Chickpea "Tuno" Salad

Fresh and vibrant are my two favorite words when it comes to food. I mean, there are a million words with which food can be described, but when a dish is made of pure fresh and alive ingredients, it just resonates with me. The way it tastes combined with the amazing feeling of fresh foods is incomparable. 

Even better, is making some food that "someone" was craving but just doesn't fit in our usual arsenal of healthy and plant-strong foods. Sometimes, when you've eaten a certain food your whole life, in this case tuna, it resurfaces as a comfort food craving.

It happens to everyone! The fun thing is, it gives me an awesome outlet to be creative in choosing healthier foods, that still fulfil that craving! This chickpea based "tuno" salad is vibrant and delicious served as a lettuce wrap, a sandwich or a topping on a salad.

It has a nice "fishy" taste from both the seaweed and capers, although they can be used interchangeably I find that the combination of the two really gives it the perfect flavor profile.

Dig in!

Chickpea "Tuno" Salad

Ingredients:

- 2 cups chickpeas, cooked

- 1 avocado, mashed

- 1 sheet nori, crushed finely

- 1-2 tbsp capers, minced

- 2 tbsp lemon juice

- 1 green onion, chopped

- S/P

In a large bowl, mash the chickpeas until they are just flaking. Be careful not to overdue it, we don't want hummus wraps!

Add in all the other ingredients and stir well to combine evenly.

Serve in lettuce wraps with tomatoes, in a sandwich or on a salad.

Enjoy!

Eggplant Curry

Almost every time I have more than one or two people over for dinner, I seem to gravitate towards making an indian themed spread. It's juts instinctually what I think of and plan for.

It might be because I always have the pantry staples on hand and the dishes use the same basic ingredients. Yet you can easily make three or more different dishes without difficulty. I live that seasonal vegetables can be used to create complimentary dishes with different flavors, so that it's a little bit different everytime.

I usually always serve my chickpea curry, but tonight I think I'll change it up and make three dishes that are new to my repertoire. I have an AMAZING recipe that I still tweaking that so closely resembles butter chicken in flavor that I'll be "testing"tonight. I should be sharing it sometime this month.

They had amazing eggplant at the market a few weeks back and I just had the instant craving for eggplant curry. This dish is decadent, yet completely fat-free and low sodium if you keep the added salt on the no or low side. The carrots bring the perfect level of sweetness to counteract the slight bitter taste eggplant can sometimes have.

You can easily change up the supporting cast of vegetables in this recipe, I just recommend having a sweeter vegetable in the mix.

Eggplant Curry

Ingredients:

- 2 medium eggplants, peeled and diced
- 1 medium onion, diced
- 1 large carrot, sliced and halved
- 2 medium red peppers, diced
- 2 large tomatoes, chopped
- 2 clove garlic
- 1.5 tbsp fresh ginger
- 1 tbsp fresh turmeric
- 1 tbsp cumin
- 1/2 tbsp cardamon
- 1/4 tsp cayenne
- Fresh cracked pepper
- 1 lemon, juiced

Combine the ginger, garlic, turmeric and tomatoes in a blender and blend until smooth.

In a deep pan, water sauté the onions until translucent. Add the carrots, peppers and eggplant and cook for 2-3 minutes. Add the spices and stir for about 1 min. 

Now add in the tomato mixture and bring to a slow simmer. Cook until all vegetables are cooked through. Mix in the lemon juice.

Serve over rice or quinoa.

Enjoy!

Baked Falafels

This months has passed in a crazy fast whirlwind of busyness. Although I haven't been blogging much due to some complicated internet issues, I have been working hardcore behind the scenes to get a few things complete for the next step of Plates for Plants

My partner and I have been working lonnng hours to get the new Plates for Plants website up and running. It is looking pretty darn good if I do say so myself and will blow what it currently looks like out of the water! I've been on  steady learning binge with HTML and CSS terms being crammed into my brain. I'm loving it!

Also, I;ve been working hard on the next eBook. I'm planning for a July release, just in time for this blog's first anniversary! I can't believe it's already coming up fast. I'll be releasing sneak peeks and details throughout June to get you guys as excited as I am about it!

Now let's get to the REALLY important stuff. The food! This was my first time making falafels, not to mention oil and fat free ones. They come out a bit denser than their fried counterparts, but just as delicious. I used the traditional method of using chickpea that haven't been cooked prior. They just soaked overnight and I poured some boiling water over them the next morning to soften them a bit. That being said, since these are being baked I think that a short 10 minute par-boil would make them less dense. I'll try that next time I make some.

These are perfect for a late afternoon snack on their own, or on a salad as pictured. I'm excited to try them in a wrap as well! The salad was fairly simple, just leaf lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, olive and parley with some hummus for a dressing. A simpel Tahini-Lemon dressing would also be great here.

Baked Falafels

Ingredients:

- 1 lb dried chickpeas, soaked overnight

- 1 large onion, minced

- 1/2 bunch fresh parsley, chopped fine

- 2 garlic cloves, minced

- 2 tbsp lemon juice

- 1 tbsp cumin

- 1 tsp fresh ground pepper

- 1 tsp salt (or to taste)

- 1 hot pepper, minced (opt)

Pre-heat oven to 350F

Drain your chickpeas and toss them into your food processor or blender. I had to do this in batches, so I added a relatively proportionate amount of the other ingredients in the blender per batch.

Pulse until everything is well incorporated and ressembles a paste. But be careful not to make it a mush either! This isn't hummus. It should still be visibly flakey. 

Toss everything into a large bowl and mix in with your hands to get everything evenly distributed.

Test to see if the mixture holds together, if it's too wet add a bit of flour, if too dry, add a little water.

With your trusty hands, start forming balls of equal size, then lay them out on a parchment paper line baking sheet and flattem them to disks as pictured.

Bake for about 30 minutes. I found that I didn't have to flip them, but you can do so if desired at the halfway mark.

Enjoy!

Cinco de Mayo Menu

To me, the best part about any celebration is the food. It's what brings people together. My family always tends to hang out in the kitchen anyways, so having some great food to celebrate coming together is a must.

Cinco de Mayo brings visions of Mexican food, both traditional and fusion. It's an easy celebration to make plant-strong and healthy too! Here are my choices for the day:

Roasted Tomato Salsa

Mexican Lasagna

Black Bean Tacos

Fiesta Burrito Bowls

Chili Cheese fries with extra Guac and Chips

Melon Lime Slushies

Starfruit Limeade

Black Bean Brownies with added Cayenne

Roasted Tomato Salsa

Experiencing the rainy season here is interesting. Some days it threatens to rain all day, but not a drop. Other days it's bright and sunny in the morning, then turns dark and gloomy pretty quick. Today is one of those days. Planning hikes and fruitlucks isn't obvious at this point, but we are risking a beach day on Saturday to hangout with a few fruities in the area. I'm crossing my fingers that it'll be sunny!

Being here has really taught me to be much more self sufficient when it comes to food. In Canada we are so used to things like salsa and hot sauce being both easily accessible and reasonably priced. Here they are usually expensive or full of preservatives and msg or salt. So I've got into the habit of making them myself so thatI can control the ingredients and lower my sodium intake drastically. Not to mention I get to actually pile it on instead of rationing those tiny jars they sell.

Something that may seem like alot of work is actually pretty simple and not too time consuming when you roast the majority of the ingredients. We are salsa obsessed around here, so we go through a large batch a week. No need to can it.

I'm sure it would be pretty simple to can though, I'm just no expert and prefer making batches that will last us a week at most. There are endless variations you can make to this salsa to change up the flavors. This is a basic roasted tomato recipe that is a great place to start from.

To serve with our salsa, I just toasted up some corn tortillas to dip in. We also use it to top our evening meals like rice and potatoes.

Roasted Tomato Salsa

Ingredients:

- 5 lbs of tomatoes

- 4 medium/large onions

- 3 large red bell peppers

- 1 tbsp cumin

- 2 tbsp hot sauce of choice or roasted hot peppers

- 1/2 cup lime juice

- 1/2 cup chopped cilantro (opt, not shown)

- S/P

Heat Oven to 400F

On a large deep baking sheet line up the tomatoes, onions (skin on) and red bell peppers. Roast for 35-40 minutes then let cool until they can be easily handled by hand.

Skin and core the tomatoes, and skin and de-seed the peppers.

In a large bowl, dump all the tomatoes and squish then with your hands until they reach the texture that you desire. You can also use a food processor for this step if you aren't the hands on type. Drain about half the water, depending on how thick you like your salsa (My partner like to drink the juice, it's quite good!)

Chop the pepper and onions to desired size and add into the bowl. 

Add in the spices, cilantro and lime juice. Give it all a good stir and let sit in the fridge in a tightly covered bowl until ready to serve. It tastes even better the next day!

Carrot Cake Oatmeal

It's finally starting to rain here, which is a welcome break from the humidity we've been getting lately. Although I hear that Mother Nature is being quite moody back in Canada, so I am feeling good about having to deal with humidity instead of snow...

That beign said, we get colder days now and a nice warm bowl of oatmeal is a nice treat in the evenings to enjoy warm food again without sweating. Although, mango season is now in full swing and I cannot get enough of them. They are like nature's candy!

As a kid, I usually had my oatmeal the same way every time; plain with heaps of brown sugar on top. Simple and delicious paired with a few slices of toast to dip in. Now I like to play around with the flavors I can achieve. The Carrot Cake oatmeal is a result of said play time.

The first gluten free cake I ever baked (successfully) was a heavily spiced carrot cake smothered in cream cheese icing. While this bowl lack the icing portion, it more than satisfies any craving that may arise.

I also noticed lately that oatmeal has become somewhat of a food trend in the blogging world, overnighted, baked it comes in a million different methods and flavors now. Gone are the days of pouches of quicks oats with mystery powders and dried fruit to bring flavor to a staple.

I have to say, that I am very happy I will never eat one of those again. I mean, I loved them at the time, but looking at the long list of ingredients on those things now has me running for the produce aisle.

Carrot Cake Oatmeal

Ingredients:

- 3/4 cup coarse raw sugar*

- 1/3 cup water

- 2 cups quick oats

- 2 cups finely shredded carrots

- 1 tbsp cinnamon

- 1/2 tsp nutmeg

- 1/2 tsp ground ginger

- 3/4 cup raisins

* If you are using a fine sugar, reduce to 1/2 cup

In a medium sauce pan, bring the sugar and water to a boil and let thicken. Keep an eye on it so that is doesn't burn and stir often.

In another pot, cook the oatmeal with the carrots and spices with as much water as you prefer. I usually use a 1:1 ratio.

Once the oatmeal is cooked, stir in the caramel and raisins.

Enjoy!

Red Bean Curry Soup

RAIIINNNN!

After a very dry month or so, this place was in dire need of some rain. Especially after the last few days where it was SO humid and looked like rain, but really it was just a tease. Hopefully this helps with the ridiculous humidity, I've seen better hair days.

Now I know that most of readers are still battling winter. Which is why I thought this recipe would be most suitable to post. A warming curry soup is all one needs to soothe the weather grumpies.

This recipe is also a quickie. If you pre-cook your rice and beans, or used canned, it comes together in less than 30 minutes.

I had to get a bit creative since lentils (my go-to) are sparse and expensive in these parts but fresh beans are a-plenty and delicious. You know they are going to be good when the people at the market are shelling them on the spot.

Curry and I have been very good friends since I went plant-based. I actually wasn't introduced to Indian food formally until after the change. I became an addict pretty quickly and was extremely sad when my favorite restaurant burnt down. I've never been able to find a replacement for it. It was that good!

So I decided to try to master the curry at home instead, see if I could get close. My Channa Masala is always a crowd pleaser and I love experimenting with different cuisines. This one is definitely going to be added to my Indian dinner party foods.

Red Bean Curry Soup

Ingredients:

- 2 cups cooked red beans

- 2 cups cooked rice

- 1 medium onion, diced

- 2 large carrots, sliced

- 2 roasted red peppers, sliced

- 2-3 cups water or veg broth

- 1 tbsp curry powder

- S/P to taste

In a medium-large saucepan, water sauté the onions until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add the carrots and curry powder and cook for another 3 mins stirring often to prevent burning and adding water as needed. Dump in the rest of the ingredeints and simmer for about 20 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings.

You can top with fresh tomatoes and sour cream of choice.

Enjoy!

Tex-Mex Stacks

This post is officially the most time consuming one I have ever posted. 

Not because the recipe was complicated or anything. But because our internet suddenly decided to go back in time to the 90's and act like dial up. 

I think the total time with page loading, image uploading and waiting for other various things to work properly, this will have taken me 6-7 hours to get up on here. If that doesn't display passion and perseverance, I don't know what does!

On the other hand, this may be curbing my social media obsession, Pinterest is impossible to load right now...

Back to the food! This little beauty came to life from various leftovers and odd and ends I had to use up. It comes together in a second if you have cooked rice and potatoes ready to go. The tex-Mex flavors are strong and delicious. You can also amp up the heat with a generous coating of hot sauce.

I was going through quite the roasting phase for awhile and I think the way the tomatoes came out on this was the reason for it. I've started making my own salsa and hot sauces as a result and I don;t think I'll ever go back to buying them pre-made.

You can easily make this recipe fat-free by omitting the guac and the coconut cream if you are monitoring those macros. Although the plantains dipped in guac are sooooo good!

Tex-Mex Stacks

Ingredients:

1.5 cups refried beans

4 tomatoes, sliced

4 cups rice, cooked

2 large potatoes, sliced

1 recipe guacamole
4 tbsp coconut cream (coconut meat and water blended)
Oregano, cumin, red pepper flakes, S/P

In a casserole dish layer the ingredients as follows: potato, refried beans, rice, potato, tomato. Sprinkle with the spices as desired.

Bake at 350F until heated through and the tomatoes are cooked.

Top with guacamole and coconut cream and serve with baked plantains. 

Enjoy!

Pineapple Sorbet

I like to keep it really simple most days, and Wednesday posts is where I really want to showcase how eating very simply can be amazingly delicious and satisfying.

I was looking through my list of recipes that we're already photographed and realized I didn't really have anything that would fit that mission. Until I dug through some realllllllyyy old pictures I had taken in Toronto when I had no idea what taking a good food pic meant!

It's great to really see the progress I've made over the last 9 months though.

This pineapple treat could not be easier to make. It requires a bit of pre-planning to cut and prep the pineapple for freezing (or you can just buy it frozen). But other than that, all you need is a good blender or food processor and you are set. 

Did you know that its takes about 2 years for a pineapple to grow to maturity?

This is the type of recipe that really got me into raw foods in the first place. The ease in which you can make a wide variety of frozen treats is astounding. The variety is limitless and you can have ice cream for breakfast. Score!!

Sorbet has always been one of my favorite frozen treats and while you can find plenty of vegan choices at the grocer store, many of them have dairy and/or gelatin of all things. Not to mention preservatives and all those nasties. So why not whip up a little pineapple goodness in the comfort of your own kitchen?

Pineapple Sorbet

- 1-2 large ripe pineapples, cut into chunks and frozen overnight

This is as simple and delicious as can be. Dump all your pineapple into your food processor with the S blade. Process until smooth.

Note: You may want to let the pineapple defrost a bit before processing, it’ll make it easier and faster.

Enjoy!

Apple Pie Oatmeal

Breakfast around here always involves fruit, which is why not many traditional breakfasty and sweet recipes make it to this blog. But I am working to change that since all of us have sweet tooths and I want to start including many more fruit-centric recipes.

This Apple Pie Oatmeal reminds me of being a kid, but 1000% times better since we used to eat the instant sachets of oatmeal before school and had the more wholesome stuff on the weekends with brown sugar.

The apples are easily prepared in advance so if you do want to have this for breakfast you can whip it all up in no time (we have it for dinner since eating fruit all day works the best for me).

I used Royal Gala apples since they are my favorite. I've read that they aren't the best choice for this kind of recipe but I'm not really one to follow rules. They kept their shape and the texture was my cup of tea. I think softer apples are usually chosen to make pies.

Although it's all green and sunny in these pictures, this recipe is perfect for those cold winter days. Nothing like a little warm comforting oatmeal with toast to brighten up a dreary cloudy day. Is it weird that I find oatmeal to be one of the most comforting foods?

I guess comfort food to me is warm, nourishing and familiar, for the most part. Really, I think that all food is comforting in it's own way and I like to stick to the healthier stuff. Associating healthy and nutritious foods to comfort make being healthy delicious and satisfying.

Apple Pie Oatmeal

 Ingredients:

- 4 medium apples, diced

- 3/4 cup sugar

- Cinnamon to taste

- 1.5 cups quick oats

Start off making the apple caramel. In a medium pot, combine apples with the sugar and cinnamon and a splash of water. One medium-high heat, cook until syrupy and the apples have softened up. This can be made beforehand and stored in the fridge until needed.

When ready to eat, cook oatmeal according to instructions and add in half the apple caramel. Use the rest to top or just throw it all in.

Enjoy!