Oil-Free Garlicky Lemon Dipping Sauce (Guest Blogger!)

Here’s a new recipe from featured guest blogger, Karen Hix! You may have seen Karen on my Facebook Page or our new Facebook Group! Please be sure to read all about her at the end of this post, after you make her delicious recipe!

Take it away Karen!!!

One of the summer veggies I always love to eat is an artichoke. Problem is, since I’ve gone plant based with no oils, I can’t eat them the way I used to … melted butter, or mayonnaise with lemon. So I came up with this Lemon Garlic Sauce (two of my favorite ingredients!) which I’ve found to be totally versatile! I now have a healthy dipping sauce for my artichokes and it makes a yummy dip or topping for steamed veggies as well … But my second favorite way to eat this is over a veggie version of no-eggs benedict … toasted muffin, topped with a grilled portobello mushroom, sliced tomatoes & avocados and drenched in this sauce. Yummy! I love lemon and garlic, so bringing these together is pure paradise. Hope you enjoy!

Garlicky Lemon Dipping Sauce!

Garlicky Lemon Dipping Sauce!

Garlicky Lemon Dipping Sauce
1 (12.3 oz.) pkg Mori-Nu firm or extra firm silken tofu
2-4 cloves garlic (I used 4 because I LOVE garlic, but adjust to your liking)
2 Tbs non-dairy milk (I used unsweetened almond)
2 Tbs nutritional yeast
4 tsp yellow miso
1 tsp granulated onion powder
2 tsp brine from green olives jar
4 Tbs fresh lemon juice
artichokes (or other veggies to steam)
1. Trim the stem and edges from your artichokes. Place the prepared artichokes in a pot of boiling water and steam them until done (approx. 20-30 minutes).
2. While the artichokes are steaming, combine all sauce ingredients in a blender.
3. Blend until well combined.
4. Pass the sauce and dip away! (Sorry my pic is a little blurry … I was too excited to start eating, I guess … lol)
Steam your artichokes, approx 20-30 minutes

Trim and steam your artichokes, approx 20-30 minutes

Combine all sauce ingredients in a blender and blend well.

Combine all sauce ingredients in a blender and blend well.

Ready to serve!

Ready to serve!

Garlicky Lemon Dipping Sauce!

Garlicky Lemon Dipping Sauce!

Hmmm a little about me … well, I’m a manicurist by day, and a major foodie who loves to cook. I’ve always taken a huge interest in health … and always thought I ate healthy … until one day when I watched the movie “Forks Over Knives”. That movie, along with the book “The China Study” by T. Colin Campbell opened my eyes to a new lifestyle of healthy eating. I actually have a birthdate for going plant-based of 3/30/12 and have never looked back. I lost 10 lbs within my first 2 weeks … all because I realized my problem … was with olive oil. Now the olive oil is gone from my cooking days … and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be!

With my newfound dietary changes, I became addicted to researching recipes on the internet, and found April on her “Kid Tested Firefighter Approved” website … which is by far my favorite source for plant-based recipes!  I have loved every recipe of hers that I’ve tried (and I’ve tried almost every one she’s posted!) and tell all my friends about her delicious and easy recipes. Now they’re addicted to her recipes too 🙂

I have ventured out in trying out a few recipes on my own, mostly trying to recreate some loves from my pre-plant based lifestyle. That’s how this recipe evolved. I told April about it, and she’s graciously asked me to share it with her fans. This sauce kinda reminds me of a garlicky hollandaise sauce … I hope you enjoy 🙂

Raw Lime Avocado Pie

I had a few ladies from my Crossfit gym over last night and we had a blast! Most of them follow the Paleo Diet so I tried to find a recipe that would please everyone’s dietary needs. This pie looked really good so I decided to try it and I’m glad I did because it was delicious! Very rich but delish! Who would’ve thought to use avocados in a pie?!

This recipe uses a ton of limes so prepare yourself, I got quite a workout zesting them all!

Raw Lime Avocado Pie

Original recipe from Health Damy.

Crust Ingredients:

  • 2 Cups Raw Cashews
  • 1 Cup Unsweetened Shredded Coconut (a little extra to top it before serving too, if you wish)
  • 1/2 Cup Pitted Dates
  • 2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 2 Tbsp Lime Zest
  • 3 Tbsp Lime Juice
  • Dash of Salt
  • 4 Packets of Stevia
  • 2 Tbsp Agave (You can use maple syrup)

Mousse Ingredients:

  • 4 Large Ripe Avocados (Pealed and Pitted)
  • 1/2 Cup Lime Juice
  • 1/3 Cup Lime Zest (You’ll need 8-10 limes for this entire recipe)
  • 1/4 Cup Agave (or maple syrup)
  • 2 Tsp Vanilla Extract
  • Dash of Salt
  • 8 Packets of Stevia

Directions:

  1. Place the crust ingredients in your food processor and blend until dough-like.
  2. Spray your 8 inch spring form pan with non-stick cooking spray – I’m sure any pan would work, really.
  3. Using your hands press the dough evenly into the pan.
  4. Place all mousse ingredients in your food processor and blend until smooth (stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides).
  5. Pour mousse over-top of crust.
  6. Chill in your refrigerator or freezer (depending on your desired texture) for at least 3 hours.
  7. Cut and serve immediately.
  8. Enjoy!

Crust making in progress

Crust done!

Smooth into spring form pan

Filling ingredients

Nice green color!

Ready to chill!

Oh so pretty!

Serve with coconut on top (if you wish!)

Green Overnight Oats

We love oatmeal, we eat it almost every morning. I try to spice it up some days but most days it’s the usual raisins, nuts and some type of fruit on top. We’ve been rotating between the usual, the Orange Creamsicle Oatmeal and this one lately. This is really easy to make the night before and it’s great to be able to pull breakfast out of the fridge, heat it up and go. I’m out the door in a hurry most mornings, rushing off to Crossfit so this recipe is perfect!

Green Overnight Oats

Not to mention, it’s a GREAT way to sneak in your much needed serving of greens per meal! The added chia seeds are a double bonus. Our toddler LOVES this!

Toddler approved!

The original recipe is from a fantastic vegan food blog, Oh She Glows. If you haven’t checked out her site yet, set aside some time to do so. She has a bunch of really great recipes!!

The original recipe was written to make one serving but I’ve adjusted it to make a bigger batch, with a few other changes. 🙂 Sometimes I add 1/2 cup of white beans to the mix too.

Green Overnight Oats

Ingredients:

  • 2-3 large handful fresh spinach or 2 handfuls of kale
  • 2 large ripe bananas
  • 3 tbsp chia seeds (necessary for thickening)
  • 2 cups almond milk 
  • 1 cup regular, rolled oats

1. In a blender, blend together the spinach, banana, chia seeds, and almond milk until smooth.

2. In a large plastic or glass bowl/container, add the oats and then pour the smoothie on top. Stir well until combined.

3. Place in fridge (uncovered is fine – I always cover it myself) overnight. Give it a good stir in the morning and then enjoy it cold, straight from the fridge or warm it up a bit, if you prefer. 

We like to add walnuts, shredded unsweetened coconut, berries, bananas…. anything you wish!

Fresh spinach… yummy!

Add all ingredients (except oats) to blender or food processor and blend well

Add oats to your container

Ready to combine!

Stir in the green “smoothie” and stir until combined

Store in your fridge overnight. Mine is nestled next to my organic spring salad mix and leftover kale salad 🙂

Take it out in the morning, stir and serve with your favorite toppings!

Coconut “Bacon”

Confession time. My favorite show on tv is Diners, Drive-Ins & Dives… there, I said it. It makes zero sense that I would love this show so much considering 99.9% of the food they make on there is NOT plant-based. That’s okay though, the recipes on there give me ideas for other recipes sometimes and on a rare occasion Guy Fieri features a plant-based dish on the show.

It’s my understand that Guy grew up vegetarian and HATED it so much that he rebelled at a young age. While he may not make the same food choices as myself, he’s a pretty good host of the show although his dietary choices are (in my opinion) atrocious.

He’s featured vegan burgers, a few curry dishes and a coconut club with fried tofu and coconut bacon. I’ve been thinking about that sandwich for awhile now and decided to try out the coconut bacon concept. I searched around the internet and found this recipe. It’s really easy to make, you could whip up a batch of this for quick BLT’s or add this to tofu scramble… honestly, you could add it to just about anything! I’m thinking salad topping, add to split pea soup or a pizza topping!

This recipe is from Vegan Good Things blog, another cool site I bookmarked to peruse later. Sorry for the lame photo, I haven’t had a chance to make anything pretty with this yet but I will soon!!!

My hubby and toddler LOVED this!

Coconut Bacon
makes about 3 cups (enough for 4 – 6 sandwiches, depending on how big you make ’em)

3 large handfuls of large flake, unsweetened coconut (bought mine at Sprouts)
1 Tbsp. liquid smoke – Colgin brand is plant-based, some are not
2 Tbsp. tamari – or soy sauce, coconut aminos or shoyu
1 Tbsp. water
1 Tbsp. maple syrup (optional, but recommended – I used it)

Preheat oven to 300. Place coconut in a shallow baking pan. Combine other ingredients together in a small bowl and drizzle over coconut. Use your hands to mix and make sure the coconut is evenly coated. Bake at 300 for 20 minutes, or until crisp. It will continue to crisp as it cools, and is best eaten at room temperature.

I used my Pyrex glass pan, worked great!

Mix sauce with coconut, spread evenly

Coconut “Bacon”

Juice Pulp Crackers

I’ve always been curious about the raw food world and I recently discovered an awesome recipe website called Choosing Raw. She has a recipe for “crackers” using leftover juicing pulp… GENIUS!!! I made another batch before this one with just pulp, chia seeds and water… turned out pretty good but this recipe is much better. I’ve made them both in my dehydrator and the oven and the results were very close in texture and dryness. I spread a thin layer of Sun Dried Tomato Basil Pizza Cheese on these and WOW was that good!! Our toddler loves these “crackers” too!!

If you find that you have too much leftover pulp, freeze it and make these at a later date! These are great with salads, as flatbreads with hummus or any other favorite topping or just as a simple snack!

Juice Pulp Crackers

Chia Juice Pulp Crackers (raw, vegan, GF)

2 cups juice pulp, tightly packed

1/2 cup ground chia seed – I ground mine in the Magic Bullet
2-3 tbsp tamari
2 tsps ground coriander
black pepper to taste
1/3-1/2 cup water
1/3 cup chia seeds, whole

1) Place pulp, ground chia, tamari, coriander, and black pepper in a food processor fitted with the S blade. Pulse to combine well.

2) Add the water and let the motor run, till mixture is right consistency (start by adding 1/4 of a cup and move up: how much you need will depend on how much liquid was in the pulp already). You want your mixture to be thick and sticky, but spreadable.

3) Add whole chia seeds and pulse to combine.

4) Spread on a Teflex lined dehydrator sheet, score into cracker shapes and dehydrate at 115 for about 5-6 hours. Flip the sheet over (you may want to put another sheet on top and then flip them both), and then dehydrate till very dry, about 4-5 more hours.

5) OVEN DIRECTIONS:

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spread the “dough” onto it evenly. I made mine pretty thin, about 1/2 inch or so. Bake at 350 degrees until crispy. My oven batch took about an hour and I flipped them after about 40 minutes.

Juicing done… don’t waste that pulp!

This was my first recipe with chia seeds and water…

Spread mixture out onto cookie sheet or use your dehydrator

Don’t forget to cut your “crackers” before baking/drying!

Ready to eat!

Spicy Lentil Wraps with Tahini Sauce(s)

Have you tried the vegan Spicy Lentil Wrap from Trader Joe’s? OMG it’s so good! I’m not that stoked on the white lavash wrap or the high’ish sodium content but in a rare pinch it works perfectly! I decided to try and find a copy recipe for that wrap, maybe make it a wee bit healthier in the process so I can have it more often. I found this recipe on theKitchn website after a few searches and decided to make it immediately.

Spicy Lentil Wrap with Tahini Sauce(s)

I made the red pepper paste first. It didn’t come out the way I expected it to, it was a little runny in the end but it still tasted good! I cooked it much longer than the directions said, hoping that it would thicken up but it didn’t. It was still delicious and I plan on making it again!

I bought lavash bread/wraps from Trader Joe’s but as my luck would have it, they were out of the whole wheat ones that day so I decided to do a few on collard wraps to make it a bit healthier. The collard wraps were pretty good but not as good as the lavash bread… figures, right?!

Collard wraps ready to roll!

Now to roll this without breaking it... hmmm....

Success!! Well... if you don't count the red pepper paste oozing out...

Delish!!

I wasn’t super crazy about the tahini sauce recipe that came with the wrap recipe from theKitchn so I did a little hunting… maybe it was the lack of salt? Hmmm…. I found a Yogurt Tahini Sauce on one of my absolute favorite vegan food blogs Fat Free Vegan Kitchen and made that as well. Now THAT is a good tahini sauce! Her secret ingredient is ketchup, who would’ve guessed to use that! Genius!!!

Spicy Lentil Wraps with Tahini Sauce
Makes 6 wraps

1/2 cup red lentils, rinsed
2 cups water
3/4 cups bulgur
2 tablespoons olive oil (I omitted this and water sautéed instead, as usual!)
1 onion, finely chopped
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1 scallion, chopped
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt (I omitted)
6 (approximately 9×12-inch) sheets lavash, white or whole wheat OR use collard wraps!
3/4 cup red pepper paste (recipe below, or use store-bought)
2 cups shredded cabbage
Tahini sauce to serve (recipe below)

Combine lentils and water in a small saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, cover, and reduce heat to low. Simmer until lentils are soft, about 20 minutes.

Turn off heat and stir in bulgur. Let stand until water is absorbed and bulgur is soft, about 30 minutes.

Cooking up the barley lentil mixture!

Meanwhile, heat olive oil (or water for water sautee) in a pan over medium heat. Add onions and cook, stirring frequently, until soft and translucent. Stir in cumin and red pepper flakes and cook for another minute.

Add onions, scallions, parsley, and salt to lentil-bulgur mixture and stir until well combined. Let cool before using to make wraps. (If you want a smoother texture closer to the Trader Joe’s version, you can run the filling through a food processor, but I like it just as it is.) You can freeze the filling in an airtight container if not using all at once.

To assemble, lay out a lavash sheet with the shorter end closest to you. Spread 1 1/2 tablespoons of red pepper paste across the lower 1/3 of the sheet. Top with the lentil-bulgur mixture, and then the cabbage. Roll from the bottom up, and spread an additional 1/2 tablespoon of red pepper paste across the top end to help seal the wrap. Repeat for remaining wraps.

Lavash wrap

To serve, cut each wrap in half and serve with tahini sauce on the side.

Red Pepper Paste
Makes about 3/4 cup

6 red bell peppers, cored and chopped

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon kosher salt (I omitted this)

Olive oil to cover (if refrigerating) – I did not use this and mine kept in the fridge just fine

Combine bell peppers, cayenne pepper, and salt in a food processor and puree.

Pour the puree into a skillet over low heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until reduced to a paste. This can take up to 2 hours.

Let cool before using. To store, pack the paste into a jar, pour enough olive oil on top to cover, and refrigerate.

Pretty red peppers

Combine and blend until smooth

Pretty!

Cook up to two hours or until thickened - mine never really thickened, I cooked it for 2 1/2 hours total

Tahini Sauce
Makes about 3/4 cup

1/4 cup tahini
2/3 cup or more warm water
2 teaspoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons finely chopped parsley
1/4 teaspoon crushed garlic
1/8 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Place all ingredients in a small bowl and mix with a fork until well combined.

Gradually stir in small amounts of additional warm water until the desired consistency is achieved.

Regular Tahini Sauce - use your Magic Bullet!

Spicy!!

** Fat Free Vegan’s AMAZING Yogurt-Tahini Sauce

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup soy yogurt
  • 2 tablespoons tahini
  • 2 teaspoons lemon juice
  • 1 clove garlic, pressed
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 pinch red pepper
  • 4 teaspoons ketchup
  • 2 tablespoons water

Instructions

  1. Mix all ingredients well in a small bowl. Add additional seasonings to taste.

Ketchup? I think yes!

YUMMY!