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Oil-Free Hemp Mojo

June 14, 2016 | 15 Comments

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Creamy, Smoky, Spicy, & Citrusy - this Hemp Mojo is oil-free and the perfect marinade or salad dressing for your next Mexican feast! | https://passtheplants.com

My immersion blender died. Cue sad trombone. On the bright side, I learned that my food processor cannot be used to grind cumin seeds into powder. Wait…unnecessary dirty dishes and a broken favorite appliance – definitely not the bright side. BUT. This mojo IS bright and will add some serious zip to your next batch of veggie fajitas! But we’ll get to that in a bit.

I realize that mourning an immersion blender is more than a bit ridiculous, and I’m definitely not wearing all black and moping around the house or anything, but it’s still a bummer. I have had mine for at least 7 years, and it has been one of my most indispensable kitchen tools. And it’s the perfect tool for this mojo, but since mine broke in the middle of me photographing how to make it, I had to go a different route for the photos. I guess I could have faked it, but that’s not my style. ๐Ÿ™‚

This recipe calls for ground cumin, and I grind mine from whole seeds, because it’s more affordable and super fresh. I was all excited because I was first going to grind the cumin seeds in the same jar that I blended the mojo, but once the immersion blender went down, I was scrambling for a different option.

Creamy, Smoky, Spicy, & Citrusy - this Hemp Mojo is oil-free and the perfect marinade or salad dressing for your next Mexican feast! | https://passtheplants.com

This is the part where the immersion blender dies. RIP, immersion blender. I will miss you.

Next up, I tried the food processor, because I was really into the idea of grinding the cumin up with the same tool with which I blended the mojo. But, sadly, I learned that a food processor is not the right tool to grind spices. It just kind of spun the cumin seeds around, grinding some but not others.

So, my trusty coffee grinder turned spice grinder to the rescue. Honestly I probably should have just used this from the beginning, but I tend to learn lessons the hard way. And by that I mean the messy way.

Creamy, Smoky, Spicy, & Citrusy - this Hemp Mojo is oil-free and the perfect marinade or salad dressing for your next Mexican feast! | https://passtheplants.com

There was one other way that I was going to use the immersion blender for this mojo, and that was to show you how I store chipotles in adobo. I LOVE LOVE LOVE chipotle peppers for all that smoky spicy vinegary flavor, but once you open a can, what do you do with the leftovers? No way are you going to need more than a few peppers, unless you’re making chili for 100 or something. So, I love to transfer the whole can into a pint sized wide mouth mason jar, and then puree the whole shebang with the immersion blender. It keeps in the fridge like that FOREVER. I mean, a long time. It’s all thanks to the vinegar in the adobo sauce. And then you have chipotle puree at the ready for whatever you like! 1 tablespoon of puree is the rough equivalent to 1 pepper straight from the can, just FYI.

Creamy, Smoky, Spicy, & Citrusy - this Hemp Mojo is oil-free and the perfect marinade or salad dressing for your next Mexican feast! | https://passtheplants.com

Dang, what a bad time for the immersion blender to go to appliance heaven. I’ll get over it. Now that we have all of our ingredients prepped and ready to go, it’s super easy to make this mojo.

Beth, what the heck is mojo?

OH! I guess we didn’t talk about that, did we? Sorry about that.

Mojo (“MO-ho”) is a marinade that is typically citrus-based, most often made with oranges. I first came to learn about it from a Food Network show called Tyler’s Ultimate, when celebrity chef Tyler Florence made his ultimate fajitas. The mojo that he used is super delicious, but I have played around with it quite a bit and really love using hemp seeds instead of the oil both for nutrition and to make it creamy without oil. And, as a bonus, you can use less liquid and turn it into a super flavorful dressing for any Mexican-themed salads. Plus, it’s super easy to make. Let’s do it!

Creamy, Smoky, Spicy, & Citrusy - this Hemp Mojo is oil-free and the perfect marinade or salad dressing for your next Mexican feast! | https://passtheplants.com

Here are the cast of characters:

Salt
Ground cumin
1 chipotle pepper in adobo
Fresh cilantro
Orange juice, freshly squeezed
Lime juice, freshly squeezed
Hemp hearts/seeds
Garlic

Making this mojo is as easy as adding all the ingredients to a blender along with some water and pureeing until smooth and creamy. Adjusting the water down will give you a thicker, creamier marinade that is really more of a salad dressing. If your immersion blender is still alive, you can also blend this up in a mason jar and not dirty up your blender. Or your food processor. Or your spice grinder. GAH – I’ll get over it one day.

Creamy, Smoky, Spicy, & Citrusy - this Hemp Mojo is oil-free and the perfect marinade or salad dressing for your next Mexican feast! | https://passtheplants.com

I like to use a fine-mesh strainer directly over the blender to juice the oranges and limes – keeps the seeds from accidentally falling in and making the mojo bitter. I’m a nerd who has fine mesh strainers in a set of three different sizes, but in my defense I use them all equally.

Creamy, Smoky, Spicy, & Citrusy - this Hemp Mojo is oil-free and the perfect marinade or salad dressing for your next Mexican feast! | https://passtheplants.com

Creamy, Smoky, Spicy, & Citrusy - this Hemp Mojo is oil-free and the perfect marinade or salad dressing for your next Mexican feast! | https://passtheplants.com

So, what else can you do with this magical mojo? My current obsession is to marinate thick slices of cauliflower and grill them up. Then I serve them on slider buns like burgers, or make my own ultimate veggie fajitas. Just thinking about it is making my mouth water. Oh, and by the way, Grilled Cauliflower Sliders are coming to the blog in just a couple of days. Watch this space!

Creamy, Smoky, Spicy, & Citrusy - this Hemp Mojo is oil-free and the perfect marinade or salad dressing for your next Mexican feast! | https://passtheplants.com

How will you get your mojo on? Fajitas? Salad? Grilled portobellos? There goes my mouth watering again. If you make this, pretty please with cilantro on top give me a shout! You can tag @passtheplants on Instagram.

Get your mojo mojo on! If you see what I did there, we’re meant to be friends. ๐Ÿ™‚

Creamy, Smoky, Spicy, & Citrusy - this Hemp Mojo is oil-free and the perfect marinade or salad dressing for your next Mexican feast! | https://passtheplants.com

Oil-Free Hemp Mojo

Beth Hornback
This creamy mojo (marinade) is packed with flavor with none of the guilt! Leave out the oil in favor of the healthy fats in hemp seeds for a healthy way to brighten up your next batch of veggie fajitas or taco salad.
No ratings yet
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 5 mins
Total Time 5 mins
Course Marinade
Cuisine Mexican
Servings 2 cups
Calories 565 kcal

Ingredients
  

  • 1 orange (juiced)
  • 1 lime (juiced)
  • 2 cloves of garlic (peeled and roughly chopped)
  • 1 in chipotle pepper adobo
  • 1 Tablespoon ground cumin
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup shelled hemp seeds (such as Manitoba Harvest brand)
  • 1/2 cup cilantro leaves and tender stems
  • 1 cup water (3/4 cup if using as a salad dressing)

Instructions
 

  • Blend all ingredients until smooth. Use as a marinade for fajitas, or as a salad dressing.

Nutrition

Serving: 64ozCalories: 565kcalCarbohydrates: 30gProtein: 28gFat: 41gSodium: 2356mgSugar: 13gVitamin A: 150IUVitamin C: 117.2mg
Keyword oil-free mojo, vegan marinade, vegan mojo
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Home ยป Condiments & Dips ยป Oil-Free Hemp Mojo

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Condiments & Dips, Sauce bulk cooking, gluten-free, grain-free, marinade, meal prep, Mexican-inspired, oil-free, spicy, wfpb, whole food plant based

About Beth

Beth is a food photographer and recipe developer based in the Pacific Northwest. She never tires of snuggling with her two beautiful kids and owes piles of chocolate chip cookies to her husband, aka the most wonderful person she knows. Keep in touch with Beth on Instagram, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. jdmitch says

    June 15, 2016 at 7:48 am

    You use an immersion blender to grind spices?

    Reply
    • Beth says

      June 15, 2016 at 8:07 am

      I do! Because of my mason jar obsession, it’s handy because I can dump in the spices and grind right in the mason jar where I’ll store them. It doesn’t work with everything because often I don’t need to grind very much at one time, but in the case of cumin, I use it all the time, so the immersion blender method works for me. With that said, I really hope the death of the immersion blender was not due to operator error. Proceed with caution. ๐Ÿ™‚

    • jdmitch says

      June 17, 2016 at 12:57 pm

      HA! That’s awesome… I never would have thought of that… haven’t wanted to buy a dedicate coffee spice grinder as I rarely need to grind spices… but have wanted a solution… this is perfect!

      PS – I love my mason jars as well… my immersion blender fits perfectly in the wide mouth pints / 8 oz

  2. Hannah Elizabeth says

    June 15, 2016 at 4:36 pm

    Oh, Beth, I am so sorry about your immersion blender! ? I don’t thinks pathetic to mourn it. I would be a basket case/upset/frustrated if my favorite kitchen appliance just up and died on me. Though I’m sure that will happen to me some day…

    This sounds so good, and so unique!! I can’t wait to give it a try…my biggest problem is trying to choose what to use it for first! ? I can’t wait for your future recipe(s?? ?) that uses it.

    Reply
  3. Cassie says

    June 18, 2016 at 11:26 am

    So I come home with a giant bag of hemp seeds to make this, and my husband tells me that his work prohibits him from eating them (because they could make a drug test positive). Can I add a little oil instead?? Also, what should I do with my giant bag of hemp seeds? ๐Ÿ˜‰

    Reply
    • Beth says

      June 18, 2016 at 1:00 pm

      Oh wow, Cassie, that’s so interesting! I think it’s so interesting that there are still places that warn against eating hemp because of drug testing. From what I’ve seen on the topic the person would have to eat a whole bag to even be at risk for testing positive. ๐Ÿ™‚ What I would suggest is to keep the bag in the fridge or freezer, it’ll last a long time that way and you can enjoy them on salads or in smoothies. As for what to use in this mojo, some oil is fine, or I think pepitas (pumpkin seeds) would be a great sub!

    • Cassie says

      June 18, 2016 at 6:40 pm

      Thanks Beth! I think we have some pepitas I can try!

    • Cassie says

      June 20, 2016 at 7:00 am

      Pepitas worked great! This stuff tastes amazing, thanks so much!

    • Beth says

      June 20, 2016 at 3:27 pm

      Woo hoo!!! I figured they would. I’m so glad you love it!

  4. noelle says

    June 20, 2016 at 6:52 am

    Hi! I have never heard of mojo, but it looks great. I have a potluck on Friday, would you recommend this as a dipping sauce for fresh spring rolls? Thanks!

    Reply
    • Beth says

      June 20, 2016 at 3:32 pm

      Hi Noelle! It might work, but with the chipotle it definitely has more of a latin flair than what people typically associate with fresh spring rolls. It just so happens that I have a recipe for sweet potato peanut sauce that goes great with spring rolls, as well as a post about the rolls themselves. Hope that helps! ๐Ÿ™‚

  5. brita says

    July 7, 2016 at 7:44 am

    WHAT?? I’ve never heard of this magic but it sounds amazing! Definitely want to try this!

    Reply
    • Beth says

      July 13, 2016 at 4:34 pm

      Hope you let me know if you do, friend! It’s ridiculously tasty.

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128 shares