Best salad dressing ever! Tangerine, wasabi, chipotle, sesame, ginger

Best salad dressing ever! Super Healthy too. 

The ingredients are not traditional and you can either get them at various ethnic stores or online. I have been using a lot of dried pomegranate seeds lately. This is not the same variety of pomegranates that we normally find fresh in grocery stores. It's used in indian and a persian cuisine. The seeds are dried from a sour type of pomegranates. The antioxidant content is at the top of the charts. It's surprisingly higher than acai and goji berries! It also makes for a great salad dressing ingredient. VERY HEALTHY!

Another unusual ingredient is the wasabi powder. The one I used is from Penzey's. I randomly walked into their store in Santa Monica and got a few things that are hard to come by. Needless to say a Japanese ingredient. 

Chipotle - dried smoked mexican hot peppers. I get them at health food stores, online or mexican stores. They add a smokey flavor to any dish. They can be mild or hot. 

Aleppo pepper is a type of mild, sweet, oily pepper. It's rich and bright in color. It comes from Aleppo, Syria. It's superior to any pepper I have ever tried. I randomly bought it at an Armenian store not thinking much of it. It turns out it is the most gourmet mild hot pepper out there. Its a bit salty and oily. I am pretty sure it's from the way they process it. It's flavorful and sweet with a slowly building heat. It is not a must but if you happen to see it in your store definitely try it out. It creates a great presentation when sprinkled over zucchini "fries", potatoes, salads, etc.

Kumquats can be substituted for oranges and orange zest.

Jamaican Jerk is a combination of ginger, brown mustard seeds, onion, allspice, garlic, paprica, thyme, fennel seeds, black pepper, red pepper, cloves. OPTIONAL

Tofu can be substituted for boiled garbanzo beans. Tofu gives it a nice creamy consistency. 

Ingredients

1-3 tangerine

3-4 carrots

200 grams (organic) tofu

4-5 kumquats

a  slice of fresh ginger

chipotle or hot peppers to taste

a dash of ceylon cinnamon

2 tbsp (freshly) roasted sesame seeds

tamari sauce or soy sauce to taste 

stevia (optional) or (palm, cane) sugar

1 clove of garlic

2 tbsp pomegrante seeds

1-3 tbsp apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp flax seed

a dash of jamaican jerk spice

2-3 tbsp of aleppo pepper flakes

1/4 teaspoon of wasabi powder

water to achieve desired consistency

Blend in a high power blender. If you don't have a high power blender make sure you grind the sesame and flax first. Boil the carrots so they blend to a smooth consistency. 

DRIED POMEGRANATE SEEDS

Dried Pomegranate Seeds

Healthy Vegan Sweet Potato Creamy Soup Dip

I've been craving sweet potatoes for a the last few days. Organic ones are hard to find in my neighborhood. There is plenty of yams but no sweet potatoes around. So I had to wait for farmers market day to get my hands on some :) woohoo

The soup I made was very thick and creamy. I used just enough coconut milk so the blender can chop up and liquify everything.

INGREDIENTS

I am a very lazy cook. The recipe is half raw half cooked because I didn't want to wait for everything to come to a boil and then cool off.  It was very delicious nevertheless.

So... STEP ONE

BLEND
1 sweet potato
1 small beet (optional,  I used it more for color than for the taste. You will taste the beet a little so if you are not into the earthy taste of beets you can just skip it)
A cup or so of coconut/almond milk
A pinch of cinnamon
1/4 of an Onion
3 Cardamom pots (you will taste the cardamom so if you don't like cardamom skip it)  I loved the blending of flavors.

Blend all of the above ingredients raw and bring to a boil on the stove.

STEP TWO

BLEND

2 carrots
1 yellow bell pepper
1/2 - 1 cup cooked mashed pumpkin (I used a canned version because pumpkins are out of season)
1 clove of Garlic (If you prefer the garlic cooked then just blend it with the ingredients in step one)
Coconut milk depending on the consistency you desire
Optional: Vegetable Stock, Oil, Salt

Once everything on the stove has been simmering for 5-10 minutes you can poor the raw ingredients in and turn the stove off.

Once cooled off you can blend everything again.

Serve!

Sprinkle with savory, thyme, cinnamon, lemon black pepper, jamaican spices or curry, sumac, cayenne, cilantro, chives, ginger or whatever spices you love.
Optional -you can sauté the onions, garlic, jamaican spices and bell pepper in olive oil or coconut butter before blending them into the rest of the ingredients.

ENJOY!

What I eat in a day

Namaste Beautiful Yogis,

I am continuing with "What I eat in a day" blogs once a week :)

If I continue the date & banana and veggies & dip trend it might get boring and redundant, but I do go through phases :) And then I move on. 

For example last summer I went through a broccoli phase. Couldn't get enough broccoli. Now the love affair with broccoli is over and i have moved on to bigger and better relationships haha

This week was all about tomato dip.... just tastes divine.

So yesterday's breakfast was late. I had tea in the morning and got caught up working so didn't get to eat till 2pm. 

Here's my morning tea "ceremony".

The republic of Tea milk oolong. If you want to try Oolong tea I would say get a different one. This is my least favorite of the Milk Oolong varieties I have tried so far.



I got caught up in work so next thing I know it's 2 o'clock. I had some hojicha tea (I am on a  rare tea kick which passes quickly- usually I have a lot of herbal teas) with dates and shared a few bananas with Sofie (she wanted her cut for protecting me 24/7)

Then some more work. And a raw cacao herbal drink with shilajit, dandelion root, chipotle/cayenne, slippery elm, peppermint, hazelnut, coconut milk.

An hour later I had a ton of dates with cacao cayenne tea. This drink was amazing. Not sure what made it so delicious. Maybe the dates.

Then it was time for Sofie's walk. She practically kicked me out of the house with her leash in her mouth. She figured she's been patient long enough. Beautiful flowering tree in my neighborhood on the walk. 

Any guesses what the name of the tree is?

My whole neighborhood smells like Orange Blossom - heavenly aroma reminiscent Jasmine flowers in May.

(THIS IS TURNING INTO MY TEA DIARIES) 

Embarrassing but a fact- I had more tea after that- Organic india Tulsi Vanilla Cream and saffron. IMO vanilla and tulsi do not go together. 

After the walk I shot the next challenge which I will upload later. Then I went shopping for food and came home and worked out for only 10 minutes but at a high intensity. 

Dinner time! Woohooo

The secret to eating vegan, 80/10/10 , Raw or High in fruits and Veggies diet is Dips and Salad dressings. They taste divine. You can prepare amazing high in anti-oxidants concoctions with healing spices and herbs and that way you can get all your healing herbs in, plus your raw veggies. I eat a lot of raw veggies. Big portions. I had a few refills of what you see below:

Raw cabbage with tomato pumpkin hummus almond dip.  Summer savory, chipotle, sage added. Over the cabbage I sprinkled some designer mexican chile and some kelp. (I had it in my cupboard- you can sprinkle anything on it really) 

I also played with creating some pineapple, tomato, pepper salsa-dip. Refreshing!

I also experimented with some saffron pumpkin dip. Turned out tasting like an ethnic amazing dessert that you may find in a small shop in a strange country while traveling the world.  :) This is a pumpkin, cinnamon, mesquite powder, saffron, tofu dip. It's sweet, but if you add onions and chile to it it's sweet and savory ;) (this is either gross or divine depending on interpretation) it's like durian recreated.

 I love the color!

After dinner I had some organic lolly pops (do not recommend you do that haha)  They are so flavorful so I had to try them. Just FYI last time I had pops was 2 years ago so it's not a regular part of my diet. Those ones 2 years ago were mango chipotle- I had to have them. The reason I put chipotle on everything is because it's freaking DELICIOUS. I learned that from a mexican farmer probably 8  years ago. I was in a Vegas orchard picking fruit- apricots, figs, pecans, peaches, nectarines, etc. And he saw me holding apricots and asked me if I knew how to eat them. Silly farmer! of course I know how to eat fruit- I eat it off the tree haha....

OK not the answer he was looking for- you open it in 2 halves, remove the stone and sprinkle some salt, chipotle and lime on it. And then it's ready to eat (tastes amazing on watermelon and mango- even cilantro and black pepper can go on top)  :D I skip the salt now but chipotle goes in everything nowadays. 

On a side note, in the evening I wanted to make some anklets and bracelets. I have never been into crafts before, NEVER; but I had these beautiful beads laying around and wanted to make bracelets. However, I realized that I had to order elastic string for it in order to complete my jewelry-making skills out. 

Beautiful Beads- semi precious stones. Two colors of turquoise, rose quarts, garnets, etc.

Thats all my foods and activities for the day :)

These is probably around 1700 calories at around 80/10/10 ratio (carbs to fat to protein percentage from calories)

Love and Light 

PUMPKIN PEANUT BUTTER DIP

PUMPKIN PEANUT BUTTER DIP

This was beyond delicious. Creamy, sweet, savory. A great dip for raw or pan roasted carrots, apples or any veggies you love.

250 g PUMPKIN CANNED OR ROASTED
2 TBSP PEANUT BUTTER 
COCONUT MILK
YELLOW ONION
1 TBSP MESQUITE POWDER
CHIPOTLE
CEYLON CINNAMON
A touch of tomato sauce 
Optional: a few dates 

BLEND, SERVE, ENJOY!
GREAT AS A DIP FOR CARROTS

THE QUANTITIES ARE REALLY UP TO YOU AND YOUR PREFERENCES

Random info: Ceylon Cinnamon Cinnamomum verum has a much milder and more pleasant and delicate taste than ordinary store bought cinnamon. It is healthier than ordinary cinnamon. Cinnamon is used to lower blood sugar in diabetics, ease arthritis and improve cholesterol.


NAMASTE