Real Sophisticated Hor d'oerves

At the risk of never being invited to another social event that includes food again, I am going to confess that I am a bit particular about what I eat.  People who know me well (or not so well) know this about me.  It seems like any discussion around the food being served is either preceded or followed up by "I'm sure it's not healthy" or "it's probably not as good as yours" or (my favorite) "Can you eat this?".  Yes, I can eat it.  And, you're right, processed Velveeta cheese is not healthy.  Besides it not being healthy, unless you are catering to eighth graders, it's completely unsophisticated.  How awkward!  Ok, I would never be that rude towards hospitality.  I love comfort foods and, truth be told, if a bowl of melted Velveeta cheese was in the vicinity right now, I would probably eat it.  But I would never serve it.  I want my hor d'oerves to be unforgettable, but not because my guest's bodies revolt against them for three days.

Tonya and I taught a class last Thursday with the simple request of "hor d'oerves".  My favorite!  I have been known to turn a holiday dinner or two into hor d'oerves only, because they are so fun.  You can get creative and your guests don't walk away feeling as if they swallowed a brick.  So, we turned to The Real Food Daily Cookbook: Really Fresh, Really Good, Really Vegetarian for some fun and delicious recipes:  Lentil-Walnut Pate (served with Elana Amsterdam's Sesame Crackers) and Brown Rice Sushi.  These hor d'oerves are filled with wholesome ingredients and are so impressive both visually and in taste (I will upload images soon!).  Real Food Daily may use some ingredients that you are not familiar with, but I would encourage you to be adventurous.  The first forty pages contains a lot of detail around these ingredients and it can be used as a useful handbook for delving into, well like it says, really fresh, really good, really vegetarian food.

Party on!

Lentil Walnut Pate
This recipe is adapted from Real Food Daily .  The saltiness of the miso and the tanginess of the umeboshi paste both pair well with the earthy lentil/walnut combination. 

3/4 cup dried lentils
3 cups water
1 bay leaf
1 small onion, peeled and quartered
6 cloves garlic, peeled
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon brown rice vinegar
1 1/2 cup toasted walnuts
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil or 1 1/2 tsp dried
3 tablespoons yellow miso
1 1/2 tablespoons umeboshi paste
1 tablespoon fresh thyme or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried
3/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1/3 cup Tofutti (tofu sour cream)

Rinse the lentils in a fine mesh strainer.  Combine them with the 3 cups of water, onion, garlic cloves, and bay leaf in a medium sized sauce pan.  Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to medium-low.  Cover and simmer for 25 minutes or until the lentils are tender.  Strain the beans saving the cooking liquid for another use (soup, maybe?).  Remove the bay leaf and cool.

Add the toasted walnuts to a food processer and process until a paste forms, scraping the sides as needed.  Add the lentil mixture and process until smooth.  Add the basil, thyme, miso, umeboshi paste, and pepper and mix until combined.

Line a bowl or mold with plastic wrap leaving a 3 inch overhang.  Transfer the mixture to the bowl, smoothing and packing the top with a rubber spatula.  Cover with the extra plastic and refrigerate at least 4 hours and up to 2 days.

When ready to serve, uncover the pate and invert it onto a serving platter.  Remove the plastic wrap entirely and spread the top with sour cream.  Serve with sesame crackers (recipe follows).

Sesame Crackers
Adapted from Elana's Pantry .  These little crackers are highly addictive, but are great to have around for a snack.  Make sure and roll them out thin.

3 cups almond flour
1 1/2 teaspoons sea salt
1 cup brown sesame seeds
2 eggs, whisked
2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

In a medium sized bowl combine the almond flour, salt, and sesame seeds.  In a small bowl combine the eggs and coconut oil.  Add the wet ingredients to the dried and stir until well combined. 

Line two large baking sheets (12x16) with parchment paper.  Cut the dough in half and place one on each baking sheet.  Start with the first pan slightly pressing the dough to get it started before rolling it.  Cover it with a piece of parchment paper the same size of the pan and roll the dough out to cover the entire pan.  Remove the top piece of parchment paper and repeat with the second pan.  Score the dough into 2 inch squares and bake for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. 

Allow the crackers to cool on the pan and then break them apart.  Store in an uncovered bowl at room temperature for up to a week.

Brown Rice Sushi
There is a little bit of work involved in making the different components, but much of it can be done in advance.  The final rolls go together in a snap and it is well worth it.  All of these are adapted from Real Food Daily. 

6 cups brown sushi rice (recipe follows)
6 nori sheets
6 collard green leaves, lightly steamed for 2 minutes
1/4 cup umeboshi paste
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
4 ounces marinated tempeh (recipe follows)
1 avocado, peeled and sliced into thin wedges
1 cucumber, peeled, seeded and cut into 1/4 inch wide strips
1 large carrot, peeled, cut into 1/2 inch wide strips, and lightly steamed for 3 minutes
3 green onions cut into 1/2 inch wide strips
1/4 cup pickled daikon radish
Lemon-Ginger Dipping sauce (recipe follows)

Assembling the sushi:
Lay one nori sheet on top of a bambo mat (shiny side down).  Turn the sheet so one of the longest sides is closest to you.  Spread 1 cup of rice on the sheet leaving a 1/2 inch border on the long side furthest from you.  Spread 2 teaspoons of umeboshi paste in one horizontal line and top with one collard green leaf.  Now arrange horizontal strips of the remaining ingredients in the following order (1/6 of each ingredient per roll):

tempeh
carrots
cucumber
green onion
sesame seeds
green onion
daikon radish

Starting with the end closest to you, start rolling the bamboo mat, gripping tightly.  Moisten the nori at the opposite end and seal with the final roll.  With a sharp knife slice each roll into 8 equal pieces.  Sprinkle with more sesame seeds and serve with dipping sauce.

Brown Sushi Rice:
3 cups water
1 cup uncooked short-grain brown rice
1 cup uncooked sweet brown rice
2 tablespoons brown rice vinegar
1 tablespoon mirin (rice wine vinegar)

Rinse both types of rice well.  Add the water and rice to a 4 1/2 quart pressure cooker and lock the lid in place.  Over high heat, raise the pressure to high.  Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes.  Remove from heat and allow pressure to decrease before taking the lid off.  Combine the rice and the vinegars in a large bowl. 

Marinated Tempeh:
1/4 cup tamari
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon minced peeled fresh garlic
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
4 ounces tempeh
1 teaspoon coconut oil

Combine the tamari, water, garlic, mustard, and sesame oil in an 8 inch baking pan.  Slice the tempeh in half horizontally and add to the marinate coating it well.  Marinate for 1 hour, turning half way through.

Preheat the broiler.  Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and brush with coconut oil.  Lay the tempeh on the baking sheet in a single layer.  Do not throw out the marinate.  Broil the tempeh for 5 minutes and turn.  Brush the top with the reserved marinate and broil for 5 more minutes. Cool completely.

Lemon-Ginger Dipping Sauce:
1/4 cup tamari
1/3 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 tablespoons mirin
2 teaspoons minced peeled fresh ginger

Whisk all ingredients and serve on the side with sushi.

Creating Nut Butters

This may be one of my favorite things right now, which says a lot considering how much I play in the kitchen. Making your own nut butter is so incredibly easy you will wonder why you never did it before. But that's not my favorite part. Neither is the fact that it is cheaper to make it yourself. My favorite part is that you can customize your nut butter to use the ingredients that you want to use. Again, back to the idea of using ingredients that work for you. You can use coconut oil, if you choose. You can use raw honey. Or pure maple syrup. Or leave the sweetner out, altogether. You get the idea. It would be rare to look at the back of a peanut butter jar and find just the ingredients you were looking for.


I use coconut oil in my nut butters. I use it in a lot of things, actually. For years coconut oil has been a source of controversy, because it is comprised of saturated fat. Research has found, however, that because it is a medium chained fatty acid (MCFA) versus a long chained fatty acid (LCFA) our bodies metabolize it differently. Better. Some say it actually promotes fat burn by triggering an increase in metabolism. Click here and here to read more about the benefits of coconut oil. How cool is it to have the option to have coconut oil in your almond butter or peanut butter instead of some gross hydrogenated oil?

Roasted Rosemary Cashew Butter
This is more of a savory nut butter, but would be delicious served with apple slices or on toast drizzled with honey. Carrots also make a nice dipper. If you cannot find raw cashews, feel free to use roasted and skip step 1. If you buy salted cashews, omit the pinch of salt in the recipe.
8 ounces raw, unsalted cashews
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 tablespoon honey
1 teaspoon fresh rosemary, minced
pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Spread cashews out onto a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes, stirring once or twice to prevent burning. Remove from oven and add to a food processer. Turn the food processer on and run until a thick ball is formed, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl, as needed. When the thick ball is formed, remove the lid and add the coconut oil and honey. Turn the machine back on. Continue to run until the butter loosens up and it reaches the desired consistency. Transfer the cashew butter to a bowl and stir in the rosemary. The longer the butter sits, the more the flavor will develop.

Almond Flour

Gluten-free, low-carb, nutrient dense, and packed with flavor, this stuff rocks. Rather than regurgitate what Elana Amsterdam, the queen of almond flour, has thoughtfully explained on her website, click here to find out more about the benefits. While you're there, check out Elana's recipes. They are all unbelievably good and so simple to make. One of my fave's is her Breakfast Bars. They taste like a blonde brownie and are great for traveling. A couple of notes about almond flour. First, it is not the same as almond meal. Almond meal is ground almonds with the skin. Almond flour does not have the skins. Elana cautions that almond meal will not work the same in her recipes, so keep that in mind if that is what you buy. Second, it is expensive if you buy it at the grocery store. I order mine from Honeyville Grain and for 5 lbs. pay around $30. I have tried grinding blanched almonds in a food processer to a fine enough consistency and it worked ok in cookies, but I could definately tell a difference. Not bad. Just different. The cookies had a coarse texture as opposed to a smooth texture when they are made from the Honeyville flour. I think cookies are forgiving where as, muffins or cake would not be, so go with the Honeyville.  You won't regret it.  Without further adue, here is the recipe:

Almond Flour Breakfast Bars
This recipe can be modified a million different ways. You could add cocoa power, cinnamon, chocolate chips, mashed banana, dried cranberries...the list goes on and on.  Full credit goes to Elana Amsterdam at http://www.elanaspantry.com/.  She has the BEST recipes!

1 ¼ cup blanched almond flour, packed
¼ teaspoon celtic sea salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup coconut oil
¼ cup agave nectar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup shredded coconut
½ cup pumpkin seeds
½ cup sunflower seeds
¼ cup almond slivers
¼ cup raisins

In a small bowl, combine almond flour, salt and baking soda. In a large bowl, combine coconut oil, agave and vanilla. Stir dry ingredients into wet. Mix in coconut, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, almond slivers and raisins. Grease an 8x8 baking dish with grapeseed oil. Press the dough into the baking dish, wetting your hands with water to help pat the dough down evenly. Bake at 350° for 20 minutes


Recipe from http://www.elanaspantry.com/