Easy Thai Flavored Staples

This week, we were both feeling a little under the weather so we needed something really easy to keep ready to eat in the fridge. Enter the Favorite ...

Thai Crunch Salad.

Thai Crunch Salad

There are a couple of ways to enjoy these flavors - as a salad and as lettuce wraps.
I have posted them both below.
If you want simple and tasty, it doesn't get much easier than this.

The Thai Crunch Salad

Ingredients:

Bag of shredded Cabbage
Bag of Broccoli Slaw
Bag of shredded Carrots
Bag of Mung Bean Sprouts
Cucumber, peeled, and chopped or julienned (depending how much time you want to spend.)
Raw Cashews, roughly chopped

If you have a larger family or more time, of course you can buy the whole ingredients and shred them yourself as well.

Put all but the cashews into a big bowl and mix well. Then put into a ziplock bag or container until ready to portion out and serve.

To Serve: grab a handful or so per person, add to a bowl, add dressing and toss. Plate and sprinkle cashews over top. This is perfect to take to work as well.

Dressing:

If you are fortunate to have a Trader Joe's Market around and are not concerned with eating peanuts, then the Asian Style Spicy Peanut Vinaigrette is a wonderful dressing!!

You can find it in the refrigerated produce section at Trader Joe's.

For a raw version without peanuts try this:

Mock Peanut Sauce
1/2 cup raw Almond Butter
1/4 cup Water
1 Tbsp fresh Lemon juice
2 tsp Agave Nectar or Maple Syrup
2 tsp Tamari
1/2 tsp crushed Garlic ( 1 clove)
1/4 tsp grated fresh Ginger
dash Cayenne Pepper
dash Sea Salt

Place all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth. Store in sealed container in the fridge. Should keep 5 days. Makes 1 cup

Dressing Recipe found in Jennifer Cornbleet's Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 people, which by the way is a really great book!
I haven't ever made something from this book that we did not like.

Thai Lettuce Wraps

Thai Lettuce Wraps

Ingredients:

Boston Bib Lettuce

Carrot -grated

Broccoli Coleslaw (comes in bag pre shredded)

Cucumber - julienned or cucumber salad (recipe to follow)

Sunflower Sprouts or Mung Bean Sprouts

Raw Cashews, chopped

Spicy Peanut Dressing or Mock Dressing from above

Assemble like a taco using lettuce leaves, putting dressing on top with a sprinkle of cashews to finish. 

Lettuce wrap

Cucumber Salad

cucumber- julienned

1 tsp salt

1 Tbsp agave

1 Tbsp nama shoyu

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

1 tsp sesame oil

1 Tbsp sesame seeds

Mix all except sesame seeds and place in bowl over cucumber to marinate in refrigerator. 

Sprinkle sesame seeds on top at serving.

I hope you try this. It is so delicious!

Breakfast is Served

Tangelo Kiwi Cups

We are really loving the citrus right now and with the trees still ripe for the picking, 

we are still exploring new combinations.

These little gems were almost too beautiful to eat!

But we got over it.

Tangelo Kiwi Cups

As you can see the ingredients are pretty straight forward.

Ingredients:

3 Tangelos, peeled and segmented

2 Kiwi, peeled and sliced

Pomegrante seeds

Mint for garnish

To use the tangelos as cups, I just sliced them in half and segmented with a grapefruit knife. 

Then used the electric juicer to swirl out the insides and get any remaining juice (to enjoy as I worked.)

Assemble all into the tangelo shell or bowl and garnish with mint.

Tropical Fruit Salad

This has been a total surprise!

While I love pineapple and bananas,  R. doesn't care for either of them and yet

 he's already asking for me to make this on a regular basis.

Go figure!

This recipe would be great all thrown in the blender too!

Ingredients:

2 Tangelos, peeled and segmented

1 Mango, peeled and diced

1 cups Pineapple, peeled cored and cubed

1 Banana, peeled and sliced

1 Lime, juiced

1 Tbsp Agave Nectar

1/4 cup shredded Coconut, unsweetened

Assemble first 6 items in the bowl and toss gently to mix.

Cover and let chill for about an hour.

Sprinkle with Coconut and Serve.

This morning's repeat.

Mmm....So good!

I called this breakfast but these are both good anytime!

Raw Bananas Foster Cheezecake

On my birthday, we had the pleasure of tasting a Bananas Foster Cheesecake at a wonderful local restaurant. It was divine but later was a little heavy and icky feeling in the stomach. From the first bite, I set out examining how I could replicate this flavor in raw vegan form so that it could be enjoyed again without the after effects.

R doesn't like bananas so I wasn't expecting him to like it at all but he surprised me when he asked for seconds and said how great he thought it was. He said he actually preferred this one to the restaurant version as it isn't as overly sweet.  Just now he asked about any leftovers and announced he wants it for dinner tonight.  So that's saying quite a bit!

Raw Vegan Bananas Foster Cheezecake

I decided that the best way for me to make these kinds of desserts would be in smaller portions and especially when experimenting, so I purchased a cute little 5" spring form pan.  Nordic Ware 5 Inch Springform Pan.

As raw desserts are so rich and a little goes a long way, it turns out to be the perfect size for the two of us and still leaves us half the cake for left overs.

I provided the recipe for a 8-9 " spring pan but also the amounts I used for the smaller 5" size will be posted below it.


Plain Raw Cheezecake:


Crust:
2 cups Pecans, (Almonds or raw Macadamia nuts will work as well)
1/2 cup Dates, pitted and deflowered (if your dates are really dry, soak in some water first to soften.)
1/4 cup dried unsweetened shredded Coconut
1/4 tsp Vanilla (optional)

Put the nuts and dates in a food processor and process until mixture is crumbly but will stick together when pressed between your fingers. If it needs a little more moisture, add the vanilla. Be careful not to over process or the nuts will become oily and start turning to to butter.

Dust the bottom of your spring form pan with the shredded coconut so as to prevent sticking.
Press the crust into the pan bottom.


Tip: Press too hard and it will stick later on, not enough and it will crumble.

Place in freezer to set while you make filling.

Filling:
3 cups chopped raw Cashews (soak in filtered water for at least a couple of hrs before hand and rinse.)
          Cut one nut in half to check readiness. You want them to be soft all the way through.)
1/2 cup fresh Lemon juice (I used Meyer lemons to cut tartness but regular are what most use.)
3/4 cup Agave syrup (honey can be used but keep in mind the flavor of the honey will come through.)
1/2 cup liquid Virgin Coconut oil (becomes liquid at 76 degrees)
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1/2 tsp Sea Salt. (I use the pink Himalayan)
1/2 cup filtered Water

Blend all in the blender until smooth and creamy.  The beauty of raw is that the flavor does not change beyond this point due to the no baking, so make any adjustments to the flavor now.
Does it need more creaminess?- add a little water.
More sweetness?- more agave.
More tartness?- lemon.
Something's still missing? -a pinch of salt.
( I did not need to make any changes)

Pour into pan and then give a few taps on the counter to level it out and remove any air bubbles. Cover with wrap and place back into freezer to set. It will keep about a week frozen which makes it nice to make ahead of time.

Raw Caramel Sauce
(previous post on caramel sauce here)


Caramel Dip
1 cup dates, soaked and soft
1/4-1/2 cup Almond Mylk ( THE Best explanation of how to make Almond Mylk) or can be purchased
1 tsp liquid Virgin Coconut oil, (becomes liquid at 76 degrees)
dash of sea salt
1 tsp vanilla

To the caramel dip I added more Almond Mylk until I reached the desired consistency I wanted, slightly liquid, then added more agave to sweeten to taste. I could have also used more coconut oil to thin but didn't want to chance it tasting like coconut. Experiment if you like.

I apologize I don't have exact measures for the larger cake size. I do have them for the 5" size below.

Preparing Cheesecake for Serving:


Remove Cheezecake from freezer 1/2 hr prior to serving but adjust depending on room temperatures. Remember that coconut oil melts at 76 degrees and you don't want it to get too soft. Allow for time to top and "dress" it as well.

Spoon the Caramel sauce along edges of the cake top and encourage it to drip down. Then fill the center with more sauce. Chop a banana into small pieces and pile on top. A little caramel sauce on the plate and

Voila!

Slice of Bananas Foster Cheezecake

Adjusted  Measurements for 5" pan:

Crust: 1/2 cup pecans, 3-4 pitted dates, 1 Tbsp shredded coconut

Filling: 1 cup cashews, juice of 1 lemon, 1/4 cup agave+ 1 Tbsp, 3 Tbsp coconut oil, 1/3 tsp vanilla, pinch salt, 1/4 cup water

Caramel Sauce: Make dip as described. Then use 1/2 cup of dip, 1/8 cup almond mylk, 1 Tbsp agave  and mix together.

Topping: 1/2 banana chopped into small pieces


Don't worry. The extra dip can be eaten with apple slices, bananas or anything else. It's delicious!

Let me know if you tried this and what you think. 

Enjoy!

Simple Celebrations

Happy New Year!


Phew!!! What a month, huh? I bet you were starting to think I disappeared, right?

For us the holidays kicks off with Thanksgiving and then runs through birthdays, Christmas, more birthdays, and then New Year's. For us it's now smooth sailing until the end of 2011.

I have to admit I am about to plunge back into cleanse mode but before I do that I want to share some simple, easy and delectable treats.

We all know that the further we stretch into restrictions, the harder we snap back into the opposite, right? Like a rubber band that gets stretched with tension, the force to snap back gets pretty strong. So I believe it's best to have a plan of action for those moments when the need for something decadent starts calling our names.

The following are some of our favorites that satisfy the longing for something special but are really a very healthy alternative pleasures. They are mostly raw but I have given some ways to make them with more readily available ingredients that still beat out processed food any day.

Raw Ambrosia Salad

Ingredients:

3 mandarin oranges or clementines, peeled and sectioned

1 small fuji apple, cored and diced

1/2 small banana, sliced on diagonal

1/4 inch spear of pineapple, peeled, cored and chopped

1/3 cup dried cranberries

1 handful small seedless grapes, cut in half

2 tbsp coconut flakes

2 tbsp almond slivers

raw honey to drizzle over top

Juice two mandarin oranges and place in small bowl.

Add 1 tbsp of honey and stir until well mixed.

Soak cranberries in this juice to plump for about 5 minutes.

Combine all the above into a bowl. Pour in juice and cranberries and toss.

Place in individual serving glass or small bowl, drizzle small amount of honey over top and sprinkle with additional coconut flakes for garnish.

Note: if you make ahead, toss apple with a little lemon juice to keep from turning and slice add banana just before serving.

Raw Instant Chocolate Mousse

Raw Vegan Chocolate Mousse

This blows instant pudding out of the water! 

It is even more instant and is soooo much better!

Raw Mousse Ingredients

Non Raw Mousse Ingredients

Special note: Don't be afraid to try this on your family. I don't care for avocados (I'm working on it) and I really like this. No one will ever guess what makes it so creamy- never! Just remember- a little goes a long way. Very rich.

Ingredients:

¼ cup pitted Medjool dates, soaked to soft texture

¼ cup pure maple syrup or agave nectar

½ tsp vanilla extract

¾ cup mashed avocado (around 1 ½ avocados ripe)

¼ cup plus 2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder or raw cacao powder

¼ cup water

Place the dates, syrup or agave and vanilla in food processor and process until smooth.

Add the avocado and cocoa powder and process until creamy. Stop occasionally to scrape down sides.

Add the water and process briefly.

Store in a sealed container, mousse will keep for three days in the fridge or 2 weeks in the freezer. 

Serve chilled or at room temp.

I personally double the recipe and then put it into small serving size covered dishes and keep in the freezer. They are rarely there when I go to look for them. ;-(

Serve alone or with raspberries or other berries. 

Raw Chocolate Mousse with Raspberry Coulis
We love raspberries with chocolate!

Raspberry Coulis

Blend a small handful of raspberries Or other berries with a little water then add agave syrup to sweeten to taste. You can strain through a small sieve if you don't like the grittiness of seeds.

Jonseing for Some Ice Cream?

If you are a fan of the cold stuff (ice cream, frozen yogurt, gelato etc.) like I have always been, you need to learn about this simple substitution. When I started raw, I ate this almost every night.  I can now say I no longer even remember it and I am officially off the frozen snack habit (not to say I don't make something now and then but I no longer feel I NEED it.) There are many fantastic raw ice creams and sorbets out there but when you are craving something fast this one fits the bill.

Raw Banana Ice Cream

Raw Vegan Banana Pecan Ice Cream

Basic Banana Ice Cream

2-3 frozen bananas (for one serving)

Throw into food processor and process until the consistency of soft serve ice cream. 

That's it- it's that easy!

If you want to use a blender instead just add one banana not frozen to keep the mixture moving.

Yes, it tastes like bananas but when you add toppings etc, you will find it very satisfying.

I top mine with crushed walnuts or pecans or add them into the food processor shute to make pecan ice cream. You can add cacao nibs, or mix with other frozen fruit for a multitude of flavors.

Chocolate Sauce

Take a small amounts of raw cacao powder in a tiny bowl and add agave and a little water mixing with a spoon until the consistency of chocolate sauce for a topping.

Banana Ice Cream with Raspberry Coulis

Here I added the Raspberry Coulis from above. 

The possibilities are endless. 

Hope this gives you some sweet tooth options without the guilt.
Enjoy!