Mint Lime Summer Fruit Salad

I saw this gorgeous salad on Finding Vegan the other day, and just had to try it. I have to admit, I actually don't like papaya all that much- I think it's kind of tasteless and doesn't have the best texture. BUT, this salad changed my impression.... mint, lime, and maple syrup to the rescue! (Ok, actually, I used agave syrup rather than the original recipe's maple syrup, but the taste is very similar). Here's my take:

Recipe adapted from The Family Kitchen's post.
Makes approximately 5-6 cups.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium papaya cubed (remove the skin & seeds)
• 1 sliced banana
• 1 sliced yellow peach
• 1 cup sliced strawberries
• 2 limes
  
• 2-3 Tbsp fined chopped fresh mint
• 2 Tbsp agave (or maple) syrup

Steps:

1. Chop all the fruit and the mint. Zest 1 or both limes.
   
2. Place the papaya in a bowl and toss in the agave syrup. Juice the limes and add that to the papaya mix.
   
3. Add the rest of the fruit, the mint, and most of the lime zest, and toss gently.
4. Garnish with the rest of the zest!

Note: I also added mango to this salad, because I love it so much and I had one. It's a nice addition! I think you could easily switch out the papaya for mango, and omit the syrup altogether. But if you're using papaya, the syrup is a must. I changed the steps a bit to allow the syrup to mainly soak into the papaya.

Wrapping: Hummus, toppings, and kale salad

I was so inspired by this summer vegan kale wrap that I found the recipe for on Friday that I had to make it immediately. I spent nearly half my day on Saturday gathering all the ingredients and making all of the items that went into it, but the result was the best wrap I've ever had; also the most expensive (when you count buying all the ingredients), time consuming wrap I've ever made. But worth it for all the new recipes I know now!

Here is the original recipe, (complete with videos!) from Gena at ChoosingRaw.com and Kathy at Healthy Happy Life.

I started with the hemp hummus for the wrap.


It was my first ever batch of hummus!Good flavor & consistency. And not that hard or time consuming to make, either (once I figured out what tahini was, and where to find it and shelled hemp seeds). Here's the recipe (from Gena @ Choosing Raw):

High Protein Hemp Seed Hummus:
Makes 4-5 servings

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup shelled hemp seeds
• 1 can chickpeas, drained, or 2 cups freshly cooked (heat before blending for ideal consistency)
• 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
• 2-3 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 small clove garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp tahini (optional)
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• Water

Steps:

1. Place the hemp seeds in the bowl of a food processor and grind till powdery.
2. Add the chickpeas, salt, lemon, garlic, tahini, and cumin, and begin to process. Add water in a thin stream (stopping to scrape the bowl a few times) until the mixture is smooth and creamy.
3. Garnish with hemp seeds and serve.

Next came the trio of bruschetta toppings that go into the wrap (or, not surprisingly, onto bread to make bruscetta) (from Kathy @ Healthy Happy Life):

Avocado Jalapeno Lemon topping:

• Mix 1 avocado cup into small cubes, 1 Tbsp diced jalapeno, 1 lemon juiced, lemon zest, and salt & pepper.

Balsamic Shiitake Mushroom topping:

• Saute sliced shiitake mushrooms in olive oil & balsamic vinegar. Cool and add chopped fresh thyme, and a few pinches of truffle salt & pepper.

Mango Basil Lime topping:

• Peel & cut 1 ripe mango into cubes. Add 2 Tbsp chopped basil, 1-2 limes juiced, and lime zest.
  

And then the kale salad and dressing (again from Gena):

Miso Sesame Dressing:
Makes nearly 2 cups. Half everything if you don't need that much- it is a pretty rich dressing.
Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup mellow white miso
• 1/3 cup agave nectar
• 1/2 cup tahini
• 3-4 tbsp tamari
• 1/2 inch fresh ginger, or 1/2 tsp dry
• 1 and 1/4 cup water

Blend all ingredients together on high.

Kale Salad
Ingredients:

• 1 bunch curly kale
• 1 large vine ripe or beefsteak tomato
• 1 large bell pepper (or if you're like me and don't like peppers, just omit it- still tastes great without it!)

Steps:

1. De-stem the kale by holding them stem and simply pulling the leaves off by sliding your other hand from the stem to the tip. (You want the leaves and not the hard stem part). Wash & chop the kale.
2. Add about 1/3-1/2 cup of the miso dressing to the kale. Use your hands to massage the dressing into the salad- it will help break down the kale so it's a bit softer when you eat it.
3. Add the tomatoes (and pepper if preferred) and serve.

Watch Gena's video for the de-stemming and 'massaging' techniques if you aren't sure!

Here are the finished products:


And finally, the wrap with everything in it!


It was YUM.

Some tips:
-Don't forget to warm the wrap for a few seconds first before putting things in, so it doesn't crack when you wrap it.
-I made the mistake of buying small rather than extra large wraps. Go big instead: there's a lot to put in this filling, delicious, healthy wrap!
-Tamari is very similar to soy sauce, and tahini is similar to peanut butter (I'd never used either one so didn't know!)
-The ingredients are all just as good (if not better?) the next day!
-The miso dressing recipe makes a TON of dressing, so unless you're looking to store about 2 bottles worth, I'd halve it.
-Check out Gena and Kathy's blogs for more useful information.

Vegan Month

I've been wondering for a while just how difficult it really would be to go full-on vegan, so I thought I'd give it a shot for month. July is my vegan month! So far, so good- I'm just over a week in, and while it's definitely much more limiting than being vegetarian, I do appreciate taking a step back and really thinking about what I'm eating. Instead of grabbing a yogurt or some cheese & crackers for a snack, I'm eating raw veggies. Instead of ice cream for dessert, I'm having fresh fruit or mandarin oranges. It has been a little challenging one or two nights when we've been out, but I think I definitely don't have it so hard in the Bay Area of California, where almost everywhere you go has vegan and vegetarian options.

But I'm ready to start branching out a bit more from my usual salads and stir-frys, and have been searching for some vegan recipe sites. Here are some I've come across that seem like good ones:

• Vegan Yum Yum
• Choosing Raw
  
• Herbivoracious
• Vegan Menu
• The Happy Go Lucky Vegan
  
• Fat Free Vegan Kitchen
  

There are so many! Click here for a complete list, compiled by Healthy Happy Life. And this site is also great for, well, finding vegan stuff: http://www.findingvegan.com/

Suddenly I'm inspired to make something!

Easter Egg Cookies (aka Glitter Balls)

I found these cookies on the great site Cosmo Cookie and the pictures were so enticing I had to make them. The original name is the "Glitter Ball" cookie, but I think I'll call them Easter Egg cookies since that's what they remind me of!


I'll copy the recipe here but I have no problem saying Cosmo Cookie does a much better job of going through it with beautiful pictures, so it's worth going to that blog post!

Some comments: the cookies are kind of dry- they are basically butter cookies, with a shortbread-like consistency. But the finished product, with all the sugar sprinkles and the creamy frosting filling, comes out tasting pretty good. They're sweet but a little heavy. A good "let's get dressed up and go to a party" cookie, not so much a "let's have cookies by the fireplace and read a book" cookie.

See also my note at the end about the filling!

-----Here's the recipe: -----
Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoones salt
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
Sanding sugar, in assorted colors

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter, confectioners' sugar, and salt with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, 3 to 4 minutes, scraping down side of bowl as necessary. beat in vanilla. Reduce speed to low; add flour, and mix just until combined. Shape into 3/4-inch balls (chill dough if too sticky). Place sanding sugar in shallow bowls. Roll each ball in sanding sugar, and place on parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart.

Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until edges are lightly golden, 15 to 18 minutes. let cookies cool completely on a wire rack. While cooling, make filling!

Creamy Ginger Filling

Ingredients:
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened at room temperature
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon honey
2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger

Beat all ingredients by hand or with an electric mixer on medium-high speed until smooth. Filling can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator up to 3 days.

Spread 2 cookies with just enough filling to allow them to stick together.
---------

*I played around with the filling flavoring, because I thought it would be fun to have each color be a different flavor. After mixing only the sugar and butter, I split the frosting into 3 separate bowls, and then added the reduced amount of ginger & honey to one bowl for the original recipe. In addition to the ginger filling, I also made a cinnamon cheesecake filling (I have some cheesecake flavoring from a local bake store that came in handy!), as well as an almond filling which worked really nicely with these cookies (add a little almond extract).

Overall: a good, pretty cookie. Some cookies are better seen than eaten; I wouldn't go quite that far with these, but they are no chunky monkey. ;-)