2 in 1: Green Burrito + Almond Milk

For those of you who don't know, when I lived in Guatemala, I worked as a chef at a new restaurant called "Ganesh Collective." It was a neat concept that had 3 different chefs that each had a few nights a week. On my nights it was called "Nancy's Kitchen." To quote a review of the restaurant "Nancy makes innovative vegan food with raw and wheat free options." This was more or less a staple on the menu. My prep chef, Emma Kate, said it was "play food" meaning that the lettuce leaf as a wrap just didn't cut it. Well, the components of it are so good if you'd like a heartier meal, you could always wrap it up in a real tortilla. The "almond meat" is a great veg alternative and can be used in tons of different recipes. I'm going to teach you how to make the almond milk first and then you'll be left with the almond pulp to make the burrito. You don't have to make the milk first, of course, but it is really nice to get 2 things out of 1 when dealing with almonds since they can be expensive. Also, if you want to only make the milk, you can always half the recipe. The measurements below are here so they correspond with the burrito.

ALMOND MILK:

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups almonds, soaked for at least 4 hours or overnight
6 cups pure water
pinch sea salt
2-4 tbspns raw honey (or a few soaked dates)
1 tspn vanilla extract (optional)


1. Strain almonds and place all ingredients in a blender. You may have to do it in two parts depending how big your blender is.
2. Once thouroughly blended, strain liquid through a cheesecloth or a very, very fine mesh strainer pressing the liquid out of the almond pulp with a spoon. This part is pretty important to get a smooth, non-grainy milk.
3. Save the almond pulp for the following recipe.
4. Enjoy the almond milk in smoothies, tea, coffee, or plain. Refrigerate it and it will keep for about 4 days.

GREEN BURRITO:

Ingredients:

ALMOND "MEAT":

around 1 1/2 cups almond pulp (see above recipe on how to acquire almond pulp and almond milk, or check below if you want to skip the milk)
1/2 cup finely chopped white onion
3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
3 tbspns olive oil
2 tbspns tomato paste
1 tspn salt
1/4 tspn black pepper
1/4 tspn cayenne
1/4 tspn cumin
1/2 tspn vinegar (apple cider or white)
1 tspn raw cane sugar (or other sweetener of choice)

PINEAPPLE SALSA:
1 1/2 cups fresh pineapple, chopped into small bits (if using canned be sure to drain the juice)
3 medium tomatoes, diced into fairy small chunks
1 medium carrot, finely chopped
1/2 tspn grated ginger
1/4 tspn salt
1/2 tspn cayenne
2 tbspns lime juice
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

GUACAMOLE:
2 ripe avocados
1/4 cup finely chopped white onion
1 1/2 tbspns lime juice
1/2 tspn salt

For the wraps:

head of romaine lettuce or other mild tasting lettuce



There are three parts to the burrito, but it is all fairly simple and fast.The only thing that requires more time is the soaking of the almonds, which is easily done overnight if you know ahead of time that you will make this dish. However, if you don't have time to soak the almonds, you could alternatively drop them for a few seconds in boiling water until the skins become soft. Everything tastes great served immediately, but the salsa develops its flavors more as it sits, so you could make ahead of time and set in the fridge.

For the Almond "Meat"

1. Soak 1 1/2 cups almonds for at least 4 hours, or overnight. Drain and rinse and then place almonds in blender or food processor. Cover with water and blend until there are no major chunks of almonds, but more of a "pulp" consistency. Strain off the water and set the almond pulp aside.
2. In a skillet on medium high heat, sautee onions and garlic in olive oil until translucent, about 3 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add salt, pepper, cayenne, and tomato paste and continue stirring until the paste is incorporated. Lower head to medium low and add almond pulp, vinegar, and raw sugar. Sautee about 5-7 minutes more stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and set aside while you prepare the salsa and guacamole.

For the Pineapple Salsa

1. Toss all ingredients in a bowl until well combined.

For the Guacamole

1. Slice open avocados. Remove the pits and scoop out the meat. Mash with a fork and then fold in remaining ingredients. Make sure not to over-mix so you don't get mushy guacamole.

To assemble the Burritos:

This recipe makes about 8 burritos, if eating as a main dish. If serving as appetizers, you could make around 16 burritos and use 1/2 the amount of filling in each one.

1. Rinse lettuce and select nice looking, in-tact, and uniform leaves. Cut off the hard bottom of each leaf, leaving only the leafy part. (For appetizer burritos, cut each leaf in half horizontally and use the top part)
2. For the larger burritos, spread 2 tbspns of almond meat onto each leaf. Then add a tbspn of guacamole and a tablespoon of pineapple salsa on top. Optional: garnish with cilantro.

Gingerbread Crawkies

This is my raw version of gingerbread cookies. Just the spices alone are enough to bring you back to those Christmas memories as a kid. If you chill the dough for a while, you can roll it out really thin and then even cut them into little gingerbread men. I didn't have any cookie cutters, otherwise I would have done that. If you have a dehydrator, you can use that to make a crispy cookie. I don't have one, so I put my oven on the lowest temp and baked them for about an hour. I saved half of the dough and rolled them into balls and kept them in the refrigerator to save their nutritional value and have snacks for my daughter. Both are great, but I gotta admit, the crispy cookies are my favorite. Oh yea, and you can use fresh grated ginger instead of powdered if you prefer.




Gingerbread Crawkies

Makes about 18-20 cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup dates, soaked for about an hour, pits removed
1/2 cup hazelnuts, ground to a flour
1/2 cup flaxseeds, ground
1 cup oats, ground to a flour
1/4 cup coconut flakes
1 tbspn raw honey or agave nectar
1/4 tspn sea or crystal salt
1 tspn cinnamon
1/2 tspn ground cloves
1/4 tspn ground ginger
1/4 tspn cardamom


1. Combine everything except honey and dates.
2. Blend dates into a paste. You may have to add a little water to get the blender going.
3. Combine date paste with the dry ingredients and stir in honey. Work the dough a little bit and refrigerate to get a hard dough that you can roll out really thin.
4. Cut into shapes and bake, dehydrate, or just keep it raw.

Raw Blueberry Cheesecake

This is creamy, rich, satisfying, and perfectly tart and sweet. It might be my favorite dessert I've ever made. No one would know that it is free of wheat, sugar, and dairy, totally unprocessed, and not heated! There are a lot of amazing raw food dessert recipes out there, but many times they are time-consuming, require dehydrating for hours, and have expensive and hard-to find ingredients. Though you have to soak the nuts in this recipe for a few hours and allow the cheesecake to chill, the actual time it takes to prepare it is only about 20 minutes. The ingredients are easy to find as well. If you know a day in advance that you want to serve this cake you can have it in the freezer overnight and then thaw a few hours before serving. If you have a gluten sensitivity or don't like to eat raw oats, you can substitute them for almonds. You can also use any other berries. I think raspberries and blackberries would be great. I had frozen blueberries on hand so that's what I used. If you use a more sour berry, you may want to add a little more honey to the sauce. I'm bringing this to a Thanksgiving party...maybe you should too!

Raw Blueberry Cheesecake

Serves: around 10

Ingredients:

Crust:

1 cup walnuts
1 cup dates, pitted
1 and 1/3 cup oats, ground into a "flour" consistency

Filling:

2 cups raw cashews
6 tbspns lemon juice (you'll need around 3 lemons)
4 tbspns raw honey
4 tbspns water
about 2 inches of a vanilla pod or around 1/2 tspn pure vanilla extract


Sauce:

1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (or other berry of choice)
2 tbspns raw honey
large splash water or nut milk if you have any on hand

1. Start by placing the cashews, walnuts, and dates into 3 separate bowls and covering them with water, preferably filtered. Allow them to soak for around 4 hours, and strain.
2. For the crust, place dates and walnuts in a food processor or blender and mix. You may need to add a splash of water to get the blender going. Continue processing until most of the walnuts are broken up into small pieces.
3. Transfer the date-walnut dough to a bowl. It will be a little runny, but the oats will stiffen it up. Add the ground oats and stir. You can grind the oats in a coffee grinder, or just in a blender for a few minutes to get the flour consistency. If you are using almonds, you need to grind them to a flour, but don't over-process as to get almond butter.
4. Work the dough a little bit and press it into a pie pan covering the entire bottom. Place this in the freezer while you work on the filling.
5. For the filling, if you're using a fresh vanilla pod you'll want to trim off about 2 inches and grind that into a powder. Then add the vanilla, cashews, raw honey, lemon juice and water to the blender. Mix until creamy and smooth. You may have to stop the blender every so often to stir the ingredients because it is so thick. Add more water if necessary, but do it slowly so you don't get a filling that is too runny.
6. Once smooth, pour filling over crust and tap pie pan against a hard surface to remove any bubbles. Cover with plastic wrap or a lid and place in the freezer.
7. For the sauce, blend berries, honey and large splash of water or nut milk for a few seconds. You want a saucy consistency, but still some berry chunks so try not to over-process. Sweeten more if desired. Set sauce aside in a separate bowl in the fridge until right before serving.
8. For best results, the cheesecake should set in the freezer for around 3 hours and then thaw in the refrigerator for around 1 1/2 hours before serving. Like I mentioned, you can also freeze overnight, but then you'd obviously need more time for thawing. When ready to serve, pour sauce over cheesecake and slice. Enjoy!

Berry Avocado Yogurt

Instead of leaching calcium from your bones like pasteurized yogurt does, this yogurt provides you with vitamins, A, B-complex, C, E, H, K, and folic acid, plus the minerals magnesium, copper, iron, calcium, potassium, all of the essential amino acids (those that must be provided by our diet), with 18 amino acids in all, plus 7 fatty acids, including Omega 3 and 6. And that's just what's in the avocado! This yogurt makes for a delicious and filling breakfast, especially if served with a handful of nuts, seeds, or meusli.








BERRY AVOCADO YOGURT

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

1 banana
1 avocado
1/2 cup frozen or fresh berries
1 tbspn raw honey (can also use agave nectar)
1/2 cup fresh berries (optional)
1/2 cup muesli, nuts, or seeds (optional)

1. In a blender, blend banana, avocado, 1/2 cup berries, and honey until smooth. (You may have to use a little bit of water to get the blender moving) Taste for sweetness and add more honey if necessary.
2. Serve with fresh berries and meusli, or nuts if desired and garnish with banana slices.

*This yogurt tastes really good if it's a little cold which is why the frozen berries work well. If using fresh, you may want to refrigerate for a bit before serving.

Bliss Balls

The name says it all. These babies can so easily be eaten up daily by my little familia, though that may be a little bit excessive. We're still trying to tell ourselves that we aren't addicted to peanut butter...that we can quit anytime we want, but this recipe makes it hard to do. See for yourself.







BLISS BALLS

Makes around 10 balls

Ingredients:

2 heaping tbspns peanut butter (the all natural and organic kind, of course), or almond butter
2 tbspns raw cacao powder, carob powder, or cocoa powder
1 1/2-2 tbspns raw honey
coconut flakes

1. Mix peanut butter, cacao, and honey until you have a sturdy dough. Start out with less honey and taste for sweetness and add more if necessary.
2. Roll into small balls.
3. Sprinkle coconut flakes onto a plate and roll the balls in the flakes so that each ball is coated.

* You can easily throw in other goodies here, for example hemp protein powder, hemp seeds, ground flaxseeds, oats, etc. If you do this just make sure to mix any dry add ins with the cacao powder first before stirring into the peanut butter and honey.

Live Carrot Coleslaw

This totally raw dish is inspired by my Swedish mother-in-law who always made a similar slaw to ensure her kids were eating veggies at every meal. My version has lemon and ginger which kicks it up a little bit, but both are optional, though I wouldn't opt to leave them out :) It's great on the side of heavier, spicy dishes or just on it's own. It's especially beautiful if you can find organic rainbow variety carrots from your farmer's market.



LIVE CARROT COLESLAW

Serves 4 as a side dish

Ingredients:

4-6 carrots
2 small apples (any variety will do)
juice of 1 orange
juice of 1/2 a lemon
small knob of ginger

1. Peel carrots (if necessary), apples, and ginger.
2. Using a cheese grater, grate carrots, apples, and ginger. I personally like to use the largest holes.
3. Pour over orange juice and lemon juice.
4. Mix well and enjoy!

Crunchy Sweet Potato Salad with tangy honey mustard, parsley, and tomatoes

Easy and fast, this salad makes a beautiful side dish to any meal. Sweet, crunchy, and perfectly tangy, the walnuts compliment the soft potatoes and the honey mustard offsets the bitterness of the parsley. Not to mention, when vegetarian sources of iron, like parsley, are combined with vitamin C (found in the sweet potatoes and tomatoes) your body absorbs it better!





CRUNCHY SWEET POTATO SALAD

Serves: 3-4 people as a side dish

Ingredients:

1 large sweet potato
2 tomatoes, cubed
1 bunch of fresh parsley (about 1 cup), chopped
1/2 cup walnuts, finely chopped
1 tbspn olive oil
1 tbspn vinegar (apple cider or rice)
1 tbspn mustard
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 tbspn honey (or maple syrup)
1 tbspn water
juice of half a lemon
salt
black pepper

1. Peel and chop sweet potato into small cubes.
2. Boil potato in small pot of water until soft. Once soft, drain potatoes and rinse with cold water
for about 30 seconds.
3. In a small bowl, combine olive oil, vinegar, mustard, garlic, honey, water, and a pinch of salt
and pepper. Whisk with a fork until thoroughly mixed and then stir in chopped walnuts.
4. Coat the potato cubes with the walnut dressing.
5. Add tomatoes, parsley, the juice of 1/2 a lemon, and a large pinch of salt and pepper.
6. Toss all ingredients until well mixed and enjoy!

Can be served room temperature or chilled.