Winter Fruit Shake with Pomegranate and Pear (plant based)

Fruit shakes make the perfect plant based meal.  We all know what a great antioxidant food pomegranates are, but not everyone actually likes to eat them because of the seeds. However, in a fruit shake, you can pulverize them and never know they are there.

Ingredients: 1 seeded pomegranate, 1 peeled orange, 2 whole pears,   1 1/2 cups frozen berries

I have pushed the limit of what can be snuck into a fruit shake and still get my family to drink it (kale, spinach, chia...).   This is not that kind of fruit shake.  I just wanted a simple, seasonal, all-fruit, fruit shake that would taste really good (and use up the pomegranates from my tree). 

You may not have the will to de-seed a pomegranate even if you have discovered the 30 second de-seeding technique .   For you, there are lots of frozen berry options that incorporate pomegranates these days.  The real star of this fruit shake is the pear.   I find I don't need any sweetener or even a banana to make this fruit shake smooth and sweet.  You won't even need to add liquid to this if your fruits are juicy and in season.  This makes about 7 cups, or enough for 3 or 4 servings.

Why am I almost 40 and just now discovering how to do this!
Words don't do this de-seeding technique justice.  See link.   But you get the idea, score and pull the fruit in half and whack the back of it with a wooden spoon until all the seeds fall into the palm of your hand and the bowl below.  No need to discard all the white stuff since you will be grinning it up anyways.

Use the whole fruit if you have a high powered blender (remove the stem)

Grind the pomegranate seeds, whole pear,  and pealed orange until smooth.  Add a few tablespoons of water if necessary.  

Then add frozen berries and blend until all the lumps are gone (add some water if you need to)

Cream of Thanksgiving soup with a cranberry Tofurky sandwich (vegan)

How this meal came to be:

This will be the first plant based Thanksgiving since my husband and nearly his whole family converted to a plant based diet a few months ago.  While experimenting with how we were going to modify our upcoming Thanksgiving meal, a holistic chef friend of ours suggested a simple green bean, mushroom, and coconut milk version of the green bean casserole.   She made if for us one evening and it was wonderful.  Then, I had an epiphany; coconut milk is not just for Thai cooking! If you used to make something with butter, cream, or cream of mushroom soup, chances are you can make it with coconut milk! Then it dawned on me: I can deconstruct the entire Thanksgiving meal into a soup and a sandwich and eat it every day from now until December.

soup ingredients (serves 4)
2-3 med potatoes (skin on)
1 med yam (skin on)
10-15 mushrooms
1 white onion
4 cloves garlic (pealed)
1 stalk celery
1 carrot (skin on)
1/2 tsp rosemarry
1/2 tsp thyme
2-3 bay leaves
 a few handfuls of chopped fresh green beans
1 can coconut milk
salt to taste

Chop onion and potato into equal size pieces (about 1"), put in pot, cover with water and begin to simmer.  Clean mushrooms with damp paper towel, clean carrot and yam with vegetable brush.  Slice thinly.

going plant based takes more time; more time shopping, more time chopping……so a few investments are quite necessary to make up for this time investment and a food processor is my number one recommendation and after that a high powered blender.   caption

Chop green beans into 1" pieces
Once potato and onion are soft, and you can easily stab the potato with a fork,  add the skinned garlic and coconut milk and puree with a soup wand ( or transfer to blender and puree).  In pot, add all remaining ingredients along with puree.

 Simmer covered until green beans are tender (about 15 min)

Now for the sandwich

sandwich ingredients
bread of your choice
Tofurky slices
butter lettuce
tomato
red onion
cranberry sauce
veganaise (optional)

If you pass on the cranberry sauce at Thanksgiving (I know I do), don't discount it in a sandwich.  Its better than you think.   I'm also going to confess that I garnished my soup with fried onion pieces from TJ's (Trader Joes).  But that was just naughty of me.