Adventures in Raw Food

Category: Main Dishes

  • Raw Recipe for Vegan Raw Fake Tuna Fish Salad – Yum, It’s SO Good!

    This raw recipe for vegetarian fake tuna salad is so delicious, and to make it vegan all you have to do is use vegan mayonnaise! You’ll be astonished at just how much it really tastes like tuna!

    First, I have to give props to my dear friend and ‘daughter’, Kelly, over at The Spunky Coconut. I originally got this recipe from her, and have changed it only a little bit (primarily by not blanching the almonds, making it both easier, and completely raw).

    Ok, here you go – this recipe for raw fake tuna is truly amazing. I ended up eating most of it right out of the bowl! Have I mentioned that you’ll be astonished at just how much it really tastes like tuna?

    Raw Fake Tuna Fish Salad

    First, take:

    1 cup raw almonds
    1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds

    “Sprout” the almonds and sunflower seeds by soaking them overnight in filtered water (it’s called “sprouting” them, but they don’t actually sprout – what the soaking does is activates their sprouting mechanism, bringing out all the wonderful nutritious enzymes and other goodies)

    The next day, when you are ready to make your raw fake tuna salad, drain the almonds and sunflower seeds, and throw them into the bowl of your food processor with the ‘S’ blade.

    Pulse them until they are chopped fairly finely. Then add into the food processor bowl:

    1 to 2 ribs of celery (depending on how much you like celery in your tuna), chopped
    1 half onion, chopped
    1/3 cup pickle relish (not sweet – get the dill variety)
    2 Tablespoons lemon juice
    2 teaspoons dill (fresh or dried – fresh is nicer and most stores now have it in the produce section)

    Pulse until blended and then until as finely chopped as you want.

    Turn into bowl and blend in:

    1/3 to 1/2 cup mayonnaise, to taste
    sea salt, to taste
    fresh ground pepper, to taste

    Enjoy on a sandwich, on crackers, wrapped in lettuce leaves, in celery, or just straight out of the bowl!

  • Jessica’s Mostly Raw Lasagna

    This raw lasagna is “mostly raw” because of the use of organic tomato sauce. It is absolutely delicious, and can be made entirely raw by making your own raw tomato sauce (liquify fresh tomatoes in a blender or food processor with some fresh oregano and basil, and strain out the liquid). Says Jessica of this recipe, “Even those who have been resistant to the whole raw/slightly cooked food, were going back for seconds of this raw lasagna!!”

    Jessica’s (Mostly) Raw Lasagna

    1 zucchini
    2 tomatoes
    organic garlic powder
    dried or fresh organic oregano
    dried or fresh basil
    organic tomato sauce

    Parmesan Cheese:

    One part sesame seeds
    One part celtic sea salt

    Lasagna:

    Slice zucchini in very thin, flat, slices, lengthwise (like
    lasagna noodles).

    Slice tomatoes in the same manner.

    In a baking pan, place a layer of zucchini on the bottom, and then layer with one layer of tomato slices, and sprinkle with a small amount of garlic powder, basil, and oregano. Continue this until the all of your zucchini and tomato slices are used up. Cover with organic tomato sauce.

    Place in dehydrator to warm or, if you don’t have a dehydrator, warm in low oven until just slightly warmed to meld the flavours together.

    Parmesan Cheese: Mix ingredients together and process in food processor until the consistency of parmesan cheese.

  • Fantastic Portabella Mushrooms for Sandwiches

    It’s one of the latest fads – portabella mushrooms for sandwiches. Portabella mushrooms are delicious, and a great source of vegetarian protein. But how do you do portabella mushrooms raw?

    Once again, it’s the trusty dehydrator to the rescue, and it is so easy!

    Take your portobello mushrooms, and clean and destem them. Save those stems!

    Now, you are going to make enough of the following to allow you to coat the mushrooms well (by submerging them, turning them, and removing them to a dehydrator tray):

    1 part balsamic vinegar
    1 part Nama Shoyu
    2 parts olive oil
    salt and pepper to taste.

    Mix the above well, submerge the portabella caps in the liquid, turn to coat all parts of the mushroom caps, and then place the caps on a Teflex lined dehydrator sheet.

    Now cut the stems in half length-wise, and put them in the liquid, turn to coat, and put those on the dehydrator sheet as well.

    Set the dehydrator to 115 degrees, and leave the mushrooms in until they are just tender and soft. For me it takes between 3 and 5 hours, depending on the size of the mushrooms.

    These portabellas are perfect on a sandwich or, if you want to go 100% raw, just on a plate cut up like steak. They are delicious!

    And use the stems to toss into a pasta or other dish, or as a garnish.

    These will keep for up to a week if wrapped well in plastic wrap, but they are so delicious you will want to eat them right up.

  • Annie’s Stuffed Summer Squash

    Have you ever found yourself wondering what to do with summer squash? You know the type – pale yellow, crooked neck?

    The problem with summer squash, from a raw diet perspective, is that the entire center of the squash is filled with seeds. So you can’t easily spiral slice it for noodles, and it seems like other than slicing it into rounds or matchsticks, there’s not a whole lot you can do with it.

    Wrong!

    You can make stuffed summer squash!

    It turns out that if you slice a summer squash in half, length-wise, and cut off the crook neck (reserve the neck to make yummy, refreshing marinated squash rounds!), you can scoop out the seed section, and have perfect little “boats” to fill with stuffing and let cure in your dehydrator!

    Now, I just created this recipe last night, so you should feel free to riff on it as you see fit (and let me know!)

    Annie’s Stuffed Summer Squash

    4-6 pale yellow summer squash
    1/2 cup sunflower seeds
    1/2 cup quinoa (uncooked)
    1/4 cup raisins
    equal parts olive oil and nama shoyu or soy sauce

    Mix the sunflower seeds, quinoa, and raisins, and put in a bowl, covering well with water (I use filtered water). Let soak for about 2 hours.

    In the meantime, cut the neck off each squash, at the base of the neck (reserve for Marinated Summer Squash Rounds). Also cut the bottom tip of the squash off.

    Split each squash in half, lengthwise, and with the tip of a small spoon carefully scoop out the center core of seeds. You will now have perfectly formed, seedless “boats” in which to place your filling.

    Mix the equal parts olive oil and nama shoyu or soy sauce – enough to coat each piece of squash all over – in a bowl. Let the squash soak in it a bit, and then place the squash pieces on a Teflex-lined dehydrator sheet, cut side up.

    When the 2 hours’ soaking period is up, grind the sunflower seeds, quinua and raisins in your food processor to a stuffing-like consistency.

    Now here is where you get creative. I felt at this point that the stuffing lacked a little something. So I added a little of this, and a little of that, and at one point it all came together for me and was perfect. But what works for me in terms of ‘best flavour’ may not work for you.

    What I added to my stuffing was:

    A couple of dehydrator sauteed mushrooms, some fresh sage, and some poultry seasoning herbs that I happened to have laying around.

    Once you have the stuffing exactly as you want it, fill the squash boats, and put them in your dehydrator at 110-115. Let them cure until the squash is nice and soft – but not too soft. Go for al dente, or a slight bit softer. For me this took about 6 hours, but it will take more or less time depending on your dehydrator, the thickness of the squash, and how long you’ve soaked the squash first.

    That’s it!

    These will keep fairly well in the fridge for a few days if covered with plastic wrap, but do bring them to room temperature before serving, or warm them slightly using the oven pilot light warming method.

  • Thai Spring Coconut Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce

    I created this recipe for dinner tonight, and it was great! It’s tasty tasty, and very satisfying!

    Thai Spring Coconut Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce (picture included)

    2 young Thai coconuts
    1 recipe Annie’s Spicy Peanut Sauce
    Fresh mung bean sprouts
    Fresh cilantro
    Fresh basil

    Open the coconuts and remove the meat using these directions. Drink the coconut water, or reserve it for some yummy recipe.

    As best as you are able, create noodle-like strips of coconut.

    Put together one recipe’s worth of my Spicy Peanut Sauce

    At this point in the process you are essentially ready to go (and in fact nearly done) and, if you like or need be, you can put both the coconut (in a bowl or plate covered with plastic wrap) and the peanut sauce in the fridge for a day or two. Although you can certainly just press on and prepare the dish to be served.

    To assemble the Thai Spring Coconut Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce, first reserve two tablespoons of the Spicy Peanut Sauce, then combine the coconut noodles and the rest of the Spicy Peanut Sauce in a bowl, and toss to coat the noodles with the sauce.

    Transfer to a serving bowl or plate. Tear up a handful of cilantro leaves into small pieces (about 1/2 to 1/4 the size of a whole cilantro leaf) and sprinkle around on top of the noodles.

    Now top the noodles with a pile of mung sprouts. How much you use depends on your own taste and preferences.

    Now, take a 2 large or 3 to 4 small basil leaves and mince them finely. Sprinkle them all the way around the edge of the dish, where the noodles meet the serving dish.

    Finally, take the two tablespoons of the Spicy Peanut Sauce you reserved, and dollop them in the center of the heap of sprouts. Take two large whole basil leaves and stick them into the sauce as garnish. Your dish should now look something like this:

    Enjoy!

  • Raw Food Mashed “Potatoes” Made with Cauliflower

    This is a recipe for raw food mashed “potatoes”, only it’s really raw food mashed cauliflower. While it doesn’t taste exactly like mashed potatoes, it’s a decent approximation, and very tasty on it’s own!

    1 small head of cauliflower, cut up.
    1/2 cup Milk of Paradise cashew/macadamia butter
    OR 2/3 cup cashews or macadamia nuts, soaked for 1/2 hour
    1 tablespoon olive oil
    1-2 tablespoons butter or vegan butter substitute (optional)
    1-2 cloves garlic, chopped (optional)
    salt and pepper to taste

    Put cauliflower and Milk of Paradise (prepared and sold by Living Tree Community) in a food processor, and process until smooth. (If using soaked nuts, process them first, then add the cauliflower.)

    Add the olive oil and (if you are using it) the butter, and the garlic (optional) and process until completely smooth.

    Add salt and pepper to taste.

  • Angel Hair Zucchini with Macadamia-Cashew Cream and Cherry Tomatoes

    Tonight for dinner we had angel hair zucchini with macadamia-cashew cream and cherry tomatoes. It was delicious!!

    And it was incredibly easy to make.

    I started with a couple of yellow zucchinis. I didn’t even know that there was such a thing as yellow zucchinis, but, well, there you have it. They are very tasty!

    I spiral sliced them with the finest blade using my Benriner spiral slicer.

    Now, before I tell you the rest, I have to tell you about this company called Living Tree Community. They are based out of Berkeley, California (although they ship nationwide), and their raw and living products are amazing. No, really, amazing.

    And one of those amazing products is their Milk of Paradise Organic Macadamia Cashew Spread. I can’t even begin to describe how delicious this nut butter is!

    So, I took a couple of tablespoons of this ambrosial macadamia cashew butter, and I added just enough filtered water – mixing very well – to make it the consistency of a nice alfredo cream sauce. I tossed this with the zucchini.

    Then I added a couple of grinds of pepper and some sea salt.

    Then I quartered about a dozen cherry tomatoes, and tossed them in.

    And that was that.

    And it was VERY good.

    And I even have a picture (the other two items on the plate are kale dressed with my 1:1:1:1 dressing, and sunflower pate):

    Check out Living Tree Community here.