Raw for Dessert

I would say my diet is about 50 percent raw, and during the summer it was quite a bit higher than that. I thought maybe I was enjoying more raw foods because I was tired of cooking, but thankfully that’s not the case. Actually, raw food is just good food. Fresh, unprocessed, naturally delicious food.

I was delighted to be asked to review Jennifer Cornbleet’s newest cookbook, Raw for Dessert. As much as I would have loved to have made any of the delicious looking pies or ice creams, I was limited to desserts that didn’t require the use of a blender. (By the way, I appreciate all of your input regarding my broken blender. I finally decided to contact KitchenAid, and it turns out the part that needs replacing only costs $6. It just arrived in the mail today!)

While browsing through the Raw for Dessert recipes, I noticed that several of them used maple syrup and agave nectar as ingredients. We all know that both of these products are processed, and I think it’s generally thought that even agave nectar labeled as raw cannot truly be regarded as raw. Raw for Dessert addresses the use of maple syrup in the introduction, and I also asked the chef at my favorite raw food café, Beets, for her take on the use of these ingredients, as I remembered eating a delicious maple ice cream on my first visit to the cafe. I flat out asked the chef if she considered maple syrup and agave nectar as raw and she answered No. I asked her for her philosophy on using these ingredients and her answer delighted me: If you’re going to indulge in a decadent dessert, a bit of something not 100% raw is okay to be part of the indulgence. For those of you 100% raw, I would say most of the recipes in Raw for Dessert would satisfy you.

So… I made my very first raw cookies! I chose Lemon Cranberry Pistachio Cookies. The recipe was quick and easy to make in the food processor. I let the cookies set up in the fridge for a while.



The cookies are beautiful and so delicious.

I also made my very first raw Brownies. Oh… my… goodness. These are heavenly. Good for me for making a half batch because this chocolate fiend could eat a whole big bunch of these! The recipe called for dried cherries, but since my lemon cookies had dried cranberries, I left them out of the brownies. I used the optional cacao nibs to maximize the chocolate experience. My brownies were not too sweet and bursting with chocolate flavor – just like I like them. This was also a very quick and easy recipe to make in the food processor.

Both of these recipes use dates as the sweetener. The verdict - a big thumbs up so far for Raw for Dessert.

Love Soup

I recently received a copy of Love Soup to review. Love Soup is a huge collection of soup recipes by Anna Thomas, author of The Vegetarian Epicure. The book is very nicely laid out by seasons, and broken out further into subchapters such as Green Soups, Hearty Summer Soups, Holiday Soups, Cold Soups, and also includes recipes for broths, breads, salads, sweets, spreads, and other accompaniments. There are 160 recipes provided, and the recipes are very creative and utilize fresh seasonal vegetables and herbs. While not all the soups are vegan (and this is acknowledged in the introduction), most could easily be made vegan by using nondairy creams, cheeses, and yogurts. I love to use coconut milk and coconut yogurts, and usually find most recipes don’t REALLY need cheese. Ms. Thomas offers variations and loads of helpful tips with each recipe.

As you know it hasn’t exactly been soup weather here in Texas, but I did find nice soup and salad recipes to try. For my soup I made Mung Bean Soup with Spinach and Tomatoes from the Hearty Summer Soups chapter. I have had a 2 pound bag of whole mung beans in my pantry forever. There is lots of information about split mung beans, but I’ve never been able to find proper cooking instructions for the whole mung beans. I learned from Love Soup that mung beans are easy to cook, have a delicate flavor, are high in protein, and burst open when they cook! This soup is perfectly Indian spiced and completely delicious. I did have to deviate slightly and use a large can of fire-roasted tomatoes, because our fresh tomato season only lasted a month. It’s nice to know canned tomatoes work, because I would definitely make this soup again anytime.




For my salad I chose Heirloom Tomato Salad. I had a giant heirloom in the fridge waiting to be dressed up, and finding this recipe was perfect for a hot Labor Day lunch. As you can see, it is simply tomato, onion, fresh basil, and seasonings. In my opinion, heirlooms don’t need much more than that.

If you LOVE SOUP, I would definitely recommend LOVE SOUP. Honestly, it contains wonderful background with each chapter and recipe, and the instructions are about the best I’ve ever come across. Also on my “must make” list are Kale Salad with Tomatoes and Corn; Brown Rice and Chinese Cabbage Salad; Cucumber, Rice, and Fresh Herb Salad; Eggplant and Roasted Garlic Pesto; Deconstructed Hummus Soup; and Butter Bean and Summer Vegetable Soup.

And now I get to have a delicious soup and salad dinner!

Recent Good Eats

Today was the 63rd time this year our temperature reached 100 degrees or more, and it was actually a record breaker at 105. 69 days is the alltime record and we should easily match or beat that by the end of the week as there is no relief in sight. Needless to say, I’m still doing more assembling rather than cooking of food.

Last week there was a food bloggers meetup and we got a free burger at Elevation Burger. Their vegan burger is decent.






They are a green company using organic and sustainable products and environmentally friendly equipment. More businesses should follow their approach.


Okay, everything else here is raw. I love yellow zucchini and there has been plenty at the farmers market lately. Here I’ve spiralized a couple of them, added in some carrots, and topped it with guacamole. Yum.

Here is raw broccoli marinated in lemon juice and garlic, and topped with a cheesy sauce made from my new ebook from Kristen. The sauce was super easy and very tasty.

When I get really into raw foods, maybe someday I can make food as beautiful and exquisite as the food my mom and I ate at Austin's new raw foods café, Beets. We ate there last night and I cannot wait to go back. I’m also pleased to say that every seat in their beautiful space was taken, which is pretty awesome for a place that opened a week ago. Every single menu item was so tantalizing, I literally agonized over my selections. The excellent waitress offered to serve us each half portions of our orders so we could share our food without stabbing at it across the table or switching plates. Here’s what we were presented.

Starting from the bottom going clockwise, Caesar salad with eggplant bacon, pizza, cabbage slaw, and an open face burger with lettuce, sprouts, tomatoes, and special sauce. We also had flax chips and guacamole for an appetizer, and my mom had some tangy goji berry lemonade.

It was so good! Dessert? Why, yes, thank you!

We shared Maple Pecan Ice Cream (almost forgot to get a picture!), and I had my own little chocolate truffle in chocolate sauce. The chocolate sauce was divine, and the waitress told me it was just created that day. Lucky me.

Today I made okra pickles (an Alton Brown recipe) and cooked some fresh field peas.

I also made a raw pie inspired by Shellyfish’s Coconut Cream Pie. I made her pie crust using raw pumpkin seeds instead of walnuts because I’m saving the walnuts for another recipe. It’s really delicious.

I really really wanted to make coconut pie, but I only had ¼ cup coconut in my pantry. I know it’s not a proper substitute, but I used 3 peaches instead. I put it in the freezer to be sure it set up.

So fresh and delicious.

You still have a little time to enter my Flavor Tripping Giveaway. Comments will close tonight and I will post the winner in the next day or two.

I hope you all had a wonderful weekend.

Raw Food Fun

I have more food in my house than I know what to do with. I got my staples from the neighborhood grocer, went to the farmers market, got a few things at Whole Foods, and also got my first CSA box of the season.




My box was full of arugula, beets, carrots, dill, garlic, garlic scapes, onions, radish, Swiss chard. I also got a huge head of lettuce.

And beautiful strawberries!

From the farmers market I got…

… broccoli, purple kohlrabi, spring onion, sunflower sprouts, and amaranth greens. Have you tried amaranth greens?

They are not very tender, but I like the flavor. I would liken it to a mild arugula. They are wonderful in salad. The vendor also told me they should be enjoyed juiced.

Now, about those beets. Beets are just not something I enjoy, unless I don’t know I’m eating beets, like when they’re pickled. I don’t like them boiled or roasted, so I decided to try them raw!

This beautiful dip is made from about a cup of nuts (almonds, cashews, and pine nuts) and equal parts of beets, red pepper, carrots, daikon, and cauliflower. It’s seasoned with garlic, soy sauce, black pepper, and dill. I really like the flavor combination of beets with daikon. In fact, I don’t think I would like this dip without the daikon. And now I’ve got an idea for a recipe to use up some more of those beets with the radishes!

Since I had the food processor and the cauliflower out and was getting into the raw thing, I made up a batch of raw rice.

This is Sesame Raisin Cauliflower Rice, flavored with tahini and a good amount of cilantro. It’s different, but good. This recipe and the beet dip are available from the March edition of Vegan Culinary Experience, which if you don’t already subscribe to, you should. There are LOADS of fabulous recipes, tips, and information and it’s free. Also from this edition is the Eggplant Bacon, which I’ve seen on a few blogs and which I have marinating now. Eggplant is another veggie foe I have to disguise its taste to enjoy. I’ll report back later on how it turns out.

Finally, let me tell you about a couple of raw treats I’ve enjoyed. Gopal’s is a local company started by someone who came from the Bliss Bar company. I’ve never had a Bliss Bar, but supposedly it’s good stuff. Gopal’s has a wonderful website with TONS of organic raw bars, cookies, cheese, wraps, and brownies. I recently tried a sweet and a savory one. Until I tried these, I never liked any raw bars. They just taste too raw. This sweet treat was crispy and very flavorful, and I wish I had bought some other varieties to try.

This savory treat was a “store favorite.” It looked interesting.

There are two wraps in a package that look like this:

It was very unique and very good. It was almost like jerky.

It is simply flavored nuts wrapped in nori, and I don’t see why you couldn’t come up with your own recipe for this, if you want some raw jerky. By the way, the website says “gopal” means “friend of the cow.” Awwwww….

I know Chase has to work late and can’t come to dinner tonight, but I’m cooking anyway. I may invite someone else for dinner, or just have Chase over for leftovers later in the week. Stay tuned for a Southern Supper.

Cheap Eats and a Birthday!

Last Sunday we went out for dinner, last night we went out for dinner to celebrate Chase’s birthday and he’s working tonight, and then next Sunday is Easter, so my posts are a little cattywampus these days. Plus living in the Allergy Capital of the World is taking its toll on me lately. Everyone I know is sneezy, red-nosed, puffy-eyed, tired, and miserable. I’m still cooking frugally and healthfully and have a couple of dinner pictures to share.

Oh, I do love cabbage, especially when it’s shredded and paired with mushrooms. So quick and delicious.



I had some lovely leeks and chard from the farmers market and couldn’t wait to make this beautiful sauté with the chard stems.




But then I looked at the fresh, crisp greens, all washed and waiting to be eaten, so I chopped them up and added them in, along with mushrooms and broccoli. It was the right thing to do.




I made myself a snack one evening using my leftover Quick White Bean Sauce as a dip with raw zucchini.

I knew I was feeling really bad with allergies when I just couldn’t get inspired to bake Chase’s birthday cake. He requested a lemon cake, and while I wanted to make a beautiful lemony layer cake with blueberry filling, I also knew I had to transport it to my mom’s house. If you’ve ever driven with a layer cake in a warm car, you know how heart-wrenching it is to watch the icing wither and the layers slide. So anyway, I finally pulled myself together and decided to make the Lemon Bundtlettes from Millennium. I’ve made them before so I knew they would be delicious. I also made a lemony glaze to pour over the tops and a blueberry sauce to accompany them. Chase doesn’t like frosting so much anyway, as this cake turned out to be just what he wanted. So here’s the cake – I snapped a shot before I packed them.

And here’s the so-stuffed-with-Indian-food-he-can’t-sit-up birthday boy, further stuffing himself with birthday cake, and his lovely gf (who ate reasonably!).

For you local vegan readers, we ate dinner at Clay Pit. It was outstanding AND they have specially marked their vegan items on the menu! There’s lots to choose from, from appetizers, soup, salads, and entrees – yay!

Also for you local readers, we ate dinner last week at Tino’s (Arbor Walk). I was really enjoying my moussaka, until I bit down on a 2-inch stick, which I thought at first was a bone, but thankfully (I guess) was an herb stem. Then I found a 6-inch piece of twine, which was bright orange I assume to make it more visible and which I also assume was once tied to a hunk of lamb. I was a little grossed out. Go to El Greco for great Greek food and outstanding service.

It’s super windy today, i.e., pollen is blowing like crazy, so I am homebound and looking forward to catching up with all of you today, in between many loads of laundry….

Zukay Live Foods – a Review

I was recently gifted with a box of 6 jars of salsas and relishes from Zukay Live Foods. Zukay is a new company with a trendy, innovative concept. Their salsas and relishes are made from all natural, mostly raw, locally sourced foods and infused with vegan probiotics. This idea is especially intriguing to me since (a) I’m vegan; (b) I have digestive issues; and (c) I’m soy intolerant. Capsules were my only option for probiotics, until now.

Zukay has a wonderful website with LOTS of information about their company, products, ingredients, probiotics, and the fermentation process. They also have nice pictures of their products, but so you can see them now, here are some pictures of what I got in my box:

How do the products taste? Well, yes, you can tell there is something different about them. I would not say the products are really *fizzy,* but perhaps have a mouthfeel more like they added some baking soda to them.

I like the salsas okay. A Texan is probably not the best person to ask to review salsa. I could get about 25 really really delicious fresh local salsas from any grocer in town. I could not detect any heat in the Zukay mild salsa, and I could barely detect any heat in hot salsa. But like I said, that’s just me and they are definitely worth a try if you enjoy salsas.

The relishes, however, get a big huge thumbs up! I absolutely love both of them. They taste so fresh and both the garlic and horseradish flavors are clean and clear and in just the right amounts.

A serving of these products has a mere 5 calories and no fat, so I have been adding them to lots of my vegetable dishes. I don’t know that I’ve eaten enough to balance my intestinal flora, but I’ve certainly been enjoying them. Zukay Live Food products are not yet available nationwide in stores, but they are available to everyone from their online shop, so do check them out when you get a chance.

Thank you, Scott, for your wonderful, generous gift!