You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘avocado’ tag.
When I used to live in the Broad Ripple neighborhood of Indianapolis, my favorite Sunday morning breakfast was the tofu scramble at Three Sisters Cafe. You could pick from a number of vegetable add-ins, but I always went with spinach and avocado. In addition to my genuine love for both of them, it always gives me a happy feeling inside to eat something green. Green is good.
Don’t think of tofu scramble as a substitute for an egg dish. I promise, with the right spices, it’s actually tastier. I used Isa Moskowitz’s recipe as a point of departure but made some modifications. I actually really dig the taste of nutritional yeast, but you can try substituting cornmeal or cornstarch instead, or leave it out entirely.
Serves 2:
Ingredients:
- 7 oz. extra firm tofu (about half of a standard-sized package — no need to drain and press for this recipe)
- 2 shallots, chopped
- about 1 T olive oil or some other cooking oil
- 1 small red bell pepper, chopped
- 4-5 button mushrooms, thinly sliced
- 1 cup packed fresh spinach leaves
- 1/4 cup lemon juice (the juice of about one lemon)
- 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
- 3 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp dried thyme
- 1 tsp tumeric
- 1/2 tsp mustard powder
- pinch cayenne pepper (some red pepper flakes would also work here to add spice)
- 1/2 tsp salt (more or less to taste)
- 1 ripe avocado, sliced
- freshly ground pepper to taste
To make:
- Heat oil in a skillet on medium high heat.
- Add shallots and stir, cooking for about three minutes, or until they begin to soften and brown.
- Add red bell pepper and mushrooms; stir, cook for about 2 minutes more.
- Add the spices (cumin, thyme, tumeric, mustard powder, cayenne) and stir very briefly, then splash some water into the pan.
- Add in the tofu by crumbling it with your fingers. Stir well. Then add the spinach and stir some more.
- Cook for about 7-10 minutes, stirring frequently and adding splashes of water if the tofu starts to dry out or stick. BUT: be careful not to add TOO much water — I’ve done this and it results in soggy, soupy tofu.
- Stir in the lemon juice and and nutritional yeast.
- Serve immediately with avocado slices and freshly ground pepper.
This delicious soup is creamy, satisfying and totally RAW! Admittedly, it would probably make a better mid-summer’s snack as opposed to lunch on a 10 degree day in January (thank you, New England). Maybe it was a bit of wishful thinking on my part?
If you don’t have a juicer, you can used pasteurized/bottled/store-bought carrot juice …. but the final product won’t be raw, of course.
Ingredients:
- 2 avocados
- 1 mango, chopped
- about 1 1/4 cup of fresh carrot juice — more or less according to how thick or thin you want the soup to be.
- a small handful of fresh basil leaves
- a small handful of fresh mint leaves
- 1 jalapeno pepper
- 1/2 inch chunk of ginger root, peeled
- 1 T (more or less) flaxseed oil
- something crunch for garnish (I used red bell peppers)
- sea salt to taste
To make:
- Run the ginger root through a food processor to mince.
- Add all other ingredients EXCEPT carrot juice (and red bell pepper/crunch garnish) to the food processor and process until well combined — however, save a bit of the mango and avocado for additional garnish, if desired.
- Slowly add in the carrot juice until an even consistency is achieved.
- Garnish with mango, avocado and red bell pepper …. and enjoy!
After what I affectionately refer to as my “European Summer of Self-Indulgence,” I have been attempting to clean house with a raw food kick. The raw food movement has always intrigued me. But every time I crack open a raw food recipe book, I am ultimately scared away by the unfamiliar, expensive, and/or time consuming appliances and processes such as food dehydrators, juicers, Vita-Mix blenders (the ones that will apparently puree rocks) and, the most scary thing of all — sprouting.
If you share my raw food fears, take heart. It’s quick and easy to whip up some great raw food recipes without a major investment of time or money. While eating 100% raw is intimidating (and for many of us, impossible), the benefits of raw, living foods can be easily experienced just by incorporating more raw food meals into your diet. Raw fruits, vegetables, seeds and nuts are a high vibration food — the ultimate whole food, completely unprocessed. Undamaged by heat, which changes the chemical structure of food, they are rich in vitamins, minerals, oxygen, and enzymes. Eating raw foods is a gift to your digestive system and allows you instantly access the energy of what you eat. Since I’ve made an effort to incorporate more raw and living foods into my diet, I’ve experienced a very noticeable increase in energy and quite welcome feeling of lightness. And I still haven’t attempted to sprout a thing — although I must admit my curiosity is starting to get the better of me . . . stay tuned for possible forthcoming adventures in sprouting.
I have enjoyed a bowl of this gazpacho pretty much every day since I first made it about a month ago — no kidding. It’s great as a meal or refreshing snack. I like to make it with colorful heirloom tomatoes, but any fresh, juicy tomato will do. The addition of fresh raw corn was pleasant surprise. I grew up in Indiana, surrounded by corn fields, and corn was always a rather boring and pedestrian starchy vegetable that I typically avoided. But when cut fresh off the cob, it adds a great crunchy sweetness to the gazpacho — although any crunchy fresh vegetable can provide the same effect. Gazpacho is often made with garlic, but raw garlic is sometimes a little too much for me to handle, so I don’t use it. Feel free to add it in for an additional flavor boost.
Serves 2.
Ingredients for the soup:
- about one pound of heirloom tomatoes, coarsely chopped
- one medium to large cucumber, peeled and coarsely chopped
- about 1 T of cold expeller pressed extra virgin olive oil (or more, to taste)
- a fistful of fresh basil leaves
- about a cup of a coarsely chopped “filler” vegetable - whatever you have on hand (I like to use carrots or red or orange bell peppers)
- pinch of cayenne pepper to taste
- sea salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
For the garnish:
- one avocado, chopped
- fresh corn from one cob
- optional: shredded veggies such as carrots
To make:
- Combine all ingredients in a food processor until well mixed.
- Top with garnish and serve
Recent Comments