Hemp Milk (vegan)

Useful for a beverage, a baking/cooking ingredient, or as a frozen dessert with the texture of ice milk unless you also add a fat.

Recently I came across a blog post written about one way to make Hemp Heart Milk. I thought the nutritional info and distinction about nut vs hem heart milk was intriguing but knew it wasn’t quite right for me as it was written so I decided to try my own twist on it. I’m especially interested if the hemp milk might be able to be made into ice cream as a coconut-alternative to non-dairy, non-soy, milk (as a baking ingredient) and non-dairy ice cream base.

Here is the original blog post which prompted me thinking in this direction. Definitely worth a read as its got great info too. https://desireerd.com/nourishing-hemp-seed-milk-recipe/

INGREDIENTS:

• 4 Cups Water
• 3/4 Cup Hemp Hearts
• 4 TBSP Maple Syrup (Keto Option: use any maple or syrup flavored sweetener instead)
• (3 scoops Kal stevia)
• 1/4 Cup Cocoa Powder (omit for creamcycle or chia flavors)
• 2 drop YL Peppermint (or Tangerine for creamcycle flavor, or cinnamon/clove/nutmeg for chia) Vitality Oil

INSTRUCTIONS:

Blend all of the above ingredients together into a slurry. Taste and adjust sweetener or peppermint oil, as needed. Enjoy as a tasty beverage or freeze in ice pop molds and/or an ice cream maker.

RESULTS:

This recipe works with 1/2 cup hemp hearts, the same amount of water, 2 TBSP maple syrup, straight up as a milk you can drink. The basic recipe is definitely worth your time and ingredients to tweak to your likely. Since this “milk” has no preservatives in it, the parts settle while it is stored in the fridge so if you will be drinking it, remember to shake well, before using in a baking recipe or enjoying as you would use milk.

This recipe also works as stated above for chocolate milk. The entire recipe is sized correctly, yield wise, for a recycled Oat Milk 1.5 Quart recycled container to store it in the fridge. I am going to also trial this milk as a base for ice cream. I’ll post more later on that topic. If you get the portions just right, this may make a base for coffee style creamer, flavored, or not.

Pickled Beets

So, if you’ve made nitrate-free corned beef (vegan or with any cut of beef meat) and decided to try the option using the water inside the canned beets, drained off, to make the corned beef portion more like the traditional red-color most corned beef (even vegan) are served looking like, you may now be wondering: What on earth do I do with a drained can of beets? You could add fresh water to a pan, heat them, and serve them along side another meal but you could also make PICKLED BEETS! YUM. Yum!

INGREDIENTS (SUGGESTED)

Consider all of the spices listed below as OPTIONAL. See one you hate? No worries, leave it out. See one you love which is missing? Again no worries, included it. Here is what you are going to need:

• White Vinegar
• Water
• Pinch of one or more of the following: Salt
• Nutmeg
• Cinnamon
• Allspice
• Ginger
• Black Pepper Corns or Powdered
• Whole or ground Cloves (I put a LOT of these little beauties in mine!)
• Molasses, Brown Sugar (swerve), Stevia Package, or a dash of Maple syrup.
• OPTIONAL: Other spices as desired or none–use whole or fresh or ground

METHOD:

1. Place the drained beets you used in making the nitrate-free corned beef (vegan or with any cut of beef meat) recipe into your canning size or recycled but clean jar.
2. Use the jar to “measure” the amount of vinegar you need. Fill the jar of beets approximately 1/3 the way full of vinegar.
3. Add enough water to top off to the headspace level in your jar you normally use. NOTE: The beets should not stick out of the jar or cross into the headspace. If they do, use a larger jar, or two jars, instead.
4. Pour off the vinegar water into a sauce pan (don’t worry–it will be starting to turn PINK from the beets–that’s fine).
5. Put in a dash of each of the spices you want to use. Taste. Adjust seasonings to your taste buds.
6. Bring to a boil.
7. Allow to cool enough to then safely pour over beets in prepared jar, allowing for the 1/4 inch headspace. Use a jar funnel. Tightly seal the lid. Shake the jar well to incorporate. Place in fridge for a minimum of 48 hours before testing for doneness.

SERVING SUGGESTIONS:

• Enjoy as is, right out of the container!
• Use as a side to your favorite meals
• Snack on these.
• Enjoy in a salad.
• Use in any recipe or way you would use normal, high-sugar, pickled spiced beets.
• Use as a topper in a wrap or for burgers. Give it a try on turkey burgers. Yum, yum!
• Use it with any “lettuce” wrap filled with any ingredients.
• Use as a soup garnish.

Did you think of any other use? Let me know in the comment below.

Corned Beef (Nitrate Free, Vegan Option)

Corned or corning meat is a process, not a specific cut. Traditionally, corned beef is cured in a salty brine to which common pickling spices are added, as well as nitrates. If you are sensitive to either those pickling spices (many are seeds after all) and/or sensitive or on medications precluding you from taking in nitrates and/or sensitive to nightshades (commonly included in those spice packages) and/or wanting to control the type of salt used–then this recipe is for you!

INGREDIENTS:

• 8 cups water
• 1 cup real salt
• 2 tsp whole cloves
• 1 tsp whole black pepper corns
• 2 TBSP pickling spice (make your own, you safe, blend or use a store bought blend–but it should include whole mustard seeds if you can have those)
• OPTIONAL: some folks like to add sugar, brown sugar, maple syrup, or molasses. This is a matter of personal preference and you can do so or skip this step.
• OPTIONAL: shredded raw beets and/or the juice of 2 cans of beets, drained

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Begin by placing the desired spices, salt, and water into your pan. If you chose to use beets as the coloring, add them too. Beets are optional.
   
2. Bring to a boil.
   
3. Allow to boil for 10 minutes to ensure any bacteria, etc. is dealt with.
   
4. Cool to room temperature.
   
5. Add beet juice for coloring. NOTE: Professionally canned foods from the grocery store (and yours if you’ve followed the correct canning procedures) are already sanitary. If you add the beet juice PRIOR to sanitizing the fluids/spices in steps 1-3 above, then the color of the water will not be red. Since the point of adding the beet liquid is to stain the meat a bit red, like nitrates normally would do, without having to use nitrates, then you will need to trust the beet water from a can is sanitary to use it, or skip the step of adding it, and just accept nitrate-free corned beef is grey not red when it is sliced after cooking.
   
6. Into the above prepared brine, submerge uncooked brisket (beef), other cut of meat (raw beef), or tofu/meat substitute for vegan corned beef. NOTE: There are a number of recipes for this vegan option online. However once the vegan “meat” is made, it needs to be in the brine.
   
7. Cover tightly and place in the fridge for a week. To become “corned” this needs to marinade in the brine. After the brine has soaked into the beef, drain it (discard brine) and cook it as you would normally cook (options are: boiled dinner, baked in the oven, using a slow cooker, using a roaster, or pressure cooker) .

Barbecue Sauce (Nightshade Free)

I’ve seen a number of people talking about making this recipe and even including screen shots of having taken it off various websites, including facebook private groups and pinterest. So I’m not 100% certain where this recipe started out, or whose recipe it originally was; however, I’ve adapted for different allergens the basic recipe I found online to give this one a trial.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 cups rhubarb (chopped)
• 1.5 cups onion (chopped)
• 1/2 cup water
• 3 TBSP molasses
• 3 TBSP maple syrup
• 2 TBSP vinegar
• 1 TBSP garlic powder
• 1 tsp smoked salt
• 1/2 tsp ginger (ground)

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Add all of the above ingredients into a sauce pan which is placed over medium heat.
2. Bring to a boil.
3. Cook for about 30 minutes or until the volume of this mixture is reduced to about half the volume you started out with.
4. The rhubarb should be very soft. If not, cook it a bit longer until it is.
5. Blend with an immersion blender until smooth.
6. Use right away, or store in an air-tight container in the fridge for use as desired.
7. Enjoy!

NOTE: If you use pre-chopped, washed, and frozen rhubarb, it may take longer to get to the soft stage, or not, since its already been blanched before freezing. I didn’t bother to thaw my frozen rhubarb first. Just cooked it to the appropriate “softness” stage to blend into this sauce.

Yield: Approximately 2 cups

Result: This is worth the effort to tweak to your individual tastes.