It’s a rainy Vancouver day, and all I want to do these days is make soup, drink tea, and snuggle under warm blankets with my cat asleep on my feet. With that in mind, let’s explore some great resources on how to store grains and legumes which, much like nuts and seeds need to be treated well in order to maintain flavour, freshness and have the greatest benefits to us. We also have some sheet-pan recipes, and a dessert or two. So settle in with a cup of tea and enjoy the read.

First, you all know how much we care about the quality of our nuts and seeds. Still after all this time we get folks saying “Hey I didn’t know I was supposed to refrigerate my nuts!” So anyhow, we made a video showing our process, from the giant cold storage facility in Delta that we keep our pallets in, to the little shop that we have in Vancouver, that is mostly full of our fridges, along with packing and bagging tables and large dehydrators. It is small but packed full of goodness. Check out our YouTube video here The best way to store nuts is in the refrigerator. We do it at NutHut.ca - and you should too!

There are so many great resources online detailing how to prepare grains and legumes. Anna Jones has put together this page laying out soaking, storage and prep, find it here.

The article also talks about pantry staples. I know some of us can get bogged down with meal prep. Having some staples on hand can really simplify things.

If you are looking to expand your saucy repertoire, look no further than this recipe from Minimalist Baker, this creamy vegan cashew jalapeno dressing covers all the bases. 

In the winter months, I tend to move away from lettuce-based salads, and start focusing on cabbage, carrots, kale and brussels sprouts. It feels better to me to use ingredients that are more readily available at this time of year. We all love them. In fact our kid would eat cabbage-based salads all year round, and requests brussels sprouts regularly.

This date, feta and red cabbage salad looks like the best wintery salad around. 

Salads with brussels sprouts are surprisingly delicious. This one has dates, apples and hazelnuts that make it so very delicious.

 Here’s another one that uses walnuts. There are so many delicious wintery salads!

Here’s a carrot salad with walnuts! 

Saveur Recipes has some great nut-based savoury dishes. Check out these walnut based ones Walnut Recipes | Saveur

This one with fried eggplants and a walnut pesto would be perfect now. 

With squash still readily available this recipe is a great weeknight meal 

This recipe for vegan meatballs using sweet potatoes, red lentils, flax and chia seeds looks well seasoned and delicious. Of course the addition of scotch bonnet peppers is completely optional but HELLO HEAT! (Scotch bonnet peppers were very much a flavour of my youth) so if you don’t like heat, no need to use them! 

This recipe for celeriac soup looks delicious and has a toasty nut sprinkle on top. Scroll down to the second one on the page to find this. 

This recipe JUMPED out at me, and having made it last night, I can attest to its deliciousness! cauliflower salad with dates and pistachios – smitten kitchen Spend some time on Smitten Kitchen’s site and be inspired!

If you are feeling the need for a wintery stew, look no further than this “Butter chickpea stew” from My New Roots. Instead of cashew butter, soak cashews and blend.

These cookies are packed full of flavour! chocolate walnut cookies

Did you know it is incredibly easy to make almond paste? Easy Homemade Almond Paste Recipe

It’s no secret that I love our hazelnuts, I will often snack on them in the afternoon, (while sipping tea of course.) I also love baking with them, I have a couple of pounds of hazelnut flour in my freezer that I made and am working my way through. These cookies again from Smitten Kitchen are a great way to use some of that flour. Maybe you want to whip some up as well! hazelnut chocolate thumbprint cookies – smitten kitchen

This cake is vegan, you can sub half the flour for almond flour. chocolate olive oil cake – smitten kitchen

More hazelnuts inspiration ugly but good cookies – smitten kitchen

Cool things happening in our community:

Seed saving of heritage seeds, and native plants is super critical for the health of our environment. This project which is organized by Loki Wallace who was our first, fabulous employee is doing just that. Saving seeds, sharing them, so we can sow them. If you are in Vancouver they have a series of events coming up. Find more information here.

We have fabulous customers who are doing all sorts of incredible things. This website MyndMyself has just been launched by Esther Neville. They are offering a free zoom event on hormone health here. The website is a great resource for folks looking for health-care practitioners. It's a one-stop site where you can access all levels and types of care.

That's all for now, stay healthy, move your body around in all the best ways you can to keep the chi flowing and enjoy the journey into Spring.