Vegannosaurus Rex

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The previously unpublished rawcotta recipe (drum roll please…):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

Whew, big food preparation night. I got home from the gym around 5:30-5:45, and didn’t stop until 11pm. I did take a break to eat, and drink a few beers, but otherwise did a lot of food preparation. A lot. I tend to plan meals for the week, sometimes longer, then do all of my shopping at the Dekalb Farmers Market on Monday afternoons, then doing as much of the preparation on Monday or Tuesday as possible. The rest of the week, if not longer, is a breeze as all I am doing is assembling meals or snacks. As much as I like playing around in the kitchen, i also like making it easy on myself by getting a lion share of the work done in one…errr…standing.

First off, i made the quinoa tabouli from ‘RAW FOOD real world’ cookbook. I am in love with this recipe. It’s simple, and delicious, plus it yields quite a bit, so you can snack off it for many days.

I also made a new version of rawcotta. I plan to try it out in an heirloom tomato raw lasagna later in the week. This rawcotta is sunflower seed based.

[i'll provide the recipe as soon as i receive approval from the creator]

I also made the sun-dried tomato ravioli recipe provided by Hi-Rawkus for dinner tonight. As i mentioned in a comment on the Hi-Rawkus MySpace page ’twas delicious’.

I only had one zucchini to make the ‘noodles’ for the ravioli, and due to some technique experimentation, it didn’t yield enough noodles to satisfy my hunger. This is where I decided to freestyle. I didn’t have a second zucchini, but i did have a squash, as well as some organic grape tomatoes I bought from the East Atlanta Farmer’s Market about 10 days ago. The tomatoes were slightly under ripe when i bought them, but perfect tonight. I made a little platter of finger food, almost like passed hors d’oeuvres. I sliced thin ‘crackers’ of squash, topped them with a small dollop of the sun dried tomato rawcotta cheese, then some Italian parsley, a piece of the grape tomato and sprinkled with olive oil. Turned out great, and was super simple.

I took the raw ricotta i used in the lasagna from the previous post, blended it with fresh thyme, basil and oregano and wrapped it in spinach and voila, rawvioli!

add a little raw marinara…

I made my first attempt at raw lasagna. It was better than any lasagna i have ever eaten. I was craving it so much the next day that i made it again. And…its super easy.

Not only am i obsessed with food, but i am obsessed with taking pictures of food. Following is my step by step instructions for raw vegan lasagna, in pictures:

[step 1] chop fresh oregano, basil and thyme. Slice zucchini into thin lasagna ‘noodles’

[step 2] raw ricotta (recipe courtesy of Katie Foerter, seeking approval to publish here)

[step 3] thinly slice an heirloom tomato. For the record, I did NOT make this lasagna in a bowl that is the exact same color of this heirloom tomato on purpose, and i wish i hadn’t made that mistake, the lasagna gets lost in the pictures.

[step 4] cover bottom of dish with sliced zucchini

[step 5] spread a thin layer of raw marinara over the zucchini

[step 6] cover raw marinara with a layer of raw ricotta and sprinkle some chopped oregano, basil and thyme over the raw ricotta

[step 7] add a layer of thinly sliced heirloom tomato

[step 8] add a second layer of zucchini

[step 9] more raw marinara

[step 10] more raw ricotta and hopped herbs

[step 11] a final layer of heirloom tomatoes and chopped herbs

ENJOY!