Eggplant Walnut Spread or Dip

Eggplant has always intimidated me. I tried to make homemade babaganouch about 5 years back and it was a serious flop. Oh a whim I ended up purchasing a nice eggplant last week since they were on sale. I'd seen the odd vegan recipe calling for it in it's ingredient list so I figured I'd give it another shot. It sat in the fridge for a few days, making me feel guilty.



I found a recipe in Robin Robertson's "1000 Vegan Recipes" that looked easy enough for my second-ever attempt at handling this purple vegetable. A little googling led me to discover that this dip was a definite favourite amongst those who'd made it.

Let me simply state that eggplant and I are now best buds! I think this spread would be great as a condiment in a wrap sandwich, or as a dip for homemade crackers.

Did you know?

Researchers at the US Agricultural Service in Beltsville, Maryland, have found that eggplants are rich sources of phenolic compounds that function as antioxidants. Plants form such compounds to protect themselves against oxidative stress from exposure to the elements, as well as from infection by bacteria and fungi.

The good news concerning eggplant is that the predominant phenolic compound found in all varieties tested is chlorogenic acid, which is one of the most potent free radical scavengers found in plant tissues. Benefits attributed to chlorogenic acid include antimutagenic (anti-cancer), antimicrobial, anti-LDL (bad cholesterol) and antiviral activities. ~ whfoods.com

Thank you Robin Robertson where ever you are for such an easy impressive dip!

Happy Thanksgiving from a Canadian!

For each new morning with its light,
For rest and shelter of the night,
For health and food, for love and friends,
For everything Thy goodness sends.
~Ralph Waldo Emerson

Our Canadian Thanksgiving was back on October 11th, but best wishes to those celebrating Thanksgiving today in America, many of which are family of my very own who live across the border. May your bellies be full (but not too full) of healthy wholesome food!

Here I offer a few photos of vegan Thanksgiving meals taken from Flickr. You can click on each photo to be taken to it's Flickr page. Enjoy!

A Simple & Appetizing Salad

This was my favourite lunch from this past weekend. A very simple salad of thinly sliced romaine and baby spinach, finely diced red onion, and half an avocado.

Instead of splashing some balsamic vinegar like I usually do, I dug out of the fridge the remaining vinaigrette I had made the other day. It's called Better Than Bottled Balsamic Vinaigrette (that it is!). You can find the recipe over at Angela's blog right here.

This salad was so wonderful that I couldn't stop Mmmmmm'ing the whole way through!

After a few forkfuls I had the presence
of mind to add some fresh ground pepper
On another note, if you like getting free things, Keri over at her I Eat Trees blog is having a giveaway contest. The book is Vegan Vittles, and it's on my wish list for sure. Check it out!

Lilibeth's Naturally Sweet Vegan Pumpkin Pie

Disclaimer: I fully acknowledge that the recipe instructions are wordy, but I'd rather make things really clear and share any tips that will ensure success!

A short while ago I tried out Vegan Spoonful's Homestyle Vegan Pumpkin Pie with much success. It was "just like grandma used to make". I blogged about it here.

The notion of making a pumpkin pie filling that had no refined sugar in it intrigued me. What about using date paste instead? Date paste is simply pitted medjool dates and a quantity of water processed until it's a smooth paste. Sugar, whether it's organic cane sugar or plain white sugar is devoid of nutrition. Dates on the other hand are a source of fiber, vitamin A, B vitamins, calcium, magnesium, potassium, copper, manganese and much more. Don't be mislead though, because even dates can hamper your weight loss goals.


My pumpkin pie filling also skips the use of salt, something I'm trying to avoid as per the nutritarian way of eating. I've upped the quantities of spices to make sure it has lots of taste. It's not overly sweet, unless of course you top it with something like EverydayDish.tv's Vegan Whipped Topping! Jon tried it plain and thought it was just as yummy as the first vegan pumpkin pie I tried. I was very happy with how it turned out!

For the crust I used No Roll, Never Fail, Press-In Pie Crust (Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free & More). It called for 1 tablespoon of sugar and I used my organic cane sugar. I won't be doing that again. It seemed that any sugar grains that were exposed or touching the glass pie plate turned black. So there are parts where the crust is speckled black. Kinda creepy. Next time I'd skip the sugar altogether.

click photo to see enlarged version IF you're curious
Here are a few vegan options for the pie crust:

No Roll, Never Fail, Press-In Pie Crust (Gluten Free, Dairy Free, Egg Free & More)

Dr. Fuhrman's Oat Crust

OR

Almond-Oatmeal Pie Crust (found here)

I plan to try this one next. I like that the fat content is natural and unrefined

Ingredients:

* 1-1/2 cups oatmeal ground into a coarse flour
* 3/4 cups almonds finely chopped in processor
* 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
* 1/2 cup water, approximately

How to make it:

1. Mix the ingredients and roll out between 2 sheets of wax paper.
2. Peel off the top sheet of paper.
3. Place a 9 inch pie pan upside down on top of it then flip both over.
4. Remove the other sheet of paper and trim to shape.
5. Bake unfilled for 10 minutes in a 350F oven.
6. Remove and fill with your pie filling and bake as needed.


Lilibeth's Naturally Sweet Vegan Pumpkin Pie

IMPORTANT: Before you do anything, take a square of aluminum foil and cut a circle out of it, one that will expose the filling but not the crust. This will protect the outer crust from burning. I suggest loosly placing it on the pie after it's been in the oven for 10 minutes or so.

Ingredients:

1 9" prepared crust
1 14-oz can pureed pumpkin
1 cup almond, rice, oat, hemp or soy milk
3/4 cup date paste*
3 Tbsp cornstarch
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp allspice

*For the date paste you'll need approx. 16 medjool dates, pitted and split in half. Toss them in your food processor. Add about a 1/2 cup of water. You may need more, but start with processing this (start by pulsing) and see how it goes and then add more water as you see fit. You're going for a pureed pumpkin kind of consistency, so you want it to have substance. This will most likely make more than you'll, but store the remaining paste in a jar and save for smoothies or something.

Instructions

Preheat oven 350 degrees

Prepare your homemade or store-bought crust. Place the rest of the ingredients into a large bowl and blend well with a hand mixer. Pour into prepared crust. If you're using an 8" pie crust, you may have leftover pie filling.

Bake 1 hour, BUT after about 10 minutes place your aluminum foil crust protector over the pie, leaving the filling exposed.

ALSO!! After about 30 minutes you may want to loosly cover the whole pie with another piece of aluminum foil. I mistakenly had the oven at 375 for the first 40 minutes instead of the 350 it should have been at, so I don't know if would be fine without the foil at the proper temperature (argh!!). Just do me a favour and keep an eye on it! Mine turned out fine in spite of my blunder.

Lilibeth's Smoky Comfort-in-a-Bowl Chili

Becoming a nutritarian-vegan has vastly heightened my ability to enjoy preparing yummy food, whether raw or cooked. I've always admired people who love to cook. Maybe this new eating lifestyle was my personal catalyst since deep down inside there's always been a health nut screaming to come out and take over the reigns!

It's been fun collecting up ingredients that I had never tried let alone heard of before, like liquid smoke. I'm sure the rest of the world has a bottle of this stuff in their cupboard but somehow it's existence had slipped past me unnoticed. It's the perfect addition to chili, what with that gorgeous hickory smell!

This chili will not make your eyes water or set your tongue on fire, at least not from the get-go. Be assured, it does have a smoky kick to it that will build with every bite. You'll notice I used a wide array of spices and herbs, more than your average recipe. It smells and tastes wonderful!

Jon says its the best I've ever made, and I've made some pretty awesome chili in my time. Score! According to him he wouldn't want it any spicier. Double score! If I wasn't out of cornmeal I'd be making my favourite cornbread as a go-along.


Lilibeth's Smoky Comfort-in-a-Bowl Chili

2 28oz. cans no-added-salt diced tomatoes, drained
3 Tbsp no-salt tomato paste
3 Tbsp date paste* (or 1 Tbsp natural granulated sugar etc.)
2-3 portobella mushrooms, diced into 1/2" cubes
1 whole garlic bulb (about 10 cloves), crushed
1 medium onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 yellow bell pepper, diced (or 1 cup of frozen corn)
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and finely diced (wear gloves!)
2 celery stalks (plus some leaves), finely diced
1/4 tsp liquid smoke
1 Tbsp chili powder
1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tsp smoked paprika (not regular paprika)
1 tsp chipotle powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp herb de provence
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp allspice
1 tsp salt (or less if canned tomatoes have added salt - you be the judge)
1 19oz. can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed well
1 19oz. can chickpeas, drained and rinsed well
1 19oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed well

To avoid using processed sugar which lack nutrients, I encourage you to make some date paste. Dates are a source of fiber, vitamin A, B vitamins, calcium, magnesium, potassium, copper, manganese...get the picture!

*Date Paste:

approx. 8 medjool dates, pitted
1/2 cup water to start

Process in food processor. You may need more water depending on how dry the dates are. Add 1-2 Tbsp at a time. Store in glass jar in fridge. I confess it was really too small an amount of stuff to give my food processor to work with, but I persevered! The consistency I was going for was something that wasn't too runny. I wanted it concentrated.

Okay, now on with the chili!


Basically, throw it all into a good sized crock pot and mix well. I chose to saute the mushrooms before throwing them in, but it's really not necessary. I added the beans after mixing up everything else so they wouldn't become pulverized.

substitute corn for the yellow pepper if you prefer
Cook on low 8-10 hours, or high 5 hours or so. Actually I'm just guessing here. You'll know when it's done.

right before the lid goes on and the crock pot is turned on

Eat Your Greens Fruit Smoothie

doesn't look like 'greens' to me, looks like chocolate!
My 'Day 2' breakfast for the Eat to Live: Six Week Holiday Challenge was Dr. Fuhrman's Eat Your Greens Fruit Smoothie. I almost instinctively began to prepare my beloved oatmeal with flaxseed, blueberries and nuts again but remembered that I need to be more diligent about eating a variety of different meals.

This smoothie was a treat! Yes it came out a sort of burgundy brown, reminding me of chocolate. I dare say it was so rich and thick and tasty that if I'd handed it to someone and said it had a hint of chocolate in it, they'd believe me.

I find that my taste buds are becoming more sensitive to good food. When you have a regular diet of salty or sugary foods, it can lessen your taste bud's ability to pick up all the different flavours in natural food. Thankfully that can be turned around. You should have heard me eating my salad this afternoon! You would have thought I was eating decadent chocolate cheesecake!


Dr. Fuhrman's 'Eat Your Greens Fruit Smoothie'

Serves 1

Ingredients:

5 ounces baby spinach
1 banana (lightly freckled and ripe)
1 cup frozen or fresh blueberries
1/2 cup unsweetened soy, hemp or almond milk
1/2 cup pomegranate juice or other unsweetened fruit juice (I used water)
1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds

Instructions:

Blend all ingredients in a high-powered* blender until smooth and creamy.

*My blender is very basic, so I had to be patient and help things along (not before turning it off of course!). It was well worth the effort!

Vegan on the Cheap - Lemony Garlic Chickpea Patties

Supper #2 out of Robin Robertson's Vegan on the Cheap is another smashing success! And here's a testament to this cookbook: I had spent most of the afternoon working on a vegan chili for the weekend (which I will be sharing) and next thing you know it's an hour or so before supper time and I have no plans of what we're going to eat. I leafed through the book and decided on Lemony Garlic Chickpea Patties because I had almost everything it called for, except for green onions which I replaced with diced up onion. Oh yes and I didn't have near enough bread crumbs but I replaced the shortage with oatmeal flour.

This cookbook is making switching my family to vegan meals a breeze!

These babies are fun to make and even more fun to eat. They'd be perfectly suited to a warm summer night's meal, but they're way too good to reserve for just one season!

It calls for hummus for dressing up the pita pocket and I made my old standby that I'll share some time. It's my mom's recipe and it's our family favourite. The best part is the recipe doesn't include any oil in addition to the tahini paste.

very easy to shape patties

I fried them in my iron skillet with some coconut oil. Yes this is a no-no for a nutritarian. Next time I'm going to do them on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet in the oven. I try to avoid using processed oil altogether, yes even olive oil. For the rare time that I do need to use oil, I like this brand of coconut oil below because it's organic, cold-pressed, and unrefined. If I'm a good girl, this jar will last us for a year!



Now look at this scrumptious plate of goodness!! Talk about filling too! It would taste scary good with some Vegenaise added, but I really watch my fat intake now and I was a good girl and resisted.



Love you Lemony Garlic Chickpea Patties!! Welcome to the family!