Raw Summer Soft Fruit Crisp

Topping:

1 cup organic walnuts
1 cup organic almonds
1/2 cup organic shredded coconut
4 medjool or other moist organic dates, pitted
1 Tablespoon agave nectar

Filling:

3 to 4 ripe organic nectarines
3 to 4 ripe organic peaches

Directions:

Cut fruit into quarters or smaller, and process in food processor until cut into approximately 1/4-to-1/2 inch size pieces.

Pour fruit into a pan that will fit in your dehydrator - anything 4 x 4 up to 8 x 8 will do! I’ve used both a 4×4 and an 8×8 plastic container (such as Rubbermaid or Tupperware) although you could use a cake pan. I prefer a smaller (such as 4×4) container, as it gives you a deeper filling base - I think that 8×8 makes the filling base too shallow.

Place all topping ingredients in bowl of food processor with the ’s’ blade (the curved cutting blade). Pulse until all ingredients are uniformly processed and crumbly, with crumbs no larger than pea-sized.

Spread the topping on top of the filling, spreading it evenly all over.

Put the pan in the dehydrator, near the middle, at 115 degrees, for 2 to 4 hours. You can eat it any time after about 2 hours, but 4 hours is best.

Yum!!!

Here are some pictures of my original raw berry fruit crisp - the summer fruit crisp looks the same, just different fruit:

In the dehydrator:

Just out of the dehydrator:

With a little corner cut out so you can see the filling:

Enjoy!

Annie’s Chocolate Coconut Cream

Raw organic coconut butter
Raw cacao powder
Raw agave nectar

Take 2 parts raw coconut cream, to about 1 part raw cacao powder. Add a bit of agave nectar to make it easier to mix, and once mixed, add more agave nectar until cream mixes desired sweetness and consistency.

Really - you have to try this, it’s incredible.

This Recipe Uses These Products:

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.

And you will too!

Jessica’s Raw Sugar-Free Gluten-Free Wheat-Free Yeast-Free Vegan Chocolate Mousse

1 cup raw chocolate coconut butter
1 ripe avocado
¼ cup water
2 Tablespoons raw cacao powder
3 Tablespoons raw agave nectar
1 can raw coconut milk, separated (use only the creamy part - use the water for something else)
¼ teaspoon Celtic sea salt

Place ingredients in bowl, whisk until smooth, and serve, or chill.

At last, a source for fantastic vegetarian marshmallows (which are, in fact, even vegan marshmallows)! This means that they are also kosher marshmallows (although not necessarily Kosher marshmallows, as in officially approved - but they are free of animal products).

A lot of people may not realize that marshmallows are not vegetarian or vegan. That’s because usually marshmallow ingredients include gelatin (or gelatine), which traditionally comes from the bones of animals.

Now, I don’t know the secret to Sweet and Sara’s vegan marshmallow recipe, but let me tell you that these are some amazing, gourmet marshmallows. And so we were very sad when our local connection for this confection, 3 Little Figs, closed down. But they were nice enough to put me in touch with the source - who in turn told me where we could get them online.

And so, I am telling you!

Order vegetarian marshmallows (vegan marshmallows!) from Vegan Essentials

Each of the ingredients is available, already prepared, at your local healthfood store or online (including in our raw foods online store)!

Raw Trail Mix

Equal parts:

Raw chocolate nibs
Sprouted and dehydrator-roasted raw pumpkin seeds
Sprouted and dehydrator-roasted raw sunflower seeds
Goji berries

Mix the equal parts of raw chocolate nibs, raw pumpkin seeds, raw sunflower seeds, and goji berries in an airtight container. Close the container, and shake to mix.

Snack and enjoy!

Enough organic mixed greens for 2-3 servings (3-4 good handfuls)
1 avocado, diced
1 ripe peach, diced
Balsamic vinaigrette

Mix, and enjoy!

Rennet is derived from the enzymes in a newborn baby calf’s stomach. That’s right, nearly as soon as the baby is born, they slaughter it to get those enzymes so that they can make the cheese from the milk that its mother will no longer be able to feed it. (Heartbreaking, isn’t it?)

But it is possible to make cheese without using animal rennet. In fact, any cheese that is marked “Kosher”, by definition cannot have a product derived from a dead animal mixed in with the dairy, so it will not have animal rennet.

Unfortunately, a lot of Kosher cheese (not all, but a lot) is also rather, well, bland (to be kind).

Other than that, it’s hard to find cheese that you can know does not use animal rennet. For some reason, many cheese producers simply list in the ingredients, instead of rennet, the word “enzymes”. And enzymes can mean either animal rennet, or non-animal rennet. And I certainly don’t want to chance it, do you?

But here’s something interesting - there are cheese producers who make really good cheese, and who don’t use animal rennet. Why they don’t shout this from the rooftops is beyond me. They are missing a big market.

One example is Tillamook, a cheese that is sold in many supermarkets across the United States. If you look at their ingredient list, you’ll find that it clearly says “We do not use animal rennet.” But you have to really look. All Tillamook cheese is safe for vegetarians - and free from animal rennet - except for their special 2 year reserve cheddar, which I’ve only seen a few times anywhere. (I know all this because we toured the Tillamook factory, up on Oregon, and they are very proud of the fact that they use no animal rennet, and they warned us about that special 2 year reserve cheddar.)

We particularly go through a lot of Tillamook’s medium cheddar, which we buy in 2 lb. loaves, and my husband and I also love their sharp cheddar, but they also make other standards, such as Monterey Jack, Colby Jack, and pepper Jack.

A brand with which you may be less familiar, but which is well-known in California, and also rennet free, and organic to boot, is Horizon.

Horizon is awesome because in addition to being organic and rennet free, they sell a lot of pre-shredded cheese, which is awesome for making pizza, Mexican food, etc.. And they sell several varieties, for example they sell a shredded mozzarella, a shredded cheddar, and a shredded Monterey Jack. They even sell a blend of shredded cheddar, colby and jack!

The most recent example of really good cheese that is vegetarian, but you’d never know it without asking, is the cheese from the Marin French Cheese Company. They make, among other yummy cheeses, the wonderful Rouge et Noir Triple Creme Brie. Now, nowhere on the package will you find them telling you that it’s vegetarian and rennet-free. They use that horribly ambiguous word “enzymes” in the ingredients list. But I happened to be at Whole Foods one day, and they had a Marin French Cheese Company rep there handing out samples, and he was telling the world that it was vegetarian. “Are you sure?” I asked. “Absolutely,” he responded, “you can even look it up on our website.” And so I could, and you can too - you can read about how all of their cheeses are rennet-free here.

You can buy their Rouge et Noir Triple Creme Brie here.

It’s wonderful served with some fresh pears. And it’s fantastic with the top skin sliced off, and warmed apricot preserves poured on top.

So there you have it. If cheese is part of your diet, now you can have delicious cheese that you know to be vegetarian.