Authors: Rip Esselstyn
Lightly Gingered Fruit, Fruit, Fruit Salad
Apple-Cardamom Flapjack Crumble
Banana-Oatmeal Peanut Butter Cookies
Bittersweet Chocolate Truffles
By Jane Esselstyn
Yippee-ki-yay! Whip these up and hit the trail, y’all. If you have an aerated pan, it saves one cycle of baking: Both sides of the treat will be done in just fifteen minutes. Ye haw!
Prep time: 5 minutes • Cooling time: 10 minutes • Cook time: 55 minutes
Makes 16 to 20 biscotti
cup raw cashews or walnuts
2 tablespoons water
½ cup pure maple syrup
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1½ cups white whole wheat flour
¼ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
½ teaspoon baking soda
cup of mix-ins: any combination of raisins and pecans, dried cranberries and pistachios, or almonds and non-dairy chocolate chips—or any mix you dream up!
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a food processor, blend the cashews and water until the mixture is lumpy. Add the maple syrup and vanilla and blend until uniformly mixed. Pulse in the flour, oats, and baking soda with as few rotations of the blade as possible; this keeps the flour from toughening up. Add your choice of mix-ins and blend once or twice more.
Remove the biscotti dough from the processor and form it into a log, on the parchment-lined pan. Place the log in the oven and bake for 25 minutes.
Remove the log from the oven and set aside to cool. Decrease the oven temperature to 300°F.
When the biscotti log is cool enough to handle, slice with a serrated knife into ¼- to ½-inch slices. Place the slices flat on the same baking pan. Bake for 10 minutes, flip, and bake again for 10 more minutes until both sides are slightly browned.
Cool and serve when phenomenally crisp!
By Yonanas
Jane told me about this machine, an ice cream maker, and it has changed the way Kole, Sophie, Jill, and I make our E2 “ice
cream.” It makes crazy smooth soft serve! The foundation is typically frozen bananas, and then you add whatever you want to flavor it—frozen peaches, cherries, blueberries, or even dark chocolate! You can buy a Yonanas machine at
Amazon.com
for about $49.
Prep time: 2 minutes • Serves 1 to 2
2 frozen bananas
Any other frozen fruit you desire (see list above)
Place the ingredients into your Yonanas machine and run according to the manufacturer’s directions.
Get your spoon ready!
By Char Nolan
Engine 2 nabbed this recipe from Philly’s plant-strong Char Nolan. Char attended one of the Engine 2 Immersion programs and commented that she wanted people to see her not as a “fat older female” but rather as a “silver-haired maiden.” Three years later, she radiates a beauty and integrity that qualifies her not only as a silver-haired maiden but as a goddess!
Prep time: 3 minutes • Makes 4 cups sorbetto
2 cups seedless green grapes
2 cups fresh spinach leaves
¼ lime, with rind on
1 teaspoon pure maple syrup
2 cups ice
Place the ingredients in a food processor or high-speed blender in the order listed. The grapes need to be processed first so that they are near the blade since they will become your liquid.
Turn the blender on high. You may need to use a rubber spatula occasionally to scrape any ingredients stuck to the sides. Continue blending the remaining ingredients. You will end up with a solid mass of Sorbetto Verde.
Serve immediately or freeze until ready to serve.
By Natala Constantine
Natala Constantine is one of my all-time favorite people in the world. She’s got more passion, guts, and charisma than almost anyone I know, and she is constantly reinventing herself. I met Natala more than four years ago and have watched her health skyrocket and her weight plummet. Natala used to be a type 2 diabetic who took fourteen medications daily and weighed more than 420 pounds. Today, she is on zero medications, has completely reversed her diabetes, and has lost more than 200 pounds. She is part of the Engine 2 team and runs our social media campaign. Her wonderful recipe below combines frozen fruit and non-dairy milk into a treat that looks remarkably like ice cream!
Prep time: 5 minutes • Serves 3 to 4
1 cup unsweetened almond, oat, or soy milk
2 pitted dates
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
15 frozen mango chunks (1½ to 2 cups)
20 frozen dark sweet cherries
Combine the non-dairy milk, vanilla, and pitted dates in a food processor and blend. Add the mango chunks and blend again. Add the cherries and blend once more until creamy. Serve immediately.
By Ben Baker
A fresh spin on the fruit salad in
The Engine 2 Diet
, this dessert has freshly grated ginger on top. Get yourself a Microplane grater and have fun!
Prep time: 20 minutes • Makes 6 cups salad
1 cup cubed cantaloupe
1 cup cubed pineapple
1 cup sliced strawberries
3 kiwis, peeled and sliced
1 cup seedless grapes
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries
1 cup fresh orange juice
1 piece peeled fresh ginger
In a large bowl, combine all of the fruit. Pour the orange juice over the fruit and toss gently to combine. Using a Microplane or other fine grater, grate the fresh ginger over the fruit and toss again.
Serve immediately, or refrigerate until it is time to hit the potluck!
Variation:
If you are not a fan of ginger, try adding a chiffonade (ribbons) of fresh mint leaf. If you like it, why not both?
By the Sexy Caribbean Cooking Student
Jane was teaching a cooking class when a beautiful woman with a Caribbean accent told her, “We need more Caribbean foods in this way of eating.” Jane replied, “Absolutely! But there is not a Caribbean bone in my body, so you will have to help me.” Well, right after the class the woman picked up a mango from the demo table and started squeezing and squeezing it, gently massaging and mashing it with her thumbs. Jane asked, “What is this Caribbean trick?” The woman smiled and said, “Now you make a hole with your teeth, and suck out all the juice and pulp—so sexy!” (Jane is sensitive to mango skin, so she used a straw. Not so sexy!)
Prep time: 5 minutes • Serves 1
1 ripe, soft mango
Gently press the mango skin, without puncturing it, until it feels juicy from top to bottom and side to side all around the pit. Tear a little hole with your teeth, or insert a straw, and suck out all the goodness.
By Torrie McMillian
Torrie McMillian runs the Center for Sustainability at Hathaway Brown School near Cleveland and shares an office with my sister Jane. She has a garden nearly as big as her home and holds potlucks that overflow with wholesome bounty. This apple crumble will make you crumble with delight. The cardamom pods add flavor, yet they are not intended to be eaten.
Whoever gets a cardamom pod is a lucky duck and gets to make a wish as he or she places it back on the plate. Serve this with a dollop of Sweet Zu-creamy Cashew Sauce (
here
).
Prep time: 10 minutes • Cook time: 40 minutes • Makes one 9-inch pie
4 apples of different types such as Macintosh, Granny Smith, Braeburn, Delicious, Honey Crisp, etc., peeled and diced
6 to 8 cardamom pods
¼ tablespoon coriander seeds
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons pure maple syrup
Juice of 1 lime
cup nuts, your choice
2 tablespoons water
¼ cup pure maple syrup
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1
cups old-fashioned rolled oats
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
To make the filling: Place the apples in a bowl. Add the cardamom pods, coriander seeds, cinnamon, maple syrup, and lime juice. Mix until the apples are uniformly coated. Pour the apple mixture into a pie plate or baking dish and cover with a lid or a piece of aluminum foil. Bake for 35 minutes, or until the apples are soft but not mushy.
While the apples are baking, make the crumble: Place the nuts and water in a blender or food processor and blend until the mixture forms a lump. Add the syrup, cinnamon, and vanilla and blend until uniformly mixed. Add the oats and gently pulse 3 or 4 times, or just hand mix.
Remove the crumble from the blender or processor and spread it all over the lined sheet pan, like spilled granola. Bake for about 15 minutes, or until browned and fragrant. Set aside.
Remove the apple-cardamom filling from the oven. Top the filling with the crumble mixture.
Serve warm with a dollop of Sweet Zu-creamy Cashew Sauce (recipe follows).
By Rachel Laing, inspired by Ashley
One of our Engine 2 friends, Rachel, discovered this recipe after attending a raw-food class at a friend’s house. Ashley, a raw-food chef from San Francisco, was using peeled zucchini in her hummus recipes to increase the creaminess without adding fat or oil. Rachel now chucks peeled zucchini (or unpeeled, for a beautiful green color) into salad dressings and other recipes to invite a creamy-smooth texture. What a great trick!
Prep time: 5 minutes (plus 1 hour to soak cashews) • Makes about 1½ cups sauce
¾ cup raw cashews, soaked for at least 1 hour in water
1 medium zucchini, well peeled with no green showing, sliced into chunks
2 to 3 tablespoons pure maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ to 1 cup unsweetened almond milk
Rinse and drain the cashews. Place the cashews in a food processor or high-speed blender with the remaining ingredients, adding the almond milk, as needed, for the desired consistency, depending on how thick you want the sauce.
A thick sauce is great for layering in a parfait glass with fruit, and a thinner sauce is perfect poured over fruit salad or cake.
Tip:
For a lemony-tasting sauce, add a bit of lemon zest and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Or add less almond milk for frosting!