Daikon Tops & Cannellini Stew

This past week for our Purple Dragon Co-op, we were fortunate enough to receive the most beautiful daikon radishes, complete with the greens (thank you Paula and Janit).  Although I love the daikon itself, I have to say I absolutely LOVE the greens.  Please don't throw them out! When cooked, they're very mild but have a wonderful texture, and I was able to substitute them for escarole in this impromptu dish.  I already had about 2 cups of cooked cannellini beans on hand, and when hunger strikes, this dish is done in 5 minutes.  Can't be beat. 

A note on beans: I have to say, making your own beans saves you a pretty penny and is  super easy to do. Here are some quick directions:  soak beans overnight.  In the morning, drain, rinse, and add to a pressure cooker with a small piece of kombu and with enough water to cover and then some (about 2 inches).  Bring to high pressure, lower pressure and cook for about 25 minutes.  Turn off the heat and let pressure come down on its own.  You're done!

2 garlic cloves chopped 

1 teaspoon coconut oil or 2 Tablespoons veggie broth

½ cup artichoke hearts, quartered (optional)

Greens from one daikon radish (no stem), chopped roughly 

2 cups Cannellini beans (cans are ok but home-made is better), with a little of the cooking water (about 1/2 cup)

1 tablespoon any healthy vinaigrette (optional)

Heat the oil (or broth) and garlic with a little salt over medium-low heat in a nice sized pot (or even skillet if it's big enough).  Watch it from burning and stir often.  Once the aromas start to lift, add the beans and heat through, stirring as you go. After about 3 minutes, add in the greens and artichoke hearts (if using), just until wilted.  You don't want them over-cooked and mushy, but rather vibrant green and still with a little bite (undercooked, you can say).  Ladle this gorgeous "stew" into a bowl and dress with the vinaigrette if using.  Enjoy!

Chocolate Maple Coconut Macaroons

I love 4 ingredient recipes...they're my standby. I'm a girl of convenience, really.  
Let it be easy, clean and absolutely delicious, and most of all, make it quick!

This is dedicated to all of you chocolate lovers out there who decide to satisfy their unplanned chocolate urges with something naughty and fake from the store...who does that? You do! And I used to! But if you have these four ingredients on hand (which by the way are really easy to get a hold of), you will have INSTANT satisfaction in a healthy, pure way and it will be dee-ee-licious! Trust me. Try them. Thank me later :) 

1/2 cup melted coconut oil

1/2 cup cacao or cocoa

1/3 cup maple syrup (or up to 1/2 cup to thin mixture out)

1.5 cups unsweetened shredded coconut

Over a double boiler, slowly melt the coconut oil, cocoa and maple syrup and stir until well combined.  In a bowl, combine the coconut and chocolate mixture together.  Using a small cookie scoop, scoop out bite-sized macaroons on a plate.  Refrigerate to solidify or just eat as is.  

They don't have to be perfect or round...just delicious and semi-uniform in shape. Enjoy!

Dilly Sweet Pea Soup

Simple. Delicious. Hearty. Lovely. 

Enough said; Get to work.

This recipe was inspired by one I found in a book named "Raw and Beyond" by Boutenko/Sarno/Love, although very much deviated from the original.  

1 bag defrosted organic peas

1 tablespoon dried onion flakes

1 teaspoon Herbamare (herbed salt)

1.5 cups boiling water

1 whole head of dill, stems may be omitted

Combine all ingredients in a high-speed blender and blend until smooth. Enjoy!

Spicy Vegan Split Pea Soup

I was blessed with a mother who is an amazing cook.  This is her recipe, and I post it here with her permission.  

What's great about this soup is that you can make it as thick or thin as you want, simply by adding more water.  Also, there's not a drop of oil, just hearty, thick winter veggies for those cold blistering days (but don't fret, Spring is just around the corner!)

1 cup split peas
1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped fine
1 parsnip, peeled and chopped fine
3 carrots, peeled and chopped fine
3 stalks celery, chopped fine
1 onion, peeled and chopped fine
4 cloves garlic, minced
7 cups water
Chipotle pepper, added at the end

In a pressure cooker, combine all ingredients together (except for chipotle) and cover with the lid.  Lock in place and bring the pressure up until optimal (on my pressure cooker, the little yellow tab shoots up to say it's reached pressure) and lower the heat to low.  Cook for about 30 minutes and let the pressure drop on its own.  Enjoy with a good sprinkle of chipotle pepper.  

Dilly Yellow Spring Soup

I've been in a bit of a "lazy, I don't want to cook" funk recently...actually, it's not a funk and I LOVE every minute of it! It's still me, just toned down and simplified by about a billion!

It involves throwing veggies into a vitamix with some kind of healthy fat (avocado, cashews, etc.) and some type of seasoning (dill, basil, etc.) and voila.  It honestly can't be simpler and more delicious and no excuses for those of you who think raw foods are difficult!

One side effect of eating this way is that you (1) lose weight, (2) gain loads of energy and the best (3) find time for things you love to do like hiking, playing with your children, reading a great book, cleaning out your tea drawer.  Simplification at its best, I say!

This was a soup that I made by accident...I had had some odds and ends from a recent raw food class and I just blended them up together with some dill and some savory seaweed.  It's absolutely delicious. 

But don't stop there - make your own creations! How about:

1.  Cucumber, tomato, garlic, basil

2. Tomato, avocado, pepper, cilantro?

3.  Fresh peas, onion and dill?

The possibilities are endless.  

½ yellow pepper

½ avocado

¼ cup seaweed

½ inch slice jalapeno

1.5 cups peeled yellow squash

1 small tomato

1 tablespoon fresh dill

garnish:  chopped dill and raw sunflower seeds

Blend everything together in a vitamix (no water needed, but allowed if you'd like it more thin) and decorate with more chopped dill and sunflower seeds.  Yum!

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!

Pumpkin Seed & Raisin Quinoa Salad

This has become one of my stand-by's.  It's so easy to make, delicious cold, and its the quintessential "whole food" - everything is in its real and perfect form.  I love adding this to any buddha bowl with cabbage, avocado, or just simply by itself.  You can even hide some of it in some steaming veggie broth and call it a soup. 

I also love that it fulfills many different tastes - sweet raisins, earthy pumpkin seeds, a pinch of sea salt, and a nice kick from the spices.  My Ayurveda gurus would be proud. 

1 cups quinoa

1.5 cups water

small piece of kombu

In a pot, heat the quinoa, water and kombu until boiling.  Lower the heat and cover, cooking until all the water has absorbed, about 20 minutes or so.  Let it sit on the stove until cool.

Fluff with a fork.  Add in:

Small handful organic raisins

Small handful raw or toasted pumpkin seeds

1 teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon smoked paprika (optional)

Couple shakes of chipotle powder (optional)

About ½ cup chopped cilantro (optional)

Sea salt, to taste

Mix well and enjoy.