It’s really interesting to me how some things stick with you for years. And years and years. The dish that I decided to make today was based on something I read in a book when I was 13. The book was called Taking Sides by Norma Klein, and it’s about a girl whose parents divorce and she goes to live with her father. One night, Nell and her father are up talking and he makes her an orange in the shape of a flower with honey in the middle. The image of that late-night snack has stayed with me for more than 30 years.
So now it’s day 3 of Vegan MOFO and today’s task is “quick, easy and delicious”. So many things fall into that category, how do you choose? Well, you make something that you’ve thought about for 3 decades :).
Since the honey doesn’t appear in my vegan diet, I decided to make a sweet and spicy maple ginger cream to go with my fresh orange today. And I think that Nell’s father’s orange was opened out into a flower blossom (attached at the bottom), rather than individual sections, but this still works.
The other reason I wanted to make this is that when I want a snack, I don’t often think “I’ll go eat an orange”, but then when someone ELSE has one, it looks and smells like the best thing in the world. So with this task today, I wanted to create an orange recipe that I would want to return to again and again… and it worked!
The cream is a simple cashew cream, blended with fresh ginger and maple syrup. Blend together:
- 1/2 cup raw cashews
- 1 nub of fresh ginger
- about 1 teaspoon maple syrup
- 1/2+ cups water or almond milk (use enough to get a thick, creamy consistency)
This is my orange “flower” with maple-ginger cream, with a few added chocolate chips and hemp seeds. Quick, easy and delicious!
Kelli's Vegan Kitchen 