Archive for February, 2010

it’s-so-easy-being-green smoothie

February 28th, 2010

green in all its gloryKermit was wrong!  It IS easy being green!

We first tried this lovely concoction at a friend’s house. Our kids, seeing their friends slurping this green concoction down greedily, gave it a try and have never looked back. This is still one of their favorites.

It’s super sweet, and the spinach is so mild you can’t taste the “green” at all, which makes this a wonderful introduction to green smoothies! I love the color of this breakfast beverage, it’s so in your face GREEN. We put berries in most of our smoothies, which, in the presence of greens, turn the smoothie something along the spectrum from mauve to brown, depending on the ratio of red to green I suppose. So I really love it when our “green smoothie” is actually green!

smoothie ingredientsit’s-so-easy-being-green smoothie

  • 1 pineapple
  • 1 banana
  • couple handfuls of spinach
  • Tbs flax seeds, ground

Chop pineapple, break up banana, top with greens and seeds. Blend. Share with others!

I add a variety of things to our smoothies to boost the nutrition. Sometimes it’s herbal infusions, sometimes flax, chia or hemp seeds, sometimes bee pollen or spirulina, it all depends on what I have on hand and what I’m in the mood for. My kids don’t care for much pollen or spirulina, so when using those I will pour off their smoothies and blend mine a bit more to disperse the add-in of the day.  I do this with the greens too sometimes, especially if I’m using green curly kale. Those leaves have a stronger flavor than baby spinach, so I’ll just include one or two for their smoothie and return the carafe to the blender base and toss in more leaves for my smoothie.

green smoothie in the blenderLucia prefers to just eat her pineapple and spinach from separate bowls, so about 1/3 of the pineapple ends up in a dish for her. Sometimes she wraps the spinach around the pineapple slices, sometimes she just nibbles them separately.This smoothie can also make a great fruit dip or raw fondue if you want to get fancy. Just cut up your favorite fruits into bite-size cubes, and serve with toothpicks and a bowl of lovely green fruit dip. Or go the extra mile and wrap your small pieces of fruit in a collard or lettuce leaf, roll and dip into this as you would a spring roll. Yummers!

I’ve also noticed that you can add the pineapple core to the Vita-Mix, but I’m not sure I would try this with a regular blender. I think my old Oster would be up to the task, but I don’t know for sure. Maybe we’ll have to have a blender showdown!  Any excuse for a party!

Have you ever tried a green green smoothie? Were you surprised by the taste? What was in it? Do you still make a green-colored green smoothie with no red or blue ingredients to mess with the gorgeous green? What’s your favorite? Now that our Smoothie Extravaganza is coming to a close, let us know if you tried any, what modifications you made and how you liked it! Not that we won’t post any more smoothies, but as we’re doing snacks and dehydration in class this week, well, I guess that makes this the week of the Snack Attack!

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profusion infusion

February 26th, 2010

nettle infusionOne way to boost the nutrition of your smoothies is to use an herbal infusion in place of any other liquid (water, juice, coconut water, etc). Listening to Susun Weed’s interview on the Raw Mom Summit last year, I learned how beneficial herbal infusions are, and that they are significantly more nutritious than herbal teas.

Infusions are super easy to make. Fill a quart jar (8 cups) with 1 oz. by weight (about a cup by volume)  of the herb of your choice at night, fill the jar with boiling water, cover to retain the essential oils that would otherwise escape on the steam, and let it sit 4-10 hours. I usually make mine at night so it’s ready when I get up.  Strain (I pour the infusion into my french press to make straining easy and mess-free), and drink 1 cup, refrigerating the remainder to avoid spoilage.  It is best to drink 2-4 cups a day, so adding some to your smoothie can help accomplish this. The taste will vary depending on the herb of course.

Why herbal infusions instead of tea? Susan says, “A cup of nettle tea has 5 mg of calcium. A cup of nettle infusion contains 250 mg of calcium. Why waste my time with teas?” If you have made the infusion the night before you can heat it up and enjoy it as you would your favorite cup of tea and experience the great nutritional benefits as well.

stinging nettlesI have only used infusions of nettle and horsetail at present, but you can find one of Susun’s book through your library, inter-library loan (ILL), or right here in our very own Bodega and see if she’s got something in there for what ails ya. What I like about the infusions is how rich in minerals and vitamins they are — they’re natural supplements! Nettles contain Calcium, chlorophyll, chromium, cobalt, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, protein, riboflavin, selenium, thiamine, zinc, vitamins A, C, E, K.

Drinking a nettle infusion will boost your energy, give you healthy hair and skin and help solve adrenal and urinary tract issues. Alternating with horsetail (Susun recommends getting to know each herb by drinking single-herb infusions, so consume different herbs at different times), which is high in calcium and silica, will increase the strength of your hair and nails.

During the summer, we collect these undervalued plants from our yard and use the leaves as the greens in our smoothie. I find that they have a less “green” taste than kale, collards and chard! And the best part is, they’re FREE and more nutrient-dense than many of the things I can buy at the grocery store.

stinging nettle hair

I recommend that you wear gloves to harvest them to avoid getting stung, but if you do get pricked by the tiny hypodermic needles full of chemicals, the plant itself offers the remedy! Take a leaf and roll it from base to tip and put it between your teeth. Macerate the leaf into a paste and apply this paste to the stung skin. Harvest before the seeds (yellowish wisps in the picture) appear, so that the full energy of the plant is in the leaves.

Frequent harvesting also helps keep them under control, as they will spread easily in lovely loose garden soil. We have permitted them to take over a corner of our garden, but keep them contained to that area by eating them regularly. They have appeared in some of the edges of our yard, but as these are younger patches, we haven’t started harvesting them yet so that they might expand a bit more first. You can cut down the tops once they do go to seed and place in parts of your yard where you wouldn’t mind having a patch. And they’re not limited to infusions or smoothies, either. Dante likes to saute them with salt, garlic and olive oil and serve them as greens for dinner, or put them into sandwiches. Cooking or blending neutralizes the sting, so you can eat them without fear.

I would like to get enough nettles outside to be able to harvest and dry my own as well, but I first bought them from health food stores like It’s Only Natural in Middletown, Foodworks II in Old Saybrook, and Garden of Light in Glastonbury. Now that I’ve been able to sample them, I order in bulk from Mountain Rose Herbs. I really appreciate MRH’s standards concerning the people, land and plants involved in the production of their products.

The infusion is cool by the morning when I’m ready to use it, so I just strain it and add enough to my smoothie to thin it as I would any other liquid. I do tend to cut back on the greens I add when using the infusion, otherwise I find the taste a bit too green for me. But since I’m getting the nutrition from the infusion, it’s all good.

Profusion Infusion

  • Nettle smoothie in the blender1 apple
  • 1 banana
  • 1 cup frozen cherries
  • 1 handful of greens
  • up to 2 cups nettle infusion
  1. Add fruit and greens to blender.
  2. Pour nettle infusion over it.
  3. Blend.

I forgot to snap the picture before I started the blender, but you can still see that the infusion doesn’t greatly alter the color. Nor with all that fruit, did I even notice the taste, which is pretty mild to begin with, at least for nettles and horsetail.

profusion infusion

I didn’t add the chia seeds to the blender, but  instead put them on top to have a different sort of crunch to our smoothie. Unless you want it to thicken considerably though, when you add chia to your smoothie either in the blender or on top, you should eat it fairly quickly. If you linger over your smoothie you will end up with more a pudding than a beverage. Not a bad idea, if you’re wanting something of that consistency, but a bit of a shock if you try to drink it, only to have it fall onto your face as a lump of pudding. You can read about the benefits of adding chia seeds to your diet and buy them in our bodega.

Watch Susun and her grandaughter make nettle infusion while you down your next smoothie:

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Chocolate Mousse Pie

February 25th, 2010

Last weekend we were going to a birthday party for my 5 year old’s friend. I had been wanting chocolate pie for a few days but felt I probably shouldn’t make it and eat it all by myself so this was the perfect excuse to get my fix!

This recipe came from my friend, Brigid and it is always a hit and one of the fastest desserts to eat. I won’t lie, I do like it for breakfast, too.

This is one of those desserts that is so fun to adapt and decorate as well. So, be creative and go for it!

Chocolate Mousse Pie

Crust:

  • 2 3/4 cup macadamia nuts
  • 1/8 tsp sea salt
  1. Run the food processor until it the nuts become a nice dense texture.
  2. Put in a pie pan and push down into crust shape.

Filling:

  • 2/3 cups dates, pitted
  • 1/4 cup raw almond butter
  • 1-2 TBS coconut oil
  • few TBS agave nectar
  • 1/4 cup raw cacao powder
  • 1 cup water
  • 1-2 TBS psyllium husk powder.
  1. Mix ingredients in food processor.
  2. Pour into crust.
  3. Decorate with berries, coconut flakes, seeds, nuts, fruit slices, etc if you wish.

Ta-da! You’re done!

For the crust, I usually use a mix of about half mac nuts and half cashews. The cashews add a bit more creaminess and the mac nuts are so rich and decadent!

For the filling, I follow it using the full 2 TBS coconut oil and tend towards the 1 TBS psyllium husk powder. The more powder you put in, the thicker the mousse is. I also use raw honey instead of agave.

It looks pretty topped with fresh berries or coconut. This time, I used goji berries and goldenberries to decorate the top and add some superfruit power!

My kids also like the mousse made alone and eat it like pudding. My husband has been known to eat a slice or FIVE! This is definitely a hit with all who try it.

Sioux adds — this pie doesn’t last long in our house either, my kids love the pudding, and Luke and I will eat the entire pie if left alone in a room with it for more than 20 minutes. Even after 20 minutes, don’t expect much to be left…especially if we know we’ve only got 20 minutes!

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apple pie smoothie

February 24th, 2010

It’s Smoothie Week here at crunchybits,  and today we’ve got another dessert-like drink for you! When it comes to smoothies in the winter, I find that I’m not looking for light, clean smoothies as much as I do in the summer. I want something richer, warmer, decadent. And today’s smoothie fits the bill.

Apple Pie Smoothie

  • 3 apples
  • 1 banana
  • 1/2 cup raisins
  • 2 handfuls spinach
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 Tbs ground flax
  • cinnamon to taste
  1. Core and chop apples and banana.
  2. Add raisins, water, and 2 handfuls of spinach.
  3. Blend and enjoy!

Once I got the smoothie to the table with a spoon, I realized that I’d left out the most important ingredient — cinnamon!  So I got our shaker from the cupboard and several shakes and stirs later, YUM! It was perfectly spiced and warming, tart and sweet, green and crunchy.  Thanks to our buckwheat crunchies that is. I would like to try a variation of this with a handful of walnuts some time, but I found this to be a satisfying glass o’ yum for breakfast.

The start of this smoothie (apples, raisins and cinnamon) makes a great applesauce. I like to puree 2/3 of the apples and toss the last bit in just before turning off the blender so that it’s a bit chunky, but again, I like to chew food and find pureed applesauce odd to eat. So, if you don’t want a smoothie but are looking for a quick sweet treat, give it a whirl!

Dante, always the man for a garnish, dressed it up for the camera — slice of kiwi and crunchies spelling S heart, for smoothie love.

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must-see tv

February 23rd, 2010

We interrupt this regularly scheduled Smoothie Extravanza to bring you this important message:

Over the last few years, we’ve watched some documentaries that have had a profound impact on the choices we make on a very mundane level. We’ve stopped using skin and body care products from the store, stopped buying water in plastic bottles, and our grocery cart looks vastly different than it did even a year ago and more.

Today on the Western Mass Permaculture list, I saw a message that I’d like to share with you. It was a link to Spread the Word’s Must Watch Documentaries. If you scroll just a bit to the first documentaries listed with summaries, you will find Food, Inc., Food Matters and Flow. Scroll a bit more and you can watch the Story of Stuff.  Even further and you find Earthlings, the truly horrific film narrated by Joaquin Phoenix about the way modern civilization treats the animals we use. I have not seen this movie because I’ve seen some of the footage before and am already a vegan so I saw no point. And I got nauseous just watching the trailer.

Others I haven’t seen on the featured page but are on my wish list are films like The World According to Monsanto, The Secret Life of Plants, Manufacturing Consent, The Corporation, Who Stole the Electric Car,  The Disappearing Male, Consuming Kids, Simply Raw, Fractals: The Color of Infinity. Have you been wanting to see a documentary but found it to be unavailable to you? Check their list of all documentaries.

They have a 14 part series called Extraordinary Animals, HOME, Forest Gardening with Robert Hart (love this one, 15 minutes long), Sweet Misery,  Sweet Rememdy, The Fog of War, The Future of Food (excellent explanation of just what genetically modified food is, how it’s made in the lab), The Illuminated Chakras, Jesus Camp, The Life of  Buddha (been looking for this one for a while, NOT the Keanu Reaves one), and so many more! Get your thoughts ready to be provoked and check the list to see if there’s one you’ve wanted to see!

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merry tri-greenberry

February 23rd, 2010

Continuing on with our Smoothie Extravaganza, I’m posting one I made this past weekend — hence the full blender. I can’t believe this one came out so purpley. Lots of berries hidden in that blender. Can you spot them? Actually, cherries aren’t berries are they. But I’m going to ignore that and call this glass of goodness

Merry Tri-greenberry

  • tri-green smoothie ingrediets1 apple
  • 3/4 cup blueberries
  • 1/2 cups strawberries
  • 1/2 cup sweet cherries
  • 1 banana
  • 2 beet greens
  • 2 romaine leaves
  • 2 kale leaves
  • 1/2 small container coconut water
  • 2 Tbs hemp seeds
  1. You know the drill. Rinse, chop and blend.

eat your greens!You can see that most of our smoothies are topped with crunchies. Both kids love this aspect of smoothies and we tend to use then nearly every day if we have them. They’re super easy to make and have on-hand, and keep for ages in the cupboard if dehydrated properly. I buy raw buckwheat groats (not kasha, or toasted buckwheat) and soak them for an hour or two in a bowl. The soak water gets very slimy and sometimes you see tiny bubbles form on the surface, almost like when you cook beans but not as foamy. I imagine this happening in my stomach if I ate unsoaked/sprouted buckweat… blech. After soaking, rinse really well until they no longer feel slimy. You can let them sprout for a day or so or pop them straight into the dehydrator for a couple of hours. They don’t take too long to crisp up nicely.

Before I had a dehydrator, I would spread them on clean kitchen towels in the hot summer sun, stirring them up a bit now and then to ensure even drying. I still do this during warmer months, but am glad to have the dehydrator to keep us crunching our smoothies throughout the winter. Last week I made a superyummytastic granola bar with the soaked buckwheat. I only made a bit to try it out, but they were gone in seconds. A hit with everyone in the house, and a perfect on-the-go snack.

sweet crunchy love

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bluebrazzle dazzle

February 22nd, 2010

love, blender styleSince we’re going to be covering smoothies in our raw food class this week, I thought I’d post another. This one is closer to what I drink  most mornings when I start to get hungry. The kids love it, and since the spinach is so mild I can pack a decent number of greens in. Can you see why I choose to plant blueberries and raspberries?

Such a simple, ordinary smoothie begs an ostentatious name, n’est-ce pas? Something along the lines of those at Jera’s Juice, the smoothie shop I remember from our days living in Boston. My favorite was the Razzamatazz, which was basically frozen yogurt with some ice and raspberries in it. With 2 free “enhancers”, of course. These days, my preferred smoothies are more nutrient dense, and with the greens, darker and mauver in color. All those antioxidants and minerals give me the power to make up new words like mauver. What new word have you made up recently?

Without further ado, I give you my tribute to the ghost of smoothies past:

Bluebrazzle Dazzle (extra points if you can say that 10x fast!)
bluebrazzle dazzle ingredients

  • 1 banana
  • 1 cup frozen blueberries
  • 1/2 cup frozen raspberries
  • 1-2 Tbs chia seeds
  • 1-2 Tbs flax seeds
  • several handfuls of spinach
  • less than 1 cup of water to thin
  1. I tend to put the fruit cut into chunks on the bottom, then frozen fruit, then greens. All amounts are an approximation. I just pour into the blender til it looks right or the bag is empty.
  2. Sometimes I add the seeds before the greens, sometimes I pour them in once everything has homogenized.
  3. Once everything is in, I add enough water to nearly cover the fruit.
  4. Blend, baby, blend.
  5. We like to top our smoothies with buckwheat crunchies and goji berries, and eat them with a spoon.

I stopped drinking smoothies in early winter because, well, we keep our house relatively cold, and a nice frosty smoothie was often the LAST thing I wanted to drink. But I didn’t feel as well when I started eating things like sprouted toast or oatmeal and hot tea for breakfast as I have in years past.  So I’m back to smoothies, and I’ve found a couple of things to alleviate the situation: I put on my hat, coat and gloves before I sit at the table. Kidding. Well, almost. I do actually wrap up in my snuggly shawl sometimes when I’m particularly feeling the cold, but that’s only til the heat kicks in. Did I mention that I crank the heat to a balmy 65 when I start to make my smoothie? Yes indeedy, it’s a veritable sweat lodge in the kitchen by the time I start to slurp my frigid beverage. I turn it right back to 60 when I’m done, however, so those of you who wear your coats at my place can continue to plan accordingly. Unless you come for smoothie time.

bluebrazzle dazzle in all its gloryI don’t usually “break the fast”  until I’ve been up for a while, so if I remember, I pour the frozen fruit into a bowl and let it defrost until I’m ready. This alters the texture of the smoothie slightly, but nothing horrible and the not-freezing smoothie is more appetizing for me in winter.  Lucky as I am to have a Vita-Mix, I also leave it running for a little bit. You can make warm soups in a Vita-Mix if you let it run for 5-7 minutes. I’m not looking for warm berry soup, but if I run it for 2-3 minutes it does seem to take a bit of the chill off.

I am still experimenting with adding warming spices to the smoothie — ginger, cayenne, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, etc — depending on the other ingredients. The carrot cake smoothie would be an excellent winter warmer since it lends itself to inclusion of lots of those spices, and I imagine chocolate-flavored nut milk drinks would also be delicious with those types of spices. Also, those same spices are credited with having a number of health benefits: cinnamon alone is known for its antiseptic, antibacterial and antifungal properties and has been widely used as a diaphoretic (promotes sweating), parasiticide, antispasmodic, aphrodisiac (hubba hubba!), analgesic (painkilling) and diuretic. Ginger has more than 12 types of antioxidants making it useful for many health issues, is anti-inflammatory and — you guessed it — reputed to be an aphrodisiac!  Love is all you need…



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Carrot Cake Smoothie

February 21st, 2010

carrot flowersBotanically, carrots belong to the Umbelliferae family, which also includes fennel/anise, celery, parsnips, dill, cilantro/cumin, parsley, caraway, Queen Anne’s Lace and the poisonous hemlock. Many of the popular plants in this family works well in the garden as a companion plant. Largely because the tiny flowers forming the umbels, for which the group is named, are perfectly suited for parasitic wasps, ladybugs and predatory flies which drink their nectar. These beneficial insects will then dine upon insect pests on nearby plants. Some of the more fragrant herbs in this family possibly dilute the odors of nearby plants, or the pheromones emitted by pest insects to signal to other pests.

Raw carrots contain vitamin C, vitamin B6, thiamine, folic acid, potassium and magnesium. Carrots are one of the best sources of carotene which is a strong antioxidant and is converted by the body into Vitamin A. Also most of the goodness is actually in, or just below the skin. Many people do not realize that numerous antioxidant compounds are located in the skin of fruit and vegetables, so buy organic where you can for fruits and veggies that have edible peels and don’t peel them before using!  You can get some vitamin K by using the greens on top of the carrot — the carrots themselves don’t have much of this important vitamin, so save those greens for your next green smoothie! Carrots are also known for their sweetening, antianemic, healing, diuretic, remineralizing and sedative properties.

This smoothie isn’t as simple as my usual morning fare, so I only tend to make it once or twice a year as a treat. It’s also incredibly sweet, so seldom is probably better than frequently anyway. But I’ve been thinking about it for a few weeks now, and bought an extra bag of carrots to satisfy my craving.

We are lucky to have gotten a juicer from Luke’s parents when our old one broke, but if I didn’t have this I would probably just make a pulpier version in the Vita-Mix. Since I do, I juice the carrots ahead of time. I was making enough for myself and the kids, and while a better juicer might yield more juice with less carrots, I nearly used the entire 5lb bag!

I poured all the carrot juice into the blender and set the pulp aside for a later use (I’ll post that later this week — Luke ate all that I made so I am dehydrating the second batch for pictures).  The kids were playing Harry Potter and had a hard time settling to smoothie, so I’m here to confess that I didn’t push this sweet treat too hard and found an alternative use for the extra smoothie.

Carrot Cake Smoothie

  • 3.5lbs carrots, juiced
  • 2 carrots
  • 1/2 cup walnuts
  • 2 bananas
  • 2-3 dates
  • cinnamon, ginger, cloves, allspice, nutmeg, etc  to taste
  1. I juiced all the carrots, poured this into the blender.
  2. I roughly chopped 2 carrots, added to the blender, along with the bananas, walnuts and spice. I opted for only cinnamon this time to keep it simple.
  3. Blend til smooth. My old Oster blender never managed to get all the little walnut bits, so I had to chew that smoothie more, but this one was pure smooth goodness.

If our ice cream maker hadn’t started leaking freezy fluid, I would pour this in for a  delicious and different raw ice cream. It’s incredibly rich. If making this as a smoothie, I would probably leave out the dates and perhaps one of the bananas. Did I mention that I found this to be incredibly sweet? I don’t remember thinking that at all in the summer when I made this last, so either my carrots were much sweeter or my palate and sensitivity to sweetness has changed. At any rate, it was a lovely, rich treat on a cold winter day.

YUM!

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Berry sweet

February 20th, 2010

My honey took the kids to a UCONN hockey game and open skate afterwards today, so I was able to do some final research on growing some fruit in our yard this year.  We had considered planting apple trees, but my research concerning  growing apples organically in CT left me discouraged. Apple trees are prone to damage from several insects and diseases in this area, and while  it is possible to keep them at bay or to a minimum, I’m not willing to divert my limited time and efforts to the required tasks at this point.

Thus, I focused on the more expensive fruits we consume — berries. High in antioxidants and vitamins, frozen organic berries are expensive. Our local Shaws carries 10oz bags of organic raspberries for $4.69.  Sometimes we can find them on sale, but even then they’re more expensive pound for pound than most other fruits we buy. In general, berry bushes are less susceptible to disease and easier to care for than fruit trees.

I was hoping to find a relatively local organic supplier but had no luck. If you know of one in the southern New England area, please let me know! I pored over the Stark Bro’s (fruit tree/bush supplier to Ballek’s Garden Center in East Haddam, a personal favorite) and Fedco Trees catalogs, but both are far enough away to face different climate challenges than mine. In the end, I chose a nursery in Western MA called Nourse Farms in Deerfield, MA. The kids have been asking to revisit Magic Wings and I’ve wanted to explore  Historic Deerfield, which are nearby so I saved the shipping and opted to pick up my order at the farm.  I opted to save an additional 10% and order the combination since I had all 3 varieties of blueberries in my cart already. I did the same with the raspberries, although I confess I had only planned on getting two varieties.

I also rediscovered a nursery I’d found last year while looking into edible landscaping and permaculture.  Tripple Brook Farm, located in Southampton, MA, has a large selection of unusual or native edible landscape plants that are hardy in our area, and am hoping to arrange a tour of their place this spring. Comment below if you’re interested. Like many nurseries, they give a discount if you buy more of a species, so if you aren’t interested in a visit to the farm but want something specific, I would be happy to coordinate a group buy of popular varieties as well, along the lines of the bulk seed buy we did last year.

I found it to be relatively difficult to find detailed information about growing fruits organically online outside of this diverse resource: the ATTRA National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service Master Publication List for organic growing guides. Lots to chew on there. Support for growing organically can be found in the Connecticut chapter of the Northeast Organic Farmer’s Association (CTNOFA) Resources for Gardeners.

Happy growing!

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garden burger pate

February 16th, 2010

Another yummy recipe from the Raw Family Signature dishes for you today. The recipe is titled Live Garden Burger in the book. It can be shaped into paties or made into a sandwich as they have in the book, but I thought it was scrumptious on celery and also served in red pepper boats.

garden burger pate

  • 2 cups sunflower seeds
  • 3 carrots
  • 1 medium onion
  • 1/4 cup raisins
  • 2 TBS raw agave nectar
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1 lemon
  • 1/4 bunch fresh herbs (such as basil, thyme, dill or rosemary)
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 1 hot pepper
  1. Whiz up the sunflower seeds in the food processor with the s blade. Grind them to a powder. Pour that into a bowl.
  2. Chop carrots into 1 inch pieces and put them in the food processor. Grind until pureed.
  3. Add chopped onion, raisins, agave and olive oil.
  4. Juice lemons and add juice to food processor.
  5. Add sea salt, herbs and hot pepper. Blend for about 1 minute. Scrape sides down sides and process for 30 more seconds.
  6. Scrape the mixture into the bowl with the sunflower seeds and mix by hand until thoroughly mixed. Makes about 4 cups of pate. It will keep in the fridge several days.

My variations:

I used brazil nuts that I already had soaking instead of the sunflower seeds. I think it was close to 2 cups but may have been slightly over. I drained them and tossed them in the food processor. I used raw, local honey instead of agave and apple cider vinegar in place of the lemon (about 1/4 cup). I had some fresh basil stored in the freezer which came to me with love from my mom’s garden so that is what I used.
At first try, the pate was a bit spicy but as flavors married and I ate it the next day, it was perfect. My five year old loved it in red pepper boats. It was also a hit with my hubby. I call this a win!
It is a very pretty pate and can be used in a variety of ways so be creative and experiment!

Since it makes such a generous amount, I put half in a container for the fridge and I froze the other half. I love doing this for those times that I am really busy and don’t have as much time to prepare in the kitchen. This will defrost easily and be a satisfying treasure when I need it.
Add some color to your life and your diet with this yummy garden burger pate!

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