Make Your Own Nut Butter

Making your own nut butter is super easy and delicious.  I do this a lot if I find that I need peanut butter or almond butter, but I don't have any in my cupboard.  Instead I'll throw some nuts in a food processor and, voila, instead nut butter.  All you have to do is process it with some salt until it reaches the "butter" consistency. Certain nuts will take different amounts of time. Cashews, for example, are way quicker than almonds (about 4 minutes versus 12). Nut Butter

Ingredients:

Nuts

Salt

Directions:

Put in a food processor and process until smooth. This is what it should look like:

I started with a handful of almonds and a handful of cashews and a generous pinch of salt.

Flipped the 'on' switch...

After about a minute, it looked like this.

After another 2 minutes.

Another couple minutes later, I had delicious almond / cashew butter.

Cilantro Pesto

When most of us think of pesto, we often think of the traditional basil, pine nut, and parmesan pesto, but pestos are a really fun way to be creative in the kitchen. There's a basic formula of nut/seed, oil, herb / green, and seasoning that you can manipulate to make all kinds of delicious pestos. Some I've tried are parsley and macadamia nut, arugula and almond with capers, and spinach with pine nuts and garlic. Recently I was craving a cilantro and pumpkin seed pesto and I was very happy with the results. Here's that recipe: Cilantro Pesto

Yields about 3/4 cup

Ingredients:

1/2 cup packed cilantro, it's about one bunch, stems removed

2 tbsp lemon juice

1/2-1 whole jalapeño, depending on spice preference

1/4 cup pumpkin seeds

1 clove garlic

1-2 tbsp nutritional yeast

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp mayo / veganeise

Sea Salt, to taste

Directions:

In a food processor combine cilantro, lemon juice, jalapeño, pumpkin seeds, garlic, and nutritional yeast and pulse until mixed together. While food processor is on, add the olive and mayo until processed smooth.  You may need to add a little more oil to reach desired consistency. Adjust for seasoning. Serve as a sauce on tacos, pasta, with rice, or I served it with salmon. Get creative and enjoy!

Kitchen Books I Love

Kitchen Books I Love

Food is a huge and essential part of creating a healthy lifestyle, so it's important to find ways to eat healthy food that you enjoy and that inspires creativity.  The more you enjoy the healthy food you're consuming, the more likely you'll stick to a diet that supports you.  Sometimes it's hard to know where to start, so I want to share with you the books that have helped me the most. I hope you can find some tools that help you incorporate healthier foods into your lifestyle.

The Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg

This is the ultimate book for inspiring creativity in the kitchen.  You won't find recipes, but what you will find are flavor pairings.  This was my go to book when I lived on a farm.  The farmer would come into the kitchen and tell us what was  ready to be eaten and I'd have to find ways to incorporated that into our menu.  Sometimes it was beets, cauliflower, kale, a ton of green beans, radishes, etc. I would look up what flavors pairs well with those foods and start creating.  It's also a great book to nurture your skills and creativity since you don't have a recipe to fall back on.  Extremely insightful and educational.  Every chef, cook, home cook, should own this book.

The Vegetarian Flavor Bible by Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg

Same as The Flavor Bible this book will inspire ideas and hone creativity.  There's a lot of educational information in the beginning and then features a wide variety of vegetarian foods and their tasty pairings.  Great for anyone interested in a vegetarian lifestyle or just to get an idea on how to incorporate more vegetables, fruits, and grains into your diet without sacrificing flavor.

Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero

This is one of my favorite vegan cookbooks.  I sometimes have a hard time finding ones that are also healthy.  I think lots of people adopt the vegan lifestyle and start eating a ton of processed fake cheese and fake meats to create foods that taste like the foods they've given up.  I get this, but my focus has always been on health, so lots of those ways of cooking aren't my thing.  This book has a lot of great ideas that feature vegetables, fruits, grains, nuts, seeds, and the less processed protein soy products like tofu and tempeh.  I used this a lot when I ran a kitchen at a yoga retreat center because they have great family style meals that I could serve to a lot of people.  Great for cooking for a family or for friends.

Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 People by Jennifer Cornbleet

This book fell into my lap.  I was volunteering at a raw foods expo doing chair massage and ended up massaging this author.  As a thank you she gave me this book.  Little did I know, it would end up being one of my most used recipe books.  Raw foods are a great way to add nutrient-dense foods into your diet and can be really exciting and delicious.  I love her recipes because they're very simple and easy.  I think sometimes raw foods can be too complex and hard to digest, which kind of defeats the purpose.  Her recipes are straightforward and delicious.

Thug Kitchen by Rodale, Inc.

Good food and a fun attitude. This book is edgy and full of great recipes and colorful humor and tips.  Be warned: there's a fair amount of cursing, which is personally why I love this book. It's a down-to-earth approach to healthy, vegetarian food with lots of creative ideas meant to reach the average joe wanting to incorporate more fruits and veggies into their diet without going broke.   

Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi

This is a slightly more refined approach to vegetarian cooking using delicious, unique recipes to showcase vegetables and grains. What I like about this book is that his recipes are greatly influenced by his exposure to European and Middle Eastern cuisines, which creates unique flavors and allows me to step outside of my comfort zone and learn new, delicious tastes.  I also like that he himself is not a vegetarian because I agree with his philosophy: that even if you aren't a vegetarian it's still good for you to find new ways to incorporate vegetables in your diet.

The Encyclopedia of Healing Foods by Michael Murray, M.D.

As a chef who sometimes works with food in a more therapeutic manner, I use this book as a reference tool. It's a wealth of nutritional education describing the nutritional benefits and healing properties of specific foods. Also, and probably my favorite part, it tells you how to eat for a large number of common ailments.  It's great for anyone who wants to approach food as medicine.

Crazy, Sexy Diet by Kris Carr

I love, love, love this book.  Kris Carr is an incredible woman who used her battle with cancer as an opportunity to learn about her body and find a lifestyle that supports her.  There are lots of great food ideas, but, more importantly, it's a guide on how to adopt a healthy lifestyle.  She approaches health the way that I do, by looking at the whole picture and dealing with all aspects of your health, this includes physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health.  This book provides the stepping stones for a nutrient-dense healing journey that helps develop self-awareness and allows you to know your body and how to support it.

Vegetarian Banh Mi

I love Vietnamese food! I love the use of fresh ingredients that provides lots of texture, flavor, and nutrition.  Lately I've been craving Banh Mi, which is a Vietnamese sandwich characterized by delicious pickled veggies and topped with fresh cilantro and  jalapeño slices.  It's spicy and crunchy and soooo good.  Here's my take on it:

Vegetarian Banh Mi Sandwich

Makes one sandwich

Ingredients:

1/4 cup rice vinegar

2 tsp. honey

1/2-1 tsp. red pepper flakes

1/4 cup shredded or thinly sliced daikon radish (a mild winter radish often used in Asian cuisine)

1/4 cup shredded or thinly sliced carrot

1/4 small red onion, thinly sliced

6-inches of a French baguette, sliced in half lengthwise and lightly toasted in the oven

Spicy Mayo (mayo or Veganeise mixed with sriracha until desired spice is met)

Protein of choice (I fried up some marinated tofu, but want to try grilled tempeh next time)

Sprouts, optional

Fresh cilantro, to taste

Fresh jalapeño, sliced thin, to taste

Directions:

1. Combine vinegar, honey, and red pepper flakes.  Add daikon radish, carrots, and red onion and marinate for 15-30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Drain, squeezing out excess liquid, and set aside.

2. Apply spicy mayo to both sides of the baguette.

3. Assemble sandwich by adding the pickled daikon, carrots, and red onion, the protein, sprouts, fresh cilantro, and jalapeño. Enjoy!

Tips for working with tofu:

Tofu can absorb marinades and flavors much better when the water it's been soaking in is pressed out of it. What you do is take a clean cloth and wrap your tofu in it.  Put it on a plate and cover with a cast iron skillet or something else heavy and leave for at least 30 minutes.  Now your tofu is ready to soak up any flavor you wish.