Massaged Kale and Craisin Salad

Massaged Kale and Craisin Salad

This is my new favorite salad! I slightly altered it from the recipe on Melskitchencafe.com I halved the dressing and it was more than enough, and cut a few things out. This salad is Sweet, crunchy, and oh so healthy. Hope you enjoy it as much as my husband, 2 year old, and I!INGREDIENTS:
1 bunch kale
3/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt or sea salt
1/4 cup finely diced red onion
1/2 cup dried cranberries/craisins (optional, but delicious)
3/4 cup small-diced apple
1/4 cup toasted sunflower seeds
2 Tbs. olive oil
1 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon agave

DIRECTIONS:
Wash the kale and pat it dry. Slice off the stiff stems below the leaves and continue slicing the stem away from the leaf until you have cut a thin v-shape into the kale leaf and removed the tough stem all the way up. (I save the stems for green smoothies). Stack the kale leaves two or three at a time, roll them up, and slice the leaves into thin ribbons.

Place the kale ribbons in a large mixing bowl. Add the salt and massage it into the kale with your hands for two minutes. You’ll notice the kale start to turn a darker green and the texture of the kale will begin to soften a bit.

Toss in the red onions, craisins, apples, and sunflower seeds. In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar and agave. Pour over the salad and toss. Sprinkle The salad can be refrigerated for up to a day before serving.

Lemon Thyme Bars

These lemon thyme bars are just plain delicious and so much chic compared to the regular ones! You gotta try this. Of course I had to make some changes from the original Giada de Laurentiis because well...I can't help myself :) 

Ingredients

• Vegan butter, for greasing dish
• Whole wheat flour, for dusting dish

Bars:

• 1 stick (4 ounces) earth balance vegan buttery spread, at room temperature
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/2 cup organic powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Glaze:

• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 cup organic powdered sugar

Directions

Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter and flour an 8 by 8-inch glass baking dish.

For the bars:

In a small bowl combine flour, thyme and salt. Set aside. Using a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together 1 stick of butter and powdered sugar on high speed until light and fluffy, about 30 seconds. Beat in the lemon juice and vanilla. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the flour mixture. Using damp fingers, press the dough into the prepared pan. Bake for 30 minutes until golden. Cool for 30 minutes.

For the glaze:

In a medium bowl, whisk the lemon juice and powdered sugar together until smooth. Spoon the glaze over the cooled crust. Allow the glaze to harden, at room temperature, for at least 1 hour.

Using a metal spatula, remove the crust from the pan. Cut into 1 1/2-inch square bars and arrange on a serving platter or store airtight in a plastic container at room temperature.

Since the original recipe is with all-purpose flour it looks white but yours will be brown

Soyican

One thing you need to know about me is that I'm Chilean and I thought it would be cool to share my vegan version of this Chilean dish called "charquican." Usually this dish has ground meat, beef jerky or Durvillaea anteractica (chilean seaweed) but my version is a bit different. Also, I wanted to show you how to make "Ensalada Chilena" which is a tomato salad that has tons of flavor and shows you how the textures of raw food make all the difference.

Ingredients: Charquicán
Serves: 4-6

• About 12 small potatoes or about 8 big potatoes (yukon gold will do)
• one cup of green beans (not canned but fresh or frozen) 
• one cup of kernel tcorn (fresh of frozen) 
• 1.5 cup banana squash cubed 
• 1/2 big onion (purple or white depending which one you like)
• 2-3 roma tomatoes 
• half a bunch of spinach  
• 3-4 small carrots 
• 2 cloves of garlic 
• 1/4 of a red bell pepper 
• 1 cup of mushrooms
• 1 1/4 cup of textured soy protein (or soy meat, textured vegetable protein)
• 1 serrano pepper
• sea salt 
• pepper if you want (not a fun of adding pepper to every single dish like people do sometimes) 

Preparation: Charquican 

1. Wash all of the ingredients.
2. Boil potatoes, banana squash, corn and green beans in salted water until potatoes are soft. I prefer using a pressure cooker for this if you are in a hurry. 
3. While all ingredients in #2 are boiling get a sauté pan or frying pan add olive oil and turn the heat to med high.
4. Mince or dice (depending on your cutting abilities and how much your family likes onions) the onion. Mince garlic, Serrano pepper (take out the seeds before mincing) and red bell pepper. Add to the pan and turn down the heat to medium. Cook everything until onions until they are translucent. 
5. Add sliced mushrooms, and sliced carrots and diced tomatoes (if you have a this is a piece of cake) and add them to the frying pan with the rest of the ingredients and cook for about 3-4 min. Turn the heat to med-low
6. Boil about 2 cups of water in a sauce pan and add the soy meat. It will mandoline dehydrate in about 2 min. After that drain the meat very well and add it to the frying pan with the sliced spinach and add salt and pepper to taste.  Mix very well and cook for another 2 min on med heat until everything is been incorporated very well. Make sure that the spinach keeps the green color. 
7. Drain the potatoes, green beans, squash and corn but leave about 1/4 of the water. Place in a big pot or bowl. Gently smash them (do not puree) you should be able to see big chunks of the ingredients. Add all of the ingredients from the frying pan to the bowl and mix gently until everything has been well incorporated. Taste and add salt if needed. Serve hot. 

Ingredients: Ensalada Chilena 

• 6 globe tomatoes ripe but not still hard 
• half a bunch of cilantro 
• 1 big yellow or white onion
• sea salt  
• red wine vinegar
• grape seeded oil (Love this type of oil for salad or salad dressings) or olive oil 

Preparation: Chilean Salad 

1. Wash all ingredients 
2. In chile everyone peels the tomatoes. Don't ask me why but I enjoy the peel so I leave it on in my version 
3. Thinly Julienne onions. In case you don't know watch the video below. 
4. Add the onions to a bowl with cold water and about 2 tbs of sea salt. Pressed the onions with your hands until everything has been kinda of covered with salt and the water. Leave it there for about 20 min and rinse.
5. Roughly chop the cilantro 
6. Mix all ingredients in a bowl with salt, grape seeded oil and vinegar and mix. 

Raw Chocolate

This is way too yummy. I have to make a 1/2 batch of it because I usually eat all of it within a day.

Raw Chocolate

• 1 cup almonds-blend into flour
• 1/2 cup coconut oil (warm to liquid)
• 1/2 cup agave
• Blend until incorporated
• 1/2 cup cacao pwd.
• Blend until incorporated.

Put wax paper in 8x8 pan, pour mixture in and freeze.

*A friend told me you need to follow the blending directions because adding the cacao powder earlier will make it separate? Also, this is a treat to leave in the freezer until you're ready to eat it, since the coconut oil melts easily.

Tuscan Kale Salad

Kale is my new favorite base for salads. But it is really tough and a little bitter until you learn the following trick. Instead of lightly tossing kale, you almost massage it with the dressing. I squeeze it and rub it with my hands for a couple of minutes. You will feel the texture change and see it diminish in volume by almost half. Then your salad is ready to eat!

This recipe is modified from 101cookbooks.com

Tuscan Kale Salad

1 bunch Tuscan kale (for ex: black or lacinato)
2 thin slices country bread, or two handfuls good, homemade coarse breadcrumbs
1/2 garlic clove
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt, plus a pinch
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
Freshly squeezed juice of one lemon (scant 1/4 cup)
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Trim the bottom few inches off the kale stems and save for green smoothies. Slice the kale into 1/2-inch ribbons. You should have 4 to 5 cups. Place the kale in a large bowl.
If using the bread, toast it until golden brown on both sides and dry throughout. Tear into small pieces and pulse in a food processor until the mixture forms coarse crumbs, or crumbs to your liking. Mix the minced garlic and 1/4 teaspoon of salt into a paste. Add 3 tablespoons oil, lemon juice, red pepper flakes, and black pepper and whisk to combine. Pour the dressing over the kale and mix/massage it very well (the dressing will be thick and need lots of tossing and rubbing to coat the leaves).. Let the salad sit for 5 minutes, then serve topped with the bread crumbs.

Melissa's Roasted Eggplant Pesto

I love pesto! Even though olive oil is good for you, I probably get an excess when I'm on a pesto kick. This recipe uses a roasted eggplant to replace most of the oil. I love this pesto served on pasta, on top of a tortilla as the basis for a pizza or veggie wrap, and served over roasted zucchini strips or raw zucchini noodles.

Melissa's Roasted Eggplant Pesto



1/4 c. almonds -blend first
1 large eggplant, roasted and peeled
2 sundried tomatoes
2 cloves garlic
2 cups spinach
1 Tbsp. nutritional yeats
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. Italian seasoning
1 tsp. dried basil
1/2-3/4 tsp. salt
pinch red pepper flakes

Hot water
olive oil

Blend all ingredients. I used maybe 1/4 cup hot water and 1 Tbs. olive oil, but just add those ingredients to achieve desired consistency. Enjoy!

Lucuma Ice Cream - The Blender Way

This childhood flavor from my country is something I've been craving for a long time now and so when I found organic powdered lucuma at the health food store, I quickly began looking for a good ice cream recipe to make this yummy dessert once again. After trying a few different recipes, I combined a few different ones and changed a few ingredients here and there and came up with something new and original that I love, my kids love and is much easier than making ice cream in the old-fashioned ice cream maker.

1 Cup Lucuma Powder (I used the Navitas Naturals brand).

1 Cup Cashews or blanched Almonds (I prefer cashews for a creamier ice cream, but use almonds for my son who has allergies to cashews).

2 whole vanilla beans or 2 TBSP. vanilla

1/2 Maple syrup

1 Cup Water

1 Cup Almond Milk

1 Cup Coconut Milk

Throw all ingredients together into the blender and blend until creamy. Then you can do one of two things: 1. Pour into popsicle molds for creamy popsicles. Beware of kids. They may pester you for hours on end to have these before they've actually frozen. 2. Pour into ice cube trays and wait until frozen solid. Then pour a little water or almond milk into the blender with about 6 ice cubes and blend just long enough to make a yummy soft serve ice cream. Or if you want to blend it longer, you could eventually make it like a shake. Which is also yummy. Will definitely suppress the sweet tooth.

My kids love these. New family favorite. Oh and by the way, Lucuma is a fruit from Peru. In case you were wondering.

French Dressing

I tried this dressing for the first time today. Again, Jamie Oliver's. So tasty! Especially in a green salad.

• Peel and finely chop 1/4 of a clove of garlic
• Put the garlic, 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard, 2 tablespoons of white or red wine vinegar (I used red), and 6 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil into a jam jar with a pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper (I'm not into black pepper that much so I put...almost nothing)
• Put the lid on the jar and shake well

Of course if you don't have a jam jar you can put all of the ingredients in the Vitamix. I would say in variable speed 3-4. Until everything is well mixed. 

I just watched Julie and Julia again...and since the recipe is french and all, I say to you... Bon Appettit!!!!!

Lentil and Spinach Soup

This is one of my favorite lentils recipe. It's Jamie Oliver's Lentil and Spinach soup (you have to love that guy, even though he's not vegan. He always uses organic ingredients and he's super into having his own garden, you gotta love that guy)). One you thing you will have to get used to with me is that I will always change the original recipe. Most of the time is because I need to adjust for missing ingredients, but sometimes it's just because I think you need to be adventurous in the kitchen. Am I right?! Otherwise where's the fun in cooking...YOU CAN'T BE SCARED OF TRYING NEW THINGS, if you mess up SO WHAT?!

ok so enough of the blah blah. Here's the recipe

**This soup works really well if you make it with yellow split peas or dried green peas, as well as with greens like spinach, cabbage and swiss chard. 

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

• 2 carrots
• 2 celery stalks
• 2 medium onions
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 3/4 quarts vegetable broth, preferably organic (Pretty much the whole carton) 
• olive oil
• a thumb-sized piece of fresh root ginger
• 1/2-1 fresh red chile (I used green serrano peppers instead)
• 10 grape or cherry tomatoes 
• 2 cups red lentils
• 7 cups of spinach (I used a mixed of spinach, kale and swiss chard) 
• sea salt (you always want those extra minerals in your salt!)
• black pepper

To make your soup

• Peel and roughly slice the carrots
• slice the celery
• peel and roughly chop the onions
• peel and slice the garlic
• put the broth in a saucepan and heat until boiling
• put a large saucepan on a medium heat and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil 
• add all of your chopped and sliced ingredients and mix together with a wooden spoon
• cook for around 10 minutes with the lid askew, until the carrots have softened but are still holding their shape, and the onion is lightly golden
• meanwhile, peel and finely slice the ginger
• seed and slice the chile
• remove the stalks from the grape or cherry tomatoes ad slice the tomatoes i half
• add the boiling broth to the pan with the lentils, ginger, chile and tomatoes 
• give the soup a good stir and brig to a boil
• reduce the heat and simmer for 10 min with the lid on, or until the lentils are cooked 
• add the spinach, swiss chard and kale and continue to cook for 30 seconds 

To serve soup

• season well with salt and pepper
• you can now serve the soup just as it is, or using and immersion blender or liquidizer, pulse until smooth
• divide between your servings bowls
• try grilling, toasting or baking chunky croutons or slices of your favorite whole wheat bread

Cream of Cucumber Soup

It looks similar to this but a bit darker with the avocado

I really love this recipe. I got it from the "Raw Food Made Easy" cookbook by Jennifer Cornbleet. My husband loves it and he's the food critic in our house.

Yield: 2 cups, 2 servings

Ingredients

• 4 romaine lettuce leaves, chopped (about 11/2 cupts)
• 1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped (about 1 cup)
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon crushe garlic (1 clove) 
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 ripe avocado, chopped
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil 
• 1 tablespoon minced fresh herbs (dill, mint, tarragon, or cilantro) or 1 teaspoon dried

Directions

1. Place the lettuce, cucumber, water, lemon juice, garlic, and salt in a blender and process until smooth.
2. Add the avocado and olive oil and blend again until smooth.
3. Add the herbs and blend briefly to mix
4. Serve immediately. For a chilled soup, refrigerate for 30 minutes before use.