I was eager to make this recipe again for two reason: 1) I haven’t made it in awhile, and 2) I was eager to serve this dish to two of my girlfriends. They planned to stop by and visit before continuing on to meet up with their significant others at a Superbowl party. Neither one of my dear friends really likes brussels sprouts, but they are open to try “raw” vegan food, so I thought this would be a great opportunity to introduce them to one of my raw vegan recipes.

Daring to serve my friends who aren’t fond of brussels sprouts a dish made of it and raw to boot, I ran out to buy 10 of the little beauties, and the other ingredients needed to make my recipe. As soon as I returned home I got busy preparing everything.

I love the rich hazelnuts pesto mixed with thinly sliced brussels sprouts, and it is quite filling. Shredding the raw brussel sprouts makes them palatable. I like using a mandoline to shred them by hand to get those even threads. You can also cut it very thin with a knife or use a food process. Another thing I like is fresh tomatoes with this dish. So far, every time I’ve eaten this dish I had fresh chopped tomatoes with it.

We eat with our eyes first and I had in mind how I wanted to present this dish to my friends, so I also thinly sliced Campari tomatoes to use as a layer around the brussels sprouts. I was hoping this would make a pretty camouflage so they wouldn’t figure out right away that they were about to eat a dish with raw brussels sprouts.

I gathered my ring molds, assembled everything, and then quickly took a picture of one plated before my friends arrived.

When I told them I made a raw vegan dish I wanted them to try, they both agreed. I brought one out for them to share. They commented on how pretty it looked, inspected it of course, and asked what it was, but I asked them to taste it first [assuring them there wasn't anything weird in the mix] and then I would tell them all the ingredients. They tossed around a couple jokes, the folks dug in, and…… they liked it! After their forks clearly exposed what was under the sliced tomatoes, there was no hiding the shredded brussels sprout. But they thought it was cabbage or some sort of greens. Well, brussels sprouts are basically miniature cabbages. They took another fork full. I confessed they were eating shredded brussel sprouts and they were pleasantly surprised. Maybe their ambivalence for it has changed. That’s one for the brussels sprouts.

Shredded Brussels Sprouts and Hazelnut Pesto with Fresh Tomatoes

When I shop for brussels sprouts, I always buy them loose and hand pick each, I never buy them pre-packaged. I choose the ones that are bright green, firm and compact with unblemished leaves. The tomatoes I used here are Campari tomatoes on the vine. They are smaller than the average size tomato and larger than cherry tomatoes.

Prepare the brussels sprouts: remove any yellow or damaged outer leaves and rinse. Use the stem end to hold each brussels sprout by hand and shred using a mandoline, or thinly slice each sprout with a knife, or use a food processor to shred. Place shredded sprouts in a bowl and toss with half of the fresh squeezed lemon juice and season with sea salt to taste; set aside.

Make the hazelnut pesto: Place all ingredients in food processor or blender; blend until the pesto mixture is thick and creamy.

Prepare Campari tomatoes: thinly slice

Garnish: chopped tomatoes and chiffonade fresh basil.

Assemble and Plate: Add the hazelnut pest to the bowl of shredded brussels sprouts; coat and mix well.

Take a ring mold and line in inside wall all the way around with slices of tomatoes, then place the ring mold on server plate. Carefully fill in the center of the ring mold with the shredded brussels sprouts and hazelnut pesto mixture just to the top of the mold. Cover the top with slices of tomatoes. Repeat steps for each ring mold. When ready to serve carefully lift the ring mold. Garnish the plate with chopped tomatoes, chiffonade basil, and a light sprinkle of sea salt and pepper.

Serves 4

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Thanksgiving is just days away and I have so many holiday recipe ideas running through my head I can’t make them fast enough. Most of these ideas at least make it onto paper, and some, like this one, actually get made.

I was dreaming of a smooth silky puree, something close to the texture and consistency of traditional mashed or pureed potatoes. Well, I gave it a go with carrots and butternut squash as stand-ins for potatoes [they aren't good raw], seasoned with the fresh onions, garlic, and fresh ground allspice. This puree is good on its own [it may not look like much in the picture] but I thought it needed something more. Mushrooms go great with carrots and butternut squash so I used shiitake, and dried porcini to make a gravy. You get all that savory flavor, some texture, and creamy goodness in just about an hour because that is about how long it takes to dehydrate the mushrooms.

If you are getting nostalgic for comfort food, this recipe might hit the spot, and if you want to warm it up a bit, make the puree and gravy, then prepare the mushrooms and put everything in a dehydrator at 115-118 degrees for an hour. You’ll have slight warm raw food style comfort food.

Carrot Squash Puree with Shiitake Mushrooms and Creamy Porcini Gravy

This recipe can be a side dish but I can eat this as a meal in itself.

Carrot Squash Puree

Process all the ingredients in a food process into a rice-like consistency. Transfer to a high-speed blender and add the reserved 1/2 cups mushroom water. Blend into a smooth and creamy puree.

Marianted Shiitake Mushrooms

Toss mushrooms and onions with olive oil, allspice, and salt. Place on Teflex sheets and dehydrate for about an hour.

Creamy Porcini Gravy

Remove porcini mushrooms from soaking water and place in a high speed blender. [Reserve the soaking water the puree]. Add remaining ingredients – cashew flour, water, lemon juice, fresh thyme and sage, and sea salt to taste – to the blender and blend until smooth and creamy.

Garnish

Assemble
Spoon carrot squash puree on individual plates. Spoon creamy porcini gravy on top of the puree, then top with marinated shiitake and onions. Garnish with fresh thyme leaves.

Serves 4

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This recipe comes from the pages [page 102 to be exact] of Angelina Elliot’s raw gourmet recipe book, Alive in 5, Raw Gourmet Meals in Five Minutes. Her recipe book offers quick, easy, living raw vegan recipes: Beverages, Breakfast, Appetizers, Heavenly Salads, Soups, Sauces, Delightful Entrees, and Scrumptious desserts – for those of us who are on the go and who want to make healthy delicious recipes in minutes.

In this book Angelina explains some of the benefits of raw vegan food, and lists the raw pantry staples and essential equipment used to make the recipes in Alive in 5. She also talks about healthful tips, gives a guide to fruit, how to store your fruit and vegetables, and even offers a meal plan.

In last months newsletter I made an announcement, I said “Before the end of the month [the end of the month being August], I will post a book review of Alive in 5, along with a recipe from its pages, and offer two copies as gifts.”

Clearly I’m running late on my promise, and I’m making good on it here. I’m offering two copies of Alive in 5 as a gift so you can fill your recipe book library with an, or perhaps another, awesome living and raw food recipe book. This way there will be no excuse for not making wholesome healthy recipes. On September 30th, I will draw two names from the comments section below, and contact the two individuals via email. If you participated in the giveaway of this book in last month’s interview with Angelina, you are more than welcome to participate again.

Now about this recipe. I whipped this up in no time and it is delicious. The aioli sauce aka garlic sauce is divine. Consistency wise, it isn’t thick like the classic French version, it’s more of a liquid like goodness but the color is reminiscent of an original aioli sauce. For the Italian seasoning, I had fresh basil, rosemary, oregano, thyme, marjoram – a typical combination to create Italian seasoning – and added about 1 tablespoon of each to the blender. This sauce smells so fresh and well, garlicky. Being a garlic lover, I decided to double the recipe.

Spaghetti with Aioli Sauce

Garlic lovers will ask for this again and again.

Using a vegetable peeler or spiral slicer, cut the zucchinis into long thin strips to create vegetable “spaghetti”. Combine the olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, sea salt, Italian seasoning, and black pepper into a blender, and process until smooth. Pour over the zucchini pasta and serve.

Serves 3

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I haven’t made kebabs, or shish kebabs, of any sort for a while, so when I found my bamboo skewers [they had made their way to the back of the drawer temporarily lost in darkness], I got inspired to make fruit kebabs.

Any combination of fresh fruits would make a great kebab. I used blueberry, strawberry, blackberry, kiwi, papaya, pineapple, and banana. The colors are gorgeous. Speaking of color, you could go with a theme like red, white, and blue [strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, bananas], or an all berry kebab, or a tropical theme kebab sprinkled with shredded coconut.

Getting everyone involved in making their own kebabs is a fun idea; this way they can thread the skewer with chunks and pieces of the fruits they like the most. Prep an assortment of fruit and place each fruit in individual bowls. Arrange the bowls of fruit and dipping cream along with the bamboo skewers, plates, napkins, and serve it buffet style!

In the image above, the fruit kebabs are placed over a pool of creamy citrus flavored dip. The wonderful things about these fruit kebabs, besides being healthy and delicious, they are super easy to make, and are great served for breakfast, dessert, as an appetizer, or snack. If you don’t have bamboo skewer, you can certainly swap the skewers for bowls and present beautiful fruit bowls drizzled with citrus cream.

Fruit Kebabs with Citrus Cream Dip

Make ahead: this dip will hold just fine in the refrigerator for a day or two.

Fruit Kebabs

Rinse and prep fruit into bit-sized chucks and pieces.

Citrus Cream Dip

Blend all ingredients in a blender until smooth and creamy.

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Last night I received a surprise and a gift by way of a phone call. It was my long lost friend, Ester, from Zurich, Switzerland, who I haven’t heard from in ages. I was thrilled to hear from her after all this time and know that she is doing well. We had so much catching up to do it was impossible to cram the missed years and events into one phone call, especially a long distance call.

One of the things we reminisced about was our mutual interest in languages, Japanese in particular, and how it brought us together. We meet in a Japanese class in college and became study buddies. We laughed at how enchanted we were about everything Japanese – the language, the culture, the boys, and the food, of course.

All that admiration for all things Japanese planted the seeds that lead both of us at different times to that magnificent country. I was fortunate to visit Japan twice spending 4 months in total in Tokyo, a truly fascinating city. One thing about both of us remains the same; we affirmed that we are still captivated with all things Japanese.

This morning, not surprising, I found myself craving Japanese food. My craving guided me not to the nearest Japanese restaurant but to Natural Living Cuisine (my other site that currently rest dormant). I searched for my Winter Nori Roll recipe and thankfully had all the ingredients need to make this recipe, well all except one, celeriac. I ventured out in hopes of finding this knobby root vegetable but unfortunately didn’t so as a stand-in, I used slices of fennel.

Originally, I made a Sesame Orange Dipping Sauce to accompany Winter Nori Roll. This dipping sauce is on the thicker side, but today I whipped up a thinner and lighter sauce, see recipe below.

Bon appétit, or as they say in Japanese, Itadakimasu!

Winter Nori Roll

Original recipe posted here

Wash all the vegetables [beetroot, celeriac, kale] well. Cut kale into thin strips. Peel outer skin of the beetroot and celeriac. Cut avocado in half; reserve one half for another use. Cut avocado into ½ inch lengthwise strips. Cut red onion in half, then take one half and cut ¼ inch thick and separate onion shards. Remove rosemary from sprig.

Assembly

Lay raw nori sheet on cutting board. Starting at one end of the raw nori roll and ½ inch from the edge, place julienne celeriac along the width of the sheet. Next place beetroot in same manner next to the celeriac, then the kale strips next to the root vegetables, then the red onion strips, rosemary leaves and two to three avocado slices atop. Roll up nori tightly, compressing while rolling. To secure, dip your fingertips or a pastry brush in fresh filtered water and run along the exposed edge of the nori rolls. Gently squeeze and press to secure.

Cut the nori roll into desired sized. I wanted big rolls so I cut each roll in half. Arrange nori rolls on a plate and serve with a dipping sauce of your choice.

Makes 6 pieces cut in half; 12 3-inch sushi rolls cut in thirds or 24 1-inch sushi rolls, cut in thirds, then the thirds cut in half.

Ginger Garlic Dipping Sauce

For those of you who may prefer a thicker dipping sauce, try Sesame Orange Dipping Sauce

Place all ingredients in a blender, ideally a smaller personal blender, like this one and blend until smoothie.

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