice
3 tsp vanilla
3 T dried shredded coconut

if you add 3 T slivered almonds, your muffins will be 115 calories each instead of 100.

combine dry ingredients well, set aside.

combine wet ingredients, whisk well to mix thoroughly. You can add some more orange juice if it's a little thick, but not too much.

fold dry ingredients into the wet ingredients with a wooden spoon and stir until just mixed, don't overwork it.

bake for 20-25 minutes, check it after 20 with a toothpick. I use silicone muffin trays but if you use regular ones then you should use muffin paper cups to avoid tears getting them out whole.