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!

Sprouted sunflower seed hummus recipe

Where is the intersection of the real food movement and veganism? In raw food, of course! The last few months, I have encountered a surprising number of raw vegan recipes on paleo/primal blogs and forums. Most of them were not new to me, but my background is pretty unique.

I'm not vegan anymore, but sometimes I want a meal that feels nourishing and satisfying and doesn't involve meat or eggs. Today I made hummus. I didn't use chickpeas - I used sprouted sunflower seeds! I'm allergic to chickpeas. Many people have sensitivities to legumes. Even if you are among them, you can still enjoy this yummy dip!

Okay, it's not very photogenic. It looks like hummus. Hummus is beige. It is delicious, but it doesn't look like much on its own. It looks and tastes best over a bed of spinach, sprinkled with paprika, with some veggies to dip.

For this recipe, you have to start a few days ahead and sprout your seeds. This is not much work at all, just a little planning.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup or more, raw organic sunflower seeds
A couple tablespoons tahini
Juice and zest of one to two lemons
Pinch cayenne
Sea salt, to taste
A glug of extra virgin olive oil
Optional: nutritional yeast, minced fresh garlic, cumin, roasted red peppers, apple cider vinegar, cilantro, scallions, whatever seasoning you like in your dip.
Garnish: more olive oil and paprika

METHOD:

Soak a cup or more of organic, raw sunflower seeds overnight. Drain, and rinse until the water runs clear. Drain well and leave undisturbed, covered loosely. I use my little OXO herb spinner for this.

In another 8 - 12 hours, rinse and drain. Repeat. When you have the beginnings of little tails, transfer to the fridge to slow down growth. Now they're ready to use!

Take a cup or two of sprouts and add to food processor. Add a couple spoonfuls of tahini - raw or lightly roasted is fine. If you like garlic, add a small clove, minced. Add a splash or two of lemon juice and some lemon zest, a glug of olive oil, a pinch of sea salt and some cayenne. Process until smooth. Add a couple spoonfuls of nutritional yeast if you like nooch, and blend in. Nooch is Whole30 approved, but some people might not like the idea of anything that is grown in a tank, rather than a field. Use your own discretion. Season to taste. Add anything else you like - it's good with cumin, more cayenne, paprika, some roasted red peppers, more lemon, cilantro, whatever you like! Serve garnished with olive oil and paprika. Great over spinach salad, or with carrots and celery to dip.

Enjoy!

Love,
Chef Mary

Crab cakes, aioli, and clarified butter (ghee!)

I had a productive morning! Except my phone ran out of batteries, so there is no photographic evidence. Oops!

Last night, I soaked some sunflower seeds in filtered water. This morning, I drained and rinsed them and set them aside. I will continue to rinse and drain them for a day or three, until they have little tails, and then I will tell you how to make my famous raw vegan sprouted sunflower seed hummus!

Other things that have been accomplished this morning are not so vegan-friendly: Ghee, mayonnaise, and totally grain free crab cakes. Each deserves its own post, but I'm going to squish them all into one because it is my blog and I can!

First, ghee. Clarified butter. It is a traditional food from India and other regions. It has a very high smoke point, unlike regular whole butter, so you can cook with it at much higher temperatures without damaging it. Plus, it's the only dairy product allowed on the Whole30.

It is so easy. Are you ready?

GHEE

Take some organic butter from pasture fed cows. Put it in a saucepan large enough to hold it, but not too huge. Melt it over fairly low heat. Eventually, the water trapped inside will start popping and crackling as it evaporates out. If it doesn't, turn it up just a little. If it's too aggressive, turn it down a little.

Let it go until all or almost all of the water is boiled off, then pour it through a sieve lined either with 3 layers of cheesecloth or a nut milk bag, into a heat-proof glass measuring cup. Your cheesecloth or nut milk bag will catch almost all of the milk solids. Throw those away (or use in an extra rich brown butter if you are into such things.)

Now your measuring cup is full of golden, melty, lovely almost-totally-clarified butter. You may have a few super-tiny particles of milk solids still in there. Wait a few minutes for them to settle out, then carefully pour your ghee off into a heat-proof jar, leaving any solids behind at the bottom of the measuring cup. Now you're done!

Let the ghee cool to room temperature, then cover. Keeps for a very long time refrigerated, and believe it or not, at cool room temperature too. (I refrigerate mine.)

You can use it to fry the crab cakes I'm going to tell you about in a minute.

MAYONNAISE

Mayo is not hard. Don't be afraid! The instructions are longer than the whole process of making this. I promise.

Leave a couple eggs out at room temperature for at least a couple hours, up to overnight. Your mayo will work so much better if all your ingredients are at room temp! If you forget, rest the eggs for a few minutes in a bowl of warm water to warm them a little.

If you are pregnant or immune-compromised and don't feel comfortable using raw eggs, pasteurize them in a bath of hot water. If you are neither pregnant nor immune-compromised, make whatever decision you are comfortable with. I would not use eggs from a factory farm for this mayonnaise; I use eggs from a farmer I know and trust. Personally, I feel that raw foods and especially raw egg yolks have a lot of health benefits. And the risk of salmonella or other contamination is minimal when you choose good, real eggs from good farmers.

Choose your oil. Today, I used a combination of rendered chicken fat (schmaltz) and extra virgin olive oil. If you are using a solid fat like animal fat or coconut oil in winter, melt it gently over low heat. You can also use a cold-pressed sunflower seed or grape seed oil as part of the fat. I don't recommend soy or canola oil for your health, but if you insist on using them in your diet, they do work well here. If you are using only evoo and no other fat, know that the taste will be very strong and may be slightly bitter. Usually, aioli is made with a combination of evoo and another oil - refined olive or another vegetable oil. (Aioli also usually contains garlic, and the acid is lemon instead of vinegar.)

Decide if you want a little mustard (it helps get emulsification going but isn't totally necessary) and decide what kind of acid you want to use. Lemon juice is great, as is raw unpasteurized apple cider vinegar, but any vinegar will do.

Separate your eggs and put the yolks (or one yolk and one whole egg) in the bowl of your food processor. Whir them up. Add mustard if using, a pinch of salt, and a tiny splash of your vinegar or lemon juice. Blend really well.

With the motor running, very slowly pour liquid fat in. It's best to either start with the fat that is not extra virgin olive oil, and add the evoo last, or mix the oils together and pour them as a blend.

Keep slowly pouring and blending until it emulsifies. You will know when it does, because it will look like mayonnaise (but a lot yellower than the packaged stuff.)

If it doesn't ever emulsify, you can save it! Pour your runny mess out from the bowl of the processor into a jar or small bowl with a spout. Put a new egg yolk or two in the bowl of the processor. Process the new yolks for a couple minutes, then slowly start adding the messy stuff into the processing yolks.

Once it's all nicely emulsified, season it up. Add more salt, vinegar, or lemon, as needed. A great and super healthy addition here is a spoonful of probiotic whey drained from homemade yogurt, or some sauerkraut juice. It sounds so crazy, but it is fantastic for digestion. I know, me and my healthy bacteria for digestion. But it's important!

Now you're done! To develop the probiotics from the whey or kraut juice, and to actually improve shelf-life, leave at room temperature for a couple hours before refrigeration. It sounds insane, but it is true.

CRAB CAKES

Remember how we separated eggs earlier, and used mostly yolks? Well, now you have whites left over. You can save them for meringues, macaroons, macarons (they're different,) fish mousse, nuvolone, or use them right now in crab cakes!

Heat a cast iron skillet to medium.

Take some cooked crab - canned or frozen is fine. Mix gently with egg whites, salt, mustard, a spoonful of mayo, and seasoning you like - Old Bay or a similar seasoning mix works well here, or your own blend. Anything you like!

It might be pretty runny now. If you want to tighten it up, add a spoonful of coconut flour or some almond flour. Almond will add crunch, while coconut is super absorbent!

Taste, and adjust seasoning. It's okay - the crab is fully cooked and you're using eggs from a source you trust, right?

Add some ghee to your pan. Look how lovely and clear it is! Make small patties with the crab mixture, drop in the pan, and cook until brown on the bottom. Flip, finish cooking, and serve with a dollop of mayo and a simple, lovely salad.

Enjoy, and have a beautiful day!

Love,
Chef Mary

Happy New Year, and a Happy Healthy New Approach!

Happy New Year!

This year, our dietary path has shifted from where it was the last couple years. I thought it was only fitting to move over to a fresh, new blog to celebrate the new focus!

Today is not just the first day of a new year. It is also the day Earnest and I begin a new sort of challenge: We are doing a Whole30 together. What's that? Well, the rules are here: http://whole9life.com/2012/08/the-whole30-program/

For one month, you eat only vegetables, fruits, healthy fats, and high quality, non-dairy animal proteins. It's a particularly strict version of the currently-fashionable paleo/primal diet. Personally, I'm not so much one for labels as for just making Good, Solid Choices.

The restrictions you choose to follow when doing a Whole30 are: No grains, legumes, dairy other than ghee, alcohol, white potatoes, certain additives, or sugar (even maple and honey.) That's not all that far from how I've been eating lately, but I have been using some honey, maple, cheese, and homemade yogurt from raw milk. I've been making good progress with this approach so far. We've been gluten free for quite some time, and in fact GF has been an area of focus in my work as a personal chef. (The other primary focus for me has been delicious, wonderful veggies! Even though I'm not vegan anymore, I will always love veggies! I'll talk about them a lot more in future posts.)

From my own diet, I have already eliminated most grains and all legumes, because my body was responding to them with a range of reactions including true allergy, digestive upset, and inflammation. I was occasionally eating rice and just tasting the other gluten-free grain foods I cook for others whose digestion handles them better. By eliminating even those tiny amounts of grains, I hope to reduce inflammation in my body further, and continue my path of healing my gut. Later, I'll talk more about how far I've already travelled in search of a happy belly! I'll also talk about the challenges I run into on the way, as a professional cook with dietary restrictions.

Earnest has relied a lot more on grains and legumes, and he loves his sweets. This challenge will be harder for him, and I'm going to do my best to support him and make his experience positive and easy. There's nothing like having your own personal chef to make positive choices easier!

Those of you who have known me for a while know that I love raw veggies and fruits. I was vegan for two years, and ovo-lacto vegetarian for over ten years, split between two different times in my life. While I was vegan, I followed a very high raw approach most of the time. This was great for me at first. For the first year, I experienced high energy and abundant health.

Later, and whenever I ate too many grains or legumes, I started to experience a lot of strange symptoms, mostly of inflammation, digestive upset, and radical weight fluctuations. I started to feel fatigued and brittle, and knew I needed to make some changes again.

On top of these experiences, sensitivities, and restrictions, I have true allergies. I'm allergic to peanuts, soy, and some other legumes - and we're talking throat-closing anaphylaxis here. I actually had to quit a job once because of all the peanut and soy products on the menu. I am also sensitive to wheat and other gluten-containing grains. I have one of the genes that can cause celiac disease, and I experience lots of symptoms when I consume gluten, but I haven't received a conclusive diagnosis of celiac disease. Interestingly, Earnest experiences many of the same symptoms with gluten that I do. In fact, we stopped using gluten at home because of his sensitivities, and I only realized I was also sensitive later.


My new goals are to continue healing my digestion, tame inflammation in my body, and have abundant, glowing energy again. I am already well on my path toward meeting these big goals, and lots of little ones along the way.

I also plan to continue eating tons of fresh veggies, mostly local even in the New England winter. I will share with you tips and tricks for choosing the best produce and getting good deals. Just as importantly, I will help you navigate the different meat choices out there. Are they all healthy or ethically raised? Not by a long shot. But are there sustainable, environmentally-friendly, affordable options out there? Absolutely. I can help connect you with your local farmers, find grass-fed beef and truly, honestly free range eggs, and choose seafood that is safe for your family and sustainable for the environment.

Local Chioggia Beets

The Littlest Carrot!

If you have just found me, maybe you also have a goal. Do you want to lose weight? Get stronger? Run faster? Flush away inflammation? Learn great recipes, tips and tricks for cooking and eating great food? Ways to incorporate lots more veggies into your (or your kids') diet? Gluten free substitutions and fantastic recipes? Leave me a comment and ask me anything! I've been cooking and baking for a very long time, and I love a good challenge!

I look forward to writing for you and cooking for you a lot more soon!

Much love,
Chef Mary