Ultimate Green Splendor Soup

I've been experimenting with soups to bring with me to rehearsal at night, but this one was just so much fun to make that I'll probably just start making it at home to munch on. This is a completely guilt-free, extra tasty chilled soup to cool your palate in the hot weather and soothe your throat through flu season. It's sweet, tangy, and full of delicious nutrients.

Did you know that spinach is a super concentrated source of iron, calcium, magnesium, potassium, vitamins K, C, E, and many of the Bs including folate? Folate, for those of you who don't know, is a water soluble B vitamin that helps produce and maintain new cells (you need it to make DNA and RNA) and one of the cool things about that is that eating more of it can help prevent changes to DNA that lead to cancer! How awesome is that? Asparagus is also very handy, full of potassium, fiber, folacin, thiamin, B6, and rutin. There has been evidence that rutin strengthens blood vessels and can help improve circulation. And apples keep the doctor away; everyone says so.

Ultimate Green Splendor Soup
(serves ~8)

1/2 lb asparagus, wooden ends broken off, cut into 2 inch sections
1/4 lb baby spinach, chopped
5 green onions, white parts removes, diced
1 avocado
juice of half lemon
1/4 cup fresh mint leaves
3/4 cup water
sea salt
fresh ground black pepper
2 gala apples, chopped
1/2 cup coconut milk, unsweetened and unflavored

Puree asparagus with 3/4 cup water until smooth. Add the green onions and spinach. If you have a small food processor like me, just keep removing the blended veggies to a sealable bowl. After the green onions and spinach, add mint and lemon juice and blend again. Next add the avocado. Blend again. Chop up the two apples to small bits and blend those with the veggies. Add the coconut milk. Blend again. Make sure that all your delicious bits are well combined. Salt and pepper to taste (I used a couple turns of sea salt and about 3 tsp of fresh ground black pepper). Serve chilled. Enjoy!

Moroccan Bison Tagine

If you haven't had Moroccan food, you've just got to try it. They do an amazing job of bringing sweet and spicy to mingle on the tongue. Pair this dish with hot mint tea for a more authentic experience. For all my world travel, I first discovered Moroccan cuisine at - wait for it - Epcot in Orlando. There, I had a dish called Chicken Bastilla, which forever gave me a hankering for sweet and spicy dessert flavored main dishes. Since then, I've made Chicken Bastilla twice - it's a complicated process. This tagine, however, only takes about an hour - and most of that is just letting it cook on its own without being bothered.

Now, a tagine (or tajine or tajin), for those who are curious, is named so for the special earthenware pot that this North African dish is typically cooked in. I do not have such a dish, so I used a large pot. However, the tajine pot is made entirely of clay and consists of two parts - a base unit that is flat  and circular with low sides and a large cone shaped cover that rests inside the base while the dish is cooking. The cover is designed that way to promote the return of all the steam condensation back into the bottom.

Moroccan Bison Tagine
(makes 4 servings)

3 lbs bison steak, cut into bite size cubes
4 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, diced
1/2 tsp Spanish saffron threads
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 cups dates, pitted
low sodium chicken stock
3/4 unsweetened coconut milk
~ 1/2 tbsp sea salt and fresh ground pepper, (more or less to taste)

Heat a large pot over medium heat and brown the bison meat in 3 tbsp of olive oil. When the meat is ready, use a slotted spoon to remove it to a plate for a little bit. Now, add the onions to the juices that have seeped out of the meat and cook for about 5 - 10 minutes. Until they're softened and a little brown. Now, add the bison back to the pot. Add the saffron, cinnamon stick, and ginger (the ginger is what makes this dish 'spicy', so if you like more of a kick, add some more here). Stir. Add the salt and pepper. Stir. Next, pour in your chicken stock until the contents of the pot are covered, stir the contents of the bowl so everything is all mixed up together, and let the mix simmer, covered, for 30 minutes. Add 3/4 cup of coconut milk to thicken the broth and then let simmer for another 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the ground cinnamon, test the broth and adjust the seasoning to your taste. You may need more salt or ginger to balance the cinnamon. Continue to simmer, uncovered, for another 10-15 minutes. Add the dates and cook for an additional 10 minutes. Serve hot.

Enjoy!

Chicken Tikka Masala

I love Indian food and one of my favorite dishes is chicken tikka masala. There are so many delicious flavors and the texture of the curry is wonderful on the tongue. All that said, eating out is expensive and doesn't let you fill those early morning curry cravings, so I decided to figure out an easy way to get the tikka masala experience in my own kitchen. Here's what I came up with.

Chicken Tikka Masala 
(serves 4)

~1.5 lbs chicken tenders, diced into bite size pieces (~2 inches)
6oz can of organic tomato paste
16oz coconut milk
2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp garlic, diced
1 white onion, diced
powdered ginger, to taste
turmeric, to taste
sea salt, to taste
handful sliced almonds

Heat coconut oil in a pot (one with a lid) on low heat. Add the diced onion to the pot and caramelize it until it's browned. Add garlic and stir to mix with the onions. Sprinkle turmeric and ginger over the contents of the pot to taste. I added enough to coat the onions and garlic with each (~1/2 tbsp). Add one turn of ground sea salt. Pour in the coconut milk and tomato paste and stir until the sauce is yummy orange color. Turn the heat up to high and add the chicken, making sure that all the meat is completely submerged in the sauce. Cover the pot and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
You can serve this over rice, but I used leftover spaghetti squash and it was delicious! For the spaghetti squash option, you'll want to halve the spaghetti squashes, put them face down on aluminum foil on a cookie sheet, and bake at 350 F for 25 minutes, pulling at the spaghetti squash with a fork.
Go on, have a peace! Enjoy!

Lemon Cashew Cream Pie

My cousin Kelly signed me up for this wicked awesome magazine - the Vegetarian Times (thank you, Kelly!!). In the February issue, Lauren Ulm (author of the awesome blog VeganYumYum) offered a recipe for vegan Key Lime Pie, which sounded awesome. Except I didn't have any limes, and it seemed that my brain was categorically opposed to letting me remember I needed them when I went to the store. And I couldn't find cream of coconut (apparently I was supposed to go to BevMo or something to find this). And I'm not a huge fan of cornstarch, so I replaced that too.... Anyway, here is a mild (and delicious!) variation on the recipe's theme.

Lemon Cashew Cream Pie
(10 servings)

Crust:
1.5 cups crushed vegan graham crackers
1/4 cup earth balance spread, melted (or other suitable vegan butter substitute - check the label)
1/4 cup agave nectar

Filling:
1 cup coconut milk (remember to shake well before opening the can)
1 cup raw, unsalted cashews
7 oz extra firm tofu, drained
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice, plus 1 tbsp
1/4 cup flax seed meal
1/4 cup plus 1 tbsp agave nectar
2 tsp grated fresh lemon zest, plus 1 tsp dried lemon zest

To make the crust-
Preheat oven to 350 F. Stir together the mashed graham crackers, earth balance, 1 tbsp lemon juice, and agave nectar in a bowl. Press mixture into bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie dish. Place crust in the freezer while oven preheats. Bake crust 8-10 minutes. Let cool.

To make the filling-
Put coconut milk, cashews, tofu, lemon juice, flax seed meal, agave nectar, and lemon zest in a food processor; blend until very smooth. Transfer the filling to a saucepan and warm over medium-high heat for 5-7 minutes, stirring constantly, until the filling thickens.
Spread the filling into the crust. Chill 4 hours before serving.

This is a delicious, creamy pie with just a tinge of citrusy delight. Yum yum!

Madhupayasa - Bodhi Day Dish

When Siddhartha awakened from his seven days of fasting and meditation, he was emaciated and very weak. A girl named Sujata from a nearby town came to him and gave him a bowl of madhupayasa in offering, believing him to be a deva - a spirit of the Pipul tree. When he told her that he was not a deva, she still insisted that he eat and drink to recover his strength.

Madhupayasa comes from the sanskrit words madhu (honey) and payasa (milk rice).

Madhupayasa (Sweet Milk Rice)

Ingredients:
Milk rice-
2 cups short grain white rice
2 cups thick coconut milk
2 tsp salt
3 cups water

Coconut treacle mix-
800g finely scraped coconut
2 cups treacle (coconut or kithul treacle)
4 cloves
pinch of salt

Directions:
Prepare the Coconut Treacle Mix-
Pour the treacle into a pot and bring to a boil while stirring.
Add the Coconut and mix well.
Take off the heat.
Add pinch of salt and the cloves, mix well.

Prepare the Milk Rice-
Put rice and water into a pan and bring to a boil.
Cover and cook for 15 minutes.
Add coconut milk and Salt.
Stir with handle of wooden spoon, cover and cook on low heat for another 10-15 minutes (until the milk has been absorbed).

With both parts made, divide the slightly cooled milk rice into two portions.
On a flat dish, evenly spread out a layer of milk rice using one portion (should be at least 1cm thick).
Then evenly spread the coconut treacle mix on top.
Cover it completely (including from the sides) with the second portion of the milk rice. It is important to do all this before the milk rice cools down too much as it will become too sticky to handle. When it's cooled, cut the rice concoction into blocks. You can serve this with slices of banana, mango, or strawberry, or just eat it plain.