Sesame & Fig Chai Milk

Courtesy of Kitchen Dispensary http://thekitchendispensary.wordpress.com/

Today is the Autumn equinox. Summer really feels like it’s gone now and the air is beginning to feel fresh and crisp. I just feel like donning a pair of unattractive slippers and sitting on the couch. So today we were thinking of Chai Tea and how delicious and warming the spices are, but we wanted to make a sesame milk version. This recipe has all the traditional Chai spices but not the caffeine, sugar and dairy that Chai usually has and you shouldn’t. This is a drink that will go down well with friends who are not raw because it’s just so tasty and if you don’t have figs on hand you could also substitute with dates. It’s perfectly autumnal.

Sesame & Fig Chai Milk

Serves 4-5

Ingredients

• 2 Cups Sesame Seeds
• 4 Cups Filtered or Spring Water
• 6 Dried Figs
• 2cm Piece of Fresh Ginger Root
• 1 Tsp Cinnamon Powder
• 1/2 Tsp Grated Nutmeg
• Seeds of 3 Cardamom Pods
• 1/2 tsp Ground Cloves
• 2 Tbsp Raw Manuka Honey

Method

1. Blend the sesame seeds, water, ginger and cardamom pods together in a high speed blender for at least a minute.
2. Strain and squeeze through a nut milk bag or piece of cheesecloth. Compost the sesame seed hulls and pour the milk back into the blender.
3. Add the remaining ingredients and blend for another minute. Feel free to adjust the spices to your personal taste.
4. Pour into short tumbler glasses and sprinkle with cinnamon. Serve with a cinnamon quill to use as a straw.

For a Chocolate Chai Milk simply add 1 -2 Tbsp of Raw Cacao Powder.

Making Seed and Nut Milks

Seed and Nut Milks are so easy to make. They are a great base for smoothies in place of dairy or soy. There are a number of videos on YouTube showing how to make the milk. This is a great demonstration by Karen Knowler. She uses almonds in this recipe which also make a delicious milk, I just use sesame seeds quite often as they are less expensive.

Not Milk

There are just so many health problems associated with dairy products. If you think about it we are the only species to drink milk as adults and we are the only species to drink the milk of another animal. It’s infant formula for cows, do you really think it’s going to be good for a human to drink? Cow’s are usually pumped so full of hormones and antibiotics which end up in their milk and eventually into the person who drinks it. Check out this interview with Robert Cohen, author of ‘Milk, The Deadly Poison’ about the dangers of dairy.

Thai Coleslaw

Courtesy of Gone Raw http://goneraw.com/

Servings: 4-6

You could make this with any kind of sauce you like. This sauce is "Thai" because it contains a lot of classic Thai flavors, but you could modify it to taste however you want!

Ingredients

• 2 zucchini
• 1 bunch carrots
• 1/2 cabbage (any kind you like!)
• A few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil (cold pressed is best)
• 1 bunch basil
• 1/2 bunch cilantro
• 1/2 bunch mint, stems removed
• 1/2 tsp thai chili sauce
• Sea salt to taste
• Juice of 1-2 limes
• 1/4 cup agave nectar
• Pepper to taste
• 1 cup raw peanuts
• 1 small piece ginger
• 1 small clove garlic

Instructions

1. Process the carrots and cabbage in the food processor until chopped and/or shredded.
2. Peel the zucchini into strands and set aside core/seeds for future use.
3. Chop herbs and add.
4. Blend dressing ingredients, dress and enjoy!

Mustard-Date-Herb Dressing

Courtesy of Gone Raw http://goneraw.com/

Servings: 1.5 cups

Ingredients:

• 3/4 c. water
• 2-3 dates
• optional clove of garlic
• optional pinch of pink salt
• 1 T. mustard (dijon or stoneground)
• 6-7 spinach leaves or collard leaf
• 2 T. basil
• 1/2 c. cilantro
• 1/2 c. parsley

Preparation:

1. Blend until smooth in a blender or Vita-Mix. Vita-Mix or a high-speed blender works best. Otherwise, you may want to soak the dates.
2. You can sub or add chives in as well.

Peach Pie

Courtesy of Gone Raw http://goneraw.com/
Servings: 6

Ingredients:

• 2 cups ground almonds
• 1 cup coconut flakes
• About 8 dates, soaked
• 2 cups dried apricots, soaked
• 1 banana
• 1 lemon
• Vanilla
• 3 tablespoons psyllium husks
• 4 - 5 peaches
• Mint (peppermint) leaves for decoration

Preparation:

1. For the crust: Blend the soaked dates without the water. Mix the ground almonds and the coconut flakes. Add the date paste to the almond-coconut "flour" and mix it with your hands to form a dough. Press dough into pie pan. Set aside, this allows the dough to get firm.
2. For the apricot layer: Blend the soaked apricots (without the water) with the banana, juice from about ½ lemon, and some vanilla. Stir in the psyllium husks. Set aside.
3. Topping: Peel the peaches and cut into slices. Sprinkle with juice from ½ lemon.
4. Assembly: Pour apricot puree evenly onto the crust. Put peach slices above. Decorate with mint leaves.
   

Notes:

* Can use any kind of nuts instead of the coconut flakes

* Can make the crust the day before, so that it gets firmer during the night

* It tastes good with cashew-coconut cream (you can see in on the picture)

Cashew Coconut Cream

Ingredients:

• 1-2 cups cashews (soaked)
• 2 young coconut (only the meat)
• 2 tablespoons agave
• ½ vanilla bean
• Some coconut oil
  

Preparation:

Blend the soaked cashews. Add the meat of the young coconuts and blend. Add some agave nectar, so that it gets sweeter but does not change colour! Add vanilla from about ½ vanilla bean. In order to get a firm consistency, add some (about 2 tablespoons) melted coconut oil. Put in fridge for at least one hour.

Notes:

- If it stays too liquid, you can add more coconut oil and put it into the fridge for a few more hours.

Creamy Cabbage Salad

Courtesy of Gitta's raw kitchen http://gittarawkitchen.blogspot.com
Ingrendients:

• 6 cups white cabbage chopped into little pieces
• 3 cups of sweet apple, chopped
• 1/2 cup onion chopped
• 1 pinch salt
• 1 pinch ground pepper
• 1 spoon lemmon juice
• 1/2 avocado

Preparation:
Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl, put the mashed avocado in, and it is ready. Enjoy!

Cauliflower Rice

Courtesy of Kitchen Dispensary http://thekitchendispensary.wordpress.com/

We’ve been getting a lot of Cauliflower in our organic vege box recently. It’s the poor cousin to broccoli who always gets picked first. So we have to come up with creative ways to let that cauli-wall-flower shine through. This cauliflower salad is reminiscent of stir fried rice. You basically just need a base of cauliflower and the sesame oil and tamari dressing, then you’re free to change up the other vegetables in this dish to make your own variations. Here’s the combination I whipped up the other night.

Ingredients

• 1 small head cauliflower
• 2 carrots
• 1 large stalk celery
• 1 stalk spring onion
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1/2 cup sprouted sunflower seeds
• 1 Tbsp tamari
• 2 Tbsp cold-pressed sesame oil
• Juice of 1 lemon

Method:

1. Chop the cauliflower into florets and place a few at a time into the food processor or blender. Pulse until it looks about the size of grains of rice and place in a large bowl.
2. Chop the carrots and do the same as with the cauliflower.
3. Dice the bell pepper, celery and spring onion and combine with the remaining ingredients in the bowl.
4. This should keep for a few days in the fridge.

Cauliflower is a member of club cruciferous, just like Kale, Broccoli and Cabbage. These types of vegetables promote liver detoxification and help to prevent cancer. The phytonutrients contained in Cauliflower tell your genes to make more of the enzymes that are involved in detoxification which is why cruciferous vegetables are shown to be more effective in fighting cancer. If that wasn’t enough, Cauliflower is also very high in Vitamin C, it has more than oranges. These facts, figures and more are available over at World’s Healthiest Foods.

Chocolate Stawberry Pie

Courtesy of Gone Raw http://goneraw.com/
Servings: 8-10

Ingredients:

Pie crust:

• 1 cup almonds, soaked
• 1 cup pecan nuts, soaked
• 1 1/2 cup dates
• 1/2 cup raw cocoa powder
• 1/3 cup raw cocoa nibs
• 1/2 cup dried coconut flakes
• 2 TBSP agave nectar
  

Filling:

• 3 cup strawberries (save a few for decoration)
• 2/3 ground cashew nuts or almonds
• Juice of 1 small lime or 1/2 lemon
• 2 to 4 TBSP agave nectar
  

Preparation:

Crust:

1. Put all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until the mixture sticks together, form into a crust in the tart pan.
   

Filling:

1. Mix the strawberries with your ground nuts adding some agave and lime/lemon juice. When nice but still a bit coarse pour over the crust and decorate wth some fresh strawberry slices. sprinkle gently with coconut flakes.
2. Leave in a freezer for about an hour before serving.

Cauliflower Curry

Courtesy of Kitchen Dispensary http://thekitchendispensary.wordpress.com/

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

Chinese Stir Not-Fry

Courtesy of Gone Raw http://goneraw.com/

Servings: 4-6

Ingredients:

• 1 head broccoli
• 1 head bok choy, trimmed and rinsed
• 1/2 head cabbage
• 1 or 2 handfuls of carrots
• 1 or 2 handfuls of snow peas
• 1 or 2 handfuls of mushrooms
  
• 1/2 tsp thai chili sauce
• Sea salt to taste
• Juice of 1 lemon
• A few tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil (cold pressed is best)
• Pepper to taste
• Oriental seasoning to taste
• 2-3 large splashes of Nama Shoyu (raw soy sauce)
• 1 cup raw sesame seeds
• 1/4 cup raw agave nectar
• 1 small piece ginger
• 1 small clove garlic

Preparation:

1. Process the carrots, broccoli, bok choy and cabbage in the food processor until chopped and/or shredded.
2. Chop the mushrooms and snow peas roughly.
3. Blend dressing ingredients, dress and enjoy! Optional garnish: sesame seeds!

Cabbage Salad With Mint

Courtesy of Gitta's raw kitchen http://gittarawkitchen.blogspot.com

Ingredients

• 4 cups of grated white cabbage
• 1 cup of grated carrot
• ½ cup of grated onion
• juice of a half lemon
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• pinch salt
• 1 tbsp agave syrup
• 1 bunch of mint leaves cut into little pieces

Preparation

Put all ingredients into a large bowl. Stir well, and it is ready.

You can eat it right from the bowl,

or you can make a tiny sandwich with crakers and lettuce leaves,