For the Love of Food

Monday, December 3, 2012

Spiced Orange Cranberry Sauce


I understand that Thanksgiving is over. I know that it's time to move on from lentil loaves, mashed potatoes, and roasted yams. My brain is on board with this. But, my tastebuds? That's a different story.

I made this spiced orange cranberry sauce this year for Thanksgiving and have been indulging myself every day since. I've had this sauce over lentils, spread this on toast, and eaten it after dinner for dessert. If this keeps up, by New Years you might have to send me to cranberry rehab.

In my defense, it's important for you to know that this isn't any ordinary cranberry sauce. This one isn't overly sweet or loaded with refined white sugars like the typical canned cranberry sauce of my youth. Instead, it is sweetened with a few dates and spiced up with ginger, fresh oranges, and zest.

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Friday, February 10, 2012

Ginger Orange Carrot Juice


Sometimes, when I am really on top of things in my life, I monitor where web traffic comes from. Most people stumble here through Foodgawker, Pinterest, Finding Vegan, or Google searches. If you do any Google searches for kale smoothies, roasted beets, or kale chips, apparently I'm your gal.

And, as I learned the other day, if you search for "images of nasty looking but good food," you will find your way here as well.  Or more specifically, you will find your way to a very old post where I once made a rather gross-looking, but amazing split pea and yam soup (aka Sexy Ugly Stew) and told some jokes about how Mick Jagger is "sexy ugly." Oh how your internet past will haunt you.

Lucky for me I refuse to make sexy ugly food anymore. Just sexy food. Food that is beautiful and will make you feel beautiful from the inside out.  Hello ginger-carrot-orange goodness...
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Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Whole Wheat Orange Scones

I learned a lot of things about myself last weekend when I was fighting my cold.  Apparently while sick I like to bake things.  Sweet things. 

I also learned that while baking my favorite thing to do is to listen to Thriller on repeat.  Loud.  For an hour.  This is completely normal, right? (Sorry, neighbors.)

But, at the end of that process I ended up with these delightful scones.  Totally worth it.

These orange scones are bright, tangy, and perfect for spring.  Surprisingly, the orange pieces make the scone a little tart rather than sweet.  If you're looking for a sweeter scone, juice the orange (you should get about 1/2 cup of juice) instead of using the slices.

The whole wheat flour in these scones definitely lends itself to a "healthier" taste than your average scone.  But, this scone is moist, light, and just crumbly enough.  It's like a biscuit meets a traditional scone.  Yum.

If you're trying to disguise the healthy aspect for your audience, you can serve these warm with jam.  Or just serve them warm with jam just because jam is good. 

If you'd like to add an orange glaze over the top, it's easy enough to do by mixing some powdered sugar with a little orange juice.  I opted out of this because I was trying to avoid the additional sugar.  But, then I went and smothered sugary jam over everything.  Oh well.


Orange Scones
Makes 8 medium-sized scones

Adapted from Inside A Black Apple

1/2 cup soy milk
1 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 3/4 cup whole-wheat flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3 Tablespoons evaporated cane juice
1 organic orange, zested and sliced
Pinch of salt
5 Tablespoons of cold vegan margarine, cut into chunks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Mix the soy milk and apple cider vinegar together in a small bowl.  Let sit for a few minutes and allow to thicken.

In a large mixing bowl whisk flour, baking powder, evaporated cane juice, orange zest, and salt.  Add the margarine and mix (using your hands) until the mixture is crumbly with pea-sized chunks. 

Slice the orange starting by cutting off the top and the bottom, exposing the wheel of orange flesh inside.  Use a sharp knife to cut away the peel and pith of the orange.  Slice in between the white skin segments to the center of the fruit at a slight angle.  Make sure that you have removed any seeds and then add the orange slices to your mixing bowl.

Stir in the vanilla extract and soy milk/apple cider vinegar mixture until just blended. Do not overmix or it will result in tough scones.

Roll scones into a ball and flatten slightly on a cookie sheet to resemble 3 inch rounds.  Let scones rest for 10 minutes before baking.

Bake for 12 minutes or until the tops are lightly browned.

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