Babaganush

During my Yoga Teacher Training I was obsessed with The Hummus Kitchen that was 1 block away. We would all go at least 2-3 times a week! As any of my friends can attest I won’t stop talking about it. I really only eat 2 dishes there but I am sure all they serve is wonderful. I always order The Hummus Kitchen (hummus sampler) which is 4 different kinds of super creamy and delightful kinds of hummus. You can have this served with regular pita or their amazing whole wheat variety. I also LOVE their Super-Healthy Salad, an Amazing salad of quinoa, apricot, walnuts, butternut squash & mint tahini sauce. Pure Yummyliciousness! This is truly the best Hummus in NYC! I am always up for going if anyone is interested!!

Recently I decided to make my own Babaganush. I served this with whole wheat pitas and store bought hummus and it was deelish. I did think it was more work than I figured but it was a really large portion and very yummy. I would suggest only using 1 eggplant instead of 2. Babaganush is super tasty and way less fat than hummus alone.

P.S. We are having a 2lb Chia Seed Giveaway that ends on 4/2 – so don’t forget to enter HERE!!!

Babaganush
Serves a crowd!

2 large eggplants
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/3 cup tahini
Juice of one lemon
Salt and pepper to taste

  1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Poke several holes all over the eggplants and bake on a cookie sheet or shallow pan for 45 minutes
  2. Remove eggplants from the oven and place in a large bowl. Let cool for 5 minutes. Cut off the stem tips and slice each eggplant in half lengthwise. Scoop out the flesh and transfer to another bowl. Discard the skin.
  3. Cut the eggplant into inch size pieces. Place in a food processor. Add garlic, tahini, and lemon juice and pulse chop. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
  4. Chill until ready to serve. Enjoy!

Sweet Potato Fries with Raspberry Dipping Sauce

Go JETS!

Game Day at my house is always an event! I don’t always make fun and fabulous foods but I try to. This one was so perfect and yummy! On these kind of days I can appreciate the short prep time so we can just sit down and enjoy ourselves. I always love making a sauce like this because not only is it amazing but it is so bright and gorgeous too!

The inspiration for this dish was from one of the great NYC vegetarian restaurants, Gobo. When I was younger I would order their Yam & Yucca fries that always came with a yummy raspberry dipping sauce. I haven’t ordered french fries anywhere in years, so this was such a pleasure to indulge in! I love taking something classic like that and updating it with a healthy twist! Deelish!

Sweet Potato Fries with Raspberry Dipping Sauce

3 to 4 sweet potatoes
2 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup sweetened dried cranberries
1/2 bag of frozen raspberries
1/4-1/3 cup agave

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Spray or lightly grease a large baking sheet. Peel the sweet potatoes and cut them in 4 slices lengthwise. Then cut east piece into 1/4-inch wide strips. Place them into a large bowl and add the oil, salt, and pepper. Toss gently to coat the potato slices well and spread them on the baking sheet in a single layer. Bake until the potatoes are lightly browned and crisp on the outside and tender on the inside, 25 – 35 minutes. Make sure to rotate them once halfway through. While potatoes are baking; combine the frozen raspberries with agave until smooth in a food processor or blender and pour into a serving dish. When the potatoes are done serve immediately with dipping sauce.

Raw Sweet Potatoes

Channukah Pot-luck Part 1

We hosted a Channukah Potluck on the last night of Channukah. It was so nice to be with everyone and share great food! I love having my friends over the house and cooking for them. I have been really into the pot-luck idea lately as you aren’t exhausted when your friends come over after spending the week cooking in the kitchen.  We were really excited to celebrate and so happy that we managed to fit 9 people into out apartment! The joys of city living 🙂

Judith is an amazing cook and makes such great and gorgeous food! This time she made an Insalata Caprese for our first course. I always love that kind of salad, but she made it even more special with the addition of roasted peppers, sun-dried tomatoes and deelish balsamic drizzle. Yum!! Check out her Fig and Goat Cheese Bruschetta from our last pot-luck.

Uploading these pics now is making my mouth water!! Seriously how gorgeous is this dish?!?!?!
Insalata Caprese

  • Assorted Heirloom or Garden Tomatoes (about one large tomato per person)
  • Large bunch fresh basil
  • Fresh Mozzarella. It will be packed in water. About ~3 oz per person
  • Balsamic Glaze (or Balsamic Vinegar)
  • Jar of roasted peppers
  • Bag of sun-dried tomatoes (optional)
  1. Slice tomatoes (tip: put them in the fridge for an hour to make slicing easier) and mozzarella into pieces of equal thickness. Place in a plastic container or cover and let come up to room temperature before eating.
  2. Drizzle balsamic on the bottom of a plate.
  3. Arrange slices of tomatoes, basil leaves, peppers, sun dried tomatoes and mozzarella.
  4. OPTIONAL – For a more filling salad, toss mesclun mixed greens with a small amount of vinegar, oil, salt and pepper.
  5. OPTIONAL TIP #2 – In a blender, combine 2-4 tbsp olive oil with the remaining basil leaves to make an herb oil. Use this to drizzle over the TMB.

Stay tuned for the entrée course tomorrow 🙂

Fabulous Pot-Luck part 1

Last Saturday night we had the best time at our house with some great friends and deelish food! It was really such a wonderful evening that writing this post is making me so happy! Maybe it was the way I was raised, maybe it is just me, or maybe I am just human haha but good friends and good food is the ultimate for me! Cheers to that!

My fabulous girlfriend Judith and her husband Ken brought over this mouth-watering app for us all to enjoy. Take a look at these pics and let me know if you could resist these!! They were even better than they look!

This is a great recipe that you can make for entertaining. Judith actually put this together at my house in under 20 minutes, with several of those just having the bread toasting in the oven. Super simple and super delicious! If you have more people to serve just double or triple the recipe, this one will go quickly 🙂

Judith’s Fig and Goat Cheese Bruschetta
Recipe Inspired by Cooking Light
6-10 servings

1 French bread baguette, sliced into 1/2 inch slices, toasted
I jar of fig jam (you only need about half)
1 1/4  cups  (10 ounces) crumbled goat cheese (we used low-fat and it was amazing and light!)
5  teaspoons  finely chopped walnuts

Toast the bread slices right before ready to serve. Top each toasted bread slice with 1 1/2 teaspoons fig jam and 1 1/2 teaspoons goat cheese. Then drizzle with honey and sprinkle evenly with walnuts. Arrange bruschetta on a serving tray. Serve warm. ENJOY 🙂

Edamame Guacamole

I served this with pita chips and it was deelish! This was a great way to enjoy heaping chips full of guacamole with more than half the fat! Check out the nutrition stats below!!! Love it!! Just be careful how much lime juice you use. I used a whole lime and it came out a little too limey. If you want traditional guacamole add cilantro. I don’t enjoy cilantro so I didn’t add it.

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Edamame Guacamole
Serves 6

1/2 cup shelled edamame
1/2 cup broccoli stalks, peeled
1 avocado
1 scallion, minced
1/2 red onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 jalapeno, minced
juice of 1/2 lime
1 tomato, diced
salt to taste

cilantro – optional

Bring 4 cups of water to boil. Add edamame and broccoli to boiling water for 4 minutes till softened. Drain and puree in a food processor. With a fork or a whisk mash the puree with the avocado. Add in the avocado, scallion, red onion, garlic, jalapeno, lime, tomato and the optional cilantro. Salt to taste and enjoy 🙂

Per serving: 66 calories, 4 g fat, .5 g saturated fat, 0 g cholesterol, 10 sodium, 2.5 g protein, 6 g carbohydrates, 1 g sugar, 3 g fiber

Chocolate-Covered Katie’s Banana Butter

Chocolate-Covered Katie came up with this great idea of mixing peanut butter and bananas to make a deelish Banana Butter! Adding the banana makes an amazingly spreadable and much lower calorie butter. You can make it thinner or thicker depending on the amount of nut butter you use. This recipe is so simple yet so super enjoyable!

I know this would be great with any nut butter but because I had just “made” my deelish Agave Pecan Butter I thought this was perfect time to use it. The butter was the perfect dip! We enjoyed this with apples and with pita chips as well. So creamy and sooo deelish!!

Katie, I totally want to be a member of your band 🙂 This is so fabulous!!!!

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Chocolate-Covered Katie’s Banana Butter
Makes about 1.5 cups

  • 2 bananas
  • 8 tablespoons of nut butter

Super simple…. just blend together and enjoy!

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Raw Food Dinner Party part 1

I have always loved cooking food and giving to others. It is definitely one of my favorite things to do. But I have not had the chance to have a full blown Raw Dinner Party till now. I am so happy that we were able to this. There is not much better than good company and good food!

Here is our appetizer, which could easily be a meal on its own. It was amazing! While I was making the “sour cream” I had to make sure to put it in the fridge so that I didn’t eat it all before our friends came over! If you love truffles or bruschetta at all, you will go mad for this dish!

If you want a sneak peek for the upcoming recipes check out my menu in the picture below 🙂

Cornbread Bruschetta with White Truffle “Sour Cream” and Spiced Tomatoes

bruschetta 3

Cornbread Bruschetta with White Truffle “Sour Cream” and Spiced Tomatoes
Recipe from Entertaining in the Raw by Matthew Kenney
Serves 4-6
Bruschetta
1 cup flax meal
1 tablespoon dried oregano
2 cups fresh corn kernels
1 1/3 cups walnuts, soaked 8-10 hours
1 tablespoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 shallot, minced
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
2 tablespoon raw agave nectar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon minced jalapeno
1 teaspoon ancho chile powder

“Sour Cream”
1 cup cashews, soaked 1-2hours
1/2 cups water
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons white truffle oil

Tomato
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon nama shoyu
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 tablespoon minced shallots
1 tablespoon chopped chipotle peppers, soaked 1 hour
salt and pepper to taste
3 tablespoons julienned basil

Assembly
1/4 cup basil leaves
fresh black pepper

Bruschetta
Place flax meal in a medium-sized bowl; set aside. Process remaining ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Add the bowl with flax meal and stir until well combined. Spread on Teflex sheets in desired shape to 1/2inch thickness. Dehydrate at 115 degrees F for 24-36 hours until almost completely dry but still a bit pliable

“Sour Cream”
Blend all the ingredients in a Vita-Mix until completely smooth. Refrigerate until firm.

Tomato
Toss all ingredients together and season to taste

Assembly
Spread a think layer of “sour cream” on each piece of bruschetta and top with a generous amount of tomatoes. Garnish with basil and black pepper.

my notes:

For the “Sour Cream” I used black truffle oil instead of white, but if you saw my note above, you would know that I am sure it does not matter. It was absurdly deelish!

For the Tomatoes, I did not use cilantro and I am not a fan and I did not use the peppers. Instead of the cilantro I used more basil. Instead of the peppers, I substituted jalapeno peppers and some chili powder.


bruschetta 4

Flatbread Pizza with hummus, green olives, cherry tomatoes and za’atar

This was soooo good! I made the complete recipe for the crust and halved the rest as I knew there was never anyway we would eat all of this deliciousness. But I figured we could use the crusts for other recipes as they are very versatile. I love everything Pure Food and Wine and can’t wait to check out Sarma’s new cookbook, Living Raw Food! But this is recipe is from Raw Food Real World. All their recipes are pretty complicated but I am guessing that 99% of them are amazing! Due to the complexity level and the gourmet heaviness of some of the foods they are not everyday recipes for us. But when we make them we sure love them! I could see this dish being served at a fancy Middle Eastern restaurant or you can make them bit sized and serve them as hor o’dourves!!!! How fun!! So deeelish! I loved the use of Za’atar (a Middle Eastern spice blend of sumac, sesame seeds and the wild Syrian hyssop plant) in this recipe. I had bought some the last time I was in Israel and this was the first time I got to break it out and use it. Ahhhh… 🙂 The crusts were delicious and the hummus was the best raw hummus I have ever had! Such a great recipe! You could always break this recipe down and use just one component when you need it.

Flatbread Pizza with hummus, green olives, cherry tomatoes and za’atar

 pizza close-up

pizza crust on dehydrator sheet

The crust still on the dehyrdrator sheet

For the crusts:
5 cups walnuts, soaked 1 hour or more (I soaked them overnight – when soaking nuts, make sure to rinse well after)
5 cups cubed yellow squash or zucchini
3/4 cup golden flaxseed, finely ground (1 cup ground)
1/2 cup hemp seeds
1/4 to 1/2 cup filtered water
1 tablespoon sea salt

1. Pulse the walnuts in a food processor to chop into tiny pieces (like couscous), but not completely smooth. Transfer the nuts to a large bowl. Add the squash to the same food processor bowl and grind into tiny pieces, but again not completely smooth. Transfer the squash to the bowl with the walnuts. Add the flaxseed, hemp seeds, salt and about 1/4 cup of water, stirring to combine. Add more water until a sticky dough forms – like wet muffin batter. You may need more or less water.

2. Divide the batter between four 14-inch Teflex lined dehydrator trays. Using an offset spatula spread the dough to the edges of the trays. The dough can be a bit gummy and sticky, so it helps to dip the spatula in water as you spread the dough (the excess water will all evaporate in the dehydrator)

3. Dehydrate the flatbread at 115 degrees for 6-8 hours, pr overnight. When the tops are dry, flip over and peel away the Teflex liners. Dehydrate on screens for another 2-4 hours.

4. Once both sides are dry, slide the flatbread onto a large cutting board. With a large chef’s knife, cut into 3×5 rectangles (or whatever size and shape you want). Place them back in the dehydrator trays and dehydrate for another hour or more, as necessary for firm crusts.

hummus

For the hummus:
4 cups cashews, soaked for 2 hours or more (when I woke up I starting soaking them, so around 8 hours)
1/2 cup lemon juice
2 small cloves garlic
1/4 cup sesame tahini
1 teaspoon sea salt
Up to one cup filtered water

In a food processor, add the nuts, lemon juice, garlic, tahini, and salt and process, adding water 1/4 cup at a time until you get the smooth, fluffy consistency of hummus. You may need to add more water, or you may want to add olive oil for a richer hummus – just make sure it has enough stiffness so it will hold the topping on the pizza without running off the sides of the crust

olive tapenade

For Green Olive Tapenade: (You only need a half cup for recipe, so reduce if you want, or make the entire batch to have on hand.)
makes 3 1/2 cups

3 cups putted green olives
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 small handful of parsley (optional) (I used the parsley. I think it added a nice texture and color)
freshly ground pepper

1. Process the olives in a food processor. With the motor running, add the olive oil and lemon juice and process until smooth. Add the parsley (if using) and process to combine. Season with pepper to taste

2. Transfer to a covered container and refrigerate. Will keep up to 1-2 weeks.

For serving:
1 pint cherry, teardrop or grape tomatoes, halved
1/4 of a large bulb of fennel or 1/2 of a small bulb, shaved very thin on a mandolin
1/2 English cucumber, peeled, seeded and finely diced
1/2 cup Green olive Tapenade
1/2 cup Green olives, pitted and halved
2 tablespoons za’atar seasoning
fennel fronds for garnish

Spread each crust with hummus and top with tomatoes, fennel, cucumber, olive tapenade and olives. Sprinkle with za’atar and top with fennel fronds

pizzas

za'atar from Israel
My Za’atar from Israel

Raw Mushroom Cream Sushi

I love playing around with different Nori Rolls and wraps. You can really add or subtract from any recipe or just put whatever you have around in and roll it up. So simple and so good!

Adapted from RAW: The Uncook Book by Juliano

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For the Filling:

Mac Cream

  • 1 cup raw macadamia nuts
  • I cup raw cashews
  • 1/2 cup fresh-squeezed lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup Nama Shoyu or 1 1/2 tsp Celtic sea salt
  • 1 tablespoon garlic
  • 1/2 tsps peppercorns

Blend all the above ingredients until creamy. Keeps 2 days in the refrerator.

**I only had cashews so I used 2 cups.

For the Sushi:

  • 2 sheets of raw nori
  • 4 fresh horseradish sticks, sliced thin  (I found the horseradish sticks a little harsh. I have grated it before and find that much nicer in the rolls.)
  • 4 carrot sticks
  • 4 cucumber sticks, sliced thin (if organic leave the skin on)
  • 1 cup sliced portobello mushrooms
  • 4 apple slices, sliced thin (I used 6 per roll so every bite had apple 🙂 )
  • lettuce leaves, enough to cover

On a sheet of nori arrange the horseradish, cucumber and carrot sticks, and mushrooms  along the edge of the nori closest to you.

Gently spread the filling on top of the vegetable sticks, being careful not to allow the mixture to touch the nori. Add a layer of apple slices, and lettuce leaves (cover any wet ingredients with leaves so the nori doesn’t get wet).

Fold the bottom of the sheet up and over the filling, and roll the nori tightly using a bamboo mat or your fingers. Wet the top part of the nori sheet with a little water so as to seal the sushi.

If you are cutting…Let the roll sit for about 5 minutes before cutting. Using a sharp knife, cut the nori roll into 5 or 6 equal parts. Use a gentle see-saw motion to make it a perfect smooth cut. Arrange on a plate. If desired, serve with Nama Shoyu, tamari or this dipping sauce in a small bowl.

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