Hummus: the paste that connects us all.

When the end of times is here - we can all agree on one thing.. hummus is awesome.  Here is a cooked and raw iteration. The best part of these hummus recipes is they are bean free -- i.e. wont give you hummus farts.

Roasted Zucchini Hummus

2 zucchinis, charred, roasted, go ahead and burn it
2 Tbsp tahini
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp paprika
1/4 tsp pepper
juice of 1 lemon
a bit of fresh cilantro
1 tsp olive oil

Throw everything in a food processor except the olive oil. Keep the skin on the zucchini.  Pour blended into a dish then add some additional paprika for color and drizzle a bit of olive oil over the top. SO EXCELLENT.

Raw Sweet Potato Hummus

2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 carrot, in a few chunks
1/4 cup cashews (or sub pumpkin seeds or hemp seeds)
2 Tbsp tahini
1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
2 tsp soy sauce
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp pepper
juice of 1 lemon

Blend in a food processor or a blender. Taste good?  This is a recreation of a cultured hummus product made locally in Sacramento. It never tastes quite the same. But it also doesn't cost $7.

Shakshuka

This super simple recipe has rocked the house lately. Even if nobody can say it.

1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 hot pepper, fresh or dried (ancho chiles are great!)
1 jar tomatoes n juices (or three or four fresh tomatoes, tomato paste to sub for volume)
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp paprika (smoked preferably)
1 tsp cumin
4 - 6 eggs (or 2 eggs per human being fed)
1/4 cup parsley (or something that looks like it, I've used celery leaves for the parsley effect)
1/2 cup feta cheese

Optional, but really fun adds:
Mushrooms
Kim Chi
Kale


Saute onions and garlic for 5ish minutes. Throw in the peppers, tomatoes, and spices and cook the tomatoes down for 20ish minutes, stirring occasionally.  If you have any fun optionally add them here.

Spoon a few depressions in the tomato mix and crack eggs in the holes.  The eggs will poach themselves after 5ish minutes and turn off the heat when yolks are still running but the whites have turned, well, white.  Throw on the feta and parsley and serve! Can eat with a spoon or over rice or with breadtype things if you so desire.  I'm pretty sure this is a breakfast food but I think it makes a great dinner.

Steel-Cut Risotto

Risotto is delicious. It's also time consuming and requires an inappropriate amount of attention while cooking. Enter rice's best friend, oats! Subbing steel-cut oats for arborio may seem like a lazy way to avoid the grocery store - but it's really quite brilliant.  Thus far, my efforts at steel-cut oat risotto have yielded better results than the original. Try it, you'll see!

1 c steel cut oats, soak for 1 hour (or all day)
1 T olive oil
1/2 white onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 c white wine
2 c broth (or water and bouillon)
1/4 c sun dried tomatoes, chopped
1 c mushrooms
1/2 c spinach
2 T nutritional yeast
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/2 t salt
pepper to taste
Cheesy substitute to top if desired, although it's pleasantly creamy without.

Soak your oats. Do it. Then, when you're ready:

Saute onion and garlic in olive oil for 3-5 minutes. Add oats and lightly toast for another 3 minutes or so.  Add your wine, stir, and bring to a simmer. Add sun-dried tomatoes. After your wine has evaporated, add 1 c of broth, stirring to avoid oat stickage. Drop in your mushrooms. Add the last broth cup after the first dose has been absorbed. add the remaining ingredients. Once all the liquid has disappeared, you're ready to go!

Carrot Fake

Oh hey girl, hey. Been a while. I've been making a lot of random sub-par foodstuffs lately, mostly from unwanted food waste, and nothing worth blogging about.  This recently recurring recipe is a change of pace. So hey, why not put it on the internet. Note that it's not original. Stealz. But tasty.  Most convenient this tasty dessert requires no cooking - because who can wait for sugary goodness?

The Fake Part
3 cups shredded carrots
1 cup pitted dates
1 cup walnuts
2/3 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt


The Top Part
2 cups raw cashews, soaked
2/3 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla extract
juice from 1/2 lemon

In a food processor, shred carrots. Switch blades, add the remaining ingredients and smoosh until well chopped and mixed but still identifiable objects. Spread into the bottom of a bread pan or pie dish. Don't wash your food processor. But in all the top part ingredients and mix until its as liquid and smooth as it with get. If you need to add extra water to get it smoother go for it, but the intent is for it to be a self-supported goo so don't go too wild.  Once smooth, spread on top of what is in your pan. Then immediately take it back out of the pan and put it in your mouth.

Banana Cream Pie

GARBAGE BANANAS!

So I made this raw dessert mostly to use aging irish moss I had. It's used primarily as a solidifying agent as a substitute for fat products in raw foods. I don't recommend buying the stuff as its weird and smells like fish. So where I used 1 cup of irish moss, I would sub with 1 cup of cashews, blended to smithereens.

Crust:

1 c almonds

1 c cashews

1 c dates

1 T coconut oil

Banana Cream Filling:

3 garbage bananas

1 c coconut flakes

juice from 1 lemon

1 t vanilla

1 c irish moss

Not so creamy whipped cream topping:

1 c coconut flakes

1 c coconut milk

1/4 c coconut sugar

1/4 c coconut oil

1/4 c irish moss

Crust - food processor until you get the consistency of a Larabar.  About 3-5 minutes and it will start to clump together. Press into a pie pan and chill.  Filling things in a blender then pour into pie pan. Let chill between layers.  Let finished pie chill and set for about an hour.

Mega Salad to the Max

This one is a winner.  I had this salad at Fudenjuice in Nevada City (which is just awesome) and it was so incredibly good I immediately wanted to eat it again. So for a dinner party that very same day I recreated it. Well received.

Everything works just so right, I'm in love.  I've had it both cold and warm (cause I couldn't wait for the quinoa and tempeh to cool) and it's really pretty fantastic either way.

First note - the recipe calls for a cup of cooked grain further down, so I suggest you start that first before preceding.

Dressing
1/4 c miso
1/4 c tahini
1/4 c water
3 T rice vinegar
2 T tamari
2 T sesame oil
1 T maple syrup

Combine everything in a bowl and stir until smooth. If still pretty thick (kind of tahini-dependent) add more water (or oil).

Tempeh
8 oz package tempeh, cut into half inch cubes
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 T tamari
1 T lemon juice
1 T fennel seed
1 t basil
1 t marjoram
1/2 t red pepper flakes
1/2 t sage

Cover the tempeh with water in a saute pan and boil until water is absorbed. Add everything else and cook about 10 minutes, stirring aggressively to break up the cubes a bit.

Salad
1 bunch spinach
1 cup cooked grain (rice or quinoa)
1 apple
1/4 c seeds (pumpkin or sunflower)
1/4 c nuts (walnuts or pecans)

Chop and wash your spinach (spinach, along with leeks, are the only items I consistently wash - for reals that's dirty). Layer your spinach and pile a cup of cooked grain, your sliced apple, and then go nuts... or not. Top with your cooked tempeh and add your dressing.

Lemon Rosemary Muffins

A quick savory muffin recipe. Let's get baked!

1/2 c rice flour
1/2 c garbanzo bean flour
1/4 c arrowroot starch
2 T buckwheat flour
2 T quinoa flakes
1 T baking powder
1 T flax seed
1 T rosemary
1/2 t salt
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c coconut milk
juice of one lemon
1 tsp lemon zest
1/2 c butter-like substance*

Combine dry. Add wet. Stir. Bake at 350F for 15-17 minutes.

*For an extra fragrant savory breakfast treat, you can use herb-infused fat products. You know... like lavender butter or basil olive oil. Sounds fancy, right? Easier than you think. Put ~1/2 cup of ground herbs with 1 cup of oil or butter (or a 1:48 herb-to-fat weight ratio) and put in a crock pot with 1/4 cup of water on low for 8-10 hours. I've used this local brand of cultured non-dairy buttery product, but anything high in saturated fat will do: actual butter, avocado oil, coconut oil, palm oil, etc. would all do the trick!

Freddy Kugel

Kugel. What is kugel? I think most people imagine baked egg noodles with raisins and cream cheese. So what happens when you take out all of those ingredients.. is it still a kugel? Sure. I'd say kugel translates to casserole, and since casserole is a French word for pan -- I think if you cook it in a pan, then you can call it a kugel.  So here is a kugel recipe.

2-3 lb winter squash

3 apples

1/4 c arrowroot powder

3 T maple syrup

1/4 c coconut milk

juice of 1/2 lemon

1 t cinnamon

1/2 t salt

First, roast your squash. You can roast it whole but cutting it in half expedites cook time. 30+ mins at 425F typically does the trick, depending on size. It's okay to be impatient here since you are just going to cook it again anyway.  While the squash is roasting dice the apples and in a bowl combine with remaining ingredients and mix.  Let sit while the squash is roasting, stirring occasionally.  Once the squash is sufficiently roasted and cool enough to handle scoop out 2+ cups and mix with your apple mucus.  This mixture will fit nicely into a pie pan - or whatever casserole [dish] you want. Bake at 375F for an hour or so. Let cool.

Kale Salad for Dummies

Can't say I've met a kale salad I didn't like. Crunchy, creamy, or cooked.. I'm kind of a kale fiend.

A few rules of thumb:

Rip it! Small pieces are easier to enjoy and absorb.. and frankly a little more becoming to eat. Instead of cutting out the ribs and chopping the leaves into small pieces just rip small pieces right off the stalk - it's much less time consuming.

Rub it! Massaging kale in an acidic solution (orange juice, lemon juice, vinegar, etc.) breaks down the leaves. The abrasive nature can be off-putting for some and a quick caress can really go far. Make sure your dressing has some sort of acid and take 5 minutes to aggressively rub in it.

Douse it! Unlike the more pansy greens like spinach, arugula, and romaine, kale is a toughy. It can handle whatever you throw at it. So throw a lot at it. Do you know how much dressing it takes to move from a kale salad to a kale soup? I think we should push the limits.

Faghettabot it! Never, ever throw away a kale salad. The longer you wait, the better it tastes.

Ok, now let us apply these tools.  Here is a simple recipe that gets the job done.  A lot people have basic salad rules (i.e. fruit, nut, cheese) but its pretty hard to go wrong.

1 bunch kale*
3 T balsamic vinegar
1 T olive oil or flaxseed oil
2 t wet mustard, dijon preferrably
1/2 t salt
1/4 c raw dehulled pumpkin seeds, aka pepitas, which in Spanish means "little seed of squash" FYI
1/4 c dried cranberries
1/4 c red onion, sliced thin

Rip your kale, add your dressing ingredient, and thoroughly massage until wilted.  Throw on your toppings (and anything else you'd like to add) and voila. Easy as kale salad.

*Do you ever stand in the produce section perplexed by the endless varieties of kale?  Basically, the best for raw salads is dino kale, aka dinosaur kale, lacinato kale, tuscan kale, black kale, and probably a dozen other names.  Go for the one with the most flat leaves. If unavailable the standard curly kale, or scots kale, is a solid choice - just be sure to diligently massage it avoid eating like a horse.

Pumpkin Porridge

Sometimes I struggle with breakfast.  I love big elaborate breakfasts but, just like everyone else in the world America, don't have time to make something new and exciting everyday. Still I do by best to switch it up from week to week so I don't get too bored or too burnt out on one thing (no more chia seed pudding, bla!).

Enter fall! All the allure of brilliant fruits and vegetables and the hustle and bustle of the weekly daily farmers markets has since passed - but the plethora of seasonable vegetables available is better than ever.  Maybe summer has the most freshness, but fall has the most flavor.  Spices are drying, citrus is turning, the squash are HUGE, the parsnips are finally done growing... and don't even get me going on my love affair with persimmons. It's all just lovely. Not even sure where I was going with that. Anyway.. this is what I've been eating for breakfast lately:

1 c cooked pumpkin, mashed
2 T almond meal
1 T flax seed, ground
1 t maple syrup
salt
1/4 c almond milk

Occasionally I throw in some cinnamon, cardamom, or nutmeg for kick.  It's been tasty. It's been real.