An overwhelming YES on my Instagram post last week + the fact that I scarfed these babies down in almost one day brought me to the conclusion that these must be shared on my blog!
This past Christmas season, a few friends and I put together a Vegan Holiday Potluck here in LA and gathered the community together for an afternoon of good food, friends, and of course, dogs :) I wanted to bring a healthy oil-free option to the potluck, and this is what I came up with.
Chris and I went to the Hollywood Farmer's Market and came home with among other things, 2 fresh sourdough baguettes + dill & chives, two ingredients we use often on our avocado toasts for breakfast, in salads, and now in our newfound favorite, bean dips! We went to Whole Foods following the farmer's market to pick up grains and legumes for his One-Pot Chili Spiced Lentils & Rice recipe that he was putting together for the potluck, and when we were browsing the aisle of the market, I was inspired by the array of beans and legumes to make a dip/spread for the baguettes we had purchased.
Roasted potatoes have grown to be a staple on menus I put together for our holiday dinners or gatherings here at my house. Why? Well, there are various reasons! Potatoes, even when organic from my local Whole Foods market, are cheap! They are simple to cook, absolutely delicious, and healthy without any needed oils or fats added.
Mastering the craft of crispy oil-free potatoes was a challenge for me, but after playing around with a few techniques, and trying out various recipes I had found online, I done did it ;) And my oil-free crispy potatoes are perfection.
This recipe is a part of my Healthy Oil-Free Vegan Christmas Menu from my 2015 dinner with my boyfriend Chris. We worked together in the kitchen to put together a few dishes to share with you all here on our blogs, to give you some inspiration and ideas for easy recipes you can try out during your next {holiday} gathering or dinner party.
I decided to change things up a bit and try my hand a savory snack. When I want to nibble on something throughout the day, savory treats are sometimes necessary, but not as often available to to me unless I dig into veggies or something like avocado toast. I wanted to create a quick grab a handful and go type of snack and this was a winner! Not only is this great for snacks but it also pairs well with salads, soups, {especially my Curried Sweet Potato Soup}, raw vegan pastas + more! And this recipe came together a lot easier than I had expected. I kind of just winged it with all of the herbs and spices, I felt pretty bad ass that the flavor profile was on point I'm not going to lie.
For the first time ever last week, I was out with food poisoning! I always knew it was an unpleasant experience from the looks of others, but I never knew it would be this taxing on me, mentally and physically. I unfortunately had to spend a short while in the hospital, and they deemed the illness to be food poisoning coupled with a bacterial infection and from these, fever. What was weird is that I felt ill Wednesday, recovered with a small headache on Thursday, and when Friday rolled around, I could not even get myself to open my eyes! It took a 360 real quick and I had to head to the hospital because of it. We had no clue what had caused my illness, and at this point I really don't have the urge to try and figure that out, I am just glad that I am passed that terrible, terrible, did I say TERRIBLE experience.
The first thing I do right when I was well the following Monday? Get into the damn kitchen again and make myself some food that's what!
I love making fresh juice, but the question that always comes up is what the heck do I do with the juice pulp? I have cooked the (vegetable) pulp into soups, added it into cookies and crackers, and (when lazy) simply composted the pulp, but I wanted to try and create something new!
As I had posted a few weeks ago, my cousin and I went on a juicing spree for her and her family during the week, and I ended up saving all of the pulp from the three juices we made. My Favorite Sweet Berry Juice had pulp that contained 100% fruit, so I decided to play around with that and create something sweet, hence this recipe.