Echota's Baked Pakora Three Ways (Recipe)

 
(This recipe is has a fat-free option, is oil-free, gluten-free, corn-free, soy-free, dairy-free, vegan, nut-free)

I get pretty bored of reading people's life stories with every recipe I'm trying to look up so I will leave you with only this: every member of my family loved this recipe, including my cat, who you see here trying to get some. (It has onions so he cannot have any though.) The sauce is delicious as written or fat-free. Everyone has different taste buds so you decide if ours match, but my family loved this, it is an absolute hit.

Echota's Baked Pakora Three Ways 
(Printable Recipe Here)

Ingredients

• 2 cups garbanzo flour OR 1 steamed sweet potato + 5 steamed cooked potatoes + 1/2 cup arrowroot flour or cassava flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tsp garam masala or curry powder
• 1.5 tsp cumin
• ½ tsp turmeric
• ½ tsp crushed red pepper
• ½ tsp garlic powder or 2 cloves fresh, crushed garlic (I used fresh because I always use fresh whenever possible)
• 1 head small cauliflower, chopped into small bite-size pieces
• 1/2 steamed sweet potato
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 1 cup peas (fresh/frozen)
• 1 large carrot, grated
• 1 potato, grated

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 500F. Line a large baking with parchment paper (recipe makes about 3 large sheets of 12 per sheet)
2. In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients. Option 1: If using garbanzo flour, stir in enough water to create a batter, almost pancake-batter consistency, but a little thicker. It took me about 1 3/4 cups of water. Don't add extra water! Add the steamed mashed sweet potato and combine. Option 2: If using the steamed sweet potato/potato/arrowroot mixture, mash to combine and add seasonings and crushed garlic.
3. Prepare veggies and then dump them all into the batter, mixing well to coat. I did the grated veggies first, then the finely diced onion, and the cauliflower and peas last.
4. Using a tablespoon, take scoops of battered veggies and drop onto the well oiled baking sheet. I also more tightly formed them with my fingers and patted them down a bit to slightly flatten make make easier to flip when it's time.
5. Bake for 8-9 minutes, then flip and bake another 10 minutes, until golden brown.
6. Serve hot with Echota's Pakora Sauce (recipe below).

A third option if not eating baked veggies is to steam everything. Sweet potatoes/potatoes/onion first, mashed together with seasonings including crushed garlic. Then lightly steam the cauliflower and carrot and add, along with frozen peas. Top with the sauce and some chopped cilantro and mint and serve.

Echota's Pakora Sauce

• 2 Tbs tomato paste
• 2 Tbs water
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 pinky tip of fresh ginger
• 1 tsp of maple syrup
• 2 medjool dates
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• ½ teaspoon of mint sauce or 2-3 fresh mint leaves (optional)
• ½ teaspoon red chilli powder, or omit if you want your sauce to be cool
• 3 Tbs coconut milk or coconut yogurt (optional, omit for FF)
• handful fresh cilantro, chopped

Blend all ingredients together. If you want to make this ahead to allow the flavors to combine longer, leave in the refrigerator for several hours, or overnight, to cool. I tend to make everything at once and it's still delicious to me and my family. Enjoy! Let me know if you make it, tag me on Instagram or leave a comment here, whichever works!

Corn-Free Tacos with Instant Pot Refried Beans and Pico de Gallo (Recipe) (Fat-free, Dairy-Free, Soy-Free, Corn-Free, Vegan)

Taco weekend! For dinner this weekend I made my family a new favorite meal.

Because of corn allergies from way back, my son had never had tacos before - not in a crispy shell anyway.

But then Siete Foods made these taco shells. With zero corn. And the ingredients, while some of them aren't the best, they are okay as a sometimes food.

So I whip up some of my Instant Pot Refried Black Beans (recipe below), we pile on lettuce or spinach, homemade Pico do Gallo, and Miyokos Creamery plant-based cheese and voíla! Tacos! And my son loves them!

I based my recipe on Foods in my Kitchen Refried Black Beans recipe, but I wouldn't be me if I didn't adapt it to my family's tastes (and the limitations of cooking in the RV). Although I must say that most of her recipes are already perfectly suited to my family's tastes, we LOVE her recipes in this house! So if you haven't gotten her ebook,  I highly recommend it! 

Instant Pot Refried Black Beans 
(Printable Recipe Here)

Ingredients (to start)

• 1 lb dry black beans, soaked in filtered water overnight

• sm handful Atlantic dulse

• 2 lg onions, chopped

• 8-12 garlic cloves, pressed

Instructions

1. Soak beans overnight, or at least 8 hrs.

2. Rinse soaked beans and add to Instant Pot, along with 1/2 the onions, 1/2 the garlic and enough filtered water  to about 2" above the beans. 

3. Add Atlantic dulse, select 'Steam' on Instant pot and turn the time up to 15 minutes. 

4. When that time is up, you can do fast escape on the steam. Then drain most of the cook water , but not all. Leave some in for the next round of cooking, maybe to the top of the beans. 

5. Add in the rest of the garlic and onions, and about 1/4 cup taco seasoning. If you don't have taco seasoning, add: 

• 2 Tbs chili powder
• 2 Tbs cumin
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 2 tsp onion powder
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp powdered coriander

Himalayan salt or sea salt to taste

6. Select 'Steam' on Instant pot and turn the time up to 15 minutes. This time, let steam escape naturally for 20 minutes once it beeps (let it switch to lo). 

7. Use immersion blender to partially blend beans into refried consistency. Leave some whole for texture. Stir all together and they're ready for tacos, burritos, or beans and cheese! 
   Pico de Gallo
   (Printable Recipe Here)
   

Ingredients

1 pint grape or cherry tomatoes

1/2 sm red onion, small diced

sm handful cilantro, finely diced

juice of 1/2 lime

3/4 tsp cumin

3/4 tsp powdered coriander

1 Tbs honey

(optional) 1 clove garlic, pressed

(optional) finely diced red jalapeno to taste (1 tsp for me)

Combine all in bowl. If you can, let sit 20 minutes or so for the flavors to combine. 

For the tacos, start with the Refried Black beans, add chopped lettuce or spinach , Pico de Gallo, and Miyokos cheese. This would also be amazing with Medical Medium's recipe for Queso Dip and/or Medical Medium Raw Sriracha or Ash Foster Surfrider Sauce. And maybe some sprouts on top!

Sweet Potato Pizza [Recipe][Medical Medium Compliant]

We've been enjoying this recipe on the weekends lately, and so I thought I'd share it with you as well. There are so many delicious alternative crust recipes out there, but I wanted mine to be sweet potatoes. Particularly the Japanese sweet potatoes that taste like cake because of their density and sweetness. I just thought they'd make a brilliant pizza crust. You could easily substitute regular potatoes if you don't like your pizza crust to be sweet. But I do, so let's crack on, shall we?

Medical Medium has a great blog post about the benefits of sweet potatoes here. 

I'm trying to make more of these recipe videos like I keep promising. It takes a long time to make one of these - hopefully I will learn a faster way. Meanwhile, enjoy! 

Sweet Potato Pizza (fat-free option, vegan, plant-based, medicalmedium)

(makes 2 rectangular baking sheet sized pizzas)

(printable recipe here)

(If you are going to make the Cashew "Mozz" for a "cheese" topping, get 1/2 c cashews soaking now before starting anything else)

Pizza Crust: 

2 lg Japanese sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

1.5 c tapioca flour

(optional):

1 tsp paprika

2 tsp Italian herbs

1 tsp garlic powder 

1 tsp onion powder

Crust preparation: 

Steam cubed sweet potatoes until soft. 
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 
Drain, mash potatoes in bowl and add tapioca flour and seasonings. If more flour is needed to form dough consistency, feel free to add more. 
Divide dough into 2 and flatten out on parchment-lined baking sheets until about 1/4" - you want a very thin crust. 

Bake @ 350F for 20 minutes. 

Take out of oven, place second sheet of parchment over top and flip. Roll out a bit flatter again, as crust shrinks a little when cooking. Press or roll out until the crust reaches the edges of the baking pan.

Return to oven and bake another 20 minutes. 
When done, you're ready for pizza assembly. 

While it's baking, if you're making Cashew "Mozz" for a "cheese" topping, start that now as the crust cooks a second time. 

Pizza Assembly:

You'll need a pizza sauce (we like our Easy Vegan Fat-Free Marinara Sauce here)

veggies of choice

I use:

broccoli, finely chopped

sliced olives

sliced red onion

fresh herbs, finely chopped (basil, oregano, thyme)

fresh spinach

cashew "mozz" (omit if fat-free)

Other topping options: marinated mushrooms, caramelized onions, red bell pepper, pineapple, artichoke hearts, the possibilities are endless!

Easy Vegan Fat-Free Marinara Sauce [Medical Medium Compliant]

Oh my, I'm sorry about the photo. I'm so not a proper food blogger. I don't take particularly beautiful photos of my food, and I honestly didn't know I'd be typing up this recipe just now, so I am wholly unprepared. This happens to be the photo I have of this sauce - it's not even over any noodles or anything pretty - I just wanted to get the recipe posted as a series of three recipes I'm doing for one big recipe, which is pizza.

But we use this sauce for pasta, for dipping veggies and potatoes in, and for pizza. And I'm sure there could even be other food uses for it as well. It's easy, versatile and delicious. And because I'm getting this pizza video together, I wanted to get it up quickly. So here it is, without further ado, and I am so very aware that the photo is not selling it at all.

Easy Vegan Fat-Free Marinara Sauce (fat-free, medicalmedium, vegan, paleo, plant-based)

(printable recipe here)

Ingredients

1 lg onion, diced

2 jars strained tomatoes

5-6 cloves garlic, pressed

3 lg carrots, chopped

3 Tbs Italian seasoning

1 tsp paprika

1/2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp onion powder

3 Tbs maple syrup

s&p to taste

I make this in the Instant Pot, but it can easily be made in a regular pot on the stove with just as little fuss. 

1. Saute the onions in a bit of water in the Instant Pot, with the lid off. 
2. When onions are clear, add carrot and garlic and saute a couple of more minutes. 
3. Add seasoning and strained tomatoes, stir until combined. 
4. Put lid on Instant Pot and seal, cook on manual, high pressure for 10 minutes. 
5. When cooked, you can vent the steam slowly or quickly, then with a hand blender, blend the sauce until smooth. 
6. Add maple syrup and combine. 
7. Also at this stage if I have them I like to add fresh herbs as well, like thyme, oregano, sage, basil. Sauce is ready to serve over pasta or as a pizza topping or as a dip. Enjoy! 

Curry in a Hurry [Recipe]

Some nights you just want to make something quick and delicious with no fuss. And you want that something to be hearty and nutritious and filling. And on those nights I love to make a curry. I just made one tonight, and it was so easy and fast, and the whole family loves it. So I thought I'd share it with you, as well! Sorry for the poor photo, it's not even properly in focus. I'll do better next time. 

Curry in a Hurry (low-fat, vegan, medicalmedium, paleo, plant-based)

(printable recipe here) 

1 sweet potato, cubed (I prefer Japanese)

2 lg russet potatoes, cubed

3/4 head cauliflower chopped into florets

1 lg onion, diced

3 lg cloves garlic, pressed

1 thumb ginger, grated

4 carrots, chopped

1 can coconut milk (can eliminate for fat-free and use veggie broth or even water instead)

2 c filtered water

1 Tbs curry

2 tsp cumin

1 tsp garam masala

1 Tbs sea salt

2 c frozen peas

In Instant pot, saute' onions in water until clear. Add spices, garlic and ginger. Add potatoes, carrots, and cauliflower. Add coconut milk and 2 more cups filtered water, stir to combine. Cover and cook on high for 8 minutes. When finished cooking, release steam from valve, then add in peas and stir to combine. The curry will be so piping hot, it will cook the peas in a flash. Spoon into bowls and serve.  Enjoy!

And of course let me know if you make it and how you liked it! You can tag me on IG too with #echotaishealing or @Echota_is_Healing and #curryinahurry

Raw Sweet and Sour Cauliflower [recipe]

Today I made a new food, and it was delicious! Raw Sweet and Sour Cauliflower
based on a cooked recipe by @lovethroughplants which we will try next. She has some amazing plant-based recipes, go check out her delectable Instagram.

🌱🌱🌱

Raw Sweet and Sour Cauliflower

(raw, vegan, fat-free, plant-based, medicalmedium)

(printable recipe here)

6 c cauliflower florets
1/2 c sundried tomatoes
10 Medjool dates
1 c hot filtered water for soaking
2 Tbs lemon juice
1 clove garlic
1/4 c onion
1/2 thumb ginger
Salt & Pepper to taste
Sesame seeds and chopped scallions to top

Soak dates in hour water until soft, about 15 min. Then use soak water to soak tomatoes until softened, also about 15 minutes. When soft, put all in high-speed blender except cauliflower, sesame seeds and scallions. Add soak water to thin and blend. In lg bowl, coat cauliflower with sauce. Put on 2 dehydrator trays and dehydrate@110° for several hours until done. Taste every couple of hours because you can't wait. 😊

Serve plain sprinkled with sesame seeds and scallions, or over a bed of potatoes or leafy greens or add to a salad or noodles.

Cucumber Radish Delight [recipe]

I have been so in love with simple meals lately, and this salad has quickly become a favorite. Based on the Medical Medium recipe.

Cucumber Radish Delight (raw, fat-free, vegan, paleo, medicalmedium, plant-based)
(printable recipe here) 

2 cucumbers, sliced (and peeled if they have wax)
5-6 radishes, sliced thinly
several sprigs fresh dill, chopped
1/8-1/4 red onion, diced
juice of 1 lemon
maple syrup to taste
S+P to taste

Toss to combine. I'm sure this would be even better if left to marinate for about 30 minutes, but I can never manage to wait.