HookedOnPlants

When getting hooked is a good thing

Dinner

Creamy Cashew Sour Cream | Raw Vegan | 5 Ingredients

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It’s not all about carrots and celery (all though… dip those in this and you are winning).

This creamy, easy recipe is living proof that ‘vegan comfort food’ is NOT an oxymoron.

With just 5 ingredients and a blender you will have yourself a decadent, tangy, sour cream-like sauce for your tacos, stuffed taters, lunch wraps, to drizzle on roasted veggies, and… and… and…

You should probably have a jar of this in your fridge at all times. It makes life better.

Just sayin’.

Sauces are the spice of this plant-based life. So get a few recipes in your repertoire and keep stocking that fridge of yours with your faves!

Benefits:

  • Avoiding dairy (in the form of sour cream, cheese, milk, ice cream, whey, butter) means your avoiding IGF-1, hormones (naturally occuring and sythetic), antibiotics (in some cases), carcinogenic casein, addictive casomorphins (opiate-like substances formed by consuming dairy, that leave you craving more), steroids, pesticides, herbicides, fungicides, fertilizers, veterinary medications, synthetic preservatives, additives, cholesterol, saturated fat and white blood cells (aka pus).
  • Cashews are packed with vitamins B6, E, and K, minerals like copper, phosphorus, zinc, magnesium, iron, and the antioxidant, selenium. The magnesium in these kidney-shaped nuts helps regulate calcium and balance your muscles and nerves. The monounsaturated fats in cashews are great for your heart health and blood sugar regulation.
  • Lemon helps to create an alkaline environment in your body. If you’re alkaline, and not acidic, your chance of disease, sickness and cancer is extremely low!


Creamy Cashew Sour Cream | Raw Vegan | 5 Ingredients
 
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A delicious, creamy, vegan sour cream for your tacos, potatoes, and bowls! By the way make sure you soak your nuts before you start!
Author:
Recipe type: sauce, condiment
Serves: 5
Ingredients
  • 1 cup raw cashews, soaked 8 hours, then strained (or Quick Soak: boil water, pour over cashews, let sit 2 hours)
  • 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • ¼ tsp garlic powder
  • ¼ cup + 2 tbsp water (or unflavoured, unsweetened almond milk)
  • **optional, chopped chives for topping
Instructions
  1. Add all ingredients to high speed blender or food processor (works best with the smallest container attachment)
  2. Blend!
  3. And done! Top with chives 🙂

 

What else happened this week?

We paddled a river, hiked 8 hours, slept on top of a mountain, and round mountain bikes.

All in between eating delicious plant-based meals 😉

For more of this, follow my daily adventures on instagram:  @hookedonplants and @juliamurrayski 

Having so many amazing trails around Whistler to ride on makes me so happy. #Fuelledbyplants 😉

 

Literally walking in my backyard. Holy #grateful. Loving my Maloja clothing for hikes and adventuring!

 

Taking the Elaho Kahuna Paddle Board for a river rip.

Smoky Coconut Bacon

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I would go vegan… but BACON!

I’ve heard it countless times. Really, what everyone is saying is that they love that umami flavour… that savoury, salty, sweet, bitter flavour, all in one. Or that certain fattiness and texture of a food like bacon.

Have no fear. The re-creation of this is TOTALLY do-able in the plant-based realm.

Instead of coconut, you can experiment with this recipe by using thinly sliced zucchini, sliced rice paper, or even thinly sliced carrots.

I think coconut does the crispy trick.

Add these delish morsels to sandwiches, wraps, salads, vegan egg’s benny, or just eat it straight off the plate.

The salty, smoky, savoury kick your tastebuds will experience is somethin’ else. Trust.

 

Benefits:

-Coconut is packed with calcium, magnesium, potassium and electrolytes!

-Smoked Paprika is antioxidant rich and fights disease! Since paprika is made from peppers, it’s packed with the antioxidant beta-carotene, plus it regulates blood sugar levels and prevents diabetes. It also keeps your heart strong and is good for your eyes.

-Tamari is similar to soy sauce. It’s the saltiness you need for a recipe like this. It’s fermented, rich in minerals, has less sodium than soy sauce, and makes this recipe gluten-free.

Smoky Vegan Coconut Bacon

Time: 20 minutes (or 7 hours if dehytrating)

Serves: 2 cups worth

Ingredients:

Marinade:

  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  • 1/4 tsp coconut oil, melted
  • 2tbsp tamari (or coconut aminos, if you have it)
  • 1 tbsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tbsp nutritional yeast
  • Pinch of black pepper
  • 1/4 tsp vegan Worcestershire sauce (optional)

Directions:

  1. If using an oven, preheat to 325°F, and line baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. Whisk together all marinade ingredients.
  3. Pour marinade over coconut ribbons and mix evenly.
  4. Let it all marinade for 1 hour (this is optional, but will bring out the flavours even more)
  5. Crisp them up by either:
    • Dehydrating for 6-8 hours at 115°F  (this will keep all the enzymes in tact by keeping it raw)
    • Baking at 325°F for 5 minutes, stir them around, then bake another 5 or more (until crispy, but not burnt!)
  6. Once removed, these bacon bits will continue to crisp.
  7. Store left overs (if there is any) at room temperature for up to a week, or in a freezer bag for up to a month or two!

Hooked On People Interview: Nicolette Richer of The Green Moustache + Grain & Bean Summer Salad

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Nicolette Richer is an awe-inspiring woman who wears many hats in the health world. She worked for 10 years as an environmental educator and health consultant, which lead her to become well aware of how connected our health is to the environment around us. She now is a guru at preventing and healing chronic disease and cancer through a plant-based lifestyle and the Gerson Therapy. ‘Richer Health’ is all about preventing pollution within ourselves. Not only does Nicolette do talks, online coaching, workshops, and retreats, but she also started the much-loved Green Moustache! The Green Mo is a live food and juice café well-known for it’s delicious eats and airy atmosphere. I always walk out of there feeling more vibrant than when I stepped in.

If people want to learn and experience, hands on, how to Eat to Beat Cancer and Chronic Disease, they can now sign up for her 5-Week Eat to Beat online course.

**If you enter the code ‘JulesFuel’ you’ll get 20% off.** (Thanks  Nicolette!)

Let’s learn all about Nicolette…

Hooked on Plants: What are your top 3 tips for plant-based newbies? 

Nicolette Richer:

1) Eat clean real food. Living a healthy, nutrient-dense, plant-based lifestyle means you love eating out of the produce and grain section of a grocery store, or you source directly from your local farmers market or farm. Ditch the idea that packaged food and plant-based healthy living mean the same thing, because it doesn’t. Organic vegan Oreo-cookies, most fake-meat products, or even simply cheap pasta and canned tomato sauce may technically be plant-based, but it’s really just fortified food chalked full of sodium, dyes, preservatives and other unwanted chemicals. Stick to clean real food (like Jules Fuel 😉 to nourish yourself daily.

2) Eat in abundance! The beauty about diving into a plant-based lifestyle – or as Dr. Joel Fuhrman says, a ‘plant-rich’ lifestyle – is that if you are eating a variety of nutrient-rich, whole-plant-based foods, prepared in healthful ways, such as baked, blended, juiced, slow-cooked, slightly steamed and raw, then counting calories becomes an out-dated and useless practice of the past.

3) Keep It Simple. It’s fun to pull out the recipe books and make complicated decadent dishes and sauces that require exotic ingredients. But in reality – all of those ingredients can be one-time-use expensive, and who has time for that on a day to day basis? For a plant-based dessert, eat a mango, a few dates, and a bowl full of chilled grapes – mmmm. Love popsicles? Blend the mango with the grapes and a bit of water and freeze it. Want a delicious plant-based soup? Cook onions, garlic, leeks and squash. Blend. Enjoy… No oil, no veggie stock, no spices. After a week of keeping your plate simple, your taste buds will grow to appreciate the complex flavours that already exist in the nutrient-dense produce.

HOP: Why did you get into a plant-based lifestyle?

NR: Thanks to my mom and our African and East Indian background, I grew up loving the crunchiness and freshness of salads, warm baked potatoes and okra, and curried veggies and whole grain rice. We always had a garden and I detested eating meat. But I wasn’t always plant-based. In my teens, when I started earning my own money to buy food at school, I wavered over to a Skor Bar, Pepsi, Big Mac, and Poutine diet. Intense PMS and acne quickly followed and noticing the effects of my diet on my health, I ventured back to my plant-based roots. However, what really sealed the plant-based deal for me was witnessing my friend heal himself of stage IV cancer using a nutrient-dense plant-rich diet therapy. That experience kicked off my thirst for knowledge about the relationship between food and disease and a result, my businesses are built around educating others about how to Eat Real to Heal their chronic health conditions.

HOP: As a Gerson home trainer, you must have an abundance of success stories. Can you give a quick overview of what the Gerson Therapy fundamentals are?

NR: My clients have incredible healing stories based on them taking the steps to swap out the SAD (Standard American Diet) for a whole-foods plant-rich lifestyle. Ultimately the Gerson Therapy is all about restoring nutritional deficiencies, caused by the SAD way of life, which then prompts the body to kick start its self-healing regeneration systems, dump toxic build-up, and ultimately reverse chronic disease including cancer. The Gerson Therapy is named after the German medical doctor, Max Gerson who spent his life researching how organic, whole plant-based foods actually work to heal the body and he found that the fastest way to nutrify and detoxify the human body was through the consumption of:

  1. cold-pressed juices (think IV therapy)
  2. cooked and raw breakfast lunch, dinner and even desserts
  3. high dose nutrients in the form of key primary supplements to support organ functions
  4. a liver detoxification protocol to support the expulsion of metabolic waste and other toxins
  5. rest and minimal exercise are also important aspects of the therapy.

HOP: Your kids must be some of the healthiest around! What is your favourite trick for feeding kids more fruit and veggies? 

NR: Haha! I love this question and I often get asked it by parents. Yes, teachers and parents often state that they are amazed that my kids eat everything and that they love fruits and most veggies – my youngest has yet to find a love for mushrooms though.

I have 3 tools to help parents:

  1.  The trick is to not trick your kids into eating more fruits and veggies – if you get your kids involved in shopping, washing, chopping, and making real food plant-based meals, beverages and desserts, their brains will be turned on to the textures, flavours, aromas, and sensations received from living this lifestyle and they’ll crave it, just like most adults would
  2. The key is that you can’t have competing foods in the house. If there’s a bag of salt and vinegar chips in my house, I’ll always choose those over the healthier more satisfying options. So imagine, what it’s like for a child to be presented with a scrumptious home-made plant-based dish when there are cheese strings, goldfish crackers, and mac & cheese in the cupboards
  3. Don’t pressure, bribe or bully your kids into eating their veggies and fruits. Most kids won’t starve themselves. Simply prepare your meals or snacks and present them on the table as you would normally do and mirror the joy and love of eating healthy food

Do these things day in and day out, and if your child eats even a little of what’s on the table – great – don’t make a big deal about it, just do it again the next day. If they eat a lot – again, wonderful…but you really don’t have to celebrate it though you can do a little jig of joy and relief internally. If your child claims they are still hungry after dinner, present them with other just-as-healthy options so it’s a win, win all around. And give your child time to adjust their brain, habits, and taste-buds to the new healthy textures, colours and aromas on your table of goodness.

HOP: Great tips. How did you come up with the name Green Moustache (it’s the best)?

NR: I love the name too! We were sitting around our kitchen table with friends and I had made a yummy blueberry and greens smoothie for my daughter – she was 2 years old at the time – and the berries made the smoothie congeal in the glass so when she went to tip the glass up to drink from it, the entire smoothie slid out of her glass and onto her face giving her a beautiful big Green Moustache, and not to mention a very angry but cute pout.

HOP: Too cute! The Green Moustache is spreading like wild fire! Whistler, Squamish, Vancouver and Revelstoke are all lucky enough to have one, and the Dragon’s gave you some great exposure too! What is the next exciting project you’re working on?

NR: Our two major projects are 1) supporting our franchisees in Squamish, two in North Vancouver and Revelstoke with more being announced soon … and then 2) working with the Provincial Health Authorities to get the Green Moustache into BC Hospitals in 2018! This is our dream at the Green Mo to get our food and beverages into areas where people need it most.

HOP: You do 4 retreats per year with Yoga, Cooking classes and Nutrition talks! So awesome. When is the next one coming up?

NR: We’ll be hosting a 3-day retreat at the end of August in Whistler to launch our train-the-trainer program. Students who want to dive deeper into the art and science of using food as medicine to reverse disease so they can teach other people how to Eat Real to Heal can further their studies with us for 3 months after the retreat is over. Dates and location will be announced soon on FB and on our websites.

HOP: Can you share your favourite recipe with us that means SUMMER to you? 

NR: I love recipe books but rarely follow a recipe…I’m a sort of a free-style chef, so to speak…so I’ll take you through how to make my favourite go-to summer dish, inspired by Oh She Glows, Back On Track Wheat Berry and Bean Salad. You can adjust the quantities and ingredients based on the flavours you are craving when you make it, or by what is available in your fridge.

Nicolette’s Go-To Grain & Bean Summer Salad

Serves: 7 cups approximately

Ingredients: 

Salad Ingredients:

  • 1 cup dry wheat berries cooked and drained (substitute: brown rice, quinoa, barley, etc.)
  • 1 cups/500 ml cooked navy beans (substitute black beans, kidney beans, white beans, chick peas, etc.)
  • 1 mango, diced
  • 1 cucumber or zucchini, diced
  • 1 red pepper, diced
  • 1 carrot, diced
  • 1 large tomato, diced
  • 1 cup fresh parsley or 1 cup cilantro, diced
  • 3 green onions, diced
  • black pepper to taste
  • If you desire a salty flavour, add 2 stalks celery, diced

Dressing Ingredients:

  • 0-3 tbsp flax oil or extra virgin olive oil (oil is optional)
  • 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard, hot mustard, or ground mustard seeds
  • 1 tbsp maple syrup (optional)
  • 2 large garlic cloves, minced
  • 2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Directions:

  1. In separate bowls, soak the grains and beans overnight in cold water.
  2. The next day, drain and cook grains and beans separately until tender. Drain water and cool.
  3. In a large bowl, add diced vegetables and mango.
  4. In a small bowl or mason jar, whisk or shake the dressing ingredients together.
  5. When the grains and beans are cooled, add to large bowl of veggies and mango.
  6. Add dressing to taste.

Chickpea No-Tuna Wrap with Avocado | Vegan Lunch Box

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Looks like tuna, tastes like tuna, must be tuna?

But nooooo.

There were no fish harmed in the making of this lunch.

The mighty chickpea mashed up with whole food ingredients like seaweed, capers, celery and avocado (instead of the typical mayo), give this no-tuna salad an A+ in the nutrition department.

One of the trickiest questions to wrap my head around going plant-based was ‘what do I fill the lunch box with’?

Sandwiches used to be centred around the meat, and always had to have cheese.

What kind of sanny do you want today? Tuna? Turkey? Ham? … These were the normal go-to’s.

So, turning plant-based brought on a lunch box challenge. How do we keep it quick, simple, tasty, satiating and, most importantly, above and beyond just carrots and lettuce (because that’s all vegans munch on, right)?

Now, I realize how easy and delicious plant-based lunches can be.

These days the sandwich’s best friends are:

Tempeh

Chickpeas

Hummus

Guacamole

Shredded veggies

Seared Tofu

Cauliflower wings

Rice & beans

Jackfruit…

And today, the spot light is on the versatile little chickpea turned ‘tuna salad’.

I can whip this up on the morning of in just 10 minutes, then have enough for 3 lunches.

Benefits:

~ Chickpeas are packed with easily digestible plant-protein and insoluble fiber, which is great for digestive health and controlling your blood sugar levels.

~ Seaweed of any kind is more nutrient-dense than any land vegetable! It packs tons of micronutrients like folate, calcium,, zinc, iron, selenium, magnesium and iodine.

~ Avocado in replacement of mayo (vegan mayo or not), gives you the benefits of using a whole food. Minimizing oils from processed ingredients like mayo, and replacing them with a natural source of fat from a plant food will allow you to receive the whole package of goodness. Vitamins, minerals, water content, and fibre all come with the avocado.

Why reduce seafood consumption?

  • if we don’t drastically reduce our demand for fish, we could be seeing fishless oceans by 2048 
  • 80% of all fish stocks are in a state of collapse
  • Mercury, toxins and heavy metals are stored in the fish flesh that can lead to memory loss, tremors, fatigue, birth defects…
  • Farmed fish are polluting the ocean with waste, pesticides and antibiotics
  • Wild fish are getting harder to come by each day
  • Bycatch is the term for the millions of tons of unintentional marine life each year that is caught and discarded back to the sea, dead or wounded. This represents 40% of global marine catches, that are just thrown back into the ocean, dead or wounded.
  • A fisherman will catch 20 pounds of by catch for every 1 pound of targeted fish (dolphins, whales, porpoises, sea turtles, sharks, seals, stingrays, other fish)
  • Invasive fishing methods (trawl nets and explosives) destroy the ocean floor and coral

On the bright side?

  • You could save 225 fish per year by ditching seafood, or make a difference by reducing your consumption
  • By removing fish from your diet (including supplements) you can help marine animal populations make a come-back, plus minimize unhealthy toxins to yourself
  • Plant-based food is delicious and mega nutritious

 

Chickpea No-Tuna Wrap

with Avocado

Time: 10-15 minutes

Serves: 2-3 lunches worth

Ingredients:

  • 1 can chickpeas
  • 1-2 celery stalks, minced
  • 1 green onion, minced
  • 2 tbsp capers
  • 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
  • 1 tbsp tamari
  • 1/3 cup mixed seaweed flakes or dulse flakes (or 1 nori sheet made into flakes either minced or ground with a coffee/spice grinder)
  • 1 tbsp dijon mustard
  • juice of 1/2 lemon (or one full small one)
  • 1-2 pinches cayenne pepper
  • 1/8 tsp black pepper
  • 1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
  • 1/2 avocado

Directions:

  1. Strain, then in a big bowl, mash the chickpeas with a potato masher, fork, or pulse them in a food processor
  2. Mash in the avocado
  3. Mix in the rest of the ingredients evenly
  4. Serve it up in a wrap, a romaine boat, collard green wrap, in a sandwich, on a salad, or on an open-face toast with melted vegan cheese!

Spring Clean Pesto Zoodles

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It’s Spring time.

The birds are chirpin’, the days are longer, the cleanses are happening and the bikinis are coming out of the closet.

If you’re looking for a light, yet satisfying dinner, you have come to the right place. Load up on these veggies and give yourself a pat on the back.

This dish is a mega nutrient boost all wrapped up in a healthy, satisfying, creamy dressing.

Eat as much as you can of these goods, because every ingredient in here is is packed with benefits for your body.

The spiralized zucchini noodles are super low calorie, super high nutrient, with tons of fibre and water.

These ratios, my friends, are the perfect ratios for getting that bod bikini ready.

Count nutrients, not calories……. Eat whole foods, not processed.

And you’ll be energized and laughin!

I kept it simple for you; no need to turn the stove on.

All of the veggies can be roasted together without oil while you make the sauce and spiralize your noodles. That’s it that’s all.

This is a great recipe to double, so you’ll have leftovers for your lunches, dinners, made into wraps, fed to your neighbour, you name it.

Benefits:

~ Zucchini is great for weight loss. It’s high fibre and high water content, along with the dose of nutrients and vitamins help you feel full and satisfied, despite the low calorie count. It’s also disease fighting with it’s Vitamin C and beta-carotene content.

~ Basil is packed with disease-fighting antioxidants. It also contains essential oils that help lower inflammation (the cause of most diseases). The phytochemicals are cancer-fighting. Plus, basil acts as an adaptogen, which means it combats stress and helps your body come back to balance (homeostasis).

~ Broccoli is a cruciferous vegetable that has sulfur-containing elements. These are known for their cancer fighting properties! It also aids in weight loss, balances blood pressure, boosts brain power, and is great for your hair and bones.

Spring Clean Pesto Zoodles

Serves: 2 + left over cashew pesto

Time: 40 minutes

Ingredients:

Roasted Veggies:

  • 2 heads of broccoli
  • 1 large yam
  • 1 yellow onion
  • 5 white mushrooms
  • 2-3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
  • 1-2 tbsp garlic powder

Cashew Pesto:

  • 1 cup cashews, soaked for 2 hours in 2 cups water, then strained and rinsed
  • 1 cup water
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1 tbsp chives, minced
  • 2 tbsp red onion, chopped
  • 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
  • 1 cup basil (loosely packed)
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • 1 tsp maple syrup
  • pinch of salt

Base:

  • 1 large zucchini (you could also use yam, butternut squash, daikon, kelp noodles, or your favourite pasta noodles!)

Directions:

  1. Pre-heat oven to 390F
  2. Roast veggies: spread yams on one sheet, and broccoli, onions and mushrooms on another. Sprinkle on some balsamic vinegar and garlic powder. Give it a mix, and put it in the oven.
  3. For yams: roast 30 minutes, flipping half-way
  4. For others: roast 20 minutes, flipping half-way
  5. Make cashew pesto: add all ingredients to blender, blend until smooth
  6. Spiralize your zucchini (favourite part)
  7. Assemble your dish and enjoy!