A hint of Mexico or Peru leaps out of this delicious dish. With the combination of hot chipotle mellowed by cocoa and a creamy nut butter—the blend of flavours is superb. We’ve spooned the sauce over squash, but any root vegetable would honour it with equally delicious results. Top it up with what we’ve suggested, or jazz it up with diced fresh tomatoes, dollops of Mexican crema, and toasted pepitas.
Double up on the Smoky Rich Tomato Sauce recipe and freeze in smaller containers. It’s delicious served over pasta or rice.
Per serving:
Preheat oven to 400 F (200 C).
Cut squash in half, lengthwise, and scrape out seeds. Cut each half into 3 wedges. Place on parchment-lined baking sheet and brush inside flesh with melted coconut oil. Bake in oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until squash is tender when pierced.
For tomato sauce, in medium-heavy saucepan, heat oil. Add onion and sauteu0301 over medium heat until soft and clear. Do not brown. Add garlic and sauteu0301 for a minute. If saucepan is too dry, add a splash of water. Stir in tomatoes and their juice along with remaining sauce ingredients. Gently simmer for 5 to 10 minutes for flavours to blend. Transfer to blender and pureu0301e until almost smooth but still a little chunky. Set aside. Cover to keep warm.
When squash is baked as you like, remove and place wedges on serving plates. Drizzle ladles of Smoky Rich Tomato Sauce overtop. Scatter with black beans, diced avocado, and green onions. Dollop with yogurt, a smattering of cilantro, and a pinch of chilies, if you wish.
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.