freshthroughout

This salsa verde is the bomb!  Not excessively hot, but not for your high school sweethearts either.  This sauce is the perfect flavor to add to fried eggs, burgers, hot dogs, or anything that you want with a little spicy twang.  Not for beginners, this flavor would be a heady addition to your kitchen.

Remember:

SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL GROWERS.

CUT OUT THE MIDDLE MAN.

GO STRAIGHT TO THE SOURCE.

$5 a jar. Sell enough to your friends and I might give you a cut.

This soup only takes about 30 min to whip up!  You could leave out the peanut butter and cayenne, as well as substitute whole milk for the coconut milk and you’d have a nice carrot-butternut chowder without the spicy-ness. (spelling?)

Carrot-Butternut Thai Soup

• 3 tbsp peanut or sesame oil
• 5 carrots peeled, diced
• 3 c butternut squash, diced
• 1 8 oz can of coconut milk
• 4 tbsp ginger, minced
• 2 tbsp peanut butter
•  1/4 c orange juice, shaken
• cayenne pepper, salt, pepper to taste

Saute carrots and squash in peanut or sesame oil (canola if you’re not rich) until tender. Start smashing as you stir. I used a wok. Add the rest of the stuff and simmer, smashing to desired texture. You could use a blender if you wanted but i like little carrots in my soup. The butternut will disintegrate on its own as you stir/mash it up… Remember to share.

This idea came from other vegan recipes and it sounded super easy so I had to experiment.  There will definitely be more experimentation to come…  It’s really fun to make because you don’t have to cook anything and you can flavor your tofu with whatever you want. I chose a South Asian combination tonight because that’s what I had laying around, but I’ve heard of using ranch dip seasoning packets or what about onion powder, cumin and cilantro for some Central American flare? ENJOY!

Vegan Peanut-Curry Dip

• 1 pkg soft tofu
• 1 tbsp garlic salt
• 2 tbsp Sirachi
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1-2 tbsp oil (sesame, peanut, or olive)
• 4 tsp ground peanuts
• 2 tsp wheat germ (optional)

Drain tofu well squeezing extra water out with a towel, then mix everything together in a bowl.  Done.

    “In Generating compassion, you start by recognizing that you do not want suffering and that you have a right to have happiness.   This can be verified or validated by your own experience.  You then recognize that other people, just like yourself, also do not want to suffer and that they have a right to have happiness.  So this becomes the basis of your beginning to generate compassion.
    “So… let us meditate on compassion today.  Begin by visualizing a person who is acutely suffering, someone who is in pain or is in a very unfortunate situation.  For the first three minutes of the meditation, reflect on that individual’s suffering in a more analytic way—think about their intense suffering and the unfortunate state of that person’s existence.  After thinking about that person’s suffering for a few minutes, next, try to relate that to yourself, thinking, ‘that individual has the same capacity for experiencing pain, joy, happiness, and sufffering that I do.’  Then, try to allow your natural response to arise—a natural feeling of compassion towards that person.  Try to arrive at a conclusion:  thinking how strongly you wish for that person to be free from that suffering.  And resolve that you will help that person to be relieved from their suffering.  Finally, place your mind single-pointedly on that kind of conclusion or resolution, and for the last few minutes of the meditation try to simply generate your mind in a compasssionate or loving state.”
Excerpt from The Art of Happiness by His Holiness, The Dalai Lama