How to Make Violet Cordial

It’s that wonderful time of the year when violets make their brief appearance, and my yard is filled with the beautiful little deep-purple flowers. A few years ago, I posted a tutorial on how to make violet syrup, and I thought it would be fun to revive that recipe with a twist. I made the same basic syrup, but added some vodka to the mixture to make a lovely violet cordial that can be sipped by itself or added to other beverages to make a light floral cocktail. The variety of violets I have in my yard are only slightly fragrant, so the cordial has a mild floral flavor. Different varieties will yield different tastes.

I began by gathering 2 cups of violets, making sure to choose only those blooms that were open and free of bites and blemishes. When you are harvesting edible wild flowers, make sure that you are picking them from locations that are free from pesticide or other chemical applications.

I placed the violets into a colander and rinsed them thoroughly.

Then placed them in a Mason jar and covered them with 2 cups of boiling water. The water almost immediately began to turn a gorgeous sapphire blue! I let the violet infusion cool, then placed it in the refrigerator and let it steep for 24 hours.

After 24 hours, I strained out the violet blossoms, squeezing them to get out all the gorgeous purple hue. I placed some in a bowl so that I could show you what a brilliant color it made.

I placed the strained liquid into a heavy-bottomed saucepan.

Then added 2 cups of organic cane sugar and let this mixture come to a boil.

I then turned down the heat to medium and let it cook at a low boil for about 10 minutes, stirring often.

I removed the syrup from the heat, then added the strained juice of half a lemon. The acid from the lemon made the syrup go from deep violet to a beautiful magenta color.

I then mixed the syrup, 50/50, with organic vodka and bottled it in sterilized capped glass jars, which I bought at the Container Store.

After letting it sit for 2 weeks, it was ready to decant. It is very sweet by itself, but makes a lovely addition to champagne or sparkling water. Enjoy!

Meatless Monday: Southwestern-Style Quinoa

I have to confess that I have never been much of a quinoa fan, even though I know it is a superfood high in fiber, iron and protein. Unadorned quinoa tastes too earthy to me, but, out of necessity, I’ve finally created a quinoa dish that I not only tolerate, but love!

Home after traveling for several days, we were longing for a health home-cooked meal. In advance of our travels, we hadn’t done any grocery shopping and were completely out of all of our usual staple grains. The one thing in my cabinet, which had been there a while being ignored, was a bag of Alter Eco Organic Royal Rainbow Quinoa, which my husband had purchased because it looked interesting. I also had a bag of organic corn in the freezer, which inspired me to try making a southwestern-style dish. The end-result was so good that I wanted to share it with you!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup quinoa
• 2 cups filtered water (plus water to soak the quinoa before cooking)
• 1 vegetable bouillion cube
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 medium onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika
• 1/2 teaspoon chipotle powder
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 1 bag of frozen organic corn

Soak the quinoa in water for ten minutes, then drain thoroughly. Place in a saucepan with 2 cups of filtered water and the bouillion cube. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes.

While the quinoa is cooking, saute the onion in the olive oil until translucent, then add the spices and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the corn and cook for another 5 minutes and remove from heat.

When the quinoa is finished cooking, remove from heat, add the corn mixture and almonds and stir until well-blended.

Serve with a salad, for a simple well-balanced meal! This dish can be enjoyed hot or cold.

How to Make Vegan Welsh Rarebit (aka Rabbit)

A while back I posted a recipe for vegan mac and cheese. And although it was the best recipe I had produced at the time, I have to admit that I haven’t been quite satisfied with it.

Recently, I had a craving for vegan nachos with cheese sauce, so I did some searching on and found this excellent recipe on Food.com. This one has a higher proportion of cashews, which results is a rich, creamy texture.

Ingredients*

• 4 cups of filtered water
• 2 cups raw cashews (roasted won’t give you the nice creamy texture)
• Another 2 ½ cups of filtered water
• Strained juice of 1 lemons
• 1 teaspoon smoked paprika (regular works, too, but smoked provides a deeper flavor)
• 1 teaspoon mustard powder
• 1 teaspoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup nutritional yeast
• ½ cup of beer (a dark beer, like porter, is preferred)
• 4 slices of whole grain bread, toasted

Directions

1. Soak the cashews in filtered water overnight.

2. Drain the water from the cashews and place them in a blender with all of the ingredients, except for the beer and bread, and blend until smooth.

3. Pour the blended mixture into a saucepan, add the beer and heat for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently

4. Spread over the toasted bread and serve with a salad for a simple, delicious meal!

To make nacho cheese sauce, eliminate the beer, replace the mustard powder with garlic powder and add 1 tablespoon of chili powder.

*Most Welsh Rarebit recipes call for Worcestershire Sauce, but this contains anchovies. If you are not a strict vegan, this adds a nice depth to the flavor.

Cleaning Up the Greenwash

The following post is by Katie Peige, Herban Lifestyle’s Sustainability Associate.

Back in July, I moved back to Arizona and I’m now newest member of the my Econista friend’s household. With the move came a shift of my lifestyle to the greener side of things, one of them being greener household cleaners. Basically the only things we use are vinegar, baking soda, and thieves all purpose cleaner.

More people are using natural cleaning methods because most cleaning products on the market contain chemicals and toxins that create indoor air pollution and can lead to health side effects such as lung damage.

Because there is no industry certification for what is “natural” or “eco-friendly” or “healthy,” household cleaner manufacturers can get away with greenwashing their products. So the Environmental Working Group (EWG) launched their “Online Guide to Healthy Cleaning” a few weeks ago, to let consumers have a better idea of what’s in their products and what effects these products might have on their consumers. Unlike food and cosmetics, it is not required that cleaning products list all of their ingredients, so EWG had to do some real digging to determine the full ingredient lists.

Like EWG’s Skin Deep Database, the Online Guide to Healthy Cleaning really surprised me with the items that got a bad grade. Here’s an example: When I think toxic cleaners for some reason the first thing that popped into my head was Windex. So I typed in Windex, expecting to have a bad grade come up, which it did. Windex Original Glass Cleaner got the grade of D, so did Windex Nature’s Source Glass Cleaner and Windex Multi-Surface Vinegar Cleaner. So I wanted to try a more eco brand, thinking for sure the eco brand would get a better score. I looked at Seventh Generation’s window cleaner, Natural Glass & Surface Cleaner, Free & Clear, the score was better, but not by much, with a C grade, mainly because of the ingredient methylisothiazolinone. Frustrated, I clicked on the category “Glass/ Window Cleaner” to see who could best the C grade. Turns out of the 49 glass cleaners out there, 4 received an A: Simple Green Naturals Glass & Surface Care, Rosemary Mint; Whole Foods Market glass cleaner, unscented; Green Shield Organic Glass Cleaner, Fresh; and Citra-Solv Citra Clear Window & Glass Cleaner.

For the record, there are simple homemade DIY recipes out there, including pure vinegar; you can check them out here. Or try our Four Thieves Vinegar or All-Purpose Cleaner recipes! Happy Non-toxic cleaning everyone! Have any favorites?

How to Make Almond Milk

My daughter has been a vegetarian since age 5. More recently, she has become a vegan. Luckily, she is a wonderful cook, so never lacks for delicious, healthy, balanced meals. And almonds are one of her main sources of protein and omega-3, and she has found almond milk to be her preferred dairy substitute. Finding that she wasn’t satisfied with store-bought almond milk, she learned how to make her own, then passed that knowledge on to me. It is surprisingly easy to make, and far more delicious than any pre-made almond milk you can buy. The following recipe makes about 1 quart of almond milk.

You start by soaking 1 cup of raw organic almonds in filtered water for at least 4 hours (I soak them overnight) to soften them. I buy them in bulk from Whole Foods or other natural foods stores.

You then drain the almonds and place them in a blender with 4 cups of water (you can adjust the water to make a thicker or thinner milk).

Blend the almonds and water on high speed for until very well blend. I used the Liquefy setting.

Pour the blended almond milk mixture through a very fine mesh strainer lined with cheesecloth and allow to drain. You can press on the mixture with a spoon to help the liquid come through the strainer. You may need to do several batches depending on the size of your strainer. You can either compost the pulp or save it for use in a recipe (see below).

Ta dah!

Your almond milk needs to be stored in the refrigerator, and should stay fresh for about 4-7 day (although I have found that it doesn’t usually last that long in my house!)

I was wondering what to do with the leftover almond pulp, so I did a Google search. And thanks to the wonders of the Interwebs, I found a site devoted solely to almond pulp recipes! I plan to make these yummy-sounding savory almond pulp crackers using fresh herbs from my garden.

Wordless Wednesday: Farmers Market Finds

Perfect tomatoes. Ready to eat. No adornments necessary.

English peas. Preciously short season. Delicious in Minted Pea Soup.

Fingerling potatoes. Red and white. To be roasted with garden herbs and olive oil.

Strawberries. Last of the crop. Season came early this year. Perfect for Cold Strawberry Soup.

Icelancic lambs wool. Naturally gorgeous brown color. Will be used to make a batch of Fuzzy Soaps.

Peas and potatoes and basil.

Tomatoes and cucumbers. A salad in the making.

The jewel-toned cauliflower would look gorgeous on a crudité platter.

Nice variety of squash. My favorite are the oddly decorative and yummy patty pan.

Garlic scapes have a very short season. They are wonderful in stir fries.

So happy to have Solitude Wool selling their wares now at the farmers market.

How to Make Rose Petal Lemonade

The antique tea roses as well as wild roses in my yard are in full bloom. They look so beautiful I want to eat them. And, fortunately, I can since I don’t use any chemical pesticides in my garden. In the past, I have made cold strawberry rose petal soup and rose petal jelly. This time, I thought I would try making a beverage out of the blossoms. Inspired by a cold glass of lavender lemonade I had at J. Chocolatier in Georgetown yesterday, I thought I would try making my own version using roses.

I picked the freshest-looking blooms in the late morning, after the dew had dried from them, choosing a mixture of antique tea and wild roses for a greater depth of flavor. I removed the stems and stamens, and tossed any petals that looked brown on the edges. In total, I collected enough petals to loosely pack 1 measuring cup.

I placed the petals in a pyrex bowl and covered them with 2 cups of boiling water. I allowed the petals to steep for 30 minutes.

While the rose petals were steeping, I thought it would be fun to make some embedded rose ice cubes. I used a silicone gem-shaped ice cube tray that I had bought a while ago, but never opened. It seemed like a great girly-girl touch for my lemonade.

I also made some simple syrup from this New York Times recipe using organic Fair Trade sugar, then set it in the refrigerator to cool.

Once the rose petals were finished steeping, I strained the liquid through a cheesecloth into a measuring cup and placed it in the refrigerator to cool for an hour.

After an hour had passed, I squeezed the juice of 3 lemons through a strainer into the rose petal tea. I stirred in the cooled simple syrup, added the rose petal ice cubes, and voila! Rose petal lemonade – a perfect summer drink.

Meatless Monday: Hearty Vegan Split Pea Soup

Lately the weather has been waffling between summer-like and winter-like. One day last week, when it was feeling particularly chilly, I decided to make a hearty split pea soup. The potatoes and barley give it the consistency of a stew more than a soup, and the addition of nutritional yeast and Liquid Smoke™ give it a creamy smokey flavor without the additional of ham. This recipe makes about 6 servings.

Ingredients:

• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 cup dried split peas
• 1/4 cup barley
• 4-1/2 cups water, or vegetable broth (I use Imagine’s “No Chicken Broth”)
• 1/4 cup nutritional yeast
• 2 teaspoons Liquid Smoke™
• 3 carrots, chopped
• 3 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 large potato, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (I set my grinder to a very coarse grind, as you can see by the large black specks in the photo)

Directions:

In a large pot (6 quarts works well) saute the onion and bay leaf in the oil over medium heat for 5 minutes, or until the onions are translucent. Add the split peas, barley, and vegetable broth or water. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to low and allow it to simmer for 1 hour.

Add the carrots, celery, potato, salt, black pepper, nutritional yeast, and Liquid Smoke™ and simmer for another hour or so, stirring occasionally, until the peas and vegetables are tender.

Serve with crackers and a salad for a healthy, hearty meal.

Vegan Champagne Cupcakes with Chocolate Frosting

I love to bake. But since baked goods tend to get stale in my household (generally nobody eats them after the initial thrill of the first serving), I tend to only indulge my habit when I have a good reason to share the goods, like a birthday celebration, party, or potluck. So recently when my my neighbors babysat my bunny, I had a good excuse to make a batch of homemade cupcakes as a thank you gift.

The cake portion of this recipe is adapted from a recipe I found in the Washington Post by the owner of Sticky Fingers vegan bakery in DC, but the chocolate frosting portion of the recipe is my invention.

Cake Ingredients:

• 2-3/4 cups white whole wheat flour (I use King Arthurs; you can also use unbleached white for a lighter cake)
• 2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1-3/4 cups vegan sugar (I use Wholesome Sweeteners Fair Trade Organic)
• 1/2 cup vegan margarine (I use Earth Balance)
• 2 teaspoons vegan egg replacer (I use Enger-G)
• 1 teaspoon almond extract
• 3/4 cup almond milk
• 3/4 cup champagne, sparkling wine or cava (you can check Barnivore for a listing of vegan varieties)

Frosting Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup vegan margarine (I use Earth Balance)
• 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 cups vegan confectioners’ sugar (I use Wholesome Sweeteners Fair Trade Organic)
• ¼ cup almond milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350°F.

Blend the flour, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl and set aside.

Using a hand mixer, combine the sugar, margarine and almond extract in a large bowl and beat at medium-high speed for about 5 minutes, until softened and well blended.

In another small bowl, combine the egg replacer, vanilla and almond milk, and stir until the egg replacer has dissolved. Add the champagne and mix until combined.

With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients and almond milk mixture, alternating between the two, to the sugar mixture, making sure to thoroughly integrate the ingredients at each stage.

Place cupcake liners in a cupcake pan, and fill each cup to about three-quarters full with the batter. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the temperament of your oven. Your cupcakes are done when a toothpick poked into the center of your middle row of cupcakes comes out clean. Remove the cupcakes from oven and allow them to cool completely. In the meantime, you can make your frosting.

Place the margarine in a clean medium-sized and beat on medium-high speed for about 2 minutes, until fluffy. Gradually add the cocoa powder and confectioners sugar, alternating with the almond milk and vanilla extract, stopping occasionally to scrape down the bottom and sides of the bowl. Continue blending until the frosting is uniform and fluffy.

Fill a pastry tube or piping bag with your frosting (I used a star-tip to give the frosting some interest, but you can use a wide plain one as well). If you don’t have a pastry tube or piping bag, you can also just fill a  plastic bag half-way, fold over the open end, and cut off one corner to push the frosting through. Pipe a layer of frosting onto each cooled cupcake, adding more frosting to your tube/bag as needed.

This recipe makes about 18 delicious regular-sized, or 40 mini cupcakes.

Striving Toward Veganism

The following post is by guest blogger, Julia Guarino. 

When I was five years old, I arrived home one day from kindergarten and announced to my parents that I was going to become a vegetarian. They were surprised, but as I seemed determined, they obliged, asking advice from my pediatrician as to how best meet my nutritional needs. By age ten, I had completely eliminated the fish and poultry that I sometimes ate, and I have been completely vegetarian ever since. In my final year of college, I moved into my first apartment, and in the excitement of newly possessing a kitchen, I subscribed to Vegetarian Times. It is full of wonderful recipes and tips on products to buy and restaurants to frequent for both lacto-ovo vegetarians (those who still consume eggs and dairy products), and vegans (those who have eliminated all animal products, including eggs, dairy and honey). I had never really considered becoming vegan, because though I had long since chosen to use soy milk over cow’s milk and to replace butter with non-hydrogenated-oil-based margarine (like Smart Balance, which tastes remarkably similar), but I knew giving up cheese and eggs would take immense effort, and I wasn’t sure it was worth it. After all, not only did I enjoy these things, but as a vegetarian it was extremely difficult to order a meal at a restaurant with any protein in it that didn’t come from one of these two sources.

However, as the year continued, several articles on the health benefits of veganism published in the Vegetarian Times encouraged me to eliminate more and more animal products from my diet, and the more I did so, the more I realized that it felt really good. I began to do some research. Could I really do this? Did it make sense to become vegan? Would the benefits outweigh the inconvenience?

My research gave me a fairly clear answer: it is difficult, and you have to do it right, but if you’re willing to put it in the effort, it is worth it. I came across several medical studies done on vegan groups, providing evidence that a plant-based diet has enormous health benefits, including helping to prevent cancer, reversing the need for medication in type-2 diabetes patients, and more. Concern over the risks of malnourishment (as in the infamous case of the Queens baby) are not entirely unfounded, but seem to be fairly easy to avoid; as long as attention is paid to the vegan’s consumption of protein as well as some vitamins found in less concentrated amounts in non-vegan diets, such as vitamins B12, iron, calcium and zinc, even children live quite healthily on it.

I cannot say that the switch is easy, and I have still not made it completely, but the less eggs and dairy I eat, the better I feel. Perhaps it is simply a feeling of accomplishment, but either way, I know I am doing better for my body, and it is worth it, despite the inconvenience.

[Editor's note: if you're looking for some yummy vegan recipes here are some that I've posted in the past]