The chronicles of adding raw food to my diet

On this blog, I'll post about the transition to a more raw food based diet. Check back often for posts on raw foods that I'm eating!

Thursday, June 10, 2010

Raw Portobello "Parmesan"

Hands down, this is the best raw food I have prepared to date.
Using the raw marinara that I blogged about here, and a cashew "cream", I stuffed portobellos and dehydrated them. The result was a melt in your mouth, delicious, velvety, yet savory and filling dish.

Let's talk about the cashew cream. The recipe came from an amazing blog, called Rawmazing. The recipe that follows is my adaptation:
Cashew Cream
1 cup cashews, soaked until soft, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup young coconut meat
2-3 TBS young coconut water (I actually used a bit more than this)
1 small garlic clove (I used only 1/2 a clove since I find garlic can easily overpower a raw recipe)
Pinch Celtic Sea Salt
Pinch of fresh ground black pepper
2-3 TBS fresh chopped cilantro (You can use any herb that you like)

To prepare, simply put all ingredients except cilantro in a high speed blender and blend until a smooth consistency is achieved. Stir in the fresh herbs and check your seasoning; adjust accordingly.
Cashews are a great nut to make creamy sauces out of, including ice creams! That is for another blog...

Next you need to prepare the portobellos. Remove the stem and then use a small spoon to gently scrape out the gills. Once the gills are cleaned out, drizzle a bit of extra virgin olive oil across the area where the gills were, and season with Celtic sea salt and pepper.
Now, layer in your sauces, first the raw marinara, then the cashew cream.

That's it. The portobellos are ready to go into the dehydrator. I chose not to use a Teflex sheet, but rather put the portobellos on the screen instead. I dehydrated them at 105 for ~8 hrs.
The portobellos softened up beautifully, and the marinara and cream sauces both firmed up a bit, creating a pleasing texture. The taste was off the hook.
I enjoyed them so much that I wanted, no strike that, I NEEDED to make more! I didn't have any more portobellos, but I did have a zucchini, so I decided to try it with that. I added on a sprinkle of nutritional yeast as well, and dehydrated it at 105 for ~8 hrs. Here is a pic, prior to dehydrating:
Delicious....I have another batch of portobellos in the dehydrator as I type. DO TRY THIS AT HOME!!!!
:) Eat something raw today!

3 comments:

  1. THAT SOUNDS REALLY YUMMY! I make a portobello mushroom pizza that is over the top...but this is a really nice change!!

    Thanks for sharing!

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  2. This looks awesome. I am just starting raw foods and looking for recipes. But due to candida, staying away from mushrooms and brewers yeast. The zucchini should work great though.

    I am doing a Raw Food Walk Across America starting 8-1-10 and looking for good travel recipes. I'll check out your others.

    Would you like to be a guest blogger on my site?
    http://www.walkraw.com

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  3. Thanks everyone.
    rawfoodwalkacrossamerica - thanks so much! I'd love to guest blog for you. Please email me at sharon@thyme-to-cook.com. Great website - I'm intrigued by your quest.
    :) sharon

    ReplyDelete