Raw Pear and Bean Sprouts Salad

Wonderful lunch :-)
This salad turned out quite nice... It was very easy to put together and had a re-freshing zesty flavor.

How to sprout beans

Sprout People has some good info on sprouting.

It took me close to 4 days to sprout the mung beans. I prefer them when the tails are very small, if you want them to be longer it will take you more than 4 days - I don't know how many because I haven't really tried that :-)

I had no special tools for sprouting I simply soaked them overnight  in plenty of water and then drained them. I then spread the beans in a colander and put them in a warm place for 2 days. I chose my oven because its cold here, otherwise your counter-top would be fine. Twice or thrice a day I sprinkled them with water. And then after a couple of days they just sprouted :-)

They had no bad coloring, no funky smells or any kind of bitter flavor.
They tasted wonderful. Light and crunchy!

It is quite a commitment to start prepping for lunch 4 days in advance :-) just skip them if you don't want to trouble yourself too much.

(prep time 10 mins)
(serves 1)
Ingredients

Bosc Pear 1 large (a little over 3/4 cup chopped)
Mung sprouts 1/3 cup
Red peppers 1/2 medium sized (1/2 cup chopped)
Salad greens 2 cups *I used Organic Girl's I heart baby Kale!
(baby kale, tango, baby spinach, baby green chard, green romaine, baby green oakleaf lettuce)

Vinaigrette

Red onions 1/2 Tbs - minced very fine
Garlic 1/4 Tbs - minced very fine
Macadamia nut oil 1 Tbs *I used Brookfarm Natural Macadamia Nut Oil
(I tend to consider most cold press nut oils as raw... I know some might not agree. So please don't use this if you have concerns)
Fresh lime juice 1 Tbs
Lime zest  1/4 tsp
Pink Himalayan salt 1/3 tsp
Fresh ground coarse pepper 1/8 tsp

Whisk together all the ingredients in a large bowl and keep aside.
You can use olive oil instead but macadamia oil was wonderful... very buttery and delicious. I highly recommend it.

Method

Simply chop the pear and red pepper into chunky pieces.
Toss these in the vinaigrette along with the mung sprouts and pour over the greens.
Enjoy.

 



 

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Raw Banana Ice Cream

I have been greatly enjoying learning different aspects about raw foods. This recipe may not be perfect for an ice cream connoisseur but I was happy with how it turned out and thought I should put it up and share my experience.

Healthy.
Very simple and easy.
No sweeteners no dairy no eggs.
Surprisingly satisfying :-)
I loved it.
:-)

Inspired from various sources:

For raw ice cream click here.

For fresh coconut milk click here.

I did not discard the water from the coconut and used it to make the milk. And I felt too lazy to peel off the dark outer side of the coconut so I left it on thinking that it might add a nice creamy color to the "milk".

 

Both these sites are very well written with absolutely beautiful pictures.

Highly recommend you read the info there.

Note:
You can make this without a fancy blender like a Vitamix or an ice cream maker. I own a Braun Multiquick 400W Immersion hand blender. Which is just AWESOME and I love it to death. I have had it for 8 years now and no complaints. Bought it from amazon but sadly it is now unavailable..... anyway the point of this whole story is that any decent (300W and up) blender should work. The end product might not be super flawlessly smooth but it will be good enough.

Note:
This will not freeze like regular ice cream. After an overnight in the freezer  it will be too hard or crumbly to scoop out. You will need to rest it on the counter top for 7-10  minutes to soften a little before you can handle it.

(serves 3-4)
Ingredients

Raw cashews 3/4 cup (soaked in cold water for 2 hours)
Raw coconut milk 1 cup
Very very ripe bananas 4 large
By very ripe I mean the peel should be 70% dark brown. After peeling cut into small pieces and freeze over night - you should have about 4 cups.

Toppings *optional

Raw cacao nibs 1/4 cup  *I bought mine from Marie & Frères
Walnuts 1/2 cup (freshly shelled and chopped roughly)

Coconut Milk

Making fresh coconut milk is easy once you have successfully cracked it open :-)
First I poked 2 hole in the "eyes" of the coconut and collected the water - it was about half a cup. I used a clean screwdriver and hammer to accomplish this.
Then I smacked the coconut very hard with a hammer several times and all over to crack it open.
Once it was open I used the power of my bare hands to break it into large chunks.
To take the hairy shell off  I used a butter knife and stuck it between the shell and the flesh to loosen the flesh. This was easy... the flesh came out without much effort in large pieces.
I washed and then chopped up the flesh into 1" chunks and threw everything in a blender.
I added an extra 1/2 cup of regular plain water.
And then I let the blender do it's thing for several minutes.
I drained the pulp through several sheets of cheese cloth and collected the "milk" in a cup.
I was also left with maybe 1/2 Tbs worth of coconut butter at the bottom of the blender and I added that to the milk. You can see bits of the fat floating in the liquid in the picture below.
I have to say that the milk and the especially butter was so MmmmmMmm YUMEE!
Very delicate coconut flavor and so fresh tasting..... way better than anything out of a can.
Seriously I wanted to just drink it plain!

Method

Blend the frozen bananas, coconut milk and cashews (throw away the soaking liquid) in a blender until smooth.
My blender took me 3-4 minutes, depending on what you use... yours might take less or more time.
I also had to stop a couple times during blending and use a spatula to dislodge frozen bananas in the blender.
It should look like soft serve with a slight texture after everything is blended well.
At this point you can eat it plain or with some walnuts and cacao nibs sprinkled on top.
If you want it to be more frozen or if you have left overs then pour out the slush in a large bowl.... freeze it for an hour and then blend it again. I used the stick attachment for this.
Do that 2-3 times and you will have a nicer and smoother consistency.
Mix in the walnuts and cacao nibs or just sprinkle on top.

Note:
You can easily use an ice cream maker if you have one... just follow instructions on the manual.
Typically that means freezing the bowl insert overnight and then churning the cooled ice cream custard - which in this case would be the blended slush - for about 30 mins..... hmm I am thinking maybe you don't need to use frozen bananas for the ice cream machine?

I should also point out that I happen to love fruity or nutty ice-creams more than chocolate flavors. What makes it good for me is a natural flavor and a natural color.

I really enjoyed some pretty awesome banana ice-cream last year in Hotspot Lahore. It had walnuts and bits of chocolate in it. In fact I made the above recipe thinking about the one from Hotspot.

And while we are on the subject..... OMG 3 Twins Ice Cream!
The scoop shop in SF had the best ever banana (not listed on their site) and strawberry ice-cream. Needless to say both flavors were incredibly tasty but what drew me to them was their perfect color!

Really good blueberry ice cream  from Cascadian Farms.
Yum.....







 

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Idli - Sambhar - Chutney

This humble meal is what we recently had on Christmas Eve.
A small gathering of close friends and good food is always a good idea :-)

Following were the deciding factors behind our selection:
We wanted to spend very little time in the kitchen.
Wanted something spicy.
Something soupy and soul warming.
Vegetarian.
Very little cleanup.
And something you could eat tons of without feeling full or too guilty :-)

The idlis were made using store bought batter.

We used "Shastha idli batter" purchased from Mayuri.
You can get this easily from any Indian grocery store.
We steamed the batter in idli molds for about 15 mins on the stove top. We sprayed a little oil on the molds before filling it up with batter.

The sambhar was semi home made.

Tomatoes 1/2 cup chopped
Daikon radish 1 1/2 cups chopped
Okra 1 cups chopped
Eggplant 1 cup chopped
Green peas 1/2 cup
Carrots 1/2 cup chopped
Garlic 1/2 Tbs copped
Thai chilies 1 Tbs chopped (about 5-6 medium sized chilies) *adjust according to your tastebuds
Water 5-6 cups
Sambhar mix 5-6 heaping Tbs (we used MTR Sambar Mix available from any Indian store)
Butter 3-4 Tbs *optional - we went for it :-)

All the vegetables need to be cut small and they need to be the same size.. about 1/2".
Add the vegetables in a big pot filled with water, add the spice mix and turn on the heat.
Once the water has begun to boil, lower the heat and cook slightly covered for 30 mins.
Add butter at very the end after turning off the heat.

And the chutney was home made.

Fresh cilantro 1 bunch (stems and all - washed ofcourse)
Vinegar 1/2 cup (we used apple cider)
Dried red chilies 2-3 medium sized *adjust according to your tastebuds
Dried un-sweetened coconut flakes 1/2 cup *you can also use frozen or fresh grated coconut
Tomato 1 medium sized
Garlic 1 large clove
Red onion 1/3 of a small onion (roughly 1.5" thick slice)
Thai chilies 3-4 medium sized chilies *adjust according to your tastebuds
Salt 1/2 tsp

All of the above ingredients blended well in a blender.

Tada!
:-)

 

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Raw Juice Pulp Crackers

I have been eating raw vegan foods a couple of times a week now. I absolutely love the flavors and I am very surprised about the creativeness that goes into preparing some of these foods.

As tasty as this diet can be I don't think - at least not yet - that I'll ever fully convert because I don't necessarily agree with the all claims in health benefits and feel adequate research and proof is lacking. But I hope to maintain being 15-20% raw. Primarily because raw vegan foods feel light, refreshing and healthy plus I do agree with some of the health claims :-) and because I love the challenge of learning new techniques and coming up with or trying out new recipes.

I have been juicing for about two years now. I was instantly inspired from this movie which you can watch free on netflix and on hulu. I immediately got a juicer from Amazon the very next day. This particular Breville juicer is very compact, powerful, affordable and therefore suits me very well. I have a small kitchen, a ton of cooking related stuff and a looong wish list of stuff that I want. Anyway back to the juicer, its awesome! I LOVE all the juices I can make and am very much in love with it. On the flip side I am very unhappy about the pulp that I have to throw away. I don't have a need to compost so I make patties or add the pulp into soups but mostly it goes down the garbage disposal.

So basically the concept behind these crackers is something that I borrowed from the net while searching for ways to utilize leftover juice pulp. These seem good because you can store them for a long time.

I am making these raw and the guidelines tell me to "cook" them under 118 degrees to preserve all the nutrients. You will need a dehydrator for that. However, if you don't care about the whole raw deal then you can bake them in your oven at the lowest setting (170 or 180 for most people) until they feel crispy.

I am very pleased to share with you my very first raw recipe :-)
You can find hundreds of very creative recipes out on the net :-)
I hope to get better at these and will gladly share my experiments with you. These were pretty good with or without dip. I added no salt or extra spices but surely the addition of those will make for even tastier crackers.

Method

Pulp from:
2 small granny smith apples
1 whole bunch of celery

I added to this pulp:
1 Tbs of flax seed (I didn't soak them)
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onions
2 green chilies thinly sliced

I pretty much mixed every thing up, spread the dough very thin on a tray and dried them on my Nesco 700 Watt dehydrator set at 115 degrees. After about 8 hours they were still a little soft (perfect texture for breads and wraps!) I flipped them and continued to dry them for another 6 hours to make them perfectly crunchy.
Total of 14 hours :-)

 

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Chunky Salsa

(Serves 6-8)
(Prep time 15 mins)

Ingredients

Tomatillos 3 (cut up into med sized pieces)
Red tomato on the vine 4 (remove seeds and cut up into pieces)
Yellow tomato on the vine 4  (remove seed and cut up into pieces)
Jalapenos 1 med (minced very fine)
Red onions 1/4 cup (chopped finely)
Garlic 1/4 tsp (minced very fine)
Cilantro 1/2 bunch (chopped coarsely)
Juice of 2 large limes
Salt 1/4 tsp
Pepper 1/8 tsp

Place all the cut up tomatoes in a sieve and season with salt.
Put the sieve in the fridge and allow the water to drain from the tomatoes for about 15 mins.
Combine all the ingredients together in a large bowl.
Mix well.
Serve chilled.

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Minty Mango Salsa with Crystallized Ginger

A delicious quick and easy salsa great with fish tacos!

(makes about 2 cups)
(prep time 15 mins)
Ingredients

Mango 1 large (cut into chunks, choose a sweet ripe mango) - you can also use fresh pineapple

Mint leaves 5-6 (cut into thin strips)

Red pepper 2-3 Tbs (chopped fine)

Red onions 1 Tbs (chopped fine)
Green onions 2 Tbs (chopped fine)

Cilantro 1 Tbs (cut into strips) - optional

Jalapeno 1/2 Tbs (minced) - optional

Fresh ginger 1/2 tsp (minced)

Crystallized ginger 1 tsp (minced) *Raw foodists raw crystallized ginger recipe 

Juice of 1 fresh Lime

Salt

Mix everything together.

Allow to refrigerate for a few hours for all the flavors to combine.

Enjoy :-)


Following is not my creation but a great sounding recipe I found on the net.
Posting it here for the sake of completion.
Original source:  http://goneraw.com/account/show/evergreen

Raw Crystallized Ginger

Submitted by evergreen
Servings: 1 cup

Ingredients:
1 cup Medjool dates, about 12 pitted
1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
1 organic lemon, zest only
.33 cup date sugar, can be made by dehydrating and grinding dates
 
Preparation:
1. process dates and ginger till smooth.
2. pulse in lemon zest and about 1/4 cup sugar till stiffened.
3. roll into 1”log.
4. wrap in food wrap sprinkled with additional sugar and place in fridge till firm.
5. slice into desired pieces and coat with more sugar.

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