Hot Salsa

6 vine tomatoes, quartered
2 medium jalapenos, 2 scotch bonnet or habanero peppers, split and seeded
1 medium to small onion, quartered
4 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried ground coriander
1 tsp salt
the juice of three limes

Add all ingredients to the Blendtec jar, juice and spices last. Pulse five times. Chill over night.

Sorry, meant to get a picture later but then we ate it all. Turned out quite nice!

Gadget giveaway!

Wing It Vegan is giving away another interesting-looking kitchen contraption, a 4-in-1 appliance which steams, cooks rice, dehydrates and makes yogurt. Check it out. Just leave a comment before July 8th to enter the give-away.

Coconut Lime Sorbet

several limes, peeled, halved and frozen (about 4 cups)
one 14 oz can light coconut milk
1/2 cup raw sugar (or to taste)

Add all ingredients to blender (Blendtec recommends adding liquid ingredients first.) Run on Ice Cream cycle. Serve immediately.

Raw Applesauce

Borrowed from Swell Vegan.

2 medium apples, cored and chopped into medium pieces (I used Granny Smith)
juice of one lime
2 tablespoons ground flax seed
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 cup water

Speed up to 8 and let run until desired consistency is reached. Surprisingly tasty. Flax seed lends a nice nuttiness, and no sugar is needed.

Derby Day Hummus

Horses like carrots, right? I'm headed to a Derby party this afternoon, and decided to riff off of Fatfree Vegan's carrot hummus. I came into a great deal of cheap eggplants recently, and was roasting one to make my favorite eggplant dip, so decided to try roasting the carrots along with it, instead of steaming or boiling them.

2 medium carrots, halved
1/4 cup water or chickpea broth
4 cloves garlic
1 1/2 cups cooked chickpeas
juice of one lime
1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1/4 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds

Roast carrots at 450 degrees until fork-tender, about 30 minutes. Add all ingredients to Blendtec; set on speed 1 and allow to run full cycle. Then speed up to 5 and run until smooth. This hummus was still a bit chunky, but I liked it that way. Cutting the carrots into smaller pieces before roasting would probably make them roast faster, and maybe blend more smoothly. I don't usually like cooked carrots, but the flavor of this dip was awesome. My only regret is I should have doubled the recipe.

In honor of Derby Day, and the horse theme of this blog, here is a picture I almost tried to incorporate into the masthead (I think it was the first thing that came up when I did a google image search for vegan horse):



Yep, they eat pretty much what I eat.

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.