Vegannosaurus Rex

I’ve seen, and eaten, a few ‘tempura’ dishes over the last 6 months, but have never found a recipe. To be honest, i didn’t look very hard for a recipe, i was interested in the challenge of trying to create this one on my own. A special thanks to my sister to lending her nose to identify an ingredient or two that made the recipe close to perfect.

• 1 cup raw pistachios (soaked for at least 2 hours)
• 1/2 cup pinenuts (soaked for at least 2 hours)
• 2 Tablespoons Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2-3 Tablespoons Nama Shoyu
• 1 teaspoon Turmeric
• 4 Tablespoons Apple Cider Vinegar
• 1/2 lemon (juice only)
• nutmeg (will explain later in the post)
• pepper
• sea salt
• cayenne
• 1/2 cup water (max, this is added as needed)
• 1 head of Cauliflower

This recipe is super easy. If you subtract the dehydrating time you could accomplish the whole mess in about 10-15 minutes.

1. Soak pistachios and pinenuts in water for at least 2 hours, the longer they soak the creamier they become, which can affect how much water you use in the final mix (this will make sense later).

2. Chop the cauliflower into bite sized pieces. This solves two problems, one, you want them to be able to fit in your mouth, and two, you have to cut them relatively small to fit in the dehydrator.

3. Put everything else in the food processor. Pistachios, pinenuts, dash of sea salt and pepper, cayenne to taste, olive oil, turmeric, Nama Shoyu, apple cider vinegar, lemon juice. For the nutmeg…I took a nutmeg seed in one hand and a microplane in the other hand and ground a dusting over the top of the other ingredients

4. Turn on the food processor. As ingredients are blending add water as needed to create a creamy consistency. I’ve never used more than 1/2 a cup of water. Depending on how long you soak the pistachios and pinenuts you may not need to add any water at all, but even after allowing nuts to soak overnight I still needed 1/8 to 1/4 cup of water. Altitude and ingredients play a factor, as always.

5. Pour the blended mixture on to the chopped cauliflower and mix together.

6. Stick the whole mess (i’m not kidding here, its a mess) in the dehydrator for 2 hours or longer depending on the type of dehydrator being used.

Enjoy. You may want to vary the amount of apple cider vinegar depending on how your palate reacts to the taste, i happen to like it, many don’t.

Just like everyone else, there are times when I am just too busy, or lazy, to prepare a meal for myself. Or, more accurate perhaps, I simply enjoy having someone else do the work for me from time to time. Beyond that, i really enjoy experiencing the creativity of others. It’s inspiring.

When I’m between trips to the farmers market, or simply feeling lazy, i call Living Food Delights, a mere 2.5 miles from my house. If I time it right I can call in my order, get in my car and drive to Living Food Delights, and walk in the front door before they have hung up the phone.

Great people and great food, in a non-descript storefront in Grant Park. I only have two complaints, there hours are short, the close at 8, but my attempts to call in an order at 7:30 in the past have been met with grunting and mumbling sounds until i have offered to call back another day, and they only make 4 of each entree each day, so if you try to catch them later in the day your options can be severely limited, as in you have 2 options out of the usual 10. Neither of those are reasons to stay away, and they aren’t really complaints to be honest, they’re observations. I understand limiting the amount of orders, its far to expensive to throw it away and the end of the day, and I trust they know their business far better than I do.

To get a taste of what their wares, take a tour of my most recent visit:

(You can see detailed notes on the flickr version of this picture.)

What you see here is the three course dinner, $17.50.

Choice of entree:

• Barbeque Mushrooms
• Lasagna
• Lentil Patties
• Marinated Kush with Topping
• Spaghetti
• Stuffed Tomatoes
• Sun Burger Patties
• Tempura Vegetables
• Walnut Steak
• Wild Rice Medley

Choice of side dish:

• hummus
• wild rice
• cracked wheat

I have found that almost never have the cracked wheat, but always have a more interesting special side dish.

Choice of green/salad:

• Spring Mix Salad
• Collard Greens
• Seaweed Salad
• Romaine Cesar Salad
• Spinach Cesar Salad

It’s truly a delight to have someone else prepare such a delicious living food meal for me.  If you’re in the are definitely pay them a visit.

I really have nothing poignant to say in this post, except that i have ‘discovered’ another great recipe.  I’ve been super busy with moving and work related BS and have been sitting on this one for a few weeks, while i had a second to breathe i thought i would get it out there in the ether for all to enjoy.

I found a great ’snack’ at a local health food/co-op grocery here in town. Sevananda carries some prepared raw dishes from a local catering company that i have been giving a try lately. The stand-out of the bunch is curried cabbage. At $4.99 for what amounts to about a cup or two of curried cabbage, i set out to reverse engineer this dish.

Curried Cabbage:

1/3 head cabbage
1/4 cup sprouted lentils
4 green onions
2 cloves garlic
4 Tablespoons olive oil
1/4 red bell pepper
2 teaspoons curry powder
juice from 1.5 lemons
1 serrano chile
salt to taste

Directions: blend until desired consistency. Serve on green leaf lettuce, or just dig in with a spoon.

I was quite fortunate this holiday season. My family was amazing in their support of my dietary decisions, and made it damn near impossible for me to look back now. I was on the receiving end of a dehydrator (thanks Lauren!), a high speed food processor (thanks Mom and Bill!), a very sharp kitchen knife (cut my finger within 5 minutes of first use, thanks Mom and Bill…for the knife, not the cut), and a mini food processor (thanks Erika!). All in all, everyone was amazing and I am quite fortunate to have such an understanding and supportive family.

I’m warming up to the dehydrator (pun intended) after many initial experiments. It takes a few failures before you realize what is possible and what isn’t possible. Failed experiments include a baby bella mushroom jerky (dont ask), and and eggplant facon recipe i found on gone raw (i know how i screwed this one up, user error, not the recipe’s fault). I’ve had a few successes as well.

I found a veggie burger recipe on gone raw, but, to be perfectly honest, it was quite bland, so i spiced it up, in the process doubling the amount of ingredients.

Mung Bean Veggie Burger (Raw Veggie Burger, Way #1)

• 3 cups mung bean sprouts
• 3 cups carrot, shredded
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup sage, oregano, thyme, any combination of the three, totaling 1/2 cup
• 1/2 cup fresh ground flax seeds
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• dash teaspoon cayenne
• 1/2 - 1 teaspoon pepper
• salt, to taste

Super simple to make. I bought my mung bean sprouts at the farmers market, if you are going to sprout them yourself let them grow to 3″-4″ for this recipe. Ground the flax seeds in a food processor or coffee grinder. Shred the carrots, doesn’t really matter how you perform this task, vegetable grater or a food processor will work. Add all ingredients to a food processor and blend. Place in the dehydrator for 6 hours on one side, then flip and dehydrate for another 6 hours.

**Note about dehydrating times**

I’ve only had a dehydrator for 2 weeks and I have already figured out one important fact about dehydrating times listed in recipes. Similar to the times i have seen listed in sprouting directions/instructions, the dehydrating times used in recipes are merely guidelines. Each dehydrator is different, and I’m sure that climate and elevation play a role as well. Basically, use your best judgment, and check progress often.

**end of dehydrating note**

Sprouted Lentil Veggie Burger (Raw Veggie Burger, Way #2)

• 2 cups sprouted red lentils
• 2 cups carrot, shredded
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/2 cup sage, oregano, thyme, any combination of the three, totaling 1/2 cup
• 1/3 cup fresh ground flax seeds
• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 - 1 teaspoon cayenne
• 1/2 - 1 teaspoon pepper
• salt, to taste

Obviously, i didn’t make many amendments. I cut the recipe by a third, more or less, and I substituted sprouted red lentils for the mung bean sprouts. I’m not really sure which recipe i like better, or if i do at all. I definitely like the color of the lentil burger better, and i added a little more cayenne to that version which spiced it up a bit. Try them both, you be the judge.

I took a second shot at my Raw Lemongrass Jicama recipe last week. Flavor was never an issue, but i wanted to improve on the consistency. I used 1 cup of sprouted sunflower seed in place of the ½ cup of dry sunflower seeds i used in the original recipe. This prevented me from having to use as much water as well. Due to the lack of jicama at the farmer’s market last week i had to freestyle on that ingredient as well. I chose to chop zucchini into chunks and dehydrate in the oven at 100 degrees for 2-3 hours. I think I prefer the zucchini to the jicama, but i’m going to work on the jicama one last time before making the final call.

The recipe now reads:

• 3 stalks of lemongrass (use only the ‘meat’ from the bottom 2-3 inches)
• 1.5 tblsp nama shoyu
• 1 serrano chile
• 1/2 tsp chili flake
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp agave nectar
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 3 green onions
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1/4 tsp basil oil
• 1 cup sunflower seeds, sprouted
• 1/4-1/3 water cup of water

I amended my lasagna recipe tonight, with some success.

I added a layer of spinach on top of the rawcotta (see previous post for full, blow by blow, instructions), and also added a layer of Charlie Trotter and Roxanne Klein’s rawmesan. Mmmmm, both excellent additions, if i may say so myself.

Rawmesan:

• 1 ½ cups rejuvelac
• 2 cups pine nuts, soaked at least six hours in water
• 1 Tablespoon sea salt
• 1 ½ Tablespoon large flake nutritional yeast (i couldn’t find large flake so i used the ‘regular’ kind)

In a food processor, blend the pine nuts and rejuvelac until creamy. Poor in small bowl and cover with a kitchen towel for approx 12 hours, or until mixture starts to smell yeasty, this is the point at which it has begun to ferment.

Stir in yeast and salt, mixing carefully. The directions call for dehydrating for 10-14 hours in a dehydrator at 105 degrees. I dont own a dehydrator, so i used my oven at about 100 degrees, and it took about that long, 12 hours or so.

The previously unpublished rawcotta recipe (drum roll please…):

• ¼ cup lemon juice
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup water (see below)
• ¼ cups nutritional yeast
• 2 cups pine nuts, soaked
• 3 cups macadamia nuts, soaked

Soak pine nuts and macadamia nuts in water at least 6 hours, but the longer you let them soak the creamier they become.

Blend (in food processor) all of the ingredients except for the water. Add water as necessary after all other ingredients are blended, to desired consistency. Enjoy in moderation, this stuff is addictive.

The final product:

In retrospect, after looking at the photos, this recipe wasn’t as much of a failure as I had once thought. I attempted a rather ambitious undertaking. My version falls under the category ‘looks better in the cookbook’ but the flavor, texture, aesthetics in general, were all spot on. I made this recipe for raw vegan meatloaf from The Daily Raw Cafe.

Start with a sun-dried tomato ketchup:

• 1 cup sun-dried tomato, soaked, 1/4 c reserved water
• 1/4 cup raisins, soaked
• 1 tablespoon Italian Seasonings
• 1/4 tablespoon chopped onion
• 1 clove garlic, minced

chop 2-4 cups (recipe calls for 2 cups, i found that to be far less than i actually needed) of spinach and place in a Ziploc bag with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, juice from half a lemon, and 1 teaspoon of sea salt for an hour. This gets the spinach tender and juicy.

blend 2 cups walnuts (soaked for 4-6 hours), 1 cup almonds (soaked 4-6 hours), 1 cup soaked sun-dried tomatoes, 1/2 cup reserved tomato water, 2 tablespoons parsley, 4 chopped green onions, 1 clove garlic and 2 stalks of celery. Add the remaining 1/2 cup water one tablespoon at a time to moisten the meat loaf. This can’t be understated, be careful when adding the water, it is very easy to over moisten the ‘meat’.

blended meat should look something like below, mine was a little too moist. Blend with 2 teaspoons of sea salt and 1 teaspoon of black pepper.

spread the meatloaf mixture on baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Form the mixture in the shape of multiple rectangles approximately 2 inches my 8 inches. Cover the top of the spread meatloaf mixture with marinated spinach and roll. The result should look something similar to the picture below. Two notes about this step of the process.

#1: my mixture was too moist, which made it a little difficult to roll, if you monitor the moisture closely the rolling shouldn’t be a problem.

#2: the original recipe calls for a dehydrator, which i do not own. I try to compensate for this shortcoming by setting my oven to 100 degrees and use that as my version of a dehydrator. In theory as long as it doesn’t get above 118 degrees then the food remains raw. I had the oven set a little too high in this case, as you can see from the results…

cover rolls with sun-dried tomato ketchup.

slice and cover with more sun-dried tomato ketchup. As i stated earlier, i had my oven temp set a little too high (it was a mistake on my part) and the result looks a little ‘cooked’, although it didn’t taste that way. As long as the temp of the over stays around 100 degrees i think this recipe will turn out as expected. If nothing else it was delicious.

I stumbled across a great recipe for raw vegan falafel on goneraw.com that is delicious as is, but also leaves a lot of room to amend and adjust to your liking, and its also very quick and easy to make.

• 2 cups sunflower seeds, unsoaked
• 1 cup corriander, chopped
• ½ teaspoon ground cumin
• couple pieces onion
• 2 tablespoons tahini
• squeeze of lemon
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 pinch sea salt

Blend the sunflower seeds to a fine powder first, then blend all the other ingredients into the sunflower seeds. So many ways to modify this recipe to make it your own. I added a bit more cilantro than was called for, and added a little dill and some cayenne. I’m going to make a version with sprouted sunflower seeds this week, and attempt a sprouted chickpea version as well. If either of them work it’ll be posted here.

Raw vegan sushi (or nori if you want to be 100% correct) is sooo simple, and sooo good. I crave it on almost a weekly basis, a close second to my cravings for tacos.

Start with some simple ingredients:

• tomato
• chopped spinach
• cucumber
• avocado
• shitake mushroom

That just happened to be what i had in the fridge this week. You can use anything that you find appealing, i usually put some orange bell pepper in mine as well.

I line my nori with a raw pate made with:

• walnuts- washed, soaked 8-10 hours, and drained
• tahini
• garlic
• nama shoyu
• pine nuts- soaked for 6 hours and drained

[the recipe is yet another that i 'borrowed' from Katie. I'd be happy to pass it on to anyone that agrees not to publish it, email me if you'd like the recipe]

Its been a long week of experimenting (if not writing). Experimenting doesn’t always make for compelling writing, or photography, except when you succeed or fail brilliantly. I’ve done a little of both.

I started experimenting with a mock tuna recipe this week. I have no idea, except maybe hubris, that i am experimenting with a mock tuna recipe considering i have found about 10 that all seem perfectly acceptable. Well, i proved both of those points this week. I attempted my own recipe with the following ingredients:

• 1 cup sprouted sunflower seeds
• 3 green onions
• 1 celery stick
• 1/4 cup soaked Dulse
• 2 tablespoon nama shoyu
• 1/8 cup lemon juice
• dash salt
• dash pepper
• tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 carrot
• parsley
• cayenne
• garlic
• half red bell pepper

I feel like i have the ingredients correct, it was in the process. I didn’t have this recipe as well thought out as i probably should have. I ended up blending the sprouted sunflower seeds, celery, nama shoyu, celery, green onions, carrot, and dulse. Everything was going fine, i liked the consistency, then added the parsley and garlic and blended again, but it was missing that one ingredient, which turned out to be red bell pepper. Unfortunately i had to blend yet again when i added the pepper, and the consistency was a little paste-y for me. It was actually, to be honest, quite unappealing. I’m going back to the drawing board.

To salvage my appetite for mock tuna, i made this recipe from goneraw.com (the recipe below includes my modifications):

• cups raw, germinated walnuts, soaked in water (the longer the better)
• 1/4 cup dulse (red seaweed), soaked for 10 minutes and drained
• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh dill
• 4 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1/4 cup cold-pressed olive oil
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2½ celery stalks, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, seeded, cored, and chopped
• 3 green onions

Chop the onion, celery and red bell pepper and set aside. Blend all other ingredients in a food processor. Combine the blended mixture with the onion, celery and red bell pepper. I didn’t have fresh dill so i used dried dill weed, the proportions aren’t the same as if you use fresh dill. The dried dill gave my version of the this recipe somewhat un-photogenic, although the taste was great.