CARROT PULP BURGERS WITH A SECRET INGREDIENT

Sarah, who blogs at My New Roots posted this recipe awhile back for a bread made with psyllium husk.  Which I saw about a million times on Pinterest.  She titled it ‘The life-changing loaf of bread”, so after checking it out I tried a rough version of her recipe.  The bread was totally gluten-free and made without flour, and super dense.  I’m not a huge fan of psyllium but I was intrigued by her use of it as a binder.  So I made the bread and it was everything she promised it to be, life-changing.  Well, kinda.  While it was super delicious and nutty, it was so rich and tasty I couldn’t stop eating it.  Fresh baked bread from the oven with a pat of coconut oil?  Yum.  I decided though that I probably wouldn’t make it again just because it didn’t last long in our 2 person house.  However, the idea of using psyllium as a binder stuck in my head and I’ve gone through a few different variations of her bread in my notebook using zucchini or carrot to lighten it up a bit.  Though I never made any of them.  Till now.  And it’s not bread.  I decided to try her binder method for a veggie burger patty made with carrot pulp.

But here’s the lame part.  I have my recipe, and I tried it- look, pictures.  Before baking, John and I were crazy hungry so we decided we should just fry up a couple of the patties and have a quick burger before we bake them and freeze.  Well, while they were tasty, they needed something more in there, they were just too soft.  Don’t worry though, we ate them.

I figured they would firm up after a quick bake and I could review them again at that point.  No such luck.  I forgot about them in the oven and they are now very, very firm.  Rock hard.  Anyways, Ill try this recipe again sometime when I am smart enough to use an alarm. But, if you approach this method with the psyllium, let me know how it went!

JUICY WATERMELON AND VEGAN-FETA SALAD

I wasnt sure what to expect from this salad.  A long time ago I created a recipe for tofu feta, which I posted here.  So with that around, I figured I would give this watermelon salad a go.  I had no idea what to expect but I’ve been seeing feta and watermelon salads plastered all over the internet, so finally I went for it.

serves 2

for the salad

• 3 small cucumbers, sliced
• 1/2 watermelon, large dice
• 1/4 c. red onion, sliced in half rings
• 3 spears hearts of palm, chopped
• 1 T. olive oil
• juice from 1/2 lemon or lime
• pinch of salt

topping

• 1/2 c. tofu feta

Toss all salad ingredients in a bowl with olive oil and lime until throughly mixed.  Transfer to plates and top with the tofu feta.

This salad was seriously delicious, so much that both John and I were speechless while eating.  It was sweet (but not too sweet) and savory, with a whole lotta freshness and crunch!  The flavors melded together perfectly and neither of us were expecting this dish to be THAT good.

I have no idea what the actual feta and watermelon salads taste like, but vegans- don’t feel left out.  While I’ve never had the real thing (nor do I plan to) I’m just gonna go ahead and say this version is better.  Better for your health, the environment, and for the animals.  Oh yeah, and your taste buds!  That too!  If your thinking fruity salads aren’t your thing, just try this.  I despise fruit in salad but this made me a believer.  I can’t wait to make it again.

CARROT PULP BOWL WITH FRIED LEEKS

Ever since we got our juicer going again, I’ve been throwing carrot juice pulp in everything.  I used it in carrot cake and veggie burgers.  Most of the time though, if I want something quick I’ll grab some carrot pulp and saute it with greens, beans or some other vegetables.

Lately though, I’ve been really feeling leeks, as seen here.  They’re just so goddamn tasty!  They add so much flavor like onion or garlic, but their taste a lot more mellow.  Almost buttery when cooked.  Or maybe that’s because I cook mine in coconut oil :)..

Anyways, there’s no need for a recipe for this one.  I fried the tofu until browned on each side, and set it aside while I chopped my leeks.  I then dusted them in corn starch and fried them up as well!  Corn starch, though it might not be the healthiest of foods, does wonders for making stuff crispy.  I wanted crispy leeks, and I’m glad I went for it.  Though they look burnt in the pictures, they tasted magical.  The carrot pulp was simply sautéed with crimini mushrooms in some Braggs and coconut oil, with cumin seed.  I love cumin seed.

All together this was a super satisfying dish, filling but light.  This would be equally tasty wrapped up in a tortilla as a taco or burrito.

Bye for now!

Raw Kelp Noodles with a Creamy Tamarind Dressing

Have you tried these kelp noodles by the company Sea Tangle?

They are totally raw, a little crunchy but perfect for a creamy based sauce.  If they weren’t almost 4 dollars a bag I would eat them all the time.  For this meal, I just wanted to make a simple light lunch for John and I.  Kelp noodles with lots of veggies, a cashew based sauce and loads of cilantro.  We love cilantro around here, though all herbs are tasty (one exception: purslane).  I also have had some tamarind paste around my house that I wanted to use, though I wasn’t exactly sure how it would turn out.  I expected it to be sweeter (probably because I grew up eating tamarindo candies) but it was actually quite tart, so I blended it up with cashews to balance out the flavors.

Raw Kelp noodle Salad

• 1/4 cup dried wakame, soaked
• 1 package of sea tangle kelp noodles, soaked
• 1/2 bunch chinese broccoli
• 2 carrots, grated
• 2” peice of daikon, grated

Theres a lot of soaking for this dish.  For the wakame, just put the dried seaweed in a bowl and fill with warm water.  It will take about 10-15 minutes til they are ready, but be sure to taste it first because you don’t want any crunchy pieces left in there.  At the same time, rinse your kelp noodles under running warm water for a minute or two.  Then, transfer them to a large bowl and fill with warm to hot water. This will soften them up a bit.

For the chinese broccoli, I put it in a plastic bag with some olive oil, salt and pepper and massaged it through the bag with my fingers to try to break it down a bit.  It really helps if you’re trying to eat totally raw!  Massaging, not just for kale.

for the sauce

• 1/2 cup cashews, soaked for minimum 2 hours
• 1 T. tamarind paste
• juice from half a lemon
• 1 t. miso paste
• a little water to help blend the sauce

To garnish

• sriracha
• chopped cilantro

Blend everything up in a high-powered blender until smooth.  Toss your noodles, wakame and half the amount of grated carrots in about a half-cups worth of the sauce and serve onto plates.  Place the rest of the vegetables on top of the noodles, and garnish with sriracha and cilantro.  We also added plain cold tofu to our salads, to round out the meal a bit.  But if you wanted this to be strictly raw you could add some dehydrated crackers or a nut pate on the side to make sure you are filled up.

One last thing I would like to add: If you ever find yourself hungry but super lazy, never combine seitan or fake chicken-like product with raw kelp noodles.  It’s seriously gross, not just because there’s no sauce, or everything is processed or it just sounds like a weird combination.  It’s gross because eating crunchy kelp noodles with a fake meat product brings back the worst childhood food memory ever: GRISTLE.  Do you remember how terrible that was?  Crunchy meat weird stuff?  I remember being a kid eating with my family and getting a bite of gristle and spitting it out onto my plate.  My parents thought it was no big deal but it was to me. Disgusting.

end rant.

BIG BEAR AND THE PARSNIP SALAD REVISITED

So remember when I made this raw parsnip salad.  I made it to bring to Big Bear in the case that there might not be many vegan options.  I was wrong, by the way.  No thanks to you, Happy Cow.  After a grueling morning of driving in LOTS of traffic, hungover and hungry we finally made it to our hotel the Northwoods Resort.  More about that place later.  When we got there they let us know that check in was at 4pm, and the earliest MIGHT be 2pm so we booked it on over to the Ski Haus (awesome place) where we rented our equipment.  The couple that run the place are so nice and I even found these awesome sunglasses for my friends adorable baby. 

Anyways, it was my birthday so we got our stuff and swung by 711 on our way up to the mountain for some cutlery and chips.  They were kind enough to give us two hot dog containers and forks that we could eat out of, and I also snagged some pickled jalapeños and onions.  It ended up being a really good balance between healthy and not so healthy.  The raw parsnip salad was filling but light and the chips were just tasty in that moment of hangover hell.

Our trip was awesome and we were able to find vegan eats at the Himalayan Restaurant and the Thai restaurant.  Not to mention a few we didn’t get to eat at: a couple mexican restaurants where something surely would’ve been available, a japanese restaurant and chinese restaurant.  The Himalayan food was the best that we ate and there was a bar where we were able to play pool with shots of Jager (don’t worry, we sip) to calm our tummies.  If you hate Jager keep it to yourself, that stuff is seriously good for digestion and stomach aches.

Anyways here are a couple pictures from our trip.

We were able to munch on that delicious cheese that I posted here, along with some Chandon that John boy surprised me with and it was quite a delicious spread.  I was sure to taste the Kite Hill cheese with the sparkling wine before I included any jalapeño raw crackers.  Also delicious but a little over powering in this case.So the drive back ended up being much less painful than the ride out there.  We made a couple of stops: Oxnard to see the skatepark, and the camarillo outlets (we forgot our pillows).  We weren’t able to eat all of the parsnip salad but in a pinch I sautéed it with some pasilla peppers, onions, cilantro and zucchini and it was AMAZING.  So tasty.  I also added chili flake and cumin seeds (love), and it tasted like taco meat filling!  Like taco bell or something terrible for you.

So now Im going to attempt a taco filling with parsnips, because this was too good to not recreate.  I served it with 1/4 avocado and fried tofu for both john and I.  We both loved it so much and were bummed there wasn’t more to grub on.

Oh yeah, and about that hotel.  We got this through a Groupon and the room was really nice!  There was a fireplace and a good amount of room where John busted out some yoga.  However, their service is seriously shoddy.  When we got to the room we checked the pillows to see if they were hypoallergenic (johns super allergic to everything) and we had one that worked and 3 made with down.  I called 3 times to get some john friendly (and vegan friendly for that matter, though it wasn’t part of my MO) pillows and after the third call they said they didn’t have any extras.  That may have been true, but I wish they- In a mostly empty hotel (I’m talking ghost time out there)-would’ve just checked a vacant room to see if we could swap em out.  There was an identical incident when we requested an extra blanket.  After too many calls I finally went down and asked them at the desk and they were able to get one in about a minute.

Don’t get me wrong, it was a nice place and everyone was friendly but just not that helpful.