A Rouxbe Experience....A lesson in eating your homework.

 

I've taken a break this summer from posting since I've been a busy bee - mainly, eating my homework. I've recently graduated from Rouxbe's online Professional Plant-Based Certification Program, and we've been busy creating food and eating food, creating, and eating....it's been enlightening to say the least, and an amazing experience.

This has everything to do with going back to the basics. Going back to the things you think you know, to learn them in a totally new and inspired way. Chopping. Knife skills. How big is a small dice anyway, and how do you sharpen your knives, hold your guide hand, know when a pan is ready for a sautee. Chemistry, science, art, and total joy.

We've had so much fun with the plant-based recipes, and we've totally indulged this summer: hand made manicotti with tofu ricotta filling and fresh marinara, chocolate genache torte, soups, stews, bean salads, desserts, smoothies, and so much more! 

My favorite part of the course was the intended "mise en place" for each recipe, or rather, the idea of "everything in its right place" before you proceed with the recipe. So many meals have been ruined due to overcooking, leaving the stove for an ingredient, not timing things correctly, and mise en place allows you to have everything in the right place, chopped, measured, ready to go, so that you can ENJOY the process of cooking and be in the present moment. Symbolic, right? 

Here we go. 

Enjoy the gallery of plant-based nutritious cooking, where nothing is missing....except the junk. This is how we loved ourselves up this summer, with beans, grains, veggies, fruits, nuts, seeds, super foods, and all the lovely indulgences that these create, with whole foods. 

Knife skills!

Mise en place for roasted lemon cauliflower.

Spring asparagus rissotto. 

Mise en place for an arugula quinoa salad.

Coconut chickpea stew.

Penne carbonara (the vegan way)

Thai noodle soup.

Tofu chocolate mousse pie.

Braised seitan au jus with garlic greens.

Handmade manicotti, tofu ricotta, and marinara.

Handmade udon stir fry.

Mushrooms and beans.

Purslane and flower salad.

Chocolate genache pie with cherry/black pepper sorbet.

Mock tuna pate in collard rolls.

Mise en place for tempeh brocoli stir fry.

Polenta and broccoli/tempeh stir fry and heirloom tomatoes.

Cauliflower chimichurri.

Here are some photos of our last Rouxbe Assignment, which was to host an event with little canapés. So much fun enjoying good food and family and friends. 

Sweet pea and jimaca coconut samosas (raw) with lime creme.

Mini samosa burgers with onion and mango chutney.

Healing turmeric tomato soup, sweet potato crackers, borage.

Mini chocolate genache tortes with berry sorbet and coulis.

Fruit kabobs - can't have enough fruit kabobs!

Amazing best friends and family.

Spring-a-Dilly Asparagus Salad

 

Springtime is all about dill and asparagus for me. Dill and lemon juice taste so fresh together, and as soon as I see asparagus in the markets, I know that the seasons are changing and warming up. I love the combo of honey mustard & lemon combination, and the dill just take it over the top.

Also, a note on chopped salads…many of us use greens for our salads (as do I) but to kick it up a notch, sometimes I just cube and mix various veggies together and that hits the spot in another fun way. This recipe is an example of just that…an explosion of textures and flavors in your mouth. Enjoy!

Combine the following dressing ingredients together in a bowl: 

2 tablespoons honey mustard

3 tablespoons raw apple cider vinegar or 2 tablespoons lemon juice (or to taste)

pinch of salt and a few pinches crushed black pepper

Mix the dressing ingredients together and taste for seasoning.

In the same dressing bowl, layer in:

½ cup halved cherry tomatoes

¾ cup cubed cucumbers

½ cup cubed red pepper

¾ cup chopped asparagus spears

1 tablespoon dill

Mix everything together and adjust the seasoning to your liking. This serves 2 as a side salad or one large salad for a very hungry person...Enjoy!

Beet & Avocado Detox Salad

I love beets, primarily for the reason that they're so GOOD for you and super sweet when you take them right out of the garden. We've been lucky this year - all of our beets that we planted have blossomed into some amazing deliciousness. You can certainly eat them raw, but one night I decided simply to boil them and slice them up for this easy salad.  

Most importantly, beets are great for the liver. They are a blood purifier and regenerator, and do a great job supporting the liver in all of its processes. It basically takes care of your whole body, so when you eat beets and other liver-supporting foods, you know that you're taking care of it right back. Win-win. 

2 cups beets, boiled, and sliced thin

1/2 vidalia onion, sliced thin

1 tablespoon raw apple cider vinegar

1 tablespoon flax seed oil

salt and pepper to taste

1 avocado, cubed

The amounts here are really estimated - use what you have on hand. If you only have 1 cup of beets, that's also fine. But I love the creamy avocado with the spicy onion, sour vinegar, smooth flax seed oil, and sweetness of the beets. In a pinch, you have so many different tastes in one dish! 

Combine everything except the avocado and give it a good stir. Place the avocado on top, give it one quick stir, and enjoy!

Heirloom Tomato & Corn Salsa Fresca

I'm loving this time of year....the garden is in full bloom with crazy looking heirloom tomatoes, corn, scallions, kale, collards, peppers, jallapenos, and so many greens! 

One of the things I'm passionate about is non-gmos, and I'm happy to say that we've successfully grown organic non-gmo corn! Of course, they're a little smaller than your average ear of corn, but they are delicious raw, juicy, and absolutely sweet.  They pair very well with this salsa fresca, and uses the bounty of the garden for a delicious meal! 

Eat this up with a big spoon as is (almost like a gazpacho) or sop it up with some toasted crunchy sprouted organic corn chips, like you see here.  Either way, it's sure to be a late summer staple in your home!

corn, taken from 2 ears of corn with a sharp knife, raw

1 heirloom Red tomato diced small

1 heirloom Yellow tomato diced small

1 small chocolate pepper, diced small

2 cloves garlic, minced

1/3 cup Vidalia onion, minced

1/2 cup Cilantro, minced

1/2 Lime juiced

Cumin, red pepper, salt to taste

Optional:  1/2 mango, diced small

Combine all ingredients together well and enjoy!

Spring Wild Edibles Salad

A little sneak peak into what we like to eat these days.  All color, all beauty, good nutrition, and just plain silly fun in the garden.

We planted some magenta lambsquarters last year in the garden, and now they're everywhere (I'm actually really happy about this).  They're beautiful, full of omega 3's and make great additions to salads or smoothies. (Just please do some research first before you pull some of these out...if they are hairy, then they are the poisonous look-alike).  

Next we've got the borage flowers, again all about the omega 3's....they are colorful, vibrant, and a great addition to any salad. Great frozen in ice cubes also, for a refreshing drink. They seeded themselves this year, since our winter was so mild, but for the most part they are an annual. Save those seeds!  

My friend Wendy Weiner of the FrontYard Farmer gave me these beautiful edible chrysanthemums....I'm in love with them. Even the leaves are edible!  Thank you Wendy!

And last but not least, the wood sorrel that is in everybody's backyard, but people don't know it...tastes like a lemon on steroids, very very tart, but I so delicious! Instead of lemon in a salad, it adds a little bit of zing.  Just make sure you see the little yellow flowers, and you're good to go.  

All of these wild edibles over our spring arugula, a little toss with apple cider vinegar, flax seed oil and sea salt and it was the best salad of the season.  Enjoy!

Protein-Rich Sprout Buddha Bowl

Buddha bowls to me are the perfect comfort food.  In essence, you take the things you love, put them together and admire them. And then you eat them.  How perfect is that?  You take a spoon and put some beauty in your belly.

I love that they can be dessert driven, or savory, grain based, bean based, or even just simply salad based - a little of everything.  

Here, this is a protein rich buddha bowl, and it's my usual lunch staple although the exact ingredients always change.  Whatever I have on hand, and whatever I feel like, I go with it.

I hope you enjoy it as much as I do :)

1/2 cup Spicy chickpeas (recipe here)

1/2 cup Pumpkin Seed & Raisin Quinoa Salad (recipe here)

Generous Handful of Sunflower sprouts

1/2 cup Shredded red cabbage, massaged with flax seed oil, raw apple cider vinegar and sea salt

1/3 avocado, cubed

Mix the cabbage with avocado until combined, but not mushy.  Then just layer the chickpeas, quinoa and sprouts. Enjoy!

Chopped Mango Salad

This is one of my top favorite salads, and I tend to make a lot of it so it lasts me throughout the week - in 20 minutes you've basically made your lunch for the next 5 days (if it lasts that long). This is also a great transitional salad towards raw. The only "cooked" item is the beans, and everything else is raw, so you can pat yourself on the back as you realize you've done something amazingly healthy for yourself. 

You can tweak it as you wish, but try to keep to the staples - beans, mango, and veggies. The rest is up to you.  Also, for me the cilantro makes it "pop" but for you, that might mean parsley, or another fun herb like basil.  Also, I realize this list is long and it's not practical for some people.  If you only have green peppers, then just use that. If you don't like onions, omit them, etc.  

You want a good balance of sweet (mango) to spice (jalapeno) and also in terms of texture - soft (beans) to crunchy (veggies).  No matter what, experiment, have fun and enjoy the process.

2.5 or 3 cups black beans (or 2 cans of Eden black beans, drained)
  (you can also mix one black bean with one kidney bean)
1/2 sweet onion, diced
1/2 red pepper, diced
1/2 yellow pepper, diced
1/2 green pepper, diced
1 mango, peeled, and diced
jalapeno, diced, to taste
1 medium tomato (or a handful of cherry tomatoes), diced
2 inches cucumber, diced
one large handful cilantro, minced
drizzle of flax seed oil
about 1/4 cup raw apple cider vinegar (or more, to taste)
1 teaspoon cumin
1 teaspoon chipotle powder
salt and fresh black pepper, to taste

Mix everything together and enjoy with a hearty flax seed cracker or with a sprouted tortilla.  I also like it as is with a side of sliced avocado.

My BFF salad...

I cannot tell a lie, I eat this almost every day, in some variation, and I'm completely hooked.  It's almost like I did without cucumbers for months and now I'm on a ravenous rampage, although I didn't know it.  They're cooling, light, sweet, crunchy, and you can top them with anything that's in season like these gorgeous garlic onion flowers (whole things are edible and although they taste spicy, there is no onion breath after, which is incredibly awesome in every way :) Also, I'm always into those types of recipes where you get to detox, and didn't even know it.  Cukes are very cleansing, water rich, light on your system, and oh so fresh for spring!


The dressing couldn't be easier, and if you're like me (when you get hungry, you get hungry!), this is a snap to make.


Here we go...

One cucumber, peeled, and sliced on a diagonal really thin

5 or so raw olives (I get mine from Sunfood)

About 10 small cherry tomatoes, sliced thin

1 tablespoon flax seeds oil (make sure it's fresh)

1-2 tablespoons raw apple cider vinegar

pinch salt

1/2 avocado, sliced

garnish:  

a few pinches black sesame seeds

a few pinches bee pollen

a few garlic onion flowers with stems

Place the first 7 ingredients together and mix well in a large bowl.  Decorate with the sesame, bee pollen and onion flowers as garnishes, and enjoy.  You can always divide this in two and serve it over a bed of greens.  Delish.  Every day.  Sometimes twice.  I'm not ashamed...

Seaweed Salad Rice Wraps with KimChi...

Say that title 5 times in a row...I dare you.  I can't...but can say that I simply devoured these.  Honestly, I don't know what it is with me but I get these cravings like a pregnant lady once in a while, and they come over me like a fury...and it's always salt.  Nothing really satisfies it except for seaweed...I've tried olives, a salty dish, or anything savory I can think of....in the end, my body needs iodine or the thyroid-supporting agents in glorious seaweed. And after a few tastes of this salad, I'm just in heaven.


You can eat the salad as is, but I love them in these handy dandy little pockets of love that I can dip in the kimchi sauce, or even a home-made peanut sauce.   I'm very very conservative about the sauce ingredients amounts (yes, 3/4 tablespoon!) because I want the tastes without a runny dressing....nothing in my book is more off putting than runny sauces oozing everywhere they're not supposed to....our of sandwiches or rolls.  If they're thick, like a peanut sauce, that's a different story...but if it's runny, it's just plain yucky...So here goes.

Seaweed Salad and dressing:

1 cup dried wakame seaweed

spring water

1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil

1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

3/4 tablespoon tamari

1/2 inch piece of ginger, grated

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

1 baby carrot, grated

1 tablespoons scallions, sliced(optional)

1/2 garlic clove, grated (optional)

For the rolls:

Any rice paper roll you can find (large or small)

2 tablespoons raw kimchi (or kimchee, since some spell it differently)

Before you start, soak the wakame in spring water (enough to cover and then some...) in a large bowl for 10 minutes.  It will reconstitute nicely and get plump and shiny.  Drain it and squeeze as much water as you can from the wakame, and place it back in the bowl.  Add all the dressing ingredients to the salad and mix.  Set aside.

Fill another bowl with spring water and submerge 1 rice paper sheet in the water...you can use your hands to move it around, or just leave it alone.  After about a minute or two, it should soften up.  You can either place this sheet flat on a sushi mat, or just on a cutting board.  On the bottom third of the sheet that's closest to your belly, add 1-2 tablespoons of the seaweed salad.  Use your fingers or the sushi mat to bring the paper edge and filling over itself to create and enclosure.  Bend the sides towards the middle, and then roll the rest of the sheet into a cylinder, making sure everything is tight and the contents are tucked in.  I promise, photos are coming soon...I know this procedure is a bit tricky to explain!  


Place the roll on a plate, with the seam on the underside.  Enjoy with kimchi.  This is GLORIOUS.