Sprouted Garbonzo Bean Salad

I love sprouting. I am so happy that I purchased my sprouter. Mine is a 3 tray system that drains itself and leaves a perfect amount of water in each tray. My advice to you: invest in one and, more importantly, use it. The greatest thing about sprouting beans is that they are no longer a legume when they come alive, they are a vegetable packed full of great nutrients. Today I decided to make a vegan salad using the sprouted garbanzo beans (chick peas) [possibly as an apology to my herbivore friends about my last recipe....]. If you need directions on how to sprout garbanzo beans, check out The Daily Raw Cafe. She shows you how to sprout if you don't want to invest in a sprouter but have a few mason jars kicking around (all you need is a special strainer lid which is available at health food stores). Anyway, here goes the recipe. This is very delicious and nutritious food. Serves 3-4.

Ingredients

Dressing:

1/4 cup raw apple cider vinegar (Bragg's is good)

1/3 cup olive oil

1 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp ground pepper

1 tsp dried oregano

2 tbsp raw agave nectar


Salad:

4 cups sprouted garbanzo beans

1/2 orange or yellow bell pepper

1/2 red onion

1 tbsp chopped fresh mint

1 tbsp chopped fresh basil


Directions:

1) When the garbanzo beans are sprouted with a small tail no larger than in the picture at the top, rinse them thoroughly, steam for 10-12 minutes, rinse under cold water and put in bowl.

2) Dice the red onion and bell pepper. Finely chop the mint and basil. Add to beans.

3) Mix all dressing ingredients in a small bowl and whisk until creamy. Pour over top of salad and toss.

4) Enjoy!!


So, there you have it. A delicious vegan recipe. At one point, this recipe was raw but, unfortunately, I got food poisoning from the raw garbanzo beans. Sprouting beans can be finicky and if you aren't careful and don't rinse them thoroughly enough, they can be toxic. I fell victim to this. To avoid going through the same thing I did, boil or steam the sprouts for safety. Have fun with this recipe. I hope you like it.


Cheers!




 

Bean Salad w/ Apple Cider Vinaigrette

Bean Salad w/ Apple Cider Vinaigrette

Well, it's time to end my food-blog hiatus. School has ended and summer is coming. Before you say it, I will... Barbecues!!! Tasty, tasty barbecues. Before I post my special barbecue recipes, I'm going to start with this salad recipe. Bean salads, at least in my family, are a staple at barbecues. Since I had all the ingredients handy and a fresh batch of daikon sprouts, I thought I should make something tasty with them. If you have a sprouter, try and find daikon seeds and grow them yourself. If you don't have a sprouter, buy one..... or buy a pack of broccoli sprouts. Okay, to the recipe. There are two ways to make this salad, the lazy way and the foodie way. I'm going to tell you the foodie way but if you want to do it the lazy way, feel free to use canned mushy beans. Serves 4-6.

Ingredients:

Dressing:

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/3 cup olive oil

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1 tsp dried oregano

1-2 tbsp raw sugar


Salad:

1/2 cup dried garbanzo beans (or 1 can)

1/2 cup dried romano beans (or 1 can)

1/2 cup dried kidney beans (or 1 can)

1/2 small red onion

1/2 large yellow or orange bell pepper

1 tbsp fresh mint

1 tbsp fresh basil

2-3 green onions

1 1/2 cups daikon sprouts (or 1 pack broccoli sprouts)


Directions:

1) For the lazy way: open the cans of beans, rinse any sauce off in a colander and put in a salad bowl.

2) For the foodie way: soak all dried beans separately for 6-8 hours maximum (make sure you cover with at least 1 1/2 cups of water to accommodate expansion).

3) Drain and rinse the beans in a colander. Put beans in separate heavy bottom pots (you could probably mix the beans together; however, they may cook at different rates) and heat until boiling.

4) Simmer beans on medium heat for 1 to 1-1/2 hours. Keep testing them periodically after 45 minutes of boiling until they are at the consistency you want. [This may seem complicated and arduous but it's the best way. It's so much better when "mushiness" is not a description for your salad].

5) After boiling, rinse beans with cold water and put into the bowl.

6) Dice the red onion, bell pepper and green onions. Finely chop the fresh herbs. Put all veggies, herbs and sprouts into the salad bowl.

7) Whisk all the dressing ingredients together until creamy. Pour over the salad and toss well.

8) Enjoy.



So, there you have it. My food blog hiatus is over and you have a new tasty recipe you can try. I really hope you try this salad. This recipe is definitely a keeper for me. If you don't like beans, try the dressing on other salads, I'm sure it would be the same awesomeness that it was on this salad. Don't forget, comments and questions about my recipes are gladly accepted on this blog.


Cheers

Goma Ae (Japanese Spinach Salad)

Goma Ae

I love Japanese food. One of my favourite dishes of all time that I get every time I go for sushi is Goma Ae. It's a very simple salad and it's refreshing and light. A good friend came over last night and, being in an entertaining mood, I decided to take my first crack at Goma Ae. After doing some research online, I found that there were hundreds of ways to prepare this dish. Perfect, I thought. I can make my own version of Goma Ae and not feel bad about switching up a few ingredients. Without further ado... the recipe. Serves 3-4.

Ingredients

1 lb baby spinach

2 tbsp mirin (rice cooking wine)

1 1/2 tbsp toasted sesame oil

1 tbsp sesame seeds

2 tbsp soy sauce (I prefer dark mushroom soy sauce)

1 tsp sugar

Directions

1) Start by boiling a large pot of water. Once water is at a rolling boil, place spinach in water and stir until wilted (approximately 2 minutes). Strain the spinach well and place in a bowl and cool it in the refrigerator.

2) While the spinach is cooling, put sesame seeds into a dry frying pan. Heat on high and continue flipping and stirring the sesame seeds until the majority have turned light brown (Be careful not to burn them). Once toasted, place into a ramekin or bowl and set aside.

3) Once the spinach is chilled, remove from fridge, strain out the remaining water (you may need to squeeze the spinach with your hand) and put all the ingredients into the bowl and stir well.

4) Enjoy


So, there you have it. Goma Ae. Light, nutritious, refreshing and a perfect start to any meal (not just Japanese meals). I hope you give this one a try.


Cheers!!

Power Quinoa Salad

Healthy but Tasty Quinoa Salad

Oh, Quinoa... how I love your complete protein goodness. I became quinoa crazy the other day. I made such a large batch that I've been eating this stuff for 3 days. Mmmmmm. Anyway, after a week of eating not-so-good food, I decided to load up a salad with nutrients. But I wasn't finished there. I decided to add an antioxidant as well... green tea. I actually cooked the quinoa in green tea. Strange, you say? It would be too bitter, you say? None of the above, my friends. It turned out beautifully. The tea added a unique and subtle flavour to the quinoa that livened it up a bit. I also went fibre and protein crazy with seeds. This salad is packed with hemp hearts, chia seeds and sunflower seeds. The bottom line, this is a healthy but very tasty meal. Without further ado... the recipe.  
Serves 4 - 6 people.

Ingredients

1 cup white quinoa (mix 1/2 cup of white and 1/2 cup red for a more nutty flavour)

2 cups water

2 bags of quality organic green tea

1 tbsp chia seeds

2 tbsp shelled hemp seeds

2 tbsp hulled sunflower seeds

1/3 tsp dried dillweed

2 tsp dried parsley

1/4 cup apple-cider vinegar

3 tbsp lemon juice

1 large carrot

100g sunchokes (Jerusalem artichoke) (if unavailable, use 1 more carrot or 1 stick celery)

3-4 medjool dates

1 small red bell-pepper

1/2 small red onion

Salt and Pepper

1/4 tsp sugar

Directions


1) Boil some water in a tea kettle. Add 1 cup of boiling water to a medium saucepan and steep the tea bags in it for 5 minutes. Remove the tea-bags.

2) Add one cup of cold water, quinoa, sugar and 1 tsp salt to the pot. Turn stove to high and bring to a boil. Once boiling, turn stove to low, lid the pot and let cook for 15 minutes. Let sit 5 minutes after cooking and then fluff the quinoa with a fork. Once quinoa has cooled, transfer to a mixing bowl.

3) Cut carrot, (peeled) sunchoke, (pitted) medjool dates, red onion and red pepper into small cubes. Add to mixing bowl.

4) Add the remaining ingredients to the bowl and stir the ingredients together. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you feel like it needs more of a kick, add 1-2 more tablespoons of vinegar.

5) Enjoy!!


So, there you have it. My Power Quinoa Salad recipe loaded with fibre, protein, essential minerals and antioxidants. The best part? No oil. In fact, I don't think anything in this salad is necessarily unhealthy (just don't use too much salt). Give it a try and send some feedback my way. 


Cheers!!

Avacado, Date and Sun Dried Tomato Salad w/ Grapefruit Balsamic Reduction

Well folks, it's salad time again. I have a bit of a sweet tooth so I enjoy sweet bits in my salad. I was having a late-night refrigerator raid last night when I stumbled upon some medjool dates that I completely forgot that I had. Happiness set in quite rapidly when I decided to create a salad today with those delicious little morsels of sweet-tooth heaven. For the past week I've had the hankering to create a funky balsamic reduction as well. So I did... and now I present it to you. I wanted to incorporate the full spectrum of tastes in this dish. There are sweet, bitter, sour, salty and savoury elements to this salad. I hope you enjoy it. Serves 2-3 people.

Ingredients

Balsamic Reduction:

1 cup Balsamic Vinegar of Modena

1 cup juice of ruby red grapefruit (freshly squeezed)

1 tablespoon of sugar (don't like sweet reductions? then don't add sugar)

Salad:

1 head of Green or Red leaf lettuce (Romaine would work as well)

1 ripe avacado

6-7 strips of sun dried tomato

2 medjool dates

salt and pepper

2 tsp lemon juice

2 tsp olive oil

Directions

Balsamic Reduction:

1) Put balsamic vinegar, grapefruit juice, and sugar in a medium saucepan. Whisk ingredients together and bring to a boil. Immediately turn to medium heat and whisk frequently. (Warning: do not put your head over the pot to inhale the vinegary fumes, I learned the hard way. Made my eyes bulge and start watering).

2) Reduce the mixture by about 75% or until it coats the back of a spoon like a light syrup. Take off heat, transfer to bowl, let cool to room temperature and then refrigerate until needed.

Salad:

1) If using dry sun-dried tomatoes, reconstitute them by soaking them in a bowl with warm water for 20-30 minutes before salad preparation. If using jarred sun-dried tomatoes in oil or brine, simply rinse the pieces.
 
2) Pit and cut up the avocado into 1/8 inch cubes and put into bowl. Pit and cut up the medjool dates into thin slices and put into bowl. Finely chop the pieces of sun-dried tomatoes and put into bowl. Add 1 tsp of lemon juice and a pinch of salt and mix well. Set aside.

3) Using a salad spinner, tear lettuce into bite size pieces, rinse and spin dry (if you don't dry the lettuce, the dressing will not stick to it). Put into bowl.

4) In another small bowl, whisk together olive oil and 3 tablespoons of the balsamic reduction. Pour over the salad, season with salt and pepper, and toss.Try a piece, if it's not flavoured enough, drizzle on more balsamic reduction and toss again. Plate the dressed lettuce.

5) After another quick mix of the avocado mixture, top the lettuce with it. If you'd like, drizzle a small amount of the reduction over top of the whole thing.

6) Enjoy!!



So, there you have it. My avocado, date and sun-dried tomato salad. I was pleasantly surprised to find that the medjool dates tasted a bit like candied pecans. I personally don't care much for the crunchy pecans in salads but I do like the flavour so this worked beautifully. I hope somebody who reads this will try to make it and give me some feedback. I liked it but I felt as if there could have been 1 more element added that would have made it a bit more well-rounded. If someone does try it out, please let me know your thoughts. 

Cheers!!