Nut-Free Caesar Salad Dressing

Ceaser salad is one of those iconic dishes that are available pretty much everywhere. I've often seen it on the weirdest of places, like at a chinese restaurant of all places. It has become one of the most common salads to be found and can be made in a large variety of ways.

One of these ways is the gourmet raw vegan way, usually filled with cashews. The problem is, cashews and me don't have the best of relationships. They tend to like getting me a little more weighty. While working at a raw vegan restaurant, these pesky things were everywhere.

Many people also tend to avoid nuts for many reasons: they follow a low fat vegan diet, they have allergies, they aren't actually raw... I just tend to avoid nuts because they don't digest that well and I like to keep a *generally* low fat diet. This recipe is also raw if you use fresh coconut!

While in Costa Rica, we had ample access to fresh coconuts, I would harvest the meat from them almost every week and would freeze most of later use. I made a TON of curries but I really wanted to make some fun and interesting raw recipes.

This recipe came out so well, it became a staple, where there was pretty much always a jar sitting in the fridge. If you don;t have access to fresh coconuts, or you don;t really want to go through that hassle, you *might* be able to use dried coconut that has been soaked overnight to 24 hours with a high powered blender. I can't guarantee anything though.

Coconut Caesar Dressing

Ingredients:

- 2 cups coconut meat

- Water, as needed

- 2 tbsp capers

- 2 lemons, juiced (about 5 tbsp)

- 1/4 cup noni juice OR 1/2 cup nutritionnal yeast

- 1 tbsp dijon mustard (opt)

- 1 tbsp pepper

- Salt, to taste (opt)

In a high powered blender, blend the coconut meat and water (start with 1 cup and go from there) until very smooth. 

Add in the rest of the ingredients and blend until well incorporated.

Refrigerate until ready to serve. It sets in the fridge and is even better the next day.

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

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!

7 Quick and Easy Dinners

Even the most passionate chef has days where a simple and easy dinner is welcome and appreciated. Not all delicious meals take hours in the kitchen and simplicity is an art in and of itself. Using the simple and amazing flavor of fresh produce the create an enjoyable meal is just as delicious as the 6 hour gourmet meal without all the fuss.

Most nights, we make super simple grain bowl type meals. Cook your grain or starch of choice; rice, quinoa, millet, potatoes, sweet potatoes or anythign that tickles your fancy.

Then use toppings of choice! Here are a few examples:


Super Easy Coconut Curry

Mexican Spiced Grain Bowl
Cook rice with cumin, chilli powder and diced tomatoes. Top with steamed broccoli, diced avocado, diced tomatoes and sliced green onion.

Cabbage Tacos
Cook rice with spices of choice. Slightly steam cabbage if desired. Fill with rice, salsa and avocado.

Greens and Rice Bowl
Cook rice with carrot and red pepper, cabbage and spices of choice. Cool in bowl and add a full head of romaine lettuce.

Hummus Rice Bowl
Cook rice with Kale. In a large bowl add roasted red peppers, sauteed leeks, dice avocado and hummus. 

Cheesy Quinoa Bowl

Tortilla Pizza

Top Ten Game Day Eats

I used to be a huge sports fan. Hockey was my game, but really I'd watch most sports. Nowadays, I usually just use my friends interest in sports to make them awesome vegan food. I even hosted a Grey Cup party before coming to Costa Rica. I just wanted to make chilli cheese fries.

Big game days, like the Superbowl that's imminent, are serious foodie days. People have their staples, or go all gourmet and make feasts worthy of Kings.

I like going ALL out. Bring out the showstoppers people.

Especially when it means showing off your plant-based cooking skills in dishes that will have people taking back their "being vegan is difficult" comments while chowing down on your masterpieces.

While I do take out the foods that I may not always eat, I think that it is 100% possible to make a healthy, decadent spread for all to enjoy. Beats having that stomach ache later.

SO here is my top 10 game day recipes:

1. Buffalo Cauliflower

These babies can be fired up to any spice level you want. They are crunchy delicious bites that can also be made as saucy as you like. Personally, I like drowning them.

2. Chilli

No game day spread is complete without chilli, enough said.

3. Chilli Cheese Fries

While you're at it, might as well make a build your own chilli cheese fries bar. These are so good I could eat nothing else for a week.

4. Guacamole

Mix it up with some salsa for an explosion of flavor.

Another staple of the day, just whip up an extra large batch of the recipe from the Chilli Cheese Fries. Watch as it accomplishes it's inevitable disappearing act!

5. Black Bean Sliders

This recipe is easy to covert to bite-size patties. Serve em up with your favorite toppings.

6. Hummus

This one's not just for the herbivores, I was addicted to hummus way before I switched over to the plant-based ways. There are a million variations, try out roasted red pepper, sundried tomato, or black olive varieties. Apparently, this blog is lacking a recipe for this delicious dip. I will have to rememeber to remedy to that!

7. Hell-Fire Dip

Let's get that mouth burning just a bit more, shall we? This dip has got one hell of a kick, depending on what hot sauce and jerk sauce you use. You can easily tone it down if a fire breathing mouth isn't your thing.

8. Lettuce Wraps

Lettuce wraps are the new burrito. Okay, nothing will ever replace the burrito. This one is easy to whip up and you can vary the fillings to whatever is in season. This is much better than a simple garden salad any day.

9. Melon Citrus Slushies

You've go have something delicious to accompany all those decadent dishes. This one is cool and refreshing, a greta compliment to all the rich food you'll be serving.

10. Black Bean Brownies

Make these bad boys into two-bite brownies by using a small muffin tray. Serve with some banana ice cream!

ENJOY!!

Like what you see?

Check out and LIKE the Plates for Plants FACEBOOK PAGE and see updates, pictures and new posts and sign up for our NEWSLETTER for exclusive content! (See the top right corner to sign up!)

Meatless Monday's: Cheezy Miso Quinoa Bowl

Ah Monday's, such an under-appreciated day!

I totally get why, for most it's the day that you get to go back to the daily grind. Which is why I totally support the Meatless Monday initiative. It's a great way to start off the week on the right foot. Filling yourself up with some quality nutrient dense food will help make this day better.

Also, I need to start learning to post earlier.

I'm still trying to get the hang of this scheduling thing that I told myself I would keep up with as a New Year's goal. I don't call them resolutions anymore, since I make a pretty decent list of things that I want to accomplish in the next year. They aren't all year long commitments, but I make my health and fitness goals every year. Like this year I want to run a half marathon and do a sprint triathlon among a few other things. There's also things like wanting to publish an e-book, a 30 day meditation and yoga challenge and coming here to Costa Rica. 2014 is going to be busy! Just like I like it!

Anywho, this bowl is one of the things that I just love to eat whenever I'm in the mood for some comfort food. The sauce has been a recipe of mine, that's been changed up a bit, from my very early vegan days when I was craving cheezy things often. Now, having said that, it doesn't exactly taste like cheese by any means,but has a very similar flavor profile that I find definitely hits the spot. It's also great as a Mac n' Cheeze sauce, over potatoes, broccoli...

Cheezy Miso Quinoa Bowl

Ingredients:
- 2-4 cups quinoa
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 2 bell peppers, diced
- 1 head broccoli, cut into florets.
- 2 medium sweet potatoes, diced.

Sauce:
- 2-3 cup almond milk
- 1 cup nutritional yeast
- 1 tbsp miso (or to taste)
- ¼ cup gluten free flour
- 2/3 cup salsa
- 2 tbsp turmeric

Cook the quinoa and the sweet potatoes in the same pot, about 20 minutes.

While the quinoa/s-p’s are cooking, sauté the onion with a bit of water until translucent, then add the rest of the veggies with ¼ cup of water and cover to steam.

In another pot, combine the nooch, turmeric and flour until well incorporated, then whisk in the almond milk and miso. Heat on a medium-high heat, whisking frequently until it has thickened up. Now add the salsa.

Assemble your bowl! Quinoa, sweet potato, then veggies and as much sauce as you prefer! I basically drown my bowl in sauce, but then again I am a sauce addict!

ENJOY!!

Like what you see?

Check out and LIKE the Plates for Plants FACEBOOK PAGE and see updates, pictures and new posts and sign up for our NEWSLETTER for exclusive content! (See the top right corner to sign up!)