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The Raw Gourmet Blog

Thai Miso Soup

By Nomi | Published: February 22, 2011

The Raw Gourmet Recipe Corner


Remember the song “Hate California; it’s cold and it’s damp” Well I know you Easterners won’t believe it but it sure can feel cold here! Part of the reason here in Southern California is the houses aren’t build as ‘tight’ as they are on the east coast so when it’s 40 degrees or below here, that is reflected in how it feels inside.


Brrrr… So here’s a hot soup to have on these cold days. Remember, food is considered raw if it’s never heated higher than about 115 F. degrees…I always make mine about ‘Jacuzzi’ hot which is about 103; that’s plenty hot for me!


Thai Miso Soup


Miso is not raw, so this soup is ½ cooked, half raw. Substitute an all raw soup if you prefer to stay all raw or build a tasty salad using these ingredients.


  • ½ cup daikon noodles *
  • ½ cup (total) chopped veggies: use any of these: mushrooms, sunchokes, cabbage, carrot, fennel, zucchini, cucumber, celery
  • 2 tablespoons chopped cilantro
  • 2 tablespoons chopped parsley
  • 2 tablespoons dulse flakes
  • 5-6 pieces of small greens from salad mix, or thinly sliced kale, collard or chard
  • 2 tablespoons of sprouts

 

Broth:

  • 1 ½ cups hot water
  • 2 tablespoons Miso or more to taste
  • 1 tablespoon agave or other sweetener
  • 1 tablespoon lime juice
  • A pinch of finely minced garlic
  • A few drops toasted sesame oil (optional)
Put miso in a serving bowl, add a small amount of water, and stir, slowly add additional water until miso is dissolved. Add lime juice, agave, and garlic. Add the veggies and dulse, stir well. Taste and adjust flavors. Add a few drops of sesame oil and enjoy. You can add an additional ½ cup of water if you prefer.

*Note: if you don’t have a spiralizer just make long slices of daikon with a vegetable peeler. ( The spirilizer or saladacco is on sale untio midnight Pacific time tonight: http://rawgourmet.com/saladacco-spiral-slicer

Note: you don’t have to buy a foot long piece of daikon, just break off what you need, less than 4 inches of a thick daikon. Use the leftover in salads or for dips like guacamole or sunflower pate. It will keep for quite some time in your refrigerator


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Asian Noodles

By Nomi | Published: February 16, 2011

The Raw Gourmet Recipe Corner 
 

Asian Noodles


 

This is a variation of the zucchini/carrot/pepper salad with some added flair. Serves two.


 

½ cup cabbage, thinly sliced

1 zucchini either julienned or put in spiral slicer to make pasta

1 small carrot, julienned or put in spiral slicer

¼ cup chopped cilantro (about ½ of a small bunch)
optional: 1/2 red pepper julienned nice for color

Mix above together in bowl


 

¾  inch of fresh ginger, grated

2 teaspoons tahini (or almond butter)

1 teaspoon miso (if you don’t have any add 1 more teaspoon nama shoyu)

1 teaspoon nama shoyu

¼ -1/2  cup water

optional: 1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil (not raw but adds a great Asian flavor, drizzle over the top at the last minute for biggest taste).


 

Mix ginger and tahini in a bowl with the liquids-adding enough water to make a thin gravy-like consistency. Pour over veggies, mix. Allow to sit on counter for 15-30 minutes, toss again.
 
IMHO this is a much healthier version of the Pad Thai recipe from last week, soooo much less fat!


 


Wish you had a bunch of simple tasty recipes like this to choose from? Check out my first book, The Raw Gourmet

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Carrot Salad with Pyramid Sauce

By Nomi | Published: February 16, 2011
The Raw Gourmet Recipe Corner
 

Carrot Salad with Pyramid Sauce


 

These recipes are adapted from Vibrant Living by Cedarquist

and Levin, it was published in 1993 I don’t know if it’s still in print.

It is a charming book with many good ideas but food combining is

not in any way taken into account. In many ways it is an old-fashioned

raw food recipe book but if you are a collector it’s nice to have.


 

Pyramid Sauce


 

4 Tablespoons raisins, soaked til soft 30-60 minutes

2 Tablespoons raw tahini

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

5 Tablespoons water

2 Tablespoons minced red onion


 

Blend well. Add additional water if you’d like a thinner sauce.


 

Note: the recipe calls for ½ cup of this sauce so you will have approximately ½ cup left over. In order to be able to blend well these are the amounts necessary so that the blades with engage with the food. If you own a small blender like a Bullet or a Tribest personal blender you can make up ½ of this recipe on one of those.


 

Carrot Salad


 

1 cup finely chopped apple

1 cup finely chopped red, orange or yellow bell pepper

3 cups finely grated carrots (packed)

½ cup Pyramid Sauce


 

Toss the apple, pepper and carrots in a large bowl. Stir in ½ cup of the sauce, Toss well. Keep refrigerated. Yields 4 cups, or approximately 2 servings.


 

Note: you’ll notice I didn’t say how many apples, carrots etc…that’s because of the way the original recipe was written. You are pretty safe if you start with one medium apple, 1-2 peppers and 2-3 carrots.


 

 

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Mango Tomato Avocado Chop Bowl

By Nomi | Published: February 13, 2011
This is just ‘wicked’ simple-and there’s pretty much endless variations of the chop bowl. Send me yours!

Mango, Tomato, Avocado Chop bowl

Here’s a video of me making this:

Serve as is, or over mixed greens or sprouts.


1 medium ripe tomato, chopped into ½” cubes
1 medium Ataulfo Mango, chopped into ½” cubes
1 medium avocado, chopped into ½” cubes
6-10 fresh mint leaves, torn up
pinch sea salt
¼- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
Optional: ½ teaspoon Balsamic Vinegar

Stir gently. Allow flavors to mingle for 15-30 minutes.

Also posted in Nomi's Videos, Recipes | Leave a comment

Raw ‘Pizza’ Recipe

By Nomi | Published: February 10, 2011

Wow so much nice feedback from yesterday’s recipe for Raw Pad Thai, I thought I’d send out another recipe today. Some questions from yesterday: One person wanted to know what could be substituted for the orange juice, I think that just leaving it out and increasing the lemon and lime would work, maybe adding a bit of something sweet, to taste.

Other less common ingredients that would really make the sauce for the Pad Thai shine would be Kaffir lime leaves and crushed lemongrass stalk. Play with your food!

This recipe from Raw ‘Pizza’ is taken from Week Four of my 3 month raw food coaching class which is going on right now.

Here’s a take on this pizza recipe (not as authentic but you’ll get the idea)

Pizza

For this ‘recipe’ you are going to need a slice of that onion bread you made in Week One.(find onion bread recipe here: Onion Bread Recipe on Ragourmet.com

Or you can purchase something similar here:

This is an excellent source for: olives, nuts, nut butters, snacks, look for the onion bread or similar under “bread”. The food at this site is all RAW unless it says other wise. Using this link will send me back a small commission so I would appreciate it if you would do that, it does not affect your pricing.

So, your pizza crust is the onion bread

Then you can use the Alfredo Sauce from Friday on Week Three (recipe below) this is also called White sauce…it’s cheesy and yummy…spread it on the bread-if you prefer use some Sunny pate instead, or as I used in the video you can use beanless hummus.

Then on top of that use a marinara sauce-there’s a recipe in Week One, Saturday, for marinara sauce.(find marinara sauce recipe here: http://rawgourmet.com/recipes) But hey, you don’t have to get all fancy, just chop up a tomato, put a little sea salt or Trocomare * or Herbamare** on it, some Frontier pizza spice and pile that on top of the white sauce.

Then use any or all of these:

chopped basil

chopped olives

chopped fresh oregano

chopped onions, shallots or scallions

chopped red pepper

or what ever suits you

** great sea salt based products look for them at your health food store, perfect seasoning time after time with these, worth the price they last for a long time.
And you’ve just made Raw Pizza from food you had in the house, in just a few moments…enjoy!
>White sauce or Cheeze:

Prep time 20 minutes, 2-3 hours to thicken in refrigerator
1 cup raw macadamia nuts
1 cup raw cashews
1/2 cup raw pine nuts
1 cup water or more as needed
2 lemons, juiced
1.5-2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
2 teaspoons Nama Shoyu or pinch of sea salt

Soak all the nuts for 2 hours. Drain, rinse and drain again. Place all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth. Refrigerate 2-3 hours to thicken. The sauce should be the consistency of sour cream, if it is too thick, thin with a small amount of additional water.

This will keep in a cold refrigerator for 3-4 days maybe a little longer.
From Raw Food Celebrations by Shannon and Duruz

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Raw Pad Thai

By Nomi | Published: February 10, 2011
A Recipe from The Raw Gourmet
 
 

Pad Thai Noodles

This recipe is from Raw Food Celebrations by myself (Nomi Shannon) and my friend Sheryl Duruz. It’s a great book full of party themes and recipes.

This recipe will serve 2-4 people.


 

This recipes consists of "noodle salad", Sauce and garnish


 

Noodle salad

2 medium zucchini

1 large carrot

¼ cup chopped cilantro

¼ cup mung bean sprouts


 

Peel zucchini. Then shave into thick strips with a vegetable peeler. Cut carrot into matchsticks or julienne strips with a mandoline or a sharp knife. Toss above together in a bowl.


 


 

Pad Thai Sauce

1 cup almond butter

juice from: 2 oranges, 1 lime, 1 lemon

2 cloves garlic

4 soft dates, pitted (Medjool preferred)

½ inch piece fresh ginger (or more to taste)

1 teaspoon sea salt

(optional) ½ small hot red chile or 2 teaspoons crushed dried chiles


 

Blend until smooth. If too thick add a small amount of water; the sauce should be thick. Add to the noodle mixture and mix well.


 

Garnish

2 scallions, chopped

12 basil leaves, chopped

5-6 wedges of fresh lime

4 almonds, chopped


 

Sprinkle all but the lime wedges over the salad just before serving. Place lime wedges around the edge of the bowl.
 
http://rawgourmet.com/raw-food-celebrations
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Green Tea

By Nomi | Published: January 5, 2011

Happy new year to you Nomi! i would like to know if you feel the healing
properties of green tea outweigh the fact that there is a small amt of
caffeine in it-i really love it and have one cup a day on my hi raw vegan
diet-i noticed that there is no mention of it in the raw food world-also
David Wolfe says that flax seeds and oils are too estrogenic and to stick to
chia seed-what do you think? thanks so much
- susan

Nomi’s Answer:
Yes I think Green tea in moderation as you are using it is fine.
there’s a whole lot of controversy re: estrogenic foods….the real issue is
what’s in meat and dairy. Chia is great. I actually believe strongly in using flax oil (highest lignin
by Barleans) for its high Omega 3 content.

It’s very important to eat a large variety to get the benefits of and avoid
the downsides of all the foods that we eat.

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The Best Holiday Nut Nog

By Nomi | Published: December 21, 2010

The Raw Gourmet

Newletter and Blog

http://rawgourmet.com/category/blog

 

 

This yummy nog is great anytime but of course since it tastes like an upgraded version of the traditional egg nog; Christmas is really its big day.

 

This is taken from my book, written with my friend Sheryl Duruz, Raw Food Celebrations.

http://rawgourmet.com/raw-food-celebrations

 

Yield 8-10 Servings (about 7 ½ cups)

Preparation time, 1 hour (plus advance soaking time)

 

Similar to egg nog, this beverage is rich and creamy, and the flavor of the Brazil nuts complements the spices beautifully. It works out best to make this nog in batches.

 

For convenience and best taste, make the nog the day before your event.

 

5 cups Brazil nuts

30-40 pitted Medjool dates

5 vanilla beans or 2 tablespoons extract

9 to 11 cups of water

¾-1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

grated nutmeg (use whole nutmeg if possible)

 

Soak the Brazil nuts in water to cover for 8-12 hours.

 

In a separate bowl, soak the dates and vanilla beans together in water to cover for 8-12 hours.

 

Drain, rinse and drain the Brazil nuts.

 

Add date/vanilla soaking water to blender and add enough additional water to measure 10 cups.

 

Add Brazil nuts and blend until smooth. Add the dates, vanilla beans, and cinnamon to the blender. Blend until smooth, stopping occasionally to scrape down the sides of the container.

 

The mixture will be quite thick. If you prefer a thinner nog, add up to 1 more cup of water and process again.

 

Taste, and add more dates, vanilla and or cinnamon as desired and blend until smooth.

 

Place a nut milk bag in a large bowl or pitcher. Pour the blended mixture into it in batches, and gently squeeze out the liquid. Pour the strained nog into clear cups, grate a bit of fresh nutmeg on top and enjoy.

 

note from nomi: Enjoy this yummy nog on special occasions; but not every day. Brazil nuts are a great source for selenium. Selenium is good for you but too much selenium is not good for you. Daily use of this yummy nog would provide more selenium than your body needs. So enjoy this special day with this special nog…with my very best wishes that your holiday is filled with love and good cheer.

 

Some Quick Reminders:

 

The special early bird price for my upcoming three month coaching program: Your Raw Food Diet with Nomi, has to go away tomorrow, Dec 22. The Early bird is $60 off full price so take a moment from all your Holiday prep to consider doing something for yourself (at a discount)

http://yourrawfooddiet.com

 

E3Live has a several smoking deals that end Dec 31. http://tinyurl.com/E3LivewithNomi

 

  • 20% off E3 products using coupon code: HOLIDAY

 

  • 30% off Earth’s Essential Cream and/or E3 Light Polish

(cream and polish prices already marked with the discount)

Valid until December 31st, 2010 (discount does not apply to Soaps or Patented Stem Cell Enhancer).

 

  • For a limited time receive the new
    book by Dr. George Cromack
    FRE’E (a $15.99 value)
    with any fresh-frozen purchase.
    Just use coupon code*:
    RENEW     during checkout to receive your free gift.
  •  

 http://tinyurl.com/E3LivewithNomi

 

 

 

 

 

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Onion Bread Recipe and Best of Raw Nominations Ending‏

By Nomi | Published: December 14, 2010
The Raw Gourmet Newsletter/Blog
by Nomi Shannon, AKA The Raw Gourmet
 
1. Onion Bread Recipe
2. Best of Raw Nominations
3. Christmas Gift idea
 
Onion Bread
 
I have been ‘playing’ with this recipe for awhile.
What I mean by that is each time I’ve made it
I’ve tried different things. I don’t personally make
a lot of dehydrated foods for myself so it’s been
a rather lengthy process.
I’ve had quite a few requests for this recipes because
I made a pizza on you tube using it as a base, but didn’t
share how I made it.
I had forgotten what I did with the
recipe but just got the bright idea to look in the book
where I got the idea in the first place, and true to form,
there it was. I temporarily forgot that my level of
organization consists of sticky notes in books.
The book that had the Onion Bread recipe that got me started
on all this is Rawvolution by Matt Amsden. I have changed
the ratios and added some ingredients so it’s pretty far removed
from Matt’s original recipe which was both too salty and too
oily for my tastebuds.
But his recipe sparked some ideas for
me and once I tasted the original I’ve made it two or three times
until it’s become something that is exactly to my liking and I hope
yours too!
Nomi’s Version of Onion Bread
This makes 3-4 Teflex lined trays of bread, each tray
yields 9 generous sized pieces, approximately the size
of a piece of fluffywhiteWonderBread from days of yore.
I don’t care much for onions but I like them just fine in this bread.
5 onions ( I like sweet yellow, up to you)
3 cups flax seeeds, ground in a high speed blender
            (not soaked, make sure blender is dry)
3 cups sunflower seeds, ground in high speed blender
            (not soaked, make sure blender is dry)
1/2 cup Bragg’s (used because it’s wheat free, you can use
                   5 Tablespoons Nama plus water instead)
1 cup good quality olive oil (EVCPOO
extra virgin cold pressed olive oil)
6 large medjool dates, pitted
1 cup raisins (or a bit more)
optional: caraway seeds ( I used 3 oz in half of above recipe)
note: I also added 3/4 cup nutritional yeast to half of above recipe
and didn’t find it to make much difference in taste one way or the other,
but if you WANT the nutritional benefits from it in this bread,
it works just fine.
If you want to test flavors in half of the recipe make original recipe,
divide the batter, then add what you want to one of the bowls
(or as I did, when I had about half left in the one bowl)
Process the onions using a food processor into thin slices or use a
mandoline or you can do it by hand but they are best very thin
so a gadget often works best. Put sliced up onions into a large bowl.
Add the ground up flax seeds and sunflower seeds to the onions
in the bowl.
In a blender, blend the liquids (Nama Shoyu/Braggs/Tamari and
olive oil with the dates and the raisins until smooth. Pour liquid
over the rest of the ingredients in the bown and mix well until
you have a spreadable ‘batter’.
Use about 2 1/2 cups of this mixture per tray, lined with a
Teflex sheet. Spread evenly, keep about just under 1/4″ thick.
Start the dehydrator at 140 degrees, and turn down to 115
when warm to the touch. (If you can not be around to do it
this way, just set it at 115 or 120). In about 12-24 hours
when the top feels firm and dry, flip the tray onto another
tray that just has the mesh liner, not the teflex liner, and
peel off the teflex sheet.
Continue to dehydrate at 115
for approximately another 12 hours. It would be difficult
to ‘overdue’ this bread, the dates and raisins keep it flexible.
Cut into 9 equal pieces  (2 vertical cuts and 2 horizonthal cuts)
Store in baggies or sealed containers. This bread lasts for many months.
note: using dates and raisins does not impart a sweet taste to this
bread at all; what it does do is make it nice and flexible like,
well, bread. And the ’sweetness’ while you can’t taste it, adds
to the depth of the flavor of the bread as it now contains most
or all of the tastes, sweet, salty, bitter, pungent and sour.
note: this recipe is just  one of many hot tips and shortcuts (make this recipe
2-3 times a year for all your ‘bread’ needs) that my students learn in my
upcoming three month coaching course Your Raw Food Diet with Nomi-
*************************************************************
Best Of Raw that fabulous website where the public has a
chance to nominate then vote for their favorite raw vegan
everything is closing it’s nominating phase tomorrow
Dec 15th.
 
BEST OF RAW: TWO MORE DAYS TO NOMINATE!

 

 

Extended the nominations time to December 15!
So if you check the nominations page at www.bestofraw.net
and find some of your favorite raw foods people, places,
media and events missing from the list, please add them!

over the nominations to ensure they are valid, and once  the voting
form has been processed  and posted .

********************************************************************

Need a WOW Last Minute Gift?

 

Ceramic Tea Kettle

Joyce Chen Stove Top Ceramic Tea Kettle

Non-reactive glazed vessel won’t react with

water or give off a metallic taste that affects

the flavor of the tea itself


I have a limited number of these lovely tea kettles on hand.
Only 39.95, they are terrific for brewing herbal teas and
add to the kitchen decor! Shipped within the US only.
http://rawgourmet.com/ceramic-tea-kettle
 
For the Serious ‘Foodie’ in Your Life:
The Mandoline Plus:
 I use this for making perfect long slices of zucchini or eggplant
for lasagne and other tasty recipes. No machine or hand slicing
can do what this does (well, maybe one of those huge meat
slicers that you find at deli counters- the kind that slices balogna
and cheese, remember?)
Another feature I really like is the container that neatly catches the food.
What a pain in the neck it is to pick the newly sliced stuff up from the counter
or cutting board and move it to where you want it. Of course you can also use
it without the container. You can see me slice with the mandoline in my DVDs-
(without the container so you can see the beautiful job it does.)
Then there is the julienne feature. There are three simple attachments
that create jullienne slices from the thinnest imaginable (as thin as the
angel pasta that the saladacco makes, only not long), then there is what
I would call a generous matchstick size and finally a thin french fry size.
All very useful for a variety of recipes. $49.95 for your favorite foodie
http://rawgourmet.com/mandoline
You can find more gifts at a
20% discount here:
(saladacco spiral slicer (with fre’e paste eBook), Fresh Produce Guide,
Raw Gourmet DVDs, Raw Food Celebrations and a combo pack of
Raw Gourmet books at 35% off here:
Direct Link: http://www.aweber.com/archive/rawgourmet/11ANJ


Voting will go live in a couple weeks, once our advisers have gone

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Your Questions My Answers

By Nomi | Published: December 10, 2010
Q and A with The Raw Gourmet
Today’s topics:
  • concern about too much weight loss
  • soaking nuts and seeds
  • benefits of being gluten free
  • blenders
  • portion sizes
  • Blood type theory
  • Do we Need hot food in the winter
  • weight of equipment

note: there’s still some inventory left of the sale items, it’s not too late to buy your best buddy a discounted saladacco and add in the cool eBook (Raw Pasta!) I’m giving with each purchase as an added bonus and incentive:
http://www.aweber.com/archive/rawgourmet/11ANJ
We just got more Caroline’s Dream lavander and sandalwood cream in; this is a wonderful skin care product, I am sending some to both of my ‘girls’ for Christmas (my daughter laura and daughter in law Deborah)-they look forward to it every year. Check out the rest of the Carolines Dream items, they are all steeply discounted.
Q.
I am eating raw but am concerned about weight loss; which i see happening; how do i avoid this? thank you for your answer.- a. francis
I would like to go raw but am scared of losing weight as I am quite slim anyway! Pls help!! - Ceidre
A.
This is a common concern. One thing I’ve noticed a lot is that folks get their information from the internet or from one book or one person. Without having  a broad information base, I often see people eating what is really a cleansing/healing/detox diet and losing too much weight.
There are about as many ways to eat raw as there are people (which you will find out about in detail in early spring when my project “What Did YOU Eat Last Week” will be ready) -so if you want to ‘go raw’ and are already thin; there is really nothing to worry about at all.
Obviously under eating, eating too few calories, existing for a long time on juices only, etc are all going to result in rapid and drastic weight loss.
While I highly recommend a cleansing/healing/detox program at first to help your body rid itself of years of build up of toxins this is not the way you need to be eating ongoingly.
If you are currently too thin and want to stay raw the first thing I’d recommend is going on line to one of the many nutrition sites: nutritiondata.com, stayfit.com and figuring out how many calories you need to either maintain your current weight or to gain weight. Then count calories for a few days. Make yourself aware of foods that are higher in calories: nuts, seeds, nut butters, coconuts, coconut oil and butter, sprouted grain, a small amount of cooked foods such as baked yams and squashes, grains. Add these higher calorie, denser foods to your diet.
There is always my famous Vanilla Bliss recipe which contain raw tahini, a wonderful food that is alkalizing, high in good fat, good protein, and often a source of calcium. http://rawgourmet.com/recipes
Q.

Hi! My question is: Does soaking nuts and seeds change their protein and fat content? I heard that the protein increases and the fat decreases. Also, soaked nuts and seeds keep fresh only 2 days. Will freezing soaked nuts keep them longer?

- D. Reiswig
A.
Yes soaking changes nuts and seeds. It’s not that the protein actually increases, it’s that it starts to break down into more digestible amino acids and the fat into its components, the fat does decrease somewhat in what is carried away in the soaking water. Soaking washes off a naturally occurring enzyme that keeps the nut/seed from sprouting out of season, in quantity, this enzyme is toxic. That’s the main reason to soak nuts/seeds, the secondary reason is the nutritional profile improves.
You can keep soaked nuts/seeds in the refrigerator, soaking, and changing the soak water daily for up to five days then they must be used or discarded. Rather than freeze them (which you can do but they should be dried first) I recommend soaking then dehydrating your nuts/seeds, being very sure that they are very dry. Then they will keep indefinitely.

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