My friend Barbara Mendez is a nutritionist and helped me years ago during my transition to becoming fully vegan. She has a blog called Roots and Seeds and posts videos with all kinds of fantastic health related information for living your best life. Earlier this week, Barbara posted a video entitled “5 Amazing Super Foods to Beat Depression.” and outlined the benefits of ground flax meal, cashews, black beans, sweet potatoes and spinach. Watch the video for details! As I was watching, I thought to myself, “Why not eat all of them in one meal and call it a happy meal?!”
A fellow blogger, Karen from Karen’s Vegan Kitchen has a recipe for homemade cashew mayonnaise which I have been wanting to make for a while. This experiment was the perfect opportunity.
makes 2 sandwiches
4 pieces of whole wheat sourdough
1/2 cup cooked black beans
1 sweet potato
12 fresh spinach leaves
1 tablespoon ground flax meal
Tangy Cashew Spread (Cashew Mayonnaise)
1 cup cashews
1/2 cup water
The juice of 1 lemon
1/2 teaspoon each: garlic powder, onion powder, mustard powder, salt
Soak the black beans and cashews overnight. Cook the black beans and refrigerate until ready to use. If using canned beans, drain them well.
Bake the sweet potatoes in a 400 oven for 45 minutes or so.
Make the cashew mayo by draining the cashew soaking water place in blender along with new water and the rest of the mayo ingredients. Blend until perfectly smooth.
Mash the sweet potato and mix in beans and flax meal.
Toast the bread and spread a generous layer of cashew spread on one toast. Spread the potato bean mixture on the other side. Top with spinach leaves and make the sandwich. Be happy and enjoy!