Lentil and Parsley Soup

Very similar to my lentil pate recipe, this one is watered down and made in a blender

Generous amount of sprouted lentils (puy, brown or green)
1/2 a courgette
1 or 2 sticks celery
1/4 of an onion
small handful of kale or spinach (optional)
generous handful of parsley
filtered water as required

You can also add lemon juice and Braggs/Tamari if desired.

Blend carefully until smooth in a blender, adding water slowly to get it moving.

Or use a handblender and have it as a version of lentil pate with more courgette and herbs.

I love having this first thing for breakfast, mid morning a couple of hours after green juice, or for lunch.

Spagetti bolognaise

I just am marvelling at my recent piece of culinary genius, if I do say so myself. I am so proud of myself because I did not follow a recipe for this one! Here's what I did. You'll need a spiralizer for this one. If you dont you can grate the courgette but unfortunately I don't think it will be as good this way!

Serves One:

Ingredients

Noodles
2 1/2 medium courgettes
1 tsp salt

Sauce
3 or 4 chestnut mushrooms, sliced
3 small tomatoes
1 tbsp coconut butter

Pesto
Handful of cashews (soaked for a couple of hours)
Sprinkle of dried or finely chopped basil
1 tsp nutritional yeast

First spiralize the courgette. Place in a bowl and sprinkle evenly with the salt. This will soften it. You can peel the courgette first for aesthetics but I felt this was a waste of chlorophyll!

To make the pesto, grind up the cashews in a coffe grinder or food processor. Add the basil and nutritional yeast.

Melt the coconut butter in a bowl inside a bigger bowl with hot but not boiling water in it.

While that is melting, scoop the out insides of the tomatoes and put to one side. Process gently in a food processor so they are roughly chopped. Add the mushrooms, then add to the coconut butter when it is melted. You can add some of the tomato seeds back in if you like.

Rinse the courgette with warm water. Drain well. Arrange on a place, add the sauce in the middle and sprinkle with pesto.

The Carrot Cake!

My Valentine's Day gift to myself. Have been meaning to make it for ages. The recipe is from Winter 2007 Get Fresh! by Alissa Cohen:

Cake
7 carrots
1 cup walnuts
1 cup dates, pitted and soaked
3/4 cup raisins, soaked for at least 1 hour
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Frosting
3 tbsp honey (I used agave syrup)
3 tbsp orange juice
1 cup cashews, soaked

Food process separately carrots, then walnuts, then dates together with spices. The blend all three together in the food processor. Stir in the raisins.

Put all frosting ingredients in the blender (I found hand blender easier as there wasn't quite enough to get the blender moving) Spread over cake and sprinkle with cinnamon.

I lined a cake tin with baking paper and just it slid off easily when set. You don't need to bother with anything to stick the paper to the inside of the tin either - if you pour the mixture in carefully it will hold it in place.

It is definitely better if made the night before and left in the fridge for all the flavours to meld together. It is beautifully moist, but if I was to do a review it would say that it could be slightly more stodgy with more dates, more orange juice and possibly including sprouted wheat grain...

Orange chocolate avocado pudding

Might seem like an obvious combination but I have never put orange in my choco-aco pudding before. I just did. Magic.

1 avocado
1 medium banana
cacao powder
carob powder
desert spoon agave
fresh orange juice

Raw Vegan 'Tuna' and Sweetcorn Salad

This is the same as the Sunshine Salad but without the red pepper. The sunflower seeds in it reminded me of tuna and of course the sweetcorn reminds me of, well, sweetcorn!

Salad:

4 tbsp peas
8 tbsp sweetcorn
8 tbsp sprouted sunflower seeds
3-4 handfuls of shredded round lettuce.

For the dressing, hand blend together:
1/4 avocado
1/2 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 medium tomato
pinch of himalayan crystal salt

Mix well together. Serves 1.

You could also leave out the lettuce and have this as a sandwich filling on buckwheat bread. Now that would be awesome.

Raw desert idea

I am currently formulating ideas for a raw banofee pie and was going to try it tonight but didn't have a lot of time. So I came up with this really easy desert instead with some of the ingredients I plan to use. Try chopping up a banana and mixing it with a few tablespoons of raw sprouted buckwheat and a tablespoon of Carley's Rainbow Nut butter. Mash together a bit with a fork, add a bit of agave syrup if you have a really sweet tooth. Topping with a few cacao nibs is also good.

Sunshine Salad

I made this last night. I got the idea of peas and sweetcorn from some salads I had in Brighton (the sweetcorn from Manna of Brighton)I am into my salads at the moment with thick creamy dressings ... hhhm


Salad:
Round lettuce shredded
Handful sweetcorn
Handful peas
Half a red pepper cut into small pieces
Sunflower seeds

Dressing: blend with a hand blender:
1/2 avocado
1 tbsp tahini
1/2 tomato
2 tbsp lemon juice
very small pinch of salt

Mix enough dressing with the salad to cover well. A serving spoon is enough for one bowl of salad. I had some left over which will make a great dip if I mix some onion in. If you're not a fan of tahini (it can be a bit clawing on your throat) use less and use more avocado.

Pak Choi Salad

I bought some Pak Choi with a vague idea for a Chinese inspired salad using ginger, and this is what I came up with:

Serves 2:

4 little Pak Choi (chopped to medium sized pieces)
handful of green beans (medium chopped)
lots of corriander

Optional
sprinkle of mung bean sprouts
round lettuce (the kind with soft leaves, not crispy like Romaine)

Dressing
1/2 tsp Umeboshe (?!) paste
1cm cubed Ginger (use the garlic press)
1/4 clove Garlic (use the garlic press)
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1 tbsp lemon juice

whisk together using a mini beater and mix well with the salad veg.

".... Salad"

Well I seem to be eating the same thing all the time so I decided it was time to try something different. I came up with a new salad - ok it still has much the same ingredients as I keep eating, but it is still different!! At least it is another way to get my broccoli in me. The quantities aren't very accurate yet, most of my recipes start out that way, but I am working on it. (It doesn't have a name yet either, but I am working on that too!)

In the food processor, carefully process into quite small but not too small pieces:
Broccoli
Spinach
1 large tomato

Then process a small onion separately and add that in

Fro the dressing, with a hand blender, blend
1 tbsp almond butter
1/2 tsp brown rice miso
1 whole tomato
lemon juice
a tiny bit of agave if desired

Mix together with a bit of buckwheat. The appearance and mouth feel reminds me a bit of that russian salad with egg and beetroot ... I think the buckwheat gives it the density you would get from the egg. Hhmm will try it with beetroot next time (not egg obviously)

Cauliflower curry

Another variation on a theme:

1 and a half avocadoes
1 tbsp coconut oil
5 tomatoes
1 tsp dried corriander
Blend all in a blender

2 deseeded tomatoes
1 very small onion (about the size of a golf ball)
handful of spinach
Food process all into small pieces

Mix contents of blender and food processor together.

Chop up small bits of cauliflower and half some cherry tomatoes and add to the sauce. Serve with sprouted buckwheat.

Banana-flavoured Rice Pudding

This took literally 5 minutes to make, including washing up. That's my kind of pudding.

Recipe, for a modest portion for one.

1/2 banana
3 tbsp liquid coconut butter (coconut oil)
3 tbsp sprouted buckwheat

Blend the banana and coconut oil together with a hand blender. Add one tablespoon of buckwheat and blend thoroughly again. Then add the remaining buckwheat and pulse with handblender only a little bit more, so it stays fairly lumpy.

Apple Crumble

I am so excited. I made a *raw* apple crumble. Made it up all by myself. It was awesome. Remind me why cooking exists again??

I used soaked raw oat groats, sprouted sunflower seeds, buckwheat and agave for the topping, and apples, lemon juice, cinnamon, raisins and agave for the bottom.




I have put a picture on of the apple before I put all the topping on so you can see. Looks and smells exactly like the cooked version. I served this one chilled as I made it yesterday. The texture and mouth-feel of the apple was good but the top was a bit too crunchy as I left it in the dehydrator too long. I have ideas for how to make it more gooey, and serve it warm too. Tomorrow night will experiment with a custard sauce to go with the (small) bit I managed to save.

Avocado and Wakame Salad

I ate a version of this for lunch every single day when I started going raw last summer, and continued with it into winter, until I fell off the wagon a bit in about November when I was in hospital with a water infection. However, the habit of green salad was ingrained by this point and I always come back to it. I used to just put all my new found raw superfoods on there - spirulina, maca, purple corn, hemp seed, flax seed - everything. Now I prefer it a bit simpler.

1/3 head of romaine lettuce, cut into medium sized pieces.
4 strips of wakame seaweed, soaked for 15-20 minutes and roughly sliced.
3 inches of cucumber, sliced not too thickly and cubed.
1/2 an avocado, cubed
sprinkle of purple corn
sprinkle of hemp seeds

For the dressing, you could use hemp-miso-lemon-agave dressing. If you use this you might want to leave out the avocado. Or for a lighter option use olive oil and apple cider vinegar. Lighter still use just vinegar or lemon juice.

Raw Dahl (2)

Dahl is fast becoming one of my favourite recipes. It is so easy to make and tastes amazing with broccoli, celery and tomato. I'm not a huge fan of raw broccoli but dip it in this and it is de-lish.

I made an adaptation of Kate Magic's version a few months ago and have made it many times since. I can throw estimated quantities of the ingredients below into the blender and it always comes out great. The new version contains green lentils which are softer than puy lentils, it does not contain sesame seeds, and there are a few substitutions of oil and seasoning.

250g sprouted green lentils
1 small white onion
2 tbsp hemp oil
1 tbsp tamari (or Bragg's liquid aminos if you don't want fermented food)
1/2 tsp cumin
juice of half a lemon
garlic optional - the idea is that the kick comes from the onion.

Blend all ingredients in the blender. Add water just until it moves easily, but no more. You want a medium consistency. Don't over-blend. Add more Bragg's/lemon juice to taste.

The Best Savoury Breakfast Ever

This recipe is inspired by the The pH Miracle, as an attempt to not always have a sweet breakfast. At the moment I think it is the best thing ever!! Really filling without weighing you down.



sprouted buckwheat
rolled oats, soaked for twenty minutes, drained and rinsed
sunflower seeds, sprouted or at least soaked overnight
1 tbsp hemp seeds
1 desert spoon of hemp oil
1/2 an avocado

Mix seeds and oats in a bowl so you have what looks like a good amount to you. Don't forget the avocado will bulk it up quite a bit. Oats and avocado are the most filling things so to make it lighter have the least of these. Cut avocado in half and spoon out the flesh of one half straight into the bowl. Roughly chop and mix in with the spoon. Pour over the hemp oil and mix well.

You could add chopped fresh tomato to add something juicy and fruity. Raw coconut chips are also really nice in this.

I usually have a large portion of this about 10.30am after having had a green juice first thing. I usually take it to work with me in a container and everyone always says it looks really nice. That's coz it is!!

Tomato and coconut curry (2)

Everything was good today. Things at work went well; the day flew by as I was so busy. Visited my Grannie after work and she was so pleased to see me. I really must take her some good food. Will certainly take her some raw chocolate at the weekend. Got home from hers and went jogging again. Ran about the same as last time. It was great listening to my ipod at the same time. I did feel tired when I got home though, but in a calm way which was good. Then I made a new recipe, a variation on my tomato and coconut curry. And I still had time to write on my blog (actually I haven't washed up yet - oh well - this isn't going to spoil the perfection of my day!)

Here is the recipe: it is sweet and creamy and very filling. Try it and see what you think.

For the sauce, blend:
1 avocado
1 desert spoon coconut butter
2 tomatoes
1/4 onion
1 clove garlic

Food process:
handful for spinach
1 deseeded tomato

Mix the two together in a bowl.

Then add:
1 tomato chopped into small pieces
Small handful of spinach roughly chopped
Small handful of mange tout, cut in half

The slight bitterness of the greens really balance the sweetness of the combined tomato and coconut oil.

I think next time I'll use less avocado, a bit more onion and experiment with spices.

Things that have made me feel good today:
- listening to music whilst driving to work
- making my Grannie happy by visiting her
- succeeding at jogging
- creating a new dish (and eating the new dish)
- eating raw chocolate afterwards

I have a really nice notebook I was given as a present once and I have been saving it for something. I recently decided to use it as a book to write down good things - what I like about myself, as recommended by Brian Clement, but also what I have to be grateful for, things I have appreciated and enjoyed that day, and so on. It takes a while to get into but once you get going you end up finding more and more good things you want to write down. I really think with practice it is possible to think this way all the time.

One thing I am appreciating more than anything at the moment is Michael Jackson, music and dancing. Dangerous was the first CD album I ever owned. I am only now fully appreciating how completely gorgeous he was, I was obviously too young to realise this at the time! Listening to my favourite music whilst making raw food is the ultimate feel-good combination for me.

Blueberry 'Yoghurt'

I made this up the other day. It is similar in taste and mouth-feel to one of those expensive luxury yoghurt-type deserts - similar because with no dairy and no added sugar it is way better!!! I used to eat loads of yoghurts when I was growing up, but ate fewer as I got older, and was only eating plain joghurt very occasionally by the time I went vegan. This pudding makes you wonder why on earth you would ever need to buy the sugary-dairy version ever again. All it is (to serve 1) is

1/2 avocado
1/2 banana
handful of frozen blueberries, depending how sweet you want it.

(This version in the photo also contains cacao nibs which can be added for texture. I actually prefer it without though)

Just put in a suitable container and blend with a hand blender (tip - use a hand blender for this kind of thing wherever possible - it is far easier than getting the blender out)

You can make it really smooth or leave it so there are still little bits of blueberry left. If you add just thawing blueberries to room temperature avocado and banana, the temperature is perfectly cool and you can really taste all the flavours. Or refrigerate and serve chilled. I like to leave it not perfectly mixed so you can see tiny swirls of green still in it. Green and purple are the perfect colour combination in my opinion. There is so much to say about this simple combination, so many variants without even changing the ingredients. I remember my first ever exposure to raw food at one of Kate Magic's demonstrations last summer - she said with raw food, making even little changes to texture could change the whole eating experience and you could never get bored with it. It is so true. The possibilities are endless, and it makes me so happy it is almost ridiculous!!!!!!! I'm sure many passionate raw fooders out there would agree with me! Look how carried away I've got.

This desert has also been tried and tested on my parents, who loved it. I have just made them some and put it in the fridge for their desert this evening. They have also volunteered to do tasting panels for me whenever I like!

Bean salad

Again, another no fixed quantity recipe, just things that work well together in a salad.

Salad
Bean sprouts (mung beans are my favourite and they sprout super easily)
Celery (medium sliced)
Cucumber (cubed)
Tomatoes (cherry toms cut in half or cubed large tomatoes)
Fresh basil
Spring onions (not too much)

For the dressing
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Pinch of salt
Crushed garlic
Put all dressing ingredients in a jar and shake. Pour over salad.

Tomato and coconut curry sauce

Just spent ages fiddling with the layout and colours of my blog but I am finally happy with it now! For the time being anyway!!

What I should have been doing is recording the new tomato and coconut curry sauce I made yesterday. I used to love this cooked recipe - wheat-free veg pasta, with aduki beans and spinach and a tomato and coconut butter sauce. Funnily enough the last time I made this version when I had a cooked food craving, I burnt it. I don't need to worry about that anymore now I have created the raw version!! I haven't had coconut butter in a while and I forgot how comforting and somehow warming it is even when cold. Of course it could also be actually warmed if you want.

The raw version has become a creamy curry sauce with lots of tomato. It is really mild and sweet which is just how I wanted it, and looks and feels and tastes exactly like something you'd get in a tandoori, without all the yucky stuff.

1 tbsp coconut butter
4 tomatoes
1/2 bag of spinach
1 tomato
1 1/2 tsp food processed white onion
1/4 - 1/2 tsp curry powder

In the blender, blend the coconut butter and 3 of the tomatoes. Put into a bowl. In the food processor, finely chop all the other ingredients except the onion. Drain off excess water and add to the bowl with the coconut and tomato sauce.

Now finely chop an onion in the food processor and add 1 and 1/2 tsp of it to the mixture. Stir in curry powder to taste.

This made only a very small portion for 1, but the base ratio is good.

I tried it as a sauce for cashews, mushrooms and aduki beans but wasn't sure about any of them. Cashews worked best. Any ideas on what this could be served with anyone?

Raw Dahl

I love dahl. My mum makes an amazing vegan dahl when I am very lucky. It is one of my cooked treats.

This raw version is an adaptation of Kate Magic's dahl recipe from her book 'Raw Living.' I made it and since then I have been experimenting with my own recipe. The raw version tastes absolutely nothing like the cooked version, but is a dish in its own right.

250g puy lentil sprouts
50g sesame seeds (preferably pre-soaked overnight)
1/4 white onion
1 clove garlic
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp tamari
1/2 tsp cumin
water
juice of 1 lemon


Food process all ingredients together. Take half out and blend in a blender to get it really smooth, adding water to get it moving, but don't make it too runny. Mix both versions back together. Serve with tamari to season and grated cucumber and tomato to garnish.

Serves 2 as a main with a side salad or 4 as a starter.

I am currently working on some more curry dishes to get that luxury of being able to dip into lots of different dishes you get when you go to the curry house and they're all in the middle of the table. I did try to experiment with carrot and corriander the other night but it didn't go quite as I'd hoped ... I've just had a thought that tomato and avocado might work well too as a kind of rogan josh ... hhhm. Watch this space for more curry recipes!!