Pomegranate, meet Living Caesar

Recently I introduced a pomegranate to my Living Caesar dressing.

The two became great friends immediately, agreeing that their flavors nicely complemented one another. The sour, salty nutty caesar dressing enjoyed the pop of sweet, tangy juice from the fresh crimson-colored pomegranate seeds.

Go make some new friends with your food too. :)

(p.s. don't forget to enter the November Salba giveaway if you haven't already)

Living Caesar Salad

I've jabbered on and on about this salad... and so finally, here's the recipe. I do think the jabbering is justified, though!!
This Caesar salad is quite authentic in its flavor, uses very healthful ingredients, is incredibly easy to make, and unlike many dairy-free caesar dressings, it uses raw nuts (or seeds) instead of soy products to make it creamy.

You need an immersion blender for this dressing. If you have a high-powered blender, then obviously you can use that as well. What's needed is to puree the heck out of the nuts/seeds and other ingredients, until they are as smooth as possible! But, then... you're ready to roll!

The recipe offers a version using seeds instead of nuts, so it can be enjoyed by those of you with nut allergies. Also, the seed version is just a nice variation - and just as tasty!

Gently mix this dressing into crisp romaine leaves (I typically use a *wee* bit more than shown in the picture, but you know me and sauces). Next, simply toss in raw pumpkin seeds - or gasp! - toasted pumpkin seeds or croutons (sorry raw foodists - don't slam me on that one, okay?!) :)

In ED&BV, there is a simple recipe for Polenta Croutons that are dynamite in this salad. Polenta Croutons you say? Yes, something you can make with those tubes of polenta that you stare at wondering "what can I make with this"! (There are a few other ideas in the book for those tubes of polenta, btw.) Of course, regular croutons can also be used. If you want to keep the salad raw, go with the raw pumpkin seeds... and also try adding some sliced cherry or grape tomatoes - another nice addition!

I must also add that I love to use this dressing as a dip for raw veggies and also for a sandwich spread, since it's so thick... and wicked tasty!

My Taste of Health cooking demo!

Hiya guys! Well, I was a bit absent last week. Not only has it been very busy as a mom with the girls, but it's also been busy with the release of ED&BV and preparing for my Taste of Health demo yesterday.

I had a super time at my demo!! Some of you reading may have been there, and if so, I hope you had fun and enjoyed the munchies! :) I did meet a few of you in person, and that was truly a treat for me!! How special to actually put a face to a name... like Angie with her beautiful little girl. So, thank you all for coming out to my demo. Yay, I love cooking for you!!

Here's a picture from after my demo, and the Earthsave volunteers you see here in matching shirts... well, they were just marvelous - helpful, keen, and lovely people. Can I have you help in my own kitchen?! Evan, thank you for all the food prep and serving all those samples. It was tricky to pull off the 4 recipes in 45 minutes, but we did it!

So, as I mentioned I showed four new recipes from ED&BV at the demo. I started with my Acai Antioxidant Smoothie, followed by Tamari Roasted Chickpeas, then my Living Caesar Salad ('raw' foods dressing), and of course.... of COURSE a sweet! I finished with 5-Star Ice Cream Sandwiches, and did another version using my Homestyle Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe from Vive. So, needless to say we had LOTS of samples floating out to the audience.

I had a number of people comment on how 'authentic' the Caesar Dressing tasted. One of the volunteers, Emma, kept saying "I'm just shocked... it tasted like Caesar... for the first time... and not like tofu"! That's EXACTLY what I was going for with this dressing. Hurray! And there's a story behind this dressing. I originally had a 'Classic Caesar Dressing' for the book, which was delicious but like many vegan caesars, it used silken tofu. Then, I came up with this 'raw' dressing, using raw nuts. I remember e-mailing my publisher as we were close to finishing edits with the book, saying "we really need to add this Caesar... can we?" They did, thankfully, and we decided to swap it out for the other Caesar so the recipes wouldn't get confused in the book. Later I'll give you info about the soy-based Caesar, along with some cool and exciting news, but it will be a couple of months before I tell you about it (and no, it's NOT another book)! And isn't this the prettiest picture? We did this outside at our photo shoot... I love this photo, though I tend to use more dressing on my own personal Caesar. As I've said many times, I'm a saucy girl!

One more thing about this Living Caesar Salad. The recipe gives two versions - one with nuts using cashews and pine nuts, and the other using seeds. I wanted to give you two options because of nut allergies. So, the second option uses sunflower and sesame seeds... and is just as delicious! You simply need to add a touch more agave nectar to the seed version because the seeds are not as naturally sweet. You'll see this in the recipe sidebar. Finally, this is another photo from my book, showing the salad with my Polenta Croutons. The polenta croutons obviously aren't 'raw', but they are delicious - and EASY to make! So, use what you want as an accompaniment to the salad - traditional croutons, my Polenta Croutons, or use raw or roasted pumpkin seeds. Any way it's delicious!

Now that I've raved about this Living Caesar recipe, I won't tease you much longer. I WILL post the recipe this week, once I have the electronic edited version.

I will also publish the Tamari Roasted Chickpeas, shown here in another photo from ED&BV. So, check back for those recipes... unless of course you already have ED&BV! Do you?... has it arrived yet?!!

I sampled a few foods at TOH, which were really yummy, but I didn't stick around too long. I was rather wiped after the entire week, so I headed home early knowing I still had a bit of a drive ahead of me. But, if I lived in Vancouver, I'd be back there today getting some nummies! Taste of Health is still happening today (Sunday), so go down to the Croation Cultural Centre if you want to check out new veg foods and samples!

Raw Caesar

Well, well. Caesar comes full circle. This classic that began with a raw egg base (ugh) and has been adapted thousands of times into 'low-fat', 'egg-free', and even vegan versions, is now raw again!


This is my Living Caesar Dressing, using only raw vegan ingredients. I have been tinkering with raw recipes lately, and came up with this idea. I already had a wicked Caesar dressing in ED&BV, but as soon as I tasted this raw dressing, I knew I had to squeeze it into my manuscript (last-minute). I managed to get it in there - the things I do for you! :)

Working with raw recipes is fun, though I could use a decent high-powered blender like a Vita-Mix. I've been using my food processor and immersion blender for some of the things I'm making - and they work okay but I know I'd have more successful testing with a VROOOM machine!

I'm not "going raw" (in case some of you are wondering), but I will be tinkering with more raw recipes. They are fun, interesting, tasty - and healthy. I have a half-dozen (I think) raw recipes in ED&BV, so you'll have some others to enjoy in the book as well.

And, if you want, use the raw recipes in non-raw ways... for instance, this Caesar is so delicious, go ahead and use it with traditional croutons. You will love it. But even with the fresh tomatoes and pumpkin seeds this salad was outstanding. Though, I have to confess... I didn't have raw pumpkin seeds for garnishing and had to use roasted. I committed a raw crime!! Nevertheless, it tasted incredible. Hard to stop eating it in fact!