Category: Condiment

Summer Cobb Salad with Coconut Bacon

July 20, 2018 35 Comments

Summer is HERE! Wowee zowee it’s been a beautiful July filled with plenty of sunshine, swimming, fresh fruit, and family time. It’s also a very special feeling being in Canada for the whole spring-to-summer transition once again. It’s one of my favourite things, watching this little part of the world turn green and warm, for the lakes and rivers to invite us in, for the farmers’ markets to burst with local goodness, and for the long days to stretch into equally enchanted nights.

I don’t cook a whole lot this time of year – I like to keep my food really fresh, mostly raw and pretty light. If I am turning the stove or oven on, it’s often to make staples that I can keep on hand in the fridge to amp up a salad or sandwich. Lentils, beans, and quinoa are some rotating essentials that I can add a bunch of fresh veggies to, or turn into a dip. I also love to have some coconut bacon from my second cookbook, Naturally Nourished, on hand to add awesome flavour and texture to something as basic as avocado toast.

The inspiration for this salad came when I had just made a fresh batch of this magical stuff, and I was trying to come up with some alternative uses for it (besides the best B.L.T. ever) when I remembered another classic bacon meal: the Cobb Salad! If you live outside of North America, chances are you’re not familiar with this iconic dish, a texture-rich combination of chopped romaine, avocado, tomato, chives, hard-boiled eggs, bacon, and chicken. It’s a rich and protein-heavy “salad”, often smothered in a creamy blue cheese dressing. Whoa! Major. Needless to say, I knew that this was perfect makeover fodder, and I had everything I needed to get started.

To turn this indulgent dish into something just as delicious, but actually a salad, was relatively easy. First, I decided to turn up the green and add some spinach to the mix. This small addition delivers more iron, protein, vitamin C and folate. Instead of chicken, I pointed my garden arrow at peas, to add body and filling fiber. Cooked chickpeas, butter beans or French lentils would also work beautifully in their place. Watermelon radishes just came into season here, and it was a total no-brainer to add them to this version, since they add great crunch, delicious earthiness, and pink. Because pink! And of course I kept the avocado…duh.

The Creamy Chive Dressing is such a win here. I created it in hopes of maintaining that rich and satisfying mouthfeel that blue cheese dressing lends to the classic Cobb, but without the cheese, cream, sour cream and mayo (I mean, holy cow). Instead I used hemp seeds, which are rich in Omega-3 fats, and protein to energize our summer bods. It’s tangy, a little garlic-y, and super fresh. And since my recipe makes more than enough for this salad, pour the rest over thickly sliced beefsteak tomatoes, grilled eggplant and zucchini, or fold it into cooked grains and greens.

My version of Cobb Salad is more of a concept than a recipe – so feel free to play around a bit with what you have, in the amounts that you have. And if you’ve got some other salad-y things kicking around that would work here, toss them in! No rules, just a clean-out-the-fridge kinda deal. It’s summer. Let’s keep things easy and flowin’!

To say I’m obsessed with this salad is an understatement. It’s the perfect summer meal and has everything going on with its fresh, crunchy, garden-fresh veggies and greens, creamy avocado, juicy tomatoes, rich and smoky coconut bacon, smooth and tangy chive dressing, satisfying eggs, and if you don’t want to dive face first into that bowl right now I don’t think we’ll ever be friends ; )

Summer Cobb Salad with Coconut Bacon
Serves 2 as a meal, 4 as a side

Ingredients:
1 head of romaine lettuce
a couple large handfuls of spinach
a few handfuls fresh peas, raw or lightly steamed
2 medium watermelon radish
1-2 ripe avocados, depending on how hungry you are
2-3 soft-boiled eggs, optional
a couple handfuls of Coconut Bacon (recipe follows)
a generous drizzle of Creamy Chive Dressing (recipe follows)
chives for garnish
flaky salt and pepper for garnish

Directions:
1. Roughly chop the romaine and spinach, and place in a large salad bowl.

2. Thinly slice the watermelon radishes, peel and slice the avocado, cut the eggs in half, and add these ingredients to the greens. Scatter peas throughout, toss on the Coconut Bacon, drizzle with the Creamy Chive Dressing and garnish with chives, salt and pepper. Devour and rejoice.

Coconut Bacon
Makes 5 cups / 200g

Ingredients:
¼ cup / 60ml tamari
¼ cup / 60ml maple syrup
3 Tbsp. melted coconut oil
1 Tbsp. liquid smoke
1 tsp. freshly cracked black pepper
½ tsp. garlic powder
5 cups / 200g coconut flakes

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 325°F / 160°C.

2. Whisk all wet ingredients together in a large bowl. Add coconut flakes and toss well to coat. Let the coconut sit and marinate in the liquid for about 5 minutes.

3. Place coconut on a parchment-lined baking sheet, spreading it out evenly. Bake for 20-30 minutes, stirring every 7 minutes or so, until fragrant and crispy. The coconut will crisp up outside the oven as well, so take that into consideration. Store in an airtight container for up to three weeks.

Creamy Chive dressing
Makes 1 ½ cups / 375ml

Ingredients:
¾ cup / 100g hemp seeds
zest of 1 lemon
¼ cup / 60ml freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 clove garlic
2 Tbsp. cold-pressed olive oil
2 tsp. pure maple syrup
¼ tsp. fine sea salt
½ cup / 125ml water, or more as needed
3 Tbsp. finely minced chives

Directions:
1. Place all ingredients except for the chives in a blender (a high-speed blender is definitely recommended) and blend on high until completely smooth and creamy. Add the minced chives and pulse once or twice just to incorporate them. Taste and adjust seasoning if desired. If the dressing is too thick, add a little water and blend well again.

2. Pour dressing into a glass jar and store leftovers in the fridge for up to one week.

Show me your salad on Instagram: #mnrcobbsalad

Caramelized Onion White Lentil Hummus

June 14, 2018 26 Comments

If there is one trick I’ve learned in all of my years cooking, both at home and in restaurants, it is this: caramelized onions can make almost anything taste amazing. They’re the ridiculously simple, yet magical ingredient that turns an ordinary dish into something so rich-tasting and satisfying that people go …oh hi excuse me, this is incredible.

I think the simple reason that caramelized onions taste so good, is because they are a labour of love. Not like an all-day stirring the pot kinda deal, but most definitely a food that you can’t just leave on the stove and dive into an Instagram vortex. No. Caramelized onions take care and attention, at least for the better part of half an hour, and the results are so worth it I bet you’ll catch yourself multi-tasking at the stove tonight just to have some on hand to gussy up your omelet this weekend (boss move there, by the way).

The more accurate reason that caramelized onions taste so good however, isn’t technically caramelization – it’s called the Maillard reaction. The Maillard reaction is a browning reaction similar to caramelization, but with one distinct difference: caramelization is a chemical reaction between reducing sugars, while Maillard is a chemical reaction between reducing sugars and amino acids (proteins). And yes, there is enough protein in an onion to elicit this response – how thrilling for us! Although the Maillard reaction is very complex and complicated, what we do know is that it requires heat to transform and rearrange sugars and amino acids to create new and fantastic flavour molecules in and on your food, making it even more delicious. If you’ve ever eaten a golden slice of toast, enjoyed a rich cup of coffee, or nibbled on a grilled vegetable, you’ve experienced the pure pleasure that all of this this chemical commotion is responsible for. Science!

Harnessing the power of the Maillard reaction can make you a better cook, because things that are browned properly taste more intensely, more complex, and well, better. Without even being aware of it, it’s the reason you’ll reach for the roasted veggies with the crispiest edges, or the reason that you prefer a fried egg over a boiled one (no judgement!). There are a couple ways of making this spectacular series of chemical reactions work for you, and the first is high heat. Maillard will not occur at very low temperatures, especially in situations where the food is not in direct contact with the heat, like it is on a skillet or grill for instance. When you’re roasting veggies, make sure the oven is at least 400°F / 200°C. When you’re making pizza, you can crank it up even higher, to get those beautifully blistered crust edges that make your mouth water.

The second way is to keep the food you’re cooking on the dry side. For instance, have you ever noticed how if you wash mushrooms (which you should actually never do), they’ll never really get brown and crusty? Too much moisture! Instead, brush those fungi gently to remove any dirt or debris, then put them in a screeching hot pan with some ghee and don’t stir them. I talk more about this technique here. This is the same reason you need a large pan for these caramelized onions, since they’ll need the space to allow the water to evaporate around them. If the onions are too close together, they’ll only steam each other. Eew. If you’re oven roasting vegetables for dinner, cut them in the morning and leave them out all day uncovered so that the surface water will evaporate, and the veggies will brown more easily. Yes, this seems like a bit of a hassle, but the culinary nerd in me admits that it’s cool because it works.

So, where does the hummus come into this story? Well, hummus is pretty much a food group in my world. I’ve made so many variations with so many kinds of legumes, spices, alt seed butters, toppings, and stir-ins, that I could hardly believe I had never tried it with the ingredient that could single-handedly save humanity: caramelized onions. I knew that deep richness of the onions would meld perfectly with the creamy dip, and make the flavour even better. I wasn’t wrong! The only thing that I wanted to improve upon, was the protein content – not because I’m obsessed with protein, but simply because I thought it could be higher. To do that I simply swapped out the traditional chickpeas for white lentils, or urad dal. We not only get more protein from this change-up, but almost double the fiber, with less sodium, less fat, and less sugar. Sweet.

This dip is the perfect, rich compliment to all the crisp and light, early summer veggies popping up. I went to my friend’s farm and picked some seriously beautiful radishes and young carrots, which paired so well with the caramelized onion flavour. I also had some Life-Changing Crackers on hand, which always make dipping more delicious. One thing I changed from the first version to the third, was the onions on top. Instead of blending all of them into the dip, I used about a third of them on top, which allows you to scoop a few tender morsels up with each bite. This delivers even more caramelized onion flavour and texture, which, let us be reminded, is the whole point of this exercise.

Even though this hummus keeps well for at least five days in the fridge (you can even freeze it!), it is best eaten freshly made at room temperature, since the flavour is at its peak then.

And because you’re wondering, you can find white or ivory lentils at Indian grocers, Middle Eastern markets, or some natural food stores. They are the skinned and split version of urad dal, which is black, so make sure you buy the huskless version! If you can’t find them at all, simply use chickpeas – it will be just as delicious.

Caramelized Onion and White Lentil Hummus
Makes about 2 cups / 500ml

Ingredients:
¾ cup raw white lentils (huskless split black mapte beans / urad dal dhuli), soaked if possible
1 small clove garlic
3 Tbsp. tahini
3 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tsp. balsamic vinegar
½ tsp. fine sea salt
¼ tsp. ground cumin
heaping ¼ tsp. freshly cracked black pepper
1 batch caramelized onions (from the recipe below)
cold-pressed olive oil, for garnish

Directions:
1. Start by cooking the lentils. If you’ve soaked them beforehand (even an hour helps!) drain and rinse them very well. If you’re starting from raw, place the lentils in the cooking pot, cover with plenty of water and vigorously swish them around with your hands. When the water becomes murky, drain and repeat until the water is clear, or mostly clear (this can take 3-4 rounds). Place lentils in the cooking pot and cover generously with water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to simmer and cook partially covered for about 20-30 minutes, depending on whether or not you soaked them. The lentils should be cooked until mushy. If the pot becomes dry during cooking, simply add more water. Once cooked, drain the lentils if there is any remaining water. Set aside to cool.

2. In a food processor pulse the garlic until finely minced. Add the tahini, lemon juice, balsamic, salt, cumin and pepper, then blend until combined. Add the cooked lentils and blend on high until smooth. Lastly, add about two-thirds of the caramelized onions, and pulse to incorporate them into the dip. Taste and adjust seasoning if desired.

3. To serve, spoon the hummus into a serving bowl. Make a small divot in the center of the dip and spoon in the remaining caramelized onions. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with your toppings of choice (I used toasted black sesame and chive flowers for a splash of colour, but this is totally optional). Serve with crispy fresh veggies and crackers or toasted flatbreads. Enjoy.

Caramelized Onions
Ingredients:
2 Tbsp. neutral-tasting coconut oil or ghee
1 lb. / 500g yellow onions
¼ tsp. fine sea salt

Directions:
1. Peel the onions and slice them as evenly as possible into half-rounds.

2. Melt coconut oil or ghee over medium heat in the largest skillet you have. Add the onions, then salt, and stir well to coat. Once the onions are coated, turn the heat down to a medium-low, stirring occasionally – more often towards the end – until they’ve fully caramelized, about 25-30 minutes. If the pot becomes too dry during cooking, reduce the heat a tad, or add a teeny bit of water adn stir well. In the end, you’re looking for soft, silky, and golden brown goodness! Store leftovers in the fridge for up to four days, or freeze for 3 months.

If it’s your first time caramelizing onions and you’re feeling intimidated, here is a stellar step-by-step tutorial from Bon Appétit. It varies ever so slightly from my method, but you’ll get the picture!

Big love and happy hummus,
Sarah B.

Show me your hummus on Instagram: #mnrcaramelizedonionhummus

* * * * *

Hello dear friends!

There are only a few spots left for our January 2019 Wild Heart High Spirit retreat and we’d love to see you in Bali!

Join us along with 15 other women to unwind, reconnect, and find the inspiration to ignite you on your health journey. Our thoughtfully-designed program will awaken and nourish your entire being – body, mind, and spirit! This is a true celebration of life, and we get to do it together in paradise! Come see what all the magic is about.

Much love,
Sarah B, Mikkala and the Golden Circle Retreats team

Sweet Potato Sandwiches

February 9, 2018 48 Comments

Necessity is the mother of invention, and when you’re missing all of your kitchen equipment, you get creative. We’ve been living out of a single suitcase for some months now, and although I have found a couple of major necessities in the mountain of unpacked moving boxes, I haven’t been able to locate my silicon loaf pan. As someone who makes the Life Changing Loaf of Bread on the reg, it’s been a challenge living without, but a stellar opportunity to come up with bread alternatives that don’t involve a lot of ingredients or special equipment. As I was chopping up some sweet potato for a soup a couple of weeks ago, it dawned on me: what if I cut the sweet potato the other way and turned it into a slice of bread?! It was just crazy enough to work. And it did.

Ever since then, I’ve been roasting sweet potato slices once a week, keeping them in my fridge and having a sandwich-like-thing when the mood strikes. It’s delicious! Not to mention wildly satisfying and so easy to make. I’ve experimented with different herbs and spices on the sweet potatoes, using special salts, and even drizzling with flavoured oils once they’re out of the oven. So far, I’m digging smoked salt and garlic powder, but the cinnamon, ginger, and cardamom combo was a close second at breakfast, smeared with chunky hazelnut butter.

The spread I’ve come up with as a pairing to this sandwich sitch, is a horseradish and beetroot “schmear”. Partly because I like saying the word schmear, but mostly because it’s incredible in combination with the sweet potatoes. It’s earthy, spicy, and complex – a great counterpoint to the sweetness of the spuds. I also like the texture difference: the sweet potatoes are so smooth and creamy, while the beet schmear is chunky and toothsome. If you’ve never had fresh horseradish before, be prepared to be blown away! This stuff is so, so special and delicious, I have no idea why it’s such an under-utilized root veggie.

A part of the Brassicaceae family, horseradish shares ties with mustard, broccoli, cabbage, and wasabi. In fact, most commercially-available wasabi is made of horseradish (along with mustard, starch, and green food dye) since wasabi is challenging to grow and therefore much more expensive. But that familiar and addictive rush of sinus-clearing pleasure-pain? That’s the action of isothiocyanate, the compound found in wasabi, horseradish, and strong mustard that gives off heat when crushed, grated, or chewed. This stuff tends to mellow out once it hits the air, which is why horseradish snobs (they exist!) insist on grating it fresh. In the case of my schmear here, it will still taste delish a day or two after you’ve made it, but you may want to grate a little fresh over the top for a boost. It’s the best way to clear out those nasal cavities this side of a neti pot!

Horseradish has been used as powerful winter medicine for hundreds of years. Widely recognized for its expectorant capabilities, it is incredibly effective at removing mucus, and aiding with bronchial and lung disorders. Horseradish is a good source of vitamin C and zinc, two key players in immune system support, so consuming it in the colder months will help ward off the seasonal bugs flying around. For sore throats and coughs, combine one tablespoon of freshly grated horseradish with one teaspoon of raw honey, and one teaspoon of ground clove to some warm water. Sip the brew slowly, or use it as a gargle.

This is more of a concept than a recipe, and a chance to try out sweet potatoes in a new way. Cut them as thick or as thin as you like. Mine are around 1cm, but that is just my personal preference. Remember that the slices will definitely shrink a bit during cooking, so slice them a tad thicker than you would want the finished roasted slice to be. You can even make shapes with a cookie cutter – great for kids lunches! Let your imagine run with this one, and keep me posted on which spreads and seasonings you’re vibing on.

Sweet Potato Sandwiches
Makes 6-8 sandwiches

2-3 fat, stubby sweet potatoes (organic if possible)
coconut oil for rubbing (optional)
salt and pepper + other spices or herbs
1 batch Horseradish Beet Schmear (recipe below)
sliced fresh veggies: bell peppers, cucumber, avocado, sprouts, grated carrot etc.

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375°F / 190°C.

2. Wash and scrub sweet potatoes well, then slice lengthwise into 1 cm-thick slabs (approximately .4 inches). Place on a baking sheet and rub with coconut oil if using, and sprinkle with salt and pepper, plus any other spices or herbs you’d like.

3. Place in the oven and bake until tender, about 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and use immediately or store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to five days.

4. To assemble, spread one slice of sweet potato with the Horseradish Beet Schmear. Top with your favourite sliced veggies, sprouts, salt and pepper and another slice of sweet potato. You can also add mustard, vegan mayo, or any other condiment that you like. Enjoy!

Horseradish Beet Schmear
Makes 2 cups / 500ml

Ingredients:
1 lb. / 500g beets (about 4-5 small)
coconut oil for rubbing
1 small clove garlic
3 Tbsp. freshly grated horseradish, or more to taste
3 Tbsp. tahini
3 Tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 Tbsp. cold-pressed olive oil
½ tsp. fine sea salt, to taste
¼ tsp. freshly cracked black pepper

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 400°F / 200°C. Rub beets with a little coconut oil, set on a baking try, and place in the oven. Roast for 20-30 minutes until you can easily pierce the beets with a sharp knife tip.

2. Remove baking tray and let cool until you can handle them. Slide off the skins, or use a vegetable peeler. Roughly chop the beets and set aside.

3. In a food processor, pulse garlic until minced. Add horseradish, tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper, then blend on high to combine. Add the chopped beets and pulse to chop. Blend as much or as little as you like – I like my spread a bit chunky. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary. Some may like more horseradish – go for it! Remember that the bite will mellow out when it’s mixed with everything in the sandwich.

4. Use immediately, and store any leftovers in a tightly sealed container in the fridge for up to five days.

Although the past few months of life limbo have been pretty frustrating, there are so many exciting things on the horizon that I cannot wait to share with you! First, my family and I are getting closer and closer to our new move-in date (you can watch house renovation updates on my Instagram Stories). Second, I’m heading to Palm Springs for an EPIC bloggers’ retreat organized by my friend Sasha Swerdloff at the end of this month. And I’m finishing up details on a sweet collaboration with one of my favourite juice bars in Toronto, that we will launch with a free public event! Stay tuned for more details on all the things.

Love you guys. Now go have a sandwich,
Sarah B