This hearty warm salad is a quick, easy way to get a plant based, super nutritious, and filling meal into your busy week. All you need is to make sure you have a good variety of vegetables and starchy vegetables on hand. You can pretty much substitute any ingredient here for whatever you want to use up in your kitchen. This recipe proves that healthy doesn’t have to be hard!
Read MoreZucchini Noodles with Shiitake Mushrooms
Here’s a nutrient-dense powerhouse utilizing zucchini noodles, that’s also bursting with flavor. Shiitake mushrooms have little-known nutritional talent, providing a great source of B vitamins and other nutrients not as commonly found in other plants. I also love how quick and simple this is to make. It can be enjoyed right away as a warm dinner, or stored in mason jars for lunch on the go. Enjoy!
Read MoreRoot Vegetable Stacks with Wild Mushroom Ragout
These root vegetable stacks are a great example of what you can prepare with just a few ingredients, and at those times when you have nothing planned for dinner. Thinking of what to make for dinner always sits in the back of my mind throughout the day, no matter what else is going on. The other day I was experiencing a busy and challenging day. I knew I needed to go grocery shopping but didn’t have the time. So I resigned to the idea that I would just work with whatever I had in the kitchen when I got home. By the time it was over, I was reminded that sometimes breaking the pattern of relying on regular grocery staples is just the ticket I need to get the creative culinary juices flowing. What is the point of this story? When you are charged with preparing dinner and all you have on hand is a yam, a beet, and some mushrooms, take a pause, make like you are in a cottage in Provence, and romance some garden herbs and that jar of Dijon mustard sitting in the back of the fridge! In most cases, simpler is actually a lot better. Embrace what you have, make it the star, and you will never go wrong!
Read MoreImmune Support Superfood Soup
I know I have been posting a lot of soups lately! I love soups because they are a simple way to get complex, nutrient density from whole foods into your life. October is a good time to start giving your immune system a little TLC. And this immune support soup recipe contains some of the best sources for key immune supporting nutrients. And, it is free of any inflammatory foods that might bog your body down or tamper with your digestion. Read More
Pear & Red Kuri Squash Soup
The feeling of fall has moved in right on schedule here in Los Angeles. So red kuri squash soup is where my mind went when I saw some beautiful red kuris at the Farmers market. This soup is super simple and can be made in a matter of minutes while you are multi-tasking and doing other stuff. I love doing recipes that don’t require a lot of measuring. Many people don’t realize how easy cooking is, and how it often doesn’t have to be perfectly exact. Getting fresh, nutrient dense foods into your body while also enjoying the flavors, shouldn’t be a daunting project! In retrospect, I think it would have been nice to garnish this with some pomegranate seeds. Perhaps there is an update in this recipe’s future! Read More
Squash Blossom Coconut Brown Rice
Every once in a while, I love to treat myself to a delicious sticky coconut brown rice dish. There are many variations that can explored, like this version using fresh squash blossoms from the garden. I actually created this by accident, when I had picked a bunch of squash blossoms with the intention of doing a stuffed squash blossom dish. But then, I got busy and forgot to make time to do the dish, and the squash blossoms no longer had the perfect constitution for stuffing. Read More
Mediterranean Style Romanesco Cauliflower Tacos
Sometimes I just want my taco to look a little more dazzling. And Romanesco cauliflower definitely does the trick when it comes to dazzling a plate. These tacos are actually not much of a taco, being that they contain mostly Mediterranean flavors and components. But even though, the tortilla, albeit made of potatoes, is still a tortilla! So I’m calling them tacos anyway. Now that we got that out of the way, enjoy making this super simple, vegan, recipe!
Vegan Red Kuri Squash Pancakes
I took about a month off from the Whole Dish to work on some new year projects and get focused on 2018. And, to be honest, I really wanted to take some time to play around with aquafaba in the kitchen. And these red kuri squash pancakes are a pretty good start! I think the gluten-free flour makes them a tad chewy and dense, but I thought they came out delicious, especially with a little coconut butter or ghee melted over the top. They are delicious without much of anything added! You can go the sweeter breakfast or brunch route and add some maple syrup, fresh fruit, or dark chocolate almond butter (as pictured); or enjoy them as a savory appetizer, lunch or hors d’oeuvre with bruschetta salsa, avocado, guacamole, or some kind of tapenade. Aquafaba is basically the liquid byproduct of cooked beans, and a newly emerging vegan ingredient craze. To test the hype, I used some liquid directly from a can of garbanzo beans, and it worked delightfully well! These unique pancakes are best enjoyed right off the griddle!
Spinach Persimmon Salad with Chickpea Miso Dressing
I am such a lucky guy, because my neighbor gave me a nice bag of Fuyu persimmons! And I picked up a container of chickpea miso, all in the same week. I saw this as a cosmic directive to whip up this Spinach Persimmon Salad; a Japanese-inspired salad that will blend well with the traditional holiday table. Unlike their counterpart, the Hachiya persimmon, the Fuyu can be enjoyed in various stages of ripeness, making them a great addition to your holiday salad! You can easily tell them apart because Fuyus are shaped more like a tomato, while Hachiya persimmons are acorn–shaped. If you try to eat a Hachiya before it gets completely soft, you will be left with a mouthful of astringent icky. This recipe uses firm, crunchy-yet ripe Fuyu persimmons as the star ingredient.
Whole Roasted Butternut Squash with Tomatillo-Pepita Sauce & Pomegranate
My friend in Grand Junction Colorado gave me a few of her butternut squash when I was on a recent trip to her state. In addition to that, we had our own harvest of butternut squash here in Los Angeles. So, what to do with all that squash? Well, there is the typical soup, ravioli filling, and I even enchiladas. Or you can just do whole roasted butternut squash in a couple easy steps. This recipe could change the way you look at your butternut squash. So, move that butternut squash from being a table centerpiece to being your main course for dinner, or at least a side dish. It can also make a great Thanksgiving vegan entree, that in my opinion is way better, and less processed than Tofurkey or other vegan turkey substitutes. Because it isn’t meant to be anything like turkey. It just celebrates the squash, and makes it the star of the day. You can use this idea with any whole squash: delicata, pumpkin, you name it.Enjoy trying this out and let me know how you liked it in the comments.