Tag Archives: sunflower oil

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! 🙂

raw, salads

Seasoned Lentils & Carrot Salad

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This salad is perfect when you expect more-than-just-veggies in your healthy bowl. Power to the carbs!

The main trick is not to overboil the green lentils as you would do it in a cooked dish. Test them with a fork – if they get easily squashed after being put off the fire, you’d better turn it into a soup 🙂 or try them: they shouldn’t taste like raw beans, but still keep a firm ‘al dente’ texture.

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Until the lentils get cold, you can prepare the dressing by mixing in a bowl cold pressed sunflower oil, soya sauce, lemon, grated ginger and thyme. If you love spices as much as I do, then this is the time to add some cardamom or cinnamon powder and some raisins.

The only thing left to do is to bring all ingredients together in your salad bowl. I usually use more carrots than lentils, but it goes different with each taste. I also prefer adding the onions at the very end so they don’t become too dominant.

If you’re not having the salad right away, don’t forget to check before serving how much dressing it still has – both lentils and carrots are great ‘suckers’. And to sprinkle with grated orange peel and sesame seeds!

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list of ingredients

  • green lentils – soaked overnight & lightly boiled
  • carrots
  • grated ginger
  • lemon juice
  • soya sauce
  • cold pressed sunflower oil
  • thyme (dry or fresh)
  • red or green onions
  • optional: cardamom, cinnamon, grated orange peel, raisins (or similar dried fruits), sesame seeds, sunflower sprouts

 

 

dressings, raw, salads

Vegan Mayonnaise

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Along the time I tried a few types of mayonnaise, some of them  occurring unexpectedly from one dressing or another. Let me tell you about my favorite ones.

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The one and only is the avocado mayo,   righteously deserving all its fame and glory. It’s also incredibly easy to prepare: you just crush the avocado (fork/blender) and mix it with cold pressed sunflower oil, mustard, lemon juice and salt. Its best companions are green onions and cucumbers, but I felt that it could also taste nice on kohlrabi (as in the above picture) or in a chickpeas based salad (as in the picture below).

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Here I garnished it with peppers, tomatoes, raisins and fresh mint.

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It happened that one day I’ve tried a mustard dressing that turned out to be pretty similar to mayonnaise. I simply mixed mustard, olive oil, onion flakes (previously rehydrated) and lemon juice in the food processor (you can also use the immersion  blender). If you’re not happy with the texture, help yourself with some starch flour. At the end I spiced it up with salt, black and red pepper and serve it on a cabbage, carrot and parsnip salad.  Mayo certainly asks for roots!

The third one is a tahini based mayo and it’s slowly turning into a favorite 🙂 You will get an amazing flavor only if by using a good quality balsamic vinegar. Besides that, you need olive oil, salt and ground flaxseeds – so it goes creamy enough and adds up to those omega 3 and fiber levels! Its superdelicious oily taste is again well balanced by pepper – use any type you wish according to your taste.

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Again with coleslaw (cabbage, carrot and celeriac) and green garlic on top. I’m sure you can crush it inside the mayo if you’re a true garlic lover!

list of ingredients

1. avocado based mayo

  • avocado
  • mustard
  • sunflower oil (cold pressed)
  • lemon juice
  • salt

2. mustard based mayo

  • mustard
  • olive oil
  • onion flakes
  • salt, pepper
  • optional: starch flour

3. tahini based mayo

  • tahina
  • olive oil
  • balsamic vinegar
  • ground flaxseeds
  • salt, pepper
  • optional: garlic