NEW YEAR’S DAY RECIPE – BLACK-EYED PEAS AND COLLARDS

It’s a little late this year to tell you what to eat so that you can get good luck, but I will tell you anyway. In the South, and, seemingly, in New York City, as well, black-eyed peas are an important good luck food to eat on New Year’s Day. How do I feel confident about this assessment? Number 1, I am from the South, and I just KNOW the first thing my Mom will ask me, when I call her to wish her a Happy New Year, will be “Have you eaten your black-eyed peas?” It won’t matter what time I call her.

When I was growing up, we knew that you eat black-eyed peas and collards on New Year’s Day for good fortune and prosperity, because black eyed peas mean good fortune (there’s a story behind that) and green is the color of money.

Most people go to the supermarket and buy a can of beans and cook up a “mess” of collards. (if you wait until New Year’s Eve to buy your canned black-eyed peas, you might be out of luck)

Being raw vegan might seem to to throw a wrench in the works, but… not to worry. If you buy organic dried black-eyed peas (or even just the regular dried black-eyed peas), and soak them overnight (like at least 8 hours), you will be well on your way to *sprouted* black-eyed peas, full of all sorts of nutrition, in addition to that good fortune.

Black-eyed peas take a bit of time to sprout. First, you soak them for @ 8 hours (overnight), rinse, drain, leave alone, then repeat again in the evening with “rinse, drain, repeat, until you see 1/4 inch sprouts, at which time you can choose to stop and eat, or to wait another day or so, and then stop and eat.

Once you have black-eyed pea sprouts that are at least 1/4-1/2 inch long, you can chow down.

My New Year’s black-eyed peas and collards dish goes like this:

1 cup black-eyed peas sprouted one to two days (until they have a 1/2 inch tail)

approximately 1 cup chopped collards, massaged with salt until they start to seem juicy

Mix the collards and black-eyed peas together.

Add in finely chopped red bell pepper, finely chopped onion, finely chopped jalapeno (if you desire), finely chopped garlic to taste, paprika (if you choose) , soaked sun-dried tomatoes or fresh chopped plum tomatoes, onion, if you choose.

Toss, eat, and feel virtuous.

Okay, what if you didn’t make the black-eyed pea sprouts?

Depending on how serious you are about keeping raw, (or if you still have a vegan bone) … you could cover your eyes and raid the local supermarket to find that last can of black-eyed peas. Then you follow the recipe above.

This year, I am going to put in chopped red bell pepper, minced garlic, minced onion, olive oil, (probably a dab of apple cider vinegar – no guarantees, – but, most often, apple cider vinegar takes a welcome part in whatever I am making — we’ll see!), and an organic Cajun spice blend of paprika, celery, garlic, red pepper, thyme, and oregano. I didn’t want to buy a huge bunch of collards, but I found a “mixed greens” package which includes spinach, kale, mustard greens, collards, chard, and beet greens, so I will chop them up in my new food processor, massage them with a little Himalayan sea salt and apple cider vinegar, and throw them in the mix.

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OH! LENTIL SPROUTS!

Although I have loved lentil sprouts since forever, I hadn’t grown any lentil sprouts in a while.  Then, with all this scary stuff going on, and long lines just to get *into* the supermarket, only to find nothing fresh and yummy looking there, I raided my favorite organic market and got 2 lbs of …… lentils!  Then I had to figure out where to get those sprouting lids for mason jars (no idea where my nice plastic one went off to), and it took a week to get some stainless ones from Amazon Prime!  Finally they came, and the project came together.  I’d forgotten how fast lentils sprout and grow!

I put them to soak on Monday night, and, in the morning, they already had little bitty tails!  Rinse, drain, and set the jar in a bowl, so, if they wanted to drain some more, they could. On Wednesday morning, they had grown quite a bit, but I rinsed and drained again. On Thursday, oh wow!  The sprouts were almost an inch long!

Wraps!  I cut the “bone” out of romaine lettuce leaf and spread a little sundried tomato hummus on the two pieces. I  finely chopped some red bell pepper and onion, and sliced 1/4 of an avocado. Then I piled the lentil sprouts on the leaf slices, sprinkled the bell pepper and onion on top, laid out the pieces of avocado, then folded up the leaf and chowed down!  MM! MM! Good!!!!  I’m going to do a repeat performance tonight!

 

 

 

HAPPY HARVEST!: lentil and sunflower sprouts

POST #812
I started lentil and sunflower sprouts 2 days ago.  This morning, when I looked at them, they were all grown!  What a surprise!  In the past, my lentil and sunflower sprouts have taken up to 3 days, but these took only a day and a half!  Wow!

I wonder what happened.  I made them in a jar, as usual (even though I had the new Victorio Sprouter, I somehow didn’t want to use it, because I didn’t want to risk bugs – it is still summer and our kitchen window is still open)

Anyway, I’m glad, because I’ve already used up more than half of the lentil sprouts, so I’m glad to know that I can hope for a quick harvest when I make some more later this weekend.

NEW YEAR’s RECIPES (with raw food you need to plan ahead…)

Where I am from in the South, traditionally, we eat black-eyed peas, collards (or other greens, like kale), and pork, on New Year’s Day.
The collards are green, like money, and symbolize prosperity in the New Year. The black-eyed peas symbolize good luck, and the pork also symbolizes prosperity (because the pig is the only animal which eats while it is moving forward)

I don’t eat pork, duh, but I do keep up the tradition of greens and black-eyed peas.

BLACK-EYED PEAS
1 C dried organic black-eyed peas
1 – 2 T minced onion (to taste, optional)
1 – 2 T minced garlic (to taste, optional)
1 – 2 T extra virgin olive oil (to taste)
1 – 2 T apple cider vinegar (to taste)
sea salt to taste
black pepper to taste (optional)

Sprout black-eyed peas for 3 – 4 days (soak for 12 hours,
drain, and sprout, rinsing twice daily for 2 – 3 – 1/2 more days)
Mix sprouted black-eyed peas with minced onion and a minced garlic to taste (optional).
Add olive oil and vinegar, and mix well.
Add salt and pepper to taste.

You can also find these COLLARDS RECIPES elsewhere within blog. They are re-listed here for your convenience.

MARINATED GREENS
MARINADE
1/4 C apple cider vinegar
1/4 C sun-dried tomatoes, finely chopped
1/4 C scallions, white parts only, finely only
1 clove garlic, minced
1 t red pepper flakes
2 t sea salt, divided
1/2 t black pepper
1 bunch collard greens (or other greens)
1/8 C olive oil

1 – Mix apple cider vinegar, sun-dried tomatoes, scallions, garlic, red pepper flakes, 1 t sea salt and pepper. Set aside.
1 – Roll up 2 – 3 leaves into a cylindrical “cigar” shape.
2 – With a sharp knife, thinly slice the rolled greens crosswise into ribbons.
3 – Cross-chop the “rounds”
4 – Place in a large bowl.
5 – Repeat steps 1 – 4 until all greens have been chopped.
6 – Add in olive oil, remaining 1 t salt, and marinade mixture.
7 -Massage all ingredients until mass is reduced by half.
8 -Refrigerate and marinate for 1 – 24 hours

MASSAGED MARINATED GREENS
this comes out enough like old-fashioned Southern greens to satisfy your longing for Grandmamma’s cooking.

1 bunch greens (collards, kale, beet, turnip)
5 – 10 kalamata olives, finely chopped
2 T apple cider vinegar
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 red bell pepper, slivered
fresh garlic, finely chopped, to taste, or garlic powder (optional)
chili seasoning, to taste (optional)

1 – Roll up 2 – 3 leaves into a cylindrical “cigar” shape.
2 – With a sharp knife, thinly slice the rolled greens crosswise into ribbons.
3 – Cross-chop the “rounds”
4 – Place in a large bowl.
5 – Repeat steps 1 – 4 until all greens have been chopped.
6 – Add remaining ingredients to bowl and mix.
7 – With hands, ‘massage” greens until bulk is reduced by half.
8 – Set aside to marinate for one hour (or up to 24 hours).
Alternatively, eat right away.

Just in case you missed it – find my CHAMPAGNE Rejuvelac recipe here.

Get moving!!! There are only 5-1/2 days until New Year’s Eve. Yes, you CAN celebrate in style!!!

SPROUT BALLS (cookies)

SPROUT BALLS (COOKIES)
adapted from a recipe found at http://www.eatsofeden.com/

1 C soft wheatberries, sprouted
1 C raisins soaked, soaked water reserved
1 C shredded coconut
2 t Vanilla
Cinnamon (optional)

•    Homogenize sprouted wheat in the Champion juicer, with the blank plate, into a large bowl..
•    Mix in raisins, coconut, vanilla, and cinnamon (optional)
•    Wet hands with raisin soak water and form mix into 25  1 inch balls.
•    Place balls on dehydrator mesh screen on plastic tray.
•    Dehydrate at 110 degrees for 6-8 hours.

SPROUTS FROM FRESH BEANS: Part 2

If you have been reading for a couple of weeks, you might have noticed my worries about the fresh cranberry beans. I have sprouted dried beans for years, but I have never tried to sprout fresh ones… it should be easy, right?

I have finished with the cranberry beans, and all of them sprouted. you can sprout fresh beans. Now I know that They just look funky, in the way that home-sprouted mung beans do. I think that 4 days is about right for getting a reasonable taste out of these babies.

YOU CAN SPROUT FRESH BEANS

The news is that fresh beans will sprout.  I had some cranberry beans, and I washed them, then put them in my EZ Sprouter.  On Day 2, they were starting to sprout.  I tasted one, but it was way too starchy.  On Day 4, I saw that they had grown roots — pretty unattractive ones, actually– but I ate some and they were tasty enough that I ate all of them and did not take a picture.  If I get any more beans, I will sprout them and take a picture.

SPROUTING FRESH BEANS – yes, you can

I wondered, a week or so back, if you could sprout fresh beans.  It would seem that you should be able to, now, wouldn’t it?  I mean, weren’t dried beans fresh beans once, and you sprout dried beans, right?  Okay, so, nobody has ever come back to me on that one, so, instead of losing the beans, I decided last night to try sprouting them.  As of 5 minutes ago, I had one bean with a 1/2 inch sprout on it.  I ate it.  The taste was very starchy, or else NOT GOOD.  I am leaving the other 10 beans in the sprouter to see what will happen. I will let any sprouts grow a bit longer, like maybe mung bean sprout length, to see if they taste any better. If today’s sprout is an indicator, I should have such sprouts in the next two days.