Two Minute Peanut Sauce

Chomp.

One of my favorite "oh, duh!" moments was when I found out large leaf veggies like swiss chard, cabbage, and lettuce, can be used to make sandwiched and wraps. Leafy greens are way more nutrient dense than tortillas or pita bread, you can buy them without packaging, and let's not forget that they are way easier to make (wash and cut off stem v. make dough and bake)!

Now that the weather is getting nicer (65 degrees outside yesterday?!), I am moving from my I-want-soup-all-day-everyday phase into one involving oodles of fresh, raw veggies.

Enter: Rainbow Chard Wraps

 Rainbow chard.

Microgreens. 

Sliced red cabbage. 

Soaked and chopped sun-dried tomatoes. 

But here's my mantra: the sauce is always the best part. Averie from Love Veggies and Yoga has become my new sauce guru. I made 3 different sauce recipes of hers last weekend and there have been times this week that I have just stuck a spoon in the sauces and ate it straight up.

Averie’s 2 Minute Peanut Sauce
[Original recipe here]

1/3 c nut butter
1/4 c raw honey (or other liquid sweetener of choice)
1/4 c sesame oil (for that asian flavor)
1/4 c apple cider vinegar
1 t powdered ginger

Just whisk it together!

Carrot-Ginger Soup

Carrot Ginger Soup
Basic root vegetable soup for those cold, winter days. Or in my case, breakfast!

With a healthy dollop of sauerkraut on top ;)

Ingredients:
2 T oil (1)
4 cloves garlic, chopped (2)
1" ginger, sliced
1 celery root, cubed (this and the kohlrabi just happened to be in my fridge so we tossed 'em in!) (2)
1 kohlrabi, cubed (2)
9 medium carrots (3)
6 cups water
6 T soy sauce (1)
1 T maple syrup (1)
1 t pepper (1)

Directions:
Heat oil, 2 T water, ginger and garlic in soup pan. Saute for a minute or two.
Add remaining water, soy sauce, pepper, honey, celery root, kohlrabi and carrots.
Bring to a simmer.
Cook until vegetables are soft and easily pierced by a fork, about an hour.
Remove pan from heat and allow soup to cool a bit.

In small batches, blend soup in a blender or food processor until smooth.
Spice to taste, I added some ground ginger and more pepper.

(1) Bulk section of the People's Food Co-op
(2) Labelled "Local" at the People's Food Co-op
(3) Left over from Snowtest

Coconut Dal

Last night Poonam and I decided to hold a snowman protest. What's this you ask? Well we built a bunch of angry looking snowmen on the U-M diag holding signs protesting global weirding.

My sustainability soulmate.

Some notable signs:
Climate change is getting worse. And you still won't get a snow day.
Sustainability is common sense. Do you lack it?
Yo! My snowballs are freezing!
Your lack of concern is giving me blue balls:

We spent about 2 hours in the snowpocalypse, making about 20 angry snowpeople (some a bit too anatomically correct...). A special thanks to all of the friends and random passerbys that helped in the building process! It was pretty satisfying seeing just about every person walking through the diag whip out their phone and take a picture of our semi-inappropriate demonstration ;)

Ultimately, I trudged home with wet pants, socks, gloves and feeling awful. After passing out for 2 hours I awoke famished and yearning for something warm. Enter:

Coconut Dal

From Open-Ended Question.

Ingredients:

1/2 c coconut oil

1 c dried coconut flakes (1)

1.5 T brown mustard seeds (1)

1.5 T cumin seeds (1)

2 t ground cumin (1)

2 t ground coriander (1)

2 t ground cardamom (1)

1 t turmeric (1)

1/4 t cayenne (1)

1/2 c fresh ginger, minced

2 large onions, diced (I only had 1 onion but it turned out good still!)

3 green chilis, seeds removed & finely sliced

5 cloves garlic, minced (3)

2 large tomatoes, diced (2)

2 c split red lentils (1)

9 c water (divided)

2 tsp salt (added after dal is cooked)*

Directions:

Melt coconut oil over medium-high heat in a large pot.

Add mustard seeds, cumin seeds, and dried coconut.

Cook until seeds are sputtering and fragrant, stirring frequently.

Add dry spices (not salt) and stir until well mixed (Add small amounts of water if spices begin burning/sticking to the pot.)

Add garlic, ginger, onions (and chiles if you have them) and cook until onions are translucent, 5-7 min.

Add tomatoes and 1 cup of water and simmer for 10 minutes, until tomatoes are broken down.

Add lentils and remaining water and bring to a boil.

Reduce heat until simmering and cook until lentils break down and become mushy, about 45 min.

Add salt and garnish with chopped cabbage, carrots or cilantro!

*Do not add salt until after lentils have cooked. Salt interrupts the cooking process of the bean.

(1) People's Food Co-op bulk section

(2) Locavorious

(3) Tantre Farm

Steamed Baby Bok Choy with Orange and Ginger

Pre-Finals Post 2:

Nom.

How is a vegetable adorable? I don't know but baby bok choy definitely is. The giddiness that I had when I found it at the farmer's market is a little (a lot) embarrassing.

Also, there is a new addition to my cooking repertoire. Steaming! I stole my brother's steamer (because he doesn't cook, shame shame) and I have been using it like a mad woman. You can make your own steamer by setting a colander in a pot that has an inch of boiling water in it and covering it with some sort of cover.

I know that this may sound odd but DRINK THE WATER leftover from steaming. They will contain vitamins and minerals that left the plant in the steaming process. Plus it will be slightly colored green (or whatever color the plant you steam is) which I think is neat-o.

Steamed Bok Choy with Orange and Ginger

Ingredients:

2 baby bok choys (1)

1 t toasted sesame oil

1" ginger, grated

zest from 1/2 orange (2)

juice from 1/2 orange (2)

Directions:

Remove discolored outer leaves of the bok choy and chop off a bit of the bottom.

Cut bok choy in half and rinse well, there will be dirt lodged in between the leaves.

Bring 1" of water to a boil in a medium saucepan.

Place bok choy, ginger, and orange zest in steaming vessel.

Steam until bok choy is easily pierced with a fork, about 5 minutes.

Remove from steamer and toss with oil and orange juice.

(1) From AA Farmer's Market, but didn't catch the name of the stand. Shame on me...

(2) Pre-challenge stash

Kale, pear, and hazelnut salad with a lemon, ginger, and vanilla dressing

Vanilla in a salad dressing?? What?? YOU NEED TO TRY THIS! It. Is. The. Best.

Red kale! Swanky, I know.

Ingredients

Dressing

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

juice of 1 lemon 1 t dried lemon

1 T apple cider vinegar

+1 T white vinegar

2 teaspoons agave syrup maple syrup

1 teaspoon fresh ginger juice 1 small know of ginger, grated

a quarter of a teaspoon powdered ginger

a quarter of a teaspoon powdered vanilla 1/2 t vanilla extract

whole sea salt, just enough to taste

white pepper, just enough to taste freshly ground pepper, to taste

Salad

1 large bunch of kale, cleaned, stems and tough ribs removed

1/2 large and very firm pear, cleaned, quartered lengthwise, cored and finely sliced (you can use a potato peeler to make really thin slices)

2 handfuls of shelled walnuts roasted hazelnuts, coarsely chopped

Directions:

Whisk together salad dressing.

Put salad ingredients in a bowl.

Pour dressing on salad and toss.

Eat.

Self-explanatory? Probably...