Category Archives: dressings

cooked, dressings, main dishes

Cashew Dipped Pleurotus with Veggies

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Best recipes never come alone. They come with friends, with ‘no-plans’ evenings and intuition boosts. This one started from Li’s proposal to make some vegan tripe soup, a supposedly superdelicious substitute dish for the original one. Not that I’d have any idea about the resembling taste… okay let’s do it!

That being said, we haven’t cared much about the recipe and basically wove around what was in the fridge. Back home, after one or two more experiments likewise, I ended up with this beautiful yellowish sauté, where leek slices, celery shreds and squash pieces are mildly spiced and dipped together with pleurotus in a rich cashew cream. Here’s how it goes:

Turn the veggies in the size you wish them to be, having in mind the texture you want to create. Being essentially a stir-fry, it won’t stay more than 15-20min over the fire, so move quickly.

Prepare the cashew cream by mixing soaked cashew nuts with water, lemon and salt in a high power blender.

Prepare the seasoning: crush a few cloves of garlic, cut in very fine pieces some ginger and ground some pepper. Now fry them in little oil and be sure they won’t stay as long as to be making a crust. Scramble in your favorite kind of tofu cut in small pieces (I used smoked tofu) and sprinkle pepper and turmeric and/or chilly flakes, if you wish.

Immediately after add the mushrooms and cover until they turn watery. Remove the lid and cook 5 minutes more, then add celery, leek and only at the end, squash. Stir gently from time to time to keep texture firm. Pour the cashew cream and serve with kale or spinach leaves and optional, slices of raw red onions. Squeeze more lemon to your taste. Enjoy!

 

 

 

cooked, dressings, raw, spreads/creams/patés

The Magic Yellow Powder

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When I use turmeric, I feel that my dishes are not only vibrantly golden, but also nutritiously stronger. No wonder it has more health uses than any other medicinal herb! Over time, I learned to keep it handy and add it to almost any food being cooked over the fire or to sometimes use it for creating the loveliest salad dressings.

Most often, I let myself drawn by imagining how other vivid colors would look like next to the shining yellow and this is exactly how new taste combinations and dishes turn into reality.

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One of the dressings I love the most is inspired by this one, and I particularly like the texture given by the carrots inside, not to mention how well it balances the bitterness of the turmeric. What I use is:

  • carrots
  • turmeric
  • olive oil
  • tahina / cashews
  • soya sauce
  • honey
  • (mustard)
  • lemon
  • balsamic vinegar
  • garlic
  • (ginger)
  • salt

See that mustard is in itself pretty sour, so if you choose it, you won’t need to add vinegar or too much lemon. Similarly when using soya sauce be mindful regarding how much salt you add.

I like the combination between this sauce and the sweetness of chickpeas or the glutinosity of rice.

So here you have it next to a beautiful dark rice soaked in coconut milk and accompanied by autumn veggies – carrot, pumpkin, leek and sweet potatoes, them too sauteed with the magic yellow powder.

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And here’s a similar version with a cashew & tomato juice base

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cooked, dressings, main dishes

Steamed Roots in Mustard Sauce

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The recipe I’m going to share with you makes it perfect for a local based meal during the cold season. Relying solely on our veggies – those belonging to the temperate climate – shouldn’t make of you a kind of an abstemious person, neither put you in a dilemma each time you want to cook. All you need is to do is put that imagination to work!

So for this particular dish, beside collecting your fav roots, you should decide upon one delicious dressing. Here is what I’m using pretty often, with mustard as a main ingredient, in two versions:

  • steamed parsnip, mustard, cold pressed sunflower oil,  lemon, garlic & ginger
  • canned peas, mustard, cold pressed sunflower oil, lemon, garlic & ginger

I also added broccoli, but I guess you can use any of his other relatives, such as cabbage or kohlrabi.

So top those steamed veggies with mustard sauce and get some new tastes going! 🙂

dressings, raw, salads

The Solar Salad

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This salad came up after googling for a new dressing and feeling inspired by the apricot, ginger orange one. It turned out so deliciously orange that my hands unconsciously started weaving around the colors of the Sun: more orange, more red and yellow.

This is how I started peeling carrots and squash, adding some beautiful local tomatoes, cauliflower rice, red peppers and sweet corn. I balanced everything with fresh lettuce leaves and sprinkled sesame and hemp seeds.
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If you want to save the looks of this salad, keep some carrot slices away from the dressing and add it right before serving (something that I haven’t done here 🙂 Same for the lettuce! Everything gets super juicy with the apricots

list of ingredients

  • carrot & squash tagliatelle
  • cauliflower rice
  • tomatoes
  • red peppers
  • sweet corn
  • olive oil
  • orange juice
  • apricots
  • fresh ginger
  • seeds (hemp, sesame, sunflower, etc)
dressings, raw, salads

Vegan Raita

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Is hard to hold back the temptation of posting one more Indian inspired recipe 🙂 Hope you’ll like it as much as I do! This time we have a salad, the traditional Raita which is basically a curd dish with cucumbers and tomatoes and sometimes a bit of sugar. Not this case :p

Initially I thought about making a simple tahini dressing that would soak the veggies, but then other little add-ons came in mind. And the most important one is the sweet smoked paprika flavor. So eventually I got to a recipe that looks like this:

  • small chopped tomatoes & cucumbers
  • tagliatelle style squash (or zucchini)
  • tahini based dressing with smoked paprika, ground cumin & 3 colors’ pepper
  • lemon juice & salt

optional:

  • dried yeast flakes in the dressing
  • sunflower & hemp seeds

Depending on the amount of water you use for the dressing and the juiciness of the tomatoes, you can have it soupy-ish or thicker, perhaps more suitable for a saturday night salad snack.

dressings, raw, salads

Mint Kohlrabi

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Not many veggies can give you such a crunchy watery experience as kohlrabi does.  Because I really find it special, I’ve decided to build up to the fame of this rather unknown member of the cabbage family.

There are two ingredients that I love adding next to the kohlrabi and that is fresh mint and ground pepper. As simple as that! From now on you can start playing with colors and textures, choosing either an olive oil based dressing or a rich tahini cream to soak the entire thing. In the salad here I mixed carrots and purple cabbage while the white kohlrabi got turned into spaghetti for a more gourmet look.

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Tomatoes are also something you can consider, but careful not making it too watery. Last touch was mixing all ingredients together with a superfluid tahini dressing in which I have already incorporated the ground pepper.

Lovely salad for the summer!

list of ingredients

  • kohlrabi (white or purple)
  • carrot / tomatoes
  • cabbage (purple or white)
  • mint
  • ground pepper
  • tahini / olive oil
  • lemon juice
  • salt

 

dressings, raw, salads

Pasta Delight

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Zucchini is something you either love or hate. Some people may feel extremely queasy while others simply relish its rather flabby texture. When I say this, I refer to squash or zucchini tagliatelle because this is how you can make it resemble the traditional pasta. All you need is a peeler to peel off fine layers of squash until you get to the seeds.

The result should look like this

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Now think of a nice sauce to accompany the so-called pasta.

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You can play around with tahina, mustard and olive oil or simply try out one of the vegan mayonnaises. Another equally healthy alternative is a ketchup made out of tomatoes, olive oil, dates and salt.

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Season it as you wish – garlic, basil, thyme, pepper, etc – and add some protein if needed – crushed walnuts, almonds or sunflower seeds, previously soaked and strained.

Gather a few more vegetables that keep a firm texture (pepper, red cabbage, carrots, peas, spring onions or garlic) and there you have your pasta delight!

Adding the greens (dill, rucola, parsley, etc)  or some sliced tomatoes at the very end will save them from getting completely mushed into the sauce.

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All you have left to do now is slurp, slurp!

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I prepared this dish so many times and each time it turns out a little bit different. Hope the pictures serve you well, but above all trust your imagination!

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dressings, raw, salads

Marinated Mushrooms

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Either way you take it, mushrooms are great. Some of them taste light enough to have them raw – like champignons – while others require cooking as they’re a bit heavy. Have you ever thought of saving their  natural enzymes while having the best taste? *

There’s one easy procedure to do that – it’s called marinating and it refers to the changes of taste and texture undergone by food during long hours spent in a seasoned acidic liquid. I usually use olive oil, lemon juice and soya sauce and then add dry thyme, garlic or even dates – for a sweet twist. You can think of spices such as ground turmeric, nutmeg or cumin, but just be sure you don’t get all exotic; unless you really master tastes & flavors! My new favorite seasoning for the mushroom marinade is sweet smoked paprika – it just builds up so much taste! (most probably reminiscent of bacon aroma :))

Once you start adding the composition to the mushrooms (if there’s not enough liquid, just add water) you’ll see how they turn tender and shrink.  Leave the marinade overnight in cool place or in the fridge and then add it to your favorite salad.

list of ingredients

  • olive oil
  • lemon juice
  • soya sauce
  • optional: dry thyme, crushed garlic, turmeric, nutmeg, cumin, dates

Here are a few ideas for some truly gourmet raw mushroom dishes:

Like any other respectable protein, the mushrooms get along very well with carrots 🙂 Feel free to experiment any dish with these two, along with your favorite greens. Lots of greens.

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And this is how the pretty forest mushrooms in the above picture turned out: a dish with shredded cauliflower & carrot, red peppers, turmeric and salvia leaves.

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A sample of the smoked paprika marinade, mixed with whole grain brown rice and served with green onions.

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And another sample of a different marinade, made out of soya sauce, dates (crushed or paste) and only a bit of lemon. This is how red onions look like after spending some time in this thick liquid.

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* special warning

if your mushrooms are picked up from the forest, be sure to check if they require to be cooked over heat. some of them might be poisonous when raw!

dressings, raw

Summer Salad

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IMG_8497Summer is the best season for tomatoes. Actually, the only one! I’ve always preferred to avoid the out of season tomatoes, as I never know what kind of fake substitutes I’ll get in the supermarkets. I wait instead for the rich tasty ones of august and the crooked sunburnt ones of late september (grown directly in the fields). So delicious!

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I usually chop it directly into any kind of salad, but I do enjoy a lot to prepare a tomato based dressing – some might call it a soup 🙂 I mix it in the blender with some of the following: olive oil, mustard, tahina, garlic, fresh basil, thyme or melissa. You can even incorporate hydrated nuts (sunflower seeds, walnuts, almonds, etc). The result is a rich dense dressing ready to be poured over a fresh greens salad or to be scooped with cucumber, squash or carrot sticks.

 

 

 

Here the beet root surprised me with its heart shaped stems 🙂

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You can add zatar or grated orange peel into the greens salad for an even more fresh taste.

 

list of ingredients

  • ‘real’ tomatoes
  • olive oil
  • mustard / tahina
  • fresh basil, thyme or melissa
  • nuts (sunflower, walnut, almonds, etc) – previously soaked overnight

 

dressings, raw, salads

Go Red with Beets!

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Beets are just amazing! I remember that during my childhood it was the only vegetable I use to consider it rather awkward. Maybe because most of the times we were having it roasted and served with grated horse radish?

Anyhow, since I’ve discovered beets are to be consumed raw, it doesn’t seem I’ll get bored of them anytime soon. I love to turn it into spirals and marinate it in soya sauce, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and thyme, like Cynthia taught me to do it at the beginning of my path. Adding sesame or hemp seeds at the end creates a pretty nice effect!

 

You can leave the beets to marinate overnight.

One of the things you should have in mind when preparing beets is that there’s no way back from red! Once you add another vegetable – either in the marinade or in the mixing – it will sooner or later become red. So instead of throwing everything into the beets salad, better leave the rest of the vegetables or greens for a side dish. Or, if you want to create a reddish coloring, choose something like cauliflower or sprouts and mix it right before serving .

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list of ingredients

  • beetroot (grated or spiraled)
  • olive oil
  • soya sauce
  • lemon juice
  • dry thyme
  • crushed garlic
  • sesame/ hemp seeds