Tag Archives: vegan

Illustrated Recipe: Zucchini Pasta & Creamy Avocado Sauce

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The day has finally come.

I’m a proud owner of a spiralizer!!

I’d been dreaming about having a spiralizer for a while now. I try to avoid refined carbs as much as I can, and a spiralizer would make it easy for me to substitute pastas and noodles and add more veggies to my dish.

Dave got me this spiralizer from Paderno as an early anniversary gift! And I’m so in love ❤

spiralizer
Oh spiralizer, how I longed for you…

I saved this Zucchini Pasta with Creamy Avocado Sauce recipe on my Pinterest a few months ago and decided to make it the next day I got my new toy.

It’s been super hot here, and our apartment overheats really easily, so I’m happy to have recipes that don’t require me to turn on the stove after, like, 10am.

It was really easy to assemble and use the spiralizer. Making my zucchini noodles was a breeze!

 

This recipe is so simple. I was eating my zucchini pasta with avocado sauce within 10 minutes.

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Zucchini Pasta with Creamy Avocado Sauce. It’s a light and tasty dish perfect for summer lunch!

I had a bunch of cherry tomatoes and basil from our gardens, and they made a nice addition to this cool summer dish.

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So refreshing and healthy!

It was so good, I practically inhaled it!! 😀

There will be more spiralizing happening in my future for sure! Do you have any favorite spiralized vegetable recipes? If so, please share in the comment 🙂 I’d love to hear!

xo Yuko

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Illustrated Recipe: Raw Zucchini Hummus

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I love to cook with seasonal fresh ingredients. During the summer, our gardens provide us with abundance of summer veggies, like cucumbers, eggplants, tomatoes, and of course,  zucchinis.

Eat a Rainbow summer vegetable watercolor illustration
Summer is here!! Eat your rainbow every day 🙂

I’m always looking for creative ways to eat zucchinis because they usually come in such abundance.

I have a few go-to zucchini recipes, but I get bored of them after a while… 😀 And before you know it, your crisper gets so full of them! You can’t fit anything else in there, and when you try to jam in your lettuce, they end up getting smushed by the firm zucchinis. I’m sure I’m not the only one who occasionally resents how prolific they are!!

During the summer our tiny apartment gets overheated due to the big west facing windows and the subpar insulation. We try to cook outside on our BBQ grill whenever possible so we don’t have to turn on the oven or the stovetop.

I was delighted to find this raw zucchini hummus recipe on The Detoxinista because 1) it uses the zucchinis raw and 2) I love hummus!

(BTW, I love The Detoxinista so much! Probably my #1 favorite cooking/recipe blog right now. Everything Megan posts there is pretty easy to make, and it gives great options to accommodate many food allergies/sensitivities!)

Bean-free raw zucchini hummus recipe from detoxinista.com
Bean-free raw zucchini hummus recipe from detoxinista.com

I have allergy to several kinds of beans, and chickpeas, depending on how they were prepared, are sometimes hard to digest… so this zucchini hummus is a great bean-free alternative!

It’s light and refreshing and goes great with your favorite veggies and crackers! YUM.

And I love how easy it is to put together. Just chop up the ingredients and blend them together! That’s my kind of cooking… 😀

What’s your favorite zucchini recipe? Tell me in the comment below and help me keep up with our zucchini production this summer!!

xo Yuko

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Illustrated Recipe: Beet & Walnut Hummus (Gluten-free, vegan)

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While we were on our regular grocery shopping trip, I had a craving for a good dip. 

I just wanted to cut up a bunch of vegetables and dip them into something yummy… So I started looking through what they had on their dip and spread shelf.

I’m currently on a gluten, dairy & egg-free diet (Oh and some beans are out for me, too… sad.), and many pre-made dips had one or more ingredients I can’t have.

Yes, I could eat chickpea hummus, but that’s my typical dip of choice, and I wanted to try something new.

And there it was, I saw this gorgeous, creamy, magenta goodness in an 8 oz. tub on the shelf.

And that’s how I met Beet & Walnut Hummus.

Delighted, I picked up the container and read the label closely. And, congratulations! It was made with everything I could eat!

When I was reading the label, I also noticed that the ingredients were pretty much identical to regular hummus (except for the beets and walnut part).

And then I thought, hmmm, I could probably make that at home!

So I did!

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Sweet Beet & Walnut Hummus Recipe (Gluten-free, vegan)

I just modified the simple chickpea hummus recipe to create this Beet & Walnut hummus. It’s super easy to make and oh so delectable.

It tastes very much like regular chickpea hummus, but the beets add the slight earthiness, and it’s surprisingly sweet, too.

I mean, how gorgeous is this??
I mean, how gorgeous is this??

Enjoy with veggies, crackers, and anything else you’d eat with the regular hummus!

Enjoy! ❤

xo Yuko

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Illustrated Recipe: Simple Buckwheat Porridge (gluten & grain-free!)

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I’ve been little obsessed with buckwheat breakfast porridge lately.

Buckwheat is awesome. It’s super nutritious (very rich in fiber and protein as well as Vitamin B-6, Iron, and Magnesium among other things), and is a good option for breakfast hot cereal if you’re on a gluten or grain-free diet. Despite its name, buckwheat is not a wheat or grain. It’s actually a seed!

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Illustrated buckwheat recipe with Sakura Koi Pen & Pigma Micron Pen.

I get toasted buckwheat groats in a bulk section of our natural grocery store. I love the nutty, earthy flavor so much ❤

I use unsweetened soy milk for extra protein, and you could substitute it with other non-dairy or dairy milk, of course.

Some chopped walnuts and cinnamon are also good for this recipe! Or add some nut butter…mmmm. I just enjoy the natural sweetness of the fruits in this recipe, but you can definitely add sweetener of your choice if you’d like. Possibilities are endless!

I make my hot cereal/porridge pretty mushy to make it more digestible, so if you want it less mushy, you probably want to adjust the cooking time. Also, pre-soaked groats will cook quicker, so be sure to check after a few minutes if you don’t want yours too soft.

I hope you enjoy this simple and hearty breakfast!

xo Yuko

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