For the ultimate food waste-reducing (and shockingly pink) snack, this dish uses all the parts of the beet. The healthy baked falafel incorporates the sturdy beet greens, and the tangy magenta hummus (perfect for dipping or dolloping) uses the beetroot.
To make this a meal, spread a whole grain pita with hummus and nestle falafel, lettuce, avocado, and cucumber slices inside. Or, serve it veggie burger-style on a whole grain or lettuce bun.
Per serving:
For hummus, preheat oven to 400 F (200 C). Add beet quarters to sheet of parchment paper and crunch into a ball; place on baking sheet. Roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour, or until tender when pierced with knife. Cool to room temperature or refrigerate until ready to use.
In food processor, pulse ginger and garlic until finely minced. Add tahini, lemon zest and juice, salt, and pepper. Pureu0301e until light and fluffy, scraping down sides once or twice. Add roasted beets and pulse until coarsely chopped. Scrape down sides and pureu0301e until smooth, creamy, and uniformly magenta. Store in airtight container in refrigerator for up to 1 week, or until ready to serve with falafel.
For falafel, increase oven temperature to 425 F (220 C). Line large baking sheet with parchment paper and grease with avocado oil. In food processor, pulse garlic until finely chopped. Add onion, beet greens, and chickpeas. Pulse until finely chopped. Add lemon juice or vinegar and pulse again. Add chickpea flour and salt, and pulse until fully combined. Let mixture sit for 15 to 20 minutes.
Scoop dough onto prepared baking sheet and form into 12 squat patties, leaving a little room between each falafel. Bake for 15 to 18 minutes, until bottoms are browned and top is dry. Flip so the crispy (presentation) side is on top. Serve warm, room temperature, or chilled with beet hummus to dip, spread, or dollop.
Lime juice and ginger add a tropical whiff to this French-Japanese mashup, where seaweed tendrils and Dijon mustard bring out the umami flavours in mushrooms and eggplant. The ingredients might seem to be strange bedfellows, but they work. The result is somewhere between a quiche and a soufflé, with a gluten-free eggplant crust featuring punchy mustard and citrus. This makes for a hearty vegetarian main for brunch, lunch, or dinner with a side salad, or a filling side dish. Fresh or dried If you don’t have fresh thyme and parsley, use 1 tsp (5 mL) dried thyme (divided) and 1 Tbsp (15 mL) dried parsley. The flavours won’t be as pungent, but a little flavour is better than none.
These are the perfect two-bite appetizers. Though the first bite likely won’t “wow” you, the more you chew, the more the salt from the dulse soaks into the avocado and tomato. Wait for it. You can also turn these into breakfast à la avocado toast by substituting a piece of your favourite bread for a slice of baguette. What’s in a name? Theoretically, this should be called a “DLTA” because of the avocado (dulse, lettuce, tomato, and avocado). And if you left out the lettuce, you’d have a “DTA.” A DTA would arguably be a better overall eating experience, since lettuce slightly waters down the rich and creamy result and makes it harder to keep the tomatoes from sliding off the top of the crostini. But the juicy lettuce is actually helpful, since it spreads the salt from the dulse throughout the entire bite, making the “wow” moment come sooner. Besides, neither DLTA nor DTA is as fun an acronym as DLT.
This triple-threat recipe is made with (up to) three types of seaweed. Wakame is essential for the pesto, but kombu boosts the umami punch of sautéed garlic and cherry tomatoes, while kelp noodles are a low-carb substitute for flour-based noodles. Because kelp noodles can be hard to find (you’ll likely need to order them online), feel free to use your favourite boxed linguine, zucchini noodles, shirataki konjac, tofu, or yam noodles instead. You can also leave out the vongole (clams) to keep the recipe plant-based, or use mussels, which are usually more affordable than clams. Both clams and mussels are generally sustainable, as, like seaweed, they’re farmed without feed or antibiotics, unlike many farmed fish operations. Double-duty pesto Make a double batch of seaweed pesto, and enjoy it with eggs, scrambled tofu, or toast.
Spicy popcorn? You bet. This Japanese seven-spice blend combines salty and spicy notes for a healthy snack. If you don’t make your own togarashi, check the container before adding it to your popcorn to make sure it doesn’t contain salt. For an even simpler recipe, skip the togarashi and just grind a few pieces of nori and a pinch of salt in a blender or spice grinder to sprinkle on your popcorn instead. If you’re fresh out of nori, you can always grind wakame, arame, or dulse instead, leaving out the pinch of salt for dulse or any seaweed you taste and find already salty. Shichimi togarashi This customizable spice blend generally features sansho pepper, a.k.a. Japanese prickly ash, a green peppercorn with a citrusy taste, along with seaweed flakes, chili pepper, and dried citrus peel—often yuzu or mandarin orange. If you can’t find sansho, look for Sichuan peppercorn, which has a slightly stronger mouth-tingling effect. You can buy dried orange, mandarin, or tangerine peel. Or you can dehydrate your own, in which case you might as well dehydrate a 1/8 in (3 mm) thick piece of fresh ginger along with the peel. If you can’t handle a lot of chili pepper heat, reduce the pepper to your taste.