The eclectic learner

Another nutritious soup for my collection. Velvety vegetable soup Ingredients for 2-3 small bowls: 1 avocado, chopped, pitted 1 cup zucchini, chopped 1 cup cooked sweet peas 1/2 cup basil, shredded 1 cup kale or spinach  some olive oil to taste a bit of soy sauce or a dash of salt 1 tsp dried onion 2 cloves garlic, crushed (slightly cooked is better) 1 dash sage and onion a bit of chili powder 1 vegetable stock cube (Swiss bouillon) hot water Preparation: put everything in the blender and then slighty warm up to let the taste mix up nicely. You can cook it as well by keeping the temperature at 40C. Taste it often while mixing up and add your favourite flavours - it may be a bit bitter.

Guys, this is a quick and easy recipe! Pineapple crisps Ingredients: a fresh pineapple, sliced  or 1 canned pineapple with the juice Preparation Blend the pineapple in the smoothy maker. Pour into a non-stick sheet in the dehydrator and set to dry at medium temperature for 7.5 hours.  Check: if you want a roll up stop dehydrating when the fruit leather is  soft, if you want it crisp and crunchy as in the photo above keep dehydrating until you achieve the desired crispiness. Cut into shapes using scissors when it's still pliable. So yummy…so easy.

Raw zucchini pasta This a well-known recipe among raw food enthusiasts. If you have a spiral slicer to obtain "spaghetti" go ahead and use it. Otherwise, happy slicing! You can also use a mandolin slicer. Years after posting this recipe I found a good link so I'm adding it! http://www.insonnetskitchen.com/how-to-make-zucchini-pasta-with-a-mandoline-slicer/ All you need to do is prepare your favourite sauce and mix it over the sliced zucchini. Be careful not to end up with watery zucchini... I had two versions: my usual Italian tomato sauce with canned tomatoes, garlic, spring onion, chili pepper, basil and a dash of salt, and a "pesto" sauce with pine nuts, lots of basil, extra-virgin olive oil and crushed garlic. We liked both dishes. 

Another recipe I tried today! Heavenly blackberry sorbet Blend in the smoothie maker the following ingredients: 2 ripe bananas 200 gr. of your favourite blackberries  10 ice cubes + some water 6 dates, pitted 2 ripe pears a tsp of strawberry flavour (1 tiny lid from the bottle) 3 tbsp honey (you can put less if the berries are ripe) 1 avocado (it gives creaminess) You will obtain 400gr of product for a bowl of sorbet and enough to make seven ice-lollies or if you have an ice-cream maker, some lovely ice-cream (it melts fast) We loved the taste of this recipe!

An almost raw dinner Today we ate: wholemeal Basmati rice (cooked, sorry)  fresh greens salad gojiberries - they seem to be healthy stuff  a bowl of kale chips Ok It wasn't 100% raw, but nobody said we aim to eat completely raw food. I think that a good 60% would be great.

Good afternoon! Apparently kale chips are a raw-food favourite and kale is really good for your health. I found a good recipe here: http://www.rawmazing.com/recipes/raw-food-kale-chips-9-ways/ I I decided to give it a try. They taste glorious! And now here is my version: Kale Chips Wash and spin dry your kale leaves. Remove the tough spine and tear into bite size pieces, keeping in mind that they will shrink in size as they dehydrate. 3 Teaspoons of Extra-virgin Olive Oil a tiny amount of Atlantic Sea Salt Spices as preferred (I used dried garlic and curry!) Combine olive oil and sea salt in large bowl. Stir in kale and coat. Place on dehydrator sheets and dehydrate at 40C for 4-6 hours or until crisp. I guess that small bits of kale chips can be used to garnish dishes or to cover the top of a dehydrated meal to make it look more textured!

Zucchini omelette I like vegetable omelettes and I wanted to recreate them without all the connected frying and sogginess. I picked up a gigantic courgette from my garden, mixed it with a few things, dried it… and it tastes better than a traditional omelette!!!  My kids saw me eating it for breakfast and wanted to try it…. and the whole thing went in 3 or 4 minutes!  I am stunned… I will definitely make this again! Yahooo! So… for you brave chefs…here it is.  Zucchini omelette Ingredients grated zucchini (1-2 cups) - I used the food processor grating blade for this a bit of wholemeal flour, probably about to make it so it's not too thin 3 or 4 tbsp of ground flax seeds (leftover from dried onion rings) a bit of sage and onion mix (the one used for stuffing in the UK) tiny amount of salt Preparation: Mix the above ingredients to obtain a loose mixture, but not too watery. Place it on a no

I found a recipe here: http://www.rawmazing.com/recipes/zuccini-cacao-cookies/   and I adapted it as usual. This recipe is a keeper! If you have children, it will help them to eat more (hidden) vegetables. Not bad... Susan Powers, the author and owner of the Rawmazing website, is a magnificent photographer and raw food teacher. Her website photos are mouth-watering. I highly recommend it! Zucchini Cacao Cookies ▪ 3 cups grated zucchini (I measured it, it's 250 gr.) ▪ 2 cups oat flour (raw)* (or soaked quinoa, or ground oat flakes/almonds) ▪ 3/4 cup cacao ▪ 2 apples, cored and quartered ▪ 1/2 cup agave nectar/ we used honey instead ▪ 1/3 cup water ▪ 1/4 cup olive oil (cold pressed) 1. Grate zucchini and set aside. 2. Mix together cacao and oat flour. Set aside. 3. Place apples in food processor with agave, water and olive oil. Process until smooth. 4. Stir together flour mixture and apple mixture.

We found this recipe in a raw food website and thought we would try it. It definitely needs improving. Perhaps the onions ought to be sautéed first…? " Fried " Onion Rings Preparation time: long; drying time: 14 hours Ingredients: 1 large sweet or spanish onion cut into thick rings and slightly cooked and dried 1st coating in a bowl 4 tbs. olive oil 2 tbs. water Sea salt to taste 2nd coating in a separate bowl 1 cup ground golden flax seeds 1/2 cup ground unsoaked almonds (or 2 tbsp nutritional yeast) 1-2 tsp. paprika/ could also try 1/4 cup soy sauce Sea salt and pepper to season How to:  Take each onion ring, eliminate the outer slimey skin, dip it into the 2nd coating, then into the 1st coating and then back into the 2nd coating. Your goal is to get as much of the 2nd coating as possible. This will not work if you make them wet first.  Once you have achieved that, gentl

Raw veggies dinner Yesterday we had a raw veggie dinner. I thought we were going to starve... but after chewing all the veggies I felt completely satisfied. Weird! All I did was cutting lots of different veggies and putting 2 in each plate, and then I allowed :) some Japanese sauces and raw mayonnaise, chili sauce etc to those who wish to change the taste of things. :) The bean sprouts were swimming  in soy sauce. I also used a can of green beans (French beans), cold, just turned upside down. (I know! Not living!)  It was very tasty! Perhaps if I can learn to make raw burgers and crackers I can add those too...so far we have plain monkey nuts with our almost-raw dinners. Bon appetit!

Fresh vegetables marinade It's interesting to try veggie marinades. Raw onions are hard on our stomach so we cook them before serving.  This marinade is made simply by mixing olive oil, fresh garlic and basil and allowing the food to be immersed into it for a few hours. The taste is delicious.  It's a good dish for winter when eating cold food doesn't sound good: just marinade your favourite vegetables. Photos are here somewhere.... Here is also a photograph of the last raw dinner with the marinade and the soup together.

Sweet Pea Soup Trying out new recipes is fun!  In the book "The art of raw living food" there is a recipe for a pear cake ...we tried it and it tastes yummy!  It's made with chopped pears, vanilla sauce (made with pine nuts), cinnamon and agave....it tastes delicious!  And if you have a couple of spoons of leftovers (well, impossible, I tell you) you can add them to any smoothie and it will make it rich and creamy, more yummy! No photo… we ate it too quickly. :) We also made a Sweet Pea Soup. I tweaked a version I found on the internet and here is my own version :) with photo on top of the page: Sweet Pea Soup Serves 4 (if you use small bowls) 3 cups sweet peas, thawed (we actually warmed them up slightly) 1 avocado 2 cups cucumbers 2 cups celery (I used only one and it was overpowering so next time there will be none!) 1/4 cup fresh dill 1/4 cup cashews, ground (optional) 2 cloves of garlic (we used 1) 1 green onion 1 tbs

We have eaten plenty of those this week! Raw Pringles, spicy paprika flavour These crisps are so good, they even end up curled like their namesake. I really thought that I had over spiced them but they turned out perfect. Ingredients 1 cup of flax seeds, soaked overnight 3 cups of water half an onion 6 sun dried tomatoes, soaked 2 tsp paprika 1 tsp cumin 1 tsp cayenne pepper Method 1. Blend all together in a high speed blender 2. Spoon dollops onto a wet dehydrator sheet, in rows of 4 x 4. 3. Dehydrate for 8 or so hours then peel off then place back on the tray for another 8 or so hours.

Raw crackers recipe Rosemary crackers Flat bread Hello! I'm sharing here the r ecipes of the  raw crackers I tried today: http://thehappyrawkitchen.blogspot.com/2009/08/my-s-salad-recipe.html Ingredients: 2 cups almonds, soaked 8 hours, rinsed and drained 1/2 cup whole golden flax seed, ground after measure 1 cup fresh water 1/4 to 1/2 cup nutritional yeast 1-2 tablespoons fresh rosemary 1/2-1 teaspoon salt, and additional rosemary for top of crackers, optional ______________________________________ 1. In food processor fitted with "S" blade, process almonds until coarsely ground. 2. Add nutritional yeast, flax, rosemary, and salt, and process until combined. Adjust seasonings as desired. 3. With machine running, pour in water to form dough. Let mixture stand a few minutes to thicken if it seems too wet 4. Divide mixture in half and roll out onto 2 teflex sheets, sprinkle with additional rosemary if desired, and sco