Warm Winter Carrot Soup (raw)
Raw soups in winter never sound great to me, so I wanted to do something really rich and satisfying. If you have leftover parsnip pasta from the Creamy Parsnip Fettucine recipe, just use this in place of the wine-soaked parsnips below. Yum!
Serves 4
- Macerate 2 c shredded parsnips with 1/4 c white wine and 1/2 t salt. Let stand overnight.
- 1 c raw cashews or macadamia nuts, soaked 2-4 hours and drained
- 1/2 inch fresh ginger, minced
- 2 cups carrot juice
- 1/4 t cayenne pepper (optional)
- 2 T coconut oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Blend parsnips, soaked nuts, ginger and one cup of the carrot juice in a high-speed blender until its a super-smooth creamy base. Slow machine and add in remaining carrot juice until you get a rich creamy soup consistency. Whiz in coconut oil and adjust for salt and seasonings.
Warm this soup very carefully on a pot on the stove just before serving. Make sure it does not get too hot (hover over it and keep sticking your finger in the pot). Soup should not go over 115°F which is just slightly over lukewarm.
Serve in pre-warmed bowls with a few cilantro leaves as garnish.
Play with the flavors!
- Make a Curried Carrot Soup by adding a pinch of ground cumin, coriander and turmeric!
- Add meat and juice of one fresh young coconut, and lime for a more tropical taste
Super Green Smoothies
It was a revelation to me that you could throw a bunch of greens in the blender and have it turn into a refreshing drink that is completely delicious and satisfying. (Really! You have to experience it to believe it.) Sarma Melngailis has dedicated a whole section to her love of greens in Living Raw Food with some fantastic green blender drink recipes which is really inspiring. The best thing is you can do all of this in a Vitamix which is much easier to clean than a juicer.
You can play with this with whatever greens you have on hand, and the base I usually start with is the grapefruit, lime and agave to sweeten.
Serves 2
- 1 grapefruit, in chunks, with peel cut off
- 1 cucumber
- 1 whole bunch fresh cilantro, washed well, but stems and all!
- 1 bunch of any greens, washed well, any tough stems removed.
- 4-5 ice cubes
- 1 lime (or lemon) in small chunks, with peel cut off
- 1/4 c agave, or to taste
The only trick to this is the order you put things into the blender – make sure you put the juicy stuff in first (graperfruit, cucumbers) so you get a liquid going before you start adding the greens. Then, bunch by bunch, just stuff all those greens in and blend up until its all completely smooth. Add a little water if you need to. Add ice cubes as you go to keep it nice and cool, and finish with the agave and lime. These are the key ingredients that make this all taste so good – don’t be afraid to make this fairly sweet. You will be surprised at how refreshing and addictive this is.
Play with this recipe!
- The grapefruit can be substituted with oranges, tangerines, pineapple etc
- The cilantro can be replaced or mixed with parsley
- Experiment with using combination of lettuce or fresh sunflower sprouts with the greens
- The cucumber is really refreshing but not necessary – in NY in the winter I usually don’t have these laying around so I just add more water/ice.
- For a lower carb version, 2 pkts of stevia can be substituted, or try a combo…
- Try fresh coconut water instead!
Rosemary “Cream” Sauce (Raw)
This recipe is a slight modification from the one in Sarma Melngalis’ new cookbook Living Raw Food. Get this book – its awesome.
- 1 cup of Cashew “Boursin” Cheese
- 2 t. lemon juice
- 1/2 small clove garlic
- 1/2 t. fresh rosemary
- 1/3 c water
- salt and pepper to taste
Blend everything up in a high-speed blender until completely smooth and creamy. Use to make Parsnip Pasta with Marinated Mushrooms.
Creamy Parsnip “Fettucine” with Marinated Mushrooms (Raw)
This is blow your mind delicious alternative-to-pasta dish. Its easy to make but you have to get into the “Zen of Parsnip Peeling”…or have a couple of kitchen helpers around – it’s fun to do with friends!
Parsnip Pasta (Serves 4)
I love parsnips! They seem to be a very under-rated vegetable since no one seems to know much about them. They are wonderfully sweet and have a mellow wintery satisfying flavor and if you peel them into Fettuccine-like noodles with a simple vegetable peeler, they develop a delicious silky mouthfeel that is completely satisfying with a rich creamy nut sauce.
Texture Trick: the trick to the vegetable pastas is in how you cut it. You much slice or peel with the grain of the parsnip (or zucchini, or goldbar squash). DO NOT use one of those cool spiral slicer gizmos to make a vegetable pasta. Cool as it may look, those slicers will cut through your vegetables against the grain, resulting in a rough and mealy mouthfeel which is not good for a pasta dish.
- 8 medium sized parsnips, thoroughly peeled to take off all the tough skin.
- 1 zuchinni or goldbar squash, very lightly peeled, just to take off the smooth outer skin
- 1/2 t salt
- 1/2 cup dry white wine
- 2 T olive oil
- freshly ground black pepper
Peel the parsnips into fettucine shaped “pasta” the same way you would peel a carrot, rotating the parsnip by small turns until you run into the core. Keep peeling away as long as the parsnip is sweet and tender. Depending on the parsnip this might be the whole thing, or you might have to stop at the core which is sometime woody. (yes – you will have to keep munching on the raw parsnip as you prep… watch out, it’s habit forming).
Peel the zucchini into fettucine the same way, stopping short of the seedy core. We are just going for texture here.
Add salt and gently massage into the tangled mass of shredded veggies until they begin to soften and get slippery. This helps to break down the viberous nature of the vegetables and to give it that nice, smooth “cooked” feel in your mouth.
Now add the wine and the olive oil and massage in for a minute or two. Taste for salt, add pepper. It should be completely delicious even at this stage.
Let sit at room temperature for at least an hour for vegetables to soften and marinate in the wine. You can do this up to 24 hours ahead.
Marinated Mushrooms
- 1/2 lb brown crimini, king oyster, or mix of other fresh wild mushrooms, cleaned.
- 1 T lemon juice
- 1/4 c olive oil
- 1/2 t finely crushed garlic
- 1 T finely chopped fresh parsely
- course salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
Cut mushrooms into thick slices or bit sized chunks and toss with remaining ingredients- massage marninade into mushrooms gently with your hands for one minute. Adjust for taste (it should already be delicious at this stage).
Warm in dehydrator for 1 – 3 hours until mushrooms are soft and sauteed tasting. (Dehydrating is optional – you can simply leave out at room temperature and it will taste great).
In a large serving platter, top pasta with Raw Rosemary Cream Sauce, and finish with a heap of mushrooms in the center. Enjoy!
Note: any leftover parsnip pasta can be made in the base for the Warm Winter Carrot Soup.
Cashew and Macadamia Nut “Boursin Cheese” (Raw)
This is a great vegan “cheese” which also becomes the base for some delicious creamy sauces. You can use pinenuts, cashews, macadamia nuts, or play with any combo of the three. This makes about 4 cups of cheese.
- 4 cups soft nuts, soaked for 2 -4 hours (cashews, pine nuts, or macadamia nuts)
- 1/2 c olive oil
- 2 shallots
- 1/2 cup lemon juice
- 4 t. nutritional yeast
- 2 t. salt
Blend together in a food processor or blender until smooth, let chill 2 hours for flavors to mellow.
Serve as a spread on raw crackers or thin as a dip for vegetables.
For flavored cheese spreads, add any of the following to a cup of the cheese recipe:
- 1Tbs finely minced fresh herbs and garlic
- 1/4 c Finely diced sweet red pepper and scallions
- Zest of one lemon
- …or come up with your own!
Chocolate Super-Macs
“Chocolate hides a multitude of evils!” I use a little regular cocoa to get the rich chocolate taste and look, add a little extra sweetener, and then pack these with raw chocolate, blue green algae and any other superfoods I have on hand (and can get away with) – ground goji berries, mangosteen powder, etc. Have fun watching people who would never eat this kind of stuff pop these cookies in their mouth, one after the other!
- 1 recipe Marvelous Macs
- 1/2 cup finely ground raw cacao
- 3 – 4 T organic cocoa powder (not dutch/alkalized)
- 6 – 8 capsules Crystal Manna blue-green algae*
- 2 T agave or maple syrup
Add all ingredients together and adjust for taste (which means, if you can get away with adding more blue-green algae and not tasting it – do it!
Scoop and dehydrate as for Marvelous Macs.
* You can use any kind of greens or blue-green algae you like – I find that this brand has a very mild flavor which allows me to use a lot more without detection.
Marvelous Macs
These are a staple in our house – I eat these for breakfast! This is a recipe adapted from Sarma Melngailis’ first cookbook, Raw Food Real World and the original version of these Blond Macaroons can be purchased at OneLuckyDuck.com.
- 3 cups dried unsweetened coconut
- 1 1/4 cups raw almond flour, ground with 1/4 c hemp seeds
- 2/3 c maple syrup/agave (dark or light)*
- 1 T vanilla
- 1/2 t. sea or Himalayan salt
- 3 T maca powder (optional)
- 1/3 c coconut butter
- 1/2 c raw cacao nibs (optional, for “chocolate chip macs”)
Mix all ingredients together in a bowl (kneed the last bit in with your hands!)
Spoon or scoop 1 1/2 inch balls onto a dehydrator screen. (A 1 oz French ice cream scoop is perfect for this job!). Alternately, you can chill this in the refrigerator for a hour and roll into balls with your hands.
Dehydrate 115 F for 12 – 24 hours, or until they are a crunchy/chewy as you like!
* Use all agave for a low-glycemic version, or you can play with other sweeteners like Yacon syrup.
TIP: Double this recipe, split in half, and make Chocolate Super Macs too!
Delicata Soup with Cashews and Curry
It’s Fall. This soup was made to chase away snuffy noses!
This soup is vegan but gets it’s ethereal thick creamy texture from the squash and the cashews. It is completely satisfying with a warm crusty whole grain roll and a big bright salad!
Raw is Sexy!
Sarma Melngailis. Check her out.
More on her later, but she’s been a HUGE inspiration to me. And runs Pure Food and Wine – there is no place like it.
Tip: go with girlfriends for dessert. Bring money.
Addicted to FRESH
I live in NYC, and am a certified food nut. Usually can’t even remember the names of my relatives, but ask me what I remember about some 2 week trek in the Himalayas over 20 years ago… and you will get total food recall. (A little hut… they served us “mussel pizza”, which was steamed dough topped with Chinese canned mussels. It was delicious!).
New York is a city where you can pretty much get any type of food you like, any way you like it, any time day or night. So the rules change here a bit, and surprisingly, I don’t actually go out that much. It was different when I lived outside the city and came in – all I wanted was good Asian, or whatever I wasn’t getting where I was. But here, in the middle of everything, when people ask me what kind of food I like to eat, I say “Fresh!” Because that’s the rare gem to be found here. Not just fresh, but fresh done really well, when it sparkles off your plate. When you think Wow!… then mmmmm…..
I love finding these spots, and will be posting them in the FOOD GEMS category as I find them.
But back to Fresh- its something that once you develop a taste for, there is no going back. I developed this, and became conscious of it, cooking for Andrew Cohen, my spiritual teacher of over 15 years. There was one particular day that I made an omelette for him. I had recently seen the movie Big Night, and was on a serious omelette trip at the time, and can confidently say by anyone’s standards it was a GORGEOUS little omelette, a perfectly balanced sweet-savory combo of caramelized onions, zucchini and thyme, light on the eggs, perfectly cooked… or at least I thought.
Andrew sent it back. He asked me to taste it, to see if I could tell what was wrong with it, and I did. It was dead.
The tastes were all perfectly balanced, but the veggies had lost their life, and I realized that you can taste the life force in food. From that moment on, that sense of life, that Fresh, became an irrevocable 6th element for me, in both cooking and eating.
My name is Jorin – I am a Fresh-oholic.
Conscious Food Choices 