This butternut squash and mango soup is a riff on Juliano’s orginal recipe. It is delicious, easy and fast to make, and surprisingly creamy!
4 cups chopped butternut squash (peeled and seeded)
1 mango, chopped
2 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 cup raw agave nectar
1 teaspoon sea salt
a couple of grinds of black pepper
4 cups orange juice
Mix all well in a blender until smooth.
Delicious!
This combination of raw juice – apple, chard and kiwi – sounds as it might be ok – maybe even tolerable – but in fact it is delicious, and loaded with good nutrition!
Annie’s ACK Juice
1 Granny Smith or other tart Apple
1 handful of red Chard
1 Kiwi
Process through Samson juicer using the vegetable screen, or through your Vita-mix or other blender or juicer.
Enjoy!
This green smoothie recipe is easy, easy, easy, and mild!
Annie’s Green Smoothie Recipe:
2 bananas
1 bunch parsley (the curly type)
1 baby head of romaine lettuce
1 cup water
6 ice cubes
Put all ingredients in Vitamix or blender and blend until smooth.
Enjoy!
This is incredibly easy, and really lovely!
The basic recipe:
Just before you go to bed, take:
1 cup whole raw almonds
1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup dried goji berries
Put them in a bowl, and cover them with filtered water. Loosely cover the bowl, and let it sit on your counter until you get up in the morning.
In the morning, drain the water off, and dump the bowl into your food processor. At this point I like to add a chopped up apple.
Pulse in the food processor until coarsely chopped, about the consistency of granola. I sometimes add a little cinnamon at this point too.
Enjoy this with a little honey stirred in, or with milk (or almond milk) over it, or with yoghurt stirred in.
This is such a healthful cereal, and so yummy! And so darned easy!
It’s one of the latest fads – portabella mushrooms for sandwiches. Portabella mushrooms are delicious, and a great source of vegetarian protein. But how do you do portabella mushrooms raw?
Once again, it’s the trusty dehydrator to the rescue, and it is so easy!
Take your portobello mushrooms, and clean and destem them. Save those stems!
Now, you are going to make enough of the following to allow you to coat the mushrooms well (by submerging them, turning them, and removing them to a dehydrator tray):
1 part balsamic vinegar
1 part Nama Shoyu
2 parts olive oil
salt and pepper to taste.
Mix the above well, submerge the portabella caps in the liquid, turn to coat all parts of the mushroom caps, and then place the caps on a Teflex lined dehydrator sheet.
Now cut the stems in half length-wise, and put them in the liquid, turn to coat, and put those on the dehydrator sheet as well.
Set the dehydrator to 115 degrees, and leave the mushrooms in until they are just tender and soft. For me it takes between 3 and 5 hours, depending on the size of the mushrooms.
These portabellas are perfect on a sandwich or, if you want to go 100% raw, just on a plate cut up like steak. They are delicious!
And use the stems to toss into a pasta or other dish, or as a garnish.
These will keep for up to a week if wrapped well in plastic wrap, but they are so delicious you will want to eat them right up.
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.
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!