Falling for Sweet Potato Hummus

Even in the thick of Los Angeles, I can feel the weather changing.
This autumn has been strange for me. I am not walking through the fire-coloured forests of Ontario, or biking in spitting rain under steel-gray skies in Denmark. Nope. I am in sunny southern California, where up until this week I could have sworn summer would last forever. But the changes have come here too, just slower I suppose, and are hidden in the cooler nights and shorter days.

It would be a gross understatement to say that I am little excited for the arrival of this season because it would be a gross understatement to say that I am obsessed with fall’s produce. Squashes, melons, pumpkins, Brussels sprouts, beets…sweet potato! Oh lord, sweet potato, you are my long lost autumnal lover, my everything that somehow manages to find your way into everything I cook this time of year. You are sweet and soothing, a nutritional superstar, the most versatile of vegetables! I bow to your ridiculous deliciousness.

Healthy Digestion with the Sweetest of Potatoes
Many people think that sweet potatoes are just regular potatoes that are orange, but they are in fact a completely different vegetable.
Compared to regular potatoes, sweet potatoes have oodles more vitamin A (in the form of beta-carotene), vitamin C and even more fiber. This means that sweet potatoes are excellent for your digestion. Sweet potatoes are composed mainly of starch, which is very easy to break down and is soothing for the stomach and intestines too. This makes them an ideal healing choice for those suffering from the pain and inflammation associated with stomach ulcers and irritable bowel syndrome. The roughage of sweet potatoes even prevents constipation. What a root!


I came up with this recipe for sweet potato hummus last fall at one of the restaurants where I work, as I had baked a few too many sweet potatoes for another dish and needed to use them up. I was about to make a large portion of hummus for the day, I thought I would just throw them in the food processor with everything else and see how it would turn out. Genius. How could two of my favorite edibles not make the most perfect match when combined anyway? This dip consequently, became the new favorite thing on the menu, and often the staff would scoop it into their Tupperwares to take home before it even made it out of the kitchen!
This is one super simple, flavourful, nutritional drop kick of a dip. Serve it and smile. That’s all you gotta do.
And regular hummus? So last year!

Sweet Potato Hummus
Ingredients:
2 cups chickpeas
zest of 1 organic lemon, juice of ½ lemon
3 small sweet potatoes
1 tsp. ground cumin
pinch of cayenne pepper (optional)
2-3 pinches sea salt
3 Tbsp. olive oil
2 cloves garlic

Note: Don't get too hung up on the quantities of ingredients with this recipe - it's hard to make a mistake! Use more or less sweet potato than called for, more or less chickpeas if that suits you (or even leave them out!), omit the cayenne or throw in more if you like it spicy. Just work with what you have and what tastes good to you.

Directions:
1. Place sweet potatoes (with the skin on) in a baking dish in a 400 F oven and bake until very soft, about 45 minutes to 1 hour, depending on their size. (You can also steam the sweet potatoes, but I find baking them is more flavourful.)
2. Let the sweet potatoes cool down so that you can easily remove their skins - they should just peel off. Place them in a food processor with the remaining ingredients and blend on high to mix.
3. Serve with a drizzle of olive oil, sprinkle of cracked black pepper, and whatever herb you have on hand. This is wonderful with raw veggies, healthy crackers, or pita bread.

This dip doubles as an amazing sandwich spread, particularly on crusty sourdough with avocado, sprouts, and fresh herbs. I even eat this on the side of a rice bowl, or use it as a thickener for soups and stews, especially when I am cooking with lentils because they are a brilliant combo. Such an easy and yummy addition to just about anything! It will keep in the fridge for a week, but I highly doubt it will be around that long. Happy hummus-ing.

***Oh hey! I just entered a Sweet Potato recipe contest over at a great new blog called Affairs of Living. Check out all the other amazing recipes!***

Making Yogurt, all by Yourself

To Do List:
#1 – Get a goat.

Seriously. Those four-legged, milk-giving wonders sure have worked their way into my heart. After spending morning after delightful morning feeding, grooming, and of course milking them, I have fallen into a total goat bliss-out. All I want for Christmas is a dairy goat to call my own. Now if only I had a backyard…

I think the most rewarding part about being around these animals is the reciprocal nature of your relationship - you feed them and they feed you. It’s incredible! Again, getting back to the source of where food comes from is such a pleasure for me, and being able to look the creature in the eye who is literally going to give me breakfast, feels like divine gift.

I hadn’t eaten dairy products, save for butter and ghee, in quite some time, and I had never tried raw dairy before. Happily, I found it really worked for my body. I eased my way in slowly and found that my homemade goat yogurt was the easiest to digest, I suppose because it was full of enzymes and friendly bacteria. This discovery was so moving that I had to share.

Yes, you can do this!
Surprise! Yogurt is extremely easy to make. You may have been convinced otherwise by commercial yogurt makers at the health food store, which give you the impression that special equipment is required, or you may think that you need to obtain some kind of special culture to inoculate your milk with, but happily, neither is the case! You hold the power and the ability to make this healthful food right at home with things you probably have on hand. You’re pretty pumped, eh? Thought so.



You will need:
A large pot to heat the milk in
A candy thermometer
½ cup good quality, organic plain yogurt with live active cultures (or ½ cup yogurt from a previous batch of homemade)
1 liter organic, whole milk, non-homogenized

Directions:
1. Gently heat the milk to 180 F (82 C), then allow it to cool to 110 F (43 C).
2. Stir in yogurt and pour mixture into a shallow glass, enamel, or stainless steel container.
3. Cover the container and let sit in a warm place (about 150 F / 65 C), such as a gas oven with the pilot light on, overnight.
4. In the morning, transfer to a glass jar and refrigerate.

Variation: Raw Milk Yogurt
I know that there is a lot of controversy surrounding raw milk, but my personal opinion is that if you are going to consume dairy, it’s the most holistic way to go. Raw milk has not been pasteurized, so it retains all of its enzymes and essential vitamins that are destroyed through heating. It may be difficult to find as it is not legal for retail sale in many states, and in Canada you would have to know a farmer to get yours direct. Not an easy task, but well worth the effort I believe.

You will need:
A large pot to heat the milk in
A candy thermometer
½ cup good quality, organic plain yogurt (or ½ cup yogurt from a previous batch of homemade)
1 liter organic, raw whole milk, non-homogenized

Directions:
1. Place 1 liter raw milk in a double boiler and heat to 110 F (43 C).
2. Remove 2 tablespoons milk and add 1 tablespoon yogurt.
3. Stir well and pour contents into a one-liter glass jar. Add another 2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons of yogurt to the jar, stir well and cover tightly.
4. Place jar in a warm spot (95 F/ 35 C), like a dehydrator, overnight.
5. Transfer to the refrigerator.

Make it a routine:
Every time you make your own yogurt, remember to save a little bit of for your next batch.
Your homemade yogurt is not going to be as thick as regular store-bought yogurt, but I like the smooth creaminess of it. It is wonderful as a base for smoothies, as a topping for pancakes, you can blend it with some fresh herbs for a dressing (mint is delicious!) or even use it instead of whipped cream for dessert. If you want to flavour your yogurt, you can add crushed fresh fruit, jam (the fig one is ridiculous!), maple syrup, or raw honey.

You can make yogurt with any type of whole milk, but I would insist on buying organic and choosing goat over cow. Yes, you heard me correctly. Remember this awesome post: Goat is the New Cow? Yuh-huh.
And just for the record, a good-quality goat milk should not taste “goaty” – it should taste almost like cow’s milk, but a little sweeter, in my opinion. I do know that if a male goat (buck) is around the does, especially during milking time, their odor can be absorbed by the milk, as it is rather penetrating. But I spent the last month in close connection to just the females and they do not smell at all, nor does their milk give off that familiar goaty-ness we don’t really dig in our morning coffee, right?

Go forth and conquer! Making yogurt yourself is a totally satisfying culinary activity, and will surely make you feel like a super hero in the kitchen. So give yourself all the credit your deserve, and a really delicious breakfast to boot.

Three Years and Growing

In all the busy-ness that is this life, I almost forgot to acknowledge the third year anniversary of My New Roots.

When I first started this blog, I thought it would just be a little hobby on the side of my nutrition practice, something fun to keep me in the loop, but over the years it has become so much more - my creative outlet, a place to reveal my latest culinary experiments and experiences, a place to make mistakes (oh, those buns…), a place to celebrate health and healing, to cleanse, to explore, and to grow. I can only hope that you are learning as much as I am.

I thank you for inviting my recipes and my ideas into your life. It makes me smile knowing that somewhere, on any given day, someone is getting their hands dirty in a raw pie crust, kneading their first loaf of bread, julienning sweet potatoes, or tasting ”yucky” vegetable again for the first time.

I thank you for encouraging me with your incredible comments and challenging me with your questions. You really, really have no idea how much they mean to me - I am feeling the love!

I thank you for continuing to share this site with the important people in your life – we are up to 9,000 visitors a month! Wow.

I thank you for taking this journey with me. Let’s keep going.

In love, gratitude, and health,
Sarah B

Autumn in a Jar: Fig Jam with Lavender, Thyme, and Walnuts

Autumn is my clandestine lover.
It’s true that summer is the reliable, constant, and deeply warming season that I look forward to most in the darkness of winter. But fall is full of secrets, it is mysterious and unpredictable, making those last dreamy-hot days with the long amber light so achingly beautiful and met with the utmost gratitude.
And then there’s the harvest. I find autumn food the most appealing and most healing, as the fruits and vegetables that have been growing for so long have built up an incredible amount of life force having spent months and months connected to the earth, the source of their nutrition and energy. There is a great power in these foods and when prepared in ways that compliment their own life processes (re: sloooooooowwwww), and I find that echoing this slowness enhances their flavour and digestibility.

This brilliant recipe comes from the book The Savory Way by Deborah Madison who opened the vegetarian restaurant Greens in San Francisco. Her recipes are innovative and sophisticated, yet still accessible. I was totally enamored with the unique combinations of familiar ingredients and flavours, and it seems like she has a real knack for reinventing vegetarian classics.

This fig jam for example, imparted with rich, autumnal aromas is a study in seduction. The lusciousness of sun-ripened figs, cooked down slowly with honey, woody thyme, and fragrant lavender is enough to entrance me, but throw in those freshly cracked walnuts and I am on my knees. The deep aromatic flavours of each individual ingredient somehow manage to compliment one another in a divine, perfume love potion that is so much more than the sum of its parts.

Whew. Is it getting hot in here?



Not Just a Pretty Face
In my opinion, figs are some of the most sensual fruits on the planet, and anything that sexy must be good for you.
As it turns out, they are a good source of potassium among other things.
Potassium is especially important in regulating the activity of muscles and nerves. According to World’s Healthiest Foods, "the frequency and degree to which our muscles contract, and the degree to which our nerves become excitable, both depend heavily on the presence of potassium in the right amount." Interesting.

So far this spread has been making a regular appearance on some very lucky toast with goat cheese and a slight drizzle of good balsamic vinegar. I can imagine however, that served warm over roasted root vegetables, squash, or on the side of a Brussels sprouts dish would be heaven. And ice cream drenched in the stuff is an obvious choice for those that subscribe to total indulgence.

I highly recommend you make this. It’s self-love.

Autumn Fig Jam with Lavender, Thyme, and Walnuts
Ingredients:
2 pounds figs (about 3 baskets)
4 thyme branches
1 tsp. dried lavender, plucked from stem
pinch of sea salt
½ cup honey
¼ cup shelled walnuts, chopped

Directions:
1. Remove hard stems from figs, rinse off dust, and then chop them into small pieces, leaving the skins on.
2. Place figs in a heavy non-corroding saucepan with the thyme, lavender blossoms, sea salt, and honey. Gradually heat; then simmer until the jam is thickened, well flavoured, and the pieces are broken down (cook time will depend greatly on the water content of your figs).
3. Stir in walnuts and cook another 5 minutes.
4. Pour jam into sterilized jar and keep refrigerated for up to 2 weeks, or process according to whatever canning method you’re using.