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The Raw Blog

Italian Dressing

By Nomi | Published: March 2, 2011

The Raw Gourmet Recipe Corner
Italian Dressing

This is a fresh tasting dressing with a nice balance between the tartness of the lemon and the sweetness of the red peppers. Taste the dressing before adding the maple syrup, as it may be to your liking without the syrup. This dressing goes well with any salad, but it is an especially fine match for a salad of assorted greens. (from The little Book of Raw Dressings eBook (http://rawgourmet.com/rawnot-naked-salad-dressings-ebook)

2 red peppers, chopped

3 stalks celery, peeled and chopped

1 small cucumber, peeled, coarsely chopped

2 garlic cloves, cut up

3 Tablespoons chopped parsley

1 lemon, peeled, seeded, and cut into chunks

4-6 Tablespoons flax oil (or more to taste)

2 Tablespoons chopped fresh basil, (or 1 teaspoon dried)

1 Tablespoon chopped fresh oregano, (1 teas. dried)

1 Tablespoon maple syrup (or equivalent Stevia, or dates)

½ teaspoon Nama Shoyu (soy sauce) or sea salt to taste

3 Tablespoons water or more for consistency

Blend, adding enough water to make the right consistency for  dressing. Yields approx. 3 cups.

note: you can also very finely chop ingredients then put in a bottle and shake vigorously.

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Marinated Mushrooms

By Nomi | Published: February 28, 2011

The Raw Gourmet Recipe Corner

This Yummy recipe was developed by me for my
book Raw Food Celebrations co-written with my
friend Sheryl Duruz. Sheryl wouldn’t touch a mushroom!
I had to convince her to put it in our book because she
was so averse.

People are funny about mushrooms, I’ve always
said people either love them or hate them, but now
in the raw food world there are many people who
feel they shouldn’t be eaten (Sheryl included).
On the other hand books have been written about
the healing properties of mushrooms.

I was horrified at the price of mushrooms around
the holidays. I had planned on making a huge amount
but when I went shopping for them I changed my
plans to something less expensive. The price has
gone down considerably. Supply and demand
I suppose.

Anyway…..I eat them occasionally. You can’t
tell these mushrooms have not been cooked
especially if you start marinating a couple of
days in advance.

I pair this recipe up with my Collard Greens ‘n’
Pot Likker and Sweet Potato Souffle; I’ve put
those recipes in this newsletter/blog in the past.
Very Raw Soul Food mix. Yum.

Marinated Mushrooms

A ‘Make-ahead’ recipe

From Raw Food Celebrations by Shannon and Duruz

Serves 8-10

Prepare 1-4 days in advance. Keep tightly covered in
the refrigerator, and toss once a day. If making it the
same day it’s being served, allow it to marinate at least
two hours at room temperature and toss the
ingredients often.

8 Portabella mushrooms

½ cup olive oil

2 green onions, thinly sliced

¼ cup fresh minced parsley

3 Tablespoons lemon juice or apple cider vinegar

2 Tablespoons finely minced onion

1 Tablespoon Nama Shoyu

2 clove garlic, finely minced

1 teaspoon sea salt

Remove the stems and gills from mushrooms. Wipe clean.
Thinly slice. Place all remaining ingredients in a shallow
bowl, add the mushroom slices and toss until evenly
coated. Let marinate at room temperature for one
hour. Cover and refrigerate, tossing occasionally.
Bring to room temperature before serving.

Note: mushroom gills can be easily removed with
the tip of a teaspoon

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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.

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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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Nomi’s Version of Onion Bread

By Nomi | Published: December 28, 2010

This makes 3-4 Teflex lined trays of bread, each tray yields 9 generous sized pieces, approximately the size of a piece of fluffy white Wonder Bread 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 Shoyu plus water to equal ½ cup  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)

Directions

Process the onions in a food processor into thin slices or use a mandolin 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.

Place ground up flax and ground up sunflower in bowl with onions.

Blend the Nama Shoyu/Braggs, olive oil and the dates and raisins until well blended, you are looking for a smooth consistency.

Pour this mixture over the rest of the ingredients in the bowl. Mix well until the ingredients are thoroughly combined.

Use about 2 1/2 cups of this mixture per tray, lined with a Teflex sheet. Spread evenly; keep about just less than 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 horizontal 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- http://yourrawfooddiet.com

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