I love salads but not just plain salads. I like the ones who dare me not to have more. I enjoy texture and exotic flavors. I think I just reached the highest peak of salads. THAI FORBIDDEN RICE SALAD…..it is so good it should be forbidden. The Emperor’s food of choice, exclusively made just for royalty. Thought you may want to know that Forbidden Rice not only looks and tastes great but has very high nutritional value as well; in Chinese medicine they say it is a blood tonifier, aids in the circulation of the blood . It invigorates the spleen and brightens the eyes. Black foods are considered kidney tonics.

Ingredients

1 cup black rice

2 cups water

2 tablespoons tamari(soy sauce)

2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

½ lime juiced

½ teaspoon chili paste (optional)

1 cup roasted cashews(not salted)

½ red bell pepper finely chopped

½ yellow bell pepper finely chopped

6 green onions or scallions thinly sliced

Directions

Put the rice, 2 cups water, and a pinch of salt in a pan.  Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce the heat, and simmer gently until the liquid is absorbed and the rice is tender, about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, whisk the tamari, sesame oil, lime juice, and sambal oelek or chili paste together in a salad bowl.

Add the cashews, red and yellow bell peppers, and green onions.

When the rice is ready, add it to the mixture and toss to coat everything well.

Add salt, pepper to taste.  Serve warm or at room temperature.

If you can’t get Thai black rice, try wild rice, or wild rice mixed with long grain rice, instead, and cook according to package directions.

Ingredients

8 oz vegetable spread

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp coconut flavor

1/2 cup coconut milk powder

1/2 confectioner’s sugar

1 cup toasted coconut (I use shredded)

2 1/2 cups unbleached flour

For coating use 1  cup confectioner’s sugar and 1 cup coconut milk powder

Beat vegetable spread and salt until very fluffy. Mix in confectioner’s sugar, coconut milk powder and coconut flavor. In small amounts, Add flour and toasted coconut. Mix well and form dough into 1″ balls using a teaspoon scoop (melon?). Place balls on ungreased baking sheet and bake for 12-15 minutes at 350F. Let cool for 3 minutes. Roll warm cookies in coating and let cool completely. Re-roll in coating if needed. Then, roll in shredded coconut to cover evenly.

These cookies can be freeze or saved in a cool place in sealed containers for up to a month.

Vegan Thumbprint cookies

Yields 40-45 cookies

Ingredients

2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup ground almonds

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1/3 cup canola oil

1/3 cup orange juice

1/3 cup agave nectar

1 ½ teaspoons almond extract

¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

raspberry preserve, pineapple preserve, apple mint jell for filling

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl.

In a separate bowl, combine liquid ingredients and mix well.

Add wet ingredients to dry and mix well.

Scoop dough and form into 1” balls.

Roll into finely ground walnuts or almonds.

Place on parchment-lined baking sheet. With the end of a wooden spoon, make indentations in the middle of each ball, making sure not to pierce it through.

Bake for 15 minutes or until the edges turn golden brown.

Cool on a rack and fill each “thumbprint” with the preserve of your choice.

So, today, I was experimenting with food. And this is what I got.

“Raw or not so raw” snack bars. Inspired by Tabita.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons sesame seeds

4 tablespoons buckwheat

4 tablespoons quinoa seeds

8 dates (choose Mejdol. They are more moist)

1/2 cup raisins (doesn’t matter what color. i chose black)

1 tablespoon agave nectar or honey

Grind the seeds to a fine texture but don’t make it flour. Mix all ingredients in a processor until the mix is sticky. Remove and with your hands, make whatever shape you like, I chose bars. Roll the bars in sesame seeds.

up to this point everything is raw and these bars are very good raw if you keep them in the refrigerator to harden a little bit.

Here comes the not so raw. If you prefer, toast the sesame seeds before rolling the bars. Then, turn your oven to 350 F and bake the bars for about 30 minutes. Or if you have a dehidrator (I don’t ) pop it in there for overnight.

Either way, the result is delicious and i bet nutritious too.

Mango and Avocado Wraps with Spicy Mango sauce

1 mango, peeled and cut into julienne strips

1 avocado, peeled and cut into julienne strips

1 cucumber, peeled and cut into julienne strips

1 bunch cilantro sprigs

1 tablespoon green onion, very thinly sliced

4 large Romaine lettuce leaves

Spicy Mango Sauce (recipe below)

Equally divide mango, avocado, cucumber, cilantro and green onion into the four lettuce leaves.

Drizzle spicy Mango Sauce and serve.

Spicy Mango sauce

1 cup mango diced

1 cup cucumber diced

1 tablespoon fresh ginger grated

1 tablespoon lime juice

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

¼ salt of your choice

combine all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. Adjust flavors to your personal taste. It can be stored in a closed jar up to 3 days in the refrigerator.

Dumplings with Plum – Galuste cu prune –Szilvas gomboc

This recipe is adapted by a recipe by “Bucataresele vesele”. Thank you, girls !

Ingredients

1 cup water

4 tablespoons vegetable buttery spread (I used Earth Balance)

1 tablespoon egg replacer combined with 1 table spoon of water

1 ½ cup all purpose flour or flour of your choice

½ teaspoon salt

4 fresh plums (or even better from compote).

1 cup bread crumbs

Preparation.

Boil the water with salt and when it bubbles add the buttery spread. When it starts to boil again, add the flour gradually until the composition is smooth. Let it cool aside. When it’s still warm, add the egg replacer mixed with a tablespoon of water and work the batter until its well blended.

Roll it on a wood board in a long shape and divide it in 8 equal parts. Then spread each part in between the palms until it is flat. Place the plum in the middle and fold the dough around it to form a ball. Drop it in boiling water with a dash of salt and let it boil until it floats atop. Scoop the balls out and roll them in breadcrumbs that were previously toasted lightly with few drops of oil or a teaspoon of buttery spread.

Serve with powdered sugar and cinnamon, whipped cream or sour cream mixed with sugar. Or make your own desired topping.

I made this cake for my birthday and it was a hit. This recipe is courtesy of Angi Constantinescu. I adapted it to my own taste replacing oranges with strawberries. Thank you, Angi. http://sanatateangi.blogspot.com/search/label/deserturi

Ingredients crust

1 cup mixed nuts and seeds(sunflower seeds, almonds, cashews) soaked but not necessarily

2 tablespoons carob powder

1/2 cup raisins

Ingredients creme

3 cups chopped strawberries

6 tablespoons psyllium husks

2 tablespoons agave nectar ot honey

Ingredients crust

1 tablespoon carob powder

1 tablespoon agave nectar or honey

Mix the crust ingredients in a food processor until smooth then press evenly into a detachable ring tray. Mix the creme ingredients until smooth and silky/fluffy and pour on top of the crust. Pour the glaze and pop in the freezer for couple of hours. When ready to serve, ornate as desired. You can use sliced strawberries, mint leaves, kiwi slices.