Beth’s Foolproof French Macaron Recipe

French macarons are meringue-based cookies made from eggs, sugar, and almond powder. They usually have flavored buttercream, jam or ganache in the middle. These macarons are beautiful and elegant desserts, and they can be made into different flavors and colors. However, French macarons are not that easy to make. This recipe gives you 6 foolproof tips that will give you flawless French macarons.

This recipe takes a total of 1 hour to prepare and cook. Serves 24 sandwiched cookies.

Ingredients:

Macarons:

• 3 egg whites
• 1/4 cup of white sugar
• 2 cups of confectioners sugar
• 1 cup of almond flour
• Salt
• 1/4 tsp of cream of tartar

Raspberry Butter Cream:

• 1/4 cup of salted butter
• 3/4 cup of powdered sugar
• 1 cup of fresh raspberries, drained and crushed through a sieve to extract juice

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 300F.
Use a mixer to beat egg whites until foamy. Add salt, cream of tartar, and sugar. Mix for 8 to 10 minutes.
Whip until soft peaks appear. Add food coloring.
Sift almond flour and powdered sugar. Fold the egg mixture. Do 65 to 70 turns with a spatula.
Transfer the mixture into a pastry bag.
Put parchment paper on baking trays. Pipe out 1-inch molds of the mixture.
Bake for 20 minutes.
In a mixer, add butter and whip until pale. Add sugar.
Strain raspberries using a sieve. Pour the juice into the butter mix.
Transfer buttercream into a piping bag.
Reverse cookie shells on their backs and pipe a small amount of buttercream. Top off with another cookie.

Ideas And Tips:

• Make sure eggs are at room temperature. If not, add the eggs in warm water for 5 minutes.

• Color fades as you bake, so make the color a shade darker than what you want.

• Sifting the almond flour and powdered sugar gives you finer texture so that your macarons don’t have bumps.

• Over mixing the flour with egg mixture can cause the macarons to be flat once baked. Under mixing them makes them flat.

• After you pipe the macaron mixture on the baking tray, tap them to remove air bubbles.
Last tip: Leave the piped macaron mixture on the tray for 20 to 30 minutes before putting them in the oven one tray at a time.

images – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xJ636Y8N6E8

How To Make Tofu Salad

Tofu is a popular ingredient in most Asian cuisine. Also known as bean curd, it is made by coagulating soy milk and then pressing it to get the curds. Tofu can be paired with anything, and this recipe adds a Japanese mix to serving tofu in a salad. Light and crunchy, this recipe is simple and delicious.

This recipe takes about 20 minutes to make. Serves 1.

Ingredients:

• 300 grams of tofu
• Spring onion leaves
• 2 red lettuce leaves
• 6 cherry tomatoes
• Half of a cucumber
• 40 grams of young onion
• 2 string bean pods
• 6 snap bean pods
• 6 broccoli pieces
• 1 tbsp of salt
• 500 ml of water

Dressing:

• 2 tbsp of olive oil
• 1 tbsp of chopped garlic
• 1 tbsp of chopped bacon
• 1 tbsp of soy sauce
• 1 tbsp of sugar
• 2 tbsp of grated young onion
• 1.5 tbsp of lemon juice

Instructions:

First, cover your tofu with paper towels and place it in the fridge.
Cut the string bean pods into three pieces.
Remove the strings from the snap bean pods.
Chop broccoli to bite-size pieces.
Boil water and sprinkle with salt.
Cook string beans for 2 minutes.
Add broccoli and snap bean pods and cook for another minute.
Remove from the water and drain. Set aside to cool.
Separate the lettuce leaves from the stalk, and place in a bowl.
Add broccoli, snap bean pods, string beans, cherry tomatoes cut in half, young onion, and cucumber on top of the lettuce.
Cover the salad bowl with plastic wrap and set in the fridge.
Scoop out tofu and put on top of the salad.
Garnish with spring onions.
In a pan over low heat, add oil and garlic.
Once garlic becomes fragrant, add the bacon and fry for a few minutes.
Pour the soy sauce and sprinkle the sugar.
Turn off the heat and add grated onion and lemon juice.
Mix well and pour the dressing over the tofu.

Ideas And Tips:

• You can use any type of vegetable you have on hand to make this salad. Experiment with bell peppers, zucchini, carrots, and beans.

• To make this an all vegan salad, leave out the bacon and just use any vegan meat you have.

images – https://youtu.be/jAre3FnAgNM

Raw Vegan Tacos Recipe

Vegan dishes do not need to be boring or tasteless. This vegan taco recipe is great for snack time. Perfect dish to serve your non-vegan friends to showcase that vegan diet is delicious and healthy.

Note – the original video for this recipe is no longer available so we chose another one that got great reviews!

You can easily make these tacos in advance, and pack it for lunch at the office or in school. You can modify the filling to whatever you have in the pantry, so go ahead and experiment!

Ingredients:

Taco Shells:

• Three-quarter cup of ground flax seed
• 2 Nutritional yeast
• 3 cups of fresh corn
• Half of an onion diced
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1 tbsp of cumin
• 1 tbsp of chili powder
• 1 cup of bell pepper
• Half a tsp of cayenne
• 1.5 tsp of salt

Taco Filling:

• 1 portabello mushroom
• 1 cup of sunflower seeds, soaked in water for 2 hours and then drained
• 1 cup of sun-dried tomatoes, soaked in water. Keep the water.
• 1 tbsp of apple cider vinegar
• 1 tbsp of agave nectar
• 1 jalapeno, chopped
• 2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
• Handful of cilantro, roughly chopped
• Salt
• Avocado slices
• Spinach
• Olive oil

Garnish:

• Sour cream

Instructions:

This recipe takes about to 1.5 to 2 hours to make. Serves 3 tacos.

Preheat the oven to 200F.
To make the taco shells, add the all ingredients in a blender or food processor except for the flax seed: corn, nutirional chili onion, lemon juice, cumin, chilli powder, cayenne, bell pepper, and salt.
Give it a rough whirl and then add the flax seed. Blend for a few seconds until smooth.
Place a parchment paper on a baking sheet.
Scoop out the taco mixture and flatten to make a disc.
Bake in the oven for 30 minutes.
Remove the tacos from the baking sheet and hang them in the oven grill so that they are shaped like tacos.
Bake for another 30 to 40 minutes.

To make the filling, add all the ingredients in a food processor: sunflower seeds, olive oil, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice, sun-dried tomatoes, water from sun-dried tomatoes, cumin, agave nectar, and salt.
Give it a rough blend.
Chop up avocados, cilantro, and japalenos. Add to the mixture and blend but keep the chunks in it.

Once the taco shells are firm, add the filling and garnish with sour cream, sliced avocados, and spinach drenched with olive oil.

Ideas And Tips:

• You can substitute agave nectar with honey or maple syrup.

• If you are not a fan of corn, chickpeas can be used instead. Another shortcut is to use hummus as a base for the filling and then add your spices and vegetables.

images – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6a819Vt_LOg