julia

Simple Green Curry | Oil-Free | Vegan

January 12, 2017 By julia

Brrrr. It’s cold and time for a fave bowl of Thai comfort and flavour.

This green curry couldn’t get any easier.

Veggies.

Potatoes.

Coconut milk.

Curry paste.

That’s it, that’s all folks!

Plus, it’s oil-free. Why, you ask?

Well, let me tell ya.

Oil is a refined and has more calories per teaspoon than any other food group out there, with minimal nutrients. For the same amount of calories in 1 tbsp of oil (120 calories), we can eat 3 cups of kale, or 4 red peppers, or 4 cups of cauliflower, or 1 cup of potatoes. When we consume 1 tbsp of oil, it takes up a tiny amount of room in our stomach, therefore, won’t do the job of telling our brain that we are full and won’t lead to satiation. So, oil makes it’s super easy to dose yourself with high-fat, nutrient-deficient calories (in other words, gain unwanted weight).

We want as many nutrients, and as much bulk per calorie as possible.

This is great! This means, if we choose the right kinds of foods (whole, un-refined, plant foods), then we can eat in absolute abundance! High fives all-around for that!

You can check out Mic the Vegan’s video all about oil.

Below, you’ll see the way to saute without using oil that gives you a great flavour and caramelization.

Benefits:

Broccoli is like a broom for your intestines. It goes in there and cleans everything up (especially in it’s raw form, but lightly cooked is amazing too. It’s packed with vitamin C and K. It’s detoxifying and anti-inflammatory. As a cruciferous vegetable it’s packed with phytonutrients and fights off cancer and disease.

Onions and garlic have organosulfur compounds that have huge antioxidant properties to ward off disease, oxidative stress and cancer.

Sprouts are the most nutrient dense things you can consume! The opposite of oil. They’re raw and live, easily digestible and packed with nutrients, vitamins and minerals. Powerful little morsels.

Serves: 6

Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

large sweet onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, crushed
2cm ginger thumb, minced
2 heads of broccoli, chopped
2 red peppers, chopped
1 can coconut milk
1 jar green curry paste (112 grams)
3-4 potatoes, cubed (could replace with 2 cups brown rice, cooked)
1 cup green peas
sprouts for topping (mung bean, peashoots or sunflower sprouts)
cilantro, chopped, for topping
cashews, chopped, for topping (optional)

Directions:

Steam potatoes until your fork can pierce through them (about 15 minutes). On the other hand, cook up some rice if you like rice more!
Oil-free saute: Heat up a large, deep pan to medium. You know when it’s hot enough be doing the water test (sprinkle pan with water, and if a mercury ball forms, you’re good to go). Add onions to the heated pan. Stir frequently, until the pan is browned (about 5 minutes). Add enough water to de-glaze the pan (the onions should look brown and caramelized).
Add garlic and ginger. Saute 1 minute.
Add peppers and broccoli. Saute 1 minute.
Add half of the coconut milk with the whole jar of green curry. Mix these liquids together with the veggies until the curry is all mixed in. Then add the rest of the coconut milk.
Let simmer for 5-10 minutes. Add in the potatoes and green peas for the last 2 minutes.
Serve it up in your favourite big bowl and top it with sprouts, cilantro and cashews.

Spinach Gomae | Vegan | Oil-Free

January 5, 2017 By julia

Sometimes I just look at a bag of greens and am overcome with the feeling of ‘get in ma belly’!

Don’t we all have that feeling after the Holidays?

By the way, HAPPY 2017!

It always feels like this is the time to detox and cleanse the temple with a mountain of greens. But, how to get them all in?

There’s so many ways… juice them, blend them, mega-salad them, stir-fry them, steam them…

Gomae-ing them is one of my favourite ways to get through a massive bag of pop-eye’s secret weapon.

Just the other day I found the biggest bag of spinach I’ve ever seen at our neighbourhood grocery store. It just sat there saying “gomae it to me!”, so I did.

Then, I called up some friends to come help roll up some vegan sushi with avocado, cucumber, yam fries, green onion, sprouts and mango.

This gomae is great to make ahead of time, because it’s yummy cold!

Boil

Cool

Strain

Squeeze

Mix in sauce and voila!

The key to gomae is to make sure the liquid from blanching the spinach is outta there. A liquid-y gomae is nobody’s friend.

After a few simple steps of boiling water, blanching spinach, draining and pressing it with a cloth or paper towel, you will have the spinach every gomae loves.

Benefits:

~ Spinach is actually packed with plant protein. Greens have a lot more protein that everyone thinks. We can easily get all the protein we need (which is only about 10% of our daily diet), from a vegan diet without even thinking about it! Because of the meat and dairy industries bombarding us with protein myths, we have a huge misconception and fear of becoming protein-deficient. The only way this would happen is if we were starving ourselves. And on the other end of the spectrum, too much protein is stored in fat cells, contributes to the onset of a variety of diseases, like cancer, osteoporosis, heart disease and impaired kidney function. So, stop worrying about protein, and start asking yourself about the nutrient quality and amount of fibre in each of your meals:)

~Miso is fermented! Yay! Eating a fermented food should be a part of each day. Fermented foods are packed to the brim with probiotics. This means your intestinal flora (in your gut), otherwise known as your second brain, will be healthy and happy. This will boost your immunity, improve your digestion and help balance out your good intestinal bacteria.

~ Sesame seeds are packed with copper (helps with rheumatoid arthritis), magnesium (for respiratory health), calcium (to prevent osteoperosis) and zinc (immunity boosting).

Serves: 4-6

Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

Large bag of spinach
2 tbsp sesame seeds (black or golden) for garnish

Sauce:

1 tbsp miso paste
1/2 cup tahini
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp mirin (or organic cane sugar)
A bit of water to thin the sauce out

Directions:

Blanch spinach: bring large pot of water to a boil. Fill up your sink with cold water. When water comes to a boil, put a handful of spinach in there until soft (30 seconds to a minute). Scoop out spinach with a scoop colander, and put it into the cold water sink. Do this until all of your spinach is blanched. Then remove the spinach with the colander and squeeze out liquid. It helps to do this with a tea towel or paper towel.
Make sauce: add all sauce ingredients to a food processor and blend (alternatively add miso paste with a bit of water to a bowl and mix with whisk into liquid-y paste, then mix in the rest of the sauce ingredients to form the sauce)
Toast sesame seeds: heat pan to low-medium, then add in the sesame seeds. Toast for 3-5 minutes, stirring frequently.
Mix spinach with sauce, then top with toasted sesame seeds.

Turmeric Ginger Banana ‘Mylkshake’

December 29, 2016 By julia

The blender. Doesn’t it blow your mind?

With just a few ingredients, you’re on your way to taste bud heaven.

This time, think milkshake… but good for you. REAL good for you.

If you can get the actual turmeric and ginger root from your local grocery store, DO IT.

You could use the powdered, but this recipe is so much better with the real, fresh ingredients. If you have a hard time finding them, Spud carries turmeric and ginger root! Just order online from their website and it will get delivered to your door (use the code CRVAN-MURJUB for 20$ off your first order). While you’re at it, add a box of smoothie ready bananas for just 7 bucks and freeze them so they’re ready for your next smoothie session!

Then this creamy, spicy super smoothie so fast and easy to put together.

If you have a high-speed blender, this bevy is amazing blended until warm.

It’s the best thing to come back to after playing all day in the fresh powder.

By the way HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!

I’m going to share what I am chatting away about in this week’s email to subscribers (subscribe on the homepage).
Here’s s few things I can leave you with while we’re shooting into 2017:

Try not to get overwhelmed about the things that didn’t happen in 2016, or the things you hope to achieve in 2017. This life of ours is all about the adventure. The best gift we can give to ourselves is to be grateful for each present moment and appreciate the relationships, achievements and things that we have now.
Don’t be like T HIS GUY, trying to get it all over-with and done at once.
Just ENJOY the process! We’ve all got mundane things to do in this life (think chores, some work, etc), but what if we switched our mind-set into being excited to do those things, and ignore the part of our brain that dreads what’s to come?

I can’t waaaait to answer emails!
I’m SO stoked to do the recycling!
Cleaning the house? YES!!!

Imagine how fun life would be if we truly believed everything was amazingly fun? Something to think about…

OK, now back to winter in a cup.

The benefits of this drink are endless. But, here’s just a few to be excited about…

Benefits:

–Turmeric is one of nature’s best anti-inflammatory. Eating it with black pepper drastically improves it’s absorption into your hot bod, magnifying the benefits. It’s also great for bloating, digestion, blood purification, skin conditions, cancer-fighting, plus it aids in fat metabolism.

–Ginger is well-known for it’s anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties. This makes it a great answer for combatting seasonal flus and making your immune system super-human. Ginger is also a star when it comes to nausea and muscle pain.

–Bananas are packed full of beneficial carbohydrates, with fibre and a bit of protein! They really are an all round healthy food that if I lived on a deserted island, all I would need is bananas. There’s a reason monkeys go bananas over bananas, and it makes up most of their diet. Smart monkeys. They also decrease bloating (especially for that time of the month ladies!), build lean muscle mass, help your muscles recover faster and give you a boost of clean, whole food energy.

Anti-Inflammatory Turmeric Ginger Banana Mylkshake

Time: 5 minutes

Serves: 1-2

Ingredients:

2 bananas, peeled
2-3 centimetres turmeric root, chopped (start with less, and add more if you can handle the spice!)
2-3 tsp ginger root, chopped
3-5 dates (depending on size, but I used 5 small bahri dates. 3 medjool would do the trick)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup almond milk (or less if you want it thicker)
little pinch of pepper
cinnamon to top

Steps:

Throw all of the ingredients into a high speed blender. Blend for 1 minute (or until warm).
Pour into your favourite mug and sprinkle with cinnamon

Note: This goes well with last week’s Raw Vegan Chocolate Orange Christmas Bites

Raw Vegan Chocolate-Orange Christmas Bites

December 22, 2016 By julia

Bring this to a Christmas party and your brownie points will shoot through the chimney.

These little morsels will bring melty, sweet, whole-food goodness to your Christmas Holidays.

Pour yourself a cup of tea, and dip away.

Right now, I’m going through the Raw Gastronomy chapter in my Plant-Based Rouxbe Culinary course. The challenge was to create a raw dessert, and I thought, why should I be the only one to appreciate the taste of my creation? It’s too good not to share with all of you.

Eating whole foods in their raw form does wonders for your body.

Raw, or ‘living foods’ still have the vitality and energy in the food itself. If they aren’t heated over 118 degrees farenheit, their naturally occurring enzymes stay active. Heating foods can deactivate some of the beneficial, vital enzymes, plus destroy other nutrients like minerals, essential fatty acids, and vitamins. So, why not eat as much food in their natural raw form as possible?

Plus, this chocolate sauce is just 3 ingredients! So simple and it works soooo well. The coconut oil is just slightly heated enough to melt into a saucy texture.

Even after freezing for a while, the bottom layer of these bites still stays deliciously gooey.

It’s pretty much cookie dough, that’s packed with nutrients, with hard chocolate on top. YUM.

Benefits:

–Cacao powder is the raw form of dark chocolate. It’s the part with the highest amount of antioxidants (40 times the amount of blueberries). It’s a natural energy booster, mood elevator and is packed with magnesium for your brain and heart health.

–Dates are packed with minerals and fibre. They’re super sweet, but are actually good for you! Pure magic. Your brain, heart and digestive system will thank you. They’re actually a great source of protein, plus they’re packed with vitamin C and D to help your beautiful skin and promote elasticity for the anti-aging effects.

–Coconut has iron, healthy fats and fibre. A bit of coconut will help ward off disease and keep your tissues healthy too.

Ingredients:

Base layer:

1 1/2 cups dates, pitted (meaning without pits), soaked in hot water for 5 minutes then strained (if super dry)
3/4 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1 tsp orange zest
1 tbsp orange juice, freshly squeezed

Chocolate sauce:

1 1/2 tbsp coconut oil
1/2 cup cacao powder
2 tbsp maple syrup

Steps:

Pulse walnuts, coconut and orange zest in food processor until a meal forms
Add dates and orange juice. Blend until all is combined
Use two small spoons to press mixture into balls then into a mini muffin tin. OR you could also press the mixture into a loaf pan as one large layer
Make chocolate sauce: Melt coconut oil in small sauce pan, add maple syrup and cacao powder. Use whisk to mix until smooth and creamy.
Spoon chocolate layer over each base layer
Sprinkle with shredded coconut
Chill in freezer for 30 minutes or as long as you like. They don’t become rock solid!

Apricot Butternut Squash Lentil Loaf | Vegan | Oil-Free | Salt-Free

December 15, 2016 By julia

With Christmas is just around the corner, the best way to show your love to your family and friends is through their taste buds.

Welcome, lentil loaf.

It’s sweet and savoury, packed with plant nutrients, and a mouth-watering replacement for the usual meaty main on the plate.

Roasted butternut squash, nutritional yeast, flax meal and oat flour hold this baby together, and a maple-y, molasses glaze tops it right off!

Who says Christmas has to be about guilty indulgence? This lentil loaf will benefit your bod, yet taste comforting and decadent.

Impress your family with a vegan main for Christmas dinner. Be a rebel and switch up the tradition 😉

You can make this ahead of time and throw it into the freezer once it’s cooled. Just de-thaw by letting it sit in room temperature for at least 1 hour (or in a pool of warm water in the sink for 30 minutes), then bake again at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes or so.

Benefits:

–Lentils are one of the most healthy ingredients in the world. They’re packed with antioxidants, lower cholesterol and have anti-inflammatory effects. Eating these morsels and any other plant foods help protect the skin and ward off wrinkles too.

–Butternut squash is low in fat, high in fibre and high in beneficial plant carbohydrates. Plus it does wonders for immunity, and bone health.

–Apricots protect against free radical damage and inflammation. They also help your eyesight with all that vitamin A.

–Salt-free and Oil-free! Salt leads to water retention, which leads to bloating, a puffy face, and water weight. Go without it for a week and see if you notice a difference! Oil is a fat, packed with calories, and zero fibre. Even if it is said to be ‘health promoting’, it is still a processed ingredient that will aid in weight gain.

Serves: 8-10

Time: 1 hour 30 minutes

Ingredients:

Loaf:

1 cup green lentils uncooked
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 cup walnuts chopped
1 cup butternut squash, chopped in 1 cm cubes
1 cup carrot, grated
1 cup apple, grated
1 sweet onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup vegetable broth (or water)
8 dried apricots, diced
3 tbsp flax meal
1/2 cup oat flour
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
6 sprigs-worth of fresh thyme, de-stemmed
1 tbsp oregano
1 tsp tarragon
Dash of pepper

Glaze:

1/4 cup molasses
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tbsp dijon mustard

Directions:

Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees F
Cook lentils according to package
Spread pumpkin seeds and walnuts on cookie sheet, then toast in the oven for 8 minutes
Turn oven up to 350 degrees F
Roast butternut squash for 20 minutes
While squash is roasting, heat a pot to medium heat
Oil-free sautéing time. Add onions to pot, and stir until you see browning/caramelization on the bottom (about 5 minutes). Then add garlic and saute for another 30 seconds. Add 1/4 cup vegetable broth (or water) to deglaze the pot. The onions and garlic should have a brown tinge to them
Add carrots, celery, apple, tarragon, oregano and black pepper to pot. Let simmer 10 minutes
In food processor, blend 1/2 cup of the roasted butternut squash with 3/4 cup of the cooked green lentils. Once blended smooth, add in flax meal, nutritional yeast, oat flour, and thyme. Blend until smooth again
Transfer blended mixture to the pot. Add pumpkin seeds, walnuts and apricot. Mix together well
Line a loaf pan with parchment paper (leave some out along edges so you can use it as handles to pull out loaf when it’s done)
Press loaf mix evenly into the pan
Make the glaze: Mix together all ingredients in small food processor, or in a small sauce pan on low heat (this will help the molasses mix together)
Use spatula to spread the glaze over the loaf evenly
Bake for 45-50 minutes in the 350 degree F oven
Let cool 5 minutes, then move from the pan onto a cooling rack.
Enjoy with your favourite sides! Vegan mashed potatoes coming soon!