Beet and Clementine Salad

Sometimes you've just got to eat dirt. Whether it's a mushroom, a beet, or almost any other root veggie, the foods that taste like dirt are oddly appealing to me.

The beet has been especially crave worthy lately, and I've been eating them like crazy.

I like that they're healthy

I really like their deep red color

I'm a fan of their versatility

Heck, I love that they taste like dirt.

I really love they they're good for you, and have been eating them like crazy for the past week or so.

Roasted, boiled, and raw beets with balsamic vinegar are great for a while, but eventually, they need something else. That's when you make a beet salad.

This is one of my favorites, with sweet citrus, creamy avocado, earthy beets, peppery arugula, and nutty sunflower seeds, this salad is almost overwhelming in that it hits every last tastebud.

It may be complex in flavor, but it's one of the easiest salads to make--perfect for a brown paper lunch bag, a summer picnic, or a more formal dinner.

Beet and Clementine Salad

Serves 4

16 cups (one large bunch) arugula, rinsed and dried

8 steamed baby beets, quartered (you can find prepared beets at Trader Joe's)

2-4 clementines, peeled and segmented

1/4 cup shelled sunflower seeds

Dressing

Makes 1.25 cups

1 ripe avocado, peeled and seeded

2/3 cup of water, divided

1 tsp lime zest

3 Tbs lime juice

2 chopped green onions

1 clove of garlic

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (or to taste) 

Salt and Pepper to taste

In a large boll, toss the greens, beets, and clementines.

In a blender, puree the avocado, 1/2 cup of water, lime juice and zest, onions and garlic until smooth. Add more water if the mixture is too thick. 

Taste and add salt, pepper, and cayenne until seasoned to your taste (I used about 1/2 tsp of each)

Divide the salad onto 4-6 plates, top each with 1-3 Tbs of dressing and a tablespoon of sunflower seeds.

Enjoy!

Strawberry Rhubarb-Rhubarb Galette

Galettes are the pie world's cookie. They're free form, they're relaxing, they're whatever you want them to be.
I find galettes liberating.
Really, I do.
My mom's the kind of person who needs some liberation. A lawyer, a mom, a high stress individual who prefers birthday pie to birthday cake. Her favorite pie is strawberry rhubarb. Unfortunately, she was born in late July (the 2nd to last day) and by now, rhubarb is long out of season.
This high stress individual has an obsessive daughter. The kind of daughter who bought all the rhubarb she could get her hands on, flash cooked, and froze it in anticipation of July 30th. This daughter needs a galette.

Strawberry rhubarb pie is a taste of my childhood. Some people have memories of chocolat chip cookies and meat load, I have memories os rhubarb and spaghetti alla puttanesca. My sister, Dad, and I would hunt one down every July, always literally leaping for joy when we found one at Peterson's (the best pie in town) Now Peterson's is closed and we always get one in June from Eileen's Pies and Otherwise (If you go to Martha's Vineyard, find her, buy her warm pies, and spend the rest of your days in pastry-induced bliss)

Getting ready for a Dinner Picnic

I love the way the rhubarb cuts through the sickly sweet childhood taste of cooked strawberries,  love the way the cinnamon lends a much needed depth, and the way the honey plants the desser firmly on the ground. The nuttiness of whole wheat flour and slight tartness of Greek yogurt in the dough doesn't hut either.
This recipe works just as well with fresh rhubarb as frozen, though I don't recommend prepackaged frozen fruit because strawberry-rhubarb combinations tend to be pretty runny, and the frozen stuff gives off juice like you wouldn't believe. I know most of you will have to wait close to another year to make this exact recipe, but subbing 1 cup of rasberries, 1 cup of strawberries, and 1 cup of peaches will work just as well!

Strawberry Rhubarb Galette
Serves 6-8

2 c rhubarb, sliced thin
1 c strawberries, sliced thin
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/3 c corn starch
2/3 c turbinado or other raw sugar, plus more for sprinkling

2 c whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp salt
2/3 c skim Greek yogurt
3-4 Tbs ice water
2 Tbs milk

For Crust: 
In the bowl of a food processor, pulse salt and flour until light. Add the yogurt 1/4c at a time until just combined. Add water slowly, until the dough just begins to form a rough mass. Form into a ball and chill while making filling.
For Filling:
Combine Lemon, flour, and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Add fruit and sugar and toss to thoroughly combine, making sure the fruit is evenly spread, and that the flour is not clumping.
Construction:
Transfer dough to a floured surface and roll out to a 10x15 rectangle and move to a parchment lined baking sheet.
Spoon the drained fruit filling into the middle, leaving about 2 inches around the sides.
Fold in the shorter edges, then the longer sides to overlap.
Pinch the corners closed. Brush with milk, sprinkle with the extra sugar and bake, at 350ºF for 45 minutes, cover with foil if the crust gets too golden and the fruit is not yet finished.
Cool for 20 minutes, cut and enjoy!

Honey Almond Cookies with No Refined Sugar

Sometimes you want  need a cookie. A lot of times, it's too hot, or too fancy an occasion, or you've just already eaten too much to grab for your favorite chocolate chip or peanut butter buddy

(yes, cookies are friends, not food.) 

These cookies bridge the gap between satisfaction and grace perfectly. They're nutty, spongy, and so subtle sweet, they'll make you swoon like a real lady. And, you can have more than one and still feel like gliding, not thumping (or rolling)

Honey Almond Cookies
Makes about 24 cookies

1 1/2 cups almond meal
3/4 cup wildflower (or your favorite type) honey
4 egg whites
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
1/4 tsp powdered ginger (optional)

Preheat your oven to 350ºF, line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper, and move the rack to the bottom of the oven.
In a bowl, mix almond meal, honey, and ginger until well combined
In another very clean glass bowl, whisk egg whites and cream of tartar until the eggs form stiff, shiny peaks, usually about 5 minutes, but it depends on your eggs, bowl and kitchen.
Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the almond mixture until just combined. Add the rest of the eggs and fold gently. Spoon with a real table spoon (the kind you use for eating) onto the lined baking sheets and pop them in the oven.
After 2 minutes, lower the temperature to 300ºF and continue cooking for 8-12 minutes or until golden and fragrant.
Enjoy!

Walnut Butter (cookies)

I've had a revelation.
Some people have them while sitting on solitary rocks in the desert.

Some people have them while sitting in the belly of a whale.
I had mine sitting on the couch with a jar of almond butter and a spoon.
Yep, I'm refined like that.

The revelation was this: I love natural nut butters...I can make natural nut butters...I love making food...I bet I'd love making natural nut butters.
Oh, and my revelation was correct. Since I first did the math, I have fallen in love with making nut butters from scratch, adding unexpected ingredients, and then using those butters as the unexpected ingredient in a whole new recipe. It really makes you feel like you deserve the respect you get when you drop the Made from Scratch title.

These are 2 of the most basic nut butter recipes, but I promise I'll post more soon, and hummus too, because that's essentially just a bean butter (and peanuts are technically beans, so.. yep)
These are like the sophisticated big brother of the peanut butter cookie, not quite as elegant as the almond butter cookies I made a few months back (they're more like the great aunt who's surprisingly trendy) but clearly there's a lot more going on with these guys than there is with their peanut butter companions.

In reality, the only real big difference is that these use a different nut, a couple of slightly different measurements, and a giant food processor. The nut does all the heavy lifting, but go ahead, take credit, you did make the butter after all.

Slightly Seasoned Walnut Butter
Makes about 1 cup 

8 oz of walnuts, peeled and coarsely chopped
Water
Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean (or 1 tsp decent vanilla extract)

Soak the walnuts over night in water. This removes any bitterness.
In the morning, preheat your oven to 350ºF and drain your nuts.
Roast the nuts in the oven until dry and slightly fragrant, this should take bout 15 minutes, but check them often and turn them half way through. Do not let them get dark.
Remove the nuts from the oven and cool to room temperature, feel free to keep your oven on if you're going to make the cookies.
Place the nuts in the bowl of your food processor and grind them for a while. At first you'll just have nut mal, but if you keep on scraping down the sides and grinding on and on, you'll end up with a creamy butter. Just before the nuts reach their ideal smoothness (about 13 minutes in) add your vanilla, and continue pulsing and scraping for about another 2 minutes.
Use as you please, I like it in the cookie below.

Walnut Butter Cookies
Makes about 30 cookies

1 cup walnut butter (above yield)
1 large egg
2/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp sea salt
2/3 cups AP flour
1 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350ºF and line 2 pans with parchment paper.
In a medium bowl, mix together the first 5 ingredients until well incorporated and almost verging on creamy.
Sift in the flour and baking powder, stirring after every 5 hits or so.
Scoop 1/2 tbs sized balls onto the parchment and space them about 2-2 1/2 inches apart, they have a decent spread.
Bake for about 10 minutes or until they're crisp around the edges but still soft int eh middle.
Enjoy!

Vegan Caprese Salad

Salads are boring.
I'm sure you've heard that said about a million times, but it's not true. It's simply a lie. Who over told you that does not really know anything about salad.
I'm on a bit of a giant salad kick at the moment, due to a little thing called a diet (check out my other blog below) and I'm actually really enjoying it!

Exhibit A, because the bag technique is very hard to explain without visuals

I'm not allowed much dairy on this diet, so I save it for the important things, like Greek yogurt and have been using my usual substitute Almond milk quite a bit. When I was craving the classic tomato, basil and cheese salad, though, I ran into a little bit of a problem. That's where tofu and vinegar come in, though.

Brown Baggin' it!

The tofu absorbs the flavor of the marinade and really tastes similar to cheese. The texture's not too far off, either. So, whether you're vegan, on a diet, or just out of cheese, you can always enjoy a Caprese.
I used my favorite lunch time salad making technique-make it in a big zip top bag, put that in a tupperware, and you know all the dressing is sealed securely inside. So, if you want to make this salad in a bowl, just follow the directions but put the ingredients in a bowl, not bag, and toss, don't shake.

Vegan Caprese Salad
(serves 1)

1 medium roma tomato, sliced
8-10 basil leaves, ripped
2 oz firm tofu, thoroughly drained
1 small shallot, finely chopped
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp red wine vinegar
Salt and pepper to taste

Put tomato, basil, shallot, oil, vinegar, salt and pepper ina large zip top bag, and shake gently to combine.
Cut the tofu into 1/4 inch squares and squeeze the liquid out, by wrapping it in paper towels and squeezing until dry.
Crumple the tofu into the salad and skake it up again again.
Allow the salad to marinate for 2 hours or overnight. This step is really important because it allows the tofu to absorb the other flavors, and make a more convincing cheese substitute.
Put the bag in a tall sealable container so you can eat it bowl style without any clean up or possible spillage.
Enjoy!
And remember to check out my Other Blog