Going Raw: Adventures in Uncooking

Thai Sprout Salad or, What To Make If You Do Not Have a Coconut for Your Thai Coconut Soup

This is my mom’s creation. She invented this salad after opening her coconut for Thai Coconut Soup and discovering that the coconut was bad. Horrors! Opening a bad coconut is like opening an overripe watermelon — it is so disappointing!

Luckily, it turned out for the best: using the remaining soup ingredients (plus a cucumber) she whipped together this killer salad.

INGREDIENTS
2 cups mung bean sprouts
3 spring onions
1 small cucumber
2 celery stalks
1/2 red bell pepper
a few stalks of cilantro
1/2 tsp peeled fresh ginger root
1 tbsp tamari
juice from 1 lemon
2 tsp agave nectar
2 tsp sesame seeds
dash of red chili flakes
salt to taste

Dice the green onions, cucumber, celery, and bell pepper, and combine in a big bowl. Add the remaining ingredients except for the sesame seeds. Mix well. When serving, sprinkle the sesame seeds on top of each plate to increase the prettiness factor.

This is a fun salad to eat since it’s so crunchy and has an airy, aromatic flavor. I am obviously used to eating raw salads for meals so this satisfies me easily, but if you are still getting adjusted to raw foods you can make it more immediately filling by adding half an avocado, or a handful of a more substantial sprout like buckwheat or lentil.*

*For an excellent source on how to grow your own sprouts, visit http://sproutpeople.org/sprouts.html.

I tell you what, life is good when missing an important ingredient leads to a delicious new recipe!

In Celebration of Cauliflower

As a kid, cauliflower mystified me. I suppose this is not surprising, since it was far from being a popular vegetable in my part of the country. (Being raised in the South, I was more familiar with collard greens and, yes, fried okra.) In fact, the only time I remember seeing cauliflower in my hometown was at a restaurant salad bar, where everyone passed it over in favor of the bacon bits and shredded cheese.

Only after I converted to raw foods did I discover the awesomeness of this vegetable. How do I love you, cauliflower? Let me count the ways: 1) Cauliflower agrees with nearly every flavor you throw at it: citrus juices, savory herbs, peppery spices, etc. 2) It remains crunchy no matter what, even if you crumble it up and marinade it overnight. 3) Cauliflower reminds me how great it is to eat raw, because — to me — it is truly delicious eaten plain in its natural state but utterly tasteless when eaten plain and cooked. 4) It looks like broccoli, which I think is funny.

So in celebration of cauliflower, I want to share three neat recipes featuring this under-appreciated vegetable. The first couple recipes are light summer salads, and the last one is a creamy dressing.

CAULIFLOWER HERB SALAD
INGREDIENTS
1 head of cauliflower
1 small bunch of parsley
1 small bunch of cilantro
juice from 1 lemon
2 tbsp expeller-pressed extra virgin olive oil
1/3 kalamata olives (or more if you are a big olive fan)
black pepper to taste
salt to taste

Finely chop the cauliflower, parsley, cilantro, and olives. Combine with the lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and black pepper in a big bowl; mix well. If you have time, let it sit for at least an hour or two to marinade.

I think that the large amount of parsley and cilantro in this salad makes it a great recipe for the summer months: it packs a lot of flavor while still being nice and light, and perfect for a picnic.

CURRIED CAULIFLOWER SALAD
found on www.livinghiho.com
INGREDIENTS
1 head of cauliflower
1 bell pepper
1 teaspoon curry
2 tablespoons turmeric
2 teaspoons dulse flakes (optional)
1 tablespoon dry basil, or a handful of freshly chopped basil leaves
4 tablespoons expeller-pressed extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice, or 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar with the “mother”

Using a food processor or just a knife, chop the cauliflower and the pepper into bite-size pieces. In a large bowl, add the remaining ingredients and mix well.

This salad pairs well with a simple raw soup, like a raw tomato bisque or carrot soup. (With any luck, I will be posting a yummy carrot soup recipe soon!)

CAULIFLOWER-TAHINI DRESSING
found on www.livinghiho.com
INGREDIENTS
1 head of cauliflower
2 tablespoons tahini
1 red pepper
1 clove of garlic
1 small onion
juice from 1 lemon
1 teaspoon of Cajun seasoning
1/2 teaspoon salt or to taste
1/2 teaspoon curry powder

Put all the ingredients into a blender and blend well. Reportedly, this makes a little over a quart of creamy, spicy dressing.

I must admit that I have not tried this dressing recipe yet, but it looked so intriguing that I had to include it anyway. If you have a chance to try it, I would love to hear how it goes!

Delicious Raw Tasty Pile

Don’t get me wrong, I love a fun, complicated culinary adventure as much as the next foodie, but lately I simply haven’t had a lot of time to invest in high-preparation raw meals. So I thought I would share our new favorite quick meal: the Delicious Raw Tasty Pile, as enthusiastically dubbed by my husband.

Greg strikes a dramatic pose with his favorite quick dinner.

This Delicious Raw Tasty Pile takes about 15 minutes to prepare, if you happen to have a stash of already-sprouted sunflower seeds. We sprout seeds pretty often so it is common for us to have sunflower seed sprouts hanging around, but I suppose in most kitchens you would have to remember to start some sprouting action the night before. (Click here for a great primer on how to sprout sunflower seeds.)

INGREDIENTS
1 avocado
1/2 sweet or red onion
1 large tomato
3-4 stalks of celery
1/4 cup kalamata olives
1/2 zucchini or yellow squash
1 bell pepper
1/2 cup sprouted sunflower seeds
handful of dill, oregano, basil, and/or parsley, fresh if possible
Celtic/Himalayan sea salt, black pepper, and cayenne pepper to taste
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice — I strongly recommend avoiding bottled lemon juice; fresh juice is many times tastier
1 tsp agave syrup
1 Ezekiel bread wrap — Ezekiel bread isn’t raw, but it is made out of sprouted grains, so I use it a lot with my otherwise all-raw meals

Finely dice all the vegetables, including the olives. In a big bowl, combine those diced veggies with the sunflower seeds, herbs, and spices. Then add the olive oil, lemon juice and agave syrup, and feel free to add more of these ingredients to your taste since I admit that my tablespoon and teaspoon measurements above are just estimates. Mix well.

Finally, cut the Ezekiel wrap into triangles and toast in a toaster on low, or bake at about 300 degrees until barely crispy.

To serve, spoon the veggie mix into bowls and add the Ezekiel wrap triangles on the side. Use the triangles to scoop up the veggies as you would with chips and salsa. (Although this meal may be reminiscent of chips and salsa, the ingredients and spices are different enough that I hesitate to actually call it “salsa.”) You might not guess it, but this is also a very filling meal, due to the sprouts and avocado.

Since this is a fun meal to eat, it one of my favorite dinners to munch on while hanging out on the couch in front of a movie. Tonight, we treated ourselves to bowls of Delicious Raw Tasty Pile and The Princess Bride; in my opinion, the best way to relax at home on a Wednesday night!

Apple Crisp

I am psyched that one of my friends from high school, Paige, made this recipe to share on my blog! Paige has been trying out some raw recipes since she is interested in eating meals that are highly nutritious. She reported that this crisp is amazing, so I can’t wait to try it myself!

RAW APPLE CRISP by Paige

Sauce:
2 apples
1/2 cup putted medjool dates, soaked
1/2 cup raisins, soaked
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1T lemon juice

Crumble topping:
2 cups raw walnuts, unsoaked
1/2 C unsweetened shredded dried coconut
1/2t ground cinnamon
1/4t ground nutmeg
1/4t salt
1/2 cup raisins, unsoaked
8 pitted medjool dates, unsoaked
1/4 cup sugar *editor’s note: For those of you who want to avoid sugar, this recipe is very delicious without this sugar as well.

It was nice to see how much raw foods my local Publix had. I made a special trip to Whole Foods for the raw nuts, coconuts, and dates, but when I got to Publix, they had the same raw foods at comparable or better prices!

The recipe said to make this like a pie but I just made the crumb topping and the sauce separately. Then as I was packing my lunch, I cut up an apple, put a spoonful of the sauce on and some of the crumb topping. It all fit quite nicely in a tupperware container and kept well in the fridge all day.

Results: Amazing. One serving is just over 500 calories but it’s an incredibly filling 500 calories! Plus I just want to put the crumb topping on everything.

Thank you Paige!

If you have a favorite recipe or raw food experience you would like to share too, just email me!

How to Open a Young Coconut

As a follow-up to my post with the Thai Coconut Soup recipe, I present: How to Open a Young Coconut! My mom taught me how to do this just a few weeks ago, and she had been taught by another raw food enthusiast. This technique works for us, so if you are unfamiliar with opening coconuts then I hope it is helpful to you too.

Before we go into the instructions, I should answer a common question: why in the world am I going through the trouble of opening a coconut — whose rock-hard exterior makes it one of the most daunting fruits ever to be put in a grocery cart — when canned coconut milk is available in nearly every food store these days?

Well, this is why. First, it tastes WAY BETTER this way. Canned coconut milk is metallic-tasting and heavy compared to the subtle flavor of the fresh stuff. You may not notice a difference between canned and fresh coconut milk in typical cooked foods made in the U.S.A, since there are often several other strong-tasting ingredients competing for flavor, but I can guarantee that you’d taste the difference in a raw meal like the Thai Soup.

Secondly, coconut has all kinds of Very Awesome Health Benefits, like promoting weight loss, strengthening your immune system, and providing nutrients often lacking in the American diet. But as with all food, the benefits are more absorbable to your body if you eat it as fresh as possible, unprocessed in manufacturing facilities, without any additives — which means braving the hard shell of a whole coconut.

And just to clear up any confusion on this point: nope, coconut milk from a can is not raw. Not even a little bit.

So, that is why I recommend trying your hand at opening these suckers. It is not exactly intuitive, but once you successfully open your first one you will always know how to do it. Now, without further ado:

STEP ONE!
Procure one or two young coconuts. This is what they look like:

Your local Asian or Mexican market will probably carry these. To pick a good one, put your thumb on the bottom of the fruit. It should be firm with a slight springiness. If it is REALLY soft and spongy, it is probably still alright but past its freshness date. If you are not sure, you can always ask an employee of the store and they may help you choose one.

When young coconuts are picked from the tree, they are actually green, but by the time they get to the States they become cream-colored as you see above. If they are left on the tree to mature, then they develop the brown, fibrous husk that is usually associated with coconuts. At that point, however, the meat on the inside becomes harder, so that you cannot make coconut milk out of it. And the moral of this story is: do not buy a brown coconut if you want to make milk.

STEP TWO!
Cut or tear off the plastic around the top of the coconut. Do not remove the plastic completely, because before coconuts are shipped overseas they are dipped in chemicals to keep the bugs off of them during transport. I think formaldehyde is a popular chemical used for the purpose. Since these fruits have a thick protective shell with an effective filtration system, you do not need to worry about the formaldehyde contaminating your coconut milk, but still, you do not want formaldehyde all over your hands when preparing food so I recommend leaving as much plastic intact as possible.

Then, tilt the coconut on its side, grab a large sharp knife, and saw at the husk near the top. Your goal is to shave off the husk until you reveal the top of the brown inner shell, per the image below.

STEP THREE!
Now you need to cut off the top of the brown inner shell. To do this, make a lid by puncturing the shell in a circle around the top. The best tool I have found for this is the “chin” of your big knife. (I call it a “chin,” but if you know the proper term for this part of the knife, please tell me!)

Using that part of the knife, whack your coconut shell so that it cracks or creates holes.

Then, use the top of your knife to pry open the lid you made. If the lid is not coming up easily, puncture some more holes and then try again.

Now, you have succeeding in opening the coconut and you have access to the deliciousness inside. In some coconuts, the water will look slightly lavender, or light brown. If this is the case, it’s alright — the coconut isn’t spoiled or anything. (It IS possible to get a spoiled coconut, but you can tell easily by smelling or tasting it. If it tastes or smells sour, it is no good.) Anyway, there is some normal variation in coconut water color.

Pour out the coconut water into a bowl, then spoon out the remaining soft coconut meat. To make coconut milk, just blend the water and the meat together.

As I mentioned before, I found this process a little difficult the first time, but after that it became easy. What is your experience opening coconuts or other exotic fruits?

Zucchini Pasta with Pesto

I know I posted a zucchini noodle recipe a few weeks ago, but tonight Greg made this pasta dinner and it came out so beautifully that I couldn’t help but blog about it. I don’t have any in-progress pictures since I was watching television inevitably detained as he was preparing the meal. But I will post the recipe nevertheless, because it is so delicious and easy to make that you just HAVE to try it.

Just look at that. I can’t get over how lovely it looks.

PESTO INGREDIENTS (serves two)
1/2 cup of pine nuts, soaked
1 cup of fresh basil
2 cloves of garlic
4 tablespoons olive oil
sea salt to taste
Appliance needed: blender or chopper

* If you have time, soak the pine nuts in water for a few hours or the night before. Most raw foodists soak their seeds and nuts before eating them because it makes them easier to digest and increases their available energy.

Making the pesto is simple: just blend all the ingredients in a small blender or chopper.

NOODLES INGREDIENTS (serves two)
1 large zucchini or 2 small ones

Previously, I’ve blogged about making zucchini noodles using a peeler, but my husband discovered another method. He uses a cheese slicer or a mandoline to slice the zucchini into thin strips, then cuts the slices lengthwise so that they are the width of linguini. I admit it: the zucchini comes out looking much more like typical noodles if you use Greg’s method. Of course, if you really want to get fancy, you could buy a spirooli and let the spirooli make the noodles for you. (I’ll have one someday, by golly!)

TOPPINGS INGREDIENTS
This is an easy recipe to customize to your taste — just add whatever diced veggie toppings appeal to you. I suggest any of these:
kalamata olives
tomatoes
green pepper
jalapeno
sweet onion
cilantro or oregano
salt, pepper, and/or cayenne pepper to taste

Mix the pesto together with the noodles, place in bowls, and add your chosen toppings decoratively on top. Eat, enjoy, and then help yourself to seconds!

If you try your hand at this recipe or any other raw Italian-style recipes, feel free to email me a picture or two of your creation. I’d love to share them as part of a Raw Pasta Gallery!

Tidbits on Organic Living

Since I am such a fan of organic food, I had to share this post in which my friend and fellow-blogger Melissa interviews the owner of Milk & Honey Organics in Greenville, SC. This new business supports local farms and organic living through the service they offer to the Greenville area, and frankly I’m just tickled that Christine (the owner) had the vision to create it. I’m also proud of Greenville, my little South Carolina city, because in addition to Milk & Honey Organics I’ve seen a lot of natural-living and organic-oriented businesses grow here over the past few years. I like living in a place that seems to value the things that can make people healthier.

Click here for the blog post with the whole interview.

Also, if you are interested in organic food at all, I recommend checking out this super-helpful list called “The Dirty Dozen: A Shopper’s Guide to Avoiding Pesticides in Produce.” This list shows the top 12 conventionally-farmed fruits and vegetables that are found to be highest in pesticides (the “Dirty Dozen”) and also the top 15 fruits and veggies that have the lowest pesticides (the “Clean Fifteen”). It’s available as a printable PDF and also as an iPhone app. This is a great resource if you want to decrease the amount of pesticides you consume but do not want to buy organic produce 100% of the time; by knowing which items have the highest and lowest chemicals in them you can determine for yourself which fruits and veggies you want to buy organic. I used to carry the list around with me while shopping, but after just a few weeks I found that the “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean Fifteen” were easy to remember.

Here are a couple other good sites with organic living information that I found recently:

From Livestrong.com: How To Eat Whole Chemical Free Foods
“Never before in the history of man have we consumed so many chemicals, preservatives and pesticides. Although the food industry would like us to believe that they are all perfectly safe, the truth is, we are a living experiment in human resilience. Many of these additives are so new that it is impossible to tell the long-term effects of their consumption. If you are avoiding chemicals and preservatives for these reasons, there are some techniques to minimize your exposure to them…”

From Faircompanies.com: Organophosphates, ADHD, DOW & How To Eat Less Pesticides
This link includes info on the toxic effects of pesticides in humans and some economic reasons for why these chemicals are used in the first place. To be honest this site can get a little political, but in general I think it presents some valuable information.

If you know of any other interesting links about how to eat organic, why it is important, etc., please feel free to share!

“Spaghetti and Meatballs”

I may have mentioned before that I am not a big fan of making raw food dishes that emulate cooked food. This is because I believe that fruits and vegetables taste great without having to pretend that they are something else. However, I make an exception for this “spaghetti and meatballs” recipe for two reasons: (1) it is delicious (2) it is not emulating cooked food because it does not really taste like spaghetti and meatballs. In fact, I think it is only called “spaghetti and meatballs” because that’s catchier than “zucchini with tomato sauce and walnut paté.”

The best time to make this recipe is during zucchini and tomato season when you can get the freshest local produce. And of course I always recommend buying organic — especially with zucchini and tomato, you can really taste the difference.

MEATBALL INGREDIENTS
Courtesy of Raw Food Made Easy by Jennifer Cornbleet. I doubled her recipe so that the measurements below will serve about 4.
2 cups raw walnuts, soaked in water for a couple hours
2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp tamari or nama shoyu
1/2 garlic powder
dash salt
2 tbsp fresh parsley, minced fine
2 tbsp onion, minced fine
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice (yes, I think buying the lemon and squeezing it, rather than using bottled lemon juice, is worth it. The taste difference is incredible)

Use a food processor or heavy-duty blender to process all the ingredients. If you have a juicer with a homogenizing feature, you could also homogenize the walnuts, then mix the walnut paste with the rest of the ingredients together in a bowl.

This meatball mix will keep in the fridge in a sealed container for up to five days. Roll into meatball-sized balls when ready to serve.

TOMATO SAUCE INGREDIENTS
Courtesy of Raw Food Made Easy by Jennifer Cornbleet. I doubled her recipe so that the measurements below will serve about 4.
2 medium or large tomatoes, chopped
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes (you can dehydrate your own, or buy some WITHOUT added chemicals)
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp minced fresh basil, or 1 tsp dried basil
2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp crushed garlic, or 1 garlic clove
salt and black pepper to taste
a dash of cayenne (optional)
1/2 green pepper (optional)

Just put everything in the blender or food processor and process until smooth!

Jarred tomato sauce in the fridge will last as long as a fresh tomato would last.

NOODLES INGREDIENTS
1 medium or large zucchini per person (only use as many zucchini are necessary, since the noodles are best when prepared just before serving and do not make great leftovers)
1 tbsp olive oil

If you happen to have a spiral slicer laying around, you can use that to make noodles out of the pasta… but I just use a run-of-the-mill peeler. Peel the skin off the zucchini and throw away or compost, then keep peeling away at the rest of the zucchini to make the noodles. You can peel all the way to middle if you like, but when you get to the seeds the peels will get messier and look less like noodles, so you can always use the seedy part for something else. (I just eat that part on the spot, but I guess you could always stir-fry it, or use it in vegetable soup, etc.) Toss the zucchini with the olive oil.

To serve, place a few noodles on a plate, pour some sauce over it, and add some meatballs. Mushrooms or parsley sprigs can make a nice garnish, and I always add some ground black peppercorns as well. Ta da!

You’ve got to admit, this is a cool-looking raw meal. Although it doesn’t taste like traditional wheat noodles, it does do a darn good visual impression of spaghetti and meatballs. And I’ve already mentioned that it’s delicious. I love the rich, herb-y flavor. YUM.

A DINNER PARTY SUGGESTION: Since most people tend to get uncomfortable when one person at a dinner table ascribes to completely different dietary habits, I suggest using this recipe when dining with others who are eating cooked Italian food. Somehow it improves the dining experience for everyone when you at least try to fit in with what everyone else is eating. Don’t ask me why, it’s some kind of sociological thing. And at least it’s a good excuse to make this fun recipe!

Some of my Favorite Things

In an effort to instill the new year with as many happy thoughts as possible, I’ve compiled a list of some of my favorite raw food-related things. This list makes me smile and I hope you like it too. Feel free to lengthen the list by adding your own favorite things, food-related or not, in the comments!

1. Favorite kitchen gadget: my lemon reamer. Ever since I started using fresh lemon on pretty much everything, I think I’ve become emotionally attached to my lemon reamer. Such a simple device, yet so useful. Oh how I love you, my lemon reamer.

2. New favorite recipe book: Raw Food Made Easy For 1 or 2 People by Jennifer Cornbleet. I wish I had this book when I first started eating raw! While many other raw food recipe books require access to uncommon kitchen appliances and obscure fruits and vegetables, most recipes in THIS book require only a cutting board and a blender, and uses familiar, easy-to-buy ingredients. In the words of a reviewer on amazon.com:

“I have dozens of raw foods books, but this is the only one that makes raw foods cooking successful for me and my family. The prep time that other books require is what has historically overwhelmed me, and this book requires virtually none of that.” -Kat C.

I totally recommend Raw Food Made Easy to anyone interested in the raw food lifestyle, or anyone simply wanting to increase their intake of fruits and veggies every day.

3 – Favorite vegetable reference in a webcomic: see below. (Click to see it full-size.)

LOVE IT. Thanks to my sister Mary for sharing it!

4 – Current favorite vegetable: garlic. I diced a nice plump garlic clove yesterday and was reminded of how much I loved its smell. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not a fan of garlic breath, but omigosh that garlic yesterday smelled so sweet and crisp, that I could hardly believe it was coming from the garlic. I think it was a particularly fresh clove or something. Anyway, now I’m on a garlic kick (don’t worry, I only eat it at home when I don’t have to worry about carrying the smell with me).

Garlic has all kinds of crazy-good health benefits: it is a natural antibiotic, it lowers blood pressure, decreases the risk of heart attack, increases liver health, and is a powerful antioxidant. Yeah. Impressive stuff. For more impressiveness, check out this neat article I found today on WikiHow: How To Use Garlic Against Stress, Toxins, and a Better Mood.

5. Favorite raw food dessert: chocolate pudding. I could eat this every day. In fact, I often do. There are four small bowls of pudding cooling in my fridge as I type this.

6. Favorite gardener: my dad. My dad has grown vegetables and herbs for most of his life, so as a kid I always remember having a big beautiful garden in the backyard, which was fun. I tell ya, there’s nothing like walking out the back door with Dad and coming back with arms full of just-picked, so-delicious veggies — veggies that completely knock the socks off any produce I get anywhere else.

My favorite crops from Dad’s garden are cilantro, string beans, zucchini, lettuce, and the figs from the fig trees. The household dog Muffy likes the garden too; he has grown fond of grabbing string beans with his teeth, pulling them off their vines, and eating them on the spot. Who knew that dogs would like raw vegetables too?