Adventures in Raw Food

We had these raw food crepes for dessert last night, and wow they were good! And there is something about eating this kind of dessert where the fruit still tastes like it is supposed to, rather than having been cooked into some sort of goo, that is just wonderful.

The crepe itself is a take-off on a recipe originally gleaned from Alissa Cohen’s book.

Fresh Fruit Raw Crepes

Very ripe bananas, approximately one per serving
1 tsp. vanilla
Fresh fruit of your choice, for filling*
One recipe Deep Dark Delicious Raw Chocolate Sauce.

[*Berries are really best as they are soft and lend themselves well to crepes – if you use another fruit make sure it is soft, and cut it up into whatever size pieces you want for your filling.]

Put the bananas in your food processor and puree along with the vanilla just until completely smooth. The puree will have the consistency of a thin pancake batter.

Line dehydrator shelves with Teflex sheets, and pour two 6″ circles of puree into each sheet, making sure to leave some space between them. The puree will pour out much like pancake batter, and naturally assume the shape of a circle – pour it slowly and gently!

Dehydrate the crepes for about 14 hours or so. But be sure to start checking them after about 12 hours. You want the tops of them to be tacky to the touch – but almost “no longer tacky”. At this stage they are fairly solid, but still flexible. What you don’t want is for the crepes to get too dry, as they will get tough, hard or brittle.

At this point you can either carefully remove the crepes from the Teflex sheets and drape them over a rolling pin, or carefully roll the Teflex sheet into a wide tube with the crepe still on it, to achieve the same effect. The point is to let the crepe cool in a curved shape – this is in case you did dehydrate them a bit too long, so that you can still salvage them.

If you are not going to use the crepes immediately, cover them with plastic wrap to keep them from drying out.

To assemble the crepes, puree a bit of the fruit you are using. Place a crepe on each serving plate, and cover it with a thin layer of the puree (this will help keep it moist). Place a tablespoon or two of the fruit filling in the center of the crepe, roll the crepe up, and then place it seam-side-down on the plate.

Drizzle Deep Dark Delicious Raw Chocolate Sauce on top of the crepe and, if you like, garnish with a sprig of mint and/or some berries.

If you have a Vita-Mix and are short on time – or just dipping your toe in the water of juicing – then those bagged, prewashed organic baby carrots are just the thing!

It is so incredibly easy to make delicious, nutritious whole juice with these babies!

Just throw about a cup of the baby carrots into your Vita-Mix, add 1/2 to 1 cup water (depending on your taste) and blend at high speed for 20-30 seconds, until everything is liquified!

If you prefer combination juices, to the above start adding anything which strikes your fancy! Some of my favourite juices include any (or all!) of the following added to the above: one apple cut in quarters, one orange peeled and quartered, or one-quarter to one-half inch of fresh ginger.

You can also add some ice cubes in place of some of the water, which makes for a somewhat thicker, and colder, drink.

Finally, when you are done with your juice, don’t forget to put a cup or so of water and a few drops of dish soap in your Vita-Mix and blend it at high speed for a few moments. It’s a simple way to get your Vita-Mix easily cleaned down to the bottom of the blades!

You can use all of the summer squash for these, but I like to make them with just the necks, and use the rest of the summer squash for Annie’s Stuffed Summer Squash. Plus the neck rings are more delicate, while the body of the squash has all those seeds in it.

This is a really simple, and amazingly tasty and refreshing side dish.

Marinated Squash Rounds

summer squash – as many as you want – sliced into thin rounds
good balsamic vinegar
good olive oil
a Tablespoon or so of fresh oregano leaves
salt
pepper

Mix equal parts balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Add a few grinds of fresh pepper and salt. Mix in the oregano.

Add the squash rounds to the vinegar and oil mixture, and turn well to coat. Make sure that all of the squash is at least coated with the mixture, and most of it is soaking in the mixture.

Cover with plastic wrap and let marinate overnight (or make in the morning and let marinate all day to serve the same evening).

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.

Do you have a gas oven with a pilot light? If so, your oven may be perfect for gently warming those raw dishes which cry out to be served slightly warm!

Remember that a basic precept to eating raw is that the delicious and nutritious enzymes, anti-oxidants, and other rawiddy goodness are lost or destroyed when food is subjected to temperatures above about 115 degrees farenheit. This is why so many recipes call for using the dehydrator at gentle temperatures.

Well, I have a gas stove, and it turns out that the pilot light causes the oven to be at a constant temperature of about 120. All the time. Always there, always waiting. And my oven has a little tab I can flip out to keep the door opened just a crack (but you could easily use, say, a wooden spoon to accomplish the same thing), and when that door stays open just a crack, it brings the temperature down to about 105.

Perfect for gently bringing a chilled dish to serving temperature!

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!

This simple, gorgeous sorbet really takes only 5 minutes, and that’s including clean up! And it goes fabulously under Deep Dark Delicious Raw Chocolate Sauce (which also takes less than five minues to make!)! A complete dessert in only ten minutes!

5-Minute Raspberry Sorbet

1 package frozen organic raspberries
1 t lemon juice
squirt or two of raw agave nectar (to taste)

Empty the raspberries, lemon juice and agave nectar into your Vita-Mix or blender.

Blend on high speed until smooth (you really do want it smooth because of the raspberry seeds).

If you prefer your sorbet on the softer side, either blend a bit longer, or leave raspberries out a few minutes (but only a few!) before blending.

Serve immediately.

Delicious with Deep Dark Delicious Raw Chocolate Sauce.

This delicious raw chocolate sauce is a riff on a recipe from Shazzie and David Wolfe’s incredible book, Naked Chocolate.

It’s incredibly easy, amazing delicious (and so good for you), and tastes great on 5-minute raspberry sorbet! This is as true a dark chocolate sauce as you could want.

Deep Dark Delicious Chocolate Sauce

2 T raw cacao powder, either ground from raw cacao nibs or purchased as powder
2 T raw agave syrup
1/2 t coconut oil or other organic raw nut oil OR 1/2 t filtered water (trust me, add this, even if it seems inconsquential)

Mix the agave syrup and the oil or water together.

Slowly whisk the raw cacao powder into the agave syrup mixture, mixing it in until well-blended into a smooth sauce. The amount suggested here is a rough guideline. How much cacao powder you will ultimately use depends on the consistency you want.

Do not use a food processor or Vitamix for this recipe. Use a bowl and a whisk or a paddle (or spoon).

Note: Most raw food recipes call for coconut oil in recipes like this. So do I, but if you don’t, experiment! You may like the coconut oil, or you may prefer some other raw, cold pressed nut oil. You can even forego the oil altogether, but it does impart a nice consistency and mouthfeel to the chocolate sauce.

Deep Dark Delicious Raw Chocolate Sauce is delicious over 5-Minute Raspberry Sorbet.

This recipe for raw spicy peanut sauce (Dan Dan sauce) is amazing, and very forgiving!

This recipe requires raw peanut butter from raw peanuts. You can either use the recipe for raw peanut butter from here, or look for it online or in a health food store (although I have never been able to find it easily, and why not make your own?)

Annie’s Raw Spicy Peanut Sauce

1/2 cup raw peanut butter
1-2 teaspoons Chinese hot chili oil with red pepper flakes
2-3 teaspoons Nama Shoyu or organic soy sauce
1 clove minced garlic
Udo’s Oil or organic peanut or canola oil as needed

In a food processor combine everything except the oil until well blended. Add the oil just until the sauce is of the consistency you like. Adjust shoyu and chili to taste.

This sauce is so fantastic, and if you let it sit a bit, it gets even better.

I serve it over summer squash noodles made from summer squash with my Benriner spiral slicer. In this case I use summer squash because it is a bit blander, and a bit sturdier, than zucchini and so works perfectly with the spicy peanut sauce.

You can get Udo’s Oil here (click on picture for more information):

I really wanted to experiment with making raw peanut butter from raw peanuts. So when they had raw peanuts in the bulk section at Whole Foods, I jumped on them.

Then I took a look at the recipe for raw peanut butter in my Vita Mix “Whole Food machine” “recipes and instructions” book that came with my Vita Mix.

The Vitamix recipe for raw peanut butter from raw peanuts calls for:

4 1/2 cups raw peanuts
3 Tablespoons canola or olive oil

I didn’t want to make that much, and I wanted to use Udo’s Oil. So I didn’t, and I did, respectively.

For my raw peanut butter from raw peanuts I used:

1 cup raw peanuts
1 tablespoon (plus more) Udo’s Oil

Put the oil in the bottom of your Vita Mix, and then put the peanuts on top. Process at “hi” until peanuts are all ground. You will need to stop every so often and push the peanut grindings from the sides into the center of the Vita Mix, to the blades.

When the peanuts are all ground, slowly add more oil until the peanut butter emulsifies and gets to the consistency you want.

When it’s done you can add salt to taste if you like.

Vita Mix warns that once the peanut butter is done, if you continue to process it for more than a minute, you may overheat the machine (then it will automatically shut off until it’s cooled down).

Now, I have to tell you that I didn’t really like the flavour of raw peanut butter. To me, it tasted to – well – raw. However you may like it.

BUT! I then took this peanut butter and made a fantastic spicy peanut sauce which I not only liked, but I adored. You too may adore Annie’s Spicy Peanut Sauce .

Here are organic raw peanuts (click on the picture for more information):

Here is Udo’s Oil (click on the picture for more information):