Avocado Lime Cilantro Dressing

1 ripe avocado, halved and pitted
juice of 5 limes
1 small bunch of fresh cilantro, about 1 oz
1 teaspoon sea salt
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
1/4 cup water

Place all ingredients in Blendtec. (Of course, scoop the avocado out and discard the skin. But leave the stems on the cilantro.) Hold pulse button down until smooth. The resulting dressing is very thick, like smoother, creamier guacamole. Thin with water or olive oil if desired.

Note, this is a good use for overripe avocados that have begun to brown. The addition of cilantro and lime juice guarantees a beautiful, bright vibrant green color.

Reduced for Quick Sale Meets Farmer's Market Smoothie

If I have one weakness as a shopper, it's reduced for quick sale produce. I have no qualms about eating a bruised and even slimy pear, a slightly wrinkled bell pepper, and I love eating overripe bananas out of hand. The vast majority of the produce I purchase comes from the farmer's market or the local co-op, and I aim for in season and local as much as possible. But the reduced for quick sale produce rack at the local grocery store sometimes offers foods I can't resist. In this case it was a lumpy cantalope and a couple bunches of small red bananas.

half a medium cantalope, cubed
1/4 pound of green leaf lettuce
1/4 pound of cos lettuce
one medium navel orange, peeled and segments separated
3 ripe small red bananas (or one large regular banana)

Blend until smooth.

I'm not a huge fan of the cantalope flavor, so I tossed in an orange to balance it. After a taste I decided it could use something else, and tossed in a few baby bananas. Sweet and creamy.

Red Walnut and Banana Bean Bars

1 can kidney beans (15 oz), rinsed and drained
1/4 cup organic sugar
1 very ripe medium banana
1/4 cup raw walnuts
1/4 cup brown rice
2 tablespoons flax seed
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
a generous pinch of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 and oil a 8 by 8 baking dish, or Pyrex pan of similar size.

In a very dry Blendtec, place brown rice and flax seed. Press the speed up button until the level reaches 9; allow Blendtec to run full 50 second cycle. Add the remaining ingredients to resultant flour, but first stir the contents of the jar, taking care to get the flour out of the corners of the jar where it may have collected. Speed up again to level 9 and allow to run until smooth and well-blended. Scrape contents of jar into pan, smoothing with the spoon or spatula as necessary. Bake for 26 minutes. Allow to cool on counter and then refrigerate for a few hours before enjoying.

This was inspired by Celine's recipe on Have Cake, Will Travel several weeks ago. I have long been infatuated with the Black Bean Brownie recipe that started this all and have been keen on trying some kind of baked good where I could grind the grain myself and then mix it all at one go---Celine's ingredients included stuff like brown rice flour and nut butter that one can make in the Blendtec. I wanted to use fresh fruit, though, instead of preserves, so various experiments ensued. I was always surprised at how thick and sticky the batter seemed and Celine recommended replacing some of the flax with more flour; on a whim I decided to switch the amounts of flax versus brown rice flour entirely. I think it did help, but feel free to tinker with it yourself. The kidney beans were kind of a whim also; I had a super ripe banana that needed using and thought I would give this one more try and kidney beans were the only cooked beans on hand. I loved the flavor, especially the cinnamon that came through.

Vegan Chip Shop Curry Gravy

1 medium tomato, chopped
1/2 a medium yellow onion, chopped
1 medium apple, quartered and cored
2 large cloves of garlic, peeled
1 tablespoon miso
1 tablespoon wet tamarind (optional)
1 cup water
1 generous teaspoon garam masala
1/2 teaspoon turmeric

Cook onion and tomato on the stove-top til soft. Place all other ingredients in Blendtec, onion and tomato last. Run Whole Juice cycle once.

I took this sauce to a St. Patrick's Day themed potluck, along with some homemade seitan sausages. I was inspired by the curry sauce often served with fries at Irish pubs. It's actually based off of a sauce I created for the Spring Onion Pancakes I am trying to perfect (I think try number four is coming up---the recipe itself is ridiculously simple but the cooking method is the tricky part), the tomato, onion and spices are what made it a British 'gravy.' The tamarind adds a great tang but is admittedly a little obscure. Asian or Indian markets sometimes sell it. It's a dense block of tamarind pulp. Typically you would add water and mush out the stray seed pods and fiber to create a tamarind juice to add to recipes, but the Blendtec obviates this step.

This made a tasty, healthy dip for fake sausages, but could be great on steamed vegetables, crepes, as a salad dressing. There are numerous possibilities.

Orange is the New Green Smoothie

I just happened upon this delicious combination. Maybe using the Whole Juice cycle is what makes it so silky, but truly I think the pith of the orange has something to do with it.

My New Favorite Smoothie

2 large seedless navel oranges, peeled and separated into quarters
1 medium carrot, cut into three inch pieces
5-6 lettuce leaves, leaf, romaine or cos lettuce

Place all ingredients in Blendtec. Run Whole Juice cycle. Serve.

The Whole Baba Ghanouj

1 medium eggplant (approximately one pound)
1 tablespoon capers
2 cloves of garlic, peeled
juice of 1 small lemon
fresh ground black pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375. Trim the stem and quarter your eggplant. Brush the largest cut sides with olive oil and place on a baking sheet. Prick numerous times with fork or knife. Bake about 45 minutes, or until very soft.

When eggplant is cool enough to handle briefly, toss it into the blender with the capers, garlic and lemon juice. Leave the peel on. Run on Sauces/Dip cycle. Serve immediately, while still warm, garnished with pepper, or chill for later.

I love baba ghanouj, but I always thought scraping out the eggplant pulp and discarding the skin was sort of tragic. I liked this dip. If you like a creamier dip, you can add the traditional tahini or olive oil. You could also roast your garlic with the eggplant, for a sweeter, mellower flavor.

Mistakes

This is what happens when you attempt to make scallion pancakes -- those delicious, crispy appetizers commonly found in Korean and Chinese restaurants -- but add the scallions at the wrong step. I was going for big visible pieces and got a nice tasting but uniformly green batter. There were other things that needed tweaking, but I'll be giving it another try, so look for the recipe soon.