Raw Celery Root with Apple, Caraway, and Horseradish
Adapted slightly from the forthcoming release of The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook and the fine folks at America’s Test Kitchen. The cookbook offers a shortcut to preparing the celery root by running it through the blade setting on your food processor. I found that the salad held up better the next day with the matchstick preparation. ATK is giving away one copy of The Complete Vegetarian Cookbook to Happyolks reader. Leave a comment with the best thing you’ve read or watched recently and you’ll be entered to win. Giveaway will end 3/4.
Juice of one lemon
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
1 Tsp honey
3-4 Tbsp olive oil
4 Tbsp sour cream or Greek yogurt
3 Celery root, peeled
1 Crisp apple
6 scallions, sliced at a bias
1 cup fresh parsley leaves
25 sprigs tarragon leaves
1 tsp caraway seeds
2 heaping teaspoons prepared horseradish
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Whisk lemon juice, mustard, honey, and salt in a medium bowl. Whisking constantly, drizzle in oil. Add sour cream last, stir to combine, and then set aside.
Clean and peel celery root. To create matchsticks, place halved root on the cutting board and cut a slice to a ⅛ inch thickness at a bias. Continue cutting, maintaining a wide bias through the whole root. Repeat with remaining half, then again with the two remaining prepped roots. Create a stack of two or three slices. If you are doing this for the first time you may want to start with a single slice just to get comfortable with the method and as you practice a bit you can start stacking. Cut across the celery root, lengthwise. The thickness we’re aiming for, again, is ⅛ inch. Repeat with remaining slices. Place celery root in a large bowl. Repeat this technique with the apple and add to the bowl of prepped celery root.
Stir in dressing immediately after creating your matchsticks to prevent browning. Add scallions, parsley, tarragon, caraway seeds, and horseradish. Stir to combine, adding more greens or if things feel a bit sparse. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
With Isac waking up too early in the morning (night, really), my head has been in a constant haze these last days and the buttons on my keyboard are dancing in front of me when I am trying to hit them. So, let’s immediately get down to business. And with business I mean salad. This simple salad puts our Golden Sauerkraut recipe from last month to good use. With all the fresh produce available this time of the year, bowls like these are on weekly rotation in our home. They are quick to make and easy adaptable to whatever vegetables we have available. Warm quinoa and a fried egg makes this more filling than a normal salad, and tahini, lemon and sauerkraut add flavour. We use a fork to break the egg and stir around so the yolk gets mixed with the other ingredients. Come to think of it, this is almost like a hippie sister to bibimbap. Hippie Bibimbap!
We tried a few bowls similar to this, topped with krauts, on cafes in Sydney and Melbourne. They all had names like Buddha bowl, Yoga bowl and Sunshine bowl. In our version, we have kept the flavours quite simple and neutral to really let the kraut sing. You can of course use any type of sauerkraut, or kimchi. If you are making this without any sauerkraut, you might want to add some extra tahini and a squeeze of lemon to amp up the flavour. You can skip the egg as well to make it an entirely vegan dish (in that case, you might also want to add some extra tahini).
On another matter, we are sorry that we have been so immensely slow at updating the blog lately. We do however have two pretty exciting new posts lined up for you. Look here and here for clues. And check back with us soon.
The Hippie Bowl Serves 2
1/2 cup uncooked quinoa (any color works), rinsed 2 carrots 4 radishes 1/2 fennel bulb 2 avocados, stone removed 2 small kale leaves, stems removed 1 handful mixed baby lettuce 2 tsp olive oil 2 tsp lemon juice 1 pinch sea salt and black pepper 2 tbsp tahini (sesame paste) 4 tbsp golden sauerkraut (see recipe here) 2 fried eggs 2 tsp hemp seeds
Cooking the quinoa: Place rinsed quinoa, 1 cup water and a pinch of salt in a medium-size saucepan. Bring to a boil, lower the heat to a bare simmer and let gently cook for about 15 minutes, or until you see small tails on the quinoa seeds. Set aside to cool in a large mixing bowl.
Making the salad: Slice the carrots and the radishes. Slice the fennel very finely. Cut the avocados into small cubes. Remove stems from the kale and chop. Place all prepared ingredients, including the mixed baby lettuce, into the quinoa bowl. Drizzle with olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and give it a good toss with your hands. Divide the salad in two bowls, drizzle each bowl with a generous tablespoon tahini and a couple of tablespoons sauerkraut. Finely top with a fried egg in each bowl and sprinkle with hemp seeds. Serve immediately.
******** PS! Some of you might remember that this blog was nominated for the Saveur Blog Award in the category Best Use of Video? Well, apparently we just won the Reader’s Choice award! Thank you everyone that voted for us. This is the second time we win a Saveur award and it feels pretty unreal. Seriously, we are so grateful for all your support. You rock!
I have a piece in the new issue of Darling Magazine this month. I was asked to write a rosy-cheeked take on family dinners––their evolution from youth to adulthood, tradition, nostalgia, how the act of gathering around a table “transcends the act of dining as a means to an end.” I was feeling OK but not awesome about my rough draft when I submitted it in December, then: Christmas. We hosted my family at our new place. It snowed. I planned a few elaborate meals because, you know, food is love, and on the second night, before anyone took their second bite of potato tarragon galette, my brother and I were in a shouting match over my request that he not text at the dinner table. He got defensive. I called him an asshole. He got up and left. My mom cried, dad got quiet. Shaun tried to mediate.
It was ugly. But, it was real. More often than not, the meals we get to share with family and friends do not take on the convivial, alluring nature we see promoted across blogs and boutique media. It’s easy to set a beautifully-styled farm table and encourage meaningful, open-hearted dialogue and then CONVENIENTLY disregard that meaningful, open-hearted dialogue is, by nature of our human-ness, a fucking mess most of the time. The mess doesn’t sell.
There is nothing precious about our dinner table. It is, and has been, a mighty kickstand for the hardest and heartiest conversations in our lives. Sure, we’ve made many memorable, effortless, joy-filled moments around our table over the years, like that one night we stayed up late on a weeknight braiding challah and eating boozy french toast with a friend who kicked her dude to the curb. The time Cody and Emily stopped over before Corbyn and Caroline’s wedding with the kids and Shaun poured a bowl of tomato soup for Ev’s “Mr. Shark,” which he proceeded to splash all over his clean pajamas and Mr. Shark. And yet, for every uncomplicated and tender occasion we’ve experienced at the table with loved ones, there have been at least a dozen gritty, soul-obliterating instances that preceded it. Like New Years Eve of 2012 when Shaun and I ate buttered toast before The Lumineers show at the Ogden, contemplating if we’d even do 2013 together as a couple, or the night before our wedding that we ate bad pizza together on the floor, holding each other, laughing, crying, wishing we would have just eloped like we’d wanted all along.
Here’s my addendum to the story that was actually published: family dinner is where we do the work. And when I say family I mean our biological families, friend families or otherwise. And when I say table, I mean the couch or the barstools or the floor or the porch or the car. Wherever we eat, wherever we are forced to stop and reckon with the day or our lives or our relationships with one another in the presence of food: we go to work. We take something that is hard and make it easy, or take something that is easy and royally overcomplicate it. We wrestle, together, with what Anne Lamott calls “the three most terrible truths of our existence: that we are so ruined, and so loved, and in charge of so little.” It’s the angst and heat and sticky stuff that comes with the work that builds real, long-lasting commitment and goodness in our lives. We need to get better at celebrating THAT.
I struck my match, she poured out her gasoline.
We burn now. All the time. ― Tarryn Fisher
Carrot Habanero Hot Sauce (aka Honeymoon Heat) (aka SUPER SPICY)
Adapted from my friends Corbyn and Caroline who discovered a love of carrot based hot sauces while honeymooning in Belize last year. This recipe makes about 6 quarts of hot sauce. Yes! You read that right 6 qts. I felt like there was really no sense in making a small batch when so many friends go through sriracha so quickly. You can easily halve, quarter, or further divide the recipe to make a smaller portion with the same result.
15 garlic cloves, unpeeled
2 cups peeled, chopped carrot
4 medium sweet yellow onions, chopped
30 medium habanero chiles, stemmed
3 cups white vinegar
¼ cup salt
¼ cup sugar
Juice of 6-8 limes
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Roast the garlic in a skillet over medium heat, turning regularly until soft and blackened in spots, 10 to 15 minutes.
In the same pot, combine the carrot, onion and habanero chiles with the vinegar, 3 cups water, salt and sugar. Partially cover and simmer over medium-low heat until the carrots are thoroughly tender, about 20 minutes. Blend until smooth. Thin with a lime juice and more water if the sauce seems too thick. Taste and add salt as preferred. Store in glass jars in the fridge.
This post is the latest in our Healthy + Whole series to explore a healthy approach to whole foods eating; check out the entire series here.
When Alex and I first started trying to eat “healthy”, we did something a little crazy: we took a look at our pantry and fridge and threw out anything that resembled a processed food. Willingly. Microwave dinners, pancake mix, Oreo cookies, bottled Ranch dressing–all were dumped into the trash, or given away to friends. Why? We’d read a book that challenged us to try eating minimally processed foods (think 5 ingredients or less), and figured if we didn’t have it on hand, we wouldn’t be tempted to eat it. I’m still a little amazed that 1. we did it because we wanted to and 2. that it actually worked.
Turns out this is a “thing” called Pantry Rehab (or Fridge Rehab), and it’s the premise behind a new book called What the Fork are You Eating?, which examines how to get your kitchen chock full of whole foods. The book caught our eye and we both bought it and reached out to the author, Stefanie Sacks. We are so pleased to bring you this Q&A with Stefanie about whole foods eating and her new book. I spoke with her a few weeks ago and she is one of the most generous, humble, kind, and passionate people I’ve met in the industry. Stefanie is highly credentialed as a culinary nutritionist,certified nutrition specialist (CNS) and certified dietitian nutritionist (CDN), yet at the same time she’s extraordinarily down to earth in her approach to food. As she mentioned to me on the phone, she’s been passionate about healthy eating way before it was cool, so I credit her for helping start the momentum that got us to perform some Pantry Rehab in the first place. Here’s Stefanie!
What sparked your interest in food and health? Did you always eat the way you do today?
My love for food and cooking blossomed at age three. My 1970’s wooden play kitchen was my “toy” of choice. I spent hours in this pretend culinary haven acting out the role of executive chef and playing “restaurant” with my maternal grandmother. Without fail, she uncomfortably sat at my tiny table and chairs patiently (and lovingly) waiting for her inevitable tuna sandwich on white bread with a pickle.
Suffering from asthma, allergies, recurring bronchitis and pneumonia shaped much of my childhood thus finding an alternative to the multiple inhalers, allergy meds, steroids and antibiotics I regularly consumed was critical. At fifteen, during my Montauk summers, a job at the local health food market and café was a no-brainer. It was here that my eyes were opened to the idea of food as healing—a moment of down time meant a book in my hands and Food and Healing by Annemarie Colbin made a life changing impression confirming that food choice dictated health. Thus, feverishly focusing on everything food was central to my teenage existence—I became my very own lab rat as I experimented with not-so mainstream foods, fad diets and edible theories (from vegetarianism to macrobiotics) all with the hope of feeling better. And eventually I did.
What is Pantry/Freezer/Fridge Rehab? What are a few accessible pointers on how to start one without feeling overwhelmed (baby steps)?
We all need a “makeover” in some aspect of our lives. Who can be on top of everything? Given my passion for food and my knowledge and skills, I guide people through food lifestyle change. And a huge part of this process is the pantry/freezer/fridge rehab. While I may be highly opinionated about food and food choice, I am never judgmental as everyone has a different starting point for change and for me to be able to truly help those in need, I must understand what they can do and truly respect and honor what they can’t. What The Fork Are You Eating? really explores the many things people can do to change whether you’re the nutrition neophyte or maven.
Here are a few pointers to avoid feeling too overwhelmed:
Understand that the ingredients tell the true story of your food; so don’t buy into the labeling hype. If your ingredient list reads like a short novel or you can’t pronounce something that is in your food, don’t buy it!
If any of your ingredients read “artificial flavors”, ditch the bag, box or can and find a better alternative with the “natural flavor” version. Most every product has a not so evil twin.
Do away with the artificial sweeteners from aspartame to sucralose; there is enough research to question their true safety.
Toss anything with food dye in it as in Red No. 40 or Yellow No. 5 or 6. They are pervasive in everything from pickles to candy. Again, enough research to question their true safety and most anything that has the dye (other than many mainstream candies) can be swapped for better alternatives
If you opt into “lowfat” know that most often the fat is replaced with sugar and the sugar (too much of it) ends up turning into the fat anyway—so eat the healthy fat!
As a culinary nutritionist, certified nutrition specialist (CNS) and certified dietitian nutritionist (CDN), what does a healthy diet look like to you?
Eating healthfully is all about moderation and variety. I like to aim for fresh whole foods 70-80% of the time. I am not a stickler for organic as much as I am hell bent on buying local and purchasing animal foods treated with the highest humane welfare. When I can’t find either, I tend to go USDA Organic using Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen as my guide to navigate produce and I very carefully pick and choose my animal foods looking for verifications like AWA (voted the highest humane welfare certification by Consumer Reports) or Certified Humane. Like most people, packaged foods are a part of our everyday—I am just super discerning about what foods I choose for my family (calling on many of the pointers noted above and in What The Fork).
And as I say in the book, “ninety percent of the time, I consume foods void of my Top Rated Terminators (chemical preservatives, artificial flavors and enhancers, artificial colors, artificial sweeteners, sugar and its many euphemisms, trans fats (hydrogenated oils), chemical pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, and genetically modified organisms (GMOs)), whether at home or otherwise. I leave the 10 percent for the occasional product that might have a GMO ingredient in it (hard to avoid), those eggs that I have to grab at the local supermarket that I know came from hens that were not humanely raised or for meals out (plus that Haribo gummy bear— hey, I’m human). So generally speaking, we eat everything from kale to candy, but most of our food is made with the purest ingredients (yes, this can be done).
When we are outside the home, I have learned to loosen the reins a bit. Birthday parties are a free-for-all. At this stage, my kids are making conscious choices for themselves. For school, I have no worries— healthy food is central to their place of education. As for summer camp, it can be a bit of an unsavory food fest, but I work with the camp director on what my boys can eat (the chicken-like nuggets are not okay, nor are the incandescent ice pops) and help them navigate the choices themselves. When we go to the movies, all bets are off, and the kids go to the local candy store to get a small bag of whatever they want. What it boils down to is making educated choices—don’t let ignorance be bliss when it comes to your food consumption. Moderation is truly my mantra (I have done all the extremes and am over it).”
We love the recipes included in your new book! Do you have a few that stand out as favorites?
Most of the recipes in the book are our family favorites but if I were to pick a few loves they would be:
Golicious Granola
Greek Goddess Salad
Chicken and Rice Soup
Cowgirl Chili
Jack’s Banana Ice Cream
What does a day in the life of Stefanie Sacks look like in terms of breakfast, lunch and dinner?
Breakfast is typically some version of my Power Green drink that I typically pack with nuts for some protein. If really hungry, I will have an egg wrap. Sipping green tea throughout the day is my “vice”. I have a weak spot for Starbucks iced green tea (with no sweetener and a touch of soymilk). Lunch is normally some form of salad with beans, cheese and maybe a spot of fish like sardines or tuna. I am a sucker for soup as well whether hot or cold outside. Snacks include nuts and seeds, cheese and crackers, fruit, vegetables with hummus. And dinner is normally a balanced mix of greens, a grain (or other starch like a potato) and protein (either plant based, fish or poultry). Though I am a sucker for a good bowl of pasta doused with ghee, tomato sauce and Parmesan! For after dinner snacks, I am known to sneak a bowl of potato chips (I am a bit of a chipaholic) into bed while I decompress to a movie!
If my 15 year younger self would see me know. I am sitting here writing a text that praises a warm fruit salad. Young David would have told me that I was an idiot: “Why heat fruit when you can have it cold?!” You see, young David wasn’t very fond of warm fruit. At all. Back then, I could binge eat bowls of fresh fruit, but cook or bake it and I wouldn’t touch it. Even apple pie, the one dish that every normal person loves, made my stomach turn upside down. I sometimes allowed myself to eat the part of the crust that hadn’t been touched by the fruit, but my tongue cringed from the bare thought of warm apple in my mouth.
And now I’m all of a sudden ridiculously excited about this fruit salad that has taken a quick tour through a hot oven. What happened? I would love to say that this recipe was the game changer. But truth be told, I think I just slowly learned to appreciate warm fruit, recipe by recipe.
Apart from the fact that I used to hate warm fruit and now swear by this dessert. Apart from the fact that this recipe is dead-simple and can be prepared in no-time. And apart from the fact that it includes some of the best bounty of the season and you will get all these summer-bonanza-feelings just by preparing it. Yes, apart from all that, this fruit salad is also covered in grated dark chocolate (that melts!), coconut flakes and salted almonds (that pairs oh so well with dark chocolate). Young David might not approve, but old David thinks this is pretty darn good and would like you all to give it a try.
If you are still not convinced, we created this video for our youtube channel as a final selling point:
The original Swedish version of this dessert is called Gino. It’s baked strawberries, kiwis and bananas with white chocolate on top. Our version is quite different, but the choice of fruit and measurements are really just suggestions here, add or subtract fruit to your liking. Peaches or pineapple would also be good baked. Or raspberries. We have used fruit in season, but baking fruit is also a great way to increase the flavours during the winter season.
Luise and I haven’t entirely agreed on the baking time. Personally I think the fruit only should be heated quickly, so it’s still quite firm. Just 5-6 minutes or enough time for the chocolate to melt. Luise however prefers the fruit to be more baked and a bit softer so the juices and flavours come together more. That’s about 10-12 minutes. But we’ll leave that decision to you (in the photos and video it’s baked after Luise’s preference).
Warm Summer Fruit Salad with Dark Chocolate & Salted Almonds Serves 4
1 cup almonds + 1 tbsp boiled water mixed with 1 tsp salt (or store-bought salted almonds) 3 kiwi fruits 3 apricots 2 bananas, peel 10 strawberries 10 cherries, pitted 2 plums, remove stones 1 lime, juice 1 oz / 30 g dark chocolate (70% or darker) 1/3 cup dried unsweetened coconut flakes
Preheat the oven to 200°C / 400°F. Prepare the almonds by placing them in a mixing bowl, pour the hot salted water over the almonds and combine until all almonds are covered. Place the almonds in a baking tray and roast in the oven for 10-15 minutes or until slightly golden and crunchy. Set aside. Prepare the fruit by cutting them into bitesize pieces. Place the fruit in a baking dish and add the lime juice, toss to mix. Chop the almonds and sprinkle over the fruit salad. Grate the chocolate until it covers the fruit. Sprinkle with coconut flakes and place the dish in the oven. Bake for 5-10 minutes, until the chocolate has melted and the fruit is warm and juicy (not mushy). Serve in bowls with a dollop thick plain yogurt or ice cream.
I think it’s safe to say that summer is in full swing. Temperatures in Sacramento have been hot (104˚ hot) and with the babe about to hit 2 months old, we’ve been planning to get out of the house more and take a few day trips around Northern California (recommendations are welcome- I’m thinking Petaluma, Santa Cruz, Napa, Yosemite, and Big Sur for starters).
Of course, travel is only a small part of why I love summer. Produce-wise, July is overflowing with goodness. Tomatoes and Sweet Corn are everywhere, berries can be picked by the bucket, and the farmers market is the place to be. Our fruit drawer is packed full of stone fruit for snacking and berries for breakfast toppings (our favorite) while nearly all our meals are cooked on the grill. It feels natural to eat well in July (even when we lived in Illinois!)
Beyond these meals, it’s also a great time to jump into canning! I’m hoping to make pickles, salsa, and some jam. If you’re not sure where to start, I have a basic guide to help you get inspired!
“Each of us starts out as a watertight vessel. And these things happen – these people leave us, or don’t love us, or don’t get us, or we don’t get them, and we lose and fail and hurt one another. And the vessel starts to crack open in places….But there is all this time between when the cracks start to open up and when we finally fall apart. And it’s only in that time that we can see one another, because we see out of ourselves through our cracks and into others through theirs. When did we see each other face-to-face? Not until you saw into my ideas and I saw into yours. Before that, we were just looking at ideas of each other.” ~John Green, Paper Towns
Despite having a great memory, for whatever reason I have a hard time connecting to memories of my past. As a constant dreamer, I live mainly in the future, harboring a strong embarrassment for the naivete of my former self. But today I had a fleeting memory of what it felt like to be the childhood me, fresh-faced and certain that I had life figured out. It was clean and formulaic. If I followed the rules, I could bypass disappointment and tragedy. I could be a watertight vessel.
As I soon found out, life is messy, and mine was not unlike any other. Heartbreak struck in various places: in love (too many times to count), in vocation and avocation, in health, in family. My vessel became cracked, and while I still clung to the fleeting idea of watertight perfection, I began to see the light that is between the cracks, the humanness of people who’ve been cracked and aren’t too scared to admit it and know your cracks too.
I’m far from the first person to bring up the idea of online perfection, that those stylized photographs of quinoa bowls and waffle stacks and bright-white clean kitchens are an idealized version of reality. Yes, these images can present a myth of perfection. But behind each of them are real people, people with cracks and blemishes and insecurities. People who are simply seeking to capture beauty among the imperfectness of this life. I know from experience, behind each gorgeous image are at least 127 terrible ones of the same shot. And I’m certain the lives of the people behind the images are littered with cracks, just like mine.
The recipe and photos in this post are no different. There were several naan pizza test run failures, with wimpy crust and too raw garlic and overly chunky tomatoes. When the flavors were finally finalized and it was time to shoot, the day was cloudy and the lighting difficult, and Alex and I argued about the best way to capture the “mood” of Thai pizza. I reheated the pizza frequently to keep the cheese looking oven fresh, and when we finally got to eat it was lukewarm.
We’ve been at this long enough, though, to see the beauty in the process and the imperfection. The satisfaction in the knowledge that though our kitchen looks like a train wreck, the flavors of Thai curry and fire-roasted tomatoes and cilantro and cashews actually work together. And despite the gray light, my hand picking up that pizza at the exact moment I was going to eat it (instead of pretending to) actually was our best shot. So I say, bring on the cracks and the reality and the imperfections! And in doing so, let us embrace the messiness that is cooking and life and love.
Recipe notes: Asian-style pizza isn’t common, but the combination of Thai curry paste with tomatoes, cilantro and cashews worked wonderfully for us here. We ended up pre-baking the naan to keep for a crispy crust. One pizza per person works well if served with a large salad; if cooking for big appetites you may want to plan for 1 ½ to 2 per serving.
Preheat oven to 450F. Place naan on the oven grate and pre-bake 3 to 4 minutes per side until crisp.
Meanwhile, in a bowl, combine Muir Glen crushed fire-roasted tomatoes with 1½ tablespoons red curry paste, 2 teaspoons sriracha, and a few pinches of kosher salt. Thinly slice the red pepper and green onions.
When the naan is ready, spread each with tomatoes, then top with mozzarella cheese, pepper, onion, cashews, and a sprinkle of kosher salt. Bake for 5 minutes, until the cheese is melted. Remove from the oven and garnish with a few cilantro leaves. Slice and enjoy.
For the longest time, the thought of cooking berries felt so strange to me. Berries were a summer treat, best (read: only) eaten raw and there was really no good reason to heat up the house. And then one morning I was baking banana bread and decided to toss some strawberries in along side to top oatmeal I was also making. It turned out I had been missing out on a new level of fruit eating.
Roasting fruit does something magical where the sugars from the fruit come out even more, making the fruit just a touch sweeter and for some, a bit more mild. I also found when roasting blackberries, it made the fruit more easy to work with in recipes.
While these goat cheese crostini would make a lovely addition to any party, I actually eat this for breakfast during the summer. I’ll occasionally swap out the goat cheese for a whipped cream cheese ( which is really good on homemade bagels) or even ricotta and I’ll often toss whatever fruit I have hiding into the mix (peaches and blackberries may be my favorite combination). Of course if you don’t feel like heating up your oven, you could always good the berries on the stove top (or just lightly mash them raw- just as good!)
Woot woot! We are so thrilled to present this little project that we have been working on lately! We have been turning fruit, berries, vegetables and liquids into smoothies practically every day for the past couple of years. Sometimes we make them for breakfast, other times for dessert, and always after a workout! We can’t think of a fresher, quicker and more delicious way to boost our bodies with energy. Since smoothies have become such a common meal for us, we have picked up some tricks and ideas on how to make them more interesting. Nowadays, we often add extra berries, fruit, nuts or grains to the glass to create a contrast in flavour and texture. We also tend to pour them in layers for a more interesting and beautiful drinking experience.
We have gathered 14 lip-smacking smoothie recipes into a recipe bundle that we just have released as an in-app purchase for our Green Kitchen app. It’s available for $ 1.99 and the difference from the normal (free) recipe updates in the app is that all these recipes are entirely new and previously unpublished. Make sure you have the latest update of the app and there should be a new box with more info at the top of the grid. You need to have iOS 8 installed to be able to install the update. These recipes are available in English (imperial and metric), German, Italian, Spanish and French inside the app.
We are of course bias but we feel pretty damn proud of these smoothies and hope they will give you new ideas and inspiration next time you are starting up the blender.
Here is a preview of all the recipes.
Just like with our Green & Clean recipe pack, 6 months ago, we have also gathered these smoothies in a mini e-book. This is to accomodate those of you that don’t have an iphone or ipad but still want to try the recipes. It’s available for $ 2.99 and can be ordered and downloaded here. We are really hoping you will enjoy these!
To give you a preview, we are also sharing one of the recipes here today. It is a fun little method of ours where the topping (muesli, granola, rolled oats, puffed grains or nuts) is placed at the bottom of the glass and then covered with a few spoonfuls of yogurt and filled up with the smoothie. A quick, delicious and slightly unusual way to have breakfast and it also looks spectacular with the different layers. In this recipe we use muesli and thick yoghurt for the bottom two layers and a simple but delicious blueberry smoothie recipe on top, but we encourage you to use this as a starting points and try the technique with some of the other smoothies in the bundle or any smoothie of your own.
Upside-Down Breakfast Smoothie
Smoothie Ingredients 1 cup / 120 g frozen blueberries 1 blood orange or a regular orange, peeled and roughly chopped 1 banana, peeled and roughly chopped 1 cup / 250 ml plant milk of choice 1 tsp ground cardamom
Layers 1 cup / 125 g muesli, granola, puffed grains or just rolled oats 1 cup / 250 ml full-fat plain unsweetened Greek or Turkish yogurt (for a vegan alternative, use coconut yogurt or organic GMO-free soy yogurt)
Add all smoothie ingredients to a blender and blend on a high-speed until smooth. Divide the muesli between two glasses. Spoon the yogurt over the muesli in each glass. Pour the smoothie on top and serve with a spoon.
I just came back from my cookbook tour in London, which is the very last trip I’m taking until the autumn. Now that I have some time to reflect, I have to say how deeply touched and grateful I am to all of you that have showed your support these past few months. Whether you’ve come out to an event, book signing, cooking class, reposted a recipe on your own blog, sent me a love note, or happy vibes through the ether, I have felt it all and will carry the collective experience with me always. I mean it. I am officially overwhelmed with love.
It’s been a very fulfilling time for me, but if I’m being honest, it’s also been a very challenging one. Being on the road and away from my sweet little family has been hard, despite being surrounded by so much goodness. My workload has also been full-on at the same time, so there hasn’t been much in the way of breaks, or breathing, or looking after myself at all. As someone who is perpetually beating the drum of balance, wellness, and self-love, I am beginning to feel like a hypocrite! And how can I expect to be the best I can be for everyone else if I can’t take care of my precious self?
So in the name of practicing what I preach, I’m introducing My New Roots Summer Lights again – all new delicious, healthy recipes, just without the lengthy article. As it takes an average of 20 hours to create a single blog post, shaving a few off of that will give me some time to regain a little more sanity in my life. And maybe even inspire some of you to do the same.
So. These granola bars. They are really, really yummy. Satisfying in all the ways that count; filling without making you feel full, and a salty-sweet flavor balance to make you feel like you’ve gotten everything you need. Maybe more. I have been relying heavily on these to fill the 11am / 4pm gap, avoid late night bad food decisions, and I’ve mowed down a couple (maybe more) for my personal favourite: breakfast-in-a-taxi/airplane/subway/train. Hey, at least I get to sit down.
The matcha green tea powder is of course what makes the granola bars green. It has a lovely tea-like flavor (thank you, captain obvious), and a nice little bitter nuance that I dig. But because matcha is a bit of a specialty item that can be hard to find and so darn expensive, the you can of course omit it entirely. Maybe sprinkle in another kind of superfood powder if you have it (lucuma, maca, baobab, raw cacao), cocoa powder, or protein powder, or whatever else you’re in the mood for. The point is, these are flexible and simple, and a great granola bar base recipe for you to play with. Party on.
The brown rice syrup makes the granola bars ooey-gooey, but because it isn’t overly sweet, I poured in a few tablespoons of maple syrup for good measure. If you are not vegan, you could replace the maple syrup with honey, but I wouldn’t replace the rice syrup with honey because then these would be way too sweet. Just sayin’.
If your tahini is unsalted, add a little more salt to the dry ingredients – I promise that you want the salty-sweet thing going on here. And if you have an allergy to sesame, or feel like something different, use another kind of nut or seed butter instead – hazelnut butter would be divine, pumpkin seed butter too, or combo it up, wild cat!
Matcha Green Granola Bars Makes 14 bars
Ingredients: 2 cups / 200g rolled oats, gluten-free if desired 1 cup / 135g pumpkin seeds 1 ½ cups unsweetened puffed rice cereal (rice, millet, quinoa etc.) ½ cup dried fruit (raisins, dates, figs, prunes, goji berries), roughly chopped ¼ tsp. flaky sea salt 1 – 1 ½ Tbsp. matcha green tea powder (to your taste) 1/3 cup / 80ml brown rice syrup 3 Tbsp. / 45 ml maple syrup ½ cup / 125ml tahini 2 Tbsp. coconut oil 1 tsp. vanilla extract
Directions: 1. Preheat oven to 325°F/160°C. Combine oats and pumpkin seeds on a baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes, stirring once or twice, until the oats are golden and have a nutty aroma. 2. In a small saucepan combine the brown rice syrup, maple syrup, tahini, coconut oil, vanilla. Whisk to combine. Do not overheat. 3. In a large bowl, combine the cooled oats and pumpkin seeds with the chopped dried fruit, rice puffs, salt, and matcha. Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and stir quickly to mix. 4. Pour the mix into a brownie pan lined with plastic wrap or baking paper. Press the mixture firmly, especially into the corners. Place in the fridge for a couple hours to firm up, then remove from fridge and slice into bars. Keep leftovers in the fridge for up two weeks.
So dear friends, I’m wishing you a very healthy, happy summer full of crazy adventures, (responsible) sun-worshipping, belly laughs, and of course, delicious food.
I struck my match, she poured out her gasoline.
We burn now. All the time. ― Tarryn Fisher
“Each of us starts out as a watertight vessel. And these things happen – these people leave us, or don’t love us, or don’t get us, or we don’t get them, and we lose and fail and hurt one another. And the vessel starts to crack open in places….But there is all this time between when the cracks start to open up and when we finally fall apart. And it’s only in that time that we can see one another, because we see out of ourselves through our cracks and into others through theirs. When did we see each other face-to-face? Not until you saw into my ideas and I saw into yours. Before that, we were just looking at ideas of each other.” ~John Green, Paper Towns
