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Chop-Chop Salad

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Chop-Chop Salad by Mimi Kirk

 

This delicious Chop-Chop Salad recipe from my personal role-model, the gorgeous Raw Food Chef, Mimi Kirk (click on her name for an amazing video), is the perfect crisp, refreshing meal for a Summer evening.  The tangy dressing is absolutely phenomenal- rich and creamy with a zippy zest I just love.  In fact, I find the dressing so tasty I also like to let it shine on it's own as a delectable sauce over a beautiful plate of yellow squash spaghetti (I prefer yellow squash over zucchini for my raw vegan version of spaghetti).

Please enjoy this tantalizing recipe!  


Ingredients:  

(Feel free to substitute in the vegetables you have on hand or whatever is in season)

  • 1/2 yellow squash
  • 1/2 zucchini
  • 4 stalks asparagus
  • 1 cup broccoli
  • 7 string beans
  • 1/2 parsnip
  • 1-2 small carrot
  • 1 cup red cabbage
  • 1/2 turnip
  • 1/4 fennel bulb
  • Fresh whole herbs such as mint, tarragon, sorrel, and dill for garnish

Dressing

  • ½ cup extra-virgin olive oil
  • ½  cup tahini
  • ¼  bunch of fresh parsley
  • ¼  cup apple cider vinegar
  • 1/3  cup cashews
  • 3–4 tablespoons lemon juice
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • ¼ cup coconut aminos or gluten free tamari
  • Himalayan salt to taste
  • Freshly milled pepper
  • 2–3 tablespoons maple syrup or sweetener of choice
  • 1 tablespoon or less water, added slowly while blending if thinning is necessary

Method

  1. Chop all vegetables into small, even pieces. (Feel free to substitute in the vegetables you have on hand or whatever is in season.)
  2. Add dressing ingredients to a blender & blend until smooth.
  3. Place all salad ingredients into a large bowl and add desired amount of dressing. (I used it all, it depends on the amount/size of your veg)
  4. For beautiful plating, use a ring mold or, an empty 8 oz. can with top and bottom removed. Pack the salad into the ring, pressing down firmly. Slowly lift up the can while pushing the salad down with a spoon, leaving a cylindrical stack of salad in the middle of the plate. Garnish with a sprig of dill, tarragon or mint. 
  5. Best served chilled.

Check out Mimi's two beautiful cookbooks at her website YoungOnRawFood. 

 

How is your Summer going?

 

Lots of love,

 xoxo

Juliane

 

You may also enjoy:  Dearest Pasta Alfredo, It's been way too long…

 

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Marinated Mushroom Tapenade + Bonus Recipe

IMG_5034Mushroom Tapenade- Admittadly, I over-processed mine a bit & recommend leaving yours a bit chunkier:-)

 

This Mushroom Tapenade, inspired from the gorgeous, (I'm not kidding, see for yourself by clicking by clicking her name) Mimi Kirk's, beautiful cookbook, Live Raw, is one easy way to get the health benefits of a-mushroom-a-day into your diet.  Or, if you're like me, you'll have a hard time eating less than half the recipe in one sitting.  Not that it would matter, as this delicious twist on the Provencal original is incredibly light as well.

 Anytime I've served this to guests as an appetizer presented with fresh vegetables, bread sticks or crackers, it's gone in the first hour.  Of course it's a wonderful snack too – and makes a delicious spread for wraps and sandwiches.

Plus there's a Bonus!  Simplifying the tapenade creates a fabulous marinated mushroom recipe, an addiction I've had since childhood when Mom made her amazing marinated mushrooms for potlucks at least once a year.  For some reason she never served them at home, and there they'd be, tempting me from the fridge as they marinated away a day prior to her event.  To this day, I still don't have Mom's recipe, but this one tastes just as I remember hers.  However, mine are ready after an hour and take less than two minutes to prep.  Jackpot!!

Please enjoy!

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Marinated Mushrooms

Mushroom Tapenade

Ingredients:

  • 2 large portobello mushrooms or 15 baby bella or white button or a combo
  • 1/2 cup walnuts
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons tamari, Bragg's or nama shoyu
  • freshly cracked black pepper

Method:

  1. Clean mushrooms with a dampened kitchen towel. Chop coarsly. Marinate with the olive oil and nama shoyu for 30 minutes turning occasionally.
  2. Pulse walnuts in food processor until broken down. 
  3. Add garlic and marinated mushrooms. Pulse until mixture is incorporated and slightly chunky mine pictured above could have been left a tad chunkier- so process yours a little less:-)
  4. Taste for seasonings and adjust to taste.

 

Marinated Mushrooms (servings: makes 15 mushrooms)

Ingredients

  • 15 baby bella or 15 white button mushrooms, wiped clean with a damp towel. Wild mushrooms are delicious too!
  • 1 clove garlic, minced or garlic powder to taste
  • 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons tamari, Bragg's, Coconut Aminos or nama shoyu
  • freshly cracked black pepper
  • a few dried red pepper flakes for an extra pop of color & spice (optional)

**For Marinated Portobello"Steaks" Use 2 Portobello Mushrooms, wiped clean, stems trimmed of soiled portions. Slice tops into nice, thick 1/2" strips, and do the same with the remainder of stem. Adjust quantities of above ingredients as needed (you may need a bit more depending on size of your portobello, they really soak up the ingredients beautifully. (Serves 2)

Method

  1. Marinate all the ingredients for an hour or up to 4 hours. 
  2. Check seasonings.
  3. Serve in a beautiful bowl with party pics alongside for picking up.

 

Do you have a favorite family recipe you'd love to recreate?

You may also enjoy: 

Cream of Mushroom Soup

or

Cheesy Gnocchi with Swiss Chard & Cannellini Beans

 

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Sweet & Tangy Power Green Juice & My Raw Journey

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Sweet & Tangy Power Green Juice


I've begun my Raw journey!  

Several years ago I began experimenting as a vegetarian purely out of love for animals.  One need only adore a pet of their own for that to turn into compassion for all animals.  That's what happened for me.  I became unable to hold dually in my conscience, that it's ok to eat one animal so long as I never knew it personally/it came from XYZ species, while simultaneously loving another animal as a member of my family.

I hold no judgement against meat eaters as it's woven into the fabric of our conditioning.  We're raised eating, wearing & using animal products in more ways than we probably realize.  Even despite my own internal conflicts over the issue, I've waffled back and forth between vegetarian/flexetarian over the years, rationalizing, since my husband was a carnivore, preparing a couple of meat dishes a week, though I'd use only humanely raised/organic products religiously.

Recently, however, after reading several fascinating nutrition books, I learned the amazing benefits of a raw foods vegetarian diet.  What we've been conditioned to believe our bodies require nutritionally in order to thrive is quite upside down.  A vegetarian/raw foods diet has been linked to a whole host of benefits including greater energy, radiant skin, reduced risk of disease and better digestion.  Research and real life experiences have also shown that a person can prevent a body's healthy cells from turning into malignant cancererous cells by consuming mostly a vegetarian, raw food diet of whole, organic foods!  

When I shared what I'd learned with Jim, I was thrilled when he decided he too wanted transition to a vegetarian, mostly Raw Vegan food diet.  The timing was perfect!  After just 2 weeks of phasing ourselves into this new lifestyle, we're already feeling and seeing the results.  Jim, for example, is experiencing a much higher level of performance during his boxing workouts!

Uncooking, or eating Raw involves a lot of new techniques and some new tools- though the investment is negligible compared to health related expenses down the road.  We'd already been making a delicious green smoothie daily for the past year (yes, we love it that much!) in our Vitamix, so we were off to a fab start.  My 1st two equipment investments so far on our Raw journey are my spiralizer, for making vegetable pasta, and a Juicer.  Love them both!

Originally, I'd planned to share my Raw Vegan recipe for Pasta Alfredo today, but I've received so many requests for this Power Green Juice that I decided to share it first.  Again, this is NOT the same recipe as the green smoothie I've shared previously.  Juicing is very different from blending as it immediately delivers a degree of enzymes/nutrition/benefits we'd never actually be able to consume in even one day.  Jim and I noticed after our first Power Green Juice we experienced an awesome sustained rush of energy, not unlike what follows a cup of coffee, just without the jitters and subsequent crash.

Please enjoy Sweet & Tangy Power Green Juice.  I am thrilled about it, as until now, I've never been able to drink more than a few sips of green juice, from even the best juicing companies.  Sweet & Tangy Green Drink has a wonderful tang of ginger and lemon, sweetness from apples & zip from the fennel… and there's something about that fabulous sustained energy rush… it becomes addictive!  It's already one of our daily staples.

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 Sweet & Tangy Power Green Juice

Recipe for Sweet & Tangy Power Green Juice (Serves 2)

Ingredients:

  • 2 collard or kale leaves 
  • 3 romaine lettuce leaves
  • 2 handfuls parsley, about 1/2 bunch (or use spinach)
  • 1 cucumber
  • 1/2 fennel bulb (or 1/2 of top portion, ie. the fronds/stems. I get four batches out of 1 fennel this way.)
  • 3 stalks celery
  • 2 green apples, cored
  • 1 lemon, peeled (yellow skin removed)
  • 1 lime
  • 1 1/2" piece of fresh ginger root (I like a lot of ginger, you may want to try w/ a 1" piece first)
  • A couple squirts of Stevia to sweeten if necessary

Method:

  1. Juice and enjoy!

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Sweet & Tangy Power Green Juice

You may also enjoy: Until Next Time Nantucket Part I  or Grapefruit, Avocado & Kalamata Salad