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Grain-free Dark Chocolate Olive Oil Tart {Paleo, Gluten-free + Vegan} + Video
As if I could find a better pairing, two of my favorite foods come together in the perfect marriage, for this rich, silky, decadent treat that’s low carb, low in sugar, grain-free and vegan. The smooth fruity taste of Terra Delyssa’s organic extra virgin olive oil is the perfect compliment to super dark chocolate and in all it’s impressiveness this dessert comes together in no time.
Truth be told, I am not much of a baker. Mostly it comes from a lack of caring about most baked goods and sweets. I know you’ve heard this story before, in the nearly 8 years of Tasty Yummies. What I do love, admittedly daily, is a couple of squares of high quality super duper dark chocolate. It’s really just about all I need.
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Is Your Olive Oil the Real Thing? Terra Delyssa Is.
Is your olive oil the real thing? Can you trust that what you are cooking with is safe? I know you are all concerned about fake, substandard olive oils. We’ve all seen the news reports and media coverage of the market being flooded with olive oils making big health claims, yet many being found to be mislabeled and adulterated with other substandard oils like soybean or canola – it’s SO important to find an olive oil you can trust. There are so many reasons I choose to cook with Terra Delyssa Olive Oil and why I personally stand behind and recommend it, to my nutrition clients and to you, my readers, as well as my very own family.
Terra Delyssa does not hide it’s origin. Their olive oils are one of very few that are actually offered to consumers directly by the farmers / producers. Obtained from the first cold press of freshly hand picked olives grown on farms that have been passed on and run for many generations, cultivating and producing Olive Oil, the traditional way, known to the region of Sfax in Tunisia, situated on the Mediterranean coastline.
Terra Delyssa fully controls their olives from tree to bottle, crushing all of their olives within 24 hours of harvest, testing every single batch in their state of the art laboratory. By honoring of traditional production methods of hand selection and true cold-pressing this keeps the oil’s acidity low, while maintaining it’s high levels of antioxidants and phytonutrients high.
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How-To Make Grain-free Granola {Paleo-friendly}
For my granola loving friends, I am super excited about this how-to and recipe. Most commercial granolas, even when gluten-free, are loaded with gut-upsetting grains, and worse yet – vegetable oils and loads of sugar. After lots of experimenting and playing around, I created the perfect base recipe for this paleo grain-free granola, with two variations. Sweet and Savory.
Using the formula for the base on this paleo recipe, you can get creative there with your favorite nuts and seeds and then when it comes to flavor combinations, the sky is the limit – so get creative and make it your own.
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How-To Preserve and Freeze Fresh Herbs in Olive Oil
Living in California, worrying about not having access to the fresh local herbs in the winter, isn’t exactly an issue, but I do remember what it was like living in New York. The minute the first frost hits in the early fall, there is a scramble to save plants and there is a huge sense of loss when you can no longer just walk into the yard and snip off your favorite fresh herbs. If you are
luckysmart enough to have your fresh herbs in pots, you can just bring those in, otherwise you can kiss them goodbye until the start of the next season.This simple method for preserving fresh herbs is a really great way to keep the fresh flavors of your summer garden or the local farmers market – all through the fall and winter. When thawed or just heated right up from frozen, these frozen cubes work great in stews, sautés, soups, roasts and more. Besides being super helpful and functional, this project is super fun and very simple – it would be a really great and educational project to do with kids.
Regardless of how cold it gets where you live, this is such a great, money-saving way to make the most of your herbs. For me, I love this method of preserving because oftentimes I will buy a large amount of fresh herbs for a recipe that I am testing, however if there are any leftover, they tend to go bad or get sad and wilted before I can get to them again. -
Massaged Kale Salad with Sweet Potato Noodles, Persimmon and a Smoky Orange Vinaigrette
It’s that time of year again, the web is a buzz with turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, pie and all the sides, so here we go!! This salad celebrates the best of the season and not only is it beautiful, but it packs a punch in the flavor department. It is sure to impress anyone you serve it to and I can promise this salad will be the Knight in
shininggreen armor at any carb-heavy holiday meal.
Amongst this crazy busy time of year, I would bet we could all use a massage or two, so let’s treat our kale, too. Seriously though, all joking aside, if you haven’t yet experienced the magic of massaged kale, you need to get on this train. I find many people think that they don’t love raw kale, I agree, it’s not super palatable in it’s raw form. It’s rough, fibrous, strong and often times bitter, but you would be shocked what a 5 minute rub down can do for this popular superfood. The flavor mellows, the texture becomes more silky and it’s infused with the soft flavors of the olive oil and citrus.
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Roasted Sweet Potato Rounds with Garlic Infused Olive Oil and Fresh Herbs
Sometimes, less really is more. I feel like there can be a lot of pressure in the recipe developing world, to go further, to come up with super crazy flavor combinations, to mix unsuspecting ingredients together or to be the first to come up with the next big food idea. Those big ideas and crazy creations often spread like wild fires amongst other bloggers, some ideas may become infamous on Pinterest, but ultimately I find for me it can all just be a thankless rat race. When I am cooking for myself or others, I always come back to the idea that less is more, don’t over-think it, K.I.S.S. (keep it simple, stupid). The most simple recipes here on Tasty Yummies are typically the most popular. I like to be able to cook recipes with ingredients that I already have on hand, on a week day, I don’t want to run to 45 stores to get all the ingredients for one dinner. I like easy, smart and quick.
Life has been busy this month, one of the busiest I can remember in a long time. There have been countless trips, more hotel rooms than I can count, flights, visits with family, conferences, events and so much more. When I come home and I look at my to-do list and the next round of travels, I feel overwhelmed, so the last thing I can imagine doing is developing some epic creation in the kitchen. If I feel that way, I have to imagine that many of you do, as well. The last few weeks have been about easy meals, bone broth and homemade soup, crock pot meals, grilled local grass-fed meats, ALL the veggies and lots and lots of salads.
As life has me spinning and the message to “Honor Yourself” has continuously presented itself to me over the past few weeks, I have been trying very hard to give myself the space to do this. This isn’t an easy feat when life is feeling wildly out of control. I found myself fighting a cold last week, likely from all of the going and not properly taking care of myself and I am sure being on planes and in hotels with lots of germs, didn’t help either. Since I didn’t have the space to fully allow my body to heal, earlier this week I felt myself fighting off a sinus infection. I realized no matter how hard it would, I had to stop. Breathe. Give myself space to ground in. I found time to meditate, I sat with my feet in the sand at the ocean, I took a walk with my hubby and our pooch.
It isn’t easy to stop going when life is crazy and it doesn’t always feel good to say no to the bigger and “better” things in life, but ultimately when we can nourish ourselves, we are in a much better place to then nourish those around us, in our family and in our community. A fact I was reminded of recently by a friend.
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Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Spicy Orange-Parsley Chimichurri
Ya wanna know what I think? I think roasted Brussels sprouts are just about the most brilliant creation ever. I know for many people Brussels sprouts are a you either love ’em or you hate ’em kinda thing, but I would bet even the biggest of haters could get down with these Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Spicy Orange-Parsley Chimichurri. It’s THAT good, people! We got some Brussels sprouts in our CSA box from Beachgreens this past week and I have more oranges growing than I know what to do with and some extra fresh parsley, so this dish was born out of what I had on hand. As most of my favorite dishes are.
In my opinion, this delicious and flavorful spicy orange-parsley chimichurri is the perfect addition to an already delicious food. It compliments the roasted and toasty flavor of the Brussels in the most perfect of ways. A little pop of bright sweet, tartness from the orange juice and zest, the wee bit of spicy and a load of flavors from the parsley, oregano and garlic. Oh and be sure to bookmark this recipe, this chimichurri is so amazing on other foods like any of your other grilled 0r roasted veggies, try it with baked sweet potato fries, steak, pork chops, fish and more. Use it as a marinade or a dipping sauce, too.
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Grain-free Zucchini Fritters with Roasted Garlic and Heirloom Tomato Compote
This second to last week of August is always about the time I start to get sad that summer is nearly over. My garden is producing less and less, the sun is setting earlier and I know fall and winter are just around the corner. To be honest though, with living in Southern California, it is hard to remember all of that. We’ve still been having 90 degree days and the sun has been shining like crazy. But in looking at my garden and our various fruit trees, seeing many of them nearing the end of their cycles, I am reminded the next season is nearly upon us.
My veggie garden has been a source of so much joy and great food for us this summer, but it has also been a source of much frustration for me. I am still learning how to garden out west, it is so much different than it was in New York. With the lack of rain plus watering restrictions due to the draught, I struggle to remember to water my garden in the proper times. What ends up happening is it gets watered every few days. Somehow the weeds are all growing at alarming rates, they are taking over in fact, while my vegetable plants have moments of looking like they could just keel over and die at any moment.
Thankfully, though they are both slowing down significantly, I am still getting a decent amount of heirloom zucchini and heirloom tomatoes from our garden. Two things I could never tire of. So, I have been trying to get creative and come up with fun new ways to enjoy them.
These crispy Grain-free Zucchini Fritters are so simple to make and they are so beautifully complimented by the fresh and flavorful Roasted Garlic and Heirloom Tomato Compote. To me this is just summer in one perfect dish!
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Meet Our Sponsors: Terra Delyssa Olive Oil
As a Greek girl, I grew up on olive oil being the main everyday cooking oil in the house, it was used for savory cooking, salad dressings and even some baking. Sadly the quality, authentic single-source olive oil I knew as a child, isn’t always so easy to find, these days. Many olive oil companies are producing subpar multi-source oils, created from orchards treated with pesticides and chemicals or even worse, they are stretched further by adding cheaper vegetable oils or other olive oils made from olives coming from place other than what they clai . As someone that truly loves and appreciates good olive oil, this is always apparent on the first taste.
Authentic, Single-Source Olive Oil
I happened upon Terra Delyssa’s delicious high-quality olive oils at Expo West, earlier this spring, as I perused the aisles and aisles of natural products. Their booth was literally the first one that I stopped at. What struck me immediately was the bright colors and the bold graphics (come on, I am a designer, after all). But, what really kept me interested, as I got to chatting with them and tasting their delicious oils, was learning that their oils are all single source, that many of their products were organic and that all of their oils are produced without the use of pesticides or chemicals.
An Olive Oil That Does Not Hide It’s Origin
I love that Terra Delyssa can boast that their oils are produced and sold by the same farmers who harvest their olives by hand and care for their trees without the use of any pesticides or chemicals. Their olives are all harvested by hand and crushed within 24 hours of harvest — most of the time, within four hours of harvest — guaranteeing a fresh aroma and a lower acidity level. Terra Delyssa is the only 100 percent Tunisian olive oil on the market. The olives used for Terra Delyssa Olive Oil are grown in orchards that have been passed down through generations of olive growers. Tunisian olives produce oil with a delicate, mild flavor with hints of fruit and olive. Every single bottle of Terra Delyssa Olive Oil is 100 percent traceable and can be traced back to the field where the olives were grown.
As I got to cooking with Terra Delyssa’s delicious olive oils, what really struck me most was the smooth and fresh flavor profile, which makes it versatile enough to cook with every single day. Terra Delyssa Extra Virgin Olive Oil is made from the first cold press of handpicked olives, so there isn’t that acidic burn and intense aroma, that some olive oils can have. You’d think being a high quality, single-source, organic olive oil, that the prices would be outrageous, but that’s the best part – it is priced just right. The retail price of Terra Delyssa products range from $2.99 for a 250 ml to $24.99 for 3 liters. The extra virgin, organic, infused and specialty oils all fall within this price range. Amazing, right?
