Black Hills Health Retreat Blog

Vegan Butter: An Almond Flour & Coconut Oil Butter with Olive Oil & Lime — Yields 2 Sticks
Vegan Butter: An Almond Flour & Coconut Oil Butter with Olive Oil & Lime — Yields 2 Sticks
This vegan butter is a genuine achievement in whole-food fat science. Almond flour (or home-blanched raw almonds processed into flour), nutritional yeast, salt, lime, water, olive oil, and refined coconut... Read more...
Mozzarella Cheese (Vegan): A Stretchy, Boiled Cashew Cheese with Tapioca Starch & Nutritional Yeast
Mozzarella Cheese (Vegan): A Stretchy, Boiled Cashew Cheese with Tapioca Starch & Nutritional Yeast
This is the most technically sophisticated cheese in The Healing Kitchen collection — and the one that most closely replicates the behavior of real mozzarella. The secret is tapioca starch.... Read more...
Jededias’ Cheese: A Coconut Milk & Soy Milk Pizza Cheese with Tahini & Honey
Jededias’ Cheese: A Coconut Milk & Soy Milk Pizza Cheese with Tahini & Honey
Named and personal, this cheese belongs to a tradition of recipe-sharing that runs through retreat cooking — a formula someone developed, tested, and passed forward. Jededias’ Cheese uses coconut milk... Read more...
Heavy Metal Detox Cilantro "Cheese": A Raw, Blended Herb Spread with Pumpkin Seeds, Dulse & Lime — Serves 6–8
Heavy Metal Detox Cilantro "Cheese": A Raw, Blended Herb Spread with Pumpkin Seeds, Dulse & Lime — Serves 6–8
This is not a cooked sauce — it is a raw, blended herb cheese: thick, verdant, intensely aromatic, and built entirely around the concept of heavy metal detoxification. Every ingredient... Read more...
Cheese Sauce with Pimiento: A Cashew-Based, Dairy-Free Cheese Sauce with Roasted Red Pepper & Nutritional Yeast
Cheese Sauce with Pimiento: A Cashew-Based, Dairy-Free Cheese Sauce with Roasted Red Pepper & Nutritional Yeast
This is the classic of The Healing Kitchen cheese collection — a rich, golden, deeply savory cashew cheese sauce built on a foundation that appears again and again in plant-based... Read more...
Lentil Burgers: A Hearty, Herb-Seasoned Plant-Based Patty with Spelt Flour & Miso
Lentil Burgers: A Hearty, Herb-Seasoned Plant-Based Patty with Spelt Flour & Miso
These lentil burgers are the kind of whole-food plant burger that genuinely satisfies — tender green or brown lentils simmered in vegetable stock until deeply soft and splitting, then mixed... Read more...
Butter, Love Your Heart: A Cornmeal-Based Plant Butter with Coconut Milk & Olive Oil
Butter, Love Your Heart: A Cornmeal-Based Plant Butter with Coconut Milk & Olive Oil
This recipe is one of The Healing Kitchen’s most charming creations — a whole-food plant butter that spreads, stores, and satisfies like real butter, made entirely from cooked cornmeal (or... Read more...
Alfredo Cheese Sauce: A Creamy, Dairy-Free White Sauce with Navy Beans, Cashews & Nutritional Yeast
Alfredo Cheese Sauce: A Creamy, Dairy-Free White Sauce with Navy Beans, Cashews & Nutritional Yeast
This Alfredo sauce is a quiet triumph of plant-based cooking. Navy beans, cashews, water, lemon juice, nutritional yeast, garlic, and Instant Clearjel — blended smooth and cooked until thick and... Read more...
Walnut Olive Burgers: A Three-Blend, Herb-Seasoned Patty with Rolled Oats — Yields 14
Walnut Olive Burgers: A Three-Blend, Herb-Seasoned Patty with Rolled Oats — Yields 14
These are the most technique-specific burgers in The Healing Kitchen series — and the most rewarding. The recipe uses the blender three times, in a deliberate sequence, and the recipe... Read more...
Sunflower Burgers: A Pecan-Sunflower Seed Patty with Tofu, Carrot & Spelt Flour — Yields 30
Sunflower Burgers: A Pecan-Sunflower Seed Patty with Tofu, Carrot & Spelt Flour — Yields 30
These are big-batch burgers — one recipe yields 30 patties, making them the ideal choice for retreat meal service or bulk freezer prep. The foundation is blended sunflower seeds and... Read more...
Unleavened Bread: An Ancient, Wholesome Wheat Loaf with Avocado Oil — Serves 12
Unleavened Bread: An Ancient, Wholesome Wheat Loaf with Avocado Oil — Serves 12
Unleavened bread is humanity’s oldest bread — made before the discovery of fermentation, before commercial yeast, before baking powder. Just flour, water, fat, and salt, combined and baked. What it... Read more...
How to Make Sourdough Starter: Capture Wild Yeast & Build a Living Culture from Scratch
How to Make Sourdough Starter: Capture Wild Yeast & Build a Living Culture from Scratch
Before there was sourdough bread, there was the starter — the living culture of wild yeasts and Lactobacillus bacteria that makes sourdough possible. Every traditional sourdough tradition on earth, from... Read more...
Sourdough Bread: A Multi-Flour Fermented Loaf with Wheat, Corn, Rye & Sesame Options
Sourdough Bread: A Multi-Flour Fermented Loaf with Wheat, Corn, Rye & Sesame Options
This is sourdough the way it was made for thousands of years — no commercial yeast, no additives, no shortcuts. Just flour, water, salt, and a living sourdough starter whose... Read more...
Sesame Flaxseed Crackers: A Kneaded, Deeply Crispy Cracker with Quinoa, Buckwheat & Avocado Oil
Sesame Flaxseed Crackers: A Kneaded, Deeply Crispy Cracker with Quinoa, Buckwheat & Avocado Oil
These crackers take a different approach than the soaked seed crackers in The Healing Kitchen series — they are kneaded. Made from a blend of quinoa flour, buckwheat flour, ground... Read more...
Seed Crackers: A 5-Seed Superfood Cracker for Omega-3s, Minerals & Gut Health
Seed Crackers: A 5-Seed Superfood Cracker for Omega-3s, Minerals & Gut Health
These seed crackers are one of the most nutritionally concentrated snack foods you can make — a thin, crispy sheet of pure seed power. Five seeds, water, and salt. No... Read more...
Millet Quinoa Pizza Crust: A Gluten-Free, Grain-Blended Crust with Nutritional Yeast & Herbs
Millet Quinoa Pizza Crust: A Gluten-Free, Grain-Blended Crust with Nutritional Yeast & Herbs
This pizza crust is a revelation. Made entirely by soaking millet and quinoa overnight, then blending them with water, nutritional yeast, garlic, onion, and coconut oil into a pourable batter,... Read more...
Nutty Pie Crust: A Date-Walnut Crust for Pies, Tarts & Wholesome Desserts — Yields 1 Medium Crust
Nutty Pie Crust: A Date-Walnut Crust for Pies, Tarts & Wholesome Desserts — Yields 1 Medium Crust
Three ingredients. Fifteen minutes. One beautifully rich, naturally sweet pie crust that contains no butter, no refined sugar, no refined flour, and no eggs — and yet delivers the depth,... Read more...
Crispy Oat Crackers: A Gluten-Free, Whole-Grain Cracker Made with Brazil Nuts, Walnuts & Avocado Oil
Crispy Oat Crackers: A Gluten-Free, Whole-Grain Cracker Made with Brazil Nuts, Walnuts & Avocado Oil
These crackers are a masterclass in whole-food snacking. Built on a foundation of quick oats, brown rice flour, buckwheat, and quinoa — all blended from whole grains — and enriched... Read more...
Chickpea Cornmeal Muffins: A Naturally Sweet, Gluten-Free Snack — Yields 20
Chickpea Cornmeal Muffins: A Naturally Sweet, Gluten-Free Snack — Yields 20
These muffins are a beautiful example of whole-food baking at its most honest — no refined sugar, no eggs, no dairy, no flour. Just soaked chickpeas and Medjool dates blended... Read more...
White Quinoa & Red Lentil Crepes: A Protein-Complete, Gluten-Free Crepe — 1 Recipe Makes 25
White Quinoa & Red Lentil Crepes: A Protein-Complete, Gluten-Free Crepe — 1 Recipe Makes 25
These crepes are one of the most elegant examples of whole-food cooking in The Healing Kitchen series. Just four ingredients — raw quinoa, raw red lentils, water, and salt —... Read more...
Most Delicious Gluten-Free Cornbread Muffins — 2 Recipes Makes 55 Small Muffins
Most Delicious Gluten-Free Cornbread Muffins — 2 Recipes Makes 55 Small Muffins
The name says it all. These gluten-free cornbread muffins have earned their reputation — golden, tender, lightly sweet from honey, and studded with frozen corn that becomes juicy and caramelized... Read more...
Whole Corn Cornbread: A Simple, Wholesome Loaf Made with Real Corn & Polenta
Whole Corn Cornbread: A Simple, Wholesome Loaf Made with Real Corn & Polenta
This cornbread is as elemental as it gets — just whole corn kernels, water, salt, oil, and polenta, baked until golden and firm. No refined flour, no eggs, no dairy.... Read more...
Chickpea Millet Waffles: A Gluten-Free, Protein-Rich Breakfast — Yields 10
Chickpea Millet Waffles: A Gluten-Free, Protein-Rich Breakfast — Yields 10
These are not your ordinary waffles. Made entirely from soaked chickpeas, millet, and water — no flour, no eggs, no dairy — these golden, crisp-edged waffles are naturally gluten-free, extraordinarily... Read more...
Bread Maker Sourdough: A Living Bread for Gut Health, Digestion & Whole-Grain Nourishment
Bread Maker Sourdough: A Living Bread for Gut Health, Digestion & Whole-Grain Nourishment
Sourdough is one of humanity's oldest foods — and one of the most remarkable. Unlike conventional bread leavened with commercial yeast, sourdough is fermented with a living starter culture of... Read more...
Pinto Beans: The Fiber-Rich Southwestern Staple for Heart Health, Blood Sugar & Gut Support
Pinto Beans: The Fiber-Rich Southwestern Staple for Heart Health, Blood Sugar & Gut Support
Pinto beans are one of America's most beloved legumes — the foundation of refried beans, burritos, and hearty stews from the Southwest to Central America. Speckled and earthy, they become... Read more...
Red Lentil Dahl: The Golden Anti-Inflammatory Bowl — Serves 6
Red Lentil Dahl: The Golden Anti-Inflammatory Bowl — Serves 6
Red lentil dahl is one of the world's great healing dishes — a staple of Indian cuisine for thousands of years and a cornerstone of Ayurvedic nutritional medicine. It is... Read more...
Northern Beans: The Mild, Creamy Legume with Powerful Benefits for Heart, Gut & Immune Health
Northern Beans: The Mild, Creamy Legume with Powerful Benefits for Heart, Gut & Immune Health
Great Northern beans are the quiet achievers of the legume family — mild in flavor, beautifully creamy in texture, and extraordinarily versatile. Their neutral profile makes them an ideal canvas... Read more...
How to Grow Mung Bean Sprouts at Home: A Living Food for Enzyme Activity, Digestion & Vitality
How to Grow Mung Bean Sprouts at Home: A Living Food for Enzyme Activity, Digestion & Vitality
Mung bean sprouts are something genuinely remarkable — a living food you can grow in your own kitchen in just three days, with nothing but beans, water, and a jar.... Read more...
Split Mung Beans: The Ayurvedic Superfood for Digestion, Detox & Gentle Nourishment — Serves 12
Split Mung Beans: The Ayurvedic Superfood for Digestion, Detox & Gentle Nourishment — Serves 12
In Ayurvedic medicine, split mung beans — also called moong dal — are considered one of the most healing, easily digestible foods available. They are traditionally prescribed during illness, detox,... Read more...
Kidney Beans: A Hearty Plant-Based Superfood for Heart Health, Energy & Immune Support
Kidney Beans: A Hearty Plant-Based Superfood for Heart Health, Energy & Immune Support
Named for their distinctive shape, kidney beans are one of the most popular and nutritious legumes in the world — a staple of everything from classic chili to Caribbean rice... Read more...
Green & Yellow Lentils: Ancient Nutrition for Modern Wellness — Serves 12
Green & Yellow Lentils: Ancient Nutrition for Modern Wellness — Serves 12
Lentils have nourished humanity for over 9,000 years — and this recipe shows exactly why. Serving 12, it's built for community, retreat cooking, and serious meal prep, delivering an iron-rich,... Read more...
Green Split-Peas: The Humble Legume with Powerful Benefits for Heart, Gut & Blood Sugar Health
Green Split-Peas: The Humble Legume with Powerful Benefits for Heart, Gut & Blood Sugar Health
Don't let their simplicity fool you — green split peas are a nutritional powerhouse. No soaking required, ready in 30 minutes, and naturally creamy, this stovetop recipe is one of... Read more...
Garbanzo Beans & Chickpeas: The Mediterranean Superfood for Blood Sugar, Satiety & Inflammation
Garbanzo Beans & Chickpeas: The Mediterranean Superfood for Blood Sugar, Satiety & Inflammation
From hummus to falafel, garbanzo beans are the world's most beloved legume — and with good reason. This Instant Pot recipe highlights their natural creaminess alongside sautéed tomatoes and celery,... Read more...
Black-Eyed Peas: The Southern Superfood for Digestive Health & Heart Support
Black-Eyed Peas: The Southern Superfood for Digestive Health & Heart Support
From West African food traditions to the American South, black-eyed peas have long symbolized prosperity and resilience. Requiring no soaking and ready in 35 minutes in the Instant Pot, this... Read more...
Black Beans: A Plant-Based Powerhouse for Gut Health, Energy & Heart Support
Black Beans: A Plant-Based Powerhouse for Gut Health, Energy & Heart Support
Black beans have been a cornerstone of traditional plant-based cooking for thousands of years — and for good reason. Rich in protein, fiber, and powerful antioxidants, this simple Instant Pot... Read more...
Ask the Herbalist: Natural Support for Men's Health
Ask the Herbalist: Natural Support for Men's Health
Low energy, hormonal decline, and prostate concerns are among the most common issues men face after 40 — and all respond well to targeted natural support. Here's a pattern-based guide... Read more...
Ask the Herbalist: Natural Support for Immune Health
Ask the Herbalist: Natural Support for Immune Health
Immune resilience is built in layers — foundational nutrients, long-term immune modulators, and acute activators all play distinct roles. Here's a practical guide to the herbs, mushrooms, and nutrients that... Read more...
Ask the Herbalist: Natural Support for Gut Health & Digestion
Ask the Herbalist: Natural Support for Gut Health & Digestion
Most digestive complaints — bloating, heartburn, IBS, constipation — stem from three overlapping issues: dysbiosis, impaired digestion, and mucosal damage. Here's a symptom-based guide to the herbs, probiotics, and nutrients... Read more...
Ask the Herbalist: Natural Support for Joint Pain & Inflammation
Ask the Herbalist: Natural Support for Joint Pain & Inflammation
Joint pain and chronic inflammation have one of the strongest evidence bases in natural medicine. Here's a practical guide to the anti-inflammatory herbs, structural nutrients, and topicals that address both... Read more...
Ask the Herbalist: Natural Support for Anxiety & Stress
Ask the Herbalist: Natural Support for Anxiety & Stress
Anxiety and chronic stress are among the most responsive conditions to botanical intervention — when the right herb is matched to the right pattern. Here's a pattern-based guide from nervine... Read more...
Ask the Herbalist: Natural Support for Better Sleep
Ask the Herbalist: Natural Support for Better Sleep
Most sleep supplements miss the mark because they don't match the solution to the problem. Here's a pattern-based guide to the most effective herbal and nutritional sleep support — for... Read more...
Ask the Herbalist: Natural Support for Energy & Adrenal Fatigue
Ask the Herbalist: Natural Support for Energy & Adrenal Fatigue
Morning exhaustion, afternoon crashes, wired at night — this is the adrenal dysregulation pattern. Here's a practical morning and evening protocol using the best-researched adaptogens and nutrients for sustainable energy... Read more...
Ask the Herbalist: Natural Ways to Support Thyroid Health
Ask the Herbalist: Natural Ways to Support Thyroid Health
The thyroid controls metabolism, temperature, mood, and hormones. When it underperforms, everything suffers. Here's a practical guide to the nutrients, herbs, and lifestyle factors that support healthy thyroid function naturally. Read more...
Ask the Herbalist: Natural Support for Hormonal Balance
Ask the Herbalist: Natural Support for Hormonal Balance
Women's hormonal health shifts dramatically across the lifespan. The herbs that help PMS in your 20s differ from what supports perimenopause in your 40s. Here's a life-stage guide to the... Read more...
Ask the Herbalist: Natural Support for Postpartum Recovery
Ask the Herbalist: Natural Support for Postpartum Recovery
The postpartum body has given enormously — restoring it requires targeted nutrition and thoughtful herbal support. Here's a practical guide to the herbs and supplements that actually help new mothers... Read more...
Ask the Herbalist: Are Herbal Supplements Safe During Pregnancy?
Ask the Herbalist: Are Herbal Supplements Safe During Pregnancy?
Pregnancy is not the time to experiment with adaptogens. Here's a clear guide to which herbs are safe, which to pause, and which to avoid entirely — plus what to... Read more...
Ask the Herbalist: Do Adaptogens Interact with Medications?
Ask the Herbalist: Do Adaptogens Interact with Medications?
Most adaptogens are safe with most medications — but several specific interactions are worth knowing. Here's a clear, honest guide to the herb-drug interactions that matter most, and how to... Read more...
Ask the Herbalist: Can You Mix Adaptogens? How to Stack Herbs Safely
Ask the Herbalist: Can You Mix Adaptogens? How to Stack Herbs Safely
Most adaptogens are safe to combine — and often more effective together. Learn the principles of intelligent herb stacking, the best proven synergies, and the combinations to approach with care. Read more...
Ask the Herbalist: Can You Take Adaptogens Every Day?
Ask the Herbalist: Can You Take Adaptogens Every Day?
Can you take ashwagandha every day? Do you need to cycle adaptogens? We break down what traditional herbalism and modern research actually say — and give a per-herb daily use... Read more...
Ask the Herbalist: How Long Do Herbs Take to Work?
Ask the Herbalist: How Long Do Herbs Take to Work?
The most common reason people give up on herbal supplements is unrealistic expectations about timing. Here's exactly how long different herbs take to work — and how to know it's... Read more...