Thyme To Cook wins a Raw Food Recipe contest!

I'm proud to announce that I've won a raw food recipe contest!
I usually do not enter anything (I'm a party pooper)...

I entered my Raw Creamy Gazpacho into the Raw Food Naturals/Raw Way Bar raw recipe contest; the criteria was to use 3 in season produce items in a raw recipe.
Here is the link the announcement on FB: Yea for Gazpacho!

Here is the recipe I submitted:
Gazpacho
4 tomatoes, rough chopped
4 tomatillos, tough skin peeled off, rinsed and rough chopped
1 cucumber, peeled and seeded, then rough chopped
1/2 - 1 cup coconut water from young Thai coconut
1/2 cup packed coconut meat from young Thai coconut

1-2 garlic cloves
1/4 sweet onion, rough chopped

1 red pepper, rough chopped
1 handful cilantro
Juice of 1 lime
1 tsp Sea Salt

Garnish
Kernels from 1 ear of corn, removed from cob
1 jalapeno, minced
1/2 red pepper, finely diced
1/2 cucumber, peeled, seeded and finely diced

Technique
1. Place all ingredients for Gazpacho (tomatoes->salt) into a high speed blender or food processor and pulse to liquid texture. Give it a taste and correct seasoning if necessary.

2. Pour Gazpacho into a bowl and add the ingredients from the Garnish section (corn->cucumber) and stir them in.
3. Serve chilled or at room temperature.

That's it :) I chose this recipe for a couple reasons, with 1 being you don't need fancy equipment for it. It can be made in an ordinary blender, food processor or high speed blender. Secondly, it really uses the bounty of what's in season: tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, tomatillos, corn, jalapenos, onions, garlic, you get the idea....it can be made without the coconut water and meat as well. It just will be less creamy, but still excellent.

Try something raw today!!! :)

Raw Sesame Kale Salad

I love the late summer when kale becomes abundant...it lasts, and lasts and lasts long into the fall even winter...Last week I made a raw kale salad with arame and carrots and a sesame dressing. It was quite good.

The secret to eating kale in it's raw form is in the massage. Yup, the massage. You have to massage it, rubbing the leaves in between your fingers in order to soften up the texture and to release some of the moisture. I massage the kale with lemon juice and a pinch of salt. The acid of the lemon juice almost "cooks" the kale and the salt will draw out the moisture. You'll see that you can start out with a huge bowl of kale and after rubbing the leaves with the lemon juice and salt for just a couple minutes, the volume is drastically reduced to at least 1/2 the bowl.

So here's the recipe:
1 head of kale, cut into thin stips
2 carrots, grated
2 handfuls arame, soaked 20 minutes and rinsed
2 lemons, juiced and juice divided
2 TBS tahini, room temp
2 tsp unrefined sesame oil
2 TBS sesame seeds

Technique
Take your kale and put in a bowl. Pour juice of 1 lemon and a pinch of sea salt over the top. Mix the juice and salt into leaves and then start to rub the leaves between your fingers, massaging them for a couple minutes, until wilted.

Add in the carrots and soaked/rinsed arame then mix so all ingredients are incorporated.

To make dressing, whisk the room temperature tahini, sesame oil, juice of lemon and a pinch of sea salt until combined. If necessary, add a touch of warm water to thin out.
Pour over the kale mixture and combine to dress the salad.
Garnish with the sesame seeds.

I put some into romaine lettuce leaves and made little boats out of them.
So, try out the kale massage and see how you like it. It just might change your mind about eating kale in it's raw form. :)
Try some thing raw today!

Raw dehydrated corn tortillas

It's corn season!!! I belong to a CSA and I get 6-12 ears of corn each week. What to do with all that corn?!? Well, 1 thing you can do is make corn tortillas, or chips or tostadas or wraps....this recipe can do all of those. By varying dehydration time you can achieve the different textures.

First off though, the recipe....

Ingredients
4 ears corn or 4 cups corn kernels
2 small garlic cloves
1/3 sweet onion
1-2 cups water
2 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
handful cilantro - optional, nice addition
1/2 cup ground flax seed

What to do:
First off, if using fresh corn, remove the corn from the cob and put into high speed blender along with garlic, onion, water, salt, cumin, coriander and cilantro (if using). Blend ingredients until nice and smooth.

Add in flax and blend until flax is incorporated.


So now it's decision time about what you're going to make. To make tortillas or tostadas, pour out rounds onto the teflex dehydrator sheets. To make chips, pour out a big square, as big as the dehydrator sheet. For wraps, either do rounds or a couple large rectangles.
Put in the dehydrator at 105 degrees. For tortillas and wraps, set it for ~6hrs, then flip them and let it go for another 2-6hrs. For tostadas and chips, set the dehydrator for 8hrs, flip it, then let it go for another 8hrs or so.

Here are the tortillas at the half way point, before flipping.
After dehydrating for ~10 hrs.
All done :)
I used one of the tortillas to make a taco with a sunflower seed pate, pine nut cheese and sunflower sprouts.
Try something raw today!!
Sharon

Raw Carrot Cake Cookies

These raw cookies are delish! I developed the recipe so that I could use the carrot pulp from making carrot juice, as well as the almond meal from making almond milk. I always feel a bit guilty if I don't use up both, so this solves that problem.

The recipe is pretty basic and includes raw oats, dates, almond milk, carrot pulp, vanilla, a bit of salt, cinnamon and nutmeg.
First off, the raw oats need to be soaked overnight. When ready to use, place in food processor with dates and process. The mix should be pretty moist. If it isn't, then try adding a few drops of water.

After the oats and dates are combined, add in the almond meal and carrot pulp. Process to combine, then add the vanilla, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg, then process once more.

After processing everything together, you should have a nice soft, moist but not sticky dough to make into cookies.
I use a small scooper to scoop out the cookies for dehydrating. They are pretty small and around 50 fit on 1 Excalibur dehydrator sheet.
Dehydrate at 105 for approximately 8-10 hrs. The final cookie should be firm on the outside and soft on the inside.
Here is the recipe (with some crude measurements)
1 cup raw oats, soaked overnight, then drained and rinsed
1.5 cups dates, pits removed
1.5 cups almond meal (I used meal that was dehydrated and processed to a powder in the food processor)
1 cup carrot pulp from making carrot juice
1 TBS pure vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch fresh grated nutmeg
Pinch sea salt

See instructions above :)

Enjoy! Try something raw today!

Raw Blueberry Tart with Cashew Cream and Apricot Kernel Crust

It's the heart of blueberry season so I decided to make a blueberry tart. I used apricot kernels for the crust and a sweet cashew cream for the filling....

Have you tried apricot kernels? Basically, they are the inside of the pit of the apricot. Historically, they have not been consumed because they are known to have cyanide in them. However, you'd have to eat a whole bag of them to get cyanide poisoning. Apricot kernels are high in Vitamin B17, or Laetrile and are said to have a direct correlation to low incidence of cancer. Nutrition wise, they are packed with heart healthy fats.
For the entire tart, I used 1 cup and soaked them overnight. I then processed them with ~1 cup Medjool dates, cinnamon, juice of 1/2 a lemon and a pinch of Himalayan sea salt and pressed the dough into a tart pan (one with a removable bottom). I put it into the freezer to set up overnight.


For the filling, I used a basic cashew cream. The recipe is something like this:
1 cup cashews, soaked overnight
2-4 TBS coconut water
1/4-1/2 cup coconut meat
2 TBS agave syrup
1 TBS yacon syrup
1 tsp pure vanilla
pinch Himalayan or Celtic sea salt
Take all ingredients and blend together in a high speed blender....that's it.

After blending, I spread the cashew cream in the tart and let it set up for a bit in the freezer.

To finish the tart off you could really use any fruit. I used blueberries today because I happen to have a whole bunch from the farm. It's nice to take some time and arrange the fruit to look pretty...I just kind of dumped them on and spread them out...I was too hungry to take time and since the tart was just for me and my family (as opposed to being for family and friends), I didn't take too much care.

The tart is truly delicious. The creaminess of the filling and the sweetness of the crust rounded out by the earthy berries, mmmm, so delicious...and the best thing...this is raw! and dairy free! Amazing!


Enjoy! Try something raw today!
NOTE: This tart is best kept in the freezer...

Arame Salad with Miso Sesame Dressing

What is arame? Arame is a sea vegetable, a species of kelp that has a mild, sweet flavor and a nice firm texture. This sea veggie is a great one to start out with because it is so mild tasting. It is also quite easy to work with. All you need to do is soak it prior to use for about 20 minutes in cool water, then drain it and give it a good rinse. That's all the prep it needs.

I use Emerald Cove arame. They harvest their arame from the Ise peninsula in Japan. It grows about 20 ft below the low tide level and it is harvested and then sun dried. Here is the pkg so you know what to look for.


Dried arame:
Soaking the arame:
This is what the arame looks likt after it has soaked and been rinsed:
For the salad, I mixed the arame with grated carrots and sliced snap peas, though you could use any other green veggie, asparagus, green beans, broccoli...you get the idea.

I dressed the salad with a Miso Sesame dressing that is worth preparing, even if you're not interested in the arame salad. It is a great dressing for any salad really. For the dressing, to keep it raw, use an unpasturized miso such as Miso Master brand. The dressing also has sesame tahini in it so look for a raw brand such as Artisana. The dressing has some sesame oil in it, so again, to keep it raw, get an unrefined brand.
Miso Sesame Dressing (adapted from Raw Foods For Busy People 2, Green Magic, by Jordan Maerin)
Ingredients
1/4 cup water
2 TBS miso (@room temp)
2 TBS sesame tahini (@room temp)
1 TBS sesame oil
Juice of 1 lemon (original recipe called for using 2 tsp vinegar, but I like to use lemon instead)
Pinch fresh ground black pepper

Whisk all of the ingredients together in a bowl...it's that easy...
On to the salad.
Mix some of the Miso Sesame Dressing into the arame, carrot, snap pea mixture. I put down a bed of mixed greens and piled the arame salad in the middle, then added in sliced tomatoes and avocados. I topped with a drizzle of Miso Sesame dressing. Delicious...

Go ahead and give arame a try. It is sweet and yummy, not fishy tasting at all.
Try something raw today! Enjoy :)

Raw Chia Oat Energy Bars

Here is a recipe for a true energy bar that is packed with nutrition, and rivals any cooked and processed commercial energy bar out in the markets.
The bar is made with raw, sprouted oats, prunes, chia seeds, raw cacao powder, cacao nibs, pure vanilla and a pinch of Celtic sea salt.

Let's talk Chia first. The Chia seed or Salvia Hispanica is a mega energy food, packed with protein (it is a complete source of protein containing all essential amino acids), calcium, potassium, iron, antioxidants, fiber, and essential fatty acids (Omega 3 and Omega 6).
It is an ancient superfood, once a staple of the Incan, Mayan and Aztec cultures.

The Chia seed is extremely hydrophilic, meaning water loving, and can absorb 9-12x their weight in liquid; chia becomes gelatinous when mixed with liquid making it a good seed to use as a binder in raw bars, cookies and breads, to make puddings from, to add to smoothies and other drinks. It can also be ground up to make a chia "flour" to use in raw recipes as well.

There are a number of health benefits that can be reaped from eating chia seeds. These include weight loss, balancing of blood sugar, and intestinal regularity to name a few.

I use the chia seeds in this bar as a binder along with the prunes...so let's get to the recipe.

I soaked a cup of raw, sproutable oats overnight, and then to them added approximately 1 - 1.5 cups of pitted prunes to soak for about 30 minutes. I drained and rinsed the oats/prunes and processed them with the S-blade of my food processor. To that I added about 1/4 cup of chia seeds.
I also added in about 1/2 cup raw cacao powder, a pinch of Celtic sea salt and ~ 1 TBS vanilla. I chose not to add any other sweetener to this bar, though if you wanted it to be sweeter, you could add in 1/4 cup of a raw sweetener such as agave syrup or maple syrup. After processing all the ingredients together, I transferred them to a bowl.
To this, I hand mixed in about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of raw cacao nibs. That's it. Next you need to form the mix into bar format. The best way to do that is to spread it out in between wax paper with a rolling pin to a uniform thickness.

After you get it to a uniform thickness, place it in the fridge, wax paper and all, overnight, to allow the chia to absorb some of the liquid in the mix, and to firm the bar up. The next day, pull it, and cut into bars.
These bars will give you instant energy, I guarantee it. They are slightly sweet from the prune, chewy from the chia, and crunchy from the cacao nibs. I like to store them wrapped in wax paper, in the freezer.
Enjoy! Try something raw today!