Hail Mary Summer Salad Saves The Day

Posted on July 4, 2016 by Sarah

Summer has officially kicked off! If you’re headed to a barbecue or picnic and looking for something quick and easy to bring, a fresh summer salad is your answer. That’s what I bring when I’m tasked with contributing to a cookout. And what I ask guests to bring to our house.

A few weeks ago I brought one of my favorite Brussels sprout bacon salads to my brother-in-law’s birthday party. I love this salad so much that I’ve made it for lots of dinners with friends and family. You might remember I wrote about it when we featured Brussels sprouts this winter. It was a hit at the birthday dinner. And when you toss in crispy bacon and use the bacon fat in the dressing….delicious.

Those touches – shredded sprouts, bacon, homemade dressing – are not hard to do, but they impress way more than the simple lettuce combos and bottled dressings.

This weekend was pretty busy in We The Eaters land. Founding Foodie Amy and hubby Adam got the teeniest tiniest foster placement, a six week old preemie baby, Saturday morning and still kept their weekend commitments. I was busy … well, not teeny tiny baby busy, but still my dance card was full. The weekend was so busy that we both forgot about this week’s post. Who was writing it again? Who doesn’t have a teeny tiny baby to take care of? OK, I got this!

So, who saved my day? My amazing sister-in-law Siobhan. We had the family over Sunday evening for an impromptu July 4th dinner. Jim made his awesome burgers on the grill, we whipped up some roasted potatoes, sweet corn on the cob and Siobhan brought a new salad recipe.

Thank the gods (the old and the new, the seven, the lord of the light … all the Game of Thrones gods were praised)!

It was a new recipe she’d pulled from a vegetarian cookbook from America’s Test Kitchen made with shaved Brussels sprouts, shredded kale, fresh cilantro and mint, crunchy peanuts and bright acidic dressing. One whiff of it as she added the fresh squeeze of lime and gave it a final toss … all that bright green … I knew I had my salad for this week’s post. Siobhan threw me a Hail Mary recipe pass. And all the We The Eaters bloggers rejoiced!

This salad is bright, zesty and full of texture and flavor. Perfect for the summer. You can make it ahead of time, and by letting the raw sprouts marinate in the dressing for a few hours helps to soften them a little, while still maintaining their crunch.

So, thank you to my amazing sister-in-law for her Hail Mary salad. Not only was it super yummy it saved our weekend!

Brussels Sprouts and Kale Salad with Herb Dressing
The peanuts can be swapped out for almonds, pecans or walnuts – roasted or candied add an extra depth of flavor. You can also change up the fresh herbs. Use what you have on hand or in your garden. Anything to pep it up and keep it bright and fresh.

1 pound Brussels sprouts, trimmed halved and thinly sliced
8 ounces kale (a tender variety like tuscan works best, we used curly leaf), stemmed and thinly sliced
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
salt and pepper
1/2 cup roasted, salted peanuts, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon fresh cilantro, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh mint, chopped
1 lime, juiced

Whisk together the apple cider vinegar, honey, salt, pepper and coriander. Continue whisking while slowly pouring in the olive oil. Toss in the Brussels sprouts, cover and let sit for at least 30 minutes. (up to 2 hours at room temperature). If doing a day ahead, refrigerate the sprouts in the dressing.

Massage and squeeze the kale until wilted and dark, about 1 minute for tuscan kale and 5 minutes for curly. Add kale, peanuts, mint and cilantro to the Brussels sprouts. Toss all to combine. Season with salt and lime juice before serving.

Tagged with: brussels sprouts, cilantro, herbs, kale, mint, peanuts, salad, Summer, summer salads
Posted in Dear Diary

A Cannoli By Any Other Name…

Posted on June 27, 2016 by Adam

I’m sure many of you are thinking “why in the world is he writing for WTE’s raw dessert month”? It’s funny, because I was thinking the same thing. If you recall the prior story of my adventures in raw cooking, I was able to nail the mains – but my dessert was a green sea of infamy.

Nonetheless, with surprising faith my Favorite Foodie asked me to bat cleanup for raw dessert month. After overcoming several sleeplessness nights of raw-food fretting over this task, I decided to take things back to the Italian side of my cooking roots and replicate one of my all-time favorite desserts, a cannoli.

Don’t get me wrong: I didn’t have aspirations of one-upping the delicious pastry filled with chocolate chip enhanced cream assuming it would be impossible to recreate the shell in a raw medium. I was shooting for sweet and tasty…and not green.

I found this recipe at The Rawtarian and it sure sounded achievable. Of course, if I’d really read it, I might have chosen a different path due to my innate fear of dehydrators.

I’ll admit to freestyling a little, adding a little extra cocoa and maple syrup for sweetness. Also, I realized my understanding of macadamia creme was extraordinarily lacking, so I referenced a recipe at Forks And Beans to help me figure out that I’d need to soak the nuts for a while, drain them and then include some water when I blended it together with the sweet ingredients. And the cream. Tastes. Great.

That shell I was worried about? Yeah…the dehydrator is not my friend.

When questioned by my far-more-raw-food-knowledgeable spouse about the shells taking a long time I said, flipply, “Nah! It says about an hour before I roll them and then 3 more to finish them in the recipe.” Right. Sure.

I also figured I’d reduce the moisture by adding more walnuts and flax. The best laid plans.

I had those suckers in the dehydrator for several hours (3 to be exact) before I ran out of daylight (and energy to stay awake), so I stuck ’em in the fridge and started it back up the next day. After about an hour and fifteen minutes at a higher-than-suggested dehydration temp, I had the shells at a consistency to roll them. I rolled foil into tubes and wrapped the shells around it to help them keep from collapsing. Add another 3 hours and I decided it was time to eat them.

Hopefully, my mom and cousins running DiMare Pastry shop aren’t feeling pangs of distress!

The filling was the saving grace for sure.The outer shell had more of a nut-and-fruit-rollup texture – which surprisingly did not taste as bad as it sounds. It was almost crunchy but it definitely didn’t provide that delicious, crunchy shell you’d get with a cannoli out of the North End of Boston.

The real win was that nothing had a green hue, so my second attempt at a raw dessert was far more successful than my previous pistachio disaster.

Not My Mom’s Cannoli
I based my recipe on the Rawtarian’s Holy Cannoli recipe. I was heavy handed with the cocoa and maple syrup as well as upping the cinnamon, walnuts and salt. I also referenced a Forks And Beans recipe to help make the macadamia cream.

1 cup macadamia creme
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 large bananas
3/4 cup walnuts
1 tablespoon ground flax
2 teaspoons cinnamon
Pinch of salt

Make the macadamia creme by, first, soaking 1 cup of macadamia nuts in
room temperature water for 3o minutes. Drain and add to food processor with 1/4 cup of filtered water. Add the cocoa and maple syrup to the food processor as well. Blend for 5 minutes until it forms a smooth cream. Transfer cream into a small Ziploc or plastic bag and place in the fridge. Later, we’ll cut the corner of the bag and use that to pipe the cream into the shell.

Clean out your food processor and add the bananas, walnuts, flax, cinnamon and salt. Pulse and blend until mixed into a batter. Form 4 equal and thin (really thin!) pancakes. I used a spatula to spread the batter out, but mine could have been thinner (probably resulting in my shells taking forever in the dehydrator). Place them in the dehydrator set to 110 for an hour – or until the shells are firm and pliable so you can roll them into a tube. Depending on how cooperative your dehydrator is, you might increase the temp a bit.

Once you are able to roll them, keep an eye on them to make sure they do not collapse and leave them in the dehydrator for another 3 hours. Again, this is more a process of monitoring doneness versus a set time.

Cut a corner off the plastic bag with your macadamia filling and pipe the cream into the shells. Sprinkle with cinnamon and cocoa and serve.

Tagged with: Banana, cinnamon, Dessert, Italian, macadamia, raw, vegan, vegetarian
Posted in Dear Diary

Finding The Chocolate Covered Lining

Posted on June 20, 2016 by Sarah

OK, Eaters, it’s time to have some real talk. We’re all allowed to have failures in the kitchen … right? Even when you’re a food blogger … right?

Yes, of course! Just take scroll all the way down and read our manifesto. “The culinary experiments we tackle may not always succeed.” But we brush ourselves off and try, try again.

This week, while trying to create a raw version of a chocolate covered peanut butter ball, I had one of those failed experiments.

Admittedly, the idea of “raw” food is intimidating. I would think of ingredients to use, ask Google if they were raw or could be found in the raw … then get all in my head, second guessing and worrying.

I consulted my fellow Founding Foodie Amy, whose immediate concern was how in the world would I make the chocolate coating? Most recipes involve melting and the most basic definition of raw means you can’t heat above 117 degrees Fahrenheit. This, too, was my chief concern. I put the filling on the back burner and figured I would make my own almond butter in my food processor … add some other stuff … and BAM: filling that could be rolled into balls and get coated in chocolate.

Ahhh, the best laid plans of mice and food bloggers.

Possible mistake number one: making the almond butter. I hadn’t researched enough raw recipes to know what would work. I also didn’t quite get my almond butter right. Had I really followed just about every recipe when you Google “how to make raw almond butter”, I would have actually used my food processor and processed long enough to make a butter, about 20 minutes. Instead I used my Vitamix, which might have been ok, but with a smaller amount of almonds – only one cup – and not adding any oil, it overheated before it could get to that awesome buttery texture. I think making peanut butter works in a Vitamix, but almonds are dryer. Lesson learned.

Possible mistake number two: too much agave nectar. To combat my dry almond butter, or whatever you want to call it, I added what ended up being too much agave nectar. This part is so embarrassing I need to just whistle past it. Doo-do-doo …

Here’s what did work: the chocolate coating. So another lesson learned: When trying new things, the more thought put into them, the bigger the pay off. Seems obvious! I found a good combination of raw ingredients that tasted great and formed a good coating. Coconut oil doesn’t take a lot of heat to melt, only 77 degrees. Add in raw cacao powder for a dark chocolate taste and a combination of agave nectar, maple syrup and/or honey for a sweetness kick, and you’re good to go.

The final lesson learned? I don’t see myself doing a lot of raw “cooking” or eating. Given a specific tried and true recipe, sure! But re-invention on my own hurt my brain.

Raw Chocolate Candy Coating
Since the filling in balls didn’t turn out, I’m only sharing the chocolate recipe. You could use this to dip anything into! Fruit, nuts or your own successful almond butter filling.

1/2 cup cold pressed, virgin coconut oil, melted
1/2 cup raw cacao powder
1 tablespoon raw unfiltered honey
1 tablespoon raw agave nectar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients in a high speed blender or a food processor. Dip your filling, fruit or nuts of choice. The coconut oil will firm up, but best to place the coated candy into the freezer for faster results.

Tagged with: agave nectar, balls, cacao, cacao poweder, candy, Chocolate, chocolate covered, coconut oil, desserts, raw
Posted in Dear Diary