Kitchen Monk Staples

Jump to: Milks · Dressings & sauces · Ketchup · Beans · Treats · Label tip

🥛 Two-ingredient milks

Try it: Ezekiel-style sprouted cereal + either milk + frozen blueberries or pomegranate arils. Need more calories? Blend in a few dates.

🥗 Dressings & sauces

Every dressing below starts the same way: put everything in a blender, start small, blend, taste, and adjust. Thin with water; sweeten with a date.

🍅 Creamy tomato dressing: tomato sauce + nut butter + vinegar. (Start with about ½ cup sauce, 2 tablespoons nut butter, 1 tablespoon vinegar.)

🌿 Golden lemongrass dressing: lemongrass, hemp seeds, turmeric, cumin, and a date, blended with water.

🥬 Plant power kraut dressing: sauerkraut, cabbage or another cruciferous vegetable, fresh ginger, turmeric, a pinch of cayenne, dates, and nut butter.

🍇 Any-flavor balsamic: pick a flavored balsamic vinegar (fig, raspberry, and more) and blend with a spoon of nut butter and coconut flakes. Change the vinegar, change the whole dressing.

🍅 Date-sweetened ketchup

Blend canned tomato sauce (one seasoned with onion and garlic works great), a few pitted dates, a splash of vinegar, and a tiny pinch of ground clove. Sweet version: Riesling vinegar. Tangy version: apple cider vinegar. Refrigerate in a jar.

🫘 Herbed beans

Warm cooked or rinsed canned beans with sautéed (or microwaved) leeks, onion, and garlic, then fold in a handful of fresh herbs. Plain lentils work the same way. More ideas: The Bean Principle™ →

🍨 Treats

🍌 Frozen-fruit soft serve: push frozen bananas (or other frozen fruit) through a masticating juicer fitted with its solid “blank” screen, a trick popularized in juicer reviews by John Kohler. No juicer? A food processor or strong blender works too.

🥭 Tropical whip: banana, mango, frozen jackfruit, walnuts, coconut, a squeeze of lemon, and vanilla. Blend thick.

🧁 Muffin tip: sprinkle chopped nuts on top before baking for crunch and staying power.

🏷 Kitchen Monk label tip: fiber 5-to-1

On breads, cereals, and crackers, compare total carbohydrate to dietary fiber. If the carbs are about 5 times the fiber or less (for example, 25 g carbs and 5 g fiber), it’s likely a whole-grain, higher-fiber choice. It’s a quick shopping shortcut, not a rule to stress over.