and obesity. It also reduces our carbon footprint and saves precious resources like fresh water and fossil fuel. Learn- ing to cook helps you create signature meatless dishes, whether they’re twists on old standbys or tasty recipes that start out meat-free.



If the good food movement is to suc- ceed, it will be through our children; invite them to participate in cooking. Kids love to “play” in the kitchen, and there are dozens of ways they can be involved—from reading a recipe and washing produce to mixing nature’s ingredients and decorating healthful homemade cookies. Take kids shopping at farmers’ markets, so they can see the source of their recipe ingredients. Even better, take them to a farm, where they can follow the food trail from the beginning. They will learn by example and in a generation, healthy, sustain- able home cooking will once again be the norm and not the exception.



Involve friends in a sustainable dinner party, a perfect opportunity to build community and spread the word about sustainable local food. Download a Sustainable Dinner Party Kit at Sustain- ableTable.org/spread/kits. Sharing a meal together and engaging in face-to- face conversation with family or friends reinforces a precious bond.



Learning to cook sustainably is an op- portunity to vote with your soup pot, while you lobby with your fork; make it your own special way of furthering values you believe in—stewardship, responsibility, independence and loving care—by taking control of what goes onto your plate and taking away some of the power of industrialized agribusiness.

Rich Sanders, a lifelong foodie, is the director of Sustainable Table, at Sustain- ableTable.org. His corporate career has consistently married technology and the arts, in television, multimedia and software and Internet business development. Connect at Rich@SustainableTable.org.

organicrecipewatch

Beet Carpaccio Salad

A House Specialty at the Lotus Café and Juice Bar

Recipe compliments of Head Chef Carlos Vazquez.

“By far, the most important ingredient in cooking and serving is Love. Visualizing radiant well-being, health and happiness for all those for whom you are preparing food. Allowing your cooking to become a form of active prayer and blessing, infused with the Light of your unique essence and perme- ated with Gratitude for the bounty that we receive in the form of sustenance and Grace on all levels.” ~ Johanna Wright, co-owner,

Lotus Café and Juice Bar



Serves 4



6 cups organic baby leaf lettuce, spring mix 1 pint of ripe organic strawberries 1 small jicama (4 oz. by weight) 4 large beets 1 medium carrot 1 cup caramelized cayenne walnuts (recipe follows)

Blueberry basil vinaigrette (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 250º F. Wash beets well, remove tops and root ends, and lay on shallow baking pan. Roast beets  be pierced easily with a fork.

 confetti. Wash the carrot, remove carrot  into confetti.

Wash strawberries and pat dry. Leaving the top of each strawberry uncut, slice through the body of each strawberry in  out each strawberry.

Remove beets from oven and allow to cool. Once cooled, peel the outer skin away and slice each beet carpaccio- style (very thin slices), into approxi- mately 11 slices per beet. Reserve 9 slices of sliced beet for each plate (36 slices); cut the remaining 8 slices into confetti and reserve with carrot and jicama for salad topping.



1 cup organic walnut halves  

Add cayenne pepper to honey and mix well. Toss walnuts in honey-cayenne blend until coated evenly. Spread thinly on a non-stick baking pan or cookie sheet and roast in oven at 350º F for approximately 45 minutes or until fragrant.



 (2 oz. by weight) 1 bunch fresh basil leaves (1 oz. by weight)

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil 2 teaspoons sugar-in-the-raw

Rinse blueberries, removing any stems. Rinse basil, pluck the fragrant leaves from the stems, and spin dry in a salad spinner or blot dry.

Measure olive oil and sugar-in-the-raw - ries, then add fresh basil leaves into 

Line the perimeter of each plate with 9 slices of beet carpaccio, with love. Place baby leaf lettuce spring mix into a bowl and toss with blueberry basil vinaigrette. Divide onto the 4 plates. Top each salad plate  beet confetti. Top with sliced whole strawberries, fanned out, on top and on 4 sides of plate. Add caramelized cayenne walnuts. Serve immediately.

Carl and Johanna Wright own the Lotus Café and Juice Bar (in the Lumberyard), located at 765 South Coast Highway 101, Suite H-101, in Encinitas, 92024. Call 760-479-1977 or visit LotusCafeAn- dJuiceBar.com for an online menu.

natural awakenings natural awakenings February 2

April 2010

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