Two Simple Delicious Summer Recipes For An Annual Tradition

Vine Ripened Tomatoes in a Fresh Basil Crust. Recipe is by Cherie Soria and found on her website: Living Light Culinary Arts Institute. CLICK HERE FOR THE RECIPE. I just got permission from Cherie this afternoon to post her recipes onto my blog. Thank you Cherie and the Living Light Culinary Arts Institute for your recipe. I hope to go there someday and take classes!

Crust
2 cups macadamia nuts, ground to flour
2 cups packed fresh basil, leaves only
1/2 teaspoon Himalayan crystal salt
2 tablespoons coconut oil

Tomato Topping
6 large heirloom tomatoes, sliced 1/8" thick
1/4 cup capers, packed in olive oil
1/4 teaspoon Himalayan Crystal salt

To make the crust, put the macadamia nuts
into a food processor outfitted with the "S"
blade, and process to a fine powder.

Add the salt, basil, and coconut and continue
grinding until the mixture becomes sticky. Do
not over process or the natural oils will
separate from the fiber.

Press the crust mixture firmly into a tart pan.

Place tomatoes attractively over the crust,
and sprinkle with salt and capers.

Serve immediately.

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The middle of July marks an annual tradition here in Vermont: The Vermont Brewer’s Festival. My husband of many talents loves to brew his own beer and has a very good homemade Hefeweizen on tap right now. We’ve always been lovers of fresh local beer from small breweries and brew pubs. Beer is definitely not raw but the fresh local brews we enjoy are vegan and some are even organic!

Steph and John drove up from the Boston area Friday night as it’s become a tradition for us to sample the different beers and have a most enjoyable day down on the Burlington Waterfront Park where the festival takes place. And Lake Champlain is always the most beautiful backdrop for this fun-filled festival celebrating craft brews. For for information on the festival, click on the green link above.

For Friday night I made a couple recipes that were light, simple, and perfect for a summer evening. Since John and Steph arrived around 10pm, this tomato in basil crust was perfect as a filling snack. It was also rather elegant too. I should add that John and Scott (who’s on the right) were enjoying Scott’s Hefeweizen in the photo above :-)

Joyce’s Notes: Now this was a super tasty recipe that we all enjoyed very much. Steph and John eat a normal standard American diet that includes meat and animal products. So I was slightly nervous about preparing a raw vegan light meal that night. But Cherie Soria’s recipe was a true hit. This is so delicious and yet so simple and easy to prepare!

The crust was the star! It tasted just like a pesto sauce! In fact my next raw pesto recipe will be a variation of this basil crust. I used my 4 1/2 inch tart shells with removable bottoms (mine were from Bed Bath and Beyond). My crusts turned out a bit greener than expected but it was still delicious and pretty to photograph. We used Steph’s new fancy camera to take a few shots. (we hope to get a camera like that someday!)

The tomatoes were simply sliced and placed over the basil crusts. Then capers mixed in olive oil were sprinkled on top of the tomatoes. I filled up a measuring cup of capers and added the olive oil into the measuring cup. It was that simple and easy.

Anna from Purely Delicious Magazine has also posted this recipe on her website with a lovely photo. I like how her crusts are a combination of white and green. CLICK HERE FOR HER PHOTO and her recipe.

And for the second simple and lovely recipe on Friday night:

Kale Coleslaw! Another fabulous recipe by Cherie Soria from the Living Light Culinary Arts Institute . CLICK HERE FOR HER RECIPE. Cherie also gave me permission to post this lovely recipe as well. Thanks again! (I doubled her recipe below)

DRESSING
1/8 cup almonds, soaked for 8 hours
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon light miso
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 soft date, pitted
1 teaspoons onion powder
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard powder
1/8 teaspoon Himalayan Crystal Salt

SALAD
1/2 bunch kale, de-stemmed
1/4 head cabbage, shredded (I used red cabbage)
1 tomato, diced
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1/2 cup leek or green onion, thinly sliced (I used scallions)

1. Combine ingredients for DRESSING in a blender and puree, using a small amount of water as necessary to achieve the consistency of a thin mayonnaise.
2. Chiffonade the kale into thin strips and massage to soften.
3. Toss with remaining ingredients and serve.

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John’s mother is from Portugal and makes a famous kale soup that John grew up on here in America. So John is a lover of kale. He always loves the kale salads I bring down for holidays. Since all four of us love big kale salads, I thought I’d try Cherie’s recipe.

Joyce’s Notes: This is another delicious kale salad that is sure to please everyone. I highly recommend this one! It’s a true winner and we all loved it. Even Scott who’s often picky with greens and salads enjoyed this one. I recommend doubling this one (which I did) if there are four of more people eating this as it’s really good and will go fast.

I used 2 bunches of flat leafed kale, red cabbage, 2 tomatoes (one big and one medium), 2 jalapeno peppers, and scallions. I used the food processor to chop up the cabbage as I was pressed for time and this worked well. (you could use a mandoline too) I really liked the minced jalapeno peppers in this salad!

The dressing is the bomb! Wow it’s sooooo good and could be used for other dishes as well. I loved the tangy zing the mustard powder added. This dressing tastes very gourmet and sophisticated. I should also add that it tastes the best when added to the salad and eaten immediately.

By the way, the decorative veggies on the outside are purple cauliflower we picked up at the Richmond Farmers Market on Friday afternoon. These were so fresh and delicious!

My final notes: John and everyone thought the Kale Coleslaw and Tomatoes in the Basil Crust went very well together. Even Scott was saying the same thing! So try them together. I was very happy when John and Steph were making sure they had copies of these two recipes before they left as they wanted to make them in the near future! Maybe someday they will be eating and preparing a lot of lovely raw vegan food like us. I hope to share more recipes with them! Our health is our only true wealth……..

Encore For Dessert!

Steph loves strawberry desserts so I thought it would be perfect to make my Strawberry Crumble Cake recipe again. This is our favorite and Steph loved it too! CLICK HERE FOR MY PREVIOUS POST AND RECIPE DETAILS :-)

Beer Goggles!

This is Steph and myself (I’m on the right) before heading out to the Vermont Brewers Festival on Saturday. Needless to say that John and Scott are not fans of our ‘beer goggles’ but they are fun to sport for this one day out of the year. We all had a great weekend and the weather seemed to cooperate on Saturday with just a short passing shower to cools things off. It was also fun to hang out with Joy, Jeff, Lucy and her husband at the festival. We hope to keep up this tradition so please join us next year!

Enjoy the sunshine while it lasts! Cheers!