raw avocado-kale enchilada with pepitas, red onion, tomatoes, cilantro and chili flakes, inside a raw corn-flax-lime tortilla and covered in mexican-style cheese sauce

today i had the second half of my enchilada meal for lunch, and unlike the pasta, this one kept wonderfully!  i used a tortilla recipe from frugal raw!, which i might dip into more for the spicy recipes (including indian curries!), but made my own fillings.  i was slightly thinking back to the potato-kale enchiladas from vcon in coming up with this, but also dealing with the limits of my fridge at 930pm.  to get the kale soft, i stemmed and chopped it, then massaged salt into it (a technique learned from this recipe).  unbelievably, it softens and reduces just as if it had been cooked!  then i just added pepitas, avocado, red onions, tomatoes, cilantro, chili flakes, and a little salt.  i used the remainder of my alfredo sauce from the pasta and added cumin, coriander, cayenne, and carrots (for color) to make a mexican style nut cheese to pour over the top.  it was so pretty, and so delicious (though i wished i had some raw hot sauce!).

as far as the rest of the day, i’ve been snacking on crackers and fruits and veggies.  i did make myself a green smoothie when i got home from work which used orange juice instead of almond milk (from my usual), and fresh ginger.  i upped the greens in this one, and it was amazing (and extra green)!  again, i made enough for two jars:

it’s almost 90F today, so really i just want to lay in front of the fan and nap with some ice cubes.  tomorrow morning, however, i have to prep something for a dinner party i’m going to later that night, so i think it will be back to some more fancies (as the crust is already crisping in the dehydrator).

…after making this banana-apricot green smoothie.  i used my regular blender and realized after cleaning it that i’d forgotten to add the fiber mix for this detox i’m doing, so i pulled out my 7-year-old cheap rival immersion blender that i got from my aunt when i was a sophomore in college.  it’s been through some abuse over the years, and it sputtered a slow death (in noises, not into my smoothie!) when i started to mix in the powder.  i’m trying really hard not to toss things and get something new these days in order to save plastic, packaging, and money, so i’ll have a little peek later today and see what my lacking diy electrical skills can do.

oh, and the smoothie was delicious!

it’s been awhile, due to tweakings on zine tester recipes and the loaning out of my camera’s memory card. luckily, the recipes have been sent to the testers, and the memory card came back today! so i set to work making something tasty.

i’ve mentioned before that i’m planning to do about a week-long raw fast at the end of the month. i’ve been doing lots of research and a few experiments (some of those should pop up around here soon). the early summer weather has got me craving raw foods from ecopolitan a lot, but i often push that aside to preserve my pocketbook and being able to eat “acceptable” meals with my partner and my friends. i’m trying to make more food at home instead of running across the street (though ecopolitan’s desserts are heavenly. HEAVENLY. last week i had a slice of purple heart pie and i don’t know everything that was in it but i almost fell off my chair it was SO good!), especially since i don’t want to end up broke after a week! i’ve heard of people who did a raw cleanse and spent 500$ on groceries for five days’ worth! i can only imagine that they’re making recipes from raw food real world or the like, and relying far too heavily on nuts. at any rate, that’s not the plan i have in mind.

after a trip to the store, i scored huge in the freebies-for-employees produce (including a cherimoya that’s nearly the size of my head and looks to be just about perfectly ripe!) as well as some other things i needed around the kitchen. i made a smoothie based on this recipe, only i juiced the rhubarb and a cucumber together to use in place of water, and i only had about 5 nuts sitting in my fridge. there was some leftover juice which i added water and lemon juice to as a “summer cooler” that i plan to drink while gardening this afternoon.

strawberry-rhubarb-cucumber smoothie for breakfast

for lunch, i’ve been having visions of raw spring rolls, with colorful fillings bursting out of them. originally i’d thought of using daikon as the wrapper, but got some daikon sprouts instead. i’m the first to admit i only thought until i started looking into raw food that only alfalfa and mung bean sprouts were in existence. and if you go by most supermarkets, you might think so too. i’ve never been a fan of alfalfa sprouts - to me, they’ve always tasted like dirt and got in the way of other sandwich fillings. but when i heard about radish sprouts, i knew i had to try them. they’re spicy, and their little leaves are generally a bit larger than alfalfa sprouts. i also went with carrots, a ripe champagne mango, zucchini, cilantro, and fresh basil as fillings.

i don’t have a recipe, per se, for these rolls. but i do have some tips about making raw spring rolls.

1) if using a leafy green that is pale on the underside, remember to place your fillings on the pale side. this way when you roll it up, the color will be on the outside (and it will probably roll more easily that way too). if there is a thick stem or rib at the base of the leaf, cut it out and overlap the two sections to keep the fillings from spilling out.

2) pick a nice variety of textures, flavors, and colors. having crunchy carrots and sprouts with soft mango and zucchini was a nice mix for the delicate butter lettuce. in the flavor department, fresh herbs are your best friend! regardless of the zestiness of the daikon sprouts and the creaminess of the mango, for example, the cilantro and basil really would have been missed. likewise, pairing whatever your fillings end up being with a good dipping sauce will really help expand the flavors, as well as moisten everything. lastly, having a lot of colors not only makes it look pretty, but also means you’re getting a wider variety of nutrients.

3) don’t overstuff. like their rice paper wrapper cousins, using too much filling will make them difficult to roll and hard to keep closed. however, you can combat this by using toothpicks to hold them together. and regardless of how careful and exacting you are, these can get pretty messy to eat. napkin recommended!

i also made my first raw cookies today. a really great benefit to making your own nut and seed milks is that you can use the leftover pulp as a base for cookies or cheeses. in this case, i had some pumpkin seed pulp that i added dates, ginger, cardamom, carob, and almonds to. we don’t have the world’s greatest food processor, so i ended up adding too much water to try and get the dough to stick together. but dehydrated for a few hours and they weren’t half bad for a recipe-less first attempt, although they tasted an awful lot like the topping for the apple crisp i made (i think it was the ginger). next time i’m going to add more carob powder and maybe some cinnamon!

pineapple-cucumber gazpacho with jalapeno and cilantro

awhile back i ranted about the book raw food real world.  and while i still find classism and elitism at the root of my various issues with the book, i thought i’d give it another look-through to see if there were any relatively simple, less exotic (read: cheaper ingredients) recipes i could try out.

with the arrival of spring comes a renewed interest in light and fresh foods for me, particularly raw ones.  i’m sure that many people living in cold climates manage to sustain some high level of a raw diet, but i’m not going to be one of them.  however, i am trying to be more conscious of what i am eating, which includes eliminating certain ingredients (mostly refined/white and overly-processed ones) and eating more raw fruits and vegetables.  the green smoothie thing is still going pretty strong for me, provided i have the ingredients and don’t have to be at work by 630 am (this happens three times a week)…my blender sure is getting a workout lately!  but luckily it’s a lot easier to clean than other blenders i’ve used.  and i know i’m not alone in trying green smoothies or trying to “be better” about what enters my digestive system.

so, back to my day-off raw (or mostly raw) food endeavors… this makes it easier because i don’t necessarily have to worry about whether a will eat it because she’s at work.  this actually spanned last night’s dinner, and today’s breakfast and lunch (dinner is tbd).  i got a free organic pineapple from work last week, which was really the thing that reminded me of rfrw - one of the recipes i made from it when i first got it was a cheater version (i used canned pineapple) of the pineapple-cucumber gazpacho with jalapeno and cilantro.  it claimed to make four servings, but it was easily two (or maybe i was really really hungry).  since it was an extra-light soup, we had it with some quinoa.  it was delicious!  i could easily eat this on those blistering, muggy summer days, and it doesn’t require anything fancier than the pineapple.

because i wanted something different, and because a took the last banana to work, i ended up making a different kind of drink for breakfast this morning: the fig and grape cleansing shake.

red grapes, black mission figs, star anise, vanilla, a pinch of salt, water and ice.

i don’t have a vitamix so this wasn’t as smooth as it could have been, but it was a nice change, and very filling and hydrating.  i haven’t had grapes in ages!  i think it would be good with some ginger too.

and lunch today was definitely the most labor intensive of the three (though because of some nut soaking) and by far the most expensive (again because of the nuts).  it is titled celeriac and green apple soup with black truffle.  but i wasn’t going to buy myself a black truffle (much less know where to find one) or black truffle oil, when i already have a (seemingly endless, though tiny) bottle of white truffle oil.  nor did i want to buy a plastic container of chervil to use as a garnish.  all of this especially since i was using 3/4 c of macadamia nuts, which don’t come cheap!  i didn’t follow the recipe exactly; i eyeballed measurements as far as the celeriac and green apple, and added some rosemary that i had in the fridge.  my half batch this time seemed to make a lot, but the soup was elegant and tasty despite my lack of straining out the pulp and nut particles.  i’d make this again for a special occasion, but it won’t be going on my list of regular raw soup recipes (that list isn’t actually real).

i still prefer ani phyo’s book to this one because of the simplicity and wallet-friendliness, but if i were to, say, plan a romantic candlelit dinner involving some raw food, i would probably use rfrw.  i think i still need to work on the idea that raw food doesn’t have to mean a gourmet meal from ecopolitan, and try out some recipes that use seeds rather than nuts.  this year’s garden should provide plenty of opportunity to make my own creations too.  however, cooked food is not forgotten here, it’s just being supplemented.

the first time i was showing a how to use the juicer, she looked at all the pulp being pushed out and asked me, “can you eat that?”  a test taste quickly proved that it was generally a more bitter version of whatever was being pushed down the chute, and i thought then that only thing you could do was compost it.  but we live in a city apartment with no outdoor space, and my attempts at hoarding food ends in a sealable plastic bucket to be taken to my garden last summer never really worked out.  due to laziness, and the nauseating prospect of having to open that tub after it had been cooking in a humid apartment.

then i stumbled across a cake recipe in ani phyo’s book (i seem a little obsessed with this book lately, don’t i?) for raw carrot cake, which used leftover pulp from juicing carrots.  and what do we have in our vegetable drawer but six pounds of carrots (due to a little miscommunication over two separate grocery trips)?  and a pint of dates?  and shredded coconut in the freezer?

so first i set about making up for abusing my stomach this morning when i drank a cold press shake at work (ouch, tummy).  i juiced a few handfuls of carrots, and threw it in the blender with a cup of blueberries and a banana:

it doesn’t look super appetizing in this photo, but it does taste good, and is really good for you (antioxidants, beta carotene, potassium, to name a few).  and then i took that prized carrot pulp and mixed a few things together, and ended up with this:

with my slice cut out:

and a magical top view (see how it glows!):

i was hesitant but hopeful, considering how much i love the breakfast cakes.  this isn’t terribly similar ingredients-wise, but the idea of the carrot cake seemed close to it.  it is sweetened with dates, spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg, and covered in a cashew “kream cheeze” frosting.  and, it is really deliciously good and cake-like.  obviously, there is a bit more crunch to the texture than a flour cake, but it holds together like a cake, has a good flavor, and is neither too sweet nor too bland.  which, if you know me, is how i like my desserts.  one thing i would probably change if i made it again would be to add lemon zest in addition to juice to the frosting, for a little more tartness to counteract the “cake” part.  i made a half batch, and i am really glad, because this made a cake too big for one person certainly, and almost too big for two.  i ate a quarter of it and am stuffed!  but happy, knowing i can’t really feel too much fear/guilt about having treating myself to cake.  (i don’t often associate guilt with food, actually, which i think is pretty healthy.  however, my body has been feeling a little tired from the onslaught of a daily cookie and bread snacking i had been doing the past couple of months.)  this really makes the possibility of once-a-week raw (or more) seem very, very appealing.

i got a ton of strawberries from work the other night, so before throwing them all in the freezer, i whipped up a tasty breakfast smoothie:

7 fresh strawberries
1 banana, broken in pieces
6 oz vanilla soy yogurt
1 tbsp hemp powder
1/2 c non-dairy milk

place all ingredients in blender and process until smooth.
 
 
this was super tasty and could easily be made with frozen fruits on hand. hopefully i’ll stop spending all my money on smoothies at work. except for that damn maple pecan shake… damn maple pecan shake, i can’t get you out of my mind!!
 
 
 
 
also at work yesterday i picked up a copy of vive la vegan! that i spotted in hbc. she seems super into hemp seeds/oil and vegan worcestershire sauce but i am excited about some good things in there. for lunch i decided to try out the creamy chickpea pasta sauce, which was the closest recipe i came to having the time and ingredients for. i didn’t have any fresh herbs (i should have a window herb garden) which i think would have really made it super, but adding fresh red pepper was a good substitution of sorts and it was still quite magical.

i’ve moved my blog here! i think it’s a little prettier.

today i woke up at 9am and walked down the street to work and picked up some tempeh bac’un, some frozen blueberries, and some spiruteen. combining these with other ingredients already at home produced this:

bac’un, zucchini corn pancakes, and a homemade “blue velvet” smoothie! i adapted the lemon corn waffles with blueberry sauce from ppk, and made pancakes instead.

zucchini corn pancakes (makes 8-10 pancakes):

1 1/4 cups +2 Tablespoons flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/4 cup corn oil (veg or canola oil will do)
2 cups “milk”
1 tbsp ground flaxseeds + 3 tbsp water (or 1 “egg”)
1/4 cup sugar
nutmeg and cinnamon, to taste
1 small zucchini, grated

in a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cornmeal, and salt. in another bowl, combine all remaining ingredients except zucchini, and whisk well. make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour wet ingredients in, slowly combining with a fork until most of the lumps disappear. then stir in zucchini until combined.

heat a small non-stick skillet over medium-hi heat. add 1/2 cup batter and tilt to cover the bottom of the pan. heat until edges are firm and bubbles appear in the center. flip with spatula and cook another 2-3 minutes or until browned. repeat with remaining batter.

blue velvet smoothie (makes 2 16 oz. servings):

2 cups “milk”

2 bananas

1 cup frozen blueberries

2 “scoops” spiruteen

place all ingredients in blender. process until smooth.

so filling! next time i will halve the recipe, because there were only two of us, and i didn’t cook half the batter in the end. so i hope leftover pancake batter lasts… i had it with maple syrup, but i’m wondering what some kind of fruit (sauce) would taste like. maybe strawberries.

well, we’ve got to show this apartment in 1 1/2 hours. time to tidy.