Thanksgiving Chic Pea Loaf
A perfect main dish for your Thanksgiving feasts! Serve with my Cauliflower Mushroom Gravy or Chicken Style Gravy. All these recipes are from my cookbook Whole Food American Favorites.
2 cups cooked mashed yam
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 cups chopped mushrooms, cremini or white button
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 cups cooked chic peas (garbanzo beans)
1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup chopped raw walnuts
2 T nutritional yeast
2 T organic tamari or balsamic vinegar
2 T tomato paste
1 T spicy brown mustard
1/2 t dried sage
1 1/2 t dried thyme
1/2 t dried rosemary, crushed
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 t sea salt
1/2 t black pepper
Bake yam at 350 degrees for 1 hour 15 minutes until soft. Set aside to cool. Sauté vegetables in 1/4 cup water until tender. Transfer to large mixing bowl. Add remaining ingredients, including baked yam, and mash with a pastry cutter until the mixture becomes sticky and holds together. Press into a 9 x 13 baking pan lined with parchment paper. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes. Loosely cover with aluminum foil and continue to bake an additional 25 minutes. Uncover and brown for 10 minutes. Let set for at least 20 – 30 minutes before serving. Serves 10 – 12.
Wild Rice and Broccoli Pilaf
Serve as a side dish or stuff into acorn squash halves or other hollowed out winter squash for an attractive main dish.
1 cup wild rice
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup sliced celery
1 cup chopped carrots
2 cups chopped mushrooms
4 cups chopped broccoli
2 ½ T Holiday Herb Mix
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds, pine nuts or chopped pecans
Sea salt
Cook rice according to package directions.
Saute onion over medium-high heat until it starts to brown. Add garlic and stir 1 minute. Add 1/2 cup water, celery, and carrots. Cook 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, broccoli and herb mix and cook until broccoli is desired tenderness. Stir in seeds or nuts. Salt and pepper to taste.
Spaghetti Squash and Millet Marinara
I love to use cooked millet in place of pasta in Italian style dishes. When added to spaghetti squash, it adds a heartiness to the squash and is much more filling. Millet is high in protein, fiber, vitamins, minerals, and is a great source of complex carbohydrates that our body uses for energy! If you want energy, eat a high-carbohydrate diet.
1 spaghetti squash, cooked *
1 cup dry millet, cooked**
Marinara (Use your favorite bottled if desired)
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 24 oz box Pomi tomatoes
1/2 can tomato paste (3 oz)
1 t basil
1 t oregano
1/2 t turmeric (optional)
1/4 t black pepper
*Cook spaghetti squash in the oven at 350 for about 1 hour until soft. I leave it whole. No need to stab it with a knife or anything . Just place it on a baking sheet and turn on the oven. I’ll put this in the oven in the morning while getting ready for work.
**Boil 2 cups water. Add dry millet, turn heat to simmer, cover and cook until tender, about 15 – 20 minutes.
Saute onion in a dry pan over medium-high heat until it starts to brown. Add minced garlic and stir for 1 minutes. Add tomatoes and tomato paste and 1/2 cup water. Bring to a low boil then turn to simmer. Add herbs and spices. Cook 10 or 15 minutes.
Scrape squash strands into a bowl. Add desired amount of millet and top with marinara.
Cream of Broccoli Soup
6 – 8 cups water
2 heads of broccoli with stalks (enough for 4 cups chopped florets)
Florets from 1/2 head cauliflower
1 medium yellow sweet potato, baked (enough for about 1 cups mashed)
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 t marjoram
Fresh group pepper as desired
Place 4 cups water in a sauce pan. Cut off stalks from broccoli, trim, slice and place in a sauce pan with 4 cups water. Add cauliflower florets. Cover and steam until tender.
Saute onion in a soup pot or large sauce pan over medium high heat until it starts to brown. Add a little water if needed to keep from sticking. Add garlic and cook for 1 minute. Add celery, carrots, and chopped broccoli florets. Cook until tender.
When cauliflower and broccoli stems are tender, blend with sweet potato, including cook water from vegetables, until creamy. Pour into soup pot. Add more water if needed to thin. Stir in marjoram and pepper and heat through.
Apple Oatmeal Crumble
Oat groats are the whole oat kernel when it comes off the plant. Eating grains in their whole intact form is the most nutritious way to eat them. And oats, in particular, are one of the best foods for restoring a healthy gut. (This is a great interview with Dr. Richard Matthews about this.) And Dr. Tom O’Bryan, who specializes in gut health, says that the pectin in cooked apple skins is more biovailable then raw and is really good to heal the gut. (Video interview with Dr. Tom O’Bryan) He recommends eating a tablespoon of cooked apple 3 times a day. I figure I’ll get it done in one shot with breakfast. It’s a great way to sweeten up the oats. Feel free to add a tablespoon or two of chopped nuts or sprinkle on some flax meal.
Watch my video on how to make this here.
1/3 cup oat groats that have been soaked over night (Sprout them another day and they are even better!)
1 cup water
1 large apple chopped
1/2 cup cranberries (optional)
1 1/2 t cinnamon
1/4 t cardmom
2 T rolled oats (optional for creaminess)
1 t honey (optional)
Soak oat groats over night for quicker cooking. In the morning, rinse the groats and place them in a sauce pan, add a cup of water, cover, turn on burner to high and bring to a boil. When it comes to a boil, lower heat to simmer, add cranberries and apple. Cover and cook 15 minutes. Stir in spices and rolled oats if using and let it set for 15 or 20 minutes. Add a little honey for sweetness.
Figgy Oat Bars
After being on an elimination diet for a year I learned to be totally satisfied with fruit for dessert. However, when my fig tree produced an over abundance I wanted to try making some kind of dessert. I took a Banana Oat Bar recipe that I have and used figs instead of bananas, left out the nuts and dates and it worked great!
25 figs, trimmed (leave on skin)
1/4 cup of red flame grapes (For extra moisture and sweet. I had an abundance of them as well.)
2 cups rolled oats
1 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
1 T apple cider vinegar
Blend figs, grapes, and vinegar in a high-powered blender until smooth. The seeds in the figs make this very thick. Place oats, baking soda and cinnamon in a large bowl and mix well. Pour pureed fruit over oats and mix so that all the oats are moistened. Transfer batter to an 8 X 8 cake pan and bake at 350 for 15 – 17 minutes. Cool before cutting.
Green Spanish Rice
On an elimination diet I always have cooked rice and sweet potatoes on hand. For this recipe I use the yellow fleshed sweet potatoes instead of orange. They have a firmer texture and believe it or not, replace the texture of beans, which are often not tolerated by those with food sensitivities. This is one of my more advanced stage recipes. I wasn’t able to add tomatoes or chili powder until after a year. When I was finally able, halleluia!
Cooked short grain brown rice
1 small baked sweet potato, cut in 1/2 inch cubes
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tomatoes, chopped or can chopped tomatoes
1 t turmeric
2 t chili powder
4 cups finely chopped broccoli
1 small bunch cilantro, chopped
1/4 t black pepper
Salt to taste
Sauté onion in dry pan until it starts to brown. Add garlic and cook 1 minutes stirring constantly. Add tomatoes and cook until juicy. Add spices and broccoli. Cook until broccoli is tender. Add sweet potato and desired amount of rice, cilantro and pepper. Heat through if needed. Salt to taste.
A nice addition is chopped almonds or pumpkin seeds.
Spicy Cabbage with Rice
Another “elimination diet” favorite that I’m so grateful for! I love the texture of the shredded cabbage but feel free to do a rough chop. This is so tasty and satisfying on it’s own but it would be very tasty rolled up in a corn tortilla if you can eat corn. Cooked green lentils mixed in would be great too!
Cooked short grain brown rice
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 t turmeric
1 1/2 t chili powder
1/2 head cabbage, thinly sliced
1 small bunch cilantro, chopped
1/4 t black pepper
Salt to taste
Saute onion in dry pan over medium high heat until it starts to brown. Add garlic and cook 1 minutes stirring constantly. Add tomatoes and cook until juicy. Add spices and cabbage and 1/2 cup water. Cover, lower heat to medium and cook until cabbage is tender. Add rice, cilantro and pepper. Heat through if needed. Salt to taste.
When I was able to add them, I love mixing in chopped sprouted almonds or pumpkin seeds.
Millet Premavera
I’ve been making this recipe since my early days of plant-based eating. It’s so good that it’s remained a favorite through the years. It has the flavors of an Italian pasta dish without the pasta.
Recipes is from Whole Food American Favorites
1 cup millet, uncooked
1 onion, chopped
1 – 2 cups chopped mushrooms, cremini or white button
3 cloves garlic, minced
4 carrots, halved lengthwise and sliced
3 cups small cauliflower florets
3 cups small broccoli florets
2 14 oz. cans diced tomatoes
2 cups frozen peas
1 T dried basil
1/4 t black pepper
1/3 cup pine nuts, coarsely chopped (or raw pumpkin seeds)
2 T lemon juice
Sea salt
Boil 2 cups water in a small saucepan. Add millet, reduce heat to low, cover, and simmer 20 minutes until tender. In a large pan over medium- high heat, sauté onion and mushrooms in 1/4 cup water for 2 minutes. Add garlic and remaining raw vegetables, and cook until vegetables are tender. Add more water if needed to keep from sticking. Add tomatoes, peas, basil, and pepper. Cook 5 more minutes. Mix in cooked millet, pine nuts, lemon juice, and salt to taste.
Creamy Cauliflower Kale
This has been one of my favorite dishes while on an elimination diet. It will continue to be one of my go-to meals after I’ve incorporated more foods. I love this dish and it’s so easy! I often add steamed green beans.
1 medium head cauliflower
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 bunch kale, finely chopped
1 t turmeric
1/4 t black pepper
Cooked short-grain brown rice
Salt to taste
Break off florets from cauliflower and wash good. Place in a steamer basket or sauce pan with 1 cup water and steam until tender.
While cauliflower is cooking, saute’ onion in a dry sauce pan until it starts to brown. Add garlic and stir 1 minute.
Add 3/4 cup water and chopped kale and cover. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer 5 – 10 minutes until kale is tender.
Stir in turmeric and pepper and cook additional minute or two. Stir in desired amount of cooked rice. (Since on an elimination diet I always have cooked rice on hand.)
When cauliflower is tender, blend until smooth. This makes a wonderful gravy to put over any veggies, grains, or potatoes. It’s a great soup base as well or substitute for mashed potatoes.
Pour desired amount of Cauliflower Cream over kale and rice and mix well. Salt to taste.
Add other seasonings as you wish. There are only certain seasonings I can tolerate and because turmeric and pepper are so anti-inflammatory, I’ve made them a daily part of my diet.
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