So you’re trying to eat more raw foods – which is awesome! Incorporating living foods into your diet is one of the easiest ways to increase nutrients and displace less desirables. It’s great for energy, clarity, and best of all it’s deliciously satisfying in a way that only truly nutritious food can be.

But, it’s often a hard sell for unenthusiastic partners, disinterested housemates, or ever-so-picky kids. And that’s why so many aspiring raw foodists end up quitting – it’s just so hard to make 2 entirely separate meals all the time!

But that’s what the ‘RAW 101′ series is all about: Raw recipes that easily assimilate into a cooked meal. And we’re starting off with one of the most important and fundamental raw techniques. Zucchini noodles!





The fancy-pants raw gourmands use a spiralizer to craft the most perfect pasta replicates. Someday I’ll have one too, but until then I’ll carve my noodles the old fashioned, low budget way – and you can too! Don’t let a lack of glitzy gizmos ever stop you from eating raw. You don’t *need* any of that stuff!

If you’ve got a potato peeler then you’re good to go. Simply wash your zucchini (I’ve used extra large green and yellow variaties in these photos) and begin peeling, being careful to keep each strip as long as possible. Rotate the zucchini as you peel.








Once the entire zucchini is peeled into pieces you have two choices. If you want, you can use a knife to slice the noodles skinny, more like a spaghetti. This can be pretty time-consuming, but makes for a more elegant presentation.







Me? I tend to leave my noodles alone. I prefer them wide and flat, more like a fettuccine.





Okay, now you’ve got your noodles, so what are you going to do with them?! Here I present three options: three RAW sauces that work equally well on cooked ‘real’ pasta. (I toss the sauce in the hot fresh pasta, which heats the sauce up.) No really, I promise – these are husband approved!


#1 – RAW Pesto

Ingredients:
a large bunch of basil – about 3 cups packed
3/4 – 1 cup walnuts
1/3 – 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup nutritional yeast
2-5 cloves garlic
s + p to taste

Instructions:
Put everything in a food processor and blend until smoothish. This recipe is very forgiving so feel free to adjust all flavors to taste. You can use arugula, spinach, or cilantro in place of the basil, and pine nuts or sunflower seeds in place of the walnuts, but each of these will change the flavor. The nooch is important though!





Garnish with fresh diced roma tomatoes or a handfull of hemp hearts. Sprinkle with extra nooch for more of a cheesy/parmesan-y flavor.

Whole wheat penne pesto, left, and zucchini with Raw Pesto, right.

#2 – RAW Puttanesca

Ingredients:
4 cups chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup halved kalamata olives
1/4 cup diced white or yellow onion
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons capers + 1 tablespoon caper brine
2 tablespoon fresh herbs, like oregano, thyme, marjoram, basil, etc
1 teaspoon – 1 tablespoon red pepper flakes (traditionally, puttanesca *should* have quite a kick to it)
2-5 cloves garlic, crushed
s + p to taste

Instructions:
Mix all ingredients in a big bowl, cover, and refrigerate. Allow to marinate at least 1 hour but ideally for 4+ hours. This is best when made in the morning to be served that night.





Puttanesca is traditionally served over spagetti and garnished with fresh parsley.

Spagetti alla puttanesca, left, and zucchini tossed in Raw Puttanesca, right.

#3 – RAW Vodka Sauce

Ingredients:
2 cups chopped tomatoes
1/2 cup cashews, soaked
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
12 sundried tomato halves – actually dry, NOT oil packed
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon dry Italian herbs OR 1 tablespoon fresh Italian herbs – oregano, thyme, marjoram, basil, etc
1/4 teaspoon salt
2-4 cloves garlic
juice of half a lemon

Instructions:
Place everything in a blender or food processor and blend until very smooth. Try not to make a huge mess of it, like I did.





These pictures just don’t do it justice, but this is both Damian and my favorite sauce. I could seriously eat this stuff with a spoon. Okay, I did seriously eat this stuff with a spoon.

Spagetti and vodka sauce, left, and zucchini with Raw Vodka, right.

Enjoy! Happy RAW adventures!

Summer is in full bloom and it’s brought along the most beautiful bounty. My kitchen is so full of color and life, I can’t help but photograph it! So here’s a little ‘food porn’, haha, from me to you. Enjoy!

Big Ass Salad (BAS). I’ve been eating *lots* of these! This one featured [organic] crispy crunchy romaine, cucumbers, radishes, red onions, red bells, avocados, carrots, chia seeds, and hemp hearts – tossed in lemon juice, garlic, and olive oil.

Raw Wraps! Stuffed with sunflower seed paté, cucumber, carrot, leeks, and avocados, served with a turmeric tahini dip.

Cinnamon Rolls. I made these for Damian’s first father’s day, and they were very much enjoyed by both him and my father-in-law. I didn’t actually have any, but I’ve made the recipe before and can attest that they are maybe the most delicious, and most naughtiest, breakfast food on the planet. =)

Strawberries! I growed these myself, ain’t they cute? I think this handful went straight into my blender (before I realized Waits reacts to them).

Wakame seaweed salad. This puppy packs something like 50% of my RDA for iron, and about 25% for calcium. I like it with sesame oil, lemon juice, sesame seeds, crispy cucumber, slivered onion, and a side of avocado slices. Mmm delicious!

Black bean and quinoa salad, with onion, tomato, avocado, black olives, and plenty of homegrown cilantro. This is a summer staple, and SO GOOD. Damian scoops it up on organic corn chips; I use it as filling for raw cabbage leaf ‘tacos’.

Remember when I showed you all the cherries that Damian harvested from our tree? Well, this is what I did with them!

For Damian I baked miniature cherry pies. How friggin’ cute is that??!

For myself I made raw chocolate cherry tartlets. Oh. My. God.

Plant Blood! For this veg*n vampire, muahaha. Cucumber-cilantro-celery-watermelon, plus the watermelon rinds (which are really good for you!) My first homemade green juice! Also, can you find my family hiding in this pic? ;-)

Damian bought me a raspberry bush for my first mother’s day. Isn’t that so sweet? This is the first teeny harvest. Harley was very interested . . .

My first batch of kimchi fermenting on the counter. Success! I’ll post a tutorial soon, this stuff is so amazing and crazy good for you!

Raw sushi! With chunky almond paté in place of rice, filled with cucumber, avocado, and red bell pepper. Served with kimchee (store bought).

‘Peanut Butter & Jelly’ green (pink?) smoothie. Such a treat!

This was an amazing farmer’s market stir fry, sublimely simple with sesame, tamari, garlic, and ginger. Featuring snap peas, sweet onions, tempeh, and shiitaki mushrooms. We eat this weekly these days – just had a variation tonight!

I honored the first peaches of the season in this raw tart. The peaches sit on a bed of vanilla cashew cream and are garnished with fresh berries and a generous dollop of raspberry cashew cream. Um, yeah. AMAZING

I’ve been so inspired around food lately, just loving this delicious, health-giving, high-raw fare. I’m coming up on my 2 year Veganniversary, and I’m really feeling so grateful and so delighted to be veg*n! To explore and enjoy such diverse plant-based cuisine, it’s so powerful! Such a positive force in a mindful life.

So what about you? What foods have you been enjoying lately?

Last year I embarked on my very first solo canning projects, and the first recipe I made was a simple plum syrup. I have this huge and bountiful plum tree, you see, so it only made sense. But there was something ‘not quite right’ about the flavor. I couldn’t figure it out until I did a bit of research. Apparently, the ‘problem’ was that I was growing Italian pruning plums. Score!

I love prunes. Love love love them! So this was an awesome revelation. I couldn’t wait to try my hand at pruning!




Pruning is actually reeeeally easy. It goes something like this:
Halve
Pit
Set
Wait

Seriously. It’s that easy.

Start with slightly under-ripe fruit. Not totally under-ripe – not hard and green – but not soft and sugared either. They’re going to sweeten up a lot as they dry, so you need them to start out on the tart side.

Wash the fruit and cut each plum in half. Remove the pits and throw them away (you cannot compost these, so sad).

Spread the fruit out on dehydrator trays and load up the machine. Dehydrate between 105-115º for roughly 24 hours, or until prunes are shriveled and darkened.




Alternately, prunes can be made in an oven by placing the fruit on baking trays and roasting at the lowest possible setting. Leave the oven door open a crack and set up a portable fan to circulate the air. This is not so energy efficient, but it will get the job done.

And that’s all there is to it! Store your prunes in an airtight container in the fridge. And enjoy!

Oh holy goodness you guys, these are seriously addictive.

I came across the concept a few months back when I went RAW. Kale chips are sort of ‘trending’ around the RAW food community right now. And although I could buy a local version around town, I was [of course!] determined to make my own. And I did – with my good friend Katie who has an Excalibur dehydrator (*swoon*). Remember this pic?

That’s our first batch of kale chips! They were amazing, gobbled up and gone within days, and bookmarked in the back of my brain for further tinkering. I was waiting to acquire a dehydrator of my own, which . . . sort of hasn’t happened yet.

And then last week, I just couldn’t wait any longer! I mean sure, RAW food is great and all. But these are still so good for you, whether they’re cooked or not! Kale is overflowing with calcium, lutein, iron, and vitamins A, C, and K, plus beneficial phytochemicals and antioxidants. Tahini is rich in calcium, protein, vitamin E and the B vitamins, as well as essential fatty acids. And nutritional yeast is like the vegan dream food – it’s high in protein and has B vitamins including B12, as well as folic acid and zinc. So what was I waiting for?!

***As a note, my friend Katie and I just couldn’t get enough of these. Like, it’s really hard to stop eating them. BUT, my husband can’t stand them, so maybe they’re not for everyone? Just a heads-up.

Smokey BBQ Kale Chips

Adapted from renegadehealth.

Ingredients:

2 big bunches of kale

1/2 cup tahini

1/4 cup tamari

1/4 cup apple cider vinegar

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

2 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon onion powder

2 teaspoons BBQ spice – your favorite blend

a couple drops of liquid smoke (to taste)

water to thin as needed

Instructions:

Rinse, de-rib, and rough tear the kale into a giant bowl.

Put all of the other ingredients into a food processor or blender and mix until smooth.

Pour the mixture over the kale, and use your hands to toss it all together. Squish Squish! Get it good and covered.

Spread the kale out evenly on lined or oiled cookie sheets, glass platters, or whatever works. I think I did a cookie sheet, 2 casserole dishes, and a glass pie ‘pan’. You only want one layer of kale, so it’s going to cover a lot of space.

Now the ‘cooking’. You want this to be as ‘dehydrated’ as possible, instead of baked. Ideally, you could put your oven on the lowest setting when you’d be home for 6-8 hours or so (please don’t do this overnight, okay guys?). Otherwise, just decrease the cook time as you increase the temperature. I think I did mine at about 250º for 4 hours (ish). Every oven is different so you’ll need keep an eye on it and be your own judge. Just remember that too much heat will change the flavor. Crispy, but not crunchy. Don’t overcook them!

I promise this is easier than it sounds. It’s intuitive, and you’ll know when they’re close by what they look and smell like. Just try not to eat them all in one sitting!

Kombucha, that magical mysterious elixir, is actually quite easy to produce with a bit of kitchen chemistry. I wrote about Kombucha a few weeks back, after I’d finished my first batch. And as promised in that article, here’s your step-by-step guide to home brewing.

What You’ll Need:

• A living SCOBY + some starter tea
• A large *glass* jar (no metal, no ceramic, no plastic, etc) with a wide opening (a standard 1-gallon jar, as shown at right, is best)
• Sugar
• Caffeinated tea
• A very clean cloth + a rubber band
• A steel pot and a big metal stir spoon

Prep Work

• Most likely, the hardest part will be getting your hands on a SCOBY. You’ll just have to be creative and snoop around your city for a source. I suggest starting with Craigslist or googling ‘[your city] kombucha’. You can also try poking around your local co-op or health food store – and check the bulletin board.
• Once you’ve secured a SCOBY (and it’s alive, floating in some starter tea), you’re on your way. Make sure your workspace is clean and at least semi-sterile. Gather and clean your tools (see above).
• This is a long process, so set your schedule accordingly. Brewing is a good Sunday project; you can have it going while you’re gardening or cleaning or laying around naked with your sweetheart.

How To Brew

1)  In a large, stainless steel (non-teflon or other weird material) stock pot, boil 1 gallon of water. Keep it at a full boil for at least 10 minutes.

2)  Remove the pot from heat and add 1 1/4 cups sugar, stirring with a metal (non-plastic, non-wood) spoon. I use organic evaporated cane juice instead of white sugar. DO NOT substitute agave, honey, Splenda™, or any other sweetener. 

3)  Add the tea. Any kind, as long as it’s caffeinated. This will determine the final flavor, so if you use a cranberry green tea, you’ll get a cranberry-ish flavored kombucha. I usually use organic plain green or black tea bags. You can use bagged or loose tea, but if you use looseleaf make sure it’s in a fine-meshed infuser. You don’t want any tea leaves floating about! 

4)  Steep the tea for about 4 hours, allowing the water to cool and the tea to get nice and strong. Go ahead and garden or clean or or lay around naked. When the tea is good and strong (many hours later), take out the tea bags/infuser.  

5)  Double check that your widemouth glass jar is very clean, and then pour in the gallon of sweetened tea. A funnel can really help with this.

DON’T USE ANY METAL BEYOND THIS POINT

Metal reacts poorly with the kombucha culture. It’s not a good thing.

6)  Wash your hands thoroughly before handling the SCOBY.

7)  Open your SCOBY + starter  container, and pour the starter into the widemouth jar. There may be gooey strings or giblets – that’s just SCOBY stuff, and it’s fine.

8)  Fish out your SCOBY. Admire it’s alien oddity. Blow it a kiss. Give it a name (mine is Scoby-Doo). Notice that there’s a ’smooth side’ that is lighter, and the other side is darker. The slimy dark stuff is yeast. You’ll also notice that familiar, uniquely komucha-esque odor!

9)  Now carefully slide your SCOBY into the widemouth jar, smooth-side up.  It may sink, which is okay, but it will probably float.  

10)  Place the clean cloth over the top of the jar, pulling it taught and securing with a rubber band. Now you just need to tuck that sucker away for 2-3 weeks. It prefers a warm dark spot, like in a cupboard or closet. It does not like drafts or sunlight, so don’t brew your kombucha on a window sill!

11)  Adjust the brew time for your taste preference. The warmer it is, the faster it will brew. The more caffeinated it is, the faster it will brew. The longer you let it brew, the stronger and less sweet it will be. I like less sugar, so I ferment for at least 3 weeks. It’s not recommended that you brew a batch longer than a month.

— weeks later —

12)  First, you’ll need to remove the SCOBY. Every time you brew, the ‘mother’ (the original SCOBY)  grows a ‘baby’ (a new SCOBY). These names are misleading because the two are identical in every way, indistinguishable from one another. They’ll be stacked together, like two pancakes. You can either leave them be and keep on going with a double-thick SCOBY, or you can carefully separate them. If you do take them apart, each one can brew its own batch. Then you can stagger your batches for constant kombucha flow! Remember: each time you brew, the mother makes a baby.

13)  You’ll need a jar to hold your SCOBY while you’re not brewing.  Make sure the jar has a plastic (non-metal) lid.  With very clean hands, fish your SCOBY out of the widemouth jar and fold it into the storage jar. Then add enough of the new brew to completely cover it.  This is your starter tea for next time.  Store the SCOBY + starter tea in the refrigerator, indefinitely.

14)  Portion out your brewed kombucha into smaller storage containers.  I save glass bottles with plastic lids just for this purpose.  Store the tea in the fridge for up to 6 weeks.

15)  Drink!  Experiment!  Enjoy!

Notes on Safety

• Wash your hands, wash your hands, wash your hands.
• Sometimes a culture will become contaminated.  It happens!  If your SCOBY shows anything resembling mold, TOSS IT!  If your brewed kombucha comes out smelling funny, TOSS IT!  If your kombucha ends up tasting funny, TOSS IT!  Remember, there’s only a porous rag separating your fermenting sugar water from any and all airborne bugs.  Contamination can happen, so be wise and play it ‘better safe than sorry’, okay?
• If you want to add fruit juice to your kombucha, do it after you’ve brewed.  DO NOT add fruit juice before fermentation.
• Don’t use bleach on any of your kombucha-making equipment. Vinegar is a great cleanser. The dishwasher (with a mild detergent) is also okay.
• Listen to your body!  Start by drinking a little at a time.  Home brew is A LOT stronger than the store bought stuff, and the B-vitamins can get you quite heady. So take it slow and listen to your body!

Close-up during the brewing process - you can see it bubbling away!

***DISCLAIMER – My dears, I cannot be held responsible for what you do with this information.  So please, use your big beautiful brains, and be thoughtful and be careful.***

I know there’s been a ton of interest out there, so I can’t wait to hear how this works for you guys. Make sure to report back! And LUCK!