Raw vegan hemp and veggies salad

Good morning!

This morning, I have a fantastic breakfast, lunch, dinner, side, or anytime dish for you. Again, there will be no awards for the photos; I was so hungry I ate most of it before remembering to take pictures. Oops!

Just trust me, this is awesome.

I woke up this morning tired of all the animal protein. On Whole30, the guidelines require a dense source of protein at every meal, alongside lots of healthy veggies. Well, I just wanted veggies, veggies, and just more veggies. So how to get some essential amino acids and healthy fats into my balanced breakfast? Hemp seeds to the rescue!

Like all salads, this one is endlessly customizable. Use what you like! Want it 100% raw? Skip the roasted beets. Is it summer where you are? Add tomatoes instead of the beets. Want more carbs to fuel a heavy cardio day? Add more carrots, some leftover roasted squash or sweet potato, orange or tangerine sections, or some fresh or dried apples. Need more protein to recover from an intense strength training session? Add some walnuts, shrimp, tuna, or egg. Need more fat to fuel a long day? Use the whole avocado. Have different salad greens kicking around? Switch them up. Kale would be awesome. Frisee would be wonderful, especially if you top the salad with some egg. Use what you have and like best. Enjoy!

RAW VEGAN HEMP AND VEGGIES SALAD

Serves 1 as a light meal, or 2 as a side

INGREDIENTS

1/3 to 1/2 an avocado
2 T dulse seaweed flakes (if you can't find dulse, try crumbled nori)
A couple glugs raw apple cider vinegar, to taste
Pinch sea salt, to taste
1 large heart or small full head of romaine lettuce, washed and chopped
1 large or 2 smaller carrots, chopped small or shredded
1 leftover roasted beet, cubed
2 T shelled hemp seeds

METHOD

Mash the avocado, dulse, vinegar, and salt together in the bottom of your big mixing bowl. Add lettuce, carrot, beet, and hemp seeds. Toss to coat really well. Season to taste, and dive in!

Vegetarian cottage pie

Remember yesterday how I mentioned you can make cottage pie with almost any combination of veggies? Really, the only requirement is that there be something yummy topped with something else yummy, and the top yumminess is some kind of vegetable mash or puree.

You can use leftover or freshly made mashers, over leftover shredded or pulled or minced whatever. Yesterday for breakfast, I used lovely local sweet potatoes over ground beef with carrots and parsnips.

Then at work, I made something similar but completely vegetarian.

I roasted a bunch of different veggies separately, then combined them. The veggies were seasoned with paprika and sea salt in roasting, then sprinkled with marjoram when I combined them all together.

I topped with a mash of white sweet potato, and gave it the peanut butter cookie treatment with the back of a fork to make it beautiful.

Sprinkled with paprika, and voila! Vegetarian (easily vegan) cottage pie! Take it home, pop it in the oven until hot, and dig in!

Make topping first: White sweet potato, cooked, peeled, mashed with butter, a splash of veg broth, and a sprinkling of sea salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Inside:

Veggies roasted until golden and delicious with sea salt, paprika, and oil/butter/fat of choice
Sprinkling of marjoram
Suggested veggies:
Carrots
Potatoes (If you're not doing Whole30)
White sweet potatoes
Watermelon radishes
Parsnips
Turnips
Onions

Just roast off the veggies individually. I do them individually because each veggie takes a slightly different amount of time to become perfectly done. Combine in baking dish and adjust seasoning. Top with mash, make it pretty, and bake till hot. Instant veggie dish! Great with everything, including salads, egg dishes, meat dishes, and beans if you happen to tolerate them.

Enjoy!

Love,
Chef Mary

Toad in a Hole, and Grain-Free Yorkshire Pudding!

Good morning!

Today, I have a great recipe for any meal of the day - toad in a hole!

Toad in a Hole!

I always used to call eggs in a basket toad in a hole. Inspired by Lillian's Test Kitchen, I looked up both terms and guess what - I've been saying it wrong all this time! Toad in a hole usually refers to sausages baked into yorkshire pudding, an amazingly simple and delicious treat for which I did not until now have a name. Egg in a basket (which does have lots of different names, and I'm not the only one calling it toad in a hole) is that thing we all grew up eating - an egg fried in the middle of a piece of bread. Now I know!

If you're looking for a super-easy grain-free bread recipe and the method for turning it into egg in a basket, check out Lillian's video.

If you are looking for a delicious Yorkshire pudding that can easily become a whole meal on its own, hang out right here! For a regular Yorkie to accompany a roast, just skip the sausages and serve with plenty of veggie sides.

Yorkshire Pudding

The first thing you have to do is get out your cast iron skillet, put it in the oven, and preheat to 400 degrees. You want your oven and skillet to be really hot, so do that first. It's okay - I'll wait.

Okay, now gather your ingredients.

1 - 2 T rendered beef fat (or chicken fat, or goose fat leftover from the holidays)
3 eggs
2-3 T coconut milk, or Coconut Manna melted and thoroughly mixed with some beef stock, chicken stock, or water
2 T arrowroot starch, also known as arrowroot powder or arrowroot flour
Pinch salt
Seasonings of choice, optional
One or two fresh or smoked sausages. Any kind you like will do, from pork breakfast sausages to good quality hot dogs from your local farmer to turkey Italian sausages. Just make sure they're not frozen.

Put the fat in the skillet in the oven so it can get nice and hot. Don't use vegetable oil or whole butter; they will be damaged by all the heat. Rendered fat is best, but refined coconut oil (not virgin) and ghee (not whole butter) work too.
In a big bowl, whisk together the coconut milk, eggs, arrowroot, salt, and any spices you might want. Ground mustard seed is great, but this is also great without any added seasoning. Let rest until your pan is really hot - about 20 minutes.

If you're using fresh, raw sausages, add them to the pan in the oven and let them start cooking, about ten minutes. If your sausages are smoked or leftover from another meal, you can skip that step.

Now carefully take the pan out of the oven, pour in the batter with the sausages, and put it back in the oven. Bake about 20 minutes. It will puff up and turn wonderfully golden during this time.

It may deflate a little when it comes out, but it should keep most of its shape.

This size pan will serve one very hungry, active person if this is all you're eating. It will serve two or more people who have a bunch of veggie accompaniments.

The Best Toad in a Hole You've Ever Had

Enjoy with gravy, soup, homemade sauerkraut, mustard, or just exactly as it is!

Have a wonderful Saturday, everyone! I'll be at the Somerville Winter Farmers Market from 10 - 2, promoting Cuisine en Locale's upcoming event, Valhalla. Swing by and say hi! Have a cookie! I baked them especially for you. (They are not GF - at CeL we use all local ingredients including local wheat and oats. At my company, Rather Crafty, I specialize in GF, grain free, and special diets. At my other job at CeL, we specialize in 100% local, and that does include wheat. At both companies, we avoid soy, peanuts, fake food, and weird additives of all kinds. Two approaches to Awesome Real Food!)

Love,
Chef Mary