How to Make Vegan Minestrone Soup

I've been rather sick the past couple of days with a summer cold. Since this is my last day before my raw challenge starts tomorrow, I figured I'd treat myself to one last supper kind of thing.

That being said, I am making minestrone soup for lunch today. It's a thick hearty Italian soup, full of vegetables and kidney beans. It's stewing on the stove right now and although I can't smell anything because I'm still sick, it looks absolutely scrummy!

You might wonder why the hell the recipe has rice in it, but no pasta. Like a lot of people I know, I have always had minestrone soup with pasta...but when I asked one of my best friends who is Italian, she said the authentic recipe usually uses rice. After reading a bit online about minestrone soup and the history of it, it seems that different regions in Italy use different ingredients for minestrone. Although the base is the same, some use pasta, some use rice, and some use more vegetables, while others add meat or bones to flavour the soup.

Now, I've never lived in Italy, so I can't claim this recipe is truly authentic Italian, but I can say that this recipe is totally delicious! (even my mother agrees, and she usually prefers meat in most of her dishes)

 If you feel like making yourself some minestrone soup, here's the recipe!

Ingredients
1 yellow onion, chopped
3 garlic cloves, chopped
2 celery stalks, diced
1 medium carrot, diced
5 tomatoes, diced or blended
1 veggie cube (I use Go BIO!)
2 cups of water
3 tablespoons of rice
1/2 can of kidney beans (28 oz can)
1/2 teaspoon of basil
1/2 teaspoon of oregano
1/2 teaspoon of sage
1/2 teaspoon of savory
1/2 teaspoon of thyme
2 tablespoons of olive oil
shake of freshly cracked black pepper

Directions
1.Find a deep pot that is also non-stick, add the olive oil and heat it to about medium heat. Sautee the onions and garlic with the black pepper, and quickly add the carrot and celery.

2. Add 2 cups of water with the veggie cube and also add in the blended tomatoes. Add the kidney beans and rice and let the soup simmer on low-medium heat for 15 minutes but keeping an eye on it so you don't overcook the vegetables.

3.  Add in all the spices and let soup cook for another few minutes. Remove from the stove and serve hot or warm. The reason I say add in the spices towards the end is because if you add them in the beginning of cooking, they tend to lose their flavour and distinct aroma.

Raw Vegan 7 Day Challenge

I may or may not have hinted at the fact that I have been preparing for my raw, vegan 7 day challenge with one of my best friends. In my preparation of going 90% raw for 7 days, I've gotten reacquainted with salad, smoothies, and met a couple of new and raw dishes such as: zucchini rawsta, raw buddha bowl, fresh wrap, vanilla cheesecake, raw almond milk and chocolate raspberry cake. I've increased my raw intake of veggies and fruits to about 50% of every meal I have and have tried to stay away from over-eating nuts and dried fruit (I read from others' experiences that when they snacked on nuts and dried fruit, they still felt hungry, kept eating and thus gained extra weight)

I've also identified 3 things I want to monitor during raw week: energy levels, weight and overall mood. Although 7 days is a quite short time to see the long term benefits of going raw, it's an idea that I personally have to take one step at a time. I've also done some research about what is raw or not according to other raw foodists, nutritionists, etc. and here is a list I came up with:

Raw	Maybe	Not Raw
Fresh Fruits	Nutritional Yeast	Frozen veggies
Fresh Veggies	Unfiltered cold pressed organic olive oil	Anything canned
Sprouted Grains/Legumes	Braggs amino soy sauce	Regular nuts/fruits
Raw Agave Syrup	Tea brewed in low temp	Oils/Vinegars
Raw Apple Cider Vinegarp	Vanilla bean	Maple Syrup
Non-Dairy Milk from scratch	Sundried tomato	Coffee/Tea
Raw Cocoa Powder	Spices	Vanilla Extract/Cocoa Powder
Raw Nuts/Dried Fruits

I will try and keep my focus on vegetables, fruits and grains, while eating less of nuts and dried fruits. Since I will be eating about 90% raw starting Monday, the other other 10% will be an allowance for foods it might be hard to let go of right now (no not cooked food!) but ingredients such as nutritional yeast, oils, maple syrup, coconut oil, etc.

I'd have to say one of the hardest things I will have to abstain from will be coffee, and as far as I've read, tea isn't quite raw either. I'm not sure how true this is, but I read that the tea inside teabags or even looseleaf tea gets heated above 48 degrees Celsius (118 degrees Fahrenheit) when it is processed and packaged. The only way to truly get raw tea is grow your own herbs and let them steep in water in the sun, some call this Sun Tea. I do have mint in my garden, so I will try that out, but I may slip tea in the 10% of not raw category.

Have you ever tried a raw challenge or do you eat a % raw on a daily basis? What do you enjoy or dislike about it? Share your thoughts below.

Jam Thumbprint Cookies

If you want quick cookies and you have some tasty jam on hand, try the recipe below!
Ingredients
1 cup almonds
1 1/2 cup quick rolled oats
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup maple syrup
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 jar of your favourite jam
Directions
1. Use food processor or something like a Magic Bullet to grind almonds and oats to coarse meal. (not fine like powder, but not as chunky as if you just choped them with a knife.) Add almond and oat coarse meal together with flour in a bowl.
2. Mix maple syrup and oil in a separate bowl, then slowly incorporate mixture into dry ingredients. Make sure it's sticky enough to form into balls, use your own discretion if you need to add more liquid or dry ingredients.
3. Form balls ( size depends if you want bigger cookies or smaller ones), place on baking sheet, then flaten with a large spoon to make them cookie shape. Make sure cookie is thick and then take a teaspoon and press down the middle to create a valley or crater in the middle of the cookie.
4. Freeze cookies for 5 min, this will help them hold their shape when they bake. Spoon adequate amounts of your favourite jam into the crater and bake cookies for 10-15 min at 350 Farenheit, checking regularly so they don't overbrown.

What's your favourite jam that you would use?

Sauce Boss: Ginger Lemongrass

Welcome the first post of a little thing I like to call "Sauce Boss". From now on, whatever sauce recipes I post will be filled under this said "Sauce Boss". Where did this name come from? Usually, at the end of every sauce I end up cooking, my significant other and I usually just have one thing to say: "this is the saaaaaaauce-o-boss!"

I think sauces now play a much more important role in my cooking than they ever did before. For example, since tofu by itself is rather bland, IMO it always needs to soak or cook in some excellent sauce for good flavour. That, and I find sauce gives great flavour to numerous meals! (from gravy, to general tso, to blackbean, tahini almond, sweet and spicy, etc)

For Christmas, I received a few vegan cookbooks, one of them called "My Vegan Recipe Journal". It's a nifty little book that gives you a recipe for each category (ie breakfast, sandwiches) and the rest of the pages are blank recipe templates for you to write your recipes in. Considering I usually end up scribbling ingredients on little pieces of scrap paper while I'm cooking, this is a decided improvement. I have a hard time writing down exact ingredients, so hopefully this book will be able to help me out. Have you ever seen your grandmother cook? Notice how they just throw stuff in there and then it ends up tasting amazing and you're possibly wondering "gee Grandma, how'd you do that?"...well, that's exactly how I cook.

This ginger lemongrass sauce goes really well with dumplings (gyoza), wontons, springrolls, and stirfries. 

Ingredients
1-2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp fresh/jarred, minced/grated ginger
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
1/2 tbsp hot chili sauce (I used Sriracha)
1/2 cup or less water
1 or 1/2 stalk of fresh lemongrass

Directions

1. Saute garlic and ginger with vegetable oil in a small pot.

2. Add soy sauce and sesame oil, stir for a while. Add the water and the lemongrass leaves and let it infuse for 10 minutes.

3. When the lemongrass taste is strong enough for your taste, remove the leaves and the sauce is done.

Have you ever tried ginger lemongrass sauce before?

Easy Peasy

This is a ridiculously easy recipe. I know there's been a trend of simple recipes lately, and that's partially due to an extremely busy schedule and not having as much time as I would like to spend on cooking. Thus, eureka!, the spawn of simple but filling dishes.

I made this the other night, when it was too late to make dinner, but I still wanted something filling that won't leave my stomach empty an hour later and cause me to snack unnecessarily on cookies. (although snacking unnecessarily on cookies may still happen, it would at least not be due to hunger)

I have to fully give credit to this recipe to my grandmother. When I was younger, this was one of my favourite dishes that she used to make all the time beside mashed potatoes and other delicious things. I don't think I've ever been able to replicate it quite the same, as she used fresh peas from her garden, and let's admit it-that can't compete with canned peas. Still, a tasty quick meal nonetheless, these easy peas can probably be ready in about 15 minutes.

Ingredients
1 medium white onion
1 can of green peas
2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
salt & pepper to taste

Directions

1. Dice onion medium-fine and sautee in the vegetable oil over medium heat.

2. When onions are translucent, add drained peas and stir frequently for a few minutes.

3. Add salt and pepper to taste and serve warm.

Easy Chow Mein

Sometimes, I just crave something simple. I love chow mein noodles, and the great thing about it is that you can usually add just about any vegetables you have roaming in the fridge and it will still taste good. Usually, I like to add more oriental vegetables such as bamboo shoots, water chestnut, shiitake mushrooms, snow peas, baby bok choy...but alas, these are the ingredients I had on hand. Depending on how quickly you can chop, this dish can be ready in under 30 minutes.


Ingredients
2 bundles of chow mein noodles
1 Japanese eggplant
1/2 cup chopped carrots
1/2 cup sliced mushrooms
1 sliced shallot
1/2 sliced green pepper
1/2 cup faux chicken (I used So Soya, this ingredient is totally optional)
1 minced garlic clove
1-2 tsp toasted sesame oil
1-2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp ginger powder or to taste
black pepper to taste

Directions

1. Slice all vegetables including the garlic above accordingly and begin stir frying in a wok with a little sesame oil. Stir fry on medium high heat until cooked but still crispy.

2.In a separate pot, boil water and cook chow mein noodles for 2-3 minutes max.

3. Add noodles to wok along with the rest of the ingredients and cook for another min or 2 until the noodles have absorbed some of the flavour. Serve with sesame seeds on top and green tea.

Have you had chow mein before?

Asian Spaghetti Squash

It's squash time! No, not going on the court for a good swing, but rather preparing some delicious spaghetti squash. I never knew it was so low in calories, according to Nutritiondata.self.com, 1 cup of spaghetti squash is only about 42 calories. Bonus!

Now normally, my recipes are quite extensive in their ingredients list, mostly because I really enjoy flavourful things. Usually when I cook, I throw stuff in the dish as the inspiration comes, and next thing you know, I've got a list of 10-20 ingredients by the end of dish. That's all fun and fine...but today I felt like something simple. I mean really simple...

So my spaghetti squash recipe is just that. Simple and easy. If you love toasted sesame oil, then this recipe is for you! If you don't, maybe you feel adventurous today or search for another recipe that's more traditional. A little asian love with a little squash love=yummy.

Ingredients
1 spaghetti squash
2 tablespoons toasted sesame oil
4 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tsp powdered cumin or to taste
shake of freshly cracked black pepper
2 tablespoons of sliced almonds

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 Farenheit. After washing squash, pierce several holes all over with a fork, to allow the steam to escape when it is roasting. Roast for 1 hour.

2. Remove from oven and let cool for 5 minutes, then slice in half lengthwise. With a spoon, scoop out the seed guts and throw it away. With a fork, gently scrape across, until the squash turns into spaghetti strands.

3. In a large bowl or casserole dish or whatever serving dish you may like, transfer spaghetti squash and add the sesame oil, soy sauce, cumin and black pepper. Serve warm and top with sliced almonds.

Unfortunately the dish did not make it to the photoshoot. My hunger and the wafting of toasted sesame oil convinced my stomach to devour it immediately.

How have you cooked spaghetti squash before?

Almost Raw Vegan Cheesecake

     Raw vegan cheesecake is a really genius idea, whoever thought it up must be the next vegan Einstein. When I was a vegetarian, I have to admit I wasn't even a fan of cheesecake, but after having the raw vegan version at a few raw vegan restaurants, I just fell in love with this version. Granted the lack of raw vanilla beans or extract in the ingredient list below, this is a recipe for almost raw but completely vegan cheesecake. Go to town and don't be afraid to experiment.


Ingredients

2 cups raw cashews (id recommend using 3, as it came out a bit short)
3/4 lemon, juiced
1/2 cup raw agave or to taste
2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I prefer vanilla beans but I had run out)
1/2 cup coconut oil

1/2 cup almonds
5 dates, soaked
2 tablespoons of agave or more

A spring form cake pan where the bottom comes off

Directions

1. Soak cashews for at least a few hours. I soaked mine for about 24  hours. Soak dates just briefly before use, maybe 10 minutes.

2. In a food processor, add the almonds, dates and agave and pulse until it turns to crumbs,  but not too fine. Oil the bottom of the cake pan with coconut oil and spread the sticky mixture into the bottom as flat and even as you can.

3. Add all the "cream cheese" ingredients into the food processor (preferably rinsed after pulsing the crust) and pulse lots of times to break cashews up. Move on to speed 1 for a bit and then speed 2 for at least a minute. Repeat this process a couple of times until mixture becomes smooth. It will take a while as at first it resembles minced garlic or the gritty texture of hummus, but try and get it as fine as you can adding no water.

4. Pour the mixture over the crust, spread evenly and freeze for at least 2-3 hours. This will allow it to firm up nicely.

Pat on the back, you now have made your very own almost raw vegan cheesecake! You can take it out from the freezer 20 minutes before you want to serve it, to allow for thawing. Feel free to serve with fresh berries on top or get crazy and blend frozen fruit for a sorbet sauce.

Have you ever tried raw vegan cheesecake before? If not, there's a first time for everything ;)

Curry Coconut Butternut Squash Soup

There's a butternut squash just lying around and you're not sure what to make. You love butternut squash soup but you crave something new. This recipe is just that.

Ingredients
1/3 or 1/2 butternut squash
1 small white onion or 1/2 medium
1 garlic clove
1 tsp madras curry powder (or paste)
1 veggie stock cube
1 teaspoon vegetable oil 
1/2 can coconut milk (I used Thai Kitchen)
salt
pepper

Directions

1. Cube the butternut squash in giant pieces, and boil them until soft (about 20 min or so). Remove from water and let them cool for a few minutes before scooping the squash with a spoon. Place all scooped butternut squash in a food processor.

2. Finely chop the onion and garlic, sautee over low-medium heat in a small pan. After onion becomes translucent, add the salt, pepper and curry powder. After a minute or 2, add this to the butternut squash in the food processor.

3. Crumble the veggie stock cube all over and add the coconut milk. Pulse blend a few times in the beginning, then process for 1 or 2 minutes.

4. Pour mixture into a pot and heat to preferred temperature.

Happy soup time! Have you ever tried a spicy butternut squash soup before?

Banana Bread With Walnuts, Chocolate Chips & Coconut Oil

It is soft. It melts in your mouth. It smells like sweet love which tingles your nose. I'm talking about decadent banana bread that will win the heart of even your most non-vegan friend. Yes, it's that good. One of my friend's family members who likes to be a clown usually refers to vegan food as dinosaur eggs. (it's a joke, I only clued in after the first few sarcasm remarks and I started playing back) However, after having a couple of slices of this, he had nothing to say except [insert Canadian accent]: "that was really fuckin' good."

Please note: I used 1 cup of chocolate chips because I really love chocolate. Must admit it was a bit too much, so if you prefer a more even ratio, you can use 1/2 a cup.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

1 cup chocolate chips (I used Cocoa Camino)

1 cup chopped walnuts

3-5 organic bananas (I used 5 of the skinnier ones)

 3/4 cup agave syrup (Wholesome Sweeteners)

1/2 cup coconut oil (Nutiva)

2+ teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

1. Mash up bananas with a potato masher or a fork in a medium bowl. Add in liquids and mix in well until all lumps disappear. 

2. Add dry ingredients in a large bowl, including the chocolate chops and chopped walnuts. 

3. Slowly incorporate wet ingredients into dry mixture, until all dry mixture is worked in.

4. Oil your pan with coconut oil and pour mixture in. (I used a bundt cake pan that was quite shallow, so I got a ring of banana bread. You can use whatever you would like, including loaf pans) Pick up pan and drop a couple of times to get rid of air bubbles, and even out batter. Using a pastry brush, gently brush a thin layer of agave syrup, which will make it luscious and give it gorgeous colour.

5. Bake at 350 Farenheit for about 25-35 min (do a toothpick check in the earlier minutes, it's ready when it comes out clean with no gooey batter on it.)

Feel free to leave a comment, a Facebook post or a Tweet if you have any questions or if you tried it out!!

Love,

 The Scrummy Vegan