Roasted Carrot-Cabbage Slaw with Lemony Ras el Hanout Dressing.

corrected brassica misconception.

Roasted Carrot-Cabbage Slaw with

Lemony Ras el Hanout Dressing and 

Pomegranate Seeds. 

learn to love. and roast EVERYTHING.

An open letter. 

Dear cabbage, I was wrong about you.
So very wrong and for that I apologize.
It was pop culture that clouded my judgment, like always.
Years of "comedic" bullying jokes made at your expense seeped into my subconscious.
I developed a reflexively negative reaction to the mere mention of you.
My mind clouded with images of old kerchief-ed ladies in slouching knee-highs serving you up, boiled and vaguely stinky.
Or of you drowning in big tupperware bowls full of mayo, warming on picnic tables in the summer sun.
I couldn't see beyond the limitations others imposed on you.
I was weak.
You are so much more than a sad lifeless shell or a vehicle for mayonnaise,
I see that now.
I am awake.
I've been thinking a lot about you lately, about us.
About being open and receptive and allowing the "new" in.
And about my place in your beautiful world.
I see you, cabbage. All of you, the REAL you.
Now let's get dressed up (in our best spice blends) and ride off into the sunset together.

Yours always.

Many thanks to the lovely Christine Dionese of Garden Eats for inviting me to participate in this Our Growing Edge monthly blogger event.
The theme of which is "new kitchen experiences,"
NOT "longwinded love letters to much maligned produce".

cabbage. forever and ever.

Roasted Carrot-Cabbage Slaw 

with Lemony Ras El Hanout Dressing 
and.Pomegranate.

(serves 4-6)

1 lb carrots, halved and cut into 1/4" thick sticks

1 very small head of cabbage (I used purple-tipped savoy, but any variety will do),

quartered de-stemmed and cut into 1/4" thick pieces

1 large shallot, very thinly sliced

1/3c extra virgin olive oil

1 large lemon, zested and juiced

1Tbsp ras el hanout*  

1Tbsp pomegranate molasses

1/4tsp ground sea salt

1/4tsp cracked black pepper

1c fresh pomegranate seeds

Raw Vegan Cashew-Cranberry Cheesecake Bites

because one can only eat so many cookies.

Raw Cranberry-Cashew Cheesecake Bites.

shame-free.

Bake, eat, repeat. My perpetual holiday mantra. Bake the treats. "Quality test" the treats. Second round "quality test' the treats (because this is the very definition of important stuff, folks). Realize I don't have enough treats left to actually give as gifts. Bake the treats again. Feel shame.

I did not break the cycle this season. I did, however, supplement with something raw and full of whole food-y deliciousness and PRETTY.

The most important feature of any food gift.

I quality tested the entire first batch as my gift to you, my dear readers.

And then I made some more.

xoxox





 Raw Vegan Cashew-Cranberry Cheesecake Bites

(makes approximately 12 1" bites)

Crust:

1 1/4c raw walnuts

1 heaping cup pitted medjool dates

1/4c raw flaked coconut, unsweetened

1Tbsp flax seeds

pinch sea salt

Filling:

1 1/4c raw cashews, soaked for 2+ hours and drained

1c raw cranberries

1/2c liquified coconut oil

1/4c agave or maple syrup

1/4tsp sea salt

1.5Tbsp lemon juice

Dark Chocolate-Dipped Candied Citrus with Vanilla Infused Sea Salt

conflicted confections.

Dark Chocolate-Dipped

Candied Navel Orange + Clementine Slices 

with 

Vanilla Infused Sea Salt.

confections gotta be confected.

Apparently today (yesterday, as I post this) is (was) national dipping things in chocolate day, or some equivalently contrived BS foodie holiday. I loathe participating in these things and tend to avoid them like the transparently disingenuous plague they are. Yet here I am, joining in. It really couldn't be avoided. Sometimes confections need to be confected and this was a pre-planned, pre-holiday food gift prep day that just so happened to fall on an unfortunately coincidental calendar square.

But I feel a little tool-y about it all the same...

Addendum-- all previous complaints notwithstanding, if there's ever a national vanilla-infused 

sea salt day, I'm all over it. 

That stuff is worth a cynical and VERY public sacrifice of integrity.

candied.

dipped.

Dark Chocolate-Dipped

Candied Navel Orange and Clementine Slices

with 

Vanilla Infused Sea Salt

(makes about 25 pieces)

3-4 medium sized organic navel oranges +

3-4 organic clementines
(should yield somewhere around 4c, once sliced)

6c water

2c (+ 1-2Tbsp) unrefined sugar

1/2c dark chocolate chips 

2tsp unrefined coconut oil

1Tbsp finely ground sea salt

1/4 fresh vanilla bean pod, halved