The bowl obsession continues! Here are just a couple of my bowls from the last few days, to give you an idea of what’s easily possible. It’s as delicious as it is pretty!
Smoothie Bowl Obsession
Green Goddess Bowl
Across the street from the baby store and community center Natural Resources, where Río and I go for classes and activities and to meet other new parents and babies, is a wonderful little gem of a cafe called Beloved. That place is magical. It’s as if someone came over and asked me, “Hadar, what do you like to eat?” wrote down everything I said, and made that the menu. Everything on offer is plant-based, whole-foods based, and as delicious as it is beautiful. Their juices and smoothies are a marvel, and they even have four versions of what is quickly turning into my favorite breakfast: The smoothie bowl (yes, I’ve enthusiastically joined the fad.)
The principle is rather simple–a thick smoothie, in a bowl, with exciting toppings. I think I’ve managed to recreate one of my favorite Beloved recipes, which I offer here for your enjoyment.
For the smoothie
1 pear
3/4 small avocado, or 1/2 a big one
2 cups raw spinach
1/2 small lemon or lime (with the peel!)
1 tsp spirulina
2 medjool dates, pitted
small chunk of ginger
1 cup coconut water
For the toppings
fruit, berries
dried berries and fruit (goji berries look pretty against the green, as do goldenberries)
seeds: hemp, flax, chia
granola or muesli
fancy nuts
Preparation is very easy: throw all ingredients into the blender and blend until smooth (the lemon can be blended with the peel!). Then, pour into a bowl, leaving some room at the top. Then, get creative with the toppings! You can do rows, circles, whatever you like. Then EAT!
Mint-Choc-Chip
For a couple of days I’ve had rushed mornings, which required me to buy my smoothie rather than make it at home; which is how I found out that both Project Juice and Urban Remedy have tasty, natural versions of mint-chocolate-chip.
Inspired by those shakes, I made an even healthier version at home. I increased the green content and added different kinds of vegetables. The mango somehow rounds it up, and cocoa nibs make it into a fun treat. It came out delicious!
100g kale
95g celery (about two stalks)
90g cucumber (about a third of a big cucumber)
90g banana (one medium-to-large banana)
55g mango (half a mango)
2 tbsp chopped mint leaves
1 tsp maca powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
cocoa nibs to taste
Blend everything except the cocoa nibs and add them at the end (for a fun texture.)
Citrus-Lavender Raw Mini-Pies
Our friend Adi stayed with us for a few days, and I decided to treat him to a special breakfast pie but I didn’t have all the ingredients on hand, so I improvised. The outcome was stunningly delicious, not too sweet, and fragrant with herbal aroma.
Continue readingThoughts about Green Smoothies
When I visited my friend Yael in Israel, she made us a green smoothie in an effort to recreate something delicious she’d had at a joint called rebar. It was very tasty and very green, and also, I thought, better than the original.
I like drinking smoothies in the morning, and come up with all kinds of awesome recipes for them, but last night’s correspondence with my friend Tzili Paz-Wolk, who has amazing and awesome knowledge about food, made me think about it. Tzili’s approach to nutrition is very compassionate and intuitive, and she pushes me to figure out my deep needs and how my food choices address them (effectively or less so). One thing she pointed out yesterday was that my shakes tend to rely on ready-made plant milks, like soy and almond. And she’s right: making almond milk from scratch is very easy, especially with my mighty Vitamix, but I seldom do it. The reason for that is that the ready-made stuff is already fortified with vitamins, especially B12, which I always worry about (even though I supplement almost daily with a sublingual spray.) Also, I tend to prefer soymilk or artificially boosted protein milks because I worry that a breakfast with insufficient protein won’t sustain me for the rest of my day.
So this morning I’m doing an experiment: I’m having a shake based only on unprocessed ingredients (well, processed in my own blender). The ingredients are:
1/3 of a large cucumber (one Persian cucumber’s worth)
2 large celery stalks
handful of cilantro
1 cup spinach leaves
1/4 cup cashews
1 tangerine
1 pear
It’s much less sweet than what I’m used to, but that can be cured with a banana or some berries next time. The flavor is fresh and tasty. Maybe I’ll make it a point to greenify my shakes more than I have before. Look, even Inti seems to dig it (and took a few sips!)
New Smoothies: Carrot Pineapple and “Poached” Pear
The new Vitamix is a thing of marvel, and it has inspired me to create new types of smoothies. Every morning I make up a new recipe. The latest two successes have been really special:
Carrot Pineapple
1 cup soymilk
1 carrot
1/2 cup pineapple chunks
1/2 cup chard
1 tsp turmeric
“Poached” Pear
1 cup almond milk
1 pear
2 plums
1/2 cup unsweetened cranberry juice
2 cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
Morning Tofu Scramble
It’s been a long morning; I started working at 5am and will be working until 10pm. Fortunately, I have a brief lull getting from home to the office and managed to make myself a decent breakfast:
100gr extra-firm tofu (about 3/4 cup crumbled)
1 tbsp chopped onion
1 garlic clove, chopped
12 cherry tomatoes
2 cups chard leaves, sliced into ribbons
3 large mushrooms
1 tbsp hot sauce
1 tsp olive oil
Heat up olive oil in pan. Add onion, garlic, and mushrooms, and sautee until they soften a bit. Add chard and tomatoes and sautee a few more minutes. In a little bowl, crumble the tofu and mix with the hot sauce. Add to pan and stir fry with the vegetables. Yum!
UPDATE: Great variation – pesto sauce in lieu of the hot sauce, and a little bit of Miyoko’s Kitchen mozarella! Also marvelous.
Mini Pita Sliders
We had lovely guests over the weekend, and yesterday I made a Mexican brunch for them that included short-grain brown rice and Rancho Gordo pinto beans. This morning, as an airport sendoff, I used some of the leftover grains and beans to make them travel sandwiches, and there was enough to make a tasty breakfast for us, too.
Serves four:
1 cup brown rice, cooked
1 cup pinto beans, cooked
1/2 white onion
1 tsp olive oil
4-5 drops liquid smoke
1 tsp coconut aminos
1 tsp nutritional yeast
2 whole-wheat pitas
2 tbsp tahini or vegenaise
vegetables and herbs according to taste (I used some of yesterday’s pico de gallo and cilantro)
Chop onion finely and brown in olive oil. As the onion is browning, in a mixing bowl, mash together brown rice and beans. Add onions to rice and bean mixture. Add liquid smoke, aminos, and nutritional yeast.
Make eight small balls out of the mixture and place in hot pan. Flatten the balls with wooden spoon. Brown 5 minutes, then flip and brown other side for 5 minutes.
Cut each pita into quarters. Coat insides with tahini. Place a burger in each quarter, then garnish with vegetables and herbs.
Bon Appetit!
Brunch with Northwest Friends
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It was delightful to host two good friends from Port Townsend, WA, for brunch yesterday! While usually, when I host folks that are used to mainstream food, I try to be non-intimidating in my menu choices, our friends are both avid cooks and one of them is a real expert on pickles and fermentation. So, I proudly served the house kombucha (made from jasmine tea) with the following menu:
- Kale with Oranges and Ginger
- Mushrooms and Vegan Sausage with Caramelized Onions
- Roasted Yams with Rosemary
- Fruit Soup
All vegetables and fruit in the menu came from our CSA bag. And it was all pretty easy to make.
For the kale, cut large (1-inch) strips out of an entire package of dinosaur kale. After sauteeing a bit of garlic and ginger in some olive oil, add the kale, a peeled, sliced orange, some veg broth, and sautee till the kale wilts.
For the mushroom hash, thinly slice one onion and caramelize in olive oil. Add 3 cups of button mushrooms, 3 sliced vegan sausages, a bit of hot sauce, and some Ajvar Mild Vegetable Spread. Cook until everything is the desired consistency.
For the roasted yams, slice yams and sweet potatoes pretty thinly and place, in one layer, on an olive-oiled baking sheet. Sprinkle with sliced onion cloves and fresh rosemary. Bake at 350 Fahrenheit for 20-30 mins.
For the fruit soup, see the compote instructions and add a dash of brandy. This time I used pears in lieu of the apples and it turned out wonderful.
The kombucha deserves a post of its own sometime in the near future.
Chia Bowl
Another delightful breakfast I’ve come to enjoy recently is a nice chilled chia bowl. This consists of allowing chia seeds to soak in almond milk and turn it into gelatinous goodness. Even better with lots of lovely fruit, and can be mixed with fruit from chilled compote. Here goes:
1 bowl unsweetened almond milk (plain or vanilla)
1 1/2 tbsp chia seeds
1 cup any fruit, thinly sliced
At night, place seeds in almond milk bowl to soak. In the morning, garnish with lots of fresh fruit. Voila.