Yes, after more than a year filled with green smoothies and veggie soups, I finally broke down and bought a Vitamix. I know I’m a little late to the party. I’ve been wanting one for months and months, but the trouble was that I already had a blender that was pretty decent. It was hard to justify forking over the big bucks when I already had something that was getting the job done. But when the old Osterizer started to give me trouble this week, I pounced on the excuse. I so glad I did! Though I’ve only had my new toy 24 hours, I’m already completely smitten.

If you’ve heard of a Vitamix, you already know it makes a mean green smoothie. It takes the texture to a level of smooth that I didn’t think was even possible, no matter what I throw at it. But it was a lesser known Vitamix feature that I thought I’d test out first - the ability to ‘cook’ soup right in the blender. I’d heard about this before and always wondered what the big deal was. I mean, what is so hard about getting out one more pot?

Having now tried out this feature twice, I can say that for some reason, it really does seem to be significantly more convenient. Yesterday, I made a wonderful tortilla soup this way. Start to finish, including prep and clean up, took less than 15 minutes. Today’s recipe couldn’t be quite that fast given the time required to roast the peppers and garlic. Even so, there was very little hands-on time, especially considering the delicious, creamy result.

Speaking of creamy, this recipe is based on one from a friend that originally called for butter and cream. My good friend Cheryl, who is trying to avoid dairy, passed it along and asked me to veganize it. Since I was already roasting peppers anyway, I thought I might as well toss in a head of garlic to deepen the flavor and provide some of the richness offered by the butter in the original recipe. I replaced the cream with a simple mixture of soaked cashews and water. Other than that, I tried to keep the recipe very simple to let the flavor of the roasted peppers shine through. So here you go, Cheryl. I hope you enjoy it - I sure did!

Creamy Vegan Roasted Red Pepper and Garlic Soup

Makes 7 cups

4 red bell peppers, halved, de-stemmed and seeded
1 head of garlic, outer-most papery skin removed and top sliced off to expose cloves
1/4 cup raw, unsalted cashews
1 onion, peeled and chopped
1 tsp dried rosemary
5 cups low-sodium vegetable broth or water
3 Tbsp tomato paste
freshly ground black pepper and paprika to taste

Place cashews in a small bowl with cold water to cover, set aside. Heat oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil. Place red peppers on baking sheet cut side down and garlic head on sheet cut side up. Roast for approximately 45 minutes, until skin on peppers is blackened and garlic is soft. The garlic may be done before the peppers or vice versa, so be sure to check periodically. When done, remove from oven and pull the foil up around the roasted veggies and crimp together to create a seal. Capturing the steam in this way will make it much easier to remove the pepper skins. Careful, the foil will be hot. Set aside for 10-15 minutes while you prepare the rest of the soup.

Water saute chopped onion with rosemary for approximately 5 minutes or until soft. Set aside. Drain cashews and place in blender with the stock or water*. (I used water and didn’t miss the stock at all.) Blend on high until a smooth milk forms. Add the sauteed onions and tomato paste to the cashew milk in the blender. Set aside until the peppers and garlic are ready.

When peppers have cooled enough to handle, pull off and discard skins. Add peppers directly to the blender. Squeeze individual garlic cloves out of their cells and into the blender container. Blend on high speed until smooth. If you are using a high-powered blender, continue processing for 6-7 minutes until steam starts to escape. Otherwise, transfer to a stock pot and heat through until warm. Season to taste with pepper and/or paprika. Serve immediately.

If you’d like to make this a more substantial and filling soup, try stirring in a cup or two of cooked cannelini beans just before serving.

* If your blender isn’t big enough to hold all of the ingredients, you may need to blend in batches or use an immersion blender in a stock pot. If you go the immersion blender route, I’d still blend the cashews with one cup or so of broth in a regular blender to get them as smooth as possible, then add the cashew milk to the remaining ingredients in the stock pot before you do the final immersion blending.

** To make this recipe faster, you can roast the peppers and garlic up to a few days ahead if you like or skip the roasting altogether by using commercial roasted red peppers. If at all possible, I highly recommend that you roast them yourself. It is so easy and I find the flavor to be far superior.

2 cups black rice
4 cups water
2 Tbsp Tamari or low sodium soy sauce
1-2 Tbsp sesame oil, to taste
3 medium roasted, diced sweet potatoes
1.5 cups diced red peppers
1 bunch sliced green onions

Rinse rice well. Place in sauce pan with water and bring to a boil over high heat. When boiling, reduce heat to low and cover. Cook for approximately 30 minutes or until al dente. Wisk together tamari and sesame oil. When rice is done, drain any excess water if necessary, but do not rinse. While still hot, toss with tamari and sesame oil mixture. Allow to cool. Place rice in large bowl, add remaining ingredients and toss well.

Roasted chickpeas are an amazingly versatile snack that can be flavored any number of ways. I will often toss them in a simple mixture of lime juice and chili powder. Since I love the combination of tahinni and cinnamon on toast, I thought it might work well on chickpeas too.

This version is a bit higher in fat than my usual variations because of the tahini, so they should be considered somewhat of a treat, but what a healthy one. Consider the advantages:

• Chickpeas are a great portable source of protein and fiber
• Tahini is a healthy fat and contributes healthy minerals
• Cinnamon is excellent for battling insulin resistance

If you squint your eyes and imagine really hard, they taste just a little like graham crackers. Whatever it is that they taste like, my son liked them so much that I had to hide them from him so that I’d have enough for my flight.

Roasted Cinnamon Chickpeas

3 cups chickpeas, cooked or canned
2 Tbsp Tahini
1 Tbsp Cinnamon
1/2 Tbsp agave (optional)

Drain and rinse chickpeas. Blot dry with paper towels. Place on roasting pan (they aren’t very prone to sticking, but I put them on a silicone baking mat or parchment paper just in case). Roast chickpeas at 350 until crispy, about 1-1.5 hours. You have to watch them, because there can be a very wide range in cooking times, depending upon the moisture level in your chickpeas. As soon as they come out of the oven, mix remaining ingredients in large bowl to form a paste. Stir in chickpeas to coat. Set aside to cool.

Store in a sealed container. I wish I could tell you how long they keep, but I’ve never been able to keep a batch around for more than a couple of days.

(What’s a coulis? That’s just a fancy term for a strained puree.)

Traditional raspberry coulis recipes contain just raspberries, sugar and lemon juice. I’ve swapped out sugar for whole dates to up the nutrition and added some optional vanilla and almond extracts for flavor. This sauce takes just a moment to make, requires no cooking, and freezes well.

Use raspberry coulis over fruit (peaches, pears and mangoes are especially good), in smoothies or as a salad dressing. It makes a great topping for my black and  blue bars too.

Raspberry Date Coulis

2 cups raspberries, fresh or frozen
4 medjool dates, roughly chopped* (+/- depending upon the sweetness of your berries)
1 tsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp vanilla extract, optional
1/4 tsp almond extract, optional
cinnamon to taste, optional

Place all ingredients in a food processor or blender and puree until smooth. Taste and adjust flavorings and/or sweetness. Pour through a fine mesh sieve into a bowl.

* If you don’t have any dates on hand, you can substitute agave. I’d start with 1 Tbsp of agave and add more until you reach the desired level of sweetness.

Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to three days, or freeze.

Hint: freeze coulis in ice cube trays for 24 hours, then transfer cubes to freezer bags. When you find yourself wanting some raspberry coulis, just pull out the number of cubes you need. This trick works great for pesto and other freezable sauces as well.

My sister sent me this link this morning because she knew I’d like it. Cross health nut with stats geek and you get the perfect audience for this link - me. But I don’t think you necessarily have to be either to appreciate that this should be a wake up call for our country.  Clearly, our national health will continue its dramatic downward spiral if we don’t do something to reverse these trends immediately.

It doesn’t have to be this way. Obesity is something we can control. Believe me, I of all people know that it isn’t easy. But even with serious complicating medical factors, obesity can be conquered given the right approach and a bit of determination. I’m living proof. It will take each of us making a commitment to change the self-destructive habits we as a country have developed in the past 20 years. Let’s all see if we can’t reverse the trend for our children, if not for ourselves.

Ok. Sermon over. But watch this. It will take 30 seconds of your time, but will leave a lasting impression, I promise.

CDC’s Trend Map for Obesity in the US

Be sure to scroll down to the animated map.

1 cup grape tomatoes
1 clove garlic
2 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp tahini, optional but gives better texture

Throw all ingredients into a blend and blend until smooth. Drizzle over the salad of your choice. That’s it!

Some time, some where, I had a black bean mango dish I really liked. When I went searching for a similar recipe, the best looking one I found was from the Moosewood cookbook series. I had the pleasure of eating in the Moosewood Restaurant in Ithaca, New York while on a business trip last year, so I knew this recipe would have potential.

Already vegan, this recipe was a snap to adapt to the Eat to Live guidelines. All I had to do was drop the salt and oil originally called for. We didn’t miss them at all. I made a few other minor changes to adjust to our taste (more garlic!) and to account for ingredients on hand (no jalapeno!).

This dish goes together quickly, so it deserves a place in the weekday rotation - at least as long as the mangos last. We served with quinoa and beet greens from today’s CSA box. Perfect!

Serves 6

2 c. red onion, minced, divided
1 1/2 Tbsp. garlic, minced
1 1/2 Tbsp. fresh ginger, minced
1 1/2 tsp. ground cumin
1/8 tsp dried red chile flakes
6 c. cooked black beans
6 Tbsp. fresh lime juice
2 large ripe mangos, the riper the better
fresh ground black pepper, to taste
fresh chopped cilantro, to taste

Heat a large skillet over medium heat. When hot, add 1 3/4 c. red onions to pan with garlic, ginger, cumin, and chili flakes. Add a few drops of water as necessary to keep them from sticking. Water-saute for 5 minutes or until onion is softened. Turn down the heat to medium-low. Add beans and 3 Tbsp of lime juice to the pan. Stir until beans are heated through, about another 5 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in remaining lime juice, about 2/3 of the mango and fresh ground pepper. Let the finished dish sit covered for 15 minutes to allow the sauce to develop.*

Serve garnished with the reserved red onions, reserved mango and cilantro.

*We were impatient and skipped that part, but it was still great. Speaking of impatience, the finished dish was much prettier with the reserved garnishes on top, but it was so good that we ate the garnished versions before I remembered to photograph them!

I have been a hard-core flower gardener for a long time, but for some inexplicable reason, I did not attempt a vegetable garden until this year. I had no idea what I was missing! It is heaven to be able to pass by my little patch just before a meal and grab a pile of greens for my salad.

It is becoming very clear, however, that the vegetable garden runs on a timetable of its own. All of a sudden, the garden says I must use a whole bunch of X at once, so I sometimes have to be creative. Luckily I love puzzles.

Today, it was arugula and cilantro. If I had any doubt before why arugula is also known as rocket in some areas, I am clear now. Mine went from a hand full of tiny starts to an overflowing mass of green in just a few weeks. I have piles and piles of it. We’ve been eating a lot of arugula salads, of course. We love how the peppery flavor wakes up an otherwise run-of-the-mill salad.

Tonight, I was looking to do something a bit different, so decided to mix it up into an arugula cilantro pesto of sorts. I couldn’t make a traditional pesto, of course, because that would entail lots of olive oil and a hard cheese - neither of which are exactly a good fit on a low fat vegan diet.

A quick search turned up several possible recipes, most of which were too high in fat. I combined a few and made my own substitutions. The version I came up with is very tasty, but be forewarned, the flavors are strong. If you love arugula and cilantro, you’ll love this, but if you aren’t a fan of either, this might not be your favorite.

The best idea I picked up from my web searches was to use garbanzo beans in place of some of the usual fat. So I guess this is kind of like a cross between a hummus and a pesto. The only fats are from nut and seed butters so technically, it is Eat to Live friendly. Even so, this recipe does contain enough fat that it is best used in small amounts as a flavoring or condiment. Think of it like an extra flavorful nut butter and use it accordingly. Luckily, the flavors are so strong that you really don’t need to use much.

The obvious uses would be as a sauce for whole grain pasta, or as a dip for vegetables. I mixed this into a mushroom barley risotto to give it a little flavor kick and it was fantastic. It is also great spread as a thin layer on a whole grain tortilla (I used Ezekiel). Though I didn’t try it yet, I bet it would make a great salad dressing if you whisk in a little rice vinegar.

This is a cinch to prepare and can make a very large pile of arugula disappear in no time at all!

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This recipe makes approximately 1 cup of pesto. You can easily double or triple to suit your needs.

1 clove garlic
1 Tbsp walnuts
2 cups packed arugula
1/2 cup packed cilantro, stems and leaves
1/2 cup cooked garbanzo beans
1 Tbsp tahini*
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp almond butter

Place garlic and walnuts in bowl of food processor and pulse to chop. Add remaining ingredients and process until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings and consistency if necessary. If you prefer a thinner version, you can add a tablespoon or so of water.

*Tahini is sesame seed butter. It is available in most better grocery stores or middle eastern markets. Tahini has a very distinctive taste that is hard to replace, and is the secret to a really top-notch hummus. If you don’t have any on hand, try substituting additional almond butter.

This easy breakfast is one of my husband’s weekend favorites. I got the basic idea from Dr. Joel Fuhrman’s Eat For Health. I’ve made a few simple modifications, the most significant of which is that I use whole grain barley flakes instead of oatmeal. I like the flavor and texture of barley, not to mention it’s excellent nutritional profile and low glycemic index. You can find barley flakes in the bulk section of health food stores and better grocery stores (it looks just like oatmeal, so be sure to mark your package).