Author: Chef Kim

Berry- Spacho

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This is a wonderfully refreshing cool starter or dessert soup. Perfect at the height of berry season or you can use frozen berries that have been thawed.

  • 2-3 cups fresh berries, mixture is nice (strawberries, black, blue or raspberries)
  • 1 kiwi, diced
  • 1 apple, diced
  • 1/2 cup cucumber, diced
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh mint
  • 1 lemon, squeezed
  • 11/2 cup fresh / frozen berries ( these are for blending so frozen and thawed is fine, I like strawberries  and raspberries for this. Blueberries will thicken up because of all the pectin they naturally have, so use more l juice or water if using them.)
  • 2 oranges, peeled and seeds removed or 1 cup juice
  • 5 softened dates
  • 1 cup water
  • pinch of cayenne, optional

In a mixing bowl, add fresh berries, diced kiwi, apple, cucumber and mint. In a blender, combine the lemon juice, fresh/frozen berries, dates, oranges and water. Blend into a creamy sauce. Pour this over the diced fruit and serve or chill. Sprinkle with a pinch of cayenne when ready to serve.

 

 

Frozen Berry Lemon Bars

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  • 1 can chickpeas, you only want the liquid. (Use the beans for making hummus or bake them for a crunchy salad topping.)
  • 1 teaspoon lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup cane sugar, ground fine

Combine the chickpea liquid and lemon juice in a mixing bowl and using a hand or stand mixer, beat until soft peaks form. This takes a couple minutes. Then add sugar and beat until firm peaks form. Set this aside while you make the cashew cream.

  • 1 cup raw cashews, soaked for 2 hours
  • 5 dates, softened
  • 2 lemons, juice and zest
  • 1/4-1/2 cup water

Strain the cashews from soaking water and add to a blender with dates and lemon juice/zest. Add 1/4 cup water and blend starting on low speed until the cashews begin breaking up and then adjust speed to high. Add more water only if you need to in order for it to blend smoothly. Blend until smooth and creamy. Taste and add

  • 1-2 drops of lemon essential oil (only if you need more lemon flavor)
  • 2 Tablespoons of melted coconut oil

Blend until thoroughly combined and creamy. Pour this cashew cream into the meringue, folding gently, rather than mixing. Then fold in:

  •  1 cup raspberries, fresh or frozen ( I like to break frozen berries into pieces)

Line a pan with parchment or plastic wrap. Pour the mixture over a coconut-date crust that has been pressed into a pan and then freeze for several hours. For ice cream bars without a crust, spread into a plastic wrap-lined square pan and freeze.

  • For a crust:
  • 1/2 cup nuts or seeds
  • 1/2 cup pitted soft dates
  • 1 1/2 cups coconut shreds
  • Pinch salt

In a food processor, pulse until everything breaks down into a crumble that will hold together when pressed or pinched.

If you only want coconut crust, increase coconut by 1/2 cup and omit the nuts.

Let me know if you give this a try. I really liked the light refreshing taste and the ice cream- like texture without having to use an ice cream maker.

Berry Chia Jam

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  • 2 cups berries, (raspberry, strawberry, blueberry, blackberry or mixture)
  • 2 T honey or maple syrup
  • 2 T lemon juice, fresh
  • 2 T chia seeds
  • fresh herbs optional – mint, basil, oregano

Blend the berries, lemon juice, sweetener and some fresh herbs if using, until smooth or just a little chunk remaining. Pour into a bowl and whisk in chia seeds. If you prefer seedless jam, strain berry mixture through a fine sieve and grind the chia seeds before stirring into the fruit. Put into jars and refrigerate overnight.

Use this mixture as a topping for non-dairy ice cream, over biscuits or pancakes, to add beautiful color to dessert plates, or stirred into yogurt. Just enjoy the bright flavor and nutritional benefits!

Raspberry Vinaigrette

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  • 1 ½ cups raspberries
  • 1 T raw apple cider vinegar
  • 1/3 cup water
  • 1 T honey
  • 3 T olive oil
  • 1 clove garlic, peeled
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 pinch black pepper
  • 1 T fresh basil, minced or 1 tsp dried

 

Blend berries, vinegar and water together and pour through a nut milk bag or sieve to remove most of the little seeds. Combine and whisk in remaining ingredients until emulsified..  Dress salad greens and enjoy. The vinaigrette will keep for about a week, refrigerated.

Burrito Bowls or Jars

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Make simple sides and build a buffet for making lunch/dinner bowls or lay out a prep area for making meals to grab-n-go.  Layer your choices and enjoy or seal up and refrigerate to grab on your way out.

The dishes just need to work together. For this post I’m serving up burrito bowls  with rice, quinoa or cauliflower rice topped with the fajita beans, fruit salsa, guacamole, cilantro corn salsa, carrot-cashew queso sauce, tomato salsa, romaine and peppers.  Give it a try and let me know how it goes or if you have any questions.

For cauliflower rice: Add 3 cups cauliflower florets to a food processor along with 1 T sesame seeds or cashews, 1/4 tsp salt & pepper, and 1/2 tsp turmeric. Pulse on and off until the cauliflower is “riced” or about the size of rice.

For the Fajita Beans : Combine 1 chopped onion and bell pepper in a skillet and saute to soften. Add a can of pinto, kidney or black beans that you’ve strained and rinsed. Add 2 T of water and 1 T each of chili powder and cumin, stir well to coat everything with spices and turn to low heat to gently simmer and combine flavors.

For the fruit salsa: finely chop or use a food processor to pulse & chop 1 cup pineapple, 1/2 mango, 1 tomato, juice of one lime and 1 jalapeno, seeds removed. Pulse one and off quickly to chop, you want there to be texture, not all mush. (mush tastes good too, though)

For the Corn salsa: use 2 cups of thawed frozen corn or cut corn off the cob. Combine the corn in a bowl with 1/2 cup of chopped fresh cilantro, 1/4 cup diced red onion, diced jalapeno to taste and 1 lime juiced. Stir to evenly mix and enjoy!

For the carrot-cashew queso: Chop 1.5 cups carrots, 1 onion and 3 cloves garlic, and add to 1/2 cup water in a saucepan, cover and cook until carrots are tender, about 15 minutes. Pour the contents of pan into a blender and add 1 cup cashews, 1 cup dairy free milk, 3 T nutritional yeast, 1 tsp each of cumin, smoked paprika and chili powder. Blend for a minute or two until it’s smooth, thick and creamy. Taste and season with salt and pepper and maybe some cayenne if you want it spicy!

Chop your favorite raw toppings and add to the line up. some suggestions are shredded cabbage, fresh cilantro, red onion, bell peppers, radish, cucumbers, crispy lettuce, chopped tomatoes, olives, sliced or mashed avocado, and lime wedges. A few toppings or many work, but having them prepped and ready to go makes for ease in putting meals together.  I hope you’ll try and let me know. 

Cashew-hemp yogurt and fruit

Cashew-hemp Yogurt

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I have a hard time paying the price of dairy-free yogurt and then not liking it once I get it home. Do you have a favorite store bought brand? If you like yogurt, but have never tried making your own dairy-free yogurt, I hope you give this easy yogurt recipe a try.

You’ll need to allow time ahead to soak the raw cashews. I typically put them in a jar and fill the jar with water covering the nuts by at least two inches. They will expand a bit. This soaking allows the cashews to absorb some of the water and soften, so that they will blend very smooth. The soaking also releases the enzyme inhibitors that coat nuts and that helps them digest better and you to get the most nutrition out of them.

To culture the mixture, you’ll need a powdered probiotic. Some probiotic supplements will not culture, so if you take a capsulated probiotic powder, you can try it and see if it works. I use Probiotic Eleven found HERE. You can also find packets of dairy free yogurt starter at health food stores.

If you need nut free option, oat milk can be heated and thickened with a little oat flour or arrowroot, cooled a bit and then add starter. Continue as recipe indicates by keeping warm for several hours. You can also use all seeds or canned coconut milk instead of the cashews for nut free yogurt. There are options and they all taste a little different. So try some and see what you like.

 

Cashew-hemp yogurt and fruit
Print Recipe

Cashew-Hemp Yogurt

A creamy, tangy thick yogurt with a perfect protein blend
Prep Time15 minutes
Soaking and culture time10 hours
Course: Breakfast
Servings: 6
Author: Chef Kim

Equipment

  • blender
  • Spatula
  • Jar or covered container

Ingredients

  • 1 cup raw cashews soaked 2 hours
  • 1/4 cup hemp seeds
  • 1/2 cup filtered water
  • 1 probiotic capsule opened or dairy-free yogurt starter

Instructions

  • Strain and rinse the cashews, add to a blender along with the hemp seeds and water. Blend on low speed, increasing speed up to high speed and blend until mixture is smooth. It will likely begin to warm up and may take a couple times of stopping and scraping sides to incorporate all the seeds.
  • This water ratio will result in Greek style thickness. If you like thin yogurt add another 1/2 cup of water and blend until completely incorporated.
  • Add the probiotic powder or starter to the mixture and blend quickly to combine.
  • Pour mixture into a jar and cover. Place the jar in a warm environment, you want to keep the temporary steady at around 110 degrees. This can be done by warming your oven to 200 and turning it off, placing the jar wrapped in a towel inside and turning on the light. Keep the oven closed for 6-10 hours. A dehydrator or insta-pot can also be used to provide a controlled temperature for the culturing the yogurt.
  • After culturing for that time, stir the yogurt and refrigerate to set. It will keep for several weeks.

Notes

I think it’s best to wait until the yogurt is finished culturing before you add any kind of sweetener.  Taste it and decide if you need sweetener. If you eat yogurt with fruit, you may not need extra sweetener. If you do, consider a little dried fruit, or date paste or a couple drops of stevia liquid. Or blend up some fresh or frozen berries and add those to swirl in. 

Creamy Tahini Dressing

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  • 1/2 c tahini
  • 1/4 c Immune vinegar*
  • 1/3 c raw kraut
  • 2T coconut aminos
  • 1tsp Dijon
  • 2T nutritional yeast
  • 1tsp dill weed
  • 1/2 tsp thyme
  • 1 date, pitted
  • Pinch salt
  • Water if needed

Use a blender to blend everything until smooth and creamy.

This is great dressing for a slaw with cabbage, peppers, spinach and sprouts or tossed with kale and dehydrated to make kale chips.

*immune vinegar is cider vinegar infused with mustard seed, horseradish, peppers, ginger and turmeric. Substitute plain cider vinegar if you don’t have Immune vinegar.

Rustic Potato & Bean Soup

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I love soups year-round, but this rustic potato and bean soup is so satisfying in the winter when you just want to hunker down with a warm bowl of soup. This soup is the perfect one-pot meal and doesn’t take a lot of prep time.

 

 

Soup made ahead and portioned make great grab-n-go lunches or dinners on busy evenings. I like to store soup in quart canning jars, they stay fresher longer. Soups can also be frozen, so if you have leftovers, stock your freezer and you’ll have meals ready to go.

Print Recipe

Potato and White Bean Soup

Prep Time15 minutes
Cook Time1 hour
Course: Soup
Cuisine: American
Keyword: potato, spinach, white beans
Servings: 6

Ingredients

  • 1 cup white or yellow onion
  • 11/2 pounds yellow potatoes
  • 3 garlic cloves minced
  • 2 cans white beans navy, canellini or great northern
  • 6 cups vegetable broth
  • 1 tsp rosemary
  • 1 tsp thyme
  • 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast
  • 4 cups baby spinach

Instructions

  • Chop onion and add to soup pot with a splash of broth and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring to prevent sticking.
  • When the onion is tender add the garlic, potatoes, herbs and broth. Bring to a simmer for about 15-20 minutes until potatoes are tender, then add nutritional yeast and beans. Cook for 10 minutes.
  • Ladle two cups of the potatoes and beans into a blender and enough of the broth to cover the potatoes and blend for 30 seconds. Return to the soup pot and add the spinach, stir until spinach is wilted. Serve.
  • *If Jerusalem artichokes are available, add some along with the potatoes. So yummy!

 

 

Sprouts – Two Salads

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Sprouts are filled with vitamins, minerals and proteins and chlorophyll all necessary nutrients for building our red and white blood cells and easing inflammation.

Activated Almond Salad

  • 1 cup almonds, soaked 4-8 hours (sub sunflower or pumpkin seeds)
  • 1 Zucchini
  • 1 carrot, shredded
  • 1/4 cup red onion, diced
  • 1/2 cup celery, diced
  • 1/4 cup fermented pickle, diced
  • 3 T lemon juice
  • 1 T honey or maple syrup
  • 1 tsp dijon mustard
  • 2 T fresh dill weed or 1/2 T dry
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • Lettuce or cabbage leaves

Add almonds or seeds to a food processor and pulse to break up into a flaky texture. Add chopped zucchini and pulse a couple times to chop and mix with the almonds.  Place this mixture into a mixing bowl. Add the chopped celery, diced onion, shredded carrot and chopped pickle. In a small cup or bowl, whisk together the lemon juice, honey or maple syrup and mustard. Stir in the dill and sea salt. Pour this dressing over the nut and vegetable mixture and stir well to incorporate and coat everything with dressing, Scoop this mixture onto lettuce or cabbage leaves or onto a slice of your favorite bread.

Crunchy Super Sprout Salad

  • 3 cups pea shoots or sunflower microgreens, chopped
  • 2 cups leafy green sprouts (salad mix, clover, alfalfa)
  • 1 red or yellow bell pepper, diced
  • 1 cup shredded cabbage or slaw mix
  • 1 carrot, shredded
  • oranges
  • 1 cup crunchy sprouts (mung bean, lentils, adzuki bean)

Combine all salad ingredients and toss with your favorite dressing or drizzle with the citrus vinaigrette below :

  • ¼ c orange or lemon juice
  • 2 T olive oil
  • 1 T honey
  • 1/2 tsp dijon
  • 1 tsp dried dill, oregano, basil or your favorite herb blend
  •  

Sugar Fasting

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I just finished 40 days of fasting sugar and for me that meant cutting out all forms of processed and “healthy” sugar options and sticking with only fresh, frozen and dried fruit. It wasn’t like I had candy hiding around the house, but I would add honey or maple syrup to my coffee, tea and oats, snack on granola, chips or a square of dark chocolate and then more dark chocolate after dinner. (Maybe there was chocolate hiding, but I hadn’t labeled it “candy” because dark chocolate is good for you, right?) But what made me decide to do this was to become more aware of habitual eating I may not have paid much attention to, and to intentionally let go of a substance that doesn’t offer much in return.

It started when I saw this opportunity to join an online group for the 40 day fast with daily encouragement and accountability. Guess what? My husband decided to join me, and he’s used to having a soda and several sweetened teas at work and then an afternoon trip to the candy bowl and joins me for a square of chocolate after dinner. With a little creativity on my part, we both made it through without too much fuss. It is interesting what we learned and how we’re feeling now.

To begin, we committed to drinking more water whenever we had an urge for something sweet, and then to having a piece of fresh fruit. Apples, oranges, kiwi. pineapple and berries filled our fruit drawer. My husband, Barry, would take fruit to work and make his own unsweetened tea. I drastically reduced my coffee, because I don’t like bitter coffee and drank more herbal and green teas which tend not to need sweetener. The first couple days I used a few stevia drops in coffee, but I really preferred plain tea to the coffee with stevia . For my typical winter breakfast of oats, instead of adding the honey or maple syrup, I just loaded it with a chopped orange and some raspberries, and a sprinkle of cinnamon. Delicious!

I did need to find a way to only use fruit in the granola I make, which is what Barry takes for breakfast. So instead of melting coconut oil and mixing it with maple syrup, coconut sugar and vanilla to pour over the oat, nut and seed mixture, I blended a half banana, two apples, a couple dates and cinnamon with a little water and poured that mixture over the oat, nut, seed mix and then baked. It was a little less sweet than my original. but nicely flavored.

I also kept a small jar of dates soaking in water in the fridge. I would use the water to sweeten some things (coffee, if I really wanted it) and the soft dates in a recipe I was making if it needed a sweetener. But for the most part, I cooked simply, enjoyed a little more fruit than I usually eat and did not bake, except for a date sweetened chocolate birthday cake for Barry, (It was good!).

When I wanted a crunchy snack, I had mixed raw nuts and seeds on hand, as I always do, and I made some kale chips a couple times. But I really missed the after dinner chocolate square. So as a fruit based replacement, I pitted 6 dates and put a small scoop of almond butter in the center of each and kept those in the freezer. Oh my! They have taken the place of the chocolate, at least for now.

I think doing the fast helped both of us think and be more mindful of what we were eating and at the same time, reflect on why we were inclined toward sugar. Reasons like boredom, avoidance, sheer habit and feeling down surfaced. Also sharing a little more sweetness and more hugs with each other helped too! We both benefited by feeling less achy and slept better and Barry lost a couple pounds and saw improved focus at work.

We haven’t returned to our pre-fast behavior and plan to keep a better balance on the use of sweeteners. Whole fruits really can be used in place of sugar and sweeteners in most recipes and I’ll be putting some sugar free recipes together if you need some inspiration. But if this is something you’re interested in doing, I encourage you to go for it.