Fast & Easy Garlic Dill Pickled Green Tomatoes – #TastyThursday

The last few #TastyThursday and #ScrumptiousSunday posts have been centered around unripened green tomatoes, and today I wanted to bring one last amazing recipe using what many people find useless.  How about some garlic dill pickled green tomatoes?   For some reason I find that some folks are intimidated by doing home pickling – when there’s really not much effort in it!   Home pickling is not only more tasty, but it’s incredibly cheap as well.  When it comes to picking anything – the only limits are the lack of imagination!

If you’re anything like me, your taste buds do backflips for pickled veggies!   The most tedious  aspect to any pickling process is waiting, but who says you have to wait?  This recipe (which you can use most anything other than green tomatoes) will give you ready to eat pickled green tomatoes in under an hour…or a few hours if you want them chilled.

• 12-18 green tomatoes (about 3 lbs)
• 2 cups white vinegar
• 2 cups water
• 2 tablespoons pickling salt
• 4 heads fresh dill or 4 teaspoons dill seeds
• 4 small cloves garlic
• 4 pint size canning jars

Prepare canning jars.  Slice all the green tomatoes in half.  Combine vinegar, water, and salt in a pot and bring to a boil.

Place 1 head fresh dill or 1 tsp dill seeds and 1 clove garlic into each jar; pack in green tomatoes. Pour boiling vinegar mixture over green tomatoes to within 1/2 inch of rim (head space).  Process for 15 minutes.

Garlic may turn blue or green in the jar. Nothing to be alarmed about, it is only the effect of the acid on the natural pigments in the garlic.

That’s it!

Tip:  For more garlic flavor, add an extra clove!   For a little kick, add some chilli peppers.  We added jalapeño and banana peppers.

Live Well – Eat Well – Be Well

Tasty Thursday – Chocolate Avocado Cake

Rich, dense, & creamy – the perfect cake!

I’m sure a few you have one eyebrow raised as you read the name of this recipe with skepticism.   Let me reassure you, this is to die for!

Now don’t get me wrong…this is not a low-calorie cake by any means, but it’s vegan!  And we need to remember that we’re allowed to indulge in the incredibly sweeter things in life, in moderation of course.

The unique thing about this cake is that avocado is not only baked into the chocolate cake itself, but it’s also one of the main ingredients in the rich buttercream frosting as well.  I will tell you that the key to making this cake a success is fully RIPE avocados!   If you’re avocados are not yet ripe, be sure to put them in a paper bag and wait…patience is everything!

For the Cake

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 6 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup almond oil (vegetable oil would work too)
• 1/2 cup soft avocado, well mashed (about 1 medium avocado)
• 2 cups water
• 2 Tablespoons white vinegar
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F.  Grease and flour two 8 or 9-inch rounds and set aside.

Sift together all of the dry ingredients except the sugar.  Set that aside too.

Mix all the wet ingredients together in a bowl, including the super mashed avocado.  Add sugar into the wet mix and stir.  Mix the wet with the dry all at once, and beat with a whisk (by hand) until smooth.

Pour batter into a greased cake tins. Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Let cakes cool in pan for 15 minutes, then turn out onto cooling racks to cool completely before frosting with avocado buttercream.

For the Avocado Buttercream Frosting

• 8 ounces of avocado meat (about 2 small to medium, very ripe avocados)
• 2 teaspoons lemon juice
• 1 pound sifted powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Peel and pit the soft avocados.  Again, it’s important to use the ripest avocados you can get your hands on!  If the avocados have brown spots in the meat, avoid those spots when you scoop the meat into the bowl.

Place the avocado meat into the bowl of a stand mixer fit with the whisk attachment.  Add lemon juice and whisk the avocado on medium speed, until slightly lightened in color and smooth, about 2-3 minutes.  Add the powdered sugar a little at a time and beat.  Add vanilla extract until combined.

Garnish with some fresh fruit, I used strawberries.  If not using right away, store in the refrigerator.  Don’t worry.  It won’t turn brown!

 

 

 

Simple, Sweet & Tangy Broccoli Salad – #TastyThursday

This delicious broccoli salad takes under 10 minutes to make and goes great as a lunch salad or served with a grilled vegan dinner.

Sometimes deciding what to make for dinner after a long day at work can be as task in itself…not to forget the side dishes which will accompany that meal!   Perhaps you have an invitation to a dinner party or a potluck and need a quick and simple dish to whip up at the last-minute.

Nothing says “yummy” like a fresh and unique salad, especially during the summertime!   As wonderful as a salad made with fresh greens is, I sometimes like to use a fresh vegetable as a salad base.   Not only does it offer a more crisp texture, but it’s more filling as well.   My fiancé and I had an abundance of broccoli that we bought from the farmer’s market that we needed to use up.   So he came up with this simple and delicious salad which we ate as a side dish with grilled veggie burgers.

• 12 ounces fresh broccoli crowns
• 3/4 cup Vegenaise®
• 1/8 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/8 cup red wine
• 2 Tablespoons organic coconut palm sugar
• 1 cup slivered almonds
• 1 cup dried cranberries
• salt and pepper to taste

Break apart 8 ounces of the broccoli crowns.   Finely chop 4 ounces of the broccoli crowns using a food processor.

In a bowl, whisk together Vegenaise®, red wine vinegar, red wine, and organic coconut palm sugar.   Combine the finely chopped broccoli crowns to the dressing mixture.   Fold mixture into the remaining broccoli with the slivered almonds and dried cranberries.   Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve immediately or chill for more flavor.

Strawberry Rhubarb Pie with Ginger Crumble – #TastyThursday

A few weeks ago I had a hardcore craving for something sweet with rhubarb.   A recipe from Vegan Pie In The Sky fixed that for me with this very delicious, vegan pie!   Be sure to have a Tasty Thursday with this awesome recipe!

For the Crust:

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 cup cold vegetable shortening
• 4 Tablespoons ice water
• 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

For the Filling:

• 2 1/2 cups rhubarb, cute into 1/2 inch chunks
• 3 1/2 cups fresh strawberries, cut into 1/2 in chunks
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 2 Tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

For the Crumb Topping:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup brown sugar
• 2 Tablespoons white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoons nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
• 1/3 cup Earth Balance (or other vegan butter)

The perfect pie for a sweet, summer evening.

For the crust:  Combine the sugar, flour, and salt in a bowl. Using a pastry cutter (or your clean hands) cut in the shortening to the mixture until  coarse crumbly dough as formed.

In another small bowl, combine the ice water with the vinegar. Drizzle 1/3 over the water over the flour mixture and stir. Drizzle another 1/3 over the mixture and stir again. Drizzle the rest of the water over the dough and form a soft dough ball. If the mixture hasn’t come together, add another tablespoon of ice water. If it’s too wet, add a tablespoon of flour. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap or parchment paper. Let sit in the fridge for an hour.

For the filling / crumb: Combine all the filling ingredients in a bowl and set aside. For the crumb, combine the flour, sugar, salt, ginger, and nutmeg. Drizzle in the butter with one hand and swish around the mixture with a spatula with your other hand. Mix until large crumbles form.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Roll the dough out on floured parchment paper (this will help you transfer it to your pie to the pan). You’ll want to make a 12″ circle with the dough. Quickly flip the dough into your pie pan and remove parchment paper. Add filling over dough and then spread the crumble evenly over the top.

Cover with aluminum foil and poke a few holes to let steam escape. Bake for 20 minutes and then lower heat down to 350 degrees. Remove foil and let cook for another 30 minutes or until the topping has browned.

Let cool for 20 minutes before serving.  Serve with your favorite vegan whipped topping or ice cream!