Renee Baude | Sweet Potato Salad (awesome and vegan!)

Perfect Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Sweet potatoes are somewhat of a superfood. In my house we eat them several times a month. They are very versatile–I put them in soups, stir fry and muffins. I think sweet potatoes are fun and healthy alternative to boring white potatoes. So simple to make heat oven to 400, cook for 30 minutes or until they are the firmness you desire for your recipe, EAT, feel amazing and healthy!

Roasted Walnuts

For quick reference I made a 15 second instagram video roasting walnuts. You can watch it here. (and you can follow me on Instagram for my online healthy food journal). The trick is to keep the nuts moving in the pan–all nuts have a high fat content and will burn in a heartbeat if you aren’t watching them.

Wheatberries

Cooking wheat berries can be a little tricky. Again, I posted on Instagram how I wash the berries before I cooked them. My first attempt was on the stove . . . where I burnt them! My squirrels wouldn’t even eat them! That is when I know my cooking has it an all time low! Or maybe my squirrels have just become accustomed to finer dining at the Baude fence. Either way–it was bad.

My second attempt at stove top wheat berries was better but the consistency just wasn’t what I wanted. Ok, so I’m probably a little picky about the exact texture of my wheat berries but still . . . FAIL.

The final and third attempt worked. Seriously, if I didn’t get it right this time–I just wasn’t really interested in moving forward with this recipe. I love wheat berries–so the thought of ditching the project was sad for me. The thought of paying deli prices for wheat berries was even SADDER.

You can imagine how excited I was to open my rice cooker and taste perfectly cooked wheat berries.

It was short lived. Do you think I actually wrote down how much water I used and how many cups of wheat berries? Another fail but I do remember thinking, “I’ll use the same ratio as what is on the bag.” and since that was my last thought . . . I’m going with it. I used a 2:1 ratio of water to wheat berries!

Again–I posted a quick photo on Instagram.

Chopped Kale

This past weekend I went to a Engine 2 Retreat. Kale was at every meal! I must admit that I haven’t mastered the cooking of kale. I know that I like the Lacinto Kale best but I never really think about how to cook the kale. It just seems to cook in the rice or cook in the sweet potato . . . I never cooked JUST kale. The recipe is easy–boil the kale for 5 minutes. I thought–BOIL? I can’t possibly boil it. But tonight I did. I boiled my kale for 5 minutes and . . . it was perfect. I cooked up 3 bunches, enough for tomorrows meals.

In this recipe I just chopped raw kale. I’m sure the vinaigrette broke down the cellulose in the kale making it simply wonderful. When I make it in the future I will use the cooked kale–I think it has a nicer bite when it is cooked.

Walnut Fig Vinaigrette

I love a great vinaigrette! You can go to this post to find out how I make it!

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This recipe was a huge hit at the “End of the Season” soccer pot luck parties. I love sharing plant based, nutritious, super yummy and filling recipes to the parties. I will admit I was surprised by how many people willingly tried some without my prompting. I didn’t say it was vegan, they didn’t ask and I’m not sure they even know that I’m a food writer! Lynn does but for that party I made cake–not vegan but so yummy.

If you try this recipe please leave a note for me in the comments or send me an email. I’d love to hear your feedback.

Be Blessed.