Wild Jungle Peanut Slaw

Dressing:
1 container Wild Jungle Peanut Butter
1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
3 tbs. Styrian Pumpkin Seed Oil
3 tbs. raw honey or other sweetener
2 tbs. nama shoyu, wheat-free tamari or miso
2 tbs. apple cider vinegar
1 inch chunk fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
zest from one orange
1 dried chipotle pepper soaked in 1/2 cup of water, remove seeds from soft pepper
1/2 tsp. mineral-rich salt

Add all ingredients to a high-speed blender. Blend on high until well-combined and creamy.

Assembly:
1 mango, peeled and sliced
1 bunch cilantro, minced
1 cucumber, seeds removed & sliced
1 red pepper, sliced
1 head green cabbage, finely chopped
Wild Jungle Peanuts for garnish

Add dressing and everything except Wild Jungle Peanuts to a bowl. Toss well to combine. Serve with a sprinkle of Wild Jungle Peanuts.

If you eat cooked food the dressing goes extremely well with baked sweet potatoes, but then what doesn’t?

The recipe that I am going to share today I made right before my juice feast began. Before going raw Indian cuisine was one of my favorites to cook. It always wreaked havoc on my digestion though so sadly I rarely eat it anymore. I was desiring a creamy tomato curry that evening and had been thinking Coconut Creme would be the perfect ingredient in a raw curry.

Vegetable Masala and Goji “Rice”

1/4 leek, sliced thin
1 bunch spinach, roughly chopped
6 oz. mushroom, destemmed and sliced
1/2 pint grape tomatoes, sliced in halves
1 red pepper, sliced
1 lb. carrots, peeled and shredded
1 head of broccoli, chopped into small pieces
1 lime, juiced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. mineral rich salt
2 tbs. olive oil.

Combine all of the above ingredients and massage until the spinach is slightly wilted. Spread on a dehydrator tray and warm on 115 degrees while you prepare the rest of the meal.

“Rice”:

1 jicama, peeled and chopped
1 white yam, peeled and chopped
1/4 cup Really Raw Almonds
2 tbs. olive oil
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup Goji Berries

Add above ingredients except for Goji Berries to food processor. Pulse until everything is chopped to a fine rice-like consistency. Mix gojis in by hand.

Curry Sauce:

1/2 cup Heirloom Sun-dried Tomatoes, soaked in 2 1/2 cups of water
1 clove garlic
2 tsp. cumin
3 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. chili powder
sprinkle of cayenne powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. salt
1 container Coconut Creme Original, melted
1/2 pint grape tomatoes
1/2 tbs. apple cider vinegar
2 cups tomato soak water

Add all ingredients except Coconut Creme to a high speed blender. Start to blend, with the blender running on high pour in melted Coconut Creme.

Assembly:
1 bunch cilantro, minced

Remove vegetables from dehydrator and place in a bowl. Stir in curry sauce and cilantro until well combined. Serve curry with goji “rice”.

Coconut Curry Noodle Soup

4 cups water, cool to warm depending on the temperature you would like the soup
2 limes, juiced
2 inches ginger, peeled & chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled & chopped
1 tbs. miso
1 piece wakame, broken up
1 tbs. olive oil
1 tbs. yellow curry paste or curry powder
1/2 tsp salt
cayenne pepper or hot pepper sauce to taste
1/4 cup coconut creme, melted
1 bag kelp noodles, soaked in warm water about 30 minutes
1 red pepper, quartered & sliced
1 sweet potato, shredded (or 2 carrots, shredded)
1/2 bunch cilantro, finely chopped
1/4 pineapple, chopped
1 avocado, sliced for garnish

In a high-powered blender combine water, lime juice, ginger, garlic, miso, wakame, olive oil, curry, salt & cayenne. While blender is running pour in melted coconut creme.

Drain kelp noodles and chop into shorter lengths. Toss in a bowl with red pepper, sweet potato, cilantro and pineapple. Pour in curry broth and mix well. Serve in bowls topped with avocado slices. In the picture I’ve also sprinkled each bowl with sea lettuce flakes.

When I prepared this recipe I also added a mashed potato-like recipe from Matthew Kenney’s book Everday Raw. It was a nice addition.

Pecan & Mushroom Stuffed Chard Rolls

Mushrooms:
12 oz. baby portobello mushrooms, caps & stems sliced
4 twigs fresh rosemary, “leaves” removed & minced
1 lemon, juiced
1 tsp. mineral rich salt
1/2 tsp. onion powder
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 cup olive oil

Place all ingredients in a bowl & toss well. Allow to marinate for at least 30 minutes, tossing occasionally. Place marinated mushrooms on a teflex sheet and dehydrate for 3-6 hours.

Pecan Stuffing
2 cups Pecan Pieces
2 cloves garlic
4 twigs fresh rosemary, twigs removed & discarded
1/2 tbs. dried thyme
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp salt
1 bunch parsley, roughly chopped

Place all ingredients into container of a food processor. Pulse until well-combined and a crumbly, stuffing-like consistency is achieved.

Cranberry Chutney

8 oz. fresh cranberries
2 oranges, peeled & chopped
1/2 tbs. Vanilla Powder
1/3 cup apple pulp, leftover from juicing
1 tbs. raw honey or other liquid sweetener
pinch salt

Place all ingredients into a food processor container. Pulse until well combined but still with some texture.

Assembly:
1 bunch chard, washed & de-stemmed
Dehydrated Mushrooms
Pecan Stuffing
Cranberry Chutney

Take a half of a chard leaf and place a small pile of pecan stuffing, a spoonful of cranberry chutney and a sprinkling of dehydrated mushrooms on the top third of the leaf. Roll the leaf carefully around the filling. Do this until you run out of filling.

My love affair with peanut noodles continued and I became quite good at making them. When I went gluten-free I found new noodles, no problem. When I went raw, well that’s taken some time.

I’ve developed some good peanut-noodle-like sauces using raw almond butter, quite satisfying if not the real thing. Noodles have been different. Occasionally I’ll create a good batch with zucchini “noodles” but I cannot say I’m a big fan of veggie noodles. Veggie rice, yes…veggies noodles, not so much.

Then Sea Tangle kelp noodles came into my life. I could see some real possibility there to create some delicious asian inspired noodle dishes. Once I started working for Vivapura the last piece of the puzzle fell into place: Wild Jungle Peanut Butter.

Wild Jungle Peanut Noodles

2 bags Sea Tangle Kelp Noodles, soaked in warm water
2 inches ginger, peeled and minced
2 limes, juiced
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tbs. raw, local honey or other liquid sweetener
2 tbs. nama shoyu or wheat-free tamari
1 tbs. apple cider vinegar
1 container Wild Jungle Peanut Butter
1/3 cup water
1/2 tsp. salt
1 bunch of cilantro, stems trimmed
1 red pepper, chopped
2 large carrots, shredded
1 hothouse cucumber, shredded
garnish: a handful of Wild Jungle Peanuts

Combine ginger, lime juice, olive oil, sweetener, tamari, vinegar, peanut butter and salt in a food processor. Start processing. While the food processor is running pour in water. Sauce should be thick and creamy when processed enough. Add in cilantro and pulse until well combined but not smooth, little flecks of cilantro should be seen.

Next, drain noodles and combine noodles & sauce with remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Excellent with a side of kim chee or even wrapped in Nori.
Tuesdays blog: Goji Cranberry Sauce

Cilantro Cashew Collard Rolls with Pineapple Goji Dipping Sauce

Cashew Spread:
2 cups Raw Cashews, soaked
3 limes, juiced
1/4 cup unfiltered olive oil
3 cloves garlic
2 tbs. nama shoyu or wheat-free tamari
large knob of ginger, chopped
1/4 cup water
1/2 tsp salt
1 bunch cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup fresh basil

Grind cashews in food processor until really broken down. Add remaining ingredients except cilantro & basil. Process until smooth. Add cilantro and basil and pulse food processor until herbs are mixed in but not completely smooth.

Wraps:
1 batch cashew spread
1 bunch large collard greens
1 tbs. unfiltered olive oil
pinch of himalayan pink salt
1 red bell pepper, sliced into strips
1 cucumber, sliced into strips
1/2 cup kim chee

Wash and dry collard leaves. Cut the stem from each collard leaf, keeping each half of the leaf for the wrap. I save the collard stems for my morning juice! Mix olive oil & salt in a small dish. Rub each collard leaf half with a little oil & salt. Once all of the greens are prepared place one collard leaf half on a cutting board. Spread some cashew spread along 1/3 of of the leaf. Pile on a few slices of cucumber & red pepper and a nice clump of kim chee. Carefully roll the leaf around fillings, set aside and finish the rest of the rolls.

Pineapple Goji Dipping Sauce

1/2 pineapple
1 knob of ginger
1/4 cup Goji Berries
2 tsp. hot pepper sauce or a pinch or cayenne
1/2 tsp. salt

Juice the pineapple & ginger. Soak goji berries in juice for 30 minutes. Process gojis and juice along with remaining ingredients in high speed blender until sauce is smooth.

Mondays blog post: Wild Jungle Peanut Noodles

I developed quickly into a food snob and though I have been known to have a weakness for many low-brow foods I did leave my love of tomato soup from a can behind. As an adult I have eaten two tomato soups that I measure all others against. The first was from an Italian place in Brooklyn, before I was gluten-free or raw. It was an heirloom tomato soup with chunks of bread in it. The taste was fresh and light and it had the most dreamy chunky yet satiny texture. The second soup was from Bonobo’s, also in NYC. This was a creamy dreamy raw vegan tomato soup with perfect little ribbons of basil.

Since I moved to Arizona I have spent many a day wishing someone would airmail me that Bonobo’s soup. Yesterday, while pulling orders at Vivapura it became clear to me that our Heirloom Sundried Tomatoes might be the key to my tomato soup longing. The Paninobobo Tomato Soup recipe is the perfect mix of what I loved about both of these soups.

A quick side-track here…I use Thai Young Coconuts in this recipe. I’ve always been a sucker for these in recipes but as of late I have been avoiding them for the most part. The more I hear about them and the formaldehyde they are soaked in the less I wish to ingest them. Sometimes though they seem like the perfect thing for a recipe and I do use them. I’m just choosing to use them more sparingly than I did in the past.

Onto the recipe!

Paninobobo Tomato Soup

2 cups Heirloom Sundried Tomatoes, soaked 1 hour
1 red pepper, chopped
2 thai young coconuts, water & meat
1 large tomato
1 lemon, juiced
salt & pepper to taste
1/2 cup tightly packed fresh basil, chopped

Put everything except basil into a high-speed blender. This recipe will fill it up so you might not need all of the coconut water. Blend until smooth. Add basil in and blend but just for a moment until the basil is well combined but leaving some bits.

Garnish with nutritional flakes, sea lettuce flakes and Spirulina Crunchies. I like a hefty serving of kale chips alongside. If you have family or friends who liked something cooked with their raw my family enjoyed this with some Brown Rice pasta.

Stay tuned tomorrow for a super yummy & quick superfood cookie recipe!!!

So why am I writing about Macro-Raw here? For a few reasons. Firstly, because I believe there are a lot of raw-foodists like me. You eat high raw and you want your family to eat high-raw too but maybe they don’t want to be as high-raw as you. As people concerned with our food we want to find a way to make eating raw foods easy for our families and want to make sure that the cook foods they eat are as nutrient-dense as posible.

The second reason? Because as a Certified Health Counselor I just want people to get superfoods into their diet! The whole philosophy of Health Counseling is meeting people where they are and not forcing change but rather inviting it gradually through introducing new foods. I’m hoping that by offering some of the Macro-Raw dishes I serve my husband and daughter I can entice some people to try a raw dish when they may previously have found it inaccessible.

So now that I’ve rather extensively explained myself, let’s get to what you all care about: some recipes. I’m going to share what I made my family for dinner tonight: Raw Green Curried Kelp Noodles with a side of Coconut Cream Crusted Sweet Potatoes.

Raw Green Curried Kelp Noodles

6 ounces Crimini Mushrooms caps, sliced
3 heads broccoli, broken into bite-sized pieces
1 red pepper, sliced
3 scallions, sliced
2 bags kelp noodles, soaked in warm water
2 cups Really Raw Cashews, soaked
1/2 fresh tomato, chopped
1/4 cup Sundried Heirloom Tomatoes
1 tsp. himalayan pink salt
1 tbs. coconut oil
1 tbs. yellow curry paste
juice of 3 limes
1 bunch of parsley
2 cups of water

Place mushrooms, broccoli, red pepper and scallions into a large bowl. Drain kelp noodles and chop them up into more manageable lengths. Add noodles to bowl. Place drained cashews, tomatoes, salt, oil, curry, lime juice, parsley and water into a high-speed blender. Blend on high until sauce is creamy. Pour over noodles and veggies and combine well. Garnish with additional parsley.

Coconut Creme Crusted Sweet Potatoes

2 lbs. sweet potatoes, cut into bite-sized chunks
1/2 tsp. black lava salt
1 shallot sliced into thin rounds
black pepper to taste
1/2 cup Original Coconut Creme

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss all ingredients together and spread in 9″ x 9″ baking dish. Back for 40 minutes until sweet potatoes are soft and lightly browned.