My Favourite Flower Salad

I first made this salad from a recipe developed by Angela Liddon of  Oh She Glows fame. Props to our famous Canadian vegan cook! It was her version of a salad that she had purchased at Whole Foods. I made Angela's recipe the first time but then made some minor adaptations of my own. My version uses more sunflower seeds & fewer currants because I found the salad too sweet & I like to have an extra boost of protein. I also halved it & renamed it. It's an adaptable recipe, so try it out & add your own twist.

1 head broccoli
1/2 head cauliflower
1&1/4 cups shredded carrots
 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
1/4 cup currants
1/4 cups raisins
1/4 cup parsley
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
black pepper

I use my 7 cup Cuisinart food processor for this recipe.
Using the grater attachment, shred a large carrot & place in a large bowl.
Remove the flowers from a head of broccoli & place in the food processor, fitted with chopping blade. Chop until fine & place in the bowl with the carrots.
Remove the flowers from 1/4 head of cauliflower. Process until fine. Place them in the bowl with the other veggies. Repeat for the remaining 1/4 head.
Remove the leaves from a small bunch of parsley. Process until fine. Add to bowl.
Add the sunflower seeds, currants, raisins, lemon juice, salt & pepper.
Stir until everything is well mixed. Salad will keep, in the fridge for several days.
I love having this salad on hand. It goes with everything & is delicious on it's own for a quick snack.

vegan corn muffins for 2

Vegan Corn Muffins for two

I found this  wonderful, quickie recipe online at The Minimalist Baker. They are light and fluffy. I used a mini muffin pan so rather than 2 larger muffins I made 12 tiny ones (more muffin top, yum!)

Heat stove to 350.

Ingredients
*1 small flax egg (1/2 TB flax meal and 1 1/2 TB water)

*1/4 cup plus 3 TB plain unsweetened almond milk +1 tsp apple cider vinegar

*1/4 tsp baking soda
*2 TB vegan butter melted
*1/4 sucanat or whatever dry sugar you have
* 1TB unsweetened applesauce

Dry-
*1/4 cup plus 3 TB fine yellow cornmeal
*1/4 cup plus 3TB whole wheat flour
*pinch salt

Directions:
Mix flax egg and set aside
Mix almond milk and vinegar and let sit for a couple minutes. Then add baking soda.
Melt butter (I melted in the microwave) and then whisk in sugar. Add applesauce. Whisk again.
Add butter mixture to almond milk. Whisk. Then add flax egg. Whisk to blend.

In separate bowl spoon together dry ingredients.
Fold the wet ingredients into the dry. Slowly. Just mix well enough to moisten.

Lightly grease your choice of muffin pan. And then pour in your cornmeal mixture.
Bake large muffins for 25-28 minutes. My mini muffins took 15 minutes.

Fresh Tomato Sauce

The temperature is starting to dip at night so I harvested all my tomatoes & basil yesterday. This is one of my favourite ways to use them. I also harvested my last two eggplants & made Loriann's roasted eggplant, pepper & garlic sauce. If you haven't made  it yet, it's delicious!

Ingredients

5 large ripe tomatoes, seeded & finely diced
1/2 cup basil leaves, finely chopped
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
salt & ground black pepper to taste
1-2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar (optional)

Method

Place all ingredients, except vinegar, in a bowl & toss gently. Let it sit for at least 30 minutes to allow the flavours to blend. Serve it on pasta or spiralized veggies. My personal favourites are zucchini or beets. Drizzle with balsamic vinegar if desired.

Healing the Vegan Way- Mark Reinfeld

Last week I was fortunate to attend a lecture/ cooking class at the Great Sage vegan restaurant. Mark Reinfeld, accompanied by Kelly Parker and Madeline Davis (from Veg Works), presented how to make delicious meals based on recipe templates.
It was perfect. Since neither Leah not I ever stick to a recipe, it was a presentation that was tailored for the "creative chef" or the "chef with missing ingredients."

His first recipe was Raw Carrot Brazil Nut Soup.
6 cups soup
4 cups fresh carrot juice
1/2 cup Brazil nuts
1/2 cup peeled and pitted avocado
1 TB fresh lemon juice
1 TB fresh peeled minced ginger
2 tsp peeled and minced fresh tumeric
2 tsp seeded and diced jalapeno
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/8 pepper
pinch of chipotle powder
1 cup fresh or frozen (thawed) corn
1/2 seeded diced red bell pepper
2 tsp fresh dill

 1.Place the 2 cups of carrot juice in high speed blender. Add all of the remaining ingredients except corn and dill and pepper.
2. Add the remaining 2 cups of carrot juice and blend well. Transfer to a bowl. Add corn, pepper and dill. Mix well before serving. Serve chilled.
It was amazing. mark topped it with a tiny bit of  cashew cream.


Possible Substitutions:

1. the kind of juice
2. the avocado could be switched with sweet potato
3. alter the spice mix and or the nuts.
Just those few changes you have at least 15 plus different recipes!

Mark, Kelly and Madeline

I highly suggest that this is an excellent book to add to your library. More in another post!

Bonus: Here is a link  about Mark's cooking from the Washington Post. Check it out!
Easiest way to approximate ground beef in a taco- vegan 

Persian Cucumber & Tomato Salad

I really meant to post this salad earlier in the summer. Tomatoes & parsley are still plentiful in my garden, here in Nova Scotia, & I've harvested my garlic so here goes! It's a really tasty salad, reminiscent of tabbouleh. You could add chickpeas to make it a meal & even stuff it in pita bread  to make a sandwich.

Serves 4

Ingredients
4 medium tomatoes, cored, seeded & chopped
1 English cucumber, chopped
1 large red onion, halved & thinly sliced
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves, finely chopped
1/2 cup fresh, flat leaved parsley, finely chopped
 2 large cloves of garlic finely chopped
2-3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1&1/2 tablespoon fresh lime juice
salt & freshly ground pepper to taste

Method
In a large bowl, place all the ingredients, tossing well to combine. Let stand for 15 minutes at room temperature to allow the flavours to blend. Toss again & serve.

quick delicious ice cream

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I ALWAYS want ice cream. Don't you? But even the wonderful vegan ice creams are full of sugar and extra stuff we don't want to eat. So here is one amazing little quickie ice cream- that actually tastes like ice cream!

1 frozen banana (I always keep these in the freezer)
1 seriously heaping TB of crunchy peanut butter

Whip in the Vitamix on frozen dessert or Cuisinart food processor on high.  Sometimes I find that I need to add some soy or almond milk. 

Stir in frozen vegan chocolate chips.
YUM!!!

yummy tahini dressing for your cruciferous salad

Do you have the same problem I have? That is finding recipes to get your loved ones to enjoy eating raw cruciferous veggies.
Well, yesterday I stopped by Costco. When in the produce aisle, full of humungo bags, I saw one that peaked my interest- Sweet Kale Chopped Salad. The bag is a shredded combination of broccoli stalks, kale, brussel sprouts, green cabbage, and radicchio. In addition I later found that there is an enclosed  bag with cranberries and sunflower seeds(a keeper), as well as their poppyseed dressing  that has egg, which I immediately discarded.

I thought....hmmm, that's an easy way to whip up a salad full of goodness. I bought it.

I am always looking for a way to get my hubby to eat more raw cruciferous veggies but I need to mask them slightly.....thus I need to make my own (healthy) dressing. Here's what I came up with:

1 large lemon- juiced
3TB or more tahini
1/2 tsp garlic powder
agave or sweetener of your choice to taste.
Whisk it all together, add water till desired consistency.

If you don't have the magic bag of veggies just shred a big bowl full of:
broccoli stalks
kale 
Brussels sprouts
green cabbage
radicchio
or any beautiful greens in your fridge.

I added the  sunflower seeds and cranberries for crunch.

He ate it, loved it and asked for more. :-)