Ginger-Garlic Kale, Burdock, and Tempeh

This quick and easy traditionally fermented soy recipe will fill you up when you want hearty food. Serve over rice, quinoa, or buckwheat noodles for a savory meal that will impress your tastebuds! The burdock is a natural liver and blood cleanser. Adapted from Natural Solutions Magazine.

Cook Time: 30 minutes
Serves: 4
¼ cup reduced-sodium tamari
1 Tbsp honey or rapadura sugar
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/8 tsp  Chinese 5 Spice
1  3” segment of ginger root, grated or finely minced.
1  8oz package tempeh, cut into ½” cubes
1 Tbsp olive oil or coconut oil

1 long burdock root, peeled, and thinly sliced

5 medium shiitake mushrooms, sliced (stems discarded)
1 small yellow onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 bunch kale, stems removed and chopped
2 Tbsp sesame seeds

3 scallions, thinly sliced

Instructions:
1. In a small bowl, combine tamari, sweetener, garlic, ginger, and spices.  Stir to mix well.
2. Add tempeh to marinade, stir to coat, and let marinate for 1 hour at room temperature.  Remove tempeh from marinade with slotted spoon; reserve marinade.
3. In a large skillet, heat oil, and sauté onion, shiitake’s, and burdock root for 5 minutes. Remove from pan to a plate, and then saute marinated tempeh for 5 – 6 minutes, until cooked through.
4. Wash kale, and shake dry.  Add to pan, along with remaining marinade; cover and cook until kale is tender and bright green, 3 – 4 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.
5. Transfer to individual plates, and sprinkle with black sesame seeds and minced scallions over pasta or whole grain.  Serve immediately.

Almond Shortbread Cookies

These incredible gluten- and egg- free cookies are super addictive- especial for first-timers! They are a great hit to bring to a potluck, or to add to your holiday cookie collection. What makes them such a neat option for a sweet treat is that they are made with unrefined sweeteners, and are full of protein from the nut meal. The arrowroot powder is easy to digest, and was once considered soothing to the gut. This recipe comes from the enlightening cookbook Nourishing Traditions, by Sally Fallon.

Yeilds: 18-2” cookies

Cook time: 30- 50 minutes

Ingredients:

1 cup almond meal (or 1.5 cups whole blanched almonds or other nut)

1 cup arrowroot powder (sometimes found in the bulk sections of health food stores, or online)

½ cup rapadura sugar (dehydrated cane juice)

½ tsp salt

½ tsp vanilla extract

½ tsp almond extract

½ cup butter or coconut oil, melted

1/3 cup whole blanched marcona almonds, almond slivers, or almond slices. Or nut piece of your choice if using other nuts.

Equipment: food processor

Instructions:

-          Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Process the nuts with the sugar until everything is blended into a powder. Add the arrowroot and salt, and process until well mixed.

-          Add the extracts, melted butter or oil, and process until the mixture is entirely moistened (might have to scrape down the sides).

-          Using rounded tablespoon – sized portions of cookie dough, roll them into balls between your hands, and place them onto two parchment lined baking sheets, flattening them gently and then pressing a nut piece on top. They will not spread very much, so you can arrange them 15 to a sheet (3 rows of 5).  Bake for 20 minutes, until starting to tan at the edges. Remove from the pan on the parchment, and let cool on a cooling rack.

-          If you choose to make these as jam thumb-print cookies, omit flattening them on the baking sheet, and omit the nut pressed on top. After baking them in a rounded ball shape for 5 minutes, create an indentation with your thumb into each cookie, and fill with a ½ tsp of your favorite compote or fruit sauce (we really like cooked plum puree, or blackberry puree in these cookies).

-          Keep cookies in the refrigerator, up to 5 days. Freeze extras and leftovers in a ziplock bag, and consume within 2 months (probably will taste freezer-burned much longer than that).

This recipe can be pressed into the bottom of a glass baking dish and baked to make an excellent crust for lemon bars or raspberry oat bars. Try serving them as a cookie with a dollop of whipped crème fraiche and some rhubarb curd. As noted earlier, you could press your thumb in them after 5 minutes of baking, and fill with your favorite fruit compote, and continue to bake to make jam cookies.  You could even try a mix of almond and hazelnut meal, and add 1/3 cup cocoa powder to make nutella shortbread cookies! This is a very versatile recipe, that you will come back to again and again.

Asian Tofu and Snow Peas in Simmer Sauce

This two step recipe is super easy (and enhanceable) once you get the hang of it. It can be doubled to serve hungry guests, and can be served with steamed quinoa (quick), or brown rice (a bit longer). It is kind of like homemade take-out Chinese food!  This recipe is adapted from the Ginger Shrimp with Snow Peas recipe from the excellent cookbook Seriously Simple, Easy Recipes for Creative Cooks, by Diane Rossen Worthington (Chronicle Books, 2002).

Serves: 4

Cook Time: Marination- 30min-5 hours. Cooking: up to 20  min.

Ingredients:

Marinade:

1 Tblsp cornstarch

1 Tblsp soy sauce

1 Tblsp toasted sesame oil

1 Tblsp fresh minced ginger

1 Tblsp fresh minced garlic

2 lbs firm organic tofu (no GMO’s), cut into 1” cubes

Sauce:

1/3 cup sake

2 Tblsp rice wine vinegar

1 Tblsp miso paste (optional)

2 Tblsp soy sauce

2 tsp sugar (try rapadura or brown sugar)

4 scallions (thinly sliced)

1 Tblsp minced fresh ginger

1 Tblsp minced fresh garlic

1/3 cup water

Stir-fry:

4 Tblsp oil (coconut, sesame, peanut or olive), to cook

½ lb snow peas, cleaned

Equipment: large skillet for browning the tofu + stir fry

Instructions:

-          Make sure you have quinoa or brown rice ready to cook, and time that cooking ahead so that the stir fry and the grain will be done roughly the same time.

-          In a glass pie plate, mix the marinade ingredients. Gently place the cubed tofu in the marinade, turning to coat (might have to stack a pyramid of tofu). Make sure each tofu cube is coated in marinade at one point or another. Refrigerate from 30 minutes up to 5 hours. Pull from refrigerator 10 minutes before you will start cooking, to let it warm up a bit.

-          In a small bowl, blend the sauce ingredients, and set aside (if you use the miso, the trick to get it to combine easily with the rest is to mix it first in the bowl with 2-3 Tblsp of the sake, to make it a thin paste- then slowly add the rest of the liquid while mixing pretty vigorously.)

-          When you are ready to start cooking the stir fry, remove the marinating tofu from the fridge, and heat a large skillet with 1 Tblsp of oil, and saute the snow peas for 2 minutes. Remove from pan, and set aside in a bowl.

-          Keeping the pan hot over medium heat, add the other 3 Tblsp of oil. Place the well-coated tofu cubes in the pan (do all of them if they’ll fit), and let sit for 1 minute without turning (scrape any extra starchy marinade into the pan and let it sit and cook, too). Check one tofu after a minute, to see if it has started to brown and has formed a crust. If it has, turn all of the cubes with a spatula. If not, wait another 30 seconds to a minute or so. Turn all the cubes within the first 5 minutes.

-          Once the tofu cubes have been browned on at least two sides, add the bowl of sauce, and cook for another 4 minutes or so, stirring frequently to keep things from sticking to the sides and breaking up clumps of cornstarch. Add the cooked snow peas during the last minute, tossing to coat.

-          Serve when the sauce no longer has a starchy consistency (when the cornstarch has ‘cooked out’), over hot steamed quinoa or brown rice.

-          If you have any left over (doubtful!), it’s best eaten within two days.

Peruvian-style Tempeh for Tacos

This delicious method to prepare tempeh allows you to substitute ground meat with a satisfying, healthy, fermented soy option.  It was created by Blake Caldwell, of the local grocery chain Puget Consumers Co-operative (PCC). Check out their “recipe box” at http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/pcc/recipes for a wealth of great healthy recipes!

Prep time: 30 minutes

Serves: 4-6

Top of Form

Ingredients:

1/2 cup high-heat oil (coconut, peanut, or high heat refined oil)

4 cloves garlic, crushed and peeled

1 serrano chile pepper, minced (can be omitted)

1 package tempeh, sliced into thin strips

1 yellow onion, minced

1 tblsp chili powder

1 tblsp ground cumin

1/2 cup pitted and chopped green olives

1 tblsp tamari

1 lime, juiced

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Salt and black pepper, to taste

12 corn or flour tortillas

Your favorite taco toppings: cilantro, avocado, shredded cabbage, tomato, lime juice, sour cream, etc.

Instructions:

-          Preheat the oven to 300 degrees. Wrap your tortillas in foil or a damp clean kitchen towel, and place in the heating oven, baking for a total of 15 minutes (can leave in oven turned off while cooking the tempeh).

-          Preheat a large skillet to medium high. Add oil to hot pan and then add garlic cloves, serrano chiles and tempeh. Pan-fry, turning over with a spatula until tempeh starts to brown.

-          Add onion and cook until soft and tempeh breaks up. Add chili powder, cumin and chopped olives. Add tamari, lime juice, cilantro, salt and pepper, and stir well.

-          Serve the mixture in tortillas with finely shredded cabbage and lime juice, or with your favorite taco toppings.

Recipe retrieved and adapted from http://www.pccnaturalmarkets.com/pcc/recipes/peruvian-style-tempeh-tacos on 5/8/12.

Savory Nettle Chips

This creative and tasty recipe comes from the bloggers over at Mountain Rose Herbs.com, an excellent site to get high quality herbal products. Harvest these stinging leaves from young plants (no flower or seed) in a wooded area with a heavy pair of gloves, scissors or clippers, and a nice wide pan or basket in the spring and early summer.  It is best to snip the plant 3” above the ground, to allow the plant to come back later in the season or next year. They will sting you if they are raw and touch your skin… however, once rinsed and then baked in the oven, they loose their ouch-inducing chemicals (and become a highly nutritious food, with calcium, magnesium, iron, zinc, and plenty of phytochemicals to help you feel your best). Extra leaves can be dried and crushed to make cold brew nettle tea (see recipe in our blog archives).

Prep time: 45-60 minutes

Serves: 2-4

Ingredients:

- 20-40 freshly harvested nettle leaves, no stem
- 2.5 tsp olive oil
- 1 tbsp organic rice wine vinegar
- 1-2 tbsp organic shoyu, soy sauce, tamari, or Braggs
- 1 clove of garlic, crushed or minced fine
- 2-3 tbsp nutritional yeast
- Fresh ground organic black pepper, to taste

Instructions:

-          Preheat your oven to 200 degrees.

-          Wearing gloves, harvest your nettles, rinse with cool water, and dry. Separate the leaves by breaking the petiole (leaf stem) from the main stem.

-          Mix all of the glaze ingredients together in a bowl. Add the nettle leaves and gently toss until each leaf is well coated. You should be able to remove your gloves at this point.

-          On a parchment paper lined cookie sheet, unravel each delicate leaf. Place pan in a warm oven at 200 degrees and allow the leaves to slowly dehydrate. After 15 to 20 minutes, peel each leaf off of the parchment paper and flip over so the other side can crisp in the oven.

-          Check your nettles every 5 to 10 minutes until they lose sogginess and become nice and crunchy.

-          Be careful not to let them char and turn dark brown or black. Total cooking time can vary between 30 and 45 minutes. Once you reach the desired crispiness, remove and allow to cool.

-          Store in an airtight glass container for up to a week or possibly longer…if they aren’t devoured by then!

Recipe retrieved from http://mountainroseblog.com/nettle-chips-recipe/ on May 7, 2012.

Homemade Fruit/Nut Granola Bars

Store these yummy homemade bars away from air, up to one week (either wrapped individually, or in a canister).  Nice pairings include walnuts with dried blueberries, hazelnuts with dried cherries, macadamia nuts with coconut and dried pineapple, or almonds with dried currants and rosemary. Have fun mixing and matching! Serve with rich honey Greek yogurt and some strawberries for a tasty dessert.

Cook Time: 35 min, plus 1 hour for cooling

Yields: 12 bars

Ingredients:

1 cup of unsweetened applesauce

1/3 cup of honey

2 tsp “flavoring”, such as orange zest, cardamom, cinnamon, coconut flakes, minced ginger, rosemary, nutmeg or anything else you’d like (optional)

1 tbsp shredded coconut, hemp seeds, soaked chia seeds,  flax seeds, quinoa (optional)

2 ½ cups of old-fashioned oats

1 cup of nuts or seeds of your choice (or an additional 1 cup of oats), minced small

1 cup of dried fruit of your choice, minced small

Instructions:

-       Preheat oven to 325 degrees, and position a rack in the center of your oven.

-       Whisk together the honey, applesauce, and optional herbs/spices in a large bowl.

-       Stir in the oats, dried fruit and nuts or seeds. Combine well.

-       Line an 8 x 8 inch baking pan with parchment paper. This is necessary – you will never get these sticky, chewy bars out of the pan otherwise!

-       Scoop your granola mixture into your parchment-lined pan. Press the mixture firmly and evenly into the pan. You want it packed tightly, so don't be shy about using some force here!

-       Bake for 25 minutes. Remove from oven when golden, and let cool in pan to room temperature. Then cut 12 bars, and remove from pan.

Adapted from http://www.organicauthority.com/kids/homemade-granola-bars-recipe-for-healthy-after-school-snacks.html May 2012.