Category Archives: Nourishing Traditional Recipes

Seasonal Foods: Roasted Beets and Walnut Salad

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Roasted, marinated beets are very nice with gouda and walnuts. Serve the marinated beets on a bed of microgreens. These greens are from our indoor growing unit.

This simple recipe is great at this time of year for using up root cellar beets. The salad is nice with either golden or red beets. If you use a mixture, the red beets will stain the golden beets pink. It’s best to make a large amount of this marinated salad and store in the fridge for easy meals throughout the week.

Roasted Beet Marinate

8c organic golden and/or red beets, peeled and cut into small pieces
1 small organic onion, rings
3 organic celery stalks, chopped
1c Orange Salad Dressing
2-3c organic microgreens
1/4c-1/3c organic gouda, quark or feta cheese
1/4-1/3c Crispy Salad Topping
Roast the beets at 300F for 60 minutes in a glass dish. The beets should be tender but not soft. While the beets are roasting, soak the onion rings in the Orange Salad Dressing. Add the warm beets and celery to marinate with the onions in the dressing. Cool the beet marinate in the fridge.

When ready to assemble the salad make a bed of greens for the marinated beets. Top the marinated beets with Crispy Salad Topping and gouda, quark or feta cheese. Grass Root Dairies is a local source for organic gouda or quark.

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The marinated beets keep well in the fridge. The salad can be assembled quickly for an easy meal. The marinated flavor continues to improve with time.

Orange Ginger Dressing

1 organic orange, freshly squeezed
1/2 organic lemon, freshly squeezed
1 clove organic garlic, finely freshly grated
2T organic ginger, finely freshly grated
2T raw cider vinegar
1tsp local raw honey (optional)
1T homemade whole seed mustard
1/2c organic extra virgin olive oil or organic toasted sesame oil
Freshly squeeze the orange and lemon. Finely grate the peeled garlic clove and ginger. I usually keep organic ginger in the freezer and grate the ginger without peeling. Add the raw cider vinegar, whole seed mustard, and oil. Shake vigorously.

Crispy Salad Topping

2c organic walnuts or organic sunflower seeds, chopped or whole
2T organic coconut oil
1tsp sea salt
In a case iron fry pan melt the coconut oil. Add the sea salt and walnuts or sunflower seeds and stir for a few minutes until the nuts are slightly browned. Cool completely before using. Store in the fridge until needed.

For the LOVE of Quark

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“Quark cheese is a soft unripened cheese with a smooth texture and mild flavour. Quark is excellent for recipes that call for cream cheese. Use it in your cheese cakes or as a topping for baked potatoes and for adding to dips and sauces.”
Grass Root Dairies

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Quark makes an excellent topping for warm salads. These microgreens and sprouts come from our indoor growing unit. The greens are topped with caramelized onions and sliced pork roast.

Easy Quark Dip or Creamy Quark Dressing

Quark makes a wonderful dip for cut vegetables or can be thinned out to make a creamy dressing for salads. Grass Root Dairies, the new name for Gort’s Gouda, makes a creamy, delicious quark. You can find quark in Kamloops at Nature’s Fare.

2 garlic cloves, finely grated
1/2tsp sea salt
1/2tsp black peppercorns, freshly ground
1/2c organic quark
1/3-1/2c virgin olive oil or raw sesame oil
This recipe is best made in small amount. Finely grate the garlic and place in a small bowl. Add the spices and mix in the quark well. Add 1/3c olive or sesame oil and mix again well. This will make a thick dip. Add more oil for a thinner dip or dressing.

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Quark makes an excellent dip for cut vegetables such as carrots, celery and broccoli.

Ketogenic Chocolate Fudge

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Ketogenic Chocolate Fudge is unlike any fudge you have ever eaten.

This recipe originally came from Eat Fat, Loss Fat by Dr Mary Enig and Sally Fallon Morell. I have made a few changes to the recipe to make it ketogenic.

This is like no fudge you have ever eaten. Normally, fudge is a super sweet dessert loaded with sugar. In contrast, this fudge is loaded with healthy fats.

1 1/4c organic coconut oil
1/4c organic creamed coconut
3-4T organic butter
5-6T organic cocoa powder
1-2T local honey
2 big pinches of sea salt
1T homemade vanilla extract (optional)
1c organic pecans, finely ground

Put the coconut oil, creamed coconut and butter into a Pyrex measuring cup. Place the measuring cup in a sauce pan half filled with water. Bring the water to a boil and simmer the mixture until melted.

In a food processor or Vitamix machine, add the melted coconut mixture, cocoa powder, honey, salt and vanilla extract. Blend very well. Add the nuts and blend until smooth. Pour the mixture into a 8″x8″ glass pan lined with wax paper.

Cool the fudge in the freezer until the it is almost solid. Remove the fudge and cut into 32 bars. If you get the cooling at the right point, the fudge cuts cleanly and easily.

Store in the freezer. Enjoy the fudge when you need a quick snack that will fuel your body for hours.

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Melt the coconut oil, creamed coconut and butter in a Pyrex cup.

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Pour the fudge into a glass pan lined with wax paper. Cool in the freezer.

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Use the wax paper to remove the hardened fudge from the pan. It’s easier to cut on the counter. I should have given the fudge a bit more time to cool because the fudge didn’t cut smoothly.

Mary’s Oil

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Mary’s Oil is good in salads, mayonnaise or in cooking.

“This wonderful blend of three oils can be used in salad dressings or as a cooking oil. When used for cooking, flavors come through beautifully, and the blend does not burn as easily as pure coconut oil. In salads, it provides all the benefits of coconut oil and does not have the strong taste of olive oil. In mayonnaise, it provides firmness when chilled.”
Eat Fat, Lose Fat: The Healthy Alternative to Trans Fats by Dr Mary Enig

I have been rereading some of my old books this last month. One book I have really enjoyed is Eat Fat, Lose Fat: The Healthy Alternative to Trans Fats by Dr Mary Enig and Sally Fallon Morell. Even though I have been following many of the recommendations of the Weston A Price Foundation, I have never made Mary’s Oil.

I haven’t made Mary’s Oil because I had trouble finding a good source of reasonably priced organic sesame oil. Recently, I learned about a local Nelson, BC business called Organic Matters that has both raw and toasted sesame oil. I purchase the both oils in 2.5 gallon containers which helped reduce the cost some. Another thing I like about Organic Matters other then their excellent quality products is the company uses excellent containers that can be reused.

For making Mary’s Oil, I use the raw sesame oil. My husband and I both like the toasted sesame oil for cooking.

1c organic cold pressed sesame oil
1c organic coconut oil
1c organic extra virgin olive oil

Use a funnel to decant the sesame oil and the olive oil into a glass bottle. I like reusing flip-top bottles for oils. Put the coconut oil in a 1-2c Pyrex cup. Add some water to a sauce pan and place the Pyrex cup into the water. Bring the sauce pan to a boil, and simmer the coconut in a water bath until completely melted. Add the melted coconut oil to the other oils. I was surprised that at room temperature the oil mixture did not congeal.

Mary’s Oil is a great way to get more coconut oil into your diet.

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Reusable flip-top bottles work great with oils.

Vanilla Coconut Pudding

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Coconut pudding is a quick and easy dessert filled with healthy fats.

This recipe originally came from Eat Fat, Lose Fat: The Healthy Alternative to Trans Fats by Dr Mary Enig and Sally Fallon Morell. The addition of homemade vanilla extract and vanilla seeds gives this pudding a delicate flavor.

2c hot water and 1c cold water
1c dried organic coconut flakes
big pinch of sea salt
1/4c organic creamed coconut
2T homemade vanilla extract
2-4T organic coconut oil
1T local honey
1tsp organic cinnamon, sprinkled (optional)
vanilla bean seeds (optional)

Bring the 2c waters to a boil. Add the coconut flakes and sea salt. Simmer for 10-15 minutes. At the end of the cooking, melt in creamed coconut. Remove from heat and transfer to a Vitamix machine or food processor. Add the vanilla extract, coconut oil and honey. Blend until the mixture is very smooth. Add the 1c of cold water and blend again. Pour the mixture into a glass bowl. The homemade vanilla extract and vanilla seeds gives the pudding a very delicate favor. Top the pudding with a sprinkle of cinnamon if desired, but I like the pudding best with just vanilla bean seeds.

Let the pudding cool overnight in the fridge. The pudding may separate into a hard top and a liquid bottom. This separation doesn’t happen when using the Vitamix machine. If the pudding does separates using a food processor, just stir before serving. The pudding can also be eaten warm for breakfast or quick snack.

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If you look carefully you can see the tiny vanilla bean seeds in the coconut pudding. Delicious!