I’ve been searching for healthy recipes to go with my vegan/nutritarian diet. I’m posting them here to share with my followers as well as easy reference for me. 😉
The things I want to avoid is dairy, oil, salt and sugar. The things I want to include are lots of green salads (various shades of green, a lot of dark green like arugula, spinach, kale with nuts and seeds sprinkled on), as a main course in both lunch and dinner, (not a side like I have been taught to think for salads). I’m going to pickle lots of veggies to top the salads, like purple onion, red cabbage, cucumbers, radishes (although I’m going to try to find more than just the regular radishes, like the watermelon radishes). Whenever I need to sautee something, I’ll use water with a little vegetable bouillon instead of oil. It’s important to eat mushrooms every day, which I love. I sautee my mushrooms in an inch of vegetable broth, and eat them on my salad. Another thing I like on salads is beans–black, pinto, kidney, garbanzo … you name it, I like it. Too, I make my own seed- or nut-based dressings, which are so much more healthier. I love my basalmic walnut vinaigrette. But I want variety so I don’t get tired of salads. I have posted several dressings. I don’t think any of them asked for oil; if so, I’ll leave it out or find a substitute. Maybe water?Â
INGREDIENTS
- 1 whole head of garlic, bottom chopped off so the cloves are exposed but the head of garlic is still generally in one piece and the outer skins are still around the majority of the cloves.
- Olive oil (no oil. Instead, sate in vegetable bouillon)
- ½ cup cashews, soaked for at least 2 hours, but preferably overnight, drained and rinsed
- 1 cup Califia Farms Unsweetened Almondmilk (or organic Great Value Unsweetened Almondmilk)
- 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast (Yum, love the nutty taste of nutritional yeast!)
- 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon salt, plus more to taste (Use Mrs. Dash instead)
- 1 cup frozen and thawed artichoke hearts, cut into quarters and heated in the microwave or in a small pan with a little olive oil. (I don’t know why we can’t use canned artichokes).
- 3 big handfuls of fresh baby spinach
- 1 box Banza Cavatappi (I love Banza noodles! They’re made out of chickpeas; they stay together and don’t turn to mush like others).
- Fresh ground black pepper, to serve
- Red pepper flakes, to serve
INSTRUCTIONS
- Heat the oven to 400°F. Start soaking the cashews if you haven’t already. Drizzle a small piece of aluminum foil with olive oil and place the head of garlic cut-side-down on it and wrap it into a small parcel. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes until the cloves are soft and fragrant. Let it cool before handling.
- In a food processor or blender combine soaked and drained cashews, Almondmilk, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, salt, and all of the roasted garlic cloves, squeezed from their papery skins. Puree until smooth. Taste for seasoning and add more salt and some black pepper as needed.
- Cook the pasta in salty water until al dente and drain. While pasta is cooking heat the artichoke hearts either in the microwave or in a small pan with a little olive oil for 2 minutes, until warm.
- In the same pot you cooked the pasta in (while it’s still warm, but you’ve emptied it of all the water) add the pasta back in and stir in the spinach, artichokes hearts, and sauce. Place over a low heat until spinach is just wilted.
- Serve warm with more black pepper and red chili flakes.