Raw

August 3, 2015 Tangie Holifield

This is a great salad and just perfect for to serve as a light lunch or dinner during summer.

So often, we find ourselves just putting cucumbers in a smoothie or making refreshing cocktails, because they are made of more than 95% water and provide much needed hydration. They are also very low in calories which means you can eat as many cucumbers as you would like to have and not worry about counting calories.Did you know that a half cup of sliced cucumbers has only 8 calories and provides more than 10% of the recommended daily intake of vitamin K? Imagine that!

This recipe is very adaptable. You can easily double the ingredients to share with a friend.

Serves 1

Ingredients:
For the dressing:
2 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
4-5 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon tamari
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated ginger
Freshly cracked black pepper, to taste
Crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
Kosher salt, to taste

For the noodles:
1/2 large cucumber
handful of tightly packed fresh mint
1 green scallion (only the green part), finely sliced
1/2 teaspoon black caraway seeds
1/2 teaspoon white sesame seeds

Directions:
To make the dressing, combine the ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

To make the salad, remove smaller leaves from the stem. Tear the larger leaves into smaller pieces.

Make the noodles by using a spiralizer or a veggie peeler. Add the noodles, mint and scallion to a bowl and pour the dressing on top.Gently toss the noodles to cover them in the dressing.

Top with caraway and sesame seeds and serve fresh.

June 8, 2015 Tangie Holifield

Spring time brings and abundance of fresh produce in the local supermarkets and farmer’s markets .
I am always looking for meals that take less cooking in the kitchen, and mostly raw if possible.Such is the case with spring vegetables, which are perfect for leaving raw, keeping the nutritional value intact.

Using a spiral vegetable slicer. It gives good noodle.This handy little gadget is much easier to use than a mandoline or vegetable peeler. You can purchase a GEFU Spirelli, Spiral Slicer or a Paderno World Cuisine Spiralizer, which is another incredible kitchen gadget perfect for spiralizing all sorts of hearty vegetables like sweet potatoes, beets and butternut squash into noodles.

But if you don’t have a spiral slicer, you can simply grate the carrots with a box grater to make this recipe.

You can even spiral carrots. Carrots remotely taste like pasta, but as a vegetable, it can offer a vegetarian, paleo option for those looking for something off the beaten path.The carrot noodles are crisp and fresh and the ginger-lime peanut sauce makes your taste buds spin. And the bonus is that recipe is ever so simple and requires zero cooking, because let’s face it, who wants to spend time over a hot stove during this time of year. Also, this is the perfect dish for “Meatless Mondays”.

Serves 4 to 6

Ingredients:
For the Carrot Pasta:
5 large carrots, peeled and spiraled into noodles
1/3 cup roasted cashews or peanuts
2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro, finely chopped

For the Ginger-Lime Peanut Sauce:
2 Tablespoons creamy peanut butter
4 Tablespoons coconut milk
A pinch cayenne pepper
2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon fresh ginger, peeled and grated
1 Tablespoon lime juice
Kosher salt, to taste
Sliced scallions, for garnish

Directions:
To Prepare the Ginger-Lime Peanut Sauce:
Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and mix together until smooth and
creamy.

To Prepare the Carrot Pasta:
Wash carrots well, peel them, and pat them dry.Using your spiral slicer, make noodles out of all of the carrots. It will be more difficult to make the noodles once there is only a few inches of carrot left, so you can grate what’s left of the carrot.

To serve, place the carrot noodles into a large serving bowl. Pour the Ginger-Lime Sauce over the noodles and gently toss together. Garnish with roasted cashews or peanuts, scallions and freshly chopped cilantro.