I plan on adding a few more recipes here and there to this small collection of favorite recipes from the original Take Thirty Workshop.

I love to cook! If I had you over I would cook for you. Since I cannot do that I thought I would share some of what I am cooking and hopefully inspire you in the kitchen.

Vegan ‘Queso’

Holy Moly! This was so good and so easy! It is an original NYT recipe, but I changed it slightly.

Set your oven to broil on high

FOR THE TOMATILLO SALSA:

one pound of tomatillos, husked and rinsed and diced

one jalapeno - diced

1/2 of a red onion - sliced

3 garlic cloves - sliced

Fine sea salt

½ bunch cilantro, coarsely chopped

•

Place tomatillos, jalapeno, red onion, garlic, and salt on a baking sheet and put in the oven for ten to fifteen minutes - until the tomatillos start to brown

remove from the oven and puree in a blender to make salsa. Set aside 1/4 cup of the salsa to put on top of the dip.

FOR THE CASHEW “QUESO”:

2 cups raw cashews - toasted in a skillet until golden brown

2 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (in a can)

1 3/4 cups unsweetened oat milk (full fat is best)

1/2 cup nutritional yeast

1 teaspoon ground turmeric

2 teaspoons salt

•

In a blender add the cashews, chipotle peppers, oat milk, turmeric, and salt to the tomatillo mixture, and purée until smooth. If the mixture is too thick add more oat milk. Taste and adjust seasoning with salt, if needed.

FOR SERVING:

1 tablespoon finely chopped red onion, for garnish

1 tablespoon finely chopped cilantro, for garnish

Tortilla chips

•

Transfer the cashew queso to a bowl, drizzle with the reserved tomatillo salsa and garnish with chopped onion and cilantro. Serve warm with tortilla chips.

Gluten Free Honey Cake

This amazing cake is sure to satisfy anyone with a sweet tooth.

What you will need:

4 1/2 Cups of almond flour - I used the whole bag, which was a little more than four and a half cups

1 tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 cup brown sugar (I would actually omit this next time, it was sweet enough with the honey.)

4 eggs

3/4 coconut oil - melted

1 cup of honey

3/4 freshly squeezed orange juice

1 cup strong black or earl grey tea

1 tsp almond extract

Optional: Powdered Sugar for Dusting

Tempeh Spring Rolls

While my daughter and I were grocery shopping this week I loaded my cart with the usual array of vegetables. When she asked what I was making for dinner I replied “Spring Rolls!” “You can’t make spring rolls in the winter,” she said. “OH, Yes I Can!” When it’s the bleak of winter you need to find ways to make life more colorful and if that means making spring rolls in January, well, then that’s how I roll. ;)

These are rather easy to make, they just take a bit of assembly time. And nothing completes them like the perfect sauce.

I accompanied the spring rolls with a side of edamame sprinkled with smoked paprika + coarse sea salt and the extra asparagus.

What you’ll need:

(You can add/subtract anything you’d like. I’ve had spring rolls with just avocado and lettuce and a good sauce and they were great!)

It’s what’s inside the counts

(and the sauce)

3 carrots  • Avocado • Asparagus • Fresh Shiitake mushroom • Basil • Spring mix • Cilantro • Tempeh • Rice paper • Rice noodles (Vermicelli) • Toasted Sesame Oil • Soy Sauce

What first?

• Slice shiitakes + sauté in 1 tbsp sesame oil and I tbsp soy sauce until tender

• Slice + Cook Tempeh in 1/2 cup of water + 2 TBSP Sesame Oil + 1 TBSP Soy Sauce unter water is gone.

• Cook noodles by placing in boiling water for 3 minutes - drain and rinse in cold water

• Sauté asparagus in a little oil and soy sauce for a few minutes or leave fresh for more crunch

• Peel + Shred Carrots

• Pull leaves off Basil + Cilantro

• Slice Avocado

• Make Sauce

• In a wide skillet boil 3-4 cups of water. Once boiling turn heat to low. Dip each rice paper into the water right before filling/wrapping. You will only need to hold it in the water for a couple seconds. It will be slightly limp/slightly stiff when pulling it out. It will get softer while you fill it.

• Assemble spring rolls

For mine I added: Noodles • Tempeh • Shiitakes • Carrots • Asparagus • Cilantro • Fresh Basil • Avocado • and Spring Mix

Enjoy!

What is Tempeh?

A lot of people I know love or hate it. I love it. It’s a great alternative to meat, made from fermented soybeans. Depending on the brand and how you cook it it can have a slight bitterness to it. To make sure it doesn’t simmer it in water and seasoning for a few minutes. If you aren’t sure about it you can leave it out or substitute scrambled eggs or tofu instead.

Roasted Carrot Dip with Cassava Crackers

Cut carrots into disks, slice onion, peel garlic

I love to roast veggies in my $5 thrift store find - a Le Creuset Dutch Oven .(I still cannot believe someone would get rid of such a pan and that I found it) If you don’t have a dutch oven you can use a baking sheet. Oil pan/sheet and place carrots, onion, and garlic on pan. Roast until carrots are soft - about 20-30 minutes.

Allow carrots to cool for five minutes. In a food processor, blender, or nutribullet add roasted carrots,onion, and garlic + rest of the ingredients above. Pulse until smooth. Add dip to a bowl and sprinkle with smoked paprika. Serve with crackers + enjoy.

Crunchy Cassava Crackers

2 cups of Cassava Flour *

1 tsp honey

3 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil (EVO)

3/4 cup of warm water

Pinch of salt

Everything Bagel Seasoning or Salt

Preheat oven to 425

Mix the flour, honey, oil, salt, and water together. If the mixture is on the dry side add a little bit more water.

Roll out the dough on parchment paper. Make it as thin as you can.

Brush the top of the dough with olive oil

Sprinkle seasoning on top. Gently roll the rolling pin over the seasoning to press it into the crackers. Cut into squares. I had to recut with culinary scissors halfway through baking, the crackers glued themselves back together. To prevent this you can make sure the crackers aren’t touching once cut into squares.

Bake at 425 for 20 minutes or until crackers are crunchy and lightly browned. If they start to become too brown and are not crunchy reduce heat to 375 and bake until crunchy.

Allow to cool and enjoy.

* Cassava Flour is made from the root of the Yuca Plant. The root is not edible unless it has been cooked/refined as it has been when you buy the flour. It is a grain free, gluten free, nut free alternative flour that works well for making tortillas and cracker and it has very little flavor. However, it is rather pricey so if you aren’t looking for an alternative you can use regular flour. I do love the texture of the dough when mixing/rolling it. It doesn’t have the gluten stretch that regular flour has, so you need to be gentle when rolling it out, but it still holds together well and the crackers are very crunchy, which I love.

My son did substitute Cassava Flour for regular flour in a banana bread recipe and it ended up being donated to our local squirrels. I think almond flour is a better choice when making breads. :)