Creamed Raspberry Pie

Raw food deserts are such a delicious alternative to regular deserts, and in my opinion, the better alternative.  After eating a slice of this pie, you feel energized, satisfied, and not like you need to run 10mi to work off some indulgence.  This recipe is great because there's no overnight soaking, no special equipment, all you need is some nuts and fruit and 20minutes.  The pictures I have up may be a little different then what you come up with; I only have 2 bananas in the house so the filling wasn't as thick at it's intended as described in The Complete Book of Raw Food.  Either way I think it turned out splendid and strawberries could be sliced as well as bananas and placed in the middle for a really thick pie.  Like most raw food deserts, this holds up great in the fridge for a few days and is the perfect snack because it fills you up and gives you a bit of energy.

Creamed Raspberry Pie

Crust
2 cups pecans (or 1 cup pecans 1 cup almonds)
1/2 cup dates
dash of cinnamon (optional)


Filling
2-3 ripe bananas


Topping
3/4 cup raspberries (or whatever berries)
1 cup macadamia nuts or cashews, or 4 to 6 soaked dates
Honey or agave nectar to taste (for a tart berry flavor, nix sweetener)


To make the crust, combine the pecans and dates in a blender (or food processor).  Combine well and press into pie dish, sprinkle with cinnamon if desired.  


Divide into 2 equal portions and shape the first layer of the pie to fit serving dish.  Add sliced bananas.  Shape second layer of pie and place it on top.


To make topping, blend berries, nuts, dates, and just enough water to move blender blade, about 3/4 to 1 cup.    Pour the mixture over the pie and decorate with fruit and berries and eat away!

Cabbage Chronicles

I've been having the biggest cravings for Cabbage over the past week; this may or may not be due to the fact that I'm Polish and grew up on Kielbasa and haluski.  So yesterday for lunch I whipped this dish up because A) It was a lazy Sunday and B) It's delicious.  I made up this recipe when I lived in Arizona as a poor student (not that anything has changed) studying sustainable food systems and got free, local cabbage.

Note:  this dish is not difficult or exotic by ANY MEANS.  It's super easy, crunchy, deliciously sour, and pretty much fool-proof.  Hopefully soon I'll get up the motivation to actually make vegan Golabki and continue my cabbage chronicles.  

 

Cabbage with Dijon and Black Pepper

1/4 of a medium green cabbage head (or more if you want), cut into long strips

1 small-med yellow onion

2 cloves garlic, minced.

1 tbs olive oil

1 tbs dijon mustard

1 tsp hot sauce (Tabasco, what have you)

1/2 tsp paprika

1/4 cup white wine (optional)

sea salt, pepper to taste

side-note:  this dish would work WONDERFULLY with sliced Tofurky Kielbasa sausage.

Heat oil in large frying pan over medium heat.  Add onion, fry for about 3 minutes.  Add garlic, salt, pepper, paprika, Dijon and hot sauce.  Fry for about 5 minutes more.  Add cabbage, stir in with spices, then add white wine (if using), cover and let cabbage wilt (about 5-7mins). 

At this point you can finish it whenever, this recipe is by no means tricky.  I like to let the cabbage wilt with the lid on, then take it off and let some of the white wine evaporate.  The  hot sauce soaks into the cabbage and isn't spicy.  

Obviously there's a lot of room for variation.  It's comfort food, plain and simple, and worked out great for a Sunday lunch.  I love the crunchy, sour flavor of the cabbage, and the dijon just works great with it. Obviously there are fancier things you can do with cabbage, but Polish recipes aren't known for being extremely complex and sometimes the most simple things are the best.  I hope it's enjoyed!

-Beth

Cod & Kale

One thing I've noticed about the greater Vancouver area is the lack of large, fresh markets.  I was definitely spoiled in Australia; I lived right by the Preston Market that housed fruit and veg shops, bulk nut and coffee shops, and most importantly, a varied selection of fresh fish mongers.  I've been on the lookout here in Burnaby/Vancouver and have been pretty surprised at the lack of affordable, fresh BC fish.  Granville Island seemed like a good place, but the market was wanky, overpriced, and geared towards tourists (not to mention like 2 fish stalls).  So that was kind of a disappointment.  The skytrain passes a place in New Westminster called "The River Market", which looked huge and awesome enough.  When Owen and I went there one fateful weekend, we found out that it actually closed 2 years ago and has since been replaced by a Circus training school (wtf?), and all that is left is some expensive health food store (at least they had Tofurky).  On Sunday we went to the Port Moody winter farmers' market, which was nice enough but obviously lacking in fresh produce (we did buy some of the most delicious sprouted wheat bread I've ever had though!).  
However, we did finally find a small little fish shop in southern Burnaby called FISH (fresh ideas start here), which didn't have a huge selection but what they did have was fresh and locally caught.  We settled on some delicious, white, thick looking Cod and the ensuing recipe (accompanied by a vegan pilaf) is the happy ending to my story!
 (and if anyone knows of a good place to get fresh fish in Vancouver, I'll PAY YOU to let me know)

 

Baked Cod

4 cod fillets (approx. 1lb, maybe less)


1/4 cup olive oil
1 tbs soy sauce
1 tbs lemon juice
2 tsp lime juice
1/4 tsp sea salt (and extra to rub onto fish)
1/4 tsp black pepper (and extra to rub onto fish)
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper (or to taste)
1/2 onion, thinly sliced

Mix wet ingredients together.  Place fish fillets into greased baking dish (or with parchment paper), skin side down.  Rub salt & pepper onto fillets.

Place sliced onions on fillets and pour mixture over, it's okay if there's extra.
Bake @ 350 degrees F for 25 - 30 minutes.  


Easy peasy.  

Bulgur and Red Lentil Pilaf with Kale & Olives

This recipe by itself is Vegan and totally savory and delicious.  It's super easy to make and is super good as leftovers.  Best thing about it is that it doesn't contain any extremely special or exotic ingredients, and usually find that I have everything needed to make it lying around the house (well, except Kale, but it's a good enough excuse to go get it).  This recipe is from "The Complete Vegan Cookbook" by Susann Geiskopf-Hadler and Mindy Toomay.


2 tbs olive oil
1 med yellow onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp whole cumin seeds
1 tsp yellow mustard seeds
1 tsp ground coriander
1 cup uncooked bulgur wheat
3 cups chopped fresh kale (about 1 bunch)
2 cups veggie stock
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup pitted & chopped green or black olives 


Rinse lentils, drain thoroughly.

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over med heat.  Add onion and saute until lightly browned, about 5 mins.  Add garlic, cumin & mustard seeds, and coriander, and saute for another minute.  Add the bulgur and drained lentils and stir and saute for another 3 minutes.  Add the kale, stock, & salt and bring to a simmer.
     
Cover tightly, reduce heat to very low, and cook for another 25 mins.  Without disturbing lid, turn off the heat and allow to stand for 15 minutes (essential to get the bulgur light & fluffy).
Transfer to serving dish, gently toss with 2 forks, scatter olives on top.  Serve hot & eat the hell out of it.


=D






 

Salad amazingness

Salad: easy, simple, stereotypical vegetarian/vegan dish. I was told once that the perfect salad should never contain more than 4 ingredients, which is contestable, but I have tried to stick to this rule as much as possible and it hasn't failed me yet.  At salad bars and whatnot, we always want to put a million items on our salads, which in thinking about it, might hide a lot of the flavors that salads are supposed to highlight.  This recipe breaks the aforementioned 4 ingredient rule, but it's still delicious and goes really well with a nicely baked whitefish fillet and some white wine.  Owen usually makes this when he's in charge of making the salad for dinner, and I can't complain.  The sweet flavor of the beetroot goes really well with the red onion and olives, this salad is a great with a meal or for lunch.

Owen's World Famous Salad!

Ingredients

Green leaf lettuce

1 beetroot, grated

2 ribs celery, sliced

1/2 cup alfalfa sprouts

1/2 red onion

2 tsp green olives (pitted, sliced)

For the dressing, use a mild tasting oil (grapeseed, olive, avocado) with some freshly cracked pepper and sea salt, and eat away!

=)

 

Detox Adventures

Last Friday marked the ending of a week-long detox that Owen and i decided to do as sort of a new year revitilization.  It was a fairly simple regime as far as detoxing goes; no bread/wheat, white rice, dairy, processed foods, refined sugars or salts, caffeine, alcohol, so on and so forth.  Difficult at first as I'm a coffee addict, though still quite fun to look to new recipes for satisfying meals.  It also gave me an excuse for raw food cheesecake, which is delicious minus all the cream cheese, dairy, sugar, all the stuff that makes your stomach go blaahhh.

Just like Cheesecake

Equipment needed:  Food Processor, 8-9in springform (or regular) pan

Crust

2 cups raw Macadamia nuts (or Almonds)
1/2 cup pitted dates

1/4 cup dried coconut (optional)

2 tbs raw carob powder (optional) 

Cheese

3 cups chopped cashews, soaked for at least 1 hr

3/4 cup fresh lemon juice

3/4 cup honey

3/4 cup coconut oil (virgin, cold pressed)

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp sea salt (optional)

Raspberry Sauce

1 bag frozen raspberries

1/2 cup dates

honey/agave nectar to taste, depending on how sweet you want it

Process macadamia nuts in a food processor.  Sprinkle coconut onto bottom of pan.

To make the cheese, blend cashews, lemon, honey, gently warmed coconut oil, vanilla, sea salt (if using), and 1/2 cup water.  Blend until smooth and adjust to taste. 

Pour mixture onto crust.  Place in the freezer until firm, defrost in refrigerator.  

To make raspberry sauce, process raspberries and dates (and honey if using) in a food processor until well blended.

Voila!  The wonderful thing about this cheesecake is that it only gets better over time.  Anyone is guaranteed to love this recipe, it is so light and sweet and hard to resist.