I love this recipe for pumpkin custard! Quick, easy, tasty, healthy. Boom.
My recipe was developed for the Natural Health Expo in the fall with the intention of having a healthier holiday. I wanted to make a no-bake vegan pumpkin pie recipe, and this fits the bill. It uses the amazing product, cashew cream (a DIY product, that is). I’m excited to continue to play with it through the spring & summer.
You could sub cooked sweet potato or any yellow squash for the pumpkin if you’d rather roll that way. Too, changing the spice profile to include other sweet spices like cloves and cardamom is certainly in my future.
My recipe for a vegan maple pumpkin custard was developed for the Natural Health Expo in the fall with the intention of having a healthier holiday. I wanted to make a no-bake vegan pumpkin pie recipe, and this fits the bill.
Course Dessert, Snack
Keyword custard, pUMPKIN, Vegan
Equipment
1 Mixing Bowl
Ingredients
1cuppumpkinorganic from can
1/2cupcashew cream
1/4cupmaple syrup
2tspfresh gingerminced
1tspcinnamonground
1/2tspnutmegground
1/2tspsalt
Instructions
Blend everything together and serve up daintily. Keep refrigerated.
Notes
We find that eating this in small tasting portions tastes best. More serving ideas: Serve over graham cracker crumbles or crust, top with candied nuts.Click here for the recipe link for Cashew Cream
Let’s talk lentils. Easy and quick to cook (20-30 minutes and don’t need soaking like other beans and pulses), lentils are the short cut to more plant protein in your diet. Nutrient dense, they are also rich in fiber, folate, and other nutrients. They are low digestive gas-producers relative to other beans and pulses. I’ve heard that if you drop them into boiling water they produce less gas but I have not yet put that to the test. I also like to use a thumb-sized piece of the seaweed kombu in the water – it adds minerals and reduces gas.
Lentils absorb the flavors in which they are cooked, so what you cook them with is key to what you have in the end; tasteless mush or tasty mush. It’s all in the seasoning.
Here’s a recipe I developed over the holidays, using French green lentils, but feel free to substitute any lentil you can get your hands on.
10 min to prep
40 min to cook
Ingredients
1 1/2 cups lentils (I used French green lentils)
1 1/2 Tbsp ghee
1 large onion, chopped
1 large tomato, chopped, or 1/2 c tomato sauce
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 Tbsp cumin or curry spice
1 tsp allspice
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
3-4 c water
Directions
Place chopped onion and ghee in a large pot over medium heat until the onions are soft. Add other ingredients and bring to a boil, then lower heat to medium-low and simmer 20-30 minutes until lentils are soft.
Makes about 3 cups.
Serve warm with rice, steamed vegetables, or roasted winter squash.
Would you like a recipe that can, in one fell swoop, transition you joyfully to a more plant-based diet? Cashew cream just might be that recipe. It is a fantastic vegan substitute for dairy cream and creamy cheeses like ricotta or cream cheese. It makes a killer alfredo sauce for over vegetables. It is absolutely divine in a lasagna, as a whole or partial substitute for ricotta. Best of all, it is very very easy to make (though you do need to soak the nuts overnight).
Whip up a batch and you’ll see what I mean.
Cashew Cream Recipe
Ingredients
1 cup raw cashews
water for soaking
1/2-3/4 c additional water
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
salt & pepper
Directions
Soak cashews in water overnight. Drain and rinse. Place all ingredients in a blender, and process until smooth and the desired consistency is reached. Use less water if you are aiming for a thicker cheesier consistency, and more water if you are aiming for a creamier consistency.
Variations: add garlic, ginger, scallions or other herbs and spices to taste.
Enjoy!
My Ayurvedic brothers and sisters may balk at a raw lemony kale salad (though acid in lemons does “cook”) in winter, but how much I love this salad in this season reminds me that we do need to hold food rules more lightly than hard-and-fast. In Ayurveda, winter is the time of warming stews and cooked vegetables, which makes perfect sense. I have found, in my own experimentation of Ayurveda, that tending my constitution with food works best when I enjoy the whole foods I’m drawn to and then use spices to address my constitution.
For all nutritional guidance, each of us is one point on a spectrum for any particular tenet; we will each react a little differently. Ultimately, to find what works for you, when you encounter a guideline that gives you that ping of recognition “this might be good for me!” see how you feel when you really practice it. You might use a food journal to connect what you eat with how you are feeling and reacting. If you are puzzled by the process, happily there is an army of professionals who can help you out (including me).
This salad always bursts with life, color, and nutrition. In this season of sugar, here’s an antidote!
Lemony Kale Salad Recipe
Ingredients
1 bunch lacinata kale, sliced thin
1/2 orange or red pepper, cubed
2 scallions, sliced
2 hard-boiled eggs, diced
For the dressing
Juice of 1/2 lemon (about 1/4 cup)
1/2 cup olive oil
1 tsp thyme
1 small clove garlic
salt & pepper to taste
Directions
Place all the ingredients for the dressing in a small jar and shake to blend. Place the sliced kale in a bowl, add a few Tbsp of dressing and yes! MASSAGE. Give it a good rub, a good toss. Or, let it sit in the dressing while you do the dishes, draw a bath or otherwise occupy yourself. Then add remaining salad ingredients and the rest of the dressing. Toss and serve.
Enjoy.
Annie
Sometimes you want something a little bit more or a little bit different than peanut butter on your apple. Here’s a spread that is sweet and gingery and delicious – Peanut Ginger Coconut Spread. Use it on fruit, with raw or blanched vegetables, or spread it on your sprouted grain bread in the morning.
Sometimes you want something a little bit more or a little bit different than peanut butter on your apple. Here’s a spread that is sweet and gingery and delicious. Use it on fruit, with raw or blanched vegetables, or spread it on your sprouted grain bread in the morning.
Course Appetizer, Breakfast, Snack
Equipment
1 Medium Mixing Bowl
Ingredients
1/2cupgood quality organic peanut butter - smooth or chunky, your choice
6 or 7ouncesPlain Greek yogurt - I used 2%
1Tbsphoney
1tspvanilla
2Tbspfresh gingerdiced
1tspturmeric
1/4cupgrated coconutunsweetened
Instructions
Blend all ingredients together in a bowl. Spread on things. Eat.
