For the salad, trim and boil about 15 Brussel Sprouts
You'll need:
how to:
Make ready, separately, all of the other ingredients while you boil the brussel sprouts, making sure to trim the stem end with a cross, and to peel any blemished leaves away (the first outside leaves will do).
While the brussel sprouts are boiling, prepare the salad dressing.Mix 4 tbsp olive oil with 4 tbsp of Balsam vinegar, season and stir or shake.
When the sprouts are tender but not mushy and still bright green, drain and slice each in half. Place these, while hot, into a salad bowl and toss with cheese, fruit, nuts, vegetables and artichokes.
Coat and toss the salad with the dressing, then sprinkle the orange flower water over this and toss for a moment. Serve immediately!
1/2 a bag of cranberries
3 tablespoons brown sugar,
heaped 1 tablespoon butter or non-cholesterol margarine
1/2 cap natural Vanilla extract
zest of half a fresh lemon or orange
2 tablespoons cinnamon
spring water to cover
Clean cranberries and place into a medium saucepan. Add all other ingredients, and barely cover with spring water. Bring to a brisk boil and keep boiling for five minutes. Remove from heat and let it cool. It will gel into a conserve textured sauce. What is important now is that you enjoy this sauce fresh with your main meal. But you might have leftovers. Instead of tossing the rest, try adding the sauce to a cake. It makes the texture very moist and the flavour is very enriched. When I added only three or four tablespoons of cranberry sauce to my nutty cake, it was so good that I thought I would pass it on...
2 overripe bananas
1/4 cup of prepared fresh cranberry sauce
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1/3 cup Canola Oil or Extra Virgin Olive Oil
about two cups of pastry flour, unbleached
2 tablespoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
Kosher baking powder, barely one flat teaspoon
Baking Soda, barely one flat teaspoon
pinch of Kosher salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup sliced almonds
A tiny bit of milk or orange juice to moisten, if necessary
To Prepare:
Mash and then whisk the overripe bananas very well with 1/4 cup of fresh cranberry sauce.
Add the oil and sugar, and beat with a large spoon, about one minute.
In a separate bowl, mix the baking powder, soda and spices together with the flour.
Add the 2 cups of flour mixture bit by bit, taking care to not add so much that the batter becomes a tough dough. If the batter seems a bit sticky, just add a tiny amount like a teaspoon of milk or juice, until you have a regular cake consistency.
Add the chopped walnuts and mix in well. To the top of the cake, add the sliced almonds. Spread these consistently all over the top, but don't press them in.
You can make this cake (and it will rise nicely) without any eggs, milk, salt, or bad cholesterol, if you want. It will rise perfectly and stay very moist.
Oil or spray Pam your cake pan, and set the stove temperature to 300 degrees Fahreheit. I used a loaf pan for this one. It seems like a little too long, but wait 20 minutes while your cake is baking at 300 degrees. Testing it after this time, you will find that a toothpick or clean knife will come out a bit sticky with cake. Raise the temperature at this point to the regular 350 degrees, bake for five minutes more and test the cake again. If the knife comes out cleanly, the cake should be done, but you might have to try again in a few minutes, depending upon the size of your bananas and the amount of liquids in your leftover cranberry sauce.
Baking at a surprisingly low temperature (at first) assures you that
you will not have burned almond slices onthe top of your cake, and it conserves
the moist quality of its fruits. As well, the texture of this cake is very firm,
but moist, making it easy to slice and storeable at room temperature for some
days.
Try not to munch through this whole recipe by yourself, when it is fresh from the oven. It is a whole pie pastry recipe, converted with oil , fruit and spices to a quick snack pita cracker. You could use this for a savoury pie crust.
I am adding this flatbread recipe because it cleared my head and gave me a lot of instant energy. Stoned!
1 1/2 to 1 2/3 cups of Nutri Flour Blend (finely ground wheat flour and wheat
bran)
1 tsp powdered cumin
4 tbsp Kikkoman Ponzu (Citron-seasoned soya
sauce)
1/3 cup Canola or Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/4 tsp Louisiana hot
sauce
1/8 tsp salt
3 tbsp golden raisins, chopped finely
Set oven heat to 425 F.
Pour oil, hot sauce and Ponzu into a medium
sized bowl, and add the flour, cumin and salt.
Chop together with a pastry
cutter or a fork. Add some water until the dough is a soft, pliable round.
Spread the pastry onto a floured board. If you use a pastry sheet, which is
flexible, you will have less trouble making very thin crackers, and in lifting
the frail pastry onto the cookie sheet.
Roll the pastry until very thin, as
thin as possible.
Melt a rounded tablespoon of margarine or butter and add
about one flat teaspoon of garlic salt. Mix together well
Turn onto a cookie
sheet and carefully brush the top of the cracker pastry, covering most of the
pastry.
Sprinkle more garlic salt over the top of all of the flatbread
pastry.
Bake at 450 until the edges start to brown (about 8 minutes) and then
reduce oven heat to 350 F.
Bake the crackers until they are well-browned and
hard.
Cool the crackers and break into irregular pieces.
Very nice
spread with margarine or butter, cool party fare with a sour cream
dip.
Add 2 tea eggs, packed with fresh herbs: Rosemary and Lemon Thyme, to the vegetables listed below., then Season with a little black pepper and/or kosher salt to taste.
Bring briefly to a boil and then reduce the heat to medium low.
Simmer in a bubbling state for an hour and a half, to reduce the ingredients.
Sieve all ingredients after this through a large size coarse sieve, to extract peels, skins and strings.
Place the slightly textured mash back onto the heat for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, boil 5 - 6 small new potatoes, partly peeled for any imperfections, but leave some of the good nourishing potato skin.
Add 2 ounces of shredded skim milk Mozzarella,making sure that it melts in, or use, alternatively, a cup to 1 1/2 cups of light cream (5%)to the vegetable puree.
Then, after you have removed both potatos and soup puree from the heat, add half the potatoes and half of the cream soup together into a blender (food processor). Whiz these together on puree setting, pour back into a saucepan, and repeat with the next half of the soup.
Add, at the last minute half to one tin of black beans.
Now is the time to purchase enormous, perfect, creamy Cauliflowers, and at a reasonable cost! To make some really good use of these, and other plentiful Harvest time vegetables, why not pack away some smaller containers of condensed soup in your freezer?
Ingredients:
3 or 4 cups Spring water
1/4 of a large, fresh Cauliflower,
including its' greens
1 medium carrot, peeled
1/2 Spanish
onion, chopped
1 small Elephant garlic clove, and its greens, chopped (about
the size of a plump shallot)
1/2 cup Broccoli tops
2 tbsp baby
Lima Beans (frozen)
3/4 cup frozen green peas
1 medium red
tomato, seeded and chopped.
10 golden Cherry Tomatos, or a large burpless
golden tomato
1/2 cup squash (about one quarter of a squash)
chopped, leaving the skin on (If you like, blanch the squash skin briefly,
before adding this to the soup base,by dropping the pieces into boiling water
for 30 seconds.)
4-5 dashes of Lousiana hot sauce
Black pepper, to
taste
3 (or more) small potatos, about three inches round.
1/2
cup of Half and Half cream
Blanch the squash pieces, and prepare the cauliflower, broccoli and
carrot.
Bring about four cups of Spring water to a boil in a medium
saucepan. Reduce the heat to low medium, and boil the first four ingredients for
ten minutes, then add peas, onion, garlic, lima beans and tomatoes
.
Let this simmer (a softly bubbling boil) on medium low heat for one
hour.
In the meantime, just before you remove the pan from the stove,
peel and chop the potatoes.You can leave some of the new potato skin on, if you
like it.
When the vegetables are very soft, pour the soup through a wide,
coarse sieve, and press all vegetable material through it. The tough parts or
skins of the squash, garlic and tomatoes will be left. About half a cup of
vegetable matter gets thrown out, when you are finished).
Pour all
of the vegetable broth back into the saucepan, on medium low. Add the Louisiana
hot sauce and black pepper. Add the chopped potatoes, and let this simmer until
the potato is soft enough to mash.
Turn off the stove element, and pour
half of the vegetable broth, plus cooked potato into a blender.
Add
1/4 cup of half and half cream. You can sub with almond cream if you
do not like Dairy.
Blend on the lowest setting for 20 seconds, click the
blender off, and blend for 20 seconds more on the highest setting. Pour into a
lidded plastic container, and repeat, pouring the second half of the soup and
potatos into the blender, adding another quarter cup of cream.
Depending upon how many potatoes you have cooked in the
vegetable broth, you have made an extendable vegetable-cream concentrate, which
you can store in the freezer, two servings at a time.
I use the four inch square tubs that are about one and a half inches
deep.
With three potatoes, your concentrate will be perfect for two large soup servings (per tub) if you add a half cup of 2% milk to the concentrate, before heating.
Take care, as you would with any cream soup, to stir often, and
not to use too high a temperature for your element. If you have added five
potatoes, you will need to simmer these for longer, on lower heat, and stir
fairly often, since the potatoes might stick.
I would add 3/4 cup of
milk to one tub of 5 spud soup, before heating and serving.
Whatever thickness you wish to make, save one tub in the fridge for
two full bowls of fresh soup and freeze the other.
To pack away more for winter months, expand the recipe to a
whole Cauliflower, four garlic stems, forty cherry tomatoes, ...etc, and
add to a giant pot.
This recipe makes a
mild but very comfortable Cauliflower cream soup, with the schmedliest blend of
fine vegetable taste. It is rich and satisfying, while remaining complementary
to the entree. It is a whole meal for lunch with toast- delicious! For some
variety (and extra protein necessary for a highly digestible whole meal) melt a
cup of shredded Cheddar cheese into the soup when the potatoes are nearly
done,and then blend with the cream.
Add the fresh vegetables, including the ginger root into a food
processor, using the shred mechanism, or grate all ingredients.
Chop the
dates individually; they will not shred in the processor.
When the mixture of
vegetables is prepared (under two minutes time) add the tomato ranch dried herb
ingredients, and also the dates. Then toss this all with a dash of Balsamic
vinegar. Add a good amount (1/3 of a cup, or to taste, of sour cream
and blend very well, by hand. Chill and serve.
The next day, you will be delighted if you add a
good heaped serving of your salad to a sandwich. Mine had vegitarian deli
slices, and I added slices of yellow and red pepper to snap it up. Spicey, and
yummy, I mean it!
I have always enjoyed making vichysoisse, but I have never explored
the recipe for the good tastes it can evoke. When I found that I had a good
bunch of leeks and potatoes in the fridge one day, I had decided to make my fave
soup, but it was the end of the month, and I had a number of veggies to use up.
I had lemongrass roots and stems,parsnips, carrots and a mixture of snow peas
and sugar-snap peas. If you have not enjoyed sugar snap peas by now, try them-
they can be eaten (pod and all) raw or cooked. Nothing but the top,string or
tail is wasted.
Here is how to make a rich version of vichysoisse which can
be eaten hot or cold:
Start a large pot of water set to boil. Into the water, add the
garlic, lemongrass and peas. For depth of taste,you can also add rosemary and
lemon thyme, fresh. When the water has boiled for five minutes, set the
temperature on medium low, lid the pot and keep at a mildly rolling boil for an
hour. You may want to top up the liquid, as the three condiments simmer to a
mush.
When the three vegetables have boiled sufficiently, the peas and
garlic will simply dissolve through a sieve. Remove the mush , pouring the stock
through a sieve.
Trim, and clean the leeks by removing the outer leaves,
tops, and by cutting them lengthwise. Peel, and cut the potoatoes into small
chunks. You can leave a tenth of potato peel intact, if it is clean, for
nutrition and taste, but this is a more refined version of peasant
vichysoisse.
Process all of the vegetables and add them-
leeks,potatoes,carrots, etc. plus salt,pepper to the scented stock.
Bring the
leeks and potato to a boil, and cook on medium for about 20
minutes.
Vichysoisse is a smooth, pureed soup. When the potatoes are done,
scoop enough of the vegetables and some of the stock into a blender, up to an
inch and a half below the lid. Cover the soup with 16% table cream, up to half
an inch below the lid.
Make sure the lid is on firmly.Blend on low, and then
on puree. Repeat until only a little stock is left in the pan. Throw about a cup
of stock away,placing the pureed soup back into the saucepan, and add a bit more
cream, until the thick puree is manageable, but not runny.
This peasant
vichysoisse will be richly delicious, without adding oil or margarine. Since it
is casual, I enjoy it drunk from a mug, but you can cool or freeze the soup.
When the soup is cool but not frozen, if you want cold summer soup, mix the soup
with a little milk to separate it, and top with very thinly sliced cucumber,
pepper to taste.
Bet you didn't think of this wonderful taste sensation as a vegetarian dish, before!
When I was a young Mom, I always had Bean with Bacon soup handy, so
hearty and warm on those fall , or winter nights. My son and I loved it, and
there was no substitute for its rich flavour, stew-like, hearty texture, or for
its nutritious value. The cost was minimal. I added a can of water and stirred,
and - instant (almost satisfaction was ours.
Since about the same time that
my son was born, though, I had started experimenting with health foods, and
also, with actual vegan cuisine.
The first health food stores yielded very
dull protein subs, and I subsisted, mainly on egg with rice and a well-thumbed
book by Adele
Davis, entitled "Eat Right to Keep
Fit". Adele Davis studied combining proteins, to assure vegetarians
that, if they combined several (at least two protein) sources, their protein
needs would synthesize exactly what the body would be missing from meat
products.
Works likeLucy Hortons' "Country
Commune Cooking" ( really fun!) and then Anna Thomases
"Vegetarian Epicure" came my way, later
in the eighties.
After years of exploration into my own style of veggie
cooking (much appreciated by guests, always) I evolved some really nice recipes.
I am sharing some of these with readers, because utilizing some of the studies,
and also the newer products for vegan dining, can, if not convert meat-loving munchers, at least balance
out a persons' health with a few meals that involve way less
cholesterol and very few of the toxins and hazards that can be found in
meat products.
A good example is the use of Italian Sausage. Sure, everyone
loves pickled meats, but we have all been warned of the dangers of sodium
nitrite, used as a preservative for ground meats, made into cold-cuts or
specialties.
At first, I made my veggie version of Bean with Bacon soup
using large textured protein soya bacon bits. I simply added them to my bean
soup. They boiled, and offered bacon meat texture, plus the flavouring (maple,
hickory et al) to the soup.
Recently, I discovered a new product in the deli
section where I get my veggie cold-cuts. Yves
Textured Protein manufacturers had done it again. They perfected, and I
mean perfected, a pack of Italian Veggie Sausages. You might find many brand
names- this is the product I can get, locally.
Of course, I purchased these,
and set out to add them to tons of interesting recipes.
So this is my
first attempt, and you can make this soup while adding either bacon bits,
or this interesting, hearty garnish. Just try it. The recipe is
free!
INGREDIENTS
In a large saucepan, bring slightly less than half a pan of water to
boil, while adding the crumbled bouillon cubes. Toss in well-chopped onion,
cubed potatoes and diced carrots. When these have boiled for five minutes, add
the herbs, salt and pepper, and also the can of baked beans. At this point, you
can add a half-cup of bacon bits. (Don't add them, if you plan on using
sausage!)
Sprinkle with your salt and pepper, and add the olive oil. Just
stir, and bring to a boil, again. When the pot has come to a boil, reduce the
heat to low temperature, lid the pot, and simmer for at least half an hour.
Now, for the super
interest. Instead of using bacon bits, slice
your Vegetarian Italian Sausage. In
a small pan, gently heat the tablespoon of Olive Oil (or Canola, if you wish).
Add the slices, and stir over low to medium heat, leaving the sausage long
enough to crisp it on both sides. Instead of adding
to a simmering soup, to soften up, ladle the luscious bean soup into bowls, and
top each with the hearty Italian
Sausage. The result is unique, and absolutely delicious!
You will discover that vegetarian soya proteins are zero cholesterol. So are Extra Virgin Olive,
and also Canola oils. Baked Beans are a great protein sub, along with the
sausage for any meat product. This makes a great meal along with crusty bread.
If you are a big eater try broiled cheese on toast along with the
soup.
Sue Risks' Down Home- Dang Busted - I Got the Ron Smith's "Out of Work Blues"
A two pound loaf
1 and 1/3 cups of water.
1/4 cup skim milk powder (I didn't have any, but who cares)
1 and 1/2 tsp of salt
3 tbsp of honey
3 and 1/2 cups of white or unbleached flour for bread baking
1/2 cup fresh, well chopped mint leaves
1/2 cup fresh, well-chopped chives
1/4 cup fresh, well-chopped oregano
1/4 cup fresh well-chopped marjoram.
1 and 3/4 tsp of yeast
Melt the honey in the warm water and add the yeast. Leave for ten minutes and add all the ingredients, plopping them into the bread baker. You really need lots of herbs for Ultra Herb Bread to really taste herbed. Just super mince them.Add more chives and less Oregano to taste.I like to add a little white pepper to this.
Even if there is no margarine, the taste of this bread when fresh and hot is incredible.Try an impromptu spread of mayonnaise mixed with the Parmesan the guys didn't know you still had and add Black Pepper and a little Dijon mustard, then broil it golden in the oven.
During more lucrative days when I was an apartment super as well as an illustrator, I made sumptuous Spinach Spanakopita whn Ron visisted (and practically with a rose!)here it is:
I noticed that Spinach and Bluberries attract the lil rascals who slick in and out of we country folk. They are not much of a nuisance, but they answer in quite loud squeaks when they are investigating the throat. Use Spinach anything. I add blueberries to spinach salad in the summer. Quiet and clean.
Buy a box of mille-feuille pastry from the freezer department of the supermarket.Defrost the pastry roll.
Get six eggs, margarine, a litre of 5% cream,a tub of feta cheese,spinach, salt, and pepper.
Take three whole sheets of mille - feuille pastry one at a time, and spread into a large casserole dish. Spread each side of the leaves with melted margarine, and place one on top of the other slightly kitty corner, so all of the corners show.
Wash, trim and boil a bag of spinach( or, a large culender full from the garden) briefly until it turns limp and shrinks.Drain well.
Whisk the six eggs until smooth and add to three cups of the cream plus 1/4 tsp of salt which you have heated until bubbles form around the saucepan. Immediately remove from the heat.
Place the spinach into the pastry-lined casserole and
sprinkle with half or three quarters of a pound of crumbled feta cheese. Shake
black pepper over this to taste, and then pour the egg and cream custard over
both. Top with two margarined leaves of pastry, then bake at 450 degrees
for 15 minutes and then at 350 'til golden brown. Serve hot or
cold.
1 and 1/2 cups of granulated sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup light cream (or Carnation Condensed milk)
1/3 cup milk or Carnation
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 teaspoon vanilla.
1 lime
Rose syrup
Combine sugars, cream and butter in a heavy three quart saucepan. Add the lime, cut in half. Cook on medium, stiring constantly, bringing this to a boil. Let it cook (to 238 F) until it forms a soft ball in a glass of cold water. Remove from heat and cool, adding 1/4 cup Syrup of Roses and the vanilla while constantly beating the fudge with a wooden spoon, until the candy thickens and becomes dull in texture.
Pat into forms for fudge or small cream cheese containers and cool.
This is a sneaky way to get frogs to follow the rainbow (Roses) and to find their way out.
Take two ten inch stems St. Johns Wort and one perfect head of Goldenrod, and wash well. Boil them in water ( fill a juice jug with water to measure) into a soup sized saucepan.Chill and serve over ice with fresh lemon slices and optional honey or sugar. This tea is wonderful made into ice cubes for other drinks.
Pick and wash two or three Motherwort leaves and one bloom, a couple of Yarrow leaves and one bloom, and three stems of Peppermint. Place in a teapot and add several slices of lemon and also lime. Pour boiling water over the tea and steep for ten minutes. Chill with slices of the rest of the lemon and the lime. To serve four.
Serve over ice with lemon and lime slices, or freeze into ice cubes for regular Club Soda or iced tea.Quite a pick me up on the humid, lazy summer days.
This holiday season, I happened to buy a tin of stuffed
grapevine leaves from Turkey. The vegetarian ingredients are simple- leaves,
stuffed with rice and seasoned with spices and mint.
I decided to heat these
(easily done for a magnificent side dish) in the microwave for five
minutes.
I made a new and heavenly type of sauce for this, and I am passing
this on, because it was so worthwhile to the taste.
Into a small mixing bowl, squeeze about three heaping
tablespooons of Hellmans Lemon Mayonnaise. (I found that I could add fresh
citrus juice to sour cream by bonding the sauce with this new mayo, and other
ingredients).
To this, I added about two tablespoons of lime juice (you can
use RealLime or fresh).
Add to this about two level tablespoons of Extra
Virgin Oilve Oil, plus half a cup of whole sour cream.
The cream will not
curdle. At this point, add a teaspoon of non-cholesterol Sesame oil, and two
heaping tablespoons of Tzaziki
herb mix for dips. (There is a kosher brand from Epicure Selections
®.)
Mix this nicely, adding the juice of half a fresh lemon
I met someone
form China who turned me on to cooking with Sesame. On top of nicely spiced soup
and vermicelli, she would add a drizzle of sesame oil. So I topped the quite
firm sauce with a visible drizzle of the sesame oil. The flavour and loook of
this new sauce was supreme. Leave theoil on the top, and add a tiny set of mint
leaves, or a tassel of dill for garnish.
Served over the hot stuffed
grapevine leaves, the dish serves six easily as a side dish, is extremely rich,
and takes seven minutes to prepare.
copyright Sue Risk Northdays Image 2004 - 2010