Even if you don’t like cooked kale, you may find that you like the green vegetable juiced! I have had three of these so far today:
5-6 kale stalks with leaves
3/4 lb. carrots
1/2 to 1 orange
Place in the juicer in that order. The orange will add some sweetness; mix it up and find a combination you like. I also had blueberry-pineapple today.
At first glance, the frosting probably looks like it’s chocolate because it’s so dark, but it is merely dried blueberries pureed with lemon juice. I had made this cake before, years ago, with walnuts and raisins, then a date-lemon topping; I thought blueberries would be a nice modification. Like most raw desserts, it’s high in calories but very healthy and delicious. Use 2 cups of each walnuts and raisins for the base, ground together in the food processor.
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.
A sampling of a few of the recipes from this book:
Pistachio, Celery, and Cucumber Salad with Dates and Orange-Lemon Dressing
Celery & Red Apple Salad with Creamy Pine Nut Dressing (with lemon and parsley)
Recipe for Belgian Endive with Gremolata and Vegetables using Radicchio and Additional Vegetables, bell peppers, cucumber, carrots, Belgian endive, radicchio, and mixed sprouts. Gremolata has lemon juice, garlic, parsley, and oil (see note below).
I was very intrigued by this one. It’s Swiss Chard, Pine Nuts, and Currants Stuffed in Vine Leaves. Of course the vine leaves, being jarred, are not raw, but the filling is completely raw.
In the pistachio salad, apple salad, and “dolmas,” I did not add any oil, due to there already being fat content and plenty of flavor from the nuts, herbs, and citrus juices. The gremolata has merely a tablespoon of oil, much less than called for. My favorite of these four is a toss-up between the apple salad (the dressing is amazing) and the dolmas with the perfect filling mixture. Where’s Mr. Marcus when you need him to swoop in and eat some dolmas? These are better than Costco.
Kale salad has red and green bell pepper, carrots, and a creamy raw cashew-cilantro-orange dressing with garlic.
The cucumber boats are stuffed with an avocado, onion, garlic, tomato, lime, cilantro, and celery mixture.
Both are excellent! The cashew dressing with some sweetness from the fresh orange juice pairs well with the kale.
Vegan World Fusion Cuisine
My “raw” dessert isn’t completely raw; I don’t like carob, especially the raw variety, so I used cocoa powder instead.
Otherwise, the dessert consists of a raw “crust” that I just used as crumbs, simply dates and nuts with spices ground together - so easy, tasty, and sweet.
The creamy layer is ripe bananas, psyllium husk, spices, and the cocoa.
Topped with a mint leaf….
Will let you know how it was after it chills for a while.
Interesting tidbit: Psyllium husk powder is a common ingredient in over-the-counter laxatives. You might be able to guess, from what I commonly eat, that I’ve NEVER had to buy a laxative. :p
Sensational Stevia Desserts (nonvegetarian cookbook)
This is a great salad which is pretty easy to make, once you get the pureeing parts done! The main base is bananas, silken tofu, coconut extract, and stevia. To one part, I added strawberries and the other, raspberries (my variation). Also shown in the middle is a mango puree and fresh blueberries and strawberries. Yum!
The making of hempnut milk:
It looks like I’ll need to strain it a little bit to remove the froth, or maybe that disappears when it cools. Either way, thanks, Sue, for the maker! I am going to make tofu tomorrow.
La Dolce Vegan!
Great for taking on the go when you have errands or for a snack at work. The wet mix is made from bananas, ground flax, margarine, and sweetener (I used granulated date sugar), while the dry mix has oat flour and pecans. The recipe called for frosting these, but I prefer to stay lower in fat and calories and just enjoy the healthiness and simplicity of the naked bars!
Shown here topped with cinnamon.
Cooking With the Right Side of the Brain
Filled with almond butter, ground raisins, and whole-wheat pastry flour, these cookies have merely four ingredients and are completely fruit-sweetened, provided you use a fruit-only jam (check out your nearest health food store for organic varieties; I like Bionaturae). While I found these little treats to be very tasty, I can see how someone who is used to high-sugar or refined sugar items would find them a little bland.
Passionate Vegetarian
This recipe is AMAZING. Each serving is fairly small and I gobbled up three portions before I even realized it! Shown here drizzled with agave nectar and cocoa powder, the mousse needs no garnish, as it is flavored with cinnamon, crystallized ginger, and nutmeg. I used hempnut milk and sweetened it only with date sugar, so it’s a pretty healthy dessert!
My excuse for the three servings? Well, the taste, of course, but I also am going for a run in a few minutes!
