Ginger Orange Stir-Fry with Tofu

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IMG_0470This is my husband’s favourite meal. I make it once a week without fail. It’s flavourful and packed with plant-based protein and green veggies. And it’s easy to throw together! Served with brown rice, it really is the perfectly balanced meal. It has an ideal amount of fibre, protein and healthy fats. Plus the cashews are full of copper. Up until recently, I despised tofu, but this dish has convinced me that tofu can really be delicious – especially when sautéed in coconut oil and then covered in a slightly sweet & subtly spicy ginger orange sauce. Yum!

Throughout my studies with the Academy of Culinary Nutrition this fall, I have really learned the value of homemade sauces and condiments – where you can decide how much sugar, fat, salt is added. In making your own sauces, such as this Ginger Orange Sauce, you are ensuring you are not consuming artificial flavours, colourings and preservatives – all which can promote illness versus health. As an added bonus, creating your own sauces and condiments also means you can season your food in a way that appeals to you the most. And making your own sauces and condiments really doesn’t take much time or effort at all. This Ginger Orange sauce takes minutes to make and has very limited ingredients – all natural and health promoting. What more can you ask for? :)

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Ginger Orange Stir-Fry with Tofu

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 30 minutes

Yield: 4 servings

A quick & easy, protein-packed gluten-free, vegan dish perfect for busy weeknights. A good dose of veggies with lots of flavour.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup of orange juice
  • 1 tablespoon of fresh grated ginger
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • 1/4 cup of coconut sugar (can substitute with brown sugar)
  • 2 tablespoons of tamari or low-sodium soy sauce (gluten-free if needed)
  • 1 tablespoon of rice wine vinegar
  • 1/2 cup of water
  • 1 tablespoon of arrowroot starch
  • 2 tablespoons of unrefined coconut oil
  • 1 black of organic extra-firm tofu, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
  • 1 medium bunch of broccoli, cut into florets
  • 1 cup of frozen edamame
  • 1/2 cup of raw cashews
  • 2 green onions, chopped
  • 1 tablespoon of sesame seeds
  • 4 servings of cooked brown rice

Method

  1. Heat orange juice in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add in the ginger, garlic, coconut sugar, tamari and rice wine vinegar. Whisk well then allow the sauce to simmer over low heat for 10 minutes.
  2. Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, heat coconut oil over medium-high heat. Add tofu and sauté for 5 minutes, or until the tofu starts to become slightly browned.
  3. Add in the broccoli and edamame. Sauté another 5 minutes, or until the broccoli is slightly tender.
  4. Whisk together the arrowroot starch and water. Add to the ginger orange sauce. Increase heat from low to medium while whisking continuously. Allow the sauce to cook another minute, or until the sauce thickens. Remove from heat.
  5. Pour the sauce over the sautéed tofu and veggies. Add raw cashews. Mix well to combine. Remove from heat.
  6. Garnish with chopped green onions and sesame seeds.Serve stir-fry over brown rice. Enjoy!

Source: inspired by Connoisseurus Veg

Pumpkin Chocolate Walnut Bread

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IMG_0344It’s been a while since I last posted. My absence was not anticipated. To be honest, I had taken some time off from work this summer to get some recipes tested and posted. I had (and still have) so many ideas! But then I decided to sign up for school. After quite a bit of soul searching, I decided to pursue an education (and hopefully a career) as a registered holistic nutritionist. As many of you know, I am very passionate about food. I adore cooking and baking and I love photographing food. I love the texture, colours and flavours of food. Food can be a work of art. I’m interested in where food comes from and how our decisions about food can effect our environment, our communities and ourselves. Food is the basis for whether we are leading a life of health or one that promotes disease. Proper nutrition can enable us to lead fuller lives with more energy and vibrancy. Food can be healing, as it has been for me over the past few years. Food can bring people together.

The power of food is something I want to share with others, so I registered for the holistic nutrition program through the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition(CSNN) in June. I’m four courses into the fourteen course program and I’m really enjoying it. I feel inspired and as though I’m finally heading in the right direction. I love the course content and feel passionate about sharing it with others. I’ve worked my way through the basics of nutrition and anatomy thus far and am looking forward to courses on digestion, disease prevention and mind body connection. In addition to the program through CSNN, I also decided to sign up for the fall semester of the Culinary Nutritions Expert program (CNE program) through the Academy of Culinary Nutrition. I am one month into that program and am LOVING it. It’s a much more hands on approach to learning as taught by the amazing and super knowledgeable Meghan Telpner. Learning has seriously never been more fun. It’s a great compliment to the CSNN program I’m in.

So, as you can see, I’ve been very busy – working full time and in two educational programs. However, The Fig Tree has been weighing heavily on me, as I really do love creating and sharing new recipes with my wonderful readers. And I want to continue to share and plan to do so on a weekly basis. Ideally, I’ll be sharing recipes, but I may post about my courses in between food posts :)

To thank you all for your patience and support – and a thank you to all of those who checked in on me – here’s an amazingly easy and incredibly scrumptious pumpkin chocolate walnut bread recipe. The bread is perfectly pumpkiny, nicely spiced and stuffed with crunchy walnuts and oozy-gooey chocolate chunks. This recipe is dedicated to my beautiful sister Alyssa who requested I come up with a chocolate pumpkin loaf recipe for her.

And finally…happy thanksgiving to all of my wonderful fellow Canadians! xoxo

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Pumpkin Chocolate Walnut Bread

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 45 minutes

Total Time: 55 minutes

Yield: 1 loaf

A delicious (and super easy) pumpkin bread filled with warm spices and studded with walnuts and chocolate. Yum!

Ingredients

  • 1 and 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons of baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon of salt
  • 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 teaspoon of ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves
  • 1/2 cup of brown sugar, packed
  • 1 cup of canned pumpkin purée
  • 1/2 cup of unsweetened almond milk
  • 1/3 cup of avocado oil or canola oil
  • 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts
  • 1/2 cup of vegan chocolate chips or chunks
  • Oil for greasing pan

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 350'F. Lightly grease a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with oil.
  2. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and ground cloves.
  3. In a large bowl, combine the oil, brown sugar, unsweetened almond milk and pure pumpkin purée. Stir well to combine.
  4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients. Mix until just combined. A few lumps are fine.
  5. Fold in the chopped walnuts and chocolate chips/chunks.
  6. Spread the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 45 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean or with a dry crumb.
  7. Allow the bread to cool for 30 minutes in the pan then turn out onto a cooling rack. Allow bread to cool before serving.

Source: The Fig Tree

Vegan Richa’s Indian Kitchen

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Vegan Richas Indian Kitchen-Front-coverIndian food is my absolute favourite type of cuisine – it’s so colourful, fragrant and flavourful. Plus, it’s most commonly vegetarian and vegan friendly! When I first learned that Richa from the ever-popular and oh-so successful vegan blog – Vegan Richa – was releasing a cookbook focusing on Indian cuisine, I squealed with excitement. Although Richa does share a number of Indian recipes on her blog, I could not wait to get my hands on a book solely dedicated to her cultural cuisine. I trust and respect Richa’s recipes and knew she’d put together a fantastic guide to vegan Indian cooking.

And wow – she did not disappoint! Richa’s fabulous cook book is a comprehensive guide on vegan Indian cuisine. It provides all of the necessary basics, as well as extensive information about spices, herbs and common ingredients in Indian cuisine.  It includes an overview of the types of grains and flours required to make the most authentic Indian dishes and provides information about commonly used beans, lentils and peas. Necessary equipment such as a spice blender is also discussed. Richa really sets her readers up for culinary success! I also love how Richa includes the Indian translation for all of the ingredients and recipes throughout the books.

Chutneys-chutneys 7100One of the features I loved most in Vegan Richa’s Indian Kitchen is the three grocery lists provided – “Must Have”, “Good to Have” and “Nice to Have”. These lists allow the less experienced Indian cooks to start with the basics (and keeps things inexpensive). For the more experienced, experimental Indian cooks, there is the “Nice of Have” list. Following these lists will ensure everyone has the basics needed to make incredible vegan Indian dishes. Since fragrant spices and fresh herbs are the cornerstones of Indian cuisine, she focuses a lot of attention on them in her book and provides suggestions on which to buy to get started with Indian cooking.

The cookbook is divided up into ten chapters: My Vegan Kitchen, Breakfasts, Small Plates and Snacks, Sides and Dry Vegetable Curries, Dals, One Pot Meals and Casseroles, Main Dishes, Flatbreads, Desserts and Chutneys, Spices Blends and The Basics. Richa presents the classically vegetarian and vegan Indian dishes, but also includes vegan variations of the more meat-centric Indian dishes such as Butter Seitan Curry (which is derived from classic Butter Chicken). And let me tell you, all of these variations would win over any meat eater!

Collage-002Richa takes the reader on a personal journey through her heart-felt introduction and the recipes in her book Vegan Richa’s Indian Cooking. It is packed with amazing recipes and stunning, vibrant photography. The cookbook is the kind of cookbook that immediately inspires you to get into the kitchen. Even though some of the ingredient lists are long (lots of yummy spices), the recipes are easy enough that you feel that you can re-create them in your own kitchen. Most of the recipes are very healthy – high-protein and high-fibre and based around legumes and vegetables. Many of the recipes are also gluten-free. Richa even provides a number of vegan flatbread recipes in the book including a Gluten-Free Oat naan. Some of the recipes use tofu and/or tempeh, but Richa provides a chickpea tofu recipe for those avoiding soy-based products.

Dals-cholar dal 2012I have already tried a number of recipes from Vegan Richa’s Indian Cooking cookbook, including the Fudgy Coconut Balls, Restaurant-Style Navratan Korma and Vegan Paneer. I am also looking forward to trying the following dishes from the book:

  • Tempeh Tikka Masala
  • Vegetable Jalfrezi (Vegetables in a Smoky Tomato Sauce)
  • Spicy South Indian Tofu Scramble
  • Gobi Manchurian (Sweet and Spicy Baked Cauliflower)
  • Makhani Vegetable Pot Pie
  • Royal Tofu and Cashews (Shahi “Paneer”)
  • Potato Veggie Balls in Garlic Fenugreek sauce
  • Avocado Naan
  • Pistachio Cardamom Cookies

Tune into The Fig Tree blog next week for a recipe from Vegan Richa’s Indian Cookbook along with a giveaway!

Source: all photos from Vegan Richa’s Indian Kitchen (Published by Vegan Heritage Press, LLC)