Raw Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Blueberry Coconut Frosting

I came across this easy recipe on Facebook.  These cupcakes spend a little time in the freezer and a little time in the dehydrator making them crispy on the outside and cake like on the inside.  They were a huge hit at the potluck.  Luckily I held out a couple at home so we could enjoy them.

The recipe calls for almond pulp from fresh almond milk. I don't use a juicer, but I do have a very good high speed blender. Whipped these up in my Blendtec and used cheesecloth to separate the fresh almond milk from the pulp. 

Vanilla Bean Cupcakes with Blueberry Coconut Cream Frosting

 - by Priscilla Soligo, founder of Rawthentic Food

This heavenly raw cupcake recipe by Chef Priscilla can be created easily at home.  All you need to get your hands on is one of those flexible silicon cup cake trays so you can pop out the base with ease.  That’s really the key to getting raw cupcakes to look this gorgeous!  Take note of Priscilla’s detailed instructions for creating the cupcake frosting with a firm yet creamy texture.

Ingredients

Cupcake Base:

• 2 (258g) Cups Almond Pulp , (defrosted and excess water squeezed out.  Almond pulp is the left over almond after almond milk has been made with water in a blender and strained.
• 1 (87g) Cup Dessicated Coconut Flakes
• 1/4 Cup Coconut Nectar
• 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
• 1/8 tsp Pink Himalayan Crystal Salt (I used a Celtic Sea Salt, worked just fine)
  

Blueberry Coconut Frosting:

• 2 1/2  Cups Coconut Butter Melted, (271g unmelted measurement)
• 1 1/2 (190g) Cups Blueberries
• 1 (60g) Cup Macadamia Nuts, (or cashews, pre-soaked 2 hours)
• 1/2 Cup Raw Organic Honey, (or coconut nectar for lower glycemic sweetener)
• 1 Cup Filtered Water

Method

For the cupcake base

In a food processor, process all ingredients together and place cupcake dough into a large bowl.

Using 14 mini silicon cupcake molds, press the dough firmly into each one making sure the top is flat.  Place in the freezer for 2 hours for the cupcakes to get up.  This will make molds easier to remove.  During this time, commence making the frosting.

Remove from the freezer and here you have two options.

Dehydrator Option 1:  Remove cupcakes from silicone molds.  Place cupcake bases onto a mesh lined dehydrator tray (not teflex sheet) and dehydrate at 115 for 6 hours.  Remove from dehydrator and allow to cool all the way through completely before icing.

No-Dehydrator Option 2:  Remove cupcakes from silicon molds.  You are ready to ice your cupcake! 

Using a knife, gently place frosting on top of the cupcake and garnish with a blueberry.

Storage:  The dehydrated cupcake bases keep well frozen for up to two months in an airtight sealed container.  The non-dehydrated cupcake bases will keep for up to a month, or so in the freezer in an airtight sealed container.  The frosting will keep in the fridge for up to two weeks in an airtight glass sealed container.

Variation: Replace the blueberries with other berries such as, raspberries, blackberries, or strawberries, or a ‘very berry’ combination.

 For the Frosting

In a high speed blender, place in all ingredients except blueberries and blend until smooth and well incorporated.  Pour into a large mixing bowl and set aside.

In a separate bowl, mash the blueberries with a fork.   

Fold in gently (don’t over mix) blueberry mixture with frosting mixture so you can see two tones showing through.

Refrigerate frosting overnight, or for at least 8 hours before frosting the cupcakes.  For a faster set up try freezing and then stirring gently hourly for 3 – 4 hours to keep the temperature consistent.  This is a ‘cream’ frosting and won’t set stiff.

Almond Pulp and Almond Milk

 Almond Milk

• 3 Cups Raw Almonds (pre-soaked 8 hours, or overnight, rinsed and drained)
• 6 Cups Filtered Water

Raw Butternut Squash Soup

This is a variation of the Carrot-Ginger soup in Vegan Fusion's The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw.  I had a butternut squash that I've been wanting to make into soup for a couple weeks now.  It's the last one from our garden last year.  I peeled it, chopped it, and pureed it in the blender with some filtered water to make a thick juice.  It came out very tasty and my blender on the soup setting blends it fast enough to come out steaming and warm.  It can be eaten warm or cold. It's got great flavor and fits into my green smoothie 'clean up'.

Raw Butternut Squash Soup

4 cups butternut squash puree, pure the squash with filtered water to almost a juice, a cup or more
1/4 cup cashews
1/4 cup pine nuts
1 small avocado, mashed
2 TB ginger, minced
2 tsp. Shoyu
Juice from one lemon, I used a Meyer lemon, very nice!
1/2 tsp. curry powder
1/4 tsp. dry dill
Pinch cayenne
Pinch sea salt
Pinch freshly ground black pepper

Place 1 cup butternut squash 'juice', nuts, and avocado in a blender, and blend on high speed for 20 seconds or until mixture is smooth.

Add ginger, shoyu, lemon juice, curry powder, dill, cayenne, salt, and pepper and blend on low to medium speed for 15 to 20 seconds.  Slowly adding remaining squash 'juice' through the top while blending on low.  I used the soup setting on my Blendtec which blends it for a minute and a half at high speed.  The soup warms up, but it doesn't cook. 

I used fresh beet pure, fresh beet julienne strips, a little cilantro, and chopped scallions for a garnish.

Eating Clean Up

It's January and everyone has cleaning up their act, physically, on their minds.  The ads are full of fitness tips and programs.  There are quite a few detox and vegan kick start programs written about on the blogs and webpages I browse.  I recently saw Fat Sick and Nearly Dead and thought maybe I could add more green to our smoothies and even more green smoothies to our daily meals.  Sounds like a good idea to me.  I could use a little clean-up.  Not so much a cleanse, but an 'eating habit clean-up'.  I've been getting a little sloppy in my eating habits, tasting items I know I don't want to eat.  Having my son downstairs with cheese and bread in his refrigerator doesn't help when the urge arises.   I watched this movie last Saturday morning, Fat Sick and Nearly Dead, and I had already had beans cooking, cookies made, flax crackers drying, cashew cheese resting, and the meals for the week generally under way.  I decided I could start with adding more green, vegetables, to our morning smoothie, drink a very large whole green juice for lunch, and eat a sensible size vegan dinner.  Then next week, pare it down to green juice smoothies all day and if I really want to munch on something, I'll stick as close to raw as I can.  I'll try it for ten days.

I did pretty good last week, losing the five pounds I had put on during the holiday months.  I also feel like I have much more energy.  Last night after work, I cleaned the refrigerator from top to bottom.  Of course, a refrigerator that holds pretty much just fruits, vegetables, and nuts isn't too hard to clean. 

Today I did very well with the green smoothies.  I'm having fun with it, mixing up different fruit and vegetable combinations. A couple weren't very green in color, I made a beet based juice this afternoon with celery, sweet lime, garlic, apple, garlic, and cilantro.  It was very red and very good too. I also tried a raw caramel smoothie I saw on Vegie Head's website for a breakfast smoothie last week. Amazing!  Just fruits and nuts and I felt like we were having ice cream for breakfast.

Not 100% convinced I won't stray and look for something in the kitchen to munch, I think I need a little bit of something prepared on hand.  I made a simple pot of black beans and a Quinoa and Rice salad with a citrus-pumpkin dressing.  My son does live here too and I don't want to send him to the fast food option because there isn't anything prepared and easy to grab and eat.  I feel like I'll sabotage the effort if I don't have anything available.  For that sweet craving, I also have a batch of trail mix cookies in the dehydrator.  They have no added sugar, the banana and plums take care of the sweetness, and since they consist of nuts and seeds, they're a good protein blast.  I think one would satisfy any 'sweet' craving I might have. I am usually satisfied with one or two of these cookies.  They are more like a granola bar than a cookie.  We'll see how it goes. I am going to do this for ten days, maybe longer if I like it.  Hopefully it will all help me get on track.  I certainly like how I feel so far.

Kaylee Does Farm to Table

Kaylee came over to play yesterday.  I recently downloaded an electronic cookbook for kids, Monkey Mike's Raw Food Kitchen, an Un-Cookbook for kids.  I printed out one for her house and one to plat with at our house.  It's a cute little cookbook with activities and games. It's good for a nice reading practice book too. I found a couple cute and easy recipes we could try together: Dracula's Carrot Salad with Count Your Blessings Salad Dressing and Hunky-Dory Almond Hummus.  She told me on the way to my house she had asked for gluten free treats at the school Holiday party and the librarian told her she bring some hummus.  Kaylee said she was excited about that because she had never tried hummus.  So, we made some together.  She liked it.  Even though there aren't many spices in it, she did say it was a little too spicy by itself.  Mixed with some crunch celery, carrots, and cucumber, she liked it just fine.  I warmed some pumpkin polenta and 13 bean stew I made in the morning and served it with our salad and hummus.  I was pleased she ate a two servings of the salad and hummus.  She liked the stew and pumpkin polenta, but enjoyed the salad more.  Fine with me, the salad, raw veggies, and hummus make for a complete meal.

One of the best parts of the day was when I reviewed the ingredients and realized I had all except some fresh beets.  I do still have some beets growing out in the garden so we had a little "Farm to Table" exercise.  Out to the garden we went to gather some beets.  There were some more treats out there too.  We came home with some chard, a small red cabbage, and a nice big fennel too.

 She's still a bit too small to use a chef's knife, but not too small to use a food processor.  Kaylee read all the ingredients and instructions aloud to me.  I explained what I was doing and what tools I was using when paring and pealing the vegetables.  She ran the processor and helped toss the salad arrange it all for dinner. 

 

The Dracula salad is a version of a beet and carrot salad I already make regularly in the summer.  I like this recipe, the addition of almonds and raisins makes for a variety of textures.

Dracula's Carrot Salad

1 beet
3 carrots
2 green onions
12 almonds
2 tablespoons raisins
2 tablespoons cilantro leaves

Count Your Blessings Salad Dressing

Juice of 1 orange
2 tablespoons macadamia nut oil, (we used hazelnut oil)
2 teaspoons almond butter
Teensy pinch Celtic sea salt

Hunky-Dory Almond Hummus

1 ½ cups almonds soaked in 1 ½ cups filtered water for four hours or more
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
1 clove garlic minced
1/4 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 cup water
Big pinch Celtic sea salt

Raw Buckwheat Pancakes

Friday night I put some pancakes in the dehydrator.  Yep, eight hour pancakes.  They were worth it.  Not much work involved in the batter and very few ingredients.  Waking up to the smell of apples and cinnamon was quite nice Saturday morning.  These whole grain pancakes were very filling, I only ate one, but my son enjoyed four.  They are a great source of protein and fiber.  A serving of two provides 4 g protein and 6 g fiber. Paired with some fresh fruit, it's a great way to start the day.  I took some of the strawberries I had frozen in June and warmed them with a little pure maple syrup for a nice warm fruit topping.

Raw Pancakes
     A recipe from Vegan Fusion
            The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw, pg 196

1 cup red apples, seeds removed, and chopped
8 dates, pitted, and soaked at least 30 minutes
1/4 cup date soak water
1/2 cup agave nectar (I used coconut nectar)
1 TB vanilla extract
1 tsp. lime zest
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 TB golden flax seeds, ground
Pinch sea salt
1 cup buckwheat groats, ground (I grind them in a little coffee grinder I have specifically for grinding food)
1/4 cup shredded coconut, unsweetened (optional)

1.  In a food processor fitted with an S blade, or a blender, place apples, dates, soak water, agave nectar, vanilla extract, lime zest, cinnamon, flax seeds, and salt.  Blend on high speed for 15 to 20 seconds or until a chunky batter forms.

2.  Transfer to a bowl, and combine with buckwheat and coconut until well incorporated.

3.  Scoop onto Teflex-lined deyhydrator sheets to desired sizes.  They'll flatten out a little, so make them about 1/2 inch thick to start.

4.  Dehydrate at 110ºF for 6- 8 hours.  Keep an eye on them, you don't want the outsides to be too dry.  Pushing down on them will tell you if the insides are still mushy, which is ideal.

Serve hot off the trays, topped with maple syrup or a flavored agave nectar, if you want.  Pancakes will keep in an air-tight container for 3 to 5 days.

One More Day to Vote ~ Help me win the Blendtec Blender

I wrote this blog post last month, Kitchen Tips for Raw Foods, for a blog competition.  The prize is a Blendtec Blender. It's sponsored by the Raw Food Divas and can be found at Tera Warner.  Who's Tera Waner?

From her own profile on the website:

"Tera Warner is the frisky founder of the world's largest online resource of raw food cleansing and detoxification programs for women. Through her programs and events she invites a community of over 100,000 women around the world to pick up their parsley sprigs, and march, dance, sing, jump or fly along path to vibrant living.

She's not got a string of acronyms after her name and fancy credentials, so don't bother looking for them. She's a monkey-lovin' mama doing her best to remind you that your self-worth is not measure by the size of your thighs or the width of your hips, but by the breadth of your dreams and the depth of your love."

"Tera spent most of her days in university studying monkeys, and now she's simply trying to teach the world to eat like one."

The blog was to introduce three kitchen tips aimed at helping someone new to raw foods organize their kitchen and simplify the transition to raw foods.  Before I jumped in to vegan and raw cooking, I used to take meat out to thaw for dinner, now I soak beans, nuts, and dried fruits in preparation for our meals.  Since so many of our meals depend on the dehydrator now, planning ahead is very important. There's a few things that took awhile to get the hang of.  I sure would have liked some hints when I got started.

I'm pretty exited about to making it to the top four finalists.  Now, it's left up to the readers to vote.  I sure would appreciate your vote.  There's only about 24 hours left, the voting ends on Oct. 30 at 11:59 p.m, Eastern time.  If you have a few minutes, please go to this website and cast your vote. Just follow the link below and follow the voting instructions. It's pretty simple and only takes a couple minutes after reading the blog posts. They're all awesome posts and there's some pretty great kitchen tips.  I'd love to win the Blendtec Blender so I can use it in my adventures teaching others to cook great raw and vegan food.  Thank you!

 Who Will Win the Blendtec Wildside? It's up to You.

"Almost Raw" Vegan Pizza

I got to spend both weekend days at home this weekend.  I did my cooking for the week this weekend and managed to squeeze in some treats to bring to work Monday.  I made a nice pot of beans from my cranberry beans I grew in the garden this year, a couple batches of raw cookies, a Rosemary Oregano noodle salad using fresh yellow zucchini for the noodles, and some great "almost raw" pizza with recipes from a one of my favorite vegan cookbooks, The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw.

The 'almost raw' vegan pizza starts out with raw buckwheat sunflower seed crusts.  I doubled the recipe and made a dozen personal sized crusts.  I blended together some freshly picked tomatoes and herbs into a raw marinara sauce and made a batch herb cashew cheese. For a nice variety of toppings I marinated some of the Shitake mushrooms I dried last week in a little olive oil and tamari, marinated dried tomatoes in olive oil and lemon juice, roasted red bell peppers, and grilled some yellow zucchini and eggplant rounds.  I probably would have been content with the cashew cheese, but my son is very new to plant based food and I thought I should add some Daiya mozzarella cheese to the choices.  It looks more like cheese he's used to seeing for pizza. I especially like that I have the ingredients all ready to just build one this week.

There's a little bit of preparation to each part of this pizza, but once everything is prepped it can be stored in the refrigerator for up to three days, the crusts a week.  We can stop by the kitchen and build a little pizza for a quick lunch or dinner.

Buckwheat Sunflower Seed Pizza Crust
     The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw, page 212

1 cup buckwheat groats, soaked for at least 1 hour to overnight
1 cup sunflower weeds, soaked at least 1 hour to overnight
3 TB flax seeds, ground
2½ TB fresh herbs such as oregano, parsley, and thyme
1 TB freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1 TB nama shoyu or tamari

1.  Drain buckwheat and sunflower seeds, rinse thoroughly, and drain again.

2. Place buckwheat in a food processor fitted with an S blade.  Add sunflower seeds, ground flax seeds, fresh herbs, lemon juice, crushed red pepper flakes, salt, black pepper, and shoyu.  Process on high spread for 20 to 30 seconds or until a chunky but unified batter forms.

3.  Scoop batter onto 2 Teflex-lined dehydrator trays in 8 equal portions.  Flatten with your hands or use the bottom of a slightly oiled glass or plastic container to form circles. Or form dough into 2 larger pizza crusts.  Dehydrate at 110º for 15 to 18 hours, flipping them over midway though and removing Teflex.

The Sun-Dried Tomato Sage Sauce is also from the Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw.  It's on page 143. I am enjoying playing with these recipes.  I've been happy with everything I've made so far and most items have been very easy with maybe one or two directions.  It's mostly blender and dehydrator work.

The cashew cheese is just a basic cheese recipe:  2 cups raw cashews blended and placed in a large glass pitcher or mason jar with plastic wrap and placed in a warm spot in the kitchen overnight.  I chopped some herbs, garlic, and bell pepper and added a dash of sea salt and pepper, mixed it all together with the nut mixture and set it to cool for a couple hours.

Comer Bien

Kitchen Tips for Raw Foods

This has been a wonderful journey.  Six years ago I started out looking for some vegetarian ideas to add some more plant based food to our diets. I took a five day intensive vegan culinary arts course with Chef Al Chase and started eating more and more vegan. It opened the door to endless choices. Now we're just about 100% vegan which includes a lot of raw food.  I'm learning more and more about it all the time. I am amazed how quickly our lives and our kitchen have transformed.  We grow lots of our own food now and what we don't grow, we buy from a local organic farm or the farmer's market.  Having that all available makes it very convenient to eat raw. Heck, my favorite meal is in the garden:  an ear of corn, a handful of green beans or peas, a couple tomatoes, and maybe a few chile peppers. 

It may seem like more work at first just because change is work.  But, I find that eating this way is no more work than the way we ate when we were omnivores.  Here's three tips that make it easy for me to stay on track.

#1 Have the Good Stuff Available. 

We have a very large wicker star on our kitchen table which we keep filled with fruit.  It's always in front of us and very appealing when looking for something sweet.  I fill the blender each morning with at least four or five servings of fruit and a handful of greens.  When the big star is getting low, that means it's time to go shopping.  About twice a week I make a huge salad with the seasonal vegetables.  I use at least ten different vegetables to ensure we are getting a good variety of nutrients. It's also the first thing we see when we open the refrigerator.  It's handy for making our lunches in the morning, and an easy dinner. I've been known to grab a couple handfuls and throw it in our smoothie each morning.

This one is made with: spinach, chard, collards, kale, golden beets, red bell pepper, carrots, jerusalem artichokes, cucumber, avocado, lemon juice, and raw sunflower seeds.

#2 Don't Put that Dehydrator Away

My cooking tools have changed.  I use my Blendtec every day. I have two food processors, one regular size, and a very small one I picked up at a second hand store that I use for nuts, garlic, shallots, onions, and many veggies that I am using in small quantities. I have a coffee grinder just for herbs, and two dehydrators.  One is the old round kind without a fan.  I use it for the herbs I pick from the garden.  The other is a nine tray Excalibur.  It's on almost 24/7.  I have an old cooks table that has two nice drawers, one for the Teflex sheets and one for the dehydrator grids. It's ready all the time and usually working.

When I trimmed the garlic scapes this summer, I immediately chopped them and dried them.  I can throw them in raw soups either in pieces or grind in the coffee grinder.  A large zucchini is no problem.  I just slice up what I'm not using and put it on a tray.  Of the many things I've dried this summer, were about 30 pounds of fresh organic tomatoes. We all know how much dried tomatoes can cost. In my cupboards I have handy: dried nuts of all kinds, cherries, strawberries, peaches, pineapple, eggplant, mushrooms, and even some watermelon.  The watermelon is like candy. I make eggplant bacon and dried some beets that I can grind and put in our smoothies. I make flax crackers once a week and always do a batch of raw cookies on the weekend.

A friend of mine told me the other day she had a 25 pound watermelon and didn't know what to do with it.  I told her to dry it and she said she had just put her dehydrator away after doing peaches.  Don't do that!  You won't use your tools if you have to lug them in and out of hiding.  I told her about the sweet dried watermelon and she's getting it back out now.

#3 Soak Some Stuff Before I Go to Work
 
I do most of my food preparation on the weekend.  We both work full time during the week and it makes it very convenient to have some prepared goodies during the week.  So, raw foods really frees up my time even though to some it may seem like a lot of work.  On Thursday I start thinking about what fun I want to have in the kitchen this weekend and start perusing the raw foods recipes.  I know I'll use some grains, nuts, seeds, dried vegetables and fruit.  I know that most of the ingredients I use require some soak time.  Many of them take two, sometimes three days to cook in the dehydrator.  My favorite raw trail-mix cookies take a full 48 hours to completely dry. On Friday morning even if I don't know what I'm preparing I set some different nuts and seeds to soak.  I make sure I soak enough for a batch of flax crackers of some kind and enough to make something sweet like a raw pie or cookies. When I'm ready to cook, I have what I need.   

My cooking tools have changed.  That nice flat stove top is now a soaking table.

 

Vive Bene

Raw Chocolate Layer Cake

There was a really pretty post by someone on Facebook of some chocolate layer cakes with a link to the recipe, Chocolate Layer Cake with Black Cherry.  I just had to try it out, I had the ingredients on hand.  It's a delightful cake.  Very dense and made with flax seeds and cashews, it's very nutritious too.  Rachel came over for lunch and that's what we had.  I'll be making this again.

My modifications: I used fresh blackberries for the creme frosting. I didn't have almond butter so I whipped some almonds in the blender and made my own, I used agave for sweetener.  I don't have access to maca powder or lucuma powder and I don't think Longview ever will, so I omitted those. For the yogurt creme I omitted the Bio-k acidophilus and the sunflower lectithin because I just didn't have them and didn't think it would affect the taste or texture.  It worked out just fine.

Chocolate Layer Cakes with Black Cherry and Orange
    from a blog called  Golubka - Food That Takes Love


Chocolate layers

3 cups nut or coconut milk
6 tablespoons cacao powder
4 tablespoons cocoa nibs
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons coconut flakes
1/2 cup coconut oil
1 cup sprouted pecan butter or almond butter
3/4 cup sweetener of your choice (I used Jerusalem artichoke syrup)
1/2 cup almond flour
1 1/2 cups ground flax seeds
3 tablespoons maca powder (optional)
2 tablespoons lucuma powder (optional)

In a high speed blender, combine all the ingredients until smooth. Spread evenly on 5 Teflex lined dehydrator trays. Dehydrate at 115F for about 6-8 hours, or overnight. Flip and peel the Teflex sheet away, then continue to dehydrate on screens only until completely dry. Cut each cracker into 4 pieces, you should end up with 20 total.

Yogurt Cream
1 cup macadamia nuts- soaked overnight
1 cup cashews - soaked overnight
2 tablespoons light agave syrup
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons raw honey
zest of 2 lemons
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon nutritional yeast
pinch of salt
8 tablespoons Bio-k acidophilus
1 cup coconut oil
2 tablespoons sunflower lecithin (optional) - really good for you

In a high speed blender, combine all of the ingredients until smooth and creamy.

Orange Cream
1/2 of the amount of yogurt cream
zest of 3 oranges
1 orange - peeled and cut into chunks

In a high speed blender, combine all the ingredients until smooth. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours before spreading.

Berry Cream
half of yogurt cream
any berries of your choice - add until you achieve the desired color

If using raspberries or blackberries, puree them first, then run through a fine mesh sieve to remove the seeds.
In a high speed blender, combine all the ingredients until smooth. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours before spreading.

Assembly
Spread a thin layer of the cream on chocolate crackers layer by layer, sprinkling with cocoa nibs on top of each layer. You can use all 10 pieces to make a 10 layer high cake each - orange and berry. Or you can make 8 layer cakes, like we did, and eat the remaining crackers for a snack.
Refrigerate the prepared cakes for 1-2 hours until set and ready to be cut. Cut each cake into 4 even pieces with a sharp knife. Decorate with cocoa nibs, orange slices and berries. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

LV Community Vegan/Vegetarian Potluck, August 21, 2011

 We had another successful potluck last weekend.  The sun came out and so did our friends.  We had thirty-five friends, new and old, enjoy dinner outside in the parking lot of Payton's Produce. It's been in the high 70's and 80's the last couple of weeks. It was a perfect summer afternoon.  My friend John came and played his original folk/blues music. Nothing I like better than Sunday afternoon in the sunshine with some live music, good food, and friends.  We put up a few canopies, some tables and chairs, and set up the food.  It's getting much easier now.  It's our fifth one and a core group has formed.  There are about ten friends who try to make every potluck so we all know what it looks like and the set up just takes place.  I am so grateful to friends and coworkers, the tables and chairs and canopies were the would be a big expense. Everybody pitches in to help.  Jimi brought some nice door prizes such as: fresh flowers, fruit, lavender products, and other items from local farms and businesses.  We were able to give a  few copies of Forks Over Knives away.  If we don't have a speaker for our December or February potlucks, maybe we'll just show the movie.  That would be fun.

When I first began this potluck I talked to the people I know at Northwest Veg who've been sponsoring a potluck in Portland for over twenty years and another in Vancouver for the last five years.  I asked them some questions about what works and what doesn't, what to provide, or not, how to get speakers, etc.  One of the things Jill told me was that they weren't always culinary wonders.  She said sometimes it's only six people and sometimes one hundred or more. That's usually the January or February potluck, health and fitness are pretty popular those months. But, ours have turned out to be culinary adventure.  Some of the friends who come to the potluck think about what they might make a month before and even practice some recipes.  We've had some absolutely wonderful food.  It's changing with the seasons too.  This time zucchini was the star of the show.  Our next potluck is in October.  I'm looking forward to the pumpkin and winter squash meals that show up. We're all learning from each other too.  Most of the food this time was vegan, raw, and quite a bit was even gluten free.

Some people took their ingredient cards home so I don't remember them all, but of the wonderful food we had was:

Raw Sweet Potato Salad
Vegan Potato Salad
Organic Fruit Salad
Wheat Berry Salad
Raw Vegan Mint Chocolate Chip Cookies
Trail Mix Cookies
Vegan Potatoes, peppers, onions, and green beans salad
Little apricot tarts
Zucchini Hummus
My Cheesy Chili Flax Crackers with fresh carrots & zucchini
Eggplant walnut paté
Flowerless Chocolate Torte ~ This one was very popular
Vegan Peach Banana Cream Pie
Carrots, snow peas, and honey, with lemon juice
Raw Zucchini Ravioli
Two versions of raw zucchini spaghetti, one with bean sausages



The next potluck is October 21, 7:00 p.m. Dr. Richard Heitsch from the Integrated Medicine Group in Portland is going to give a talk about reversing heart disease. I'll be sure to post the details as it gets closer.

Cheezy Veggie Flax Crackers & Cucumber Dill Cashew Cheese Dip

Inspired by a Facebook post from Viva Institute of some very appealing carrot fax crackers they prepared in their kitchen I tried some of my own with some fresh baby carrots and zucchini from the garden.  I was chatting with someone on their site and they mentioned they used 1 cup of flax seeds to two cups of nuts for a crispier, flakier cracker.  I also thought the tahini marinade I use for my kale chips might add a little cheezy zing to the crackers.  Here's what I came up with.  
  

Cheezy Veggie Flax Crackers

I used: 1 cup flax seed, 2 cups macadamia nuts, 1 cup pumpkin seeds, 1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes soaked in 1 cup filtered water, finely grated zucchini & carrots, a few fresh herbs from the garden, and a little sauce made with the water from the sun dried tomatoes, 1 1/2 TB tamari, 2 heaping TB of tahini, 1/4 cup nutritional yeast, and a dash of chili powder, cayenne, and sea salt.

I soaked the flax seeds in 1 1/4 cups water and the pumpkin seeds and macadamia nuts for two hours or more.  I blended half the macadamia nuts and pumpkin seeds in the food processor with the tomatoes and soak water from the tomatoes with the herbs and seasonings.  I tossed the grated zucchini & carrots in with the flax seeds,  nuts, and pumpkins seeds and dehydrated for not quite 18 hours, turning over half way through so they would dry thoroughly.

I made a nice cool cucumber dill cashew cheese dip to go with them. These crackers came out really great.  It made for a nice summer meal.

Cucumber Dill Cashew Cheese

2 cups cashews
1 cup filtered water or rejuvelac
1/3 cup red bell pepper, diced
2 1/2 TB green onion, chopped, I used a fresh white one from the garden.
2 TB dried dill or 1 TB fresh dill
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tsp tamari
1/4 tsp sea salt, or to taste
Pinch red pepper flakes

Dash of fresh ground pepper.
1 medium to large fresh cucumber, diced

Blend the cashews and filtered water until very smooth. Place in a 1/2 gallon open-mouth glass jar or pitcher.  Cover lightly with plastic wrap and secure with a rubber band.  Cover with a towl and allow to sit in a warm place overnight.

Pour cashew mixture into a large mixing bowl, combine with remaining ingredients and mix well. 


What a journey, a couple of years ago I could say we were almost vegan.  Now, we're mostly vegan and getting very much into the raw food fun.  My stovetop resembles a prep table most the time now instead of a place to cook food.

Raw Teriyaki Noodles

I have posted these before, but it's been awhile.  Made this with the first zucchini of the year.  I'm always amazed at the taste and texture of the fresh picked vegetables each year.  The zucchini is juicy and buttery. We came in from the garden late and we were hungry.  This dish took me all of fifteen minutes to prepare.

Raw Teriyaki Noodles

3 TB Cold pressed vegetable oil, (pumpkin seed, avocado, hemp, extra virgin olive oil)
2 TB White wine
2 tsp Tamari
2 TB Miso
2 TB Raw agave
1 TB Fresh ginger, grated
1/4 cup Sesame seeds
3 - 5  Medium zucchini (about 5 - 6 cups zucchini) Depends on what you call a "medium" zucchini
2 Red Bell Peppers seeded and small diced

In a small bowl whisk together, the oil, wine, tamari, miso, agave, and ginger until well-blended.  Stir in 2 tablespoons of Sesame seeds.

Using a Japanese spiralizer or vegetable peeler, make fettuccine-style noodles.  In large bowl add noodles and red bell pepper, pour on dressing, and toss gently.  Sprinkle on remaining 2 tablespoons sesame seeds and serve.

Eggplant Bacon

Eggplant bacon? Or is it eggplant jerky?  You can call it either.  When it's made with the common large eggplant the strips do resemble bacon as in my previous post . I think it satisfies that sweet salty taste we like in bacon without all the nasty health risks that come with eating real bacon.

Recently I got some locally grown eggplants which are a little more the size of softballs than eggplants we see most often.
 

I think this batch should be called Canadian bacon.

Someone asked me for the recipe the other day and I found it difficult to get to the site of my favorite eggplant bacon recipe.  It's been down a couple times so I thought I'd better get the recipe posted before I lose it.  I've got it pretty much memorized, but I do have a few recipes in my head, too easy to forget something.

I found this recipe on a site called: Raw & Simple, It's from the Every Day Raw cookbook by Matthew Kenney.  It's very simple and the "bacon" is a big hit with just about everyone who tries it.


 Eggplant Bacon
      Every Day Raw, page 58
  
Ingredients:
 
    1 large eggplant, thinly sliced
    1 tablespoon sea salt
    1/2 dried chipotle chile, soaked at least 2 hours
    1/2 cup soaking water from the chipotle peppers
    2 tablespoons maple syrup
    2 tablespoons olive oil
    2 tablespoons nama shoyu
    2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
    1 teaspoon chili powder
    1/2 teaspoon paprika
    1/2 teaspoon cumin
    pinch black pepper
    pinch cayenne

 Directions:

To make the thin sheets of eggplant I used a mandolin or peeler. The mandolin is great at getting them sliced at an equal size, but sliced in 1/4" thick slices will work just fine too.  I tried it with a peeler, but they were just too thin for me.

Once you have sliced your eggplant, sprinkle it with the sea salt and allow to sit for 1-2 hours.  Layer your eggplant sheets between paper or cloth tea towels and press out excess moisture.

In the mean time, blend the other ingredients in the liquid container of your Vita-Mix.

Submerge the squeezed eggplant in the marinade. I put them in a baggie and purged as much air as possible (as I would with any marinade). Marinate 30-45 minutes.

Carefully lay out the eggplant sheets onto your dehydrator trays and dehydrate until crispy (24 – 48 hours).

~~Enjoy!~~

Spicy Vegan Nachos

I've been getting more and more into raw foods lately and having a blast trying out the interesting recipes I'm finding.  I bought a better dehydrator and I think we've had it running almost 24/7 since it arrived.  I've recently been playing with The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw and the first thing I looked for was the spicy nachos.  They serve a version of these at the Blossoming Lotus in Portland, OR.  They came out great.  I took them to work and some to Christy & Les at the local produce store.  They were a big hit.  I am amazed at how wonderful the cheese dip is made with butternut squash.  Thinned out a little, I can serve this as a creamy cheesy soup when the squash are plentiful. That should be very soon.

Spicy Nachos

     Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw

1/2 Medium jalapeño pepper, ribs and seeds removed.
2 Medium garlic cloves
2 1/2 cups tomatoes, roughly chopped
6 TB freshly squeezed lime juice
1 cup yellow onion, roughly chopped
1 TB ground cumin
1 tsp. cayenne, or to taste
2 tsp. sea salt
1 cup walnuts, soaked at least 2 hours
1 cup pumpkin seeds, soaked at least 2 hours
1 cup sunflower seeds, soaked at least 2 hours
1/2 cup sesame seeds
1/2 cup fresh ground flax or flax meal

1.  In blender, add jalapeño, garlic, tomatoes, lime juice, onion, cumin, cayenne, and salt.  Blend on high speed for 20 seconds or until mixture is liquified.  Move to the bowl of a food processor.

2. Add walnuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, and sesame seeds to the food processor, and blend on high for 30 to 60 seconds until a smooth batter forms (small chunks are okay).

3.  Add flax and process 15 or 20 more seconds.

4.  Spread 2  cups batter per Teflex sheet, being careful to make it as even as possible with no holes.  Score before placing in the dehydrator. Dehydrate at 110º for 24 hours. Flip sheets over onto the mesh screens and remove Teflex.  With wetter side up, continue dehyudrating for another 24 hours.

5. Cut each sheet into 4 quarters.  Cut each quarter into 8 triangles by first cutting 2 big triangles and then cutting these into 2 and those 4 into 2.

Enjoy with Nacho Cheese Dip.

Nacho Cheese Dip

1 cup cashews, soaked at least 2 hours
1 medium red bell pepper, ribs and seeds removed, and chopped (about 1 cup)
1 medium Anaheim pepper, ribs and seeds removed, and chopped (about 1/2 cup)
1 1/2 cups butternut squash, peeled and cubed
2 TB freshly squeezed lime juice
1 TB olive oil
2 TB nutritional yeast
1 TB nama shoyu or tamari
6 TB filtered water
1 clove garlic
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cayenne, or to taste

1.  Rinse and drain cashews well.

2.  Ina blender blend red bell pepper, Anaheim pepper, butternut squash, lime juice, olive oil, nutritional yeast, shoyu, water, garlic, salt, and cayenne on high speed for 20 to 30 seconds or until smooth.  (It may be a little warm right out of the blender.  To firm it up, place in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.)

Vegan Fusion Workshop

A couple of weeks ago I had the pleasure of attending a two day Vegan Fusion workshop with Mark Reinfeld, co-author of one of my favorite vegan cookbooks, Vegan World Fusion Cuisine.  I've been using this cookbook for about six years now and was delighted to learn from the creator of these recipes.  I met quite a few very nice people.  My friend Vickie came along so we rode to Portland together and talked about what we learned all the way home. It was a fun and worthwhile weekend.  She's a bit new to vegan cooking and it was fun to see her get excited about all the wonderful vegan choices available.

I haven't been writing this blog very long, but you could probably search Vegan World Fusion in my blog and find quite a few dishes I've made using the recipes either in whole or as a part of a meal.  One of the best points I thought he made during the class:  He teaches his students to find base recipes for soups, sauces, and desserts and add or substitute ingredients to get the desired taste you want. I've often done that as I usually start my cooking by going to the farmer's market and the produce store and let the available ingredients decide what we are eating. I look for ideas online and many times substitute an ingredient for something I have on hand.

Mark is a delightful teacher, patient, and knowledgeable.  He's got a great attitude about cooking, "There are no mistakes in the kitchen." he says.  "If you don't have the ingredient, substitute."  "If you happen to cook the rice a little too long, it's toasted now."  "If you think it's not the way you want it to be, adjust something." That's the way I cook everything. I look forward to learning more from him.  I am going to take the ten day class online and, hopefully, next year get around to taking his three day class to become a certified vegan cooking instructor. I'd love to share what I know with others.  I think this way of eating is not only easy, once you get the hang of it, it's colorful as well as tasty. 



One of the great things I've learned about vegan cooking is that many of the dishes are raw, prepared using a food processor or blender, and usually contain few ingredients making them quick and easy to prepare.  I've learned a lot about pre-preparation of my ingredients and have been cooking this way long enough, I can find a nice recipe and have most the ingredients to prepare it.  During the weekend we were able to prepare and eat all of this:


Day 1
Sun-Dried Tomato Flax Crackers witjh Cashew Cheese
Raw Carrot Ginger Soup
Coconut spinach Rice
Macadamia Nut Crusted Tofu with Golden Gravy
Organic Mixed Greens with Toasted Pecan Vinaigrette
Chocolate Dream Pie

Day 2
Mushrooms Stuffed with Spinach Paté
Creamy Broccoli Bisque
Raw Pesto Pasta Puttanesca
Coconut Curry Tempeh over Quino Pilaf
Raw Chocolate Mousse with Macadamia Cream

Mark is in Europe now teaching classes and gathering ideas to finish his "Taste of Europe" vegan cookbook soon to be published.  He has also written The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw.  I've recently been playing with this book and it's full of very easy and tasty recipes complete with nutritional information for each one.  I've already made a few things, only having the book about two weeks.  One of my favorites so far has been the Raw Nachos with Nacho Cheese Dip.  It's very close to the nachos served at the Blossoming Lotus in Portland, also created with the help of Mr. Reinfeld.  If you're in Portland, Oregon, check it out sometime.  You won't be disappointed.

Eggplant Bacon & Collard Wraps

 I made some bacon this weekend, out of eggplant.  While watching my new friend, Desirée's, raw foods class she mentioned that she made bacon with eggplant.  I needed to know about that.  It wasn't hard to find a nice recipe online.  I used this one from Raw & Simple, but now that I've done it once, I can see endless variations.  I found it pretty good, but I think I may have overdone it a bit on the dash of cayenne.  At first when I took it out of the dehydrator, I found it a bit too spicy, but as it cooled the flavor mellowed a bit.  I like them.  You couldn't get this past a meat eater as a 'bacon' substitute, but I find this a great sweet/salty snack, the maple flavor combined with the smoked paprika give it that bacony kind of flavor.  I've planted nine eggplants in the garden.  Hopefully I'll have a lot to test out. I probably could have left it in the dehydrator a little longer.  They are a little leathery.  But, when I turned them over this morning, they were so delicate, the fan was blowing them off the tray so I took them out.  I'll like them though.  I must, I've been munching them all day.  I have to save a couple to share at work tomorrow. 

I served them with some of the cashew ricotta I made for the vegetable wraps this weekend, grated carrots, fresh mixed sprouts, and some fresh vegan herb foccacia bread. Kinda of a bacon, cheeze, and greens, sandwich.

The Collard Wraps

This combines some great recipes from the Vegan Fusion Cuisine cookbook: An Almond/Basil Paté, Cashew Ricotta Cheeze, with fresh avocado, grated carrots, a mixture of different sprouts, rolled in large fresh collard greens and served with a Cucumber mint sauce.  All of the herbs used in this dish were picked from our garden this morning.  They kind of resemble sushi rolls.

 Collard Wraps with Cucumber Mint Sauce

I've rolled enough of these to share with some friends and feed us for a couple meals.  

This was Scott's father's day dinner.  Afterwards we had some of the dairy free chocolate mousse, made with fresh ground almond butter. This time I used organic chocolate extract instead of a vanilla bean for a real chocolaty flavor.