Craveable Cauliflower with Parmesan

Cauliflower Edit

Why does cauliflower have to smell so bad!?  I want to make cauliflower more times than not, but the terrible smell makes me reach for the broccoli 9 times out of 10. If you have a small kitchen like me, make sure you begin roasting these bad boys before your dinner guests come over, or they will think you are making them rotten eggs…YUM!

Ok, enough about how stinky cauliflower can be and let’s move on to how magical it can be. I had a sad-looking head of cauliflower hanging out in my fridge, so I decided to whip up some roasted cauliflower amazingness…I have been kind of obsessing over roasted vegetables lately, but there is something about roasted cauliflower that has me coming back for more.   The possibilities with this recipe are endless, so use my recipe as a base and add whatever your little heart desires.

Ingredients

  • 1 Head Cauliflower
  • 6 Cloves Garlic, unpeeled
  • 1 Medium White Onion, sliced
  • 3 TBS Olive Oil
  • 1/2 C Grated Parmesan, this is just a suggestion…more cheese makes everything better.
  • Salt, to taste
  • Pepper, to taste

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Cut the cauliflower into florets, and toss into a bowl.
  3. Slice a medium onion and toss it into the bowl with the cauliflower.
  4. Take 6 cloves of garlic (I used 10, but I have bit of a problem) and slice the bottoms off of them.  I also like to put a little slit in the skin to help these little guys roast.  Toss the garlic cloves into the bowl with the cauliflower and onion.
  5. Drizzle 3 TBS of olive oil (or your favorite oil) over the cauliflower, onions, and garlic.
  6. Mix all of these magical ingredients together.
  7. Spray a cookie sheet and dump the cauliflower, onion, garlic mixture onto the cookie sheet, spacing out the cauliflower the best you can.
  8. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  (I used truffle salt, because it is my new favorite thing… it is on the spendy side, but  a little goes a really long way.)
  9. Roast, tossing occasionally, until almost tender, 35-40 minutes.
  10. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup grated parmesan (or use as much cheese as you want) and roast for about another 5 mins until the cheese is nice n’ melty.

Use a spatula to get the tasty goodness onto your plate and eat the living crap out of it.  I added Sriracha to mine, but I also have a bit of a hot sauce problem.  😉

Enjoy!

Posted by & filed under Cauliflower, Garlic. This post has no comments yet.

Velvety Smooth Hummus

Hummus Edit

How is it that I never had hummus until I was in college!?  Maybe it is because I am from the Midwest, but I know that we had hummus there.  In fact, I am from Michigan where there is a town called Dearborn; that has one of the biggest middle eastern populations outside of the middle east.  I guess I am just bitter, that I missed out on so many great hummus years.  I was hooked from the first bite and I have been making hummus since I got my first food processor many moons ago.  The only thing was that my hummus always seemed so much thicker than the restaurant hummus and the store bought hummus… until now!  Be prepared to be amazed 🙂

Ingredients

  • 1 3/4 C Cooked, Drained Chickpeas (15-ounce can)
  • 1/2 C Tahini Paste
  • 2 TBS Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice, or more if you like
  • 2-3 Cloves Garlic, roughly chopped
  • 3/4 Tsp Salt, or more if you are feeling salty
  • Approximately 1/4 cup water

Directions

  1. Drain the chickpeas
  2. Here is the secret or my OCD moment… peel your chickpeas. I know you are thinking that this sounds crazy. That you didn’t even know that chickpeas had skin and that to find their skin might be kind of time consuming…but bear with me. Surprisingly chickpeas do have a skin on them that prevents your hummus from being as velvety smooth as you want it to be.  To find the chickpeas’ clothing…take a chickpea between your thumb and next two fingers, arranging the pointy end in towards your palm…lightly apply some pressure, and BAM your chickpea will appear in its birthday suit!!  Discard the chickpeas’ clothing and let’s get down to business.
  3. In a food processor, blend the chickpeas until powdery clumps form,(let them party with each other in the food processor for about a minute) scraping down the sides at the 30 second mark.
  4. Add the tahini, lemon juice, garlic and salt and blend until pureed.
  5. With the machine running, drizzle in water approx.1 tablespoon at a time, until your hummus gets a very smooth, light and creamy mixture. I find I need about 4-6 tablespoons of water, but you may need slightly more or less.
  6. Taste and adjust seasonings, adding more salt or lemon if you are feeling sassy. The garlic taste will get stronger by day two (if you have any hummus left by day two), so you might want to hold off on adding additional garlic, even though this is really hard for me.
  7. Transfer the hummus to a bowl and let it hang out in the fridge for at least 30 minutes, longer if you can.
  8. When you serve it, drizzle it with a little olive oil, and sprinkle it with paprika and love.
  9. Serve it with whatever your little heart desires…because I think that hummus goes great with almost anything.

Enjoy!

Posted by & filed under Chickpeas, Garlic. This post has 4 comments.

Healthy Fettuccine Alfredo

Alfredo Edit

Who doesn’t love fettucine alfredo!?  It is one of my favorite comfort foods, I love love love fettucine alfredo, especially with broccoli added to it!  I never make it, or order it at my favorite italian restaurant, because it makes me feel terrible and I know that it is not that great for me.  I have been on a huge cauliflower kick lately, since I discovered that it is a great low carb vegetable that is so so versatile.  Cauliflower Crust Pizza and Cauliflower Rice (recipe coming soon) have changed my life!  I decided to push this amazing vegetable a little bit further.  I basically made a really tasty cauliflower puree and mixed it with a really great fresh pasta.  Oh my god… this turned out better than I thought it would and I guarantee you that I could fool a lot of my alfredo loving friends with this recipe.

Try it for yourself and prepare to be amazed! 😉
Ingredients
  • 1 lb Fettucine, preferably fresh (I used a fresh garlic fettucine, or Spaghetti Squash if you are going the paleo route)
  • 2 Small Heads Cauliflower
  • 6 Cups Vegetable Broth
  • 6 Cloves Garlic, minced
  • 1 TBS butter
  • 1 Tsp salt
  • Pinch of Nutmeg
  • Pinch of Black Pepper
  • 1 TBS Olive Oil
Instructions
  1. Chop the cauliflower.
  2. Bring vegetable brot to a boil over medium high heat and add cauliflower.
  3. Cook until cauliflower is soft, about 15-20 minutes. The longer you cook it, the smoother the sauce will be.
  4. Melt the butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the minced garlic and saute for 1-2 minutes or until soft and fragrant (not brown).
  5. Transfer cauliflower to a blender with about 2 cups of the broth. You may need to do this in batches depending on the size of your blender. Add the sautéed garlic, salt, nutmeg, and black pepper and puree until very smooth, about 3-5 minutes. Once the mixture is moving, stream the olive oil into the blender. Add more broth or water if the mixture is too thick to move through the blender. You want it to turn through the blender easily. When the puree is very smooth, transfer it back to the butter/garlic skillet (You can save the extra broth by putting it in a container and freezing if for another recipe).
  6. Keep the alfredo warm in the skillet while you cook the noodles according to their directions.
  7. Combine noodles and as much sauce as you like in a large pot or skillet and serve immediately. ( I sprinkled a little fresh parmesan on mine before I served it, because that’s how I roll).

Viola, be prepared to impress the heck out of your friends.

*Note – You can add a 1/4 cup cream to make this a bit smoother, but it really isn’t necessary. To make this recipe paleo you could smother your favorite meat or veggies with this tasty sauce.

Also this recipe makes a decent amount of sauce.  I used half and froze the rest for future alfredo adventures.  

Enjoy!

Posted by & filed under Cauliflower. This post has 4 comments.

Bodacious Broccoli

Roasted Broccoli

Roasted Broccoli

I didn’t like broccoli at all when I was little.  I now realize that I didn’t like broccoli then, because my family would always boil frozen broccoli that ended up tasting like a mushy mess.  Blech!  I found a little bit of broccoli’s magical potential when I was 7, and my mom used cheese (one of my favorite things) to hide the mushy green mess underneath….and shitty bitch it was so delicious!!

As I got older, I realize that it is not the smartest idea for my waistline to smother all of my veggies in cheese, even though that is all I really want to do.  Lucky for me I have grown to adore almost any veggie that you can throw at me…without smothering it in a layer of cheese.  I have also discovered that I am obsessed with green vegetables, especially broccoli and kale.

Below is my recipe for the best broccoli you have ever tasted…also know as broccoli crack.

Ingredients

  • 1 Head of Broccoli
  • 1 Medium-sized White or Vidalia Onion, chopped
  • 6 cloves of Garlic, Sliced
  • 3 -4 TBS Olive Oil
  • 1/2 lemon
  • Freshly Grated Parmesan
  • Salt
  • Pepper

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
  2. Wash your broccoli the day before you make it. If you forget to do this and wash it before you cook it, remember to dry your broccoli THOROUGHLY.
  3. Cut the 1 head of broccoli into florets of broccoli (but relatively big ones).
  4. Put the dry broccoli in a bowl and toss with olive oil, salt, and pepper.  I just eyeballed the salt and pepper.
  5. Now add 6 garlic cloves that are peeled and sliced and the chopped onion and toss them in with the broccoli.
  6. Place your broccoli mixture on a cookie sheet so that your broccoli is not touching.
  7. Put the broccoli in the oven for 18-20 minutes, stirring once around the ten-minute mark.
  8. Once your broccoli looks lightly brown and crispy, remove it from the oven, lightly squeeze half a lemon over it and sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan cheese (skip this if you are going the paleo route) add crushed red pepper if you like a little heat and eat the heck out of it.

Enjoy!

Posted by & filed under Broccoli, Garlic. This post has 3 comments.

Roasted Garlic Goodness

Pre-Roasted Garlic

Oh garlic…how I love thee.  If a recipe calls for 2 cloves of garlic, I automatically add 6.  Sometimes I regret this decision, but that is a very rare occurrence.  If I thought about it, I would keep a head of roasted garlic in my fridge at all times.  Luckily, it is so easy to make that if I think about it before I get dinner started, I can pop some garlic in the oven and have some spreadable garlicky goodness ready in time for dinner. This recipe has probably been done a million times, but I wanted to add it to my blog, because I have some tasty recipes that will use this in the future….Stay tuned!

Ingredients

  • 1 head of garlic (make sure the bottom is flat so it can stand up on it own without rolling over)
  • Olive Oil
  • Salt
  • Pepper

Directions

  1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
  2. Cut the head off the top of the garlic. Make sure that all of the tips of the garlic bulbs in the head are cut off (see photo above).
  3. If you don’t have a ceramic garlic roaster, (you don’t really need one, but I got one as a gift from some dear friends and it makes me smile every time I use it) take some tinfoil so that you will be able to make a little tinfoil cocoon around our garlic.
  4. Before you cocoon your garlic, place the garlic on the tin foil or ceramic roaster and drizzle olive oil over the top of your garlic bulb so that all of the cloves in the bulb saturated in olive oil.
  5. Lightly sprinkle salt and pepper over the top of your olive oil saturated garlic bulb.
  6. Cocoon you garlic bulb in tinfoil or put the lid on your garlic roaster.
  7. Place your garlic cocoon/roaster in the oven.  It will be easier to remove from the oven if you put it on some kind of cookie sheet when you put it in the oven.
  8. Bake for 40 minutes to 1 hour.  After 40 mins check your garlic, when the garlic is soft and squeezable, it is ready.
  9. Remove, let cool, and serve.
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MmmmmmHmmmm…..Roasted Garlic

Quickly, grab your favorite garlic vehicle (i.e. toasty warm italian bread) and spread your warm roasted garlic onto your garlic vehicle. Immediately, stuff it in your mouth before someone else eats it 😉

Vampires will stay away for weeks…enjoy!

Posted by & filed under Garlic. This post has 4 comments.

Veggie Split Pea Soup

Processed with VSCOcam with c1 preset

Since we had a few extra days off over the holidays, we decided to plan a last minute wine tasting trip to Paso Robles, CA.  I love a great road trip, and Paso Robles is only about 5 hours north of San Diego…so it was a perfect quick trip! We were barreling down the freeway on our way to wine country, and were about half way there when we start to see all of these signs for split pea soup. These were not just any old signs, these signs were ginormous and they were screaming about a world-famous split pea soup! Well of course we had to stop, and I was going to eat the heck out that world-famous soup. I mean, when was the last time you came across a world-famous split pea soup.  We pulled off in Buellton, Ca and rolled up to this epic looking split pea soup restaurant called Split Pea Andersens. I was so excited, I pretty much sprinted across the parking lot, leaving Derika in my dust…Ooops.  After we walked though a split pea soup store (Yes, there was a split pea soup store), we made it to the restaurant and quickly saddled up to the bar so that I could be closer to the action.  As we scoped the menu, Derika pointed out that this world-famous split pea soup was VEGETARIAN!!!  Shitty Bitch, I had no idea that vegetarian split pea soup even existed!

I ordered a huge bowl, and I was so thrilled with what arrived.

Split Pea Andersens

Split Pea Andersen’s World Famous Split Pea Soup

This soup was a giant bowl of happiness that made me smile ear to ear… I hadn’t event gotten to Paso Robles yet, and I couldn’t wait to get home to see if I could make something similar in my new crock pot.

In regards to our wine tasting trip, I was so impressed with this part of California that I cannot wait to go back.  Paso’s atmosphere was great, and it was loaded with amazing wineries.  My favorite by far, was Chronic Cellars, their wines were sofa king bueno and their wine tasting room had a fun atmosphere with a pool table.  Go check it out, you will be happy that you did.

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Sofa King Bueno Wine – Chronic Cellars

Ingredients

  • 1 16 oz. Package of Dried Green Split Peas, rinsed
  • 3 Carrots, peeled and diced
  • 1/2 Cup Onion, chopped
  • 4 Ribs of Celery, chopped
  • 6 Cloves of Garlic, minced
  • 2 Bay Leaves
  • 1/4 Cup Fresh Chopped Parsley, or 2 Tsp. Dried Parsley
  • 1 Tsp. Granulated Garlic
  • 1 TBS Seasoned Salt (I used truffle salt)
  • 1/2 Tsp. Fresh Pepper
  • 2 Qts Hot Vegetable Broth

Directions

  1. Warm your vegetable broth on the stovetop.
  2. While your broth is warming, layer the ingredients in the crock-pot or soup pot in the order given above.
  3. Once your broth is close to a boil, pour it over the magic that is layered in your crock / soup pot.
  4. Do not stir the ingredients.
  5. If you are using a crock-pot, cover and cook on high for 4 to 5 hours or on low for 8 to 10 hours until the peas are very soft. If you are using a soup pot cover, bring to a boil and simmer for 1 hour. Stirring occasionally.
  6. After your pea soup is cooked, remove the bay leaves and stir it to test the consistency. If your soup is too thick, add some more broth or water until it is your desired consistency. Season with more salt and pepper if needed.
  7. Ladle a bunch into your bowl. To add a little flair, serve it garnished with green onion, fresh grated parmesan, and croutons…and then eat the living crap out of it.

Stay Warm!

Posted by & filed under Split Peas. This post has 4 comments.

Not Your Granny’s Granola

Granola Edit

Mmmmmm….granola, but gluten-free granola…who knew!?  I love this granola by itself or sprinkled on my greek yogurt with some chia seeds.  You might find that this is so addicting, that it is hard not to grab a handful every time you walk past the jar! I started playing around with my own gluten-free granola recipe after I started buying Steve’s Paleo Krunch.  Steve’s granola is super tasty, but when you form an addiction like I did…it can get a little pricey.  One day I looked at the ingredients list for Steve’s granola, and I realized that I could totally make a granola like his.  What I ended up finding out was that I could make triple the amount of granola, for the price that I spent on one container of Steve’s granola….Heck yes!

Ingredients for Gluten-Free Granola

Ingredients for Gluten-Free Granola

Ingredients

  • 2 cups Sliced Almonds
  • 2 cups unsweetened Coconut Flakes
  • 1 cup Raw Sunflower Seeds
  • 1 cup Raw Pepitas (Shelled Pumpkin Seeds)
  • 1 cup Almond Meal (Secret Ingredient)
  • 1/4 cup Honey
  • 1/3 cup Extra Virgin Coconut Oil
  • 2 tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
  • 1 tsp Ground Nutmeg
  • 1/3 cup Cocoa Nibs (add for a healthy cocoa flavored kick, optional)

Directions 

1.  Preheat oven to 300F.  Line a large baking pan with parchment paper.

2.  Mix coconut, nuts and seeds in a big bowl.

3.  Add cinnamon and nutmeg and stir to coat.

Nuts mixed with spices

Nuts mixed with spices

4.   Melt coconut oil and honey on low heat on the stove top.

5.   Once the coconut oil and honey are melted, add the vanilla.

6.   Pour coconut oil, honey, and vanilla mixture over nuts and seeds.

7.   Stir to coat.

8.   Quickly pour mixture out onto prepared baking sheet and spread out evenly.

Pre-baked Granola

Pre-baked Granola

5.    Bake for 30 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool completely in pan (for larger chunks…this is my preferred choice), then pour into a plastic/glass container or bag for storage.  If you would like to add dried fruit to your granola, just mix it in when you put your granola in whatever storage container that you are using.

*Warning…you just made some banging granola, try not to eat the whole batch in one sitting 🙂

*Note – The almond meal is the secret ingredient, because it is what makes the granola taste like it is not gluten-free.  If you want it to be even more like the texture of regular granola, just increase the almond meal and make sure you add more coconut oil, honey and vanilla to help bind the extra almond meal.

Posted by & filed under Almonds. This post has 3 comments.

Yellow Gold ~ Indian Moong Dal

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Yellow Gold – Indian Moong Dal

 

As you can see, I am still on the Indian Crock Pot train.  I can’t help it, I have a bit of a problem.  I also love that I can load my crock pot with bits of  happiness before I head off to work and when I come home my house smells dee-licious… AND I have an amazing warm dinner waiting for me!  I mean…Come On! It is the closest that I can get to having my own personal Indian chef. This recipe will evolve the more I make it, but I am pretty excited about how it turned out on my first attempt. Now either go dig your crock pot out off its hiding place, go buy one or borrow one from a friend’s mom (cuz you know they all bought one in the 70s)…and show it some love and make some Indian food!

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 cups Yellow Split Lentils
  • 2 1/2 qts Vegetable Broth (See Recipe)
  • 1 tsp Salt
  • 6 diced Garlic Cloves (I love garlic)
  • 1 inch Ginger, finely chopped or grated
  • 1 diced Tomato
  • 1tsp Garam Masala
  • 1tsp Turmeric
  • 1tsp Garlic Powder
  • 1 tsp Onion Powder
  • 2 dried Red Indian Chillies (I am so in love with these at the moment)
  • 2 tsp Vegetable Oil
  • 2 tsp Cumin Seeds
  • 3 tsp Lemon Juice
  • Fresh Cilantro for garnish

Directions

  1. Rinse the yellow split peas; soak in 2 1/2 cups water for 30 minutes.
  2. Strain the yellow split lentils and put them in the crock pot.
  3. Add salt, garlic, ginger, tomato, garam masala, turmeric, garlic powder, onion powder and dried red chilies.
  4. Heat the vegetable broth on the stove, until it is boiling.
  5. Pour boiling vegetable broth over the party that is happening in your crock pot.  If the broth is not approximately an inch over the beans, add some warm water until the beans are covered an inch or so. Do not stir the ingredients.
  6. Cover and cook on high for 4 to 5 hours or on low for 8 to 10 hours until the lentils are very soft. Add more water along the way if necessary, to prevent drying out.
  7. Once the lentils are 1 hour from being done. Heat vegetable oil in a small saucepan and add cumin seeds. When cumin seeds become fragrant, remove from the heat.
  8. Let the cumin seeds cool for approx. 5 mins and then stir the seeds into the INDIAN MAGIC-NESS that is happening in your crock pot.
  9. Stir the Dal to check the consistency and add more water if necessary.(This dish is supposed to be more soupy than thick).
  10. Once the Moong Dal is finished cooking add lemon and salt to taste.
  11. Put a vat of Moong Dal in your bowl, garnish it with cilantro and more lemon and salt if desired.

*Note:  This Moong Dal is lovely with vegetables added too it.  I am a bit obsessed with kale at the moment, so I have been adding chopped kale to the bottom of my bowl and then topping it with Moong Dal…shitty bitch this is so tasty.  This recipe is on the milder side, so feel free to spice if up to your heat preference.

You are basically an Indian chef at this point, now go impress your friends and let me know how if goes. 🙂

Posted by & filed under Lentils. This post has no comments yet.

Dalicious Dal Makhani

Dal Edit

One of the very first Indian dishes I tried was Dal Makhani (creamy stewed indian black lentils), and I was in love. More often than not I crave a great veggie chili with lots of beans and fresh veggies on a cold winter day. To find an Indian dish that had the unique flavor of Indian food, with the belly warming satisfaction of chili…Ah-Maz-ing!  This comforting dish gave me the courage to be more adventurous with my Indian food choices, and now there really isn’t a vegetarian Indian dish that I’ve met that I don’t like.  I could seriously eat Indian food every day, but I was starting to feel guilty asking Derika to go out for Indian food as often as I would like.

This year we found out that Derika was chosen to go to India to work on a water sustainability project, and I could not have been more thrilled.  She would be there for a month (which is a long time), but I was secretly hoping one of two things would happen.  That either she would take some amazing Indian cooking classes while she was there, and come home and share her mad skills with me. Or second, that she would return with a love of Indian food similar to my mine.  Well, she has returned and one of my hopes did come true…she now craves the crap out of indian food…Yay!! Her new love of Indian food has made me even more motivated to be adventurous with my indian cooking at home.  Also the fact that Santa brought me a crock pot for Christmas doesn’t hurt either, so bring on the Indian food cooking adventures!!!

Below is a great photo that Derika took of the Taj Mahal, while on her trip to India…I hope that someday I get to see it in person.  Oh yeah, I also wouldn’t mind eating a samosa or ten while I am watching the sunrise over the Taj Mahal…just sayin’. 😉

Taj Mahal - Photo by Derika

Taj Mahal – Photo by Derika

Ingredients

  • 2 1/2 Cups Whole Black Urad Dhal (black lentils)
  • 1.5 Cups Dried Red Kidney Beans
  • 2 TBS Butter
  • 2 TBS Canola Oil
  • 1/2 Can Tomato Paste
  • 1 Inch Fresh Ginger (thinly sliced then pounded in a mortar or finely minced)
  • 1 Small Yellow Onion, chopped
  • 6 Cloves Garlic, chopped
  • 3 Bay Leaves
  • 1-1/2 Tsp Whole Cumin Seeds
  • 1-1/2 Tsp Turmeric
  • 1/2 Tsp Cayenne
  • 1 Tsp Garam Masala
  • 2 Dried Indian Red Dry Chillies (Derika got these from India)
  • 1/8 Tsp Black Pepper
  • 2 Tsp Salt plus to taste
  • 1 Tsp Sugar
  • 1/2 Cup Heavy Cream or Buttermilk or Coconut Milk (for vegans)
  • Chopped Cilantro for serving

Directions

 

  1. Pour lentils on a cookie sheet (there are often small stones) and pick over beans. Rinse them well in a strainer.
  2. Put your lentils and your kidney beans each in their own bowl and soak at least 8 hours (or overnight) in water 3 inches over the top.
  3. Drain, and place them in the container of a slow cooker (crock pot).
  4. Add butter, oil, tomato paste, ginger, onion, garlic, bay leaves and ground spices (but not salt). Add boiling water to 2 inches above surface of lentils and kidney beans.
  5. Heat 1 hour on high cook setting, then reduce to low and let simmer overnight or all day, and let your lentils hang out with each other for about 10-12 hours.
  6. Add salt and sugar and mix to coarsely break up lentils and beans. Add water if needed to give a soupy consistency. Let heat 10 more minutes, then stir in cream or evaporated milk. After 10 minutes, taste, and add salt if needed.

 

Serve sprinkled generously with chopped cilantro and eat the living day light out of it….Enjoy!

*Note – This dish tastes best when the lentils have time to slow cook.  You can make this dish in a heavy bottom pan on the stove, just bring it to a boil and simmer on low until the Dal is a thick consistent approx. 2 hours.

Also, you could easily add some tofu cubes (fried or not) and some kale to the bottom of your bowl and top it with the Dal for a more well-balanced meal… I am getting hungry just thinking about it. 

 

Posted by & filed under Lentils. This post has 4 comments.

Homemade Almond Meal

Homemade Almond Meal

I have been making the heck out of almond milk lately.  It is just so darn easy to make and a perfect complement to my smoothies in the morning.  Over the course of a couple of weeks, I end up with a lot of almond pulp from all of the almond milk that I make.

I really wanted to do a post on what to do with all of your almond pulp, so that you don’t throw your almond pulp away. It’s very nutritious stuff, and it’s not everyday you can make something that uses the ingredients AND the byproduct for a truly no-waste product!

I keep my almond pulp in a Tupperware container in the freezer until I have a full container to turn it into almond meal.  This usually takes me about 2 weeks. Below you will see an image of what the almond pulp looks like after I am done making the almond milk.

Almond Pulp

Once you have a full container of frozen almond pulp, remove it from the freezer and let if thaw out.  Your almond meal will be very wet and chunky, so you’ll need to dry it out before you can use it in recipes.

Directions for Almond Meal:

1. Preheat your oven to 300 degrees.

2. Spread the almond pulp on a baking sheet as evenly as possible.

3. Place in the oven for about an hour or until the almonds are toasted and brown.  The almonds should be very dry.  You could also use a dehydrator if you’d like.

4. Transfer the toasted almond pulp to your food processor (see photo below).

Toasted Almond Pulp

5. Pulse your toasted almonds in your blender or food processor until you have a fine grain consistency (see photo below).

Pulsed Almond Meal

Yay!  You can now go forth with your bucket load of almond meal and use it to make some really tasty snacks.  Enjoy!

I use my homemade almond meal in my gluten-free granola 🙂

 

Posted by & filed under Almonds. This post has 3 comments.