Liquid Gold Salad Dressing

 

I know what you guys are thinking… really Elle, Liquid Gold salad dressing, isn’t that a bit of an over exaggeration? It’s just salad dressing after all. Ahhh, but no my friends, it isn’t. This isn’t just some salad dressing and the title doesn’t only come from its golden colour. This is THE salad dressing. The salad dressing that will convert the non-salad-eaters into salad-cravers! Now, I’ll admit that I come from a very biased place: I love salads! Any kind of salads. Even the ones that don’t have a speck of green leaf in them. Chickpea salads, quinoa salads, asian rice salad, I love them all.

But I know not everyone is as excited about eating salad as I am. My husband for example, would never ask me to make salad for dinner. When I did, he’d happily eat it, but in our five years of being together, I had never heard him say: Babe, I’d love to eat a nice salad for dinner! Until now. Yes folks, the other evening, he asked to have a salad for dinner. VICTORY.

I’m pretty sure many of you feel the same about eating salad, or have someone in your family that is neither hot nor cold about salads. Or maybe you have someone that really dislikes salads altogether. Well, after many so-so attempts (you know those salad dressings that are good but don’t knock your socks off), I’ve managed to create this recipe. This one is for you my friends. The end goal: to turn your non-salad-eaters into salad-devourers (is that a word? not sure, but you get the idea!)

This salad dressing has other good things going for it: the two main ingredients are nutrition power houses. So not only do you feel good about eating the actual salad, but the salad dressing (which is usually the caloric/unhealthy downfall to many salads) enhances all those health benefits. And most importantly, for all of you busy folks out there, this salad dressing takes no time at all to make and can go over most any salad. I’ve tried it over lentil salad, brown rice and beet salad and plain mixed green salad. As a busy parent, anything that is quick and easy usually has my vote. If I can toss some leftover vegetables or whole grains or both, in a bowl, drizzle some awesome dressing over it and call it a salad to serve for dinner, that’s a winner in my book. And I promise, it’ll be a winner in your book as well.

So, what are those power house ingredients. The main, and my favourite ingredient for this salad dressing, is apple cider vinegar (ACV).

ACV can be used in endless tasks from washing windows to face toners to cake batter to weight loss and regulating blood sugar. The fermentation process and the “Mother” (cobweb like strands of protein, enzymes and friendly bacteria substance at the bottom of the vinegar bottle) are thought to give vinegar its health benefits. According to Dr. Mercola, vinegar is traditionally made through a long, slow fermentation process, leaving it rich in bioactive components like acetic acid, gallic acid, catechin, epicatechin, caffeic acid, and more, giving it potent antioxidant, antimicrobial, and many other beneficial properties. Stellar ingredient, if you ask me.

The other ingredient is olive oil. Now there is a lot of debate out there on the health benefits of adding fats to your diet and how much of it. Some believe that no fat should be eaten while others believe high fat is the way to go. Peer reviewed scientific articles have been written and published on both sides of the spectrum and if this is a topic that is of interest to you, I encourage you to dig deeper into it. As for me, I’ve personally tested both ends of that spectrum and where I feel my best is somewhere in the higher end middle. Trial and error is the only way you’ll be able to determine what works for YOU.

Now onto the health benefits of olive oil.

What makes olive oil so good for you is it antioxidant content. It also boast a decent amount of vitamin E and K, which doesn’t hurt. The health benefits of olive oil include treatment of colon, breast cancer, diabetes, heart problems, arthritis, high cholesterol. It also aids weight loss, improves metabolism, digestion, and prevents aging. Not bad for an oil…

So yes, not only are you going to feel great about eating this dressing because of all its health benefits, but it’s also amazingly delicious. Aren’t you just craving this recipe now… Wait no more my friends, here it is!

Hope you guys love it. Don’t forget to leave me a comment by clicking on the recipe title on top of the page and leave me a comment at the bottom of the post to let me know what kind of salad you made to go with this dressing.

xx

 

Liquid Gold Dressing
Prep time:
Total time:
Serves: 8 portions
This salad dressing takes no time to make and will soon become a family favourite
Ingredients
  • 1/3 + 2 Tbs Cup apple cider vinegar (use raw, unfiltered, unpasteurized ACV if possible)
  • 1 Cup olive oil (use extra virgin olive oil if possible)
  • 1 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1 1/2 tsp agave nectar
  • 2 tsp tamari sauce ( i use gluten free tamari sauce)
  • 1/2 dried origano
Instructions
  1. Place all ingredients in a mason jar and give a good shake.
  2. And voilà!

 

tangy & crispy sweet potato fries

 

A post on fries on a Monday? Yes, absolutely! Because not only is it my birthday today so I’m totally allowing myself to enjoy in all the foods I love eating but, these fries are actually good for you as they are not deep fried in not-so-good-for-you vegetable oil but instead, are lovingly baked in the oven and tossed in delicious spices. Yes my friends, this is how we do fries in our house… because we love them so much and we want to eat them often without all the bad stuff, or guilt, but mainly because we don’t want the bad stuff.

Now I don’t know if I’ve shared this with you guys before, but my husband is not a fan of sweet potatoes. Actually, he down right doesn’t like them. I know. You don’t need to say it. It’s pure craziness! Who doesn’t love sweet potatoes…well, that would be my husband. But since my son and I absolutely love them, I have to find a way to sneak these little gems in our food somehow. My previous post was exactly that: hiding sweet potatoes in a curry. But these fries, these fries, he will devour!

The secret: their crispiness. Sweet potatoes fries tend to be limpy and mushy. That doesn’t make for a very appetizing fry. You want a fry that’s crispy and can be dipped in whatever condiment of your choosing without folding in half. Now to get that crispiness out of a sweet potato, here are my two golden rules:

  1. toss the evenly cut fries in some corn startch
  2. crank up the heat in the oven

Now I know you may frown at the idea of adding corn starch to your fries but it is essential for crispiness. You can also use potato starch if you prefer. Adding a starchy coating will allow less moisture on the exterior of the fries hence more crispy fries.

You also want to roast your fries instead of baking them, again in the name of a crispy exterior. That’s why I crank up my oven to 425°.

There are other tricks out there that are used to make crispy sweet potato fries, like soaking them for 20 minutes or double soaking them or leaving them in the oven for 30 minutes after baking time. While all these methods are good and valid and will give you crispier fries, I find them too time consuming for me. Yes I want crispy fries, but no I don’t want to soak them twice and wait an extra 40 minutes before putting them in the oven for 30 minutes or waiting an extra 30 minutes after they’ve finished baking for 30 minutes. It boils down to a choice: what do I choose to do with my time…

 

Too often, people forget that time is a commodity, just like money. If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a thousand times: time is money. But as often as we’ve heard it, few of us have actually internalized it and applied the concept to our lives. Time is as important as money with this singular difference: you can never get time back. Whatever time has passed, it’s gone. You’ll never get that hour, day or week back. So what you choose to do with your time is as precious if not more, then what you choose to do with your money.

If you spend $100 on something you don’t like, you can simply return it. We’ve all done it. We get carried away in the store, seduced by an attractive bargain or influenced by a really good sales pitch. And then we come home and realize we actually don’t want/need this and it’s a total waste of our money so we return it. But if you spend 1 hour of your time doing something that has no value to you, you can’t get that hour back. It’s gone. There’s no time store to get more time.

So as careful as you are with your money and you spend it wisely on things that you and your family will need or want, spend your time wisely on things that either make you better, happier or wealthier.

Now what does that mean. It means this: if it makes you happy to spend time in the kitchen, trying out different methods on how to make crispy sweet potato fries, then by all means do it, because you are in a positive mindset and you will gain something from your time: a sense of accomplishment, a learning experience that bettered your kitchen skills and an opportunity to be of service to your family (feeding them delicious fries). Now that is time very well spent!

But if standing in a kitchen trying to figure out which methods works best to make sweet potato fries is of no appeal to you then use this quick & easy recipe and spend your time doing something that will bring you one of those three things: make you better, happier or wealthier. So pop these starch coated fries in the oven and sit down to read a book on self improvement or exercise to a Zumba video on youtube if that’s something you fancy, spend time with your family/friends/pet, or work on that project you’ve been putting aside but that could bring in extra money for you.

However it is that you choose to spend your time, always remember the three golden rule: better, happier, wealthier.

Now on to those fries!

Don’t forget to leave me a comment in the comment section by clicking on the title and going to the bottom of the post. Let me know how you like to spend your time and how it fits into the three golden rules.

xx

tangy & crispy sweet potato fries
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4 portions
Ingredients
  • 4 whole sweet potatoes
  • 4 Tbs cornstarch
  • 2 Tbs olive oil
  • 1 Tbs sumac
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 3/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
Instructions
  1. Crank up the oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Peel the potatoes then cut in half, lengthwise, then in 1/4 inch wide sticks.
  3. In a plastic bag, add the cornstarch.
  4. Add the fries to the bag and give a good shake until all the pieces are well coated.
  5. Shake off any extra cornstarch as you transfer the fries to a mixing bowl.
  6. Add the olive oil and the spices.
  7. Give a gentle stir with a wooden spoon to coat all the fries.
  8. Cover a large baking sheet with parchment paper and spread the fries evenly. Do not overcrowd the pan.
  9. Bake for 15 minutes then flip the fries and bake for another 15 minutes.
  10. Remove from oven and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
  11. Enjoy with your favourite condiment or as is!

 

Potage à la kale & dill

 

Some of you may look at the picture of  this potage à la kale and dill and you start reading, you may think to yourself : “wait a minute, another soup recipe?” Yes, my friends, it is. And there are two very simple explanations for that:

a) I love soup… I mean, I love soup now. I used to hate soup growing up. Cant’ remember why, but I did. Needless to say, I don’t feel that way anymore. Not only do I love eating soup, I just as much enjoy making it, especially when it’s a quick and easy recipe like this one.

b) I live in Montreal. It’s winter. It’s humid cold (you know that type of cold that just gets into your bones through whatever and no matter how many layers of clothes you’re wearing. Yah, Montreal has that kind of cold). Soup warms you up. Period.

And today was particularly cold, although beautiful and sunny, so I thought it would be perfectly fitting to share this soup recipe with you, so you too can feel all warmed up from the inside out. This soup will not only warm you up, but will nourish every cell in your body with killer good-for-you-ingredients like kale, dill and russet potatoes.

Potatoes act as a great replacement for the typical cream in “cream” soups. It offers the same mouthfeel and velvety texture as cream. The key is to blend the soup very well. You don’t need an expensive blender (although that does help and saves a lot of time), most often, any blender will do. I often opt for my hand blender. It’s convenient and handy. But it does take me a bit more time to reach that smooth, velvety consistency I am looking for in a soup like this one.

But once all those delicious potatoes are pureed and blended with the other ingredients, it’s magic. This is plant power at it’s best my friends!

Speaking of plants and their incredible power, I bumped into an old acquaintance of mine the other day and as we were catching up on the important events of the past year or two of our lives, she asked me how I was able to “stay” vegan and not be tempted by my old food favourites like bakery style donuts, lasagna and California sushi roll.

It’s simple I answered: I have an anchor.

She looked confused. I don’t blame her. That wasn’t really a complete answer. An anchor. What does an anchor have to do with Italian baked pasta or fried pastries anyways? Well, actually, it has everything to do with it.

What I mean by “an anchor’ is something that is profoundly important to you, something that you value to your core, a belief, a love, a passion, a promise, that is embedded deep into your heart. So that whatever else is presented or offered to you and is in conflict with that anchor, that love, that passion, that promise, has no impact on you. Like the anchor of a boat. Once a boat’s anchor has been released to the bottom of the sea, the boat will not move. It will not falter. It will not waiver.

Before I decided to transition to a vegan diet, I knew I needed to define my anchor. I needed to identify why I wanted to adopted a plant based lifestyle, what is of the outmost importance to me in that regards and what would guide my decisions and be my rock in times of temptations. I don’t have those temptations anymore but I won’t sit here and tell you I didn’t have them at the beginning, because I did. I’m humane and it’s ok to feel those temptations. But I didn’t waiver. I didn’t falter. Because I had my anchor. Because I had taken the time to identify that anchor at the beginning of my journey. And that is what I encourage everyone wanting to embark on a journey, on any journey, on any path that is different then the current path: find your anchor. Find what speaks to you, find the true motivation for doing what you are setting out to do, find that Loce that will keep you grounded and steady.

Often times people mistaken “willpower” with “anchor”. I’ve often heard: “I don’t have the willpower to be vegan, I love (insert non vegan food here) too much” or “I tried the vegan diet but it was too complicated”. Nuclear science is complicated, quantum physics is complicated, eating a plant based diet is not complicated. But you do need your anchor from which you will source your motivation when it lacks and your willpower to say no to bakery style donuts (or whatever is offered to you that is not aligned with the path you have now chosen to follow) when offered to you.

Willpower without an anchor is not strong enough.

So that’s what I answered my friend: I am “still” on a plant based diet because I have an anchor…and because I make delicious soup like this one!

I hope you guys enjoy this soup and leave me a comment to let me know what your anchor is.

xx

Potage à la kale & dill
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 6-8 portions
This kale and dill soup is velvety and creamy. It’s also very versatile. If you don’t have any kale on hand, you can easily use collard greens or any other leafy green.
Ingredients
  • 6 cups of water
  • 2 cubes of vegetable broth
  • 2 1/2 tsp cumin, ground
  • 1 1/2 tsp coriander, ground
  • 1 tsp coconut oil
  • 3 large russet potatoes
  • 6 cups of kale
  • 1 medium red onion
  • 2 garlic clove
  • 1/4 Cup fresh dill
  • Salt & pepper to taste
Instructions
  1. Peel the potatoes, remove the ribs from the kale and chop roughly, dice the onion, mince the garlic, chop the dill.
  2. In a large pot, melt the coconut oil on medium high heat.
  3. Add the onion and garlic. Cook for 3 minutes.
  4. Add the water, vegetable broth cubes, cumin and coriander.
  5. Bring to a boil.
  6. Add the potatoes and cook for 10 minutes.
  7. Add the kale and cook for another 8 minutes.
  8. Remove the pot from the heat and add the dill.
  9. Allow to cool for 10 minutes.
  10. With a blender or handheld blender, blend the soup until smooth and velvety.
  11. Adjust salt and pepper to taste.