vegan recipes that kick ass!

Hello all you Blue Pea readers! I'm peeping in from A Kate Day and I'm so excited that Gianna asked me to do a guest post. I know a lot of you probably follow Gianna's blog because of her crazy awesome sense of style. What a babe, right? I can't compete with that, so I'm going to give you a food post! 

Gianna mentioned that she just finished a raw food/juice cleanse. A while back Shane, my husband, and I gave the ol' raw foodist movement a try and we learned a lot. Although ultimately we found it too socially isolating (eating with people is our favorite social activity), we did adapt a lot of what we learned into our every day lives. We're vegans, for one. And we eat a lot more raw food, especially greens.

We recently had our friends McCall and Gawain over for dinner. McCall is an amazing cook, so I really wanted to make something beautiful and amazing.  And they are not vegan, but are adventurous eaters, so I felt like I could go out of the box a little. Here was our menu:

Wine: Pond Oreille Winery Vionger

Spicy Greens with Flowers and Blueberry Cherry Vinaigrette

 Coconut Red Lentil Soup with Lime Float

Garlic Naan Bread

Tri-Color Cherry Crisp with Coconut Ice Cream

caption: I tried to get more pictures, but we were laughing too hard.

Pouring the lime juice mixture on the soup

Fresh cherries rock my world

Here's the recipe for the salad:

Blueberry Cherry Vinaigrette:

½ cup blueberries

½ cup of sweet dark cherries, pitted

1-2 T maple syrup (I like mine tart, sugar will work just fine if you're not worried about raw)

2 T of red wine vinegar

4-5 dried figs, soaked in boiling water until softened-save water

4T olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Put blueberries, cherries and maple syrup/sugar in the blender and blend. Let sit for 5 minutes, allowing the sugar to dissolve.

Add vinegar, blend.

 Add figs and fig water. I also add flax seed and hemp seed for added nutrition, but those are totally optional. Blend like crazy until all the figs are incorperated.

Start blender and while it's going, take center off of lid and pour in olive oil. 

Season with Salt and Pepper, refrigerate at least an hour.

For the rest of the salad, I used some light and spicy lettuce they had at the South Perry Market, but you could use a mix of butter lettuce and arugula. That's what I'll try next time. And taste the flowers at the market—the vendors love to tell you about what they grow. Any of them will work! Add some fresh peas and blueberries and drizzle with dressing.

So go ahead and make it to impress dinner guest. Or to impress yourself because, like Loreal says, you're worth it. All kidding aside, it is a great salad. Pretty, layered and healthy. What more could a girl want? Thanks for reading and thanks Gianna for having me. It's been a pleasure:)