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BEST Lite Goddess Salad Dressings (Oil-Free)

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I LOVE Dr. Joel Fuhrman and really respect what he has to say when it comes to nutrition and how to take care of your body. If you’re looking for a really great book to read, try “Eat To Live” or his other book “Disease Proof Your Child“… I HIGHLY recommend both! Our family takes his vitamins, DHA and EPA supplements too… you can purchase them from his site. All of his supplements are legit, I can attest to that. I’ve never felt better!

Dr. Fuhrman recommends everyone eat a LARGE salad for one of their daily meals since raw, uncooked veggies and fruits offer the most powerful protection against disease. Raw foods contain enzymes, some of which can survive the digestive process in the stomach and pass into the small intestines. In other words, they keep things moving the way they should be! 😉

Since I try to eat a large salad everyday for lunch I’m always on the lookout for new oil-free salad dressings. These two are our favorites! They are much less fattening than the bottled versions and are super easy to make. I make a double batch every week. I also LOVE topping our salads with Goaty Cashew Cheese… YOU HAVE TO TRY IT!

If you like oil-free dressings, you’ll also have to try Oil-Free Raspberry Vinaigrette!

Lite Green Goddess Dressing

Another delicious salad with Goddess Dressing!!

This first one is from Fat Free Vegan Kitchen, one of my all-time favorite vegan food blogs. If you haven’t checked out her site yet, I suggest you do. Be prepared to spend some serious time bookmarking recipes though!! I cook her recipes on a regular basis and we really enjoy them! What’s awesome about her site is she’s almost oil-free, low salt and no processed foods… right up our alley!

Susan’s Lite Goddess Dressing

6 ounces lite firm silken tofu (1/2 pkg. of Mori-Nu) – I’ve made this without tofu and it’s just as good
1/4 cup water
1 1/2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons low-sodium soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon tahini
2 green onions, white parts removed, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley, packed
1 large clove garlic

Place all ingredients in blender and process until smooth. (The Magic Bullet worked well for this.)

Makes 10 servings of 2 tbsp. each. Per serving: 19 Calories (kcal); 1 g Total Fat; (45% calories from fat); 1 g Protein; 1 g Carbohydrate; 0 mg Cholesterol; 164 mg Sodium

Magic Bullet works great for this!

Takes me about 10 minutes to make

Lite Goddess Dressing... THE BEST!!!

Here’s another version of Goddess Dressing, this one uses chia seeds as a thickener.

Recipe from Melomeals!

Goddess Dressing

  • 3 T Tahini
  • 2 T Apple Cider Vinegar
  • 2 T Braggs or Soy Sauce
  • 2 Green Onion
  • 2 Cloves garlic
  • 1 tsp fresh ginger
  • 1/4 t cumin
  • 1/2 t lemon pepper
  • 1 c veg stock
  • 2 t chia seeds
  • 2 dates
  • 1 T fresh parsley

Again... use your Magic Bullet!

Yummy!

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Tomato & Red Lentil Soup

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You know how much we love soup and lentils! Here’s an easy lentil soup using the unique spice sumac.

What in the heck is sumac? I found this description on WorldSpice.com (where I buy all my spices… YUM!) “The deep red sumac berry is ground and dried to impart a tart, lemony flavor with a refreshing complexity. Sumac’s traditional usage in middle eastern cuisine sees it added to rice or kebabs and sprinkled as a condiment atop bowls of hummus.”

Ah ha… that’s what that red powder is on top of the hummus served at Mediterranean restaurants!

I serve this soup with a scoop of grain (quinoa this time) and a hefty portion of greens (kale, of course)… Like my RD says – make sure to add a grain and a green at every meal! Oh and sometimes I add a scoop of plain soy yogurt on top too.

Our toddler loved the soup... our 7 month old isn't quite ready for that yet so he's enjoying his spoon for now 🙂

Tomato & Red Lentil Soup

 

INGREDIENTS

* 1 medium onion , chopped

* 1 stalk celery , chopped

* 1 medium carrot , chopped

* 2 garlic cloves , minced

* 1 (28 ounce) can chopped tomatoes (I use a box of Pomi chopped tomatoes and a can of tomato sauce in a pinch too)

* 4 cups vegetable stock or water

* 1 cup red lentil

* 2 tablespoons dried parsley (or one bunch fresh, chopped – I like to use fresh)

* Salt and pepper, to taste

* 1 to 2 teaspoon sumac (I use 2)

* 1 small lemon, juice of (optional but good)

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Saute (using broth, water or bean cooking liquid) the onion, celery, and carrot, and cook until softened (a few minutes). Add the garlic, then, in a minute add the tomatoes and stock or water.

2. Simmer for about 20 minutes, season, and let it cool.

3. Puree the soup – I use my immersion blender for this. You can puree the soup after it’s done too if you’re like me and you always forget at this point! 😉

4. Add the lentils and return to a low simmer. Taste a lentil in about 15 minutes to see if it’s tender. If not, continue cooking, but don’t let them get mushy. 

5. Add the sumac and parsley. Taste for seasoning and add lemon juice if you like.

Saute the onion, celery and carrot. Add garlic.

Add tomatoes and stock/water

Simmer for a bit then add lentils

Puree soup when done

Add parsley, sumac and lemon juice

Sumac

Serve with steamed greens, grain scoop of your choice and a little dollop of soy yogurt, if you wish

 

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Buffalo Wing’ish Hummus

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I don’t know about you but I LOVE almost anything with buffalo wing sauce, there’s just something about it that makes everything taste better. You can imagine my excitement when I stumbled upon this recipe! All the taste of buffalo wings without the greasy meat and occasional cartilage/fat between your teeth! Sorry, but it’s true!

Buffalo Wing’ish Hummus

I found this recipe on PreventionRD.com. This is a really cool site and I’m looking forward to making more of her recipes!

Buffalo Wing Hummus

2 cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed (I used 2 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas)
2-3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp paprika
3 Tbsp calorie-free wing sauce (I used 5 Tbsp Frank’s Buffalo Wing Sauce instead of these two different types of sauce)
2 Tbsp cayenne hot sauce
1 Tbsp distilled white vinegar
1/2 tsp Kosher salt (I only added a tiny pinch)

Directions:

Put the chickpeas, garlic, tahini, lemon juice, paprika, wing sauce, hot sauce, vinegar and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt in a food processor. Puree until smooth and creamy.

Yield: 12 servings (1/4 cup each).

Nutrition Information (per serving): 99 calories; 3.4 g. fat; 0 mg. cholesterol; 231 mg. sodium; 11.8 g. carbohydrate; 4.2 g. fiber; 4.6 g. protein

Process in food processor until smooth and creamy

Ready!

Serve with crackers and celery sticks

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Crockpot Wheat Berry Cereal

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I’m always looking for new ways to get a serving of grain at every meal. I have several 1/2 gallon mason jars full of different grains in my pantry and I try to rotate them each week for variety. Sometimes I use my rice cooker, other times I experiment using my crock pot. Breakfast in the crock pot is awesome! Who doesn’t want to wake up to a hot meal, especially when you’re as busy as I am in the mornings!

This is one of our favorite wheat berry breakfast combos… so filling and so easy!

Crockpot Wheat Berry Cereal

Crockpot Wheat Berry Cereal

* 1 cup wheat berries, rinsed and drained

* 2 cups water (you can use almond milk if you prefer)

* 1/2 cup chopped fruit – I use apples, dried apricots or dried cranberries

* 1/4 – 1/2 cup raisins

* 1/4 tsp vanilla extract

* 1/8 tsp Stevia

* 1/2 tsp cinnamon

* 1/4 tsp allspice

* 1/4 tsp ground cloves

* 1/4 tsp ground cardamom

* 1/2 cup sliced almonds, toasted (I also use walnuts, pumpkin seeds or sunflower seeds)

– Combine everything into crockpot in the evening, stir to mix.

– Cook on low overnight and serve in the morning with your favorite toppings!

Mix all ingredients into Crockpot, cook on low overnight!

Yummy!

Easy Black Bean Soup

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Black beans were up next in our bean rotation so I decided to make this soup. It’s super easy to make and pretty darn good! Our toddler loved it! I mixed hers with a little leftover tricolor quinoa to thicken it up a bit.

Easy Black Bean Soup

This recipe is from Whole Foods.com. I love Whole Foods! My hubby calls it “Whole Paycheck” because it’s a little spendy. LOL! I like the salad bar the best! Ah the cold lentil salads, California Quinoa Salad and all the other goodies offered at your fingertips. YUM! I’ll be recreating those salads next so watch for those recipes soon!

Serves 8

Cooking dried beans is low maintenance and a great value. Make sure to plan ahead and allow time for soaking the beans.

Serve with hot sauce or salsa, if you like. I served this with Habanero Sauce… A MUST HAVE ADDITION!! I keep this sauce in the fridge at all times, it’s that good. Our toddler like a little in her food too so if she can handle it, so can you!

Ingredients

1 pound dried black beans (about 2 1/2 cups), rinsed
2 medium onions, chopped
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
4 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground chipotle pepper
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
1/2 ripe avocado, chopped

Method

Soak the beans overnight or 6 to 8 hours prior to cooking. Drain and rinse.

In a large pot, bring 1/2 cup water to a simmer over medium-high heat. Add onions, bell pepper and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until onions are translucent and beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Stir in cumin and chipotle and cook 1 minute, stirring. Add drained beans and 10 cups water. Bring soup to a boil, then lower to a simmer and cook, uncovered, for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until beans are tender. Remove 4 cups soup and carefully purée in a blender. Return purée to pot and stir in cilantro, nutritional yeast and lime juice. Spoon into bowls for serving and garnish with avocado.

Saute onions, peppers and garlic

Add spices, beans and water, cook uncovered for 1 1/2 to 2 hours

Puree 4 cups of soup in a blender - I used my VitaMix (of course!)

Add pureed soup back into the pot - add nutritional yeast, cilantro and lime juice.

Serve with diced avocado and your hot sauce of choice!

Nutrition

Per serving: 120 calories (25 from fat), 2.5g total fat, 0g saturated fat, 0mg cholesterol, 15mg sodium, 20g total carbohydrate (7g dietary fiber, 2g sugar), 7g protein

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Gingered Daikon Carrot Slaw

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I bought too many daikon radishes and needed a way to use them up after making Spicy Sesame Noodles. I found this recipe on one of my favorite vegan food blogs, Melomeals. I had a friend over for dinner that night, she loved this salad! In fact, she just asked me for the recipe yesterday (Here you go, Lisa!) so I figured I should post it. Here you go, hope you enjoy it!

Gingered Daikon Carrot Slaw

Gingered Daikon Carrot Slaw 

2 large carrots
1/2 of a 12 inch daikon
1 heaping tablespoon fresh ginger
handful of fresh basil, cilantro or mint (or a mixture of them all)
3 tablespoons vegan mayo
Siracha to taste
Soy Sauce to taste
Juice of 1 big lime
pinch lime zest
1 T apple cider vinegar
fresh pepper
Grate or chop carrots, daikon and ginger in a food processor
Toss with the rest of the ingredients.. season to your liking

Grate carrots, daikon and ginger in food processor

Add the rest of the ingredients

Toss well

Serve!