SOMEBODY BEAT ME TO THE PUNCH!

For years, I’ve been grumbling and saying that I should write a book with recipes which require no fancier equipment than a food processor, and, maybe a blender. I had collected numbers of raw vegan books, and annotated them as to what equipment was required, so that I could avoid the things that I believe can be done without. (Don’t get me wrong: in the past I have had all of the exciting stuff: I scrimped and saved to get the $450 for a Vitamix which came with a 7-year warranty, and gave up the ghost about 3 weeks after the warranty was up. I also had a dehydrator, however, in my situation, it is not convenient to use it, so it is peacefully resting in storage.) That leaves me with a low-end food processor, and a Nutri-Bullet that my mother gave me,

I became a raw vegan when I was in college (like, maybe, 47 years ago). Back then, things were all simple: slice this up, chop this up: have food.

So, what am I talking about? I recently found this book Raw & Simple by Judita Wignall, and I am mad as a hornet that I did not put my book out when I first thought about it. This is a very nice book, and I am as pleased as can be that someone has done what I have failed to get around to doing,

This book has lots of interesting and tasty recipes, and none of them require anything more complicated than a food processor.

So, if you want “kind of” fancy, but you don’t have a lot of equipment, this is definitely for you. (If you already have all the fancy equipment anyone could dream of, this will still be a welcome addition to your recipe-book library.

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KALE CHIPS WITH OLIVE OIL, SALT & PEPPER

KALE CHIPS WITH OLIVE OIL, SALT & PEPPER
from a recipe on the Corbin Hill Food Project newsletter
1 bunch kale
2 T extra virgin olive oil
1 t sea salt
1 t black pepper

Remove the kale leaves from the stem, then tear into small pieces (not too small – they will shrink in the dehydrator)
Place kale pieces in a large bowl. Add extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, and black pepper.  Toss to mix well, and then rub oil onto each leaf to coat on both sides.
Spread kale pieces one layer deep on a dehydrator tray topped with a paraflex sheet.
Dehydrate 6 hours or overnight, or until crisp.

To make kale chips in your oven:
Spread the kale in one layer on a baking sheet.
Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, then turn and bake for 15 minutes more, or until crisp.

The information for baking comes from a recipe on the Corbin Hill Food Project newsletter.

NICE RECIPES from Renewed Living

Every once in a while I do open an email I never signed up for, and some of those times, I am pleasantly surprised.  This is one of those times. No idea whatsoever how I got on Renewed Living‘s mailing list, but they do have some nice recipes on their blog.  Check them out.

SPRING VEGETABLES! What can I ferment? Meet-up quandary: will probably ferment green beans

There’s a big Fermentation  Party in Brooklyn at the end of the month. I want to go, so I’ll have to ferment something (maybe a cheeze? I want something spectactular, or at least remarkable)

Meanwhile, the next NYC Ferments is for Spring Ferments . What?

Here’s my list of spring vegetables:
Artichokes
Asparagus
Belgian Endive
Broccoli
Butter Lettuce
Cactus
Chayote Squash
 Chives
Corn
Fava Beans
Fennel
Fiddlehead Ferns
Green Beans
Manoa Lettuce
Morel Mushrooms
Mustard Greens
Pea Pods
Peas
Purple Asparagus
Radicchio
Ramps
Red Leaf Lettuce
Rhubarb
Snow Peas
Sorrel
Spinach
Spring Baby Lettuce
Swiss Chard
Vidalia Onions
Watercress

Aha! I can ferment green beans. Actually, I make some mean jalapeno dill fermented green beans! Aha!

Raw Chocolate Hazelnut Spread (better than Nutella)

Somewhere online today, I saw that someone is calling this Nutella Day (really? Because of why?)
Anyway, that made me look for a raw version post-haste.
Here is my take on a “Raw Nutella”, based on a version I found at Tales of a Kitchen 

RAW HAZELNUT CHOCOLATE SPREAD (raw “nutella” version)
1 -1/2 C raw hazelnuts
7 T cacao powder
8 medjool dates
2/3 C water (or nut milk)
pinch of sea salt
2 T coconut oil
2/3 t vanilla extract

Process hazelnuts in food processor to a fine consistency – almost nut-butter consistency.
Add remaining ingredients and process to a smooth, creamy, thick spread consistency.

Use as you will.

RAW ANIMAL CRACKERS from Nouveau Raw

POST #979

You’ve got to love Amie Sue Oldfather and her Nouveau Raw creations!  She just doesn’t stop coming up with great ideas.

Her photo here shows the raw animal crackers she has come up with this time!  Cute, tasty, and easy enough to make. The step-by-step instructions with illustrative photos and useful tips make this recipe look do-able. 

If you haven’t visited Nouveau Raw, now is the time to go there. I always find something there that I haven’t thought of before.  It really is a one-stop shop, brimming with great recipes and wonderful ideas.

BEST OF RAW – great recipes!

POST #907
Congratulations to Amie Sue of Nouveau Raw for winning BEST OF RAW – 2013!  This girl has some  of, if not the,  best raw vegan recipes in town (yours, mine, anybody’s!). Do check out her recipes – I’ve already mentioned a lot of them, but, it seems that, each time I go to her blog, it seems I have a different hankering, so I end up looking at something that has probably been there all along, but which I have cavalierly ignored previously. Today’s discovery was the coconut bark recipes – I don’t rightly know that I’ll ever get around to making those, but I might, since they do sound delicious (but I would need to get the cute little molds first, wouldn’t I?

CABIN FEVER DINING: What I made today post-Sandy

POST #848
With no public transportation on the day after Sandy, this week is definitely a stay-cation.  Worse, everything within walking distance is closed.  Cabin fever city!  Back to the kitchen!

This morning I got up and made some kale/cashew cheeze in my much beloved Cuisinart food processor (it has already outlasted each of the two economy food processors I had before) to go with the sunflower seed crackers I meant to eat later.

Later, I made a “surf and turf salad.”
I had some leftover torn-up kale from huge bunch I’d bought on Sunday, so I chopped it up a little more, added some soaked wakame seaweed, also chopped up, about 1/4 C chopped red bell pepper, 1/2  jalapeno, chopped, some freshly-ground black pepper, 1/2 galangal (don’t ask why, I have no idea), 2 chopped garlic cloves, about 1/2 C lentil sprouts, and about 1/4 C sunflower seed sprouts, then some apple cider vinegar and olive oil.  It didn’t seem like enough, so I took a heaping soup spoon of the kale/cashew cheeze and mixed it with water to make a creamy dressing which I poured over the top.  Yumm!

GREENSPIRITLIVING.COM- another great recipe resource

POST #790
After a while, when you are hunting down recipes, the recipes keep cropping up from different authors.  That’s the way it goes.  When I find a site with a few new and different recipes, I like to share, so that is exactly what I am doing here.

GreenSpiritLiving.com has a nice collection of free recipes, with some fresh, new ideas.  Check it out.

THE RAWTARIAN: a definite go-to recipe resource

POST #789
Ooh ooh ooh!  I’ve just finished raiding The Rawtarian’s sitehttp://www.therawtarian.com  I haven’t been this excited about a recipe site in a long time.
Laura-Jane, the Rawtarian has an extensive, fantastic collection of delicious recipes available to all comers.  What I like most about her recipes is that use ingredients which are fairly easily accessible to most people (i.e. there is no “young Thai coconut”, nor are there expensive nuts, or exotic fruits which may not be available in many localities). 

 

What I really like about these recipes, aside from everything else I have mentioned, is the helpful comments Laura-Jane includes at the end of each recipe.  

These are accessible, usable, tasty recipes.  Go there. Make that!