Litha 2019

Litha (22nd December, 2019)

Christmas is the northern hemisphere lines up nicely with Yule, the winter solstice. And a lot of the traditions surrounding Christmas certainly do suit a chilly climate well. In Australia, Christmas is in summer. If you are following the sabbats on the Wheel of the Year, we celebrate Litha - the summer solstice. I have been celebrating the Wheel of the Year through food, and the foods associated with Litha include fresh fruits and vegetables, red and yellow foods, dairy, bread, and herbs.

For lunch on the 22nd, I went to Easy House at the Gold Coast for yum cha with my friend Amy. This had nothing to do with Litha specifically, but it was delicious.

On the way back, we stopped at Flour of Life, the vegan bakery. I picked out a celebratory apricot danish... because pastry is similar to bread, right? It also had custard (vegan dairy) and apricots (seasonal fruit and also orange), so I felt it was an appropriate solstice treat.



Dinner that night was a lovely light salad, which combined some nice red radishes and orange carrots, as well as lots and lots of herbs.

Chicken-Free Goi Ga Bowl from Vegan Bowls by Zsu Dever: This crunchy, fresh bowl has fresh herbs (I used mostly cilantro and just a bit of mint), radishes, carrots, cos lettuce (which I used instead of cabbage) and a tangy dressing. The recipe uses simmered tempeh as the protein, but as I live with to people who dislike tempeh, I just used a package of Soyco Japanese Marinated Tofu straight out of the packet and diced. The dressing is a lovely mix of rice vinegar, lime juice, and caper brine. I left out the sambal oelek and the jalapeno from it to keep it mild. Sweetness in the dressing comes from sugar, though I had a hard time getting it to dissolve in the liquid. I also left out the scallions from the salad, and I realise later that I forgot to add the chopped peanuts.
Rating: :)



I also kept up the theme the next night with another salad with a greed goddess dressing, which was a dressing I saw in a few Litha menus online.

Nicoise Goddess Salad: This salad is a great fusion of nicoise ingredients and a goddess dressing. For the salad, instead of using baby potatoes halved I just diced up some regular potatoes, and I used some cos lettuce rather than butter lettuce. Mixed up with some roasted green beans, white beans, grape tomatoes, and kalamata olives, this was a great combination. The Goddess Dressing is based on mayo and dairy-free milk and was easy to make. It has a lot of herbs and spices in it, including fresh parsley. It calls for fresh scallions and garlic, but raw onions and garlic do not make my tummy happy so I used some garlic and onion powder. I blended this up with my immersion blender rather than my high speed blender, which was fine. The book recommends making this at least a day in advance, but I only had a few hours. It was nice and tangy, though I did keep a little to try after two days in the fridge and it had mellowed a lot. I got three dinner-sized serves out of this salad, while the book says it serves four.
Rating: Salad :), Dressing :)



Anyway, thank goodness the longest day of the year is done! Bring back the dark!!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Sahara's last Christmas, in 2016. Her beautiful cinnamon fur certainly embodied the blazing sun of Litha. Plus she also was her own little heat generator, as well as a shining light in our lives.