Raw Food Recipes:
dips

Have I mentioned how wonderful and supportive the raw community is in Denver. I attended a rawluck on Saturday and I was at another last night. And I tell you what, Denver is building something special. I haven't had such a stimulating, exciting evening in quite a while. Thank you Loriel, Soleil, Mila, Rachel and CJ for the lively conversation.

Of yeah, the food looked great too. My contribution was Lentil Patties with Coconut Peanut Sauce, but alas, I won't share the recipe until next week. Please forgive.

Today I present my dish from Saturday's rawluck. The tapenade and vegetable dip works perfectly with crudites and flax crackers.

There's many a day where I'll whip up the dip and chop some veggies for the littles to eat for lunch.

Olive Tapenade Yield: 2 cups
1 cup Kalamata olives, roughly chopped
½ cup Green Olives, roughly chopped
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
1 tablespoon Italian seasonings
1/8 cup Red Wine Vinegar (or apple cider vinegar)
1/3 cup Olive Oil

1 Combine olives, garlic and Italian Seasoning in a bowl.
2 Add red wine vinegar and olive oil. Gently toss. Refrigerate at least 4 hours to allow the flavors to marinate. Overnight is best.

Vegetable Dip
Yield: 2 cups
1 celery stalk, finely diced
¼ onion, finely diced
½ carrot, shredded¼ teaspoon sea salt
½ garlic powder
1 cup cashews, soaked for 2 hours
½ cup water, or more as needed
Juice of one lemon

1 Toss celery, onion and carrots in a bowl. Sprinkle with sea salt and garlic powder.
2 Place cashews, lemon juice and water in a blender. Process until cashews are very creamy, add more water if needed.

3 Combine cashew cream and vegetables. Chill overnight. Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes before serving.

I would like to pass along my Inspirational Blogger Award to Rediscover Raw Foods. She is a honest, straight forward lady. As for the other four? They will have to wait I'm going to bed.

I love platter dining. I'm not sure if it's an official term, maybe now it will be. I guess the closest thing to it would be tapas. Platter dining is a bit different.

Spreading your ingredients out and deciding which ones to eat in whatever combination you choose. And you have to eat with your hands. I think raw food tastes better eating with your fingers.

Guacamole Platter
4 avocados, peeled and diced
2 tomatoes, finely chopped
1/2 red onion, finely chopped
1 jalapeño, finely chopped, seeds intact
1 Thai Chile pepper, finely chopped, seeds intact
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
juice of one lime

1 In a bowl, mash the avocados with a potato masher.

2 Add the tomatoes, red onion, jalapeno and chile pepper to the bowl. Squeeze the lime juice and sprinkle sea salt over the guacamole.
Platter ingredientscarrot slicesbroccolispinach leavescucumbercollard green leaves

Yield: 3 cups

Both my oldest girls are in school now and Labor Day is just around the corner. Summer's almost over folks. Take advantage of the fresh fruits of summer before their gone.

Cream Cheese Dip
1 c cashews, soaked 6-8 hours
1/4 c water
Juice of one lemon
3 T agave nectar
1 t vanilla extract

In a blender, combine ingredients until smooth.

Introducing Taste Tester A (Sous Chef D is in school)
My husband brought fruit kabobs home so I whipped up a nice dip to go with it.

Although, our fruit kabobs were store bought, here are some tips to make your own.

• Choose a variety of colorful fruit.
• Use fruit that's fresh but firm, never over-ripe.
• Wash, peel, and cut the fruit into similar size chunks and drizzle with lemon juice to prevent browning.
• Place 6-7 pieces on each skewer, alternating colors, shapes, and textures.
• Host a build-your-own kabob party. Provide the wooden skewers and fruit and have at it.

I made this spread for a dear friend who was visiting from Texas. The majortiy of the meal is raw, but there are some cooked items peppered in. I prepared fixings for a basic wrap using two type of wraps — collard greens and Napa cabbage. I created two dipping sauces to go with the wraps, a "peanut" sauce and a sweet and savory dipping sauce. I made marinated baby Portobello mushrooms. My friend and I love Kimchee. I didn't prepare it so I don't know for sure the ingredients that was used, but the fermented cabbage dish is considered a living food. I have never tried to create the dish from scratch, nor will I. What I buy at the Asian markets is darn near perfect and I don't choose to mess with that, whether they use totally raw ingredients or not. I also threw some cooked dumplings and pancakes in the mix. I do have a raw recipe for Korean pancakes that I'm still playing around with. When I feel that's ready I'll post it in the future. The pancakes taste good with Sriracha, a hot chili sauce. And of course there's the seaweed. My kids and I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE seaweed! You can purchase raw seaweed, but this one's not it. My kids and I are known for eating six packages of these babies on a 15 minute car ride home from the store. I'm surprised this package made it to the table. WRAPS1 bunch collard greens, washed1 head Napa cabbage, washedFold a collard green leaf in half and cut the vein out, creating two pieces. Place on a paper towel to dry.Pull the cabbage leaves from the cabbage and place on a paper towel to dry.FILLINGS5 celery, julienned*5 carrots, julienned1 zucchini, julienned1 cucumber, julienned1/2 head of purple cabbage, shredded into strips2 avocados, sliced (NOT SHOWN)3 cups sprouts (NOT SHOWN)Place all the vegetables, sliced avocados and sprouts on a platter.*NOTE: I julienned the celery the night before and put them in water. That is why that are curled.MARINATED MUSHROOMS2 c Baby Portobellos, washed with a damp cloth1/4 c extra-virgin olive oil2 T agave nectar
2 T Nama Shoyu
Put ingredients in quart bag and marinate on the counter for 2 hours.SWEET SESAME SEED DIPPING SAUCE
1/4 c agave nectar1/2 c rice wine vinegar1 small bunch of cilantro, leaves only2 T Nama Shoyu2 T Black Sesame SeedsIn a bowl, whisk ingredients together.
PEANUT DIPPING SAUCE 1/2 c almond butter1 garlic clove, mincedjuice of 1 lime3 T agave nectar2 T Nama Shoyu2 T water2 T grated ginger1/8 t red pepper flakes1/4 t sea saltIn a blender puree together almond butter, garlic, lime juice, agave nectar, Nama Shoyu, water, ginger, red pepper flakes and sea salt until mixture is smooth. If needed add more water one tablespoon at a time to reach a desired consistency. (02)

HUMMUS
2 c garbanzo beans (chickpeas), sprouted1/4c raw tahiniJuice of 1 lemon1 clove garlic, minced
6 T water1 T olive oil1 t sea salt1 c sun-dried tomato, soaked til soft1 c spinach
In a food processor, combine all ingredients except the sun-dried tomatoes and spinach.
Divide hummus into three portions, leaving one of the portions in the food processor.
Put sun-dried tomatoes in the food processor with the hummus. Blend until creamy and slightly chunky. Remove sun-dried tomato hummus. Set aside.
Rinse processor and add spinach with the second portion of hummus. Combine thoroughly.
CRUDITES
Cucumber slices
Carrot slices
Broccoli
Cherry tomatoes

Once you get the prep work (chopping and dicing) completed the rest of the recipe is gravy I mean…salsa, which in Spanish means sauce.

Sure you could throw the ingredients in the food processor and let it do all the work, but please don’t do it. Experience a bit of zen with the repetitive motion of your chef’s knife against the fresh produce. Besides you will lose a lot of the texture if you opt the food processor route.

So do it by hand.

Lots of prep work for making this dish. In fact it's all about prepping the ingredients and that's the way you should approach it. Yes, you can make it easy by throwing ingredients into the food processor and it will still taste great but you will lose a lot of the texture.
If you have the time, savor the process and chop up most of the ingredients by hand. You may even find you like the repetitive action of cutting and dicing. I find it very relaxing when I'm stressed out. If you must use a food processor to save time, at least cut up the tomatoes by hand.

Did you know? May is National salsa month

Pineapple Salsa
1 cup diced pineapple
¼ cup finely chopped red onion
1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
1 Serrano pepper, minced
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro, leaves only
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon raw agave nectar

Toss ingredients in a serving bowl. Set in the refrigerator for an hour.

Since completing 80 days on my latest juice feast, uncooking my way through The Complete Book of Raw (on most days) has lost its luster. There are still a good handful of recipes I am eager to try but in the coming weeks I will be sharing my own recipes.

I also want to open the playing field to other raw cookbooks. The Complete Book of Raw Food Endeavor will continue but at a slower pace than anticipated. There isn‘t really a rush anyway. I’m not going anywhere, are you?

My grey hairs are making cameos around the hairline. I read somewhere that black sesame seeds were good for keeping dark, luxurious hair. It could be an old folklore but if I believe it will work than it will, regardless. I mean, a belief is simply a thought you keep thinking, right?

Sesame seeds are rich in minerals such as calcium, zinc and manganese. They also contain useful quantities of some B group vitamins including thiamin and B6 and are a useful source of vegetable protein.

Black Tahini *
This Homemade Tahini recipe is the first in a 3-part series featuring black sesame seeds.

Makes approximately 2-2 ½ cups

2 cups black sesame seeds
½ cup cold-pressed sesame or olive oil, or more if needed

Process sesame seeds in a food processor or high-speed blender until seeds turn to a powder. Drizzle in the olive oil while the machine runs.

Pulse for 3-5 minutes, stopping, from time-to-time, to clean the sides with a spatula.

Continue to pulse until it's as smooth as you can get it, add a little more olive oil if necessary. It will be the consistency of a grainy paste. Transfer the tahini to a Mason jar with a lid. Refrigerate.

Fair-warning #1: If you are seeking a smooth, silky consistency you can find it here. The texture of this home-made tahini is slightly coarser than store-bought tahini, but it has the same delicious flavor.

Fair warning #2: If you love this recipe, double the recipe next time. As you will find with the first time around this process is very, very hot, sticky messy, so expect a fair amount of clean-up of the appliance of choice.

How about a raw chocolate giveaway to go with your tahini?
The folks of Snubbr.com, has graciously sponsored a giveaway of raw chocolates. In addition, Snubbr.com will donate $20 in the name of the winner towards a charity that is helping to bring fresh water to Haiti. You can find their charity page here.

Snubbr.com is a buying advice site. Suppose you're looking to buy a juicer, head over to Snubbr.com, ask their experts, and they will choose the best one for you.

Here's how you can win YOUR CHOICE of raw chocolate:

Go HERE and tell me, in the comment section below, which chocolate you would like to win.

For more chances to win leave a comment for each thing you do:

1. Tweet this giveaway on Twitter

2. Post a link to this post on your blog

3. Follow @snubbr on Twitter

4. Tell someone they are "sweet like raw chocolate" and let me know who it was.
The contest will end Monday night, April 19th at 11:59 p.m. (EST)is CLOSED. I'll enter the numbers in the handy-dandy True Random Number Generator and announce the winner on the Daily Raw Café, Tuesday, April 20th.

Please note: this contest is only open to people living in the United States.

photo akhater

I want to give special shout-outs to Valarie and Karen for being patient while I got my ducks in a row. These two wonderful women asked me questions a while back and I have one answer and I need advice from you guys on another.

Valarie is about 8 months pregnant and she asks:
"any advice that you could give, now that i will have a baby to take care of, on being organized eating raw. I have a hard time trying to manage the sprouting and dehydrating. Thanks"

Valerie,

Yeah, I feel you there sister, the last thing I wanted to do was sprout or dehydrate, let alone prepare.

Here are some ideas to get you started.

Green smoothies. It takes about 10 minutes to make 4 quarts of delicious, nutritious smoothies. Store in Mason jars in the back of the refrigerator and you have four snacks at your disposal.

Also, have your husband clean, chop and store fresh vegetables for you to throw in a bowl for a salad or to snack on with a raw dip. Add pumpkin or sunflower seeds.

Here is my favorite salad dressing that keeps in the frig for about a week.

Juice of 3 lemons
1/4 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt

Place ingredients in a bottle and shake.

Resources:

Melissa of Raising Alex is a wonderful resource in learning how to feed your child a raw foods diet.

Reading materials:
Baby Greens by Michaela Lynn

Introducing Living Foods to Your Child by Beth Montgomery

Karen says:
"I am severely allergic to Avacadoes and am looking for substitutions for them. I am also allergic to soy so tofu/miso is out. I thought maybe you would have an idea what I can use as a good substitute for the Avacado?"

Thanks,
Karen

Karen,
Okay this one has stomped me. I have searched and I don't know of anything that can substitute an avocado. Nothing beats the simplicity of the rich and creamy fruit. It is in a class by itself. Having said that, I have came up with a substitute dish that highlights avocados. Guacamole!

I'm not sure what dishes you were thinking of creating with avocados but here is a recipe for Sweet Pea Guacamole to get you started.

photo by mafleen

Sweet Pea Guacamole
3 cups fresh peas (or use a 20 ounce package of organic frozen peas,* rinsed, defrosted and patted dry)
1 small bunch fresh cilantro, chopped
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 jalapeno, chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
Juice of one lime
sea salt and pepper, to taste

1 Place peas, onion, jalapeno and garlic in food processor. Process until you achieve a smooth and creamy consistency.

2 Transfer into a bowl, stir in cilantro and lemon juice.

3 Season with sea salt and pepper.

If anyone knows of a true substitution for avocados, let me and Karen know. NOTE:*Frozen peas may not be truly raw. Send an email to the company and ask if they blanch the peas before freezing. Also, please keep in mind that you will lose some enzymes because of the product has been frozen.