Thank you all so much from the bottom of my heart.

If you want to receive a free copy of my eBook, subscribe on the right hand side bar or at the bottom of this post. Redefining Sprouts & Chocolate was a bit terrifying and I tried to convince myself out of it. Just 12 ingredients? For ALL future recipes? Once I started making lists of the recipes, it wasn’t as hard as I imagined. Starting is the hardest part but do whatever it takes to get your ideas in motion. You got this! Minimalist living has been on my mind for a little while but I did not know how to put it into practice for my life and not just in my recipes. As I looked around my apartment, I felt burdened by my possessions but felt like I couldn’t part with them. Mark and I live in a 600 square-foot apartment so space is tight. We felt like we were outgrowing this apartment at an alarming rate but it wasn’t the square footage that was the problem, it was the stuff. Just the stuff piled onto more stuff, littered around with more stuff. On Friday, my copy of The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing came in the mail and during the weekend I read it cover to cover. After each chapter, I could feel my mindset shifting and it became easier to accept discarding my possessions. Mark and I turned our teeny apartment upside down, giving our cramped space some much needed breathing room. In a single afternoon, we managed to get rid of:

• 5- 45L bags of clothes to donate
• 4- 45L bags of junk and garbage
• 40 books (that one was tough)
• 38 old food magazines
• 35 VHS tapes
• 28 DVDs
• 2-68L Rubbermaid containers with duplicate or unused kitchen supplies
• 1 large unused cabinet

Every object Mark and I own now has a specific place instead of just cramming something wherever we could find room. This is just the start but like anything, simple living just takes a bit of habit reforming. Sure, I don’t live in one of those Tiny Homes and I did not want to part with all my books but it is a step toward something greater. If you are interested in minimalist living, start by looking around your home and see what it is collecting dust. Do you love it? Does it serve a purpose? Do you use it? If not, I suggest you donate if possible or discard the item. It became also thrilling to see the unneeded things leave my space and I hope you find the same joy. 

What is one thing you can do today, just today, to achieve your goal?

FYI: This post contains an Amazon Affiliate link but I really love Marie Kondo’s book! 

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Buffalo Chickpea Caesar Salad

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

10 mins

Total time

20 mins

 

A revision on an old favourite! I wanted to recreate an older recipe of mine with new life, less ingredients, no oven, and that had a nut-free dressing. Sunflower seeds, when soaked and blended, are wonderfully creamy, light, and delicious. The extra oil in the dressing is needed since sunflower seeds are naturally lower in fat than cashews. The chickpeas crisp up well in a cast iron skillet, however if you do not own one, they will do just fine in a regular pan, it might just take an extra minute or two. This recipe is vegan, gluten free, nut free, and serves 2 generous salads or 4 light sides.

Author: Jessica DeMarra

Ingredients

For the Nut Free Caesar Dressing

• ½ cup raw sunflower seeds, soaked for 2 hours
• Juice of 1 lemon, about 4 tablespoons
• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled
• 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
• ½ tablespoon white miso
• 5 tablespoons water, or to desired consistency

For the Buffalo Chickpeas

• 2 cup cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1 teaspoon arrowroot powder
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• ¼ teaspoon fine grain sea salt
• 4 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons Frank's Hot Sauce
• 2 heads of Romaine lettuce, chopped, washed and dried
• Extra lemon wedges (optional)

Instructions

For the Nut Free Caesar Dressing

1. Add all the dressing ingredient to a high power blender or food processor and blend until completely smooth. The blender is faster but the food processor will do the trick.
2. Transfer dressing to a glass jar or bottle and chill in the fridge until ready to use. You may have to add a splash of water to the dressing since it will thicken as it cools.

For the Buffalo Chickpeas

1. Dry the drained chickpeas between two sheets of paper towels. Gently roll the beans between the paper towels until the chickpeas are fairly dry. Do not skip this step! Your chickpeas will not crisp up if they are wet.
2. Transfer the dried chickpeas to a medium bowl, add the arrowroot, paprika, salt and olive oil and gently stir to coat the beans.
3. Heat up a skillet (preferably cast-iron) over medium heat. When the skillet is hot, add the chickpeas, and cooked for 10 minutes, stirring every 2-3 minutes so they do not burn. Wipe out the medium sized bowl that you dressed the chickpeas in.
4. Try a few chickpeas before taking the pan off the heat to check if they chickpeas are to your desired crispiness. I like mine just crispy on the outside but still meaty on the inside. If you desire a very crisp chickpea, add a few minutes to the cooking time.
5. Transfer chickpeas to the clean medium sized bowl and add the buffalo sauce. Toss to coat.
6. Dress the lettuce with the Nut Free Caesar Dressing, top with Buffalo Chickpeas, and serve with additional lemon wedges. Enjoy!

3.3.3077

The post Buffalo Chickpea Caesar Salad {Nut Free} appeared first on Sprouts & Chocolate.

Though having dinner with your significant other can be wonderful and intimate, it is also an excellent choice to dine with friends or other couples like Julia Child and her husband Paul did.

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Unfortunately, Mark and I are the only vegans we know! Thankfully our friends Maeghan and Steve whom we are staying with currently while our new apartment gets a revamp completely understand and wanted to enjoy our vegan Valentine’s dinner though it would not be like last year’s meal. A dance party was still happening.

To my surprise and panic, I got a text telling me another guest would be coming. What? Someone new? I freaked out since this was my first time making the pan sauce and what if it didn’t work out? This new person would think I am the worst. Thankfully much to my delight, the new guest was our regular bartender at our local pub and he was pleasant and grateful that he could attend. He like all of us restaurant workers just love a home cooked meal instead of the usual cold fries and garlic bread that is our normal dinner. I kept my cool (I lie), pulled out another plate and continued cooking. The more the merrier (or sometimes mental breakdown)! Besides as Julia Child said:

                          Special thanks to Carly for presenting me with this beautiful plate as a Christmas gift

I wanted to veganize that classic steakhouse meal: steak with pan sauce, baked potato and Caesar salad. Thankfully I had already made a vegan Caesar Salad before so I could check that off the list of things to veganize.

Portobello mushrooms were an easy substitute for a steak since they are meaty, about the same size and best part is that you get to eat so much more since mushrooms are low in calories and incredibly high in nutrients. Hooray for mushrooms!

I debated between a few pan sauces to try out for the mushrooms but ultimately wanted the classic peppercorn sauce usually served in fancy steakhouses. Do not be intimidated by a pan sauce. They are super easy, quick to make and add a lot of flavor (and fanciness) to a meal. You may feel like Julia Child herself!

For the potato, you can do it two ways if you like: for a softer skin, drizzle a little olive oil, generous dose of kosher salt and wrap in tin foil and for a crispier skin just put it right onto the oven rack. I am lazy so I put mine of the rack but the option is there for you to make the potato skin softer. Always pierce the potato with a fork a few times or it may explode in the oven.

I just used a variation on my Ultimate Kale Chip cheesy sauce, usually baked on the kale. It is crazy good on potato and even my meat-eating friends asked for extra sauce. I just love when that happens.

So whether you are dining friends or your loved one, this meal is not lacking compared to the steakhouse plus it won’t cost you your paycheck and you can always have a dance party afterward (Michael Jackson is the preferred choice for dinner party dance offs).

This dinner plan serves four people however can be halved to serve two. I like to chop and prep everything while the potatoes are baking since they need more time in the oven.

The Day Before:

•  Make the croutons and store at room temperature in an air tight container
• Make the Caesar dressing and Cheese Sauce, store in refrigerator in separate air tight containers. I used the quick soak method for the cashews: In a pot with a lid, bring water to a boil over high heat, add the cashews, cover with the lid and take off heat. Allow the cashews to soak for 1 hour. They will expand so 1 cup of raw cashews will equal 1 ½ cup soaked cashews so they recipes have been modified accordingly.

The Day Of:

•  Bake the potatoes, they need a head start in the oven since they take longer to cook than the mushrooms
• Roast the mushrooms, saving the juices to add to the sauce, while the mushrooms are roasting, make the pan sauce
• Wash and prep 4 cups of green or purple kale

Caesar Dressing

Makes about 1 cup of dressing. I used 1/3 cup of the dressing to dress 4 cups of shredded kale. I like to have extra in the fridge since it encourages me to eat more kale.

•             ¾ cup soaked cashews
•             3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
•             2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
•             1 teaspoon each of capers and caper brine
•             1 teaspoon chai seeds (I used black but white is fine too)
•             ½ medium clove of fresh garlic
•             ½ teaspoon kosher salt
•             ¼ teaspoon cracked black pepper
•             1/2 cup water

Add all the ingredients to a high power blender and process until completely smooth. Transfer to bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

 Garlic Croutons

Makes 4 cups but I only used a few at a time so feel free to halve the recipe.

•             3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
•             2 garlic cloves, grated through a microplane
•             ¼ teaspoon salt
•             4 cups cubed crusty bread, crusts removed

In a small bowl, mix the oil and garlic and let it stand for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, make the dressing. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and strain the garlic out of the oil. Discard the garlic and toss the bread cubes with the garlic-infused oil. Transfer to a parchment paper lined baking sheet in a single layer and bake for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally until golden brown. Let cool on baking sheet until the croutons are room temperature.

 Basic Cheese Sauce: Adapted from Ultimate Cheesy Kale Chips

• ¾ cup soaked cashews
•  ½ red bell pepper, deseeded and roughly chopped
•  1 ½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
•   6 tablespoons nutritional yeast
•   ½ tablespoon Dijon mustard
•   ½  teaspoon salt

In a blender add all the ingredients and blend until smooth.

 Simple Baked Potato

•  4 russet baking potatoes, washed and gently scrubbed, pierce with a fork all over the potato.

Position oven racks: one rack on the second slot, the other rack onto the fourth slot. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Place the potatoes on the top rack and cook for 30 minutes (the mushrooms take about 30 minutes so the potatoes will be in the oven for about 1 hour total). While the potatoes are cooking, prep your mushrooms and ingredients for the sauce.

 Roasted Portobello Mushrooms

•  8 Portobello Mushrooms (I bought fairly large ones but you should buy them all relatively the same size)
• 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil per mushroom cap
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt per mushroom cap

Turn up oven to 425 degrees, leaving the potatoes in the oven. To prep the mushrooms, cut off the stem and gently with a spoon, scrape the gills out of the mushroom.

Flip the cap over and with a sharp knife, gently score the mushroom in a crisscross pattern. Do not cut all the way into the mushroom since you want to keep the cap whole. This allows more moisture to come out of the mushroom, they don’t have that shriveled look like caps not scored and the sauce won’t just slid off the mushroom.

On a tin foil lined baking sheet, place the mushrooms onto the sheet gill side up and drizzle with the olive oil, coating all the sides of the mushroom. Bake for 15 minutes (on the lower rack), remove from the oven, drain the mushroom juices and reserve the juices. At this time, transfer the potatoes from the top rack to the bottom rack and gently turn the potatoes over (check the potatoes for doneness at this time. If a fork (not a knife) pierces the potato without resistance, it is ready to be taken out of the oven if not continue to cook). Flip the mushrooms and place on top rack and continue to roast for another 15 minutes. While the mushrooms are cooking, make the pan sauce and massage 4 cups of washed and shredded kale with the dressing since they will need about 15 minutes to soften.

 Skip the steak! Eat mushrooms!

Black Peppercorn Pan Sauce

•  1 tablespoon Earth Balance Traditional Butter
• ¼ cup finely diced red onion (tip: chop these before you put on mascara!)
• 1 clove garlic, finely grated through a garlic press or microplane
• 2 tablespoons black peppercorn, coarsely ground
• ½ cup dry red wine (something you would drink, not cooking wine)
• 1 cup vegetable stock, heated in a small saucepan on the stovetop
• Reserved mushroom juice
• 1 tablespoon corn starch
• ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ cup fresh chopped parsley

In a medium skillet, melt the Earth Balance over medium heat until bubbly. Add the onions and sauté for 5 minutes until softened, stirring occasionally. Add the garlic and peppercorns and sauté for 30 seconds. Add the wine and reduce to glossy syrup, about 3 minutes. This cooks off the raw wine taste. Turn up heat to medium high and add ¾ cup of the heated vegetable stock and the mushroom juices. In the remaining ¼ cup of warm broth, dissolve the cornstarch and whisk it into the sauce. Add the parsley and salt and cook the sauce for 5 minutes until reduced and glossy but not too thick. Turn heat down to low and keep warm until you are ready to plate the mushrooms.

At this time, remove the cheese sauce from the fridge and heat on the stovetop until hot, stirring constantly, adding some water if the sauce becomes too thick.

You are now ready to plate and eat! I served the potatoes with some chopped green onion but since you already have some parsley from the pan sauce, chop some more and add to your potato. Serve the dinner with the same wine as you used in the pan sauce.

Cheers to loved ones and enjoy your Valentine’s Day!

Xoxo from Sprouts and Chocolate

The post Veganized Steakhouse Classic: Valentine’s Day Special appeared first on Sprouts & Chocolate.

This is my first veganized Caesar salad and it is a lot fresher and less caloric than the original. Let’s break down and compare the typical Caesar dressing to my raw version.

*** I used MyFitnessPal to obtain the nutritional information ***

350 calories for all the dressing! I only used 1/3 of the dressing to coat 4 cups of greens. I looked up a few Caesar dressing calorie counts and they averaged 90 calories with 10 grams of fat per tablespoon! And who uses just 1 tablespoon? Sure nuts are high in fat but it is plant based fat verses dairy and I will choose plants every time.

Garlic Croutons

Makes 4 cups but I only used a few at a time so feel free to halve the recipe.

• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 2 garlic cloves, grated through a microplane
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 4 cups cubed crusty bread, crusts removed

 In a small bowl, mix the oil and garlic and let it stand for 20 minutes. Meanwhile, make the dressing. Preheat oven to 350 degrees and strain the garlic out of the oil. Discard the garlic and toss the bread cubes with the garlic-infused oil. Transfer to a parchment paper lined baking sheet in a single layer and bake for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally until golden brown. Let cool on baking sheet until the croutons are room temperature.

Caesar Dressing

Makes about 1 cup of dressing.

•  ½ cup raw cashews, soaked for at least 2 hours
• 3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
• 1 teaspoon each of capers and caper brine
• 1 teaspoon chai seeds (I used black but white is fine too)
• ½ medium clove of fresh garlic
• ½ teaspoon kosher salt
• ¼ teaspoon cracked black pepper
• 1/2 cup water

 Add all the ingredients to a high power blender and process until completely smooth. Transfer to bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

 Salad

•  4 cups purple or green kale, tough stems removed and chopped
• ½ tablespoon nutritional yeast to sprinkle on top
• ½ avocado, diced
• Lemon wedges to serve

Massage the kale with 1/3 cup of dressing and let stand for 15 minutes to soften the kale. Top with some croutons and avocado, sprinkle with nutritional yeast, drizzle 1 tablespoon extra dressing on top and lemon wedges on the side.

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