Rawtatouille and Raw Treats

The editor of Texas Monthly magazine was interviewed recently on radio after a brief hail storm one morning. He commented that he drove through hail the “size of edamame.” Oh, boy, he caught a bunch of flack for that! Listeners thought it made Austin sound too frou frou. I thought it sounded very veggie and I love it!

Anyway… Earlier this week I made Raw Ratatouille from an e-recipe I got from Chef Jason at Vegan Culinary Experience. He actually calls it “Ratatouille Diablo,” but with only 1/8 teaspoon of cayenne, this Texas lady didn’t find it worthy of that name. However, it was super simple to make and yet another way for me to try to enjoy eggplant. I diced eggplant, onion, bell pepper, carrots, yellow squash, zucchini, tomatoes, and garlic, then put it in a big bowl and sprinkled the mixture with salt. I weighted it down and let it sit for a couple of hours to draw out moisture.






The next step was to drain the veggies, reserving the liquid to add back in after rinsing, but I wound up with LOTS of drainage!




There was no way I was putting all that salty liquid back in. It would have become raw salty soup. So I just put back in a tablespoon, and then added the spices – thyme, fennel, fresh basil, paprika, and cayenne. The flavor was excellent and I have enjoyed eating this, even the eggplant.

I found a couple of new products recently. First, “Baking Dates.”

Very smooth and really sweet.

I thought this was a great find, like I wouldn’t have to goop up my food pro, and that may be true for certain recipes, but not for the raw treats I made. I chopped up raw cashews in the processor and poured them into a bowl. I then added in an equal amount of the dates, but just wasn’t able to stir it. So I ended up putting it in the food pro after all. I took out that mixture and added in my two favorite ingredients for raw treats – cacao nibs and goji berries.

Lastly, a really nice find, which happens to violate my “never drink your calories” rule – Coconut Water.

Pure coconut water in a tetrapak, the smoothest drink of water I’ve ever had. It’s supposed to be the best rehydrator for your body and also great for your skin. It’s actually only 60 calories for 11 ounces, and with all the beneficial nutrients I get from it, I’ll make an exception to my rule for this stuff!