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 Hail Merry Online Cookbook: Raw, Vegan & Gluten-Free Recipes

Hail Merry, the raw, vegan, and gluten-free snack and dessert company from Dallas Texas, is excited to announce their new HAIL MERRY RECIPES collection on Facebook- a free online cookbook of healthy inspiring recipes that taste delicious and will stand the test of time, no matter the next food trend. The Categories include: SALADS, APPETIZERS, SOUP, SIDE DISH, MAIN COURSE, DESSERT, BREAKFAST, LUNCH, DRINKS, RAW, VEGAN, and GLUTEN-FREE.

To access a recipe just click on a category and you will go to an index of recipes and articles on the Hail Merry Blog. All the recipes are gluten-free plus many are raw, vegan or a combination of the three. We include such Hail Merry classics as the Baja Spinach Blackberry Raw Vegan Summer Salad, Clean-Green Pesto Sauce, Raw Strawberry Shortcake, and the Dark Chocolate Banana Smoothie.

Please take a look and we welcome your comments, suggestions, and recipes. Let us know your favorite recipe. Thank you for all your wonderful support. Our goal is to have the best online cookbook of raw, vegan & gluten-free recipes to help you on your journey to higher health. Taste and health can coexist and do so in our recipes.

For active health conscious consumers with uncompromising quality standards Hail Merry® is the Raw, Vegan, Gluten-Free snack brand that features healthy and healing organic raw plant oils in their desserts, macaroons, grawnola and seasoned nuts and seeds. The company is women owned by experienced leaders who know food and are dedicated to superior taste and purity in every bite by promising the highest quality ingredients and practicing sustainable manufacturing processes. Hail Merry® is sold nationally at Whole Foods Market and other natural foods retailers. Hail Merry® is also available at hotels, airports, stadiums, convention centers, & colleges/universities.

“Never rub another man's rhubarb.”
Jack Nicholson as The Joker, ‘Batman’ (1989)

You know spring has sprung when brightly colored crisp rhubarb catches your eye in the produce section. Rhubarb is 95% water and a rich source of vitamin C, dietary fiber and calcium, although the calcium is combined with oxalic acid and not easily absorbed by the body. However, the oxalic acid in vegetables (and Rhubarb is a vegetable) is broken down in cooking and doesn't interfere with the absorption of calcium present in other foods, tofu for instance, that you might eat at the same time.  Therefore, enjoy this vegan and gluten-free Rhubarb Strawberry Fool topped with some crumbled Hail Merry® Blonde Macaroons, featuring organic virgin coconut oil, and fresh mint sprigs. One cup diced Rhubarb contains about 26 calories.

RHUBARB STRAWBERRY FOOL

2 cups rhubarb* (about 2 large stalks), diced in 1–inch pieces

1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh ginger

1 teaspoon finely grated orange zest

¼ cup fresh orange juice

1 cup strawberries hulled and cut into halves (or use whole raspberries)

Stevia or organic maple syrup to taste- add by teaspoon until desired sweetness reached (or sweetener of choice)

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

8 ounces soft silken tofu (optional)

Garnish with Hail Merry® Blonde Macaroons & fresh mint sprigs

1. Combine the rhubarb, ginger, orange zest, and juice in a medium–size heavy saucepan. Stir well and bring to a boil over medium heat. Reduce heat, loosely cover, and simmer for 4 minutes.
2. Add berries and cook for 1 minute longer. Remove from heat and add sweetener and vanilla extract. Cool for 5 minutes.
3. In a food processor, purée silken tofu until smooth. Add in cooked, cooled puree and blend until smooth. Spoon into serving bowl or individual cups. Cool in refrigerator.
4. Serve alone, layered with fresh sliced berries. Top with crumbled Hail Merry® Blonde Macaroons and fresh mint sprigs. The fool can be made several days ahead and refrigerated.
5. If you omit the tofu, serve the compote over yogurt or ice cream.

*Rhubarb leaves are inedible. Trim the stalks and remove all leaves completely. Then cut off the flat brown part from the bottom of each stalk. String the rhubarb only if the stalks are very large and green.

Jicama is a very low calorie root vegetable (50 calories per cup), but nutritionally dense, being rich in dietary fiber, anti-oxidants (such as Vitamin C), Vitamin B, and the alkalizing minerals magnesium and manganese. Jicama has a slightly sweet flesh reminiscent of water chestnuts but crunchier.  Its skin is inedible but the turnip-like flesh is an excellent source of inulin, a soluble dietary fiber that does not metabolize in the human body, making jicama an ideal snack for diabetics and dieters.  This No-Oil Raw Salad Recipe combines jicama with citrus, cilantro and Hail Merry Chimayo Chile Pecans. The spicy pecans add raw plant oils for heart healthy satiation. Feed Your Body Royally!

Jicama Orange Salad 

12 ounces jicama, peeled with a knife or vegetable peeper.

2 medium navel oranges, peeled

4 large red radishes, sliced into paper-thin rounds

Citrus Dressing:

4 tablespoons fresh orange juice

6 tablespoons fresh grapefruit juice

4 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

½ teaspoon grated grapefruit peel

¼ teaspoon sea salt

¼ teaspoon fresh ground pepper

2 tablespoons cilantro leaves, finely chopped

½ cup Hail Merry Chimayo Chile Pecans

Cilantro sprigs for garnish

1.  Cut peeled jicama in half and then slice each half into 1/8-inch by 1-inch sticks. Place into shallow bowl.

2.  Combine Citrus Dressing ingredients and pour over jicama. Toss and let it for 30-60 minutes.

3.  While jicama is marinating, remove each orange section from the fine membrane and leave segments whole.

4.  Combine the jicama, oranges, and sliced radishes. Toss and garnish with Hail Merry Pecans and cilantro sprigs.

5.  Serve over mixed greens for a refreshing salad or as a flavorful relish to grilled vegetables or fish.

Hail Merry Raw Statement:

Thanks to movies like Food Inc. and Forks Over Knives, and the double-digit growth of the gluten-free market due to an epidemic increase in chronic and autoimmune diseases like celiac and type-2 diabetes, the public has awoken to the health benefits of raw foods. Consumers are looking for quality transportable products that are affordable, taste good, and do not contain refined sugars, oxidized refined oils, synthetic vitamins, GMOs, soy fillers, gluten or animal/dairy products. Hail Merry snacks delivers on all fronts while proudly offering outstanding award winning taste! Safety, quality and dependability of the finished consumer product are of utmost importance to us. We methodically source our ingredients for the same safety, quality and dependability so we can deliver a product that not only tastes delicious but also is healthy & safe to eat. This philosophy and dedication to our consumer is the reason we are not 100% raw. Hail Merry is a RAW OIL story. Let me explain.

As you are probably aware there are two factors that make a food raw, raw oils & living enzymes.  Living enzymes like probiotics are VERY hard to quantify.  That is why we hang our hat on raw oils not enzymes. There is not a standard of identity yet for RAW foods the way there is for gluten-free (Hail Merry is certified Gluten-Free to the highest standards of the industry by its most respected approving authority). We will become involved in contributing to the standards of RAW as an OIL story as we believe it is as critical as the ENZYME story. All Hail Merry products include RAW ingredients. Some of our products are more RAW than others, but they ALL feature RAW oils.

As a raw food enthusiast our brand reflects my own personal lifestyle (which is not 100% raw) and what I prefer in regard to flavor profile and the unique benefits of raw oils.  I do believe strongly that enzymes play a major role in health and vitality.  I prefer to obtain the majority of the living enzymes I consume daily from raw fruits and veggies.  Our foods contain some living enzymes (as opposed to baked snacks) but are in fact more of a raw oil story, since by nature  macaroons, dessert tarts, nuts and granola are considerably low in enzyme payload by nature.   We choose to celebrate the plant based raw oil within the coconut oil, nuts & seeds left in tact from low heat dehydration.

As a manufacturer, we can source raw oils to meet our high quality standards.  The raw cacao industry is not regulated and there is no guarantee that temperature limits to preserve living enzymes have not been exceeded. Manufacturers of raw foods cannot guarantee enzyme levels of their packaged products by the time it reaches the consumer, much like the yogurt industry. Air, light and temperature become factors. We can guarantee the processing of our cold-pressed raw oils.

I also personally believe that raw cocao is toxic when consumed often.  It is not a superfood in the minds of many raw food experts including Jeremy Safron who is very outspoken on this issue.  My recipes happen to be inspired by the highly esteemed raw food chef Matthew Kenney, who uses maple syrup in many of his recipes.  Mathew also owns the raw food culinary school in Oklahoma and is regarded as a leader in the industry speaking at TED conferences etc.

Therefore, Hail Merry is a RAW OIL story.  Raw oils don’t begin to fully oxidize until heated to temps well over 220 degrees.  For the record we dehydrate our foods at 115 degrees.

For example our Meyer Lemon Tarts do contain raw fresh squeezed Meyer lemon juice, which gives the tarts our signature great fresh taste.   We also use organic raw agave in the Meyer Lemon Tart.  As you know there is a tremendous amount of controversy surrounding agave.  At the end of the day we selected the highest quality raw agave on the market to use in this recipe for the flavor profile - yet how raw is the agave truly?  Most agave syrup is processed at temperatures between 120-160F. How many living enzymes really exist in that agave after processing, manufacturing and transportation? If it does not have enzymatic activity, is it raw? As the controversy plays out in the raw food industry, we will continue to primarily use maple syrup as a sweetener.  Maple syrup has a higher vitamin/mineral payload than agave and often a better taste profile in our snacks and desserts. The result is repeat sales and consumer loyalty, lifting the entire raw food market for all manufacturers. If a product does not taste good, it will not have sustainability. I can’t tell you how many raw enthusiasts Hail Merry has as fans, who are happy we use maple syrup in some of our recipes instead of agave.

At the end of the day, there are no official standards for defining raw.  The fact that we dehydrate at 115 degrees to protect our raw plant based oils is how WE lead with raw.  Hail Merry adds an asterisk next to those items in our ingredients that don't contain living enzymes for transparency, however there are still raw plant based oils present.  We believe our customers are educated enough to make their own decisions about how raw a raw food should be to fit their individual lifestyle and philosophy, just as I have done. We believe in our customer and they trust us to deliver high quality, safe, transportable raw, vegan and gluten-free snacks that taste great and make them happy!

Here is a statement I wrote for our website.

Hail Merry foods are not 100% raw.   We feel that we are raw where it counts most -  in the plant based dietary oils found in the nuts, seeds and coconut oils.  Our almonds have been steam pasteurized at 160 degrees, however the oils inside the almonds still remain raw.  Our buckwheat groats, & sunflower seeds, have been soaked prior to seasoning and dehydration for optimum digestion. A diet flush with living enzymes is the key to vitality and longevity. Pair that with raw plant based dietary oils for proper vitamin absorption, and hormone balance and our bodies will radiate with good health.

I hope this helps give you more perspective into our story and philosophy.  There are some living enzymes present in our foods just like other raw food companies, but no company can guarantee how many enzymes are present at point of consumption. We can guarantee consistency, dependability, sustainability and safety to your customers.

Thanks,

Susan O’Brien
Founder, Hail Merry