Brown Rice with Kale, Caramelized Shallots, and Miso

My friends and I ordered Chinese last night while catching up on Drag Race, and I had a lot of brown rice left over. I heated that up with a little mirin, and sauteed some shallots with a spoonful of red miso, added kale until it wilted, and combined everything. Delicious, and about as easy as possible!

Roasted Cauliflower with Walnut Pesto, Fried Cranberry Beans with Kale, Sumac, and Feta

Cauliflower recipe from here. The beans were a play on this Ottolenghi dish, made with bits and pieces from my fridge: cranberry beans instead of lima (they didn't fry up quite as nicely because of the smaller size), kale instead of sorrel, leeks instead of spring onions.

Roasted Carrot and Black Sesame "Hummus"

Recipe here. I didn't have any regular tahini so I used black sesame tahini*, which is why this is green instead of a lovely orange color. I also omitted the milk (since when do you put milk in hummus?), but it tasted delicious with the whole wheat pita chips I made (cut pita into pieces, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and bake for about 10 minutes), and I've been snacking on it all week.


PS: these people also make the best cashew butter ever known to mankind. Seriously addictive.

Tofu Bake

This recipe is from the amazing Amy Chaplin at Coconut & Quinoa, and involves layers seasoned tofu, millet and beets, and leeks and mushrooms. I don't like mushrooms so I subbed in artichoke hearts, and it was delicious! The tofu layer didn't come out the way it should have- the recipe calls for firm tofu but I think I should have gone with a softer one to get the creamy effect I was looking for- but it still tasted great!.

Jamie's Winter Vegetable Salad, Take Two (Vegetarian/Gluten Free Version)

Another version of Jamie Oliver's stellar winter salad, this time with chicories, roasted squash, beets and red onion, oranges, avocado, and pumpkin seeds. I didn't even miss the chicken or chunks of bread (or pomegranate seeds).

Post-Cleanse!

Easing yourself into solid foods after a juice cleanse is just as important as easing yourself off them beforehand. For lunch I made a salad and this broth with kale, yams, and red lentils. I added in a big chunk of fresh ginger, garlic, bay, turmeric, cumin, coriander, and a healthy dose of cayenne, and I cooked it until everything was nice and soft. Even after only three days of juicing, it was so exciting to have something savory and (semi) solid!!!

Coconut-Cashew-Banana Smoothie

My friend Erik came up with this one (he adds cacao nibs and cocoa powder to his too!), and man is it decadent- almost like a milkshake! After my cleanse I was so excited to make this. I made some fresh coconut milk in my juicer (but you could also just put young coconut meat and its water in a blender for a similar effect), mixed that with one banana and a big tablespoon of raw cashew butter, and added a little vanilla bean, some freshly grated ginger, and a pinch of cinnamon and cardamom. YUM!

Cleanse!

green juice (kale, romaine, celery, apple, ginger, lemon), pineapple-mint juice, spicy lemonade (lemon, maple syrup, cayenne pepper, water), and citrus-beet juice (beets, blood orange, tangerine, and grapefruit)
Today was the first day of my three day cleanse. There are many ways to vary a juice cleanse (the companies in my previous post all offer different cleansing levels, with different juice combinations), but generally speaking, the more green juice and the less fruit juice you drink, the better cleansed your system will be. The regimen I am following this week is as follows: green juice, pineapple-mint juice, green juice, spicy lemonade (based on the famous Master Cleanse recipe), beet-citrus juice, coconut water (not pictured).

Of course there is a lot more to cleansing than simply flushing out your digestive system, which is what drinking all that fluid does. The three tenets of cleansing are: hydrate, eliminate, exfoliate (a cleanse is meant to clean out your colon, liver, and kidneys, but many of the toxins will be eliminated through your skin, which is the body's largest organ. Therefore it's important to sweat a lot- to speed up the detox- steam- to open up your pores, and exfoliate during a cleanse to keep the toxins from reabsorbing into your body). Thus, along with all this juice (112 oz), I will also be drinking large quantities of water and herbal teas, working out extra hard, taking very hot, steamy showers and baths, dry brushing my skin, and taking some superfood supplements along with it all.

Curious about juice cleansing? This post is full of great resources.

Chicory, Fennel, and Citrus Salad with Avocado

I'm preparing for the cleanse I postponed in December. Tomorrow I'll start juicing, and today I'm eating nothing but raw veggies and fruit. This salad is great for any lunch, but it's especially good for a pre-cleanse meal- you don't even need oil for dressing, because the juices from the citrus make their own.

Red Lentil Dal, Chicory and Orange Salad, Avocado

I cooked the lentils with some finely chopped onion, coriander, turmeric, cumin, cayenne, and fresh ginger.

Pasta with Broccoli and Pesto

When I was a Sophomore in college, I had a huge crush on a boy who was vegan. We often worked late together in the lithography studio, and most nights we'd take a dinner break and head to one of our apartments to cook. And almost every one of those nights, we made pasta with some sort of green vegetable (broccoli, green beans, zucchini, spinach) thrown into the pot halfway through, and then tossed with olive oil, sliced almonds, and salt and pepper. It was an easy meal to make and tonight, home sick with a cold, I decided easy was a good idea. I added in some homemade pesto (I always keep it in the freezer, ready to defrost), and voila: a relatively healthy meal in less than 10 minutes!

Chickpea and Winter Vegetable Tagine, Take Two

I try not to post things twice here, but the truth is that when something's good I make it over and over again (which is why I don't post more often!). Since this time I got a better picture than the last time, I thought it was fair to share this dish again. Also: it is SO GOOD.

Dulce de Leche Ice Cream with Sea Salt

I've made this before, and it's ridiculously easy- you don't even need a custard because the dulce de leche is already so thick! With a pinch of sea salt on top, it was so good I had to stop myself from eating the whole batch after my dinner guests went home!

Mixed Chicories, Orange, Olive and Feta Salad

I make some variation of this all the time during the winter. The colors are so pretty, and the salty/sweet/bitter/acid flavor combination is a winner!

Lime Yogurt Sorbet with Toasted Almond Topping

I've been trying to come up with new ways to use all the limes from my father's tree. This recipe came from Martha Stewart and was deliciously tart! I used about four times the amount of lime zest, and only half the yogurt, which may have had something to do with that. The topping is just leftover chopped almonds with sugar and butter that form the crust for the truffle cake from River Cafe.

Garlic Tart

I will happily admit that Erik made this one with very little of my help (I grated the cheese!), but I wanted to post it, terrible picture notwithstanding, because it was delicious! From Plenty, of course, and full of whole garlic cloves poached in balsamic vinegar and olive oil, two kinds of cheese, cream, and eggs. We had it with a green salad and devoured the whole thing easily. Next time I think we'd try using a short crust instead of puff pastry (actually, we used filo this time, but the recipe calls for puff), and making it in a deeper pie pan for an even more custardy effect.