Fruit Flower

I'm a week late posting this because I've been working hard on my two theses, but I presented one of them last week and then came home and rewarded myself for passing a mile marker by making this giant flower out of fruit.



Ingredients:
canned pineapple
fresh cantlaoupe
fresh strawberries
paprika (or cinnamon or other spice to taste)
honey
molasses
almonds

Layer pineapple to make petals. Sprinkle with paprika (or cinnamon or chipotle or whatever you enjoy). Cover with a layer of small pieces cut from half a cantaloupe, leaving the "flower petals" of the pineapple rings exposed. Cover with sliced strawberries. Drizzle with honey. Lightly drizzle with molasses (a little goes a long way. And it's definitely an acquired taste.) Garnish with almonds.

Sweet and Spicy Beet Soup

Inspired by zenpawn's Raw Alphabet (ABC) Soup (as well as his encouragement that my very basic blender could handle this task) and hishealingways' soup chewies (scroll down to photos 4, 5, and 6), I made a garlic-ginger apple/beet/celery soup with apple/walnut/celery chewies:



Ingredients:
olive oil (optional)
apples
beet roots
celery
minced garlic (optional)
ginger (or other spices or optional)
walnuts

Core and cut up an unpeeled apple (I used a gala). Chop about 1/8 of the apple into small chewies and set aside. Cut the rest of the apple into medium-sized pieces and put in the blender.

Wash and peel (using a regular carrot/potato peeler) a smallish/medium sized beet. Remove the stem and root tip and cut into pieces. Add the beet to the blender.

Wash one very large or two medium celery stalks. Chop about 1/4 of it small and add to the chewies bowl. Cut the rest into pieces and add to the blender.

Chop a small handful of walnuts into chewie pieces and set aside with the other chewies.

Add two teaspoons (one clove) of minced garlic to the blender if desired. Add ground ginger, if desired, to taste (I used about a teaspoon). Add a drizzle (somewhere between a teaspoon and a tablespoon) of cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil to the blender if desired.

Add between 1/2 and 1 cup of water (I used about 3/4 cup) to the blender. It's best to start with a small amount of water and add more as needed during blending to attain desired consistency.

Blend all ingredients until it forms a smooth soup. Stir in the chewies and serve cold, with garnish.

A Mess o' Greens (and Reds and Purples)

Everything in this dish is tasty eaten raw but I grew up in the American South and was having a nostalgic hankering for a mess o' greens so I made this:



Ingredients:

olive oil
minced garlic (jarred or fresh)
beet tops
brussels sprouts
red cabbage
sea salt
balsamic vinegar

Saute two teaspoons (one clove) of minced garlic in olive oil. Cut the tops off three beets, leaving about an inch and a half of stem on the roots. Wash and cut into approximately one-inch pieces. Add to the skillet.

Alternate between stirring the beet tops and prepping five brussels sprouts by cutting the bottoms off them and peeling the leaves apart. When all sprouts are separated, add them to the skillet.

Alternate between stirring the skillet and prepping the red cabbage. Slice off about 1/5 to 1/4 of the cabbage head and chop coarsely. Add to the skillet. Add a little sea salt to taste. Stir until done.

The trick to cooking brussels sprouts (whether steaming, boiling, or sauteing) and not having them smell awful is to cook them for only five minutes or less so try to set your timing accordingly.

Season with a little balsamic vinegar. Serve hot.

Confetti Tempeh

I created a hearty dinner last night with potatoes, tempeh, and purple cabbage:



Ingredients:
onion
garlic (pre-minced in a jar or fresh)
black pepper
salt
curry powder
diced potatoes (frozen or fresh)
tempeh
red cabbage

Saute a sliced half onion and four heaping teaspoons of pre-minced water-packed garlic (or two cloves of fresh garlic) and a generous few twists of coarsely ground black pepper.

Add one pound of diced potatoes and cook until soft. (If using frozen diced potatoes, cook for five minutes) While the potatoes are cooking, add curry powder until the desired spiciness is achieved (once you've made the recipe once, judging by taste, you can usually determine the spice level on future batches judging by color.) Add eight ounces of cubed tempeh. Cook another five minutes, stirring often.

Slice 1/4 to 1/3 of a head of red cabbage into little shreds. Add to skillet and cook until the cabbage is still crispy but has softened to desired consistency. Add sea salt to taste. Serve hot.