Tag Archives: Picnic

Best Nut Butter EVER

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I have already shared my adventure with making Almond Milk, and from there I have been having fun with making almond meal or flour (with the remaining pulp from making almond milk) and finally Almond butter. I am intolerant to peanuts, so I have never eaten peanut butter willingly. My first attempts at almond butter opened a whole new thing for me. It’s delicious!

I found several recipes/methods on the web in various blogs, and decide to give it a try. I buy raw almonds at the Heart of the City Farmer’s Market to make almond milk, and started from those. I took 2 cups of raw almonds, put them on a cookie sheet and roasted them in the oven (350F but my oven isn’t quite precise) 10-12 minutes. Then I let them cool completely and threw them in the blender for about 12 minutes scraping the sides regularly. That’s it! No oil, just a tiny pinch of salt, that’s my basic recipe in my old immersion blender with the blender/chopper attachment.

That’s what I was doing until this week, because this week I got a VITAMIX! Isn’t it a beauty?

So I decided that to celebrate my new toy, I would experiment a little. I started with raw almonds again, and roasted them again, only this time I added pre-roasted sunflower seeds that I had on hand. Then I added some spice, and honey and processed the whole thing until super creamy.

The result was a delicious nut butter that is still creamy and delicious after days in the fridge. It’s just to die for! The trick it to keep pushing the nuts around with the tamper tool (the black thing that it sticking out of the top) and to stop and take a break when it gets too warm, not the base, the nut butter! You see, the Vitamix is so powerful that the friction of the blades can produce heat, so if you don’t want to cook your nut butter, you want to monitor the temperature of the stuff (just put your hand on the side) and when it gets hot, take a break until it’s cool again.

In the same line of idea, next time I will roast the nuts the day before and keep them in the freezer, that way it will be cold and won’t heat up so fast! It’s my 3rd batch of Nut butter and by far the best one. Not only it’s spiced and sweetened, but the power of the Vitamix made it so creamy and smooth that it’s just not comparable!

Here’s the recipe! It makes about 1 1/2 of nut butter.

Autumn Nut Butter

1 1/2 cup raw almonds
1/2 cup roasted, unsalted sunflower seeds (Trader Joes)
1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
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1 TBSP (or less) honey (I used local honey)
1 pinch salt

Roast the almonds in a preheated (350F) oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Monitor so that they just barely start browning, don’t over-roast. Let cool completely!

Put Sunflower seeds and almonds in the blender.

Add the spices and process until creamy.

If using a Vitamix: take breaks if the mixture gets too hot, processing in burst of about 30 seconds to 1 minute, pushing the mixture around with the tamper tool constantly. In a regular blender, process for about 10 minutes, stopping to scrape the sides every now and then.

Once it’s nice and creamy, add the honey and salt and process some more, about 30 seconds in the Vitamix, 1-2 minutes in the regular blender. Et voila!

It’s delicious by itself, even better with a banana! it’s filling! I LOVE the stuff! You can make your own variations. Have fun experimenting with this! Please let me know if you find another tasty mix :)

Apple-Fennel Slaw

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A friend asked me permission to put this recipe in her CSA newsletter, and that reminded me that I never posted it on here. I invented that last fall, and made it several times. so here it is for you to try and enjoy!!

I did all the cutting by hand, but it’d be very easy to accelerate the process by using a mandolin! It was really delicious, I have to make it again!

Here’s what it looks like (apologies for the cellphone picture, I shall get a better one next time I make it):

Apple -Fennel slaw
6 servings,

Ingredients
2 granny smith apple, thinly julienned
1 fennel bulb, cored, thinly julienned
2 TBSP lemon juice (or so)
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1 (generous) TBSP dijon mustard (I use whole grain, it’s prettier)
1 tsp olive oil
1/2 packet stevia (or 1 tsp sugar)
1/2 TBSP (or more) poppy seeds
Salt & pepper to taste

Mix 1 TBSP of the vinegar with the lemon juice and pour over the apple juliennes as soon as they are cut (to keep from browning). Put in a big bowl

Mix the mustard, the remaining vinegar, the oil and the stevia in a little bowl, pour over the slaw. Add poppy seeds, salt and pepper and toss well.

Source: My own brain, please credit said brain if you’re going to reuse ;op

Nutritional info: TBD (I know, I say that a lot lately, I have to find an easier way to calculate! suggestions appreciated!)

“Summer in a bowl” Gazpacho

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How’s that for a name? I always loved the idea of a gazpacho, but couldn’t seem to find one that fitted my taste. It was always too sweet, not sweet enough, too spicy, not spicy enough. I’m preparing a little presentation about “Packing Up Summer Foods” and really, what’s better for a packed lunch, or a picnic, than a gazpacho right? So I decided to just start over and invent my own.

How summery does that look?

My criterias were simple: I wanted a soup that would be sweet, fresh with a bit of a bite to it. It had to be low calories, low fat, low carbs and finally, it had to be simple and quick to make. Litterally, I created this recipe at a cafe, sipping on a coffee and then brought it in my kitchen to try out and modify. It’s the first time I do it that way rather than invent as I’m cooking, and it was a lot of fun!

I love handling ingredients. Real food!

Not only it was fun, but it turned out to be absolutely delicious. Honestly, to my taste, it is the best Gazpacho I have ever had! I knew I wanted mango for sweetness, cucumber and cilantro for freshness, and a Serrano pepper for spiciness. Those were my start point, and here’s what I ended up with:

“Summer in a Bowl”  Gazpacho
4 servings

So good, and quick!

Ingredients
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 English cucumber, chopped,
2 green onions, chopped
1 small yellow bell pepper, chopped
1/4 cup red onion, minced
1 Serrano pepper, minced (I remove about 1/2 of the seeds to cut spiciness)
1 mango, pitted, peeled, chopped
1/3 cilantro, coarsely chopped (to taste)
Juice and zest of 1/2 orange (I used cara, but navel would do)
3 medium tomatoes
Salt and pepper to taste

I like to mix veggies before processing.

Mix chopped vegetables (all but tomatoes*) in a big bowl. Process in batches in a blender or a chopper (see Tool Note), along with the orange juice, until it’s pretty homogeneous, but still slightly chunky.

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Can't have too much cilantro!

Add cilantro and orange zest, salt and pepper and process some more. If you are preparing it to serve the following day, or even much later in the day, stop there and refrigerate until ready to serve, or to pack.

Orange zest is smoother than lemon.

Just before serving (or packing), finely chop tomatoes, add to the soup, and mix. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Chopping by hand is prettier I think.

Nutritional Information* (about 1 cup): Calories 83; fat 0.6g; Carbs 19.5g; Fiber 4g; Proteins 2g.

Source: My brain!

*Nutritional information is calculated using various online calculators and given for informational purpose only. I cannot guarantee 100% accuracy.

Blending is faster, but you do lose the look.

* If you want to serve the soup right away, or if you don’t mind refrigerating the tomatoes (I try not to as it kill their taste) then just coarsely chop them and throw them in the blender with the rest of the veggies.

Tool Note: I used my trusty handheld blender with the chopped attachment for this. This one is very old  (6 years at least) and has been used and abused a lot, and yet it is still going. Honestly, I got rid of most of my kitchen “power tools” after I got this because I use this for everything.

My best friend in the kitchen!

It WAS pricy, I paid about 80 dollars and that was with an employee discount, but I absolutely would spend it again. I do smoothies (with ice), hot and cold soups, chop veggies, anything with this and on it goes. It also has a blender attachment (handheld style), and a whip attachment.

It has at least one more soup to go, right?

It IS starting to sound a little tired, and I’m already starting to look around for a decent replacement, but I’m afraid I might not find such a friend again ;o)

Let me know what you think. I’m totally open to ideas and suggestions, more than open I love it!  As always, my recipes are to be adjusted to your own taste but really, this is deliciously delicious!