Thai Vegetable Wraps & Coconut and Chocolate Ice Cream

 

Raw Food, Real World (for wraps and coconut ice cream)

Thai vegetable wraps in collard leaves with bok choy (instead of savoy cabbage), almond-ginger dressing, mango, carrots, basil, cilantro, mint, and served with a tamarind dressing.  I left out the bean sprouts.  I loved the wraps; I kept going back to make more.  I think I will use the leftovers as a salad, with the collards chopped, so it’s easier to transport tomorrow.  Definitely recommend this recipe!

Coconut ice cream sweetened with agave nectar, also shown with raw chocolate ice cream with coconut water and meat, macadamia milk, and cacao powder.  Served with mango, kiwi, and blueberries.  The ice creams tasted good, but I realized tonight that if I want to make my own nut milks and ice creams with coconut meat, I should really get a better blender, such as a Vita-Mix.  The texture isn’t smooth and pureed enough with my regular old cheapy blender!  Especially to serve to other people.

Lemongrass & Greens Soup w/ Raw Garnishes

I got some lemongrass stalks and Thai basil from my friend Sara, so I thought I’d try to put them to good use and also eat plenty of raw in the process.

I made a broth with pureed coconut shreds, broccoli stalks, and kale, coconut water and homemade vegetable broth, lemongrass, ginger, garlic, a green chile, salt, and a small amount of the basil.  Then I cooked the broccoli florets in the broth but still found something was missing…..roasted peanuts!  They really changed the flavor of the soup for the better.  The garnish is carrots, bok choy, kale, avocado, and Thai basil. 

 It was really tasty but I think in the future I may just keep things more simple and start eating more raw broccoli.  I had previously thought I didn’t like it raw, but I had a few bites of a stalk and liked it.  Of course a sauce with the lemongrass would be excellent even raw!

Collards Rolls w/ Sun-dried Tomato Balls & Cheese

 

The Raw 50 (for cheese & mango flan)

I know that raw collard leaves, to some, may not sound like their idea of food, and I’ll admit that I was skeptical myself, but I got some organic leaves, marinated them in salt and lemon juice, and made some accompaniments for wraps.

The cheese is excellent, with pine nuts, macadamias, nutritional yeast, extra-virgin olive oil, and garlic.  I could eat it by the spoonful.

I love raw preparation of food, as it seems to inspire more creativity in me than cooked prep does.  I wanted sun-dried tomato and basil balls, so I merely threw some sunflower seeds, sun-dried tomatoes, and basil in the processor, ground it up, decided I need more liquid, and added garlic, carrots, and raw tahini.  What resulted was exactly what I wanted and paired perfectly with the cheese and collards.

The mango flan, however sweet and coconuty, did not turn out.  You are supposed to chill it for 30 min. in the freezer and then release it from the container.  This didn’t work, at least for me, but the flan tastes just as good using a spoon, and I got to use young coconut meat for the first time and drank the coconut water.  I’m thinking that my skin loves coconut oils and anything coconut, really, so I’m embracing all things coconut right now and finding that I like fresh coconut flavor more than I realized, just not dried shreds.

The flan can be seen in the background here:

Raw Cookies & Truffles

Raw truffles with cacao (I need to grind it more next time!), coconut oil, agave nectar, raisins (ground), extracts, and hempseeds.  Not what I was going for but tasty, anyway.

These are simply amazing and I think better than any cooked cookie I’ve ever had!  They have cashews, sun-dried bing cherries, agave nectar (not a lot), and vanilla extract. 

Cashew-Coconut Pasta with Bok Choy

As some of you already know, my vacation was purely pleasure, a much-needed break from work, and an exciting visit with someone who is becoming a closer friend of mine, Erik Marcus.  I did eat cooked food while on vacation (and don’t worry, I haven’t become a raw foodist!).  Cooking with Mrrrrrrrrrrrr. Marcus was a joy…..it was refreshing to skip the cookbooks and just make what sounded delicious to both of us, with ingredients already on hand, adding garlic here and a few serranos there when Skimpola wasn’t around.  :D  (I did get to meet her, too!)

The above dish has sauteed garlic and ginger with a cashew-macadamia coconut milk sauce, serrano chilies, cilantro, toasted cashews, a bit of tamari for saltiness, and lemon juice.  It was fantastic!  I believe I caught sight of Mr. Vegan.com scraping the pan with a spoon before placing it in the sink to wash.

Raw Carrot Cake

 

The Complete Book of Raw Food

Considering I could barely control myself long enough to stop eating the dates that were part of the ingredients for this cake, I’m very proud that I finished it and took a picture before I dug in…..

The cake part has ground walnuts, coconut, raisins, dates, flax, hempnut butter (I did this variation myself), carrot pulp, and carrot juice, with nutmeg and cinnamon.  Prepare to dirty your juicer and food processor, but it’s worth it.  The frosting is amazing, simply cashews, lemon juice, and agave nectar, but I lowered the agave and added a few dates to the topping mix.  Garnished with walnuts and coconut.

Let me say as well that I do not like coconut.  Coconut milk, sure, but coconut shreds?  Not really.  This cake is phenomenal.

Lentils & Rice in Coconut Milk, Potato Cakes w/ Cilantro

 

World Vegetarian Classics

A creamy rice mixture with lentils and brown rice, coconut milk, onion, garlic, ginger, garam masala, and turmeric.

The potato cakes have cooked potatoes, chickpea flour, chilies, cilantro, garlic, nutmeg, black pepper, lemon juice, and salt.  The lemon juice adds enough moisture to combine with the flour and potatoes and make the patties stick together easily and nicely.  You must be patient when making these, as they cook slowly, with little oil, for 15 min. on each side.  That’s partly why I made rice and lentils to go with….

Curried Coconut Noodle Soup

Hello, world.  I finally have a home internet connection!!  :o   !!!  

 

World Vegetarian Classics

This is a soup with much flavor!  My first recipe from this book, I planned ahead for this guy, grilled some sweet potatoes (instead of the pumpkin called for) last night, for a delicious smoky flavor.  The broth has red curry paste, coconut milk, soy sauce, sweetener, and then you add in the sweet potatoes and tofu.  What makes the meal are the garnishes, all placed on a bed of vermicilli noodles!

Chocolate Coconut Pecan Cupcakes

Vegan Cupcakes Take Over the World

Honestly, this isn’t an exact recipe from VCTOTW, but it’s based off of the toasted coconut cupcakes with coffee buttercream frosting.  I didn’t have any shredded coconut, so I used some pecans instead and also made a caramel-coconut frosting.

Coconut & Lime Panna Cotta

Veggie Chic

I didn’t know what to expect from this dessert, but I knew it sounded good and that I love lime and coconut milk.  The beginnings of the dessert are boiling the coconut milk and nondairy milk of your choice (just don’t go with chocolate, k?) with kaffir lime leaves and lime peel.  Then you make the pudding by adding sweetener and a thickener.  I obviously didn’t use gelatin; a broad range of options are available, including kuzu, arrowroot, cornstarch, agar-agar, both in flaked and powder form, and probably others.

The sauce on top is made from lemongrass, lime peel, lime juice, and sweetener. 

I like how this dessert is not too sweet and not too filling, but super-creamy and flavorful.