Today’s top actually comes from Molly, who signed up for the newsletter but instead of telling me what the best tip I could give her would be, she told me her best tip, and here it is:

Oh, and the pizza I referred to was from A Vegan Affair Event Catering, whose site is not easily linkable but if you go to the gallery you’ll see the mini-pizzas.  No money changing hands here, just a plug for someone who gave me some samples, is all.

How do you make your vegan pizza sing?  I gave my add-on tips in the video, now share yours in the comments!

As I promised in this week’s newsletter, here’s my new recipe for pomegranate balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing – I know, it seems like salad dressings are all we do for recipes these days (see tahini miso dressing here!), but what can I say that I haven’t already said? I really like salad!

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Half a pomegranate
• 1/4 cup oil (olive, Udo’s, canola, whatever you like)
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar (we used white balsamic, red works too)
• A pinch of pepper
• A pinch of garlic powder

Mix it up in a blender – any blender will probably work, but we use a Vita-Mix, just like we have for the past 13 years or so – we use it almost every day, and if you’d like one you can use code 06-002733 at vitamix.com to get free shipping (and we’ll get a commission which helps pay the bills around here.)

This is a great dressing that you can make in small batches like I did or double it up.  I like to keep half the pomegranate to either snack on or throw into the salad as a topping.  Pomegranates are cheap this time of year around here, and they’re loaded with antioxidants and other things I don’t pretend to understand beyond the fact that they’re super good for you.

But like I said, be careful opening them up or you will end up with some crazy stains on your shirt!

Seriously, this is one of the easiest ways to learn new ingredients, and it works for beans better than anything else I can think of (I wouldn’t try it with spices, for example) – even the deadest of palates is going to learn something from this with relatively no risk:

If you want a great way to cook beans, I highly recommend a pressure cooker – we did a video a while back explaining the process, and it’s really not as scary as it seems!

Apologies for the poor lighting and the lazy camera work (though I think that part’s endearing, frankly) but this is one mighty tasty salad dressing that you all need to make in mass quantities right now:

Also, I made this twice, the first attempt was too watery but I mixed the two together and put them in the fridge overnight and that tahini thickening thing I mentioned made everything OK.

Teflex sheets are those things we talked about in the “how to make kale chips” episode that prevent sauces and crumbs from falling through the trays of your dehydrator. They are easy to clean and a pain to dry. At least they were, until I had an attack of the obvious:

As I said in the video, I don’t think they sell the dehydrator I have any more, but most of my friends who have them use the Excalibur brand – there’s a 9 tray machine on Amazon
for $219 right now [affiliate link], and don’t think 9 is too big – the counter footprint is basically the same as a smaller one, and trust me on this, if you get into dehydrating you’ll wish you had more than 4 trays.  If you’re in Canada, I haven’t purchased anything from the folks at Green Health but they seem nice and offer free shipping (we make no money off of sales from the GH link, just promoting a Canadian business, is all.)

Kale chips are what dehydrators are for, and dehydrators are what kale is for, and there’s an infinite loop in the works here that actually does have an end, which is IN MY BELLY!

Seriously, kale chips are crazy delicious, and we make them with a tahini and nutritional yeast-based coating that also works well in stir fries (though not in hummous, as I discovered.)

Download the recipe [PDF]

You know what I say a lot, apparently? “I’m going to get to that in a bit.” Sometimes I mean “in the post about this video.” So when I say you can do this without a dehydrator, I mean, in theory, you can use your oven with the door open at the lowest setting. Try using parchment paper instead of teflex sheets in this case.

We’re back! This week we’re not doing a recipe, but we are going over how to use a valuable piece of the modern kitchen arsenal: the pressure cooker. This thing makes dry beans a real possibility, with 10 minute cooking times instead of the 1-2 hours you’d spend boiling them in a regular pot, which means you save time over cooking dry and money/space over cans!

What do you use your pressure cooker for? How do you like our new “kitchen studio”? What’s next on your “I need to figure this out” list? Let us know in the comments!

Sorry for the delay, but as you can clearly see, I needed to get my hair just right! In this eposide, we go through a raw recipe that could also be used as a spread or sandwich filling if you don’t dehydrate it.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups soaked almonds
• 4 stalks of celery
• 1 carrot
• 1/2 cup dulse
• Juice of one lemon
• 1 red pepper
• 1 tbsp paprika

Combine everything in a food processor or Vita-Mix. Place spoonfuls of mixture on teflex sheets and dehydrate for 6-48 hours, depending on desired crunchiness.

Host: Jason
Edits: AngelA
Music: Paddington

This is the cookie for people who can’t decide on anything, like your host, for example: peanut butter oatmeal raisin chocolate chip. If we put anything else in, we’d legally have to change the name to trail mix.

3 tbsp ground flax seeds
5 tbsp water
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup carob chips (or non-dairy chocolate chips)
1/2 cup raisins
1 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup vegan margarine
3/4 cup peanut butter
1/2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375 degrees

Combine flax seeds with water in a small bowl and set aside

Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix

Add wet ingredients, including flax mix

Mix until all dry ingredients are absorbed into the mix

Roll into balls and place on cookie sheet

Bake for 7-12 minutes, depending on size of cookies

Host: Jason
Edits: AngelA
Music: Paddington

Most raw recipes I see need a lot of planning so you can soak your nuts (heh heh) in advance and whatnot, but this one can be prepared in a hurry. It tastes better after sitting for a few hours, but it’s still pretty good fresh from the pan.

From The Complete Book of Raw Food: Healthy, Delicious Vegetarian Cuisine Made with Living Foods by Lori Baird and Julie Rodwell. Used with permission.

1/2 cup almonds
1 1/2 cups flaw seeds
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1 cup celery juice (or water)
1/2 red onion, minced
1 cup finely shredded carrots
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp sage
1 tbsp rosemary

Combine almonds, flax seeds and pumpkin seeds in a food processor and mix until it’s a big mess of powder.

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and stir well.

Press mixture into a loaf pan

For best results, let chill for 3 or 4 hours to allow flavours to merge

Host: Jason
Edits: AngelA
Music: Paddington