Run Plant Based

Formerly The Raw Project - Running on a Healthy Vegan Diet

Earth Day Fest & Parsley Dressing

by

Whew and it’s only Wednesday! That’s cool, hoping the weekend will get here soon because Miko is ready for more couch cuddle time.

Last weekend was gorgeous, plenty of sun, blooming flowers, and warm weather. Perfect for an outdoor Earth Day festival. The ECOS Sacramento Earth Day festival is such a unique experience, a beautiful public park packed with booths of vegan food and important causes. I love going just for the people watching alone.

First order of business was lunch and Yolanda’s Tamales has been at many Sacramento vegan events in the past, but I’ve never braved the long line. I did this time for two veggie tamales which were steaming hot and great.

Gosh, I can’t remember the last time I had tamales, but these were delicious with just the right amount of heat.

Then I explored the festival taking in all the booths and electric cars on display, isn’t the Tesla Model 3 hot?

One day maybe, but for now I’ll be happy with a reasonably priced EV with a 200+ mile range which I plan to buy when my current EV lease is up. I’m amazed at how the public charging network has grown massively in this area since I got my first EV over 5 years ago and it keeps getting better.

This festival is great because of the range of booths taking on various causes, some of them pretty far out there. I may not embrace them all, but I love that they can be peacefully expressed and displayed.

This week I decided to get more serious about healthier eating, trading off move vegan snack and processed foods for fresh fruits and veggies. Focusing more on oil-free recipes and whole ingredients. Summer is coming along with triple digit heat and it’s a great opportunity to focus on healthier and more hydrating foods and shedding winter, uh, insulation. This simple recipe celebrates fresh parsley because I’ve been getting a lot of it in farm boxes lately. I have an interesting relationship with parsley viewing it more as a green garnish because of it’s mild flavor. But I found lots of it work great bringing flavor to blended sauces and dressings and it’s hard to use too much of it. This simple dressing/sauce pairs it with fresh garlic, tahini, and miso paste for a fun and bright summery flavor.

Tahini Parsley Dressing

  • ¼ cup tahini
  • 1 cup chopped parsley (or more!)
  • 3 cloves of garlic
  • 3 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
  • 1 tbsp. miso paste
  • pepper to taste
  • 2 tbsp. nutritional yeast
  • ½ cup water, as needed

Place all ingredients into a high speed blender and blend to a smooth and creamy texture. Serve and enjoy! Makes 4 servings.

I decided to coat chopped purple potatoes and cauliflower in this sauce for roasting and turns out it works great for that too.

This also makes a great summer dip, spread, or salad dressing so embrace more parsley in your life with this simple recipe!

Comments

  1. Mmmmm…. that dressing is calling me! I love parsley, and it’s really healthy. It’s full of vitamin K and C, as well as so many other vitamins and nutrients.

    It’s so beautiful in California right now.

  2. Yum, another great blend! I actually have a ton of cilantro in the fridge right now, so I might use this as a template and substitute it for the parsley.