The Lunch Bunch: Red Cabbage Tacos

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Red cabbage is one of my favourite leaves to use as a wrap. It looks amazing, it’s crunchy and you can fit a lot into one leaf. It’s really one of the things we raw foodies use as a bread substitute. The ingredients below are pretty much what I had in the fridge today. You could just as easily use things like cucumbers, tomatoes, sprouts or leftover salad. Whatever takes your fancy.

Makes 5

Ingredients

• 5 smallish red cabbage leaves
• 2 medium sized carrots
• 1/4 avocado
• 1-2 tsp lemon juice
• about 8 stalks of fresh chives
• Greens of your choice (I used a mix of spinach, chard and lettuces)
• Dulse flakes (Karengo Seaweed) for saltiness

Preparation

1. Finely grate the carrot. If you have a fine grater like one usually used for parmesean you will get more juicy flavour from the carrot.
2. Mash in the avocado, lemon juice and finely chopped chives. Add a little himalayan or sea salt if you wish.
3. Take a red cabbage leaf and fill with a few green leaves of your choice and top with some of the carrot avocado mixture.
4. Top with some dulse (karengo) and a few chopped chives.

Blueberry & Banana Icecream

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This is a delicious alternative to the heavy nut based raw icecreams and it’s super quick and easy to make if you keep some bananas on hand in the freezer. The riper the bananas the sweeter it will be.

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup frozen organic blueberries
• 1 frozen organic banana
• 1/2 organic avocado
• 1 tbsp organic raw agave nectar
• a splash of filtered or spring water

Method

1. Put everything apart from the water into a blender or food processor and blend until smooth. If it’s not moving just add a little water to get it going.
2. Either eat it right away for soft serve or if you are patient enough freeze for about hour then whisk with a fork before serving. Yum!

TIP: Peeling and chopping your bananas before freezing makes life much easier. Peeling frozen bananas is a surefire way to get a bad case of finger frostbite.

Green Curry Soup

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A lot of raw vegans find it difficult to keep warm in the colder months. This soup uses a lot of warming spices to heat you up from the depths of your belly. I made it in the middle of a hailstorm, parked myself by the heater and got toastie.

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups filtered or spring water
• 1 cup tightly packed chopped spinach
• 1 cup chopped broccoli stalks
• 1/2 cup chopped leeks
• 1 avocado
• 1 carrot
• 4 – 6 soaked sundried tomatoes
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tbsp miso paste
• 1 tsp himalayan or celtic sea salt
• 1 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 tbsp cumin
• 2 tsp tumeric
• 1 tbsp tamari or nama shoyu
• 1/2 – 1 tsp cayenne pepper

Method

1. Blend the water, spinach, broccoli and leeks in a blender until smooth.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and blend again until smooth. You can adjust the spices to taste.
3. This can be served chilled in the summer or in winter it’s nice to warm it up a little. You can warm it either in the dehydrator for about an hour, or it can be warmed on the stove. If you are warming it on the stove, to preserve the enzymes, keep it on the lowest heat, stir constantly and make sure it doesn’t go over body temperature by dipping your finger in. It should be just warm, not steaming hot.
4. Sprinkle with cayenne pepper, flaxseed oil and top with some crunchy kale chips.

Blueberry & Banana Pudding

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I made this for my flatmates last night to eat while we watched a movie. It’s really easy if you keep chopped frozen bananas in the freezer and have a jar of buckwheaties on hand. It probably took 10 minutes to whip up.

Ingredients

• 2 frozen bananas (chopped)
• 1 cup frozen blueberries
• 1 small avocado
• 1 tbsp honey, agave or a couple of dates (whichever you prefer)
• 1/2 cup dried coconut
• 1/2 cup buckwheaties

Method

Pudding:

1. Place the chopped frozen banana, avocado, blueberries and your sweetener of choice into a food processor or high speed blender and blend until smooth.
2. Spoon into bowls and sprinkle with coconut and buckwheaties for a bit of crunch!

Buckwheaties:

1. Soak whole buckwheat groats in water for about 8 hrs.
2. Use a sieve to drain and thoroughly rinse the buckwheat.
3. Spread the buckwheat over mesh dehydrator tray and dehydrate 8-12hrs or until fully dry and crunchy.
4. Another optional extra is to add cinnamon and honey, maple syrup or agave nectar before dehydrating.

Cauliflower Curry

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This is a really easy and versatile curry. You can have it on it’s own, with crackers and so many other ways and all the spices are really warming so it’s great if you’re feeling the cold.

Cauliflower Curry

Ingredients

• 2 Cups Chopped Cauliflower
• 1 Medium Carrot, Chopped
• 6 Soaked Sundried Tomatoes
• 1/2 Avocado
• 1/2 Onion, Chopped
• 1 cm Piece of Ginger
• 1 Tsp Tumeric
• 2 Tsp Ground Cumin
• 1/2 Tsp Cayenne Pepper
• 1/2 Cup Dried Coconut
• 1 Tbsp Flaxseed
• 1 Cup Rejuvelac or Water
  

Serving options: Cucumber, alfalfa sprouts or rice paper (not raw)

Method

Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend until it is finely chopped and well combined.

Serve in a bowl topped with alfalfa sprouts, on cucumber rounds or if you are not 100% raw try it wrapped in rice paper with alfalfa. It would also work well rolled in a large leafy green with other vegetables or on flax crackers. It’s up to you.

On cucumber slices with parsley

Wrapped in rice paper with alfalfa