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Plant-Based Recipes for Health and Vibrance

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Fruit and Root Salad

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This post is also available in: French

A salad of roots like jicama, fennel, and daikon radish. We’re blessed with the growing season in the midst of the winter here in Florida, and I was happy to include some local strawberries, along with pickled cherries and cowberries.

There’s a nice balance of sweet, tart, and crispy here, complemented by a dollup of our almond cheese and pomegranate vinaigrette. Despite its striking monochromatic appearance, the salad works best on a bed of baby greens. We’ve had the most beautiful local greens at our market for the past couple of months. Their freshness and tenderness is incredible – our pay off for hot summer months when nothing grows in Florida.

Pickled Cherries, Jicama, and Daikon Radish
1/2 cup raw apple cider vinegar
3 tablespoons raw agave nectar or another sweetener of choice
1 cup or more fresh or thawed sour cherries – pitted (or substitute with fresh pomegranate juice)
1/2 medium sized jicama – sliced or cubed
a few slices or cubes of Daikon radish (optional)

In a small bowl, combine the apple cider vinegar with agave. Pour over the rest of the ingredients and let it sit for thirty minutes. Drain and keep refrigerated in a covered glass container until ready to serve.

Pomegranate Vinaigrette
3 tablespoons of fresh pomegranate juice or pomegranate reduction, for a more intense flavour
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon raw honey
salt and freshly ground black pepper – to taste
1/4 cup olive or grapeseed oil

In a mixing bowl, whisk together all the ingredients, with the exception of oil. Add the oil while whisking, in a steady stream.

Fruit and Root Salad
(Serves 2-4)
One or two red crispy sweet apples (Fuji or Gala) – sliced or cubed
1 cup fresh radishes – sliced
salad greens
1 fennel bulb – thinly sliced
1 cup or more fresh strawberries – sliced
few slices or cubes of fresh jicama
pickled cherries, jicama, and Daikon radish
cowberries, or pomegranate kernels for garnish

Place apple and radish slices in a bowl with cold water and some freshly squeezed lemon juice, to prevent apple discoloration and reduce the bitterness of radishes.
Place salad greens in a bowl and top with the remaining ingredients. Include a few dollups of almond cheese and drizzle with pomegranate vinaigrette. Garnish with pickled cherries, cowberries, or pomegranate kernels.

Yerba Mate Infused Sunchoke Soup

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A light, creamy sunchoke soup, dressed up with a vibrant pomegranate reduction. The first time I tasted Jerusalem artichoke (or sunchoke) was when making dolma, and it was love at first try. I’ve been waiting for this beautiful root to come back in season in order to try this dish. The soup is wonderfully smooth, mild, and comforting, with subtle aromas of rosemary and mate. The fresh pomegranate reduction brings a very bright note of sweetness to the calm and earthy flavours of the soup.

 

Yerba mate was used to infuse this soup, as one of the most celebrated flavours of Argentina. I’ve always loved the energizing taste of mate tea, together with the fact that it contains no regular caffeine. It is customary to drink Yerba mate from a gourd (dry squash shell), through the bombilla (tea sipper). The gourd must be cured first, in order to seal all the pores and remove any vegetable flesh still present. To do that, one must brew mate in the gourd for 24 hours, empty it, and scrape the inside walls, repeating the process once more. The water for brewing mate should be around 180F, never boiling. The cebador (host) usually takes the first gourd full, after which more water is added and the gourd is passed to the guests.

 

 

Yerba Mate Infused Sunchoke Soup (adapted from GKS)
2 lbs Jerusalem artichoke/sunchoke
1 leek (white part only, if you want to keep the soup white in colour) – chopped
3 cloves garlic – chopped
olive oil
juice of 1 lemon
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
salt and pepper – to taste
6 cups steeped Yerba mate tea

Scrape the sunchokes with a sharp knife to remove the brown skin. (I’ve tried a variety of techniques, such as blanching the roots in order to make the process of removing the skin easier, but scraping is the only one that worked for me.) If you’re not particular about the colour of your soup, I’ve read that it is not necessary to peel them completely, or at all. Make sure to put the peeled sunchokes into a bowl of cold water with some lemon juice, to prevent discoloration. Chop the sunchokes into one-inch sized pieces. Gently heat olive oil in a medium sized pot, add sunchokes, leek and garlic, and saute for a couple of minutes. Add lemon juice, rosemary sprigs, salt, pepper, and about two thirds of Yerba mate. Bring to a boil, turn the heat down, and let simmer for about 30 minutes. Remove rosemary sprigs (if the colour of the soup is important). In a blender, blend the soup until smooth. If the soup appears too thick, add more of the mate and bring to a gentle boil, then remove from heat. Adjust salt and pepper. Serve with pomegranate reduction.

Pomegranate Reduction
2 large pomegranates

Score the skin of a pomegranate to make 8 parts. Fill a large bowl with water, and break the fruit into 8 pieces, holding it under water (that way you won’t get pom juice all over yourself). Separate the kernels from the skin and white parts under water. The kernels should fall on the bottom of the bowl, while the rest will rise on the surface. Discard the skin and white parts, and drain the kernels using a colander. In a high speed blender, carefully pulse the kernels, releasing the flesh and juice, but not breaking down the seeds. Strain through a fine strainer and discard the seeds.
Pour the juice into a shallow dish and place it in the dehydrator at 115F for several hours, until the liquid is reduced to a thicker consistency. Store in a covered container in the refrigerator. The reduction can also be done the conventional way, using the stove.

Raw Lady Apple and Cranberry Cookies

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We hope you’ve been having a nice start to the new year. I’ve been hearing much talk of resolutions, many of them for a healthier diet and all kinds of cleanses.
We surely weren’t immune to holiday eating and have been trying to lighten things up, primarily with the help of salads and veggie juices. But even when taking it easy, I have to have some kind of nourishing treat on hand. You know, in case of an emergency.

The other day, I found these lady apples at the market. Tiny, blushed things staring at me from the shelf. Given their size, I figured they would make a nice cookie topping.
Another thing we’ve been enjoying this season – fresh cranberries. I decided to top the cookies with fresh cranberry jam, followed by vanilla honey soaked apples. After the dehydration, the soaked apples turned out so tasty that I thought they would make very nice apple chips.

This time, the cookie itself was made of buckwheat only. I usually mix in other grains like oats, but I really wanted to try this kind of dough.
I love buckwheat and use it all the time. It’s such a versatile, delicious, and wholesome ingredient. And I really enjoy the fact that it isn’t technically a grain, but a fruit or berry, which makes it that much better.

Cranberry Jam
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries
3 tablespoons agave syrup, honey, or another sweetener of choice
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup Irish moss gelTo make Irish moss gel, rinse Irish moss thoroughly and soak in hot water for at least 10 minutes. Blend in a high-speed blender with enough purified water to reach a smooth gel-like consistency. Keep refrigerated.

To make the jam, blend all the ingredients together in a high-speed blender until smooth. Keep refrigerated.

Vanilla Honey Soaked Lady Apples
Slice lady apples thinly and place in a dish, drizzle with freshly squeezed lemon juice. Scrape seeds from a vanilla bean and add to the apples. Drizzle with raw honey and stir to cover. Leave to soak for 1-2 hours.

Buckwheat Cookie Dough
2 cups buckwheat flour
1/2 cup maple syrup powder or powdered raw coconut sugar
1/4 cup Irish moss gel
1/4 cup date paste or honey
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 or more tablespoons purified water

To make buckwheat flour, soak raw buckwheat groats overnight, rinse well, and dehydrate at 115F until completely dry. Grind in a high-speed blender, or in a simple coffee grinder in batches. Keep refrigerated in an air-tight glass container.

To make cookies, sift together the first two ingredients in a large bowl. In a high speed blender, mix the rest of the ingredients until smooth, adding more water if needed. Add the wet mixture into the dry mixture, combining well.
Using a wet spoon, fill about 1/4 of a small silicone or paper cup with the cookie dough. Wet your fingers to even out on top, or use a wet spoon. Continue until all dough is used up.
Top each cookie with the raw cranberry preserve and arrange vanilla honey soaked lady apples in a spiral on top.
Place the cookies in the dehydrator set at 115F for 2-4 hours, until they can be easily removed from silicone cups. Then dehydrate for another 6-8 hours.

Raw New Year Doughnuts

By 38 Comments

We’re deep into New Year’s preparations this morning. There’s salad to be chopped, coconuts to be cracked, ice cream to be made, and even a few gifts to be opened. New Year’s is a big deal for us (and for any Russians), the most beloved holiday.

Before we leap into the new year, we’d like to share these festive little doughnuts with you.
Glazing and sprinkling them with different colours gave us a good dose of holiday cheer. They turned out quite photogenic, and Paloma was very excited when we put the pretty plateful in front of her.

Taste-wise, they are extremely rich and satisfying, much like regular doughnuts. And as long as we are on the subject of doughnuts, I cannot resist mentioning this fascinating article by Sarma.
And so, we wish you a Happy New Year. Thank you so much for visiting Golubka in 2011, your support means the world to us. Here’s to a happy and healthy 2012.

Doughnuts
2 cups cashews – soaked for four hours, or more
1/2 cup Irish moss – thoroughly rinsed and soaked in hot water for at least 10 minutes
1 cup water
1/2 cup raw honey
2 tablespoons maca powder – optional
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sprouted pecan butter or other nut butter/oil
2 tablespoons almonds – ground
3/4 cup flax seeds – ground

In a high speed blender, mix together all but the last two ingredients until very smooth. Transfer the mixture to a bowl. Add the ground almonds and flax seeds, mix thoroughly. Using a wet ice-cream scooper, scoop a ball of the mixture onto a Teflex-covered dehydrator tray. Flatten slightly with wet fingers and make a hole using a wet round tip of a pipping bag or an apple core remover. It is important to dip the ice-cream scooper and the piping bag into water every time before scooping out the next doughnut. You can reform any dough you have remaining from the doughnut holes. Dehydrate at 115F overnight. Remove the Teflex and continue to dehydrate until the doughnuts are dry enough and ready to be glazed. Keep refrigerated after glazing.

Glaze
We used Artisana coconut butter for the base of the glaze. Place the jar into warm water to soften the butter up. In separate bowls, mix the butter with the flavours listed below. Add raw agave syrup or another preferred sweetener to taste.

raw cacao powder
freeze dried strawberries
acai powder
fresh blueberries
dried apricots

Sprinkles
shredded coconut, cacao nibs, dried apricots, freeze dried strawberries and cherries