VeganMoFo: OBR Week – Choosing Raw

November 12, 2010 at 7:56 pm · Filed under Food, vegan ·Tagged beets, chia seeds, dessert, Food, kale, other blogger's recipes, pudding, ravioli, raw, root vegetables, salad, vegan, VeganMoFo

My last (but not least) stop for OBR week is Gena of Choosing Raw.  Gena eats and blogs about what some might consider a “high raw” diet, with lots of raw foods and a good measure of cooked, healthy, whole foods.  I really like Gena’s approach to nutrition and health – In fact, just today she expounded on her personal balance between raw and cooked foods.  She is a Certified Clinical Nutritionist, and she really knows her stuff.  While most of Gena’s posts are about food, she’s not afraid to write in-depth about her thoughts on vegan lifestyle, ethics and nutrition.

For my meal to really reflect the Choosing Raw philosophy, of course it had to be mostly raw!  I chose two recipes from Gena’s Autumn Dinner Party post, her Kale Salad with Red Cabbage and Carrots, and Beet “Ravioli” Stuffed with Sweet Root Vegetable Mash.  For dessert, I whipped up Basic Chia Seed Pudding.

First, the kale salad.  I would happily eat kale massaged with only olive oil and salt, so this was a step up in the world of kale salad for me.  The shredded carrot and red cabbage gave the salad a great crunch, while the smooshed up avocado made it all creamy and wonderful.  My only very minor complaint might be that it was a little too lemony for me, so next time I would 3 Tbs of lemon juice instead of 1/4 cup.  Surprisingly, this salad kept really well in the fridge for a few days.

Bad picture of good beet ravioli.  I was concerned that the filling would turn out too sweet, with sweet potato, agave nectar and cinnamon, but the turnip, coconut oil and dijon mustard kept the puree firmly in the savory world.  I had to add a bit of vegetable broth to get the mixture smooth, and it was still thick enough to sandwich between the beet slices.  While these ravioli were a little sloppy to eat, they were really delicious.  I ate some of the filling this way, some by itself, and some mixed in with oat bran for breakfast.

Raw-ish lunch, gettin’ cozy by the fire.

I was feeling very lazy the day I made this, so I ate the chia seed pudding out of the measuring cup I mixed it in.  I already loved chia seeds, so Gena didn’t need to convince me!  The pudding is easy to make; you just mix it all together and whisk every once in a while so that the seeds don’t clump.  My pudding tasted a little bitter, possibly due to the combination of stevia and vanilla extract, but it was still good.  Next time I would use agave nectar or maple syrup instead of the stevia, and maybe add some cocoa or pumpkin or something else extra.

Next week is Vegetarian Times week!  I’m hard at work preparing recipes from the last five years of Vegetarian Times.  Have a good weekend!

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