Mango-Pear Sushi with Pomegranate-Blueberry Wasabi

I have ALWAYS wanted to make fruit sushi. Why haven't I until now? Well.. I have no idea! *laughs* But you know, it was well worth the wait. Definitely something I'm going to make again. I made this wonderful fruit sushi for a dinner party, and OH BOY did it go over well! A friend of mine said she had never eaten so much in one sitting. ;)

This is sort of considered a dessert, because of the fruit, but the rice isn't sweet at all. If you like, feel free to add some sugar to the mix. I ended up having some rice left over (because I always make extra rice) so I made some fruit onigiri with banana, mango, and apple, and I can honestly say that I would never get tired of it! I really do love just about any sort of Japanese food, even if it's fusion vegan-geekery! :D

Mango-Pear Sushi with Pomegranate-Blueberry Wasabi

2 cups prepared sushi rice (I added some shredded coconut into the rice pre-cooking)
1 mango, sliced into thin strips
1 pear, sliced into thin strips
1 banana, mashed
1 apple, shredded
2 peeled cucumbers

Using a vegetable peeler or cheese slicer, shave long, flat strips of cucumber, and discard the seedy insides.
Lay out the cucumber strips vertically on a bamboo mat, overlapping them to make a continuous sheet (this will replace for the usual sushi nori). Pat dry.
Press about 1/2 cup of sushi rice onto the bottom half of the cucumber sheet, making sure to press the rice all the way out to the ends. Smear out a spoon of mashed banana onto the rice, then add a few slices of pear, mango, and some of the shredded apple.
Using the bamboo mat, roll up your sushi. Try to keep all of the fillings in the center of the rice. Get it as tight as you can, then using a very sharp knife, cut into 1" to 1 1/2" rounds.
Garnish with pickled ginger and Pomegranate Blueberry wasabi dipping sauce (see below).

Pomegranate Blueberry Wasabi
1 tbsp. Wasabi powder (available at most Asian markets)
1/4 cup Pomegranate Blueberry juice
1 tsp. Tamari

In a small bowl, mix all ingredients together with a fork until well incorporated. If you can only find wasabi paste, just double the amount of wasabi, and you're good to go! :) (I didn't show the wasabi in the picture because the color didn't photograph well. Tastes great though!)

Ruby Apple Juice

Up until Wednesday of this week I was doing a cleanse.

It was a simple, non-invasive herbal formula you're supposed to drink three times a day with apple juice. Your diet can be the same as before, but my room mate and I decided to take it a step up and go mostly raw. This was great for us, since the days are getting warmer, because we could eat raw food without needing to keep warm during the day. Our meals consisted mostly of juices, salads with fresh, local greens and sprouted beans (chickpeas mostly, mmm,) and seed pate, usually with steamed or roasted veggies for dinner. I've got some fun recipes from that that I'll be posting soon, but for now, I'd like to start with talking about juice!

Fruit and Vegetable juices for breakfast is something I'm definitely adopting long-term. It gets assimilated quickly (which is needed for morning exercise and garden play), and it's quick, fun to make, and very easily transportable. It makes me feel great! :) I'm not a fan of huge breakfasts anyway, because I'm always left feeling weighed down all day as a result.

If you don't have a juicer but would love to make some fresh juice, you can probably throw it all in the food processor and squeeze the juice out through cheesecloth. I'd recommend investing in a juicer, however, which comes in a wide range of prices. I'm currently saving up for a Champion Juicer*, which not only juices, but makes nut butters, fruit sorbets, etc. and is the only juicer of its kind that's still made in the United States.

This is a simple, flavourful juice that's made with things that most of us have on hand to begin with. The hint of ginger gives it a nice little kick. I could totally drink this every day. :)

Ruby Apple Juice

4 medium apples (I used two galas and two pink ladies)
2 large carrots
1 small beet
1 inch fresh ginger root

Run all ingredients into the juicer, and serve! Makes about 2 cups.

*Want to help me get a Champion Juicer sooner? Donate to the cause! :)

Red Delicious Apple Butter - Raw!

Until this point, Red Delicious apples have been the bane of my existence. I like their flavour, but the thick, tough skin wrapped around that all-too-mealy interior was enough for me to pass on a side a fruit with my meals as a child. It was hard to say no to fruit. Gramma's heart was in the right place when she put out bowls of fruit for us, but I just couldn't stomach it. I'll take the oranges, thanks.

Notice how I said "Until this point"? I believe that (almost) everything, if done a certain way, can taste good to someone. Jeremy, in his loving attempt to buy me more apples, accidentally got red delicious. Ouch. (In his defense, those did look strikingly like Galas.)

Seeing this as a culinary challenge (and also being on a raw food binge lately) I decided to make applesauce. Applesauce, ha! I wanted to keep the skins on, but with these apples, any amount of extra processing to pulverize the skins would (and did) make a chunky, chewable sauce into a smooth, almost-whipped kind of cream. I'm not complaining, trust me. ;)


Red Delicious Apple Butter

3 red delicious apples, cored and chopped
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. lemon (to taste, and keep color)
1 Tb. agave nectar (to taste)

Combine ingredients in a food processor, and puree for a good long while, until the skins are minced fine, making sure to scrape down the skins off the sides.

Blackberry Molasses Tarts, Banana Chai Tart

Last night, we were all out of chocolate.

Now I know that you're thinking. How can this be? No CHOCOLATE? Well... Let's just say that I like my Chocolate Chip Mini Cupcake recipe. :)

I have to admit that, when I'm feeling lazy, plain dark chocolate has always been (and probably will always be) my dessert of choice. We usually keep a tin of bulk dark chocolate chips handy for when just such an occasion arises. But alas, there was none to be had. I did, however, have a fresh new jar of blackberry jam from the farmer's market.

There's really nothing like blackberry jam, you know? I grew up picking buckets of blackberries at my grandparents' house for all kinds of different blackberry recipes. I have a very fond memory of about a dozen of us climbing up plywood boards onto the tops of the (several feet high) bushes to get all of the best berries. We'd often come into the house with our hands, faces, and clothes covered in that vivid indigo, completely stuffed from the hours of berry eating. I even used them to color my mud pies. :)

I almost called these mincemeat tarts, but they have no nuts or brandy, so I've settled with Blackberry Molasses tarts. The filling can actually be eaten without cooking (and we did eat this about a week ago, sans blackberry jam) but I thought it'd be nice to put into a tart.

I tried out Bob's Red Mill's recipe for 5-minute Teff Pie Crust(doubled and pre-cooked), and while I love the flavor of teff, I think the crust could have used a binder, and butter instead of oil. Next time I'll add some tapioca starch and Earth Balance.

Blackberry Molasses Tarts


16 prunes, chopped
2 tart apples, chopped
1 scant cup raisins
1/4 cup hemp seeds
1tsp lemon

Combine in a large bowl, and set aside.

In a saucepan, heat on low:

2 Tb. maple
2 Tb. molasses
1 Tb. lemon
5 Tb. blackberry jam
1 scant tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
4 tb. coconut butter

Whisk ingredients together until smooth and warm. It takes a bit for the coconut butter to melt. With a spatula, scrape the warm goo onto the fruit mixture, and fold in.

Pour into teff tart shells, and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes, or until the apples have softened.

This made a full pie, and the deep dish tart you see in the picture.

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I had some pie crust left over, so I threw this together, also. :)



Banana Chai Tart

3 Tb. honey
1 tsp. lemon
2 bananas, sliced
1 banana, chopped
Juice of one orange
2 sprays of sweet chai essence
1/4 tsp. vanilla

Heat honey and lemon in a saucepan (I used my measuring cup) on low heat until melted. Pour over bananas in a large bowl, and mix thoroughly. Add the rest of the ingredients, mix, and transfer to the tart shell. Top with thin sliced orange segments, and bake at 350 about 30 minutes, until the top starts to brown slightly.

Apples in Caramel!

Okay, so.. it's not really caramel. Well, sort of. But it's amazing!!

Two apples, cored and chopped
2 Tb. honey of your choice*
4 Tb. Earth Balance, halved
1/4 C. apple cider (or so, a few splashes)
a splash of vanilla extract
a couple shakes of cinnamon
a nice healthy squeeze of lemon

Melt 2Tb Earth Balance in a pan on medium/med. low heat. When it is melted, toss in your apples. as they're frying, add the cinnamon and vanilla. Then, add the cider, and bring back up to a simmer. Add honey, lemon, and the rest of the Earth Balance. Simmer, stirring constantly, making sure to scrape up any spots that might start to stick. Once it gets nice and thick, take off the heat and serve!

*I used creamed honey, because we inherited a giant tub of it. Personally, I prefer blackberry or eucalyptus honey. If you don't eat/like honey, you can use brown sugar or grade B maple syrup for a similar effect, but you might have to adjust the proportions of the other ingredients.


Seriously easy. I'm eating it now just plain, but you could put it over ice cream or something similar. It's delish!