Lower-Fat Rama Spinach Curry with Tofu July 4, 2009
Posted by a-k in nuts, recipe, tofu, vegetables.9 comments
With kaffir lime-cilantro rice and sugar snap peas.
I really like Thai curries, and I’ve always been a sucker for anything involving coconut milk and peanuts. But being vegan and eating Thai food means a lot of questions about fish sauce and eggs, and sometimes disturbingly not knowing whether you’re truly getting something without any offending ingredients. (At least in my experience, I’ve been told differing accounts of ingredients for the same dish by different people, and I often get told the bad news by a kind vegan server after I’ve ordered the same dish a couple of times.) On top of this, Rama Spinach Curry is pretty darn rich, what with loads of full-fat coconut milk and unknowable amounts of peanut butter, even for this not-too-fat-content-concerned lady.
So for both reasons, making this dish at home is a pretty good idea. I’m not going to claim this is a low-fat dish, because it’s not, but it’s certainly lower in fat than anything you’re going to get at your local Thai restaurant, without sacrificing the lovely peanut and coconut flavors. You can throw it together while your brown rice is cooking, and you can control the level of wilt in your spinach by steaming it to your own preference (or just going with fresh). This is a spicy, creamy, and ever so slightly sweet curry that would go great with a fresh salad or tangy veggie side dish (I opted for some lightly dressed citrus-y sugar snap peas from my CSA share). While I recommend thawed frozen tofu for a chewy texture, feel free to substitute fresh (or go with mock duck if that floats your happy boat).
Lower-Fat Rama Spinach Curry with Tofu (serves 3-4)
16 oz tofu, frozen, thawed, and cut into bite-size pieces
splash of oil for sauteing
1/2 onion, diced
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 clove garlic, minced or pressed
3/4 cup light coconut milk
1 tbsp peanut butter
1/2 tbsp red curry paste, or to taste (Thai Kitchen brand is vegan)
2 tbsp Sucanat or other vegan sugar
2 tbsp tamari
1/3 c chopped roasted peanuts
3-4 c fresh spinach
Heat oil over medium heat in a large skillet or cast iron pan and add onions and tofu. Cook, stirring occasionally, until onions are translucent. Add ginger, garlic, coconut milk, peanut butter, curry paste, sugar and tamari, stirring to dissolve sauce ingredients. Simmer over medium-low heat until sauce is reduced and slightly thickened, about 10-15 minutes. Stir in chopped peanuts, reserving some for garnish if desired.
Meanwhile, steam spinach until just wilted, or leave fresh. Place a bed of spinach on each plate, top with curry and reserved peanuts, and serve with a side of rice.
Raw Week: Fruity Crepe and Veggie Dressing June 4, 2009
Posted by a-k in dressings and sauces, fruit, nuts, raw, recipe, salad, vegetables.14 comments
Raw Crepes stuffed with Vanilla Lemon Pine Nut Cream, spiced fruit salad, and date syrup
Today has been a weird day. I had some weird nightmares so I never felt totally rested all day, and on top of it I had my (usually) least favorite shift at work.
However, I had an AMAZING breakfast, as you can probably see! I used the Rawmelette shells to make a fruit crepe. Or is it a fruit taco? I can’t decide. The early morning intense domestic in me decided it needed a little more than just a shell and fruit salad, so I decided on some date syrup (which I’ve wanted to make for a long long time) and some kind of sweet nut cream. In raw food, there are some nuts that don’t need much, if any, soaking in order to be pureed. Pine nuts are one of them, and I had half a cup waiting to be utilized!
I was hesitant at first, since pine nuts have a more distinct flavor, but I’m so glad I took the plunge. The delicate flavor of the pine nuts went so well with the tangy lemon and warm vanilla and it’s just lovely for dipping your finger into! I used this to “glue” the fruit salad to the shell.
Vanilla Lemon Pine Nut Cream
Vanilla Lemon Pine Nut Cream
1/2 c raw pinenuts
juice of 1/2 lemon
2 tbsp raw agave nectar
1/2 tsp acidophilus powder (optional, for a tangier flavor)
1/2 vanilla bean scraped (or a splash of vanilla extract)
Place all ingredients in a food processor and process until smooth … It may be quite thick. Pause occasionally if the motor gets too hot and to scrape down the sides as necessary.
I also made some date syrup by soaking 1 1/2 c dates in some warm water for 20 minutes, then draining and blending with 3/4 c water and a couple shakes of cinnamon. If you have an empty squeeze bottle lying around, this is a great way to make use of it and fancy up some desserts (raw or not)! The crepe was spread with pine nut cream, filled with spiced berry fruit salad, and drizzled with date syrup. Yum!
Raw Fruit Crepe Closeup
For lunch I thought a soup would be nice. I’d read a long time ago about “Energy Soup,” which, it turns out, is really just another term for a savory green smoothie. Being quite happy with my sweet green smoothie creations, I thought this would be no problem. Well, I was wrong. I don’t know if it was me being out of garlic, or missing some essential base flavor, or just a bad combination, but this was really acidic and frankly kind of difficult to eat. Because of the carrots it turns more of an olive green color which I tried to ignore by covering it in cilantro and red peppers. I made an energy soup once a while back that was delicious, really and truly delicious, but this sadly wasn’t. Anybody have any good recipes for energy soup?
Curried Energy Soup
When I got home from work with a bunch of free red bell peppers, I knew they had to become part of my dinner. Originally I’d planned to make a red pepper tahini dip to make lettuce roll-ups, but when I blended everything together it ended up too thin for that. What resulted is a creamy, delicious concoction with a hint of spice that I used (liberally) as a salad dressing and fed to my detox friend as a soup. If you find yourself with some extra peppers, make this! It’s so good, and such a lovely bright salmon color. I had it over field greens with sliced snow peas, micro greens, tomatoes, hemp seeds, and a side of rosemary crisps.
Green Salad with Creamy Red Pepper Dressing
Creamy Red Pepper Dressing (or Soup)
2 red bell peppers, chopped
1/2 red chili pepper, seeded and chopped
1 large garlic clove (minced if not using a high speed blender)
2 tbsp chopped onion
1/2 zucchini, chopped
1/4 c raw tahini
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbsp chopped cilantro, for garnish
Blend all ingredients except cilantro in a food processor or blender until smooth. Garnish with chopped cilantro.
Tomorrow I’m drinking a green smoothie for breakfast, and headed to Ecopolitan for a dinner date with my detox friend Michael. Who knows what lunch will bring? Though I have a hunch it might include avocado…
Healthy Breakfasts: Steel Cut Oatmeal November 10, 2008
Posted by a-k in breakfast, nuts, recipe.10 comments
Steel Cut Oatmeal with Bananas, Pecans, and Cinnamon
We’re always told that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It provides the foundation for the long hours of work ahead, or in the case of my days off, lazing around the house pretending to “clean.” But I’ve never been a big breakfast person. I’m not hungry when I first wake up, and I’m not in much of a position to wake up any earlier than I already do to eat before work. In addition, most cookbook sections on breakfast include sugary carb fests or fried foods or Sunday brunch-type fanciness that don’t really make me motivated to get going in the morning. Come to think of it, not many of my cookbooks include their own breakfast sections.
I’m tend toward the lighter side of breakfast. I tend to go toward the slightly sweeter kind of breakfasts or a big smoothie rather than savory, mainly because they’re quicker to prepare. But in my efforts to curb my sugar intake, I’m looking toward ways to sweeten things up without using refined sugar, opting for fruit-sweetened ways to force some early morning nutrients into my body. (I’m not really force-feeding myself, I’m just trying to change some bad non-breakfast-eating habits.)
Enter the oatmeal! Steel cut oats, being less processed, retain more nutrients and are better for you than their more-processed cousins like rolled or quick-cooking oats. They also, like brown rice vs. white rice, take longer to cook (about 20-40 minutes vs. 5-10 minutes). But if you make a large batch, you can always reheat other portions throughout the week. Or, if you are fancy and don’t have to work earlier than I do, time doesn’t matter much.
On its own, steel cut oatmeal has a nuttier flavor and more toothsome texture. Sometimes I like it plain, and spiced up after it’s cooked. You can toast the oats in margarine before adding liquids but since I am also trying to limit my intake of Earth Balance and up my intake of healthy fats like coconut oil I would probably opt for the latter if I was going to go that route. Generally I just heat up the liquids I am going to cook the oats in, then stir in some spices and the oats and a handful of dates, turn the heat down, and cook until most of the liquid has absorbed. I have a lot of flavor combinations I play with – traditional flavors like cinnamon and apples, or festive like coconut, ginger, cinnamon, and pecans.
I’m including a recipe for a more unusual combination, but you can switch out the spices and liquids to suit your own taste. Remember those instant packets of oatmeal? When I was little, I loved the peaches and cream or strawberries and cream. I don’t know how much I’d like that combination now, but this recipe pays homage to that rich, creamy, and fruity sachet of breakfast, only without the artificial flavors, preservatives, and refined sugars. The flavors are subtle: a combination of apricot nectar and hemp milk provide the creamy, slightly fruity base, sweetened with softened dates and spiced with cinnamon and nutmeg. A small handful of chopped nuts adds extra protein and a nice crunch to this steamy bowl of filling yumminess. If you’re feeling extra decadent and want to add some calcium to your morning routine, stir in a few tablespoons of tahini before serving. Also, this makes a big pot for leftovers. Feel free to halve it if it’s just you, or if you just don’t dig eating the same breakfast for a few days.
Creamy Apricot Steel Cut Oatmeal with Dates and Nuts
Creamy Apricot Steel Cut Oatmeal with Dates and Nuts (makes 4 hearty portions or more):
2 c apricot nectar
2 c hemp milk or other non-dairy milk
2 c steel cut oats
pinch of salt
1/2 c pitted, chopped dates
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
chopped pistachios, walnuts, and/or other nuts (optional)
Bring the nectar, hemp milk, and salt to a low boil over medium heat. Stir in the oats, dates, cinnamon and nutmeg and reduce the heat to very low. Cook, uncovered, for 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking. Spoon into serving bowls and top with nuts and a dusting of cinnamon, if desired.
In which I try to have a Raw Wednesday… October 9, 2008
Posted by a-k in nuts, raw, vegetables.7 comments
Raw breakfast: spiced buckwheat porridge and a green smoothie
This is not the best day of the week for me to do raw. On Wednesdays I bake cookies and quick breads for 8 hours at work and having that stare me in the face, well… I can’t resist snacking on that little scraping of vegan tollhouse dough from the bottom of the mixing bowl. I’ll have to pick another day for it, although I did manage two raw meals, including an experimentation with raw oatmeal. It was good but needs a little bit of tweaking yet for the super yummy seal of approval. Still, it could fool you, couldn’t it?
Spiced raw buckwheat porridge
I tried warming the oatmeal in the dehydrator for about 30 minutes (this is often encouraged for soups and dishes in various raw cookbooks on cold days) because it was chill-y! I must say it was nice not to hold a cold bowl in my hand, especially since I had it with a super dark green smoothie of banana, pear, spinach, kale, almond milk, lemon and cardamom. Yum!
For lunch, an old standby: Brazil-Broccoli Mash with Miso Gravy from Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen. The dressing, in particular, is so smooth and sweet and salty and delicious! I had wanted to have this with marinated portobellas (a la mixmaster_mo … who also has an awesome new blog!), but I didn’t get around to buying them. Next time for sure! Still tasty with slices of red navel oranges (which also featured in the gravy) and a spicier reincarnation of that eggplant jerky (not pictured) I made back in June.
Brazil Broccoli Mash with Miso Gravy and red navel orange slices
I hope to get some more raw into my diet again, since I’m still eating tons of sugar and wheat lately for some reason (and raw desserts are by far my favorite!). I’ve also been dreaming up a new version of vegan Swedish meatballs (a seemingly ancient version is here), which I might also consider make a raw version of. Think of the possibilities! And have a lovely end of the week and start to the weekend…
Ginger-Pecan Baked Peaches September 8, 2008
Posted by a-k in dessert, fruit, nuts, recipe.11 comments
A Decadent Breakfast: Ginger-Pecan Baked Peaches with Lettuce, Tempeh Bacon, and a Potato Pancake
I’m back! A week after moving day, I finally get a new post up here. I only just finished going through my Google Reader, and I must say everyone was showcasing some really good late summer food! It made me hungry and inspired all at once! There really are a lot of talented vegans out there.
Our new apartment is still full of stacked boxes, both empty and full, and my kitchen is almost completely put together. While I’ve gained a lot more charm than our last kitchen had, I’ve also lost space to move and store things, so there will have to be some creativity involved in getting everything to fit. (I’ll post a picture someday when it’s finally clean!)
The last few weeks at our old place had me feeling pretty unconfident in my abilities to cook – probably because I didn’t have everything at my disposal, and I was trying to use up groceries rather than make anything I wanted to. But setting up a new kitchen and getting to do some real shopping again has steadily increased my self-confidence and creativity. Which brings us to peaches.
A recent produce run got us a basket full of fresh fruit, including a couple of beautiful peaches. They sat for a few days until almost malleably ripe and my mind wandered back in time to an ancient dinner party I had where I served baked peaches for dessert. This was before I was vegan, and if my memory serves me well it probably involved lots of butter and mascarpone cheese. I’m all for veganizing that, but this was going to end up as breakfast food which called for something a little lighter. Instead of a heavy, spiced, creamy dessert, think of a light, bright, and simple one. You can really taste the peaches and the fresh lemon and ginger, with just a hint of brown sugar sweetness and the crunch of pecans. If you’re a sugary guy or gal, add more sugar (or even maple syrup), and if you don’t have pecans, use walnuts or almonds, or even some granola. And you don’t have to be weird like me and serve them for breakfast; they still go well as dessert!
I feel a bit guilty calling this a recipe, since I encourage playing around with the ingredients and amounts. And my own amounts are pretty varied. But for anyone who must know how these came to be, here you go:
Ginger-Pecan Baked Peaches (serves 2-4):
2 ripe peaches, halved and pitted
zest and juice of 1 lemon
2-4 teaspoons vegan margarine (I love me some Earth Balance!)
2-4 teaspoons brown sugar
4 teaspoons pecan pieces
fresh grated ginger, to taste
Preheat oven to 375F.
Place the peaches, cut side up, in a baking dish. Grate the zest and squeeze the lemon juice over each half, and place a small dab of margarine in each hole. Sprinkle the brown sugar and pecans on top, and finish with some fresh grated ginger.
Peaches with lemon zest and Earth Balance
Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until sugars are caramelized to your liking. (For an extra golden color you can place them under the broiler for a few minutes.) Serve warm (with vanilla Rice Cream or Purely Decadent for dessert!).
raw day 5: do you love color? June 26, 2008
Posted by a-k in dessert, nuts, parties and happenings, raw, recipe, tart, vegetables.14 comments
fresh fruit tart with citrus banana cashew cream on a buckwheat crumble crust
today, i loved colors. well, more than usual, and in my food. i am fully aware that it is much hotter and muggier in other parts of the world than it is here in minnesota, but today was our first really hot day. my one-block walk to work left me uncomfortably hot and sweaty, which was an unfortunate follow-up to the morning of fun food-making.
i had some soaked cashews waiting to be used in the fridge and a bunch of bananas on the counter, which i thought would pair well together to make a rich and creamy topping for the buckwheat crumble (again, from living cuisine) crust i’d made over the weekend. and though i love bananas and have been adding them to smoothies and eating them plain, i thought they might work well with some citrus flavors for variety. at work i have to bake these (unfortunately not vegan) citrus pistachio shortbread cookies that smell SO good. until i feel inspired to turn my oven on and veganize them, i thought i’d borrow the intoxicating trio of lemon, orange, and lime for this little creation.
most of my raw eating has been from cookbooks because i am far less familiar with the concepts and i wanted to learn new ideas and techniques. this time, however, you’re in luck if you’re jonesing for a homemade recipe! i’m going to go out on a limb and say you could probably make this with all bananas and no cashews if you can’t eat nuts, as well as subbing avocado for bananas if you’d like to keep the creaminess but skip the banana flavor. it works equally well as a pudding with granola and fresh fruit. or you can do it like i did.
citrus banana cashew cream filling (makes enough for a 10″ deep pie crust, maybe more):
1 ½ cups cashews, soaked 6-8 hours
2 bananas, peeled and broken into chunks
8 dates, pitted*
1 whole orange, zest and juice
½-1 lemon, zest and juice (start with 1/2)
½-1 lime, zest and juice (start with 1/2)
2 teaspoons vanilla, or vanilla bean
water, as needed
Place soaked and drained cashews in a food processor or blender and process into a meal. Add remaining ingredients (except water), and blend thoroughly, scraping down the sides as needed, until as creamy and smooth as possible. Add water as needed to adjust thickness (how much juice you get out of your fruits will affect this too). This may take 5 minutes depending on the strength of the processor/blender (but if you choose the no-nuts route, far less time). Taste and add more zest if desired. Use as a pudding or pie/tart filling with fresh fruit, eat, and pass out from creamy deliciousness.
*the dates do darken the cream up a bit, so you can use agave to taste if you prefer, or leave it out if you just want to rock the banana.
why yes, i did have a piece for breakfast!
after a quick rinse in the sink, the bowl went back on the food processor to whip up some pea mole (that’s the guacamole kind of mole) for a “torta” i was planning to bring to a dinner party later. however, that’s when i had to get creative. the “torta” crust i had made the day before out of sprouted wild rice and some other things didn’t smell quite right. i noticed this about the wild rice the last time i rinsed it – it smelled off in a way that made me worry it had gone bad. i rinsed it really really well and the smell seemed to go away, but after dehydrating it the smell was back and i just couldn’t risk sacrificing perfectly good fillings on a crust that might make me (not to mention my friends) sick. painful as it was, i tossed it and hoped i could come up with some sort of elaborate new dish. but i had no good ideas, and not much time. luckily my eyes landed on the massive container of rosemary crisps sitting innocently on the kitchen table, and i found my purpose. the summer manitok torta from living cuisine became, instead, spicy pea mole with avocado and tomato on rosemary crisps:
i actually added garlic (and some cayenne for kick) to the mole, since that flavor was meant to be in the wild rice crust, but otherwise kept it the same. instead of a torta, i had individual servings with a slice each of avocado and tomato, and parsley for garnish. despite a slightly less crispy cracker from being prepped in the morning, these were well received as my somewhat self-conscious contribution of raw. since i sadly couldn’t partake in the delicious-looking quinoa and garbanzo salad, i had three mini tortas!
i don’t know what tomorrow will bring, but i do have a small bowl of leftover mole, tomatoes, and avocado, so they will likely end up in something. that, and i have half of the fruit tart left (yep, it was all me). perhaps i’ll conjure up an appropriate vehicle during my haircut after work tomorrow?
“meshes of the afternoon” appetizers June 17, 2008
Posted by a-k in dehydrator, dips and spreads, nuts, raw, recipe, vegetables.12 comments
raw eggplant jerky, lemon hummus with fresh salsa, raw no-wheat thins, and roma tomatoes.
here in minneapolis, we are lucky to be having pretty decent weather right now. it’s warming up, but we still have cool nights, and the humidity hasn’t gotten nasty. still, i appreciate breaks from using the oven whenever i can, living in the attic level of an old house.
this makes dehydrator life very appealing! while it still emits some heat, 105 degrees is far preferable to, say, 400. i have just started learning how to plan for dehydrating more than one thing at a time (though i still only made two simultaneous creations for today’s post), which is a better use of energy, of course. besides the cookies and cereal, i made one sheet of strawberry-lemon fruit leather (devoured promptly on saturday at midnight, hence the lack of photo). so on monday, my day off, i got up early and sliced some eggplants on the mandoline and made a “jerky” marinade for them. then i soaked some almonds for making a fresh batch of milk, the pulp of which formed the base of some “no-wheat thins” made later in the day. that’s one things i really like about making raw food (which, i’m sure, could be adapted in several ways to non-raw food): getting to re-use leftovers from recipes (like nut or vegetable pulp from milk or juice) to make all-new recipes (like cookies or carrot cake!). maybe i should say that i know that i and many people use cooked leftovers in creative ways, but you seem to be left with a lot more unadulterated base ingredients when preparing raw food. or maybe i’m just really excited about doing this cleanse, and i want it to sound more exciting than it really is? anyway, onto the recipes.
if you don’t want to experiment with turning your oven on and off to recreate a dehydrator, or the sun and humidity isn’t cooperating, or you’re into diy projects, you can go here to learn how to build your own solar food dehydrator. hooray!
i adapted this recipe for eggplant jerky to suit and set my own quantities. the texture becomes very jerky-like, but the flavor isn’t very much in that vein because, of course, nothing gets smoked in raw food. the flavor is still really amazing though – rich, tangy and spicy. i did discover that i do not like chewing through a slice of eggplant peel, so i would recommend discarding the outer peel slices (but the peel-edged slices were great!). i needed two large containers to marinate the eggplant slices in, but in the end they shriveled up into one medium-sized quantity.
raw eggplant jerky (makes about 1 quart):
2 medium eggplants (about 1 1/2 lbs.), sliced thinly (halved if large)
1/2 c olive oil
1/2 c balsamic vinegar
1 clove garlic
1/2-1 red chili pepper, roughly chopped
3 tablespoons of raw agave
1 1/2 tbsp fresh ginger, sliced
1-2 tsp salt, or to taste
cut the eggplant into quarters lengthwise, and cut off the stem end. slice thinly using a mandoline, vegetable peeler, handheld cheese slicer, or with a knife. place into one or two large airtight containers, with enough room for some shaking. in a blender or food processor, process the garlic, chili pepper, and ginger until fine. add the balsamic vinegar, olive oil, and agave and blend until emulsified. pour the marinade over the eggplant, cover, and shake to saturate all the pieces. marinate in the fridge for at least 8 hours (i cheated the original recipe) or up to 24 hours. place on lined dehydrator trays and dehydrate for 12-24 hours, flipping once, until jerky-like. (my slices were pretty thin, so it only took about 12 for me).
**alternately, if you don’t care about keeping it raw or necessarily having a super-chewy texture, you could bake these in the oven at 350F for 15-20 minutes or until crispy.**
for the no-wheat thins, i’m going to point you in this direction, since i followed it pretty faithfully. i used wet almond pulp so i reduced the amount of water a little bit, and had to pre-grind my flax seeds in a spice grinder because my food processor isn’t that powerful. also, i added some cracked pepper and nutritional yeast for extra fun times (sprinkled on top of the spread cracker “dough”). these were really light and tasty, and i am excited to experiment with adding buckwheat or other seeds for more texture and flavor. if you omit the pepper and nooch, they could be a great base for sweet toppings too!
ps – if you’re wondering about the title of this post, my ladyfriend asked me to change it from simply “afternoon appetizers” to its current incarnation as a nod to maya deren’s film. she’s cute, eh?
summertime colors June 9, 2008
Posted by a-k in cookies, dessert, fruit, herbs, nuts, raw, sammiches and wraps, sauces and spices, smoothie, vegetables.9 comments
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!
more test recipes May 31, 2008
Posted by a-k in baking, bread, nuts, tempeh, vegetables, zine.11 comments
lemon zucchini bread (pictured on a bamboo plate purchased from twin cities green**)
after a bit of a break due to hectic-ness with work and life, i’ve promised myself i’d develop a few more recipes this weekend to test for the zine. today got me baking, sautéing, and giving one of the older recipes a new twist:
polenta-baked maple-mustard-chili *tempeh* over spicy kale with thai peanut dressing
for a change, i thought i’d try my recently amended marinade on some tempeh instead, coat it in some polenta, and bake it – instead of my usual naked tofu/grill route. it turned out delicious! a told me it looked like baked fish sticks (“but not in a gross way”). i served it over spicy sautéed kale with thai peanut dressing, inspired by a similar coconut-peanut-spinach curry i love to get at true thai (only, i imagine, quicker to make and less fattening).
i also baked some lemon zucchini bread, which has the perfect lemony hint and deliciously moist interior for a summer treat. i’m bringing it into work tomorrow morning, also, in hopes that they’ll start making it in the bakery (because sadly, our vegan mini bread selection is in quite a depressed state). here is an inside shot, fantastic alone, though also great with a little earth balance spread on top.
**twin cities green is a local eco-friendly retailer and information center that sells recycled, reclaimed, sustainable, fair-trade, natural and organic furniture, home/kitchen goods, clothing, bath products, books, baby stuff, etc. even their labels and gift certificates are printed on the backside of used cereal boxes! they also hold workshops on several topics like diy, bike maintenance, and eco-friendly alternatives. if you live in the twin cities, i recommend checking them out.
giving an old enemy another chance May 12, 2008
Posted by a-k in cookbooks, fruit, herbs, nuts, raw, smoothie, soup, vegetables.5 comments
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.
