Cranberry Dressing-is it for salad or dessert? and an HGK Soup in the News

Wow, I am totally blown away by your response to my last post. Your appreciation for my work here on HGK and your thoughtful suggestions for newcomers are deeply meaningful to me. Thank you for taking the time to leave comments, I know how busy we all are in this day and age and I want you to know how grateful I am to all of you.

Today I just wanted to share with you something that I have really been enjoying lately. It's a fresh cranberry based no-oil vinaigrette and salad that I made after being inspired by this recipe from the blog Choosing Raw. Since I have quite a few fresh cranberries sitting around in my fridge since Thanksgiving, it looked like a recipe I needed to do an HGK riff on.
What's in this baby? Green leaf lettuce, roasted beets, red cabbage,garbanzo beans, dried cranberries, chopped walnuts and this fabulous, sweet cranberry vinaigrette. When I am craving something sweet, I totally dig this salad!

Fresh Cranberry Vinaigrette
makes approximately 2 1/2 cups

Printable Recipe

1 1/4 cups fresh cranberries
1 Tbsp orange juice concentrate
½ cup water
¼ cup raw cashews
1 whole orange with peel removed but seeds intact
¼ cup vinegar (I used Orange Muscat Champagne Vinegar)
4 pitted dates
dash of salt, or not

Blend all ingredients on high speed till smooth.
Feel free to adjust the ingredients to your taste: more cranberries for tartness, orange juice concentrate or dates for sweetness.

A big shout out and thank you goes to Your Teen Magazine for being the first magazine ever to publish an HGK recipe! They chose a Leban-easy Lemony Lentils recipe by none other than HGK contributor Chris-Anna.

Chris-Anna's Soup-er Lebon-easy Lemony Lentils

serves 8

Printable Recipe

1 cup rinsed lentils with any debris removed

8 cups low sodium vegetable broth or water

4 cups white potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/5" cubes

3/4 cup fresh lemon juice (about 2 lemons)

8 garlic cloves

4 cups Swiss chard, chopped, including stems

1 cup tomatoes, diced

1 cup curly parsley, chopped

pepper to taste

Bring water or stock to a boil in a large pot. Add lentils.

While lentils are cooking, peel and dice potatoes. Add potatoes and lemon juice and turn heat to medium low.

Peel garlic cloves and crush garlic into pot with a garlic press. Add diced tomatoes and chopped Swiss chard and stir.

Turn heat to high. When soup is almost boiling, turn heat down to a low simmer. Cover and cook for 25 minutes or until lentils are soft.

Add parsley, stir and simmer for 5 additional minutes.

Taste. Add more lemon juice if necessary and pepper.