Pea and Avocado Guacamole

We are enjoying the fruits of my labor this past weekend and the effort already seems to have paid off.


One of the things that I prepared has actually been on my food bucket list for quite some time: a fantastic alternative guacamole. You see, ever since making guacamole with edamame (soy beans) and dumping it in the trash (is it just me or is that stuff nasty?) after our Plant-strong Superbowl party in 2011, I have been searching for the miracle guacamole. You know, the one with less fat and calories? Because who do you know that doesn't love guacamole?

Read more �

Braised Celery with Tomatoes, Olives and Capers

I am a huge fan of capers.

Celery, not so much.

But because I am frequently participating in a CSA or organic vegetable share, I often find myself with loads of celery. I discovered this very light, yet very filling, dinner or lunch recipe that is so entirely delicious you could even serve it to guests on a holiday buffet (see how red and green it is?).

When I first started making this in March 2010, I was still using a little butter and olive oil in my cooking. But that was before I heard Dr. Esselstyn speak.

This updated version is made with no added fat, and I promise, if you don't like celery, you will become a fan after trying this.

Braised Celery with Tomatoes, Olives and Capers
serves 6

Printable Recipe

vegetable stock for sauteing
1 medium onion, chopped
2 large bunches celery (about 3.5 pounds), washed, trimmed and cut into 2" lengths
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 Tbsp flour
2 1/4 cups vegetable stock
2 Tbsp drained capers
1 1/2 cups pitted and sliced black olives
1 28 ounce or 2 14 ounce cans low sodium diced tomatoes
optional: 8 ounces whole wheat pasta, precooked

Place a dutch oven or stock pot onto medium high heat. Coat the bottom of the pot in vegetable broth. When broth is bubbling, add onions and stir. Let cook, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes. Add celery and stir. Season with salt (or not) and pepper. Sprinkle with flour, stir, and let cook for 2 more minutes.

Add vegetable broth, bring to a boil, then lower heat to simmer. Add capers, olives and diced tomatoes and stir. Cover and let simmer for 15 minutes. Uncover, raise heat a bit, and let simmer for 30 minutes or until the liquid is thickened, stirring occasionally.

Optional: Before serving, add cooked whole wheat pasta and stir.

This is so phenomenal, I think I'm going to be eating the leftovers for breakfast.

Salt Questions and The Soup of the Year: Red Lentil with Cauliflower and Indian Spice

I know you've experienced this scenario before: your favorite restaurant serves a dish and you think it's the best thing since sliced bread. And you wanna make it at home, because there is no way you could ever get enough of this dish. So you set about making said food yourself and hope for the best.

That's how this recipe came into being. My BP (business partner) and I created this soup recipe as a joint venture. Pretty funny since our usual jobs are managing a custom invitation printing company. But Red Lentil with Indian Spice soup was so near and dear to our hearts after eating it and loving it for so long at Organic Energy, we had to try creating an oil-free, low salt version for ourselves (more on salt after the recipe).

My husband pronounced, "it's the soup of the year!" It really is that good. Just don't make it when you are in a time crunch.

Red Lentil Soup with Cauliflower and Indian Spice

Makes 7 servings (2-cups each)

Printable Recipe
2 cups red or orange lentils

6 cups water

3 plum tomatoes

2 cups yellow onion, finely chopped

6 Tbsp low sodium vegetable broth

4 medium cloves garlic, chopped and made into a paste by sprinkling 1 tsp of kosher or sea salt (to act as an abrasive) and crush with the side of a large chopping knife over the mixture until the garlic breaks down and becomes paste like. Skip salt altogether if you cannot go there and just finely chop the garlic!

1 tsp white or black sesame seed

2 tsp cumin seed

1 tsp fennel seed

2 tsp brown or yellow mustard seeds

2 bay leaves

2 tsp turmeric

1 � cups unsweetened almond milk

1 � tsp coconut extract

1 lime, juiced

1 14 ounce bag frozen cauliflower

Optional: a dash or two of cayenne pepper (I used two)
salt (I added 1 tsp more for the whole pot) or salt free seasoning
Chopped cilantro, for garnish

Take frozen cauliflower out of freezer and leave on counter to partially defrost. Measure seeds (sesame, cumin, fennel and mustard) and place into one small bowl and set aside.

Place lentils in a metal sieve and rinse well with cold water.

Fill a medium sauce pan halfway with water and bring to a boil. Score the peel of the base of the tomatoes with a sharp knife in the shape of an �X.� Place the tomatoes in the boiling water and blanch for 1 minute. Drain the tomatoes and run them under cold water. Once cool, peel and finely chop the tomatoes, discarding the tough stem ends.

In the same medium sauce pan that you used for the tomatoes, place lentils and water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes or until the lentils are soft. Turn off heat when lentils are finished and put to the side. Do not drain lentils or discard the cooking liquid, you will need this later!

Heat a large dutch oven or stock pot over medium heat. When pot is hot, add the seed mix and jiggle the pot around. You want to toast the seeds but be careful not to burn them. They are ready when they look toasty and you smell something wonderful. At the sign of any burning, lower the heat immediately. When seeds are toasty, add onion and 3 Tbsp vegetable broth. Stir frequently and �saut� onion for 5 minutes.

Add garlic/salt paste and 3 more Tbsp vegetable broth. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring frequently and lowering the heat if the onion/garlic/spices start to burn. Add turmeric, bay leaves, almond milk, coconut extract and peeled chopped tomatoes. Stir. Simmer for 10 minutes.

Chop partially defrosted cauliflower and add to pot. Add lentils and their cooking liquid and lime juice and simmer for 20 minutes.

Optional: Partially puree soup with an immersion blender. Season with Cayenne pepper and/or salt or salt free seasoning to taste. Garnish with chopped cilantro.

Notes:

Blanching the tomatoes really does take just one minute so the skin will peel off. You don�t want to cook the tomatoes.

You can leave this soup to simmer for a long time and the flavors will only get better.

This soup is absolutely delicious. But BP and I were very fascinated by the taste difference between our version and the restaurant version of the soup. It got us talking about salt. We calculated the amount of added sodium (from the salt, not the other ingredients which also contain natural amounts of sodium) per 2-cup serving (yes, a large serving) and it came to about 650 mg of sodium.

That's a decent amount of sodium. But by no means does our version even begin to taste "salty." We talked about how much better it would taste with more salt and either real coconut milk or oil, but neither one of us is willing to go there anymore!

The point is, that even a soup with 650 mg of added sodium per serving does NOT taste salty to us. And even more importantly, I thought I was creating a low sodium soup by only having 2 tsp of salt in the entire big pot of soup. I now know that 2 tsp of salt is 4600 mg of sodium, which calculated out to a whopping 650 mg/serving.

So how much sodium is in foods that DO taste salty to our palate? A whole crap load, I'm sure of it now.

What are your thoughts/experiences with salt? Are you struggling with this? Do you add it to recipes anymore or have you eliminated it from your home cooked food?

What is the best salt-free seasoning? I'm now considering purchasing a whole truckload of it! 

Red Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Corn, Revisited

I first blogged about this recipe one year ago. There was talk in my town of a delicious red quinoa salad recipe off the back of the Trader Joe's Red Quinoa box. I took one look at the recipe and knew it had the beginnings of a fantastic dish, but it didn't fit into my new found eating style as it was written. So I set out to remove the added oil and what resulted was worth making time and time again. It's no surprise that it's one of my first recipes to make as this summer's pot luck luck season is warming up. Just this weekend, Red Quinoa Salad is coming with me to two parties!

Red Quinoa Salad with Black Beans and Corn

Printable Recipe

1 cup red quinoa

2 cups vegetable broth
1 15 oz can black beans rinsed and drained
2 cups roasted corn (I used the frozen bag from Trader Joe�s)
1/2 avocado cut into small pieces
1 pint grape tomatoes, halved
� cup red onion, finely diced
1/2 large bunch cilantro, finely chopped
Optional: lettuce of your choice

For the dressing, put all dressing ingredients in a blender and blend:
1/2 large bunch cilantro, washed and cut the stems off in one slice
juice of 1 orange
juice of 2 limes
2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
1/2 Tbsp agave syrup
1/2 Tbsp Bragg Liquid Aminos
dash of Sea salt and pepper

Cook quinoa as directed on box with broth.

While the quinoa cooks (about 15 minutes), put beans, corn, avocado, tomatoes and onion together in a large bowl. Add dressing and toss gently. Add the chopped cilantro and toss.

When the quinoa is cooked, set aside to cool. When it is cool, spread quinoa on a platter. Top with the bean and corn salad mixture.

Variation: serve on top of a large bed of lettuce.

The corn, black bean, tomato, avocado, cilantro mixture dressed with the tasty no-oil dressing would even stand alone as a winning dish.  It's that good!

I find it's best to layer the entire dish onto a large platter. First, lay down a bed of lettuce (romaine, spring mix or whatever you fancy). Next, pile on the cooked red quinoa. Finally, Top with the corn, tomato and bean mixture. The dressing will seep into the quinoa and lettuce creating the perfect amount of dressing.