Chef AJ’s House Dressing

Ingredients:
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup tamari (or low sodium soy sauce)
6 tablespoons lemon (or lime juice)
1 tablespoon maple syrup (or date syrup)

Directions:
Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor until smooth.

Serving Size: 32 (1 tablespoon servings)

Nutritional Facts:
Calories: 22.9
Total Fat: 1.1 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 143.6 mg
Potassium: 56.1 mg
Total Carbs: 2.1 g
Protein: 1.6 g

Notes: What a great tasting salad dressing without the fat from oil! It’s quick and simple to make, which is the best news. I haven’t eaten this much salad in months, but thanks to this dressing I might start eating more. The ingredients in parenthesis were not used. Thanks to Chef AJ for another good receipe.

Source: Chef AJ

Creamy Spinach Artichoke Dip

Ingredients:
3/4 cup cashews (I have used pieces, whole and salt & pepper)
3/4 plain, unsweetened soy milk
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
3 tablespoons lemon juice
2-3 cloves, minced garlic
1 tablespoon Bragg’s Liquid Aminos (optional)
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard
ground black pepper
14 ounces artichoke hearts
1 bunch spinach leaves

Directions:
In a food processor combine the cashews, soy milk, nutritional yeast, lemon juice, garlic, Bragg’s Liquid Aminos, dry mustard and black pepper. Blend until smooth. Clean the spinach and add to the food processor. Finally add the artichoke hearts and pulse, in order to leave the artichoke chunky. Place in the oven and bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes.

Serving Size: 16

Nutritional Facts: (1 corn tortilla with potato filling)
Calories: 66.9
Total Fat: 3.4 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 134.9 mg
Potassium: 208.9 mg
Total Carbs: 6.4 g
Protein: 3.8 g

Notes: I use my wife as verification to how a recipe tastes. If she likes it, then I see the recipe as a success. The first time I made Dreena’s dip, my wife didn’t like it, as she though it was bland. This was why I modified her recipe, adding nutritional yeast and substituting Bragg’s Liquid Aminos (or Tamiri) for the 3/4 tsp of salt. I feel the nutritional yeast gives a bit of a creamy and cheesy taste, but it’s not overbearing.

Source: Dreena Burton’s Plant Powered Kitchen

Sweet Potato Mac & Cheese

Ingredients:
16 ounces whole wheat elbow macaroni
1 large sweet potato, baked
2 cups unsweetened soy milk
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
2 tablespoons of lemon juice
2 teaspoons onion powder
2 teaspoons of Bragg’s Liquid Aminos or Tamari (optional)
1 teaspoons of chili powder
1/8 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
1/8 cup cashew Parmesan (substitute cashews for almonds)

Directions:
Remove the skin from the sweet potato and chop into chunks. Place the sweet potato and all the remaining ingredients into a food processor and blend until smooth.

Boil all the pasta as per the instructions. Drain pasta and pour pasta back into the pan. Add cheese sauce and mix together.

Pour macaroni and cheese into a 9×13 Pyrex pan and level out the mixture. Combine the bread crumbs with cashew Parmesan and spread over the top of the macaroni and cheese. Cook for 20-25 minutes at 350. Serve hot.

Serving Size: 16 – 1/2 cup servings

Nutritional Facts:
Calories……….99
Total Fat……1.0 g
Cholesterol…0 mg
Sodium……….. 63.2 mg
Potassium….165.8 mg
Total Carbs…17.4 mg
Protein………….3.8 g

Notes: I modified the original recipe from the start. I had a sweet potato already baked in the refrigerator, which I used. Boiling will decreasing the cooking when you chop the sweet potato into chunks. You could also pop the sweet potato chunks into the oven for 15-20 minutes on 400.

I opted to leave the salt out of this recipe, but I did add in the Bragg’s Liquid Aminos. You could also add Tamari if needed. I suggest you taste the cheese sauce first before adding any salt to see how the flavor is. I also used unsweetened soy milk over almond milk.

The recipe as written above doubles what the original recipe made. It filled up a 9×13 Pyrex dish and there was enough mac and cheese for leftovers the next day.

Source: Detoxinista

Hummus

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups garbanzo beans, cooked (1 – 15.5 oz. can)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoon tahini
2 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes

DIRECTIONS:
In a food processor add all the ingredients and blend until smooth. Pour into container, chill and serve.

NOTES: This is a basic hummus recipe, please feel free to experiment adding different combinations of ingredients to create different flavors of hummus. I currently have a cilantro hummus and a tomato basil hummus I make on a regular basis.

Tomato Basil Hummus

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups garbanzo beans, cooked (1 – 15.5 oz. can)
3/4 cup crushed tomatoes (in puree)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoon tahini
2 1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon coriander
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup fresh basil, chopped

DIRECTIONS:
In a food processor add all the ingredients and blend until smooth. Pour into container, chill and serve.

NOTES: You could use this tomato basil hummus recipe as a basic hummus recipe and substitute out the tomatoes and basil for other combinations of ingredients to suite your taste, for example roasted red pepper. This can be used as a dip with pita chips and vegetables or served in pita bread with falafel.