Thank you for such a wonderful and warm response to Heather’s Green Recovery story! I thought it was so enthusiastic and inspiring. I’m also glad that it prompted so many thoughtful comments on how important it is to be careful when commenting upon another person’s appearance. I personally try to comment on appearances as little as possible; if a friend seems particularly radiant or well, I’m far more likely to exclaim “you seem so energetic and positive!” than say “you look great!” Some might find this aversion to physical commentary a little extreme, but I’ve experienced firsthand how discomfiting aesthetic criticisms and compliments can be, and I file it under the category of doing unto others as I would have them do to me.

Here, as a community, we’ve all applauded each other’s recovery efforts and triumphs. But let’s also remember that we can contribute to a cultural dialog that is less likely to instigate and fuel eating disorders by avoiding “fat talk,” physical commentary, offhand remarks about weight loss, and judgments of how much other people eat.

Weeks ago, before returning home for my winter break, I mentioned that I’d be without a food processor or high speed blender. As terrifying as life without a Cuisinart may have seemed at the time, I can’t say it’s been too much of a problem. I’ve been eating out a lot, first of all. Second, I don’t give myself enough credit for creativity: I did, after all, “go raw” with only a decade old processor and a few sharp knives. I’m good at making simple soups, salads, and slaws the cornerstone of my diet. I always have been. These foods satisfy me profoundly, and they’re simple to make.

This recipe is a perfect example of the sort of raw food dish that anyone can make. It does not matter how big your kitchen is, or how much experience you have with raw: this recipe is as siple as shredded cabbage and whisking together a dressing. I personally like to marinade the collard leaves for this recipe, as I think it softens them nicely, but you could also flash steam them or leave them as they are.

If you do choose to marinade the collard leaves, you’ll want to do it about 3-4 hours (or more) before you make this dish. The marinade itself should be about 2 teaspoons olive oil, the juice of a large lemon, and a sprinkle of sea salt. Before I get a collective freakout for the oil, let me ‘splain: the leaves won’t remain covered in marinade! You’ll be wiping them off before serving. The idea is simply to soften them and to give them just a tiny bit of flavor. Again, you can skip this step if you want. I think the marinade enriches this recipe, but you could of course do as I do in my raw collard wraps, and leave them plain.

So: mix together 2 tsps olive oil with the juice of 1 lemon and a sprinkle of sea salt. Pour marinade on a plate. Cover with about 3-4 collard leaves (washed and dried), and flip the leaves around to coat them all. Leave on the marinade plate for about 3-4 hours.

When it comes time to make your wraps, lay a paper towel on your prep surface. Place a marinated leaf over it, and mop up excess marinade with a second paper towel.

And now, you’re ready to roll. Literally.

Peanut Cabbage Roll Ups (high raw, vegan, gluten free, soy free)

Serves 1-2

3 large collard leaves, marinated and removed of excess marinade (per above)
1 1/4 cup white cabbage, shredded
1 1/4 cup red cabbage, shredded
Generous handful cilantro, chopped
3-4 tbsp quick and easy peanut sauce

1) Cut each collard leaf in half

2) Mix the cabbages, and cilantro in a large mixing bowl with about 3-4 tbsp of the peanut sauce. You can vary how much you use depending on how “saucy” you want the filling to be (he he).

4) Layer about 1/3 cup filling on one end of a half leaf. Roll the leaf up with the filling inside; you don’t have to bother with the normal collard wrap process. The point of this recipe is ease!

5) Serve with a nutrient dense salad, a side of steamed vegetables and beans, or a whole grain!

Who knew that raw, vegan food could be so quick, so simple, and so tasty?!

Hope you guys try this recipe! It would also make for a very easy high-raw, vegan appetizer or party food.

Today is the week anniversary of 2012’s arrival. Doesn’t time fly? This year, I shared some cautionary thoughts about unrealistic dietary resolutions. In your comments, many of you pointed out that, while crash diets are no good, there are certain kinds of resolutions and commitments that can feel really inspiring at this time of year. In keeping with that sentiment, I’d like to share three approaches to resolutions and greeting a new year that really impressed me this week.

1) The Year I Stopped Chasing Skinny, by the sassy, sexy, and stupendous JL of JL Goes Vegan.

In this brave post, JL opens up about how 2011 was the year in which she stopped dieting, accepted a weight at which her body is comfortable and healthy, and learned to fall in love with her most authentic shape. Many of my readers have expressed to me that they have spent years and years pursuing a weight that is just below what their body can maintain naturally and effortlessly. If it seems to you that the weight your body seems to maintain on its own is always five or ten pounds more than the weight you want, and if you’ve been dieting, restricting, or over-exercising as a result, I urge you to please read JL’s words.

We’re all socialized to think “thinner is better”: this year, accept that all of us have a spectrum of healthy weights, and that the lowest number is not always the healthiest or most honest.

2) 10 Questions Animal Activists Should Ask Themselves, by Jasmin Singer of Our Hen House

An essential post for early 2012. Jasmin, one of the two energetic and innovative co-founders of Our Hen House, encourages all activists to question whether or not they’re doing everything possible to help animals this year (and in general). What I’ve learned from Jasmin and Mariann is that we all have the power to be activists, so I believe this post is relevant to everyone who cares about animal rights (or another important personal cause). Aside from the big, leading question—Am I effectively doing what I can in my life to change the world for animals?—Jasmin also asks more subtle and thought-provoking questions, like “Do I have a safe space around me — through my romantic relationship or my social circles, or even online — in which to express my fears and desires as they pertain to my animal activism?”

3) Resolutions (and Chocolate Rice Pudding) by Alyson Kramer of Manifest Vegan

The brilliance of this characteristically aesthetic and articulate post (Alyson, if you don’t know her already, is a fabulous vegan chef) is its effortless avoidance of superficiality. Rather than launching into a laundry list of ways in which she intends to shed pounds or tone up, Alyson avows basic self-acceptance, and then lists a few ways in which she hopes to enrich, but not improve, herself. She intends to learn French, do more art, work on a second book, and tune out naysaying about her lifestyle in 2012. I can’t think of better and more well rounded intentions.

I hope that we can all take inspiration from these fabulous ladies’ and their hopes for the new year. And of course, I’d love to hear how you intend to deepen your activism in 2012, and enrich your life?

xo

Lately, I’ve been making a lot of collard green or Swiss chard wraps. This isn’t totally out of the ordinary, as raw wraps are one of my favorite dishes. But the frequency has been notable lately, and that’s because of the changes associated with student life. Being in school again means finding more options for eating on the go, and wraps make that really easy: they’re neat, portable, and a reliable way to get greens and veggies in without salads, which can be messy to pack up. As you can see, I can’t get enough of them these days:

Of course, collard green (or any green) wraps are only useful when they don’t fall apart, and they’re a little tricky to get right at first. A few of you have been asking me about how I get mine to stay neatly together, so today I figured I’d pause to give you all a little tutorial. Don’t worry: I promise this is a lot easier than my physics homework.

Step 1: Select a Good Leaf

You don’t want a massive leaf, because you’ll end up with too much of it to eat (and raw collards, when we’re not enjoying them with a tasty filling, are pretty strong). Choose a flat, even, medium sized leaf, like this one:

Step 2: De-Stem

Flip the leaf over so that the side with the prominent spine is facing up. Using a paring knife, cafefully start to shave off the spine, starting near the bottom, where it begins to protrude most:

Careful as you do this: you don’t want to cut so deep that you actually cut through the leaf! Just follow carefully along the spine, slicing away only the thick part of it.

Step 3: Flip the Leaf

…so that the side you didn’t cut is facing up.

Step 4: Place a Vertical Column of Filler on One Side of the Leaf’s Center

Like so:

I use hummus, nut pates, sauces, mashed potatoes, and all sorts of fillings! Get creative. I used my new favorite hummus—sweet potato hummus—here. (That recipe’s coming atcha soon!) I usually find that 1/4 of a cup is the right amount per leaf.

If I’m using a nut pate that I know is very calorically dense, I may use only 2-3 tbsp instead.

Step 5: Pile Veggies Atop Filling

I always have my sliced veggies laid out neatly before I assemble, like so:

And then I lie them vertically on top of the filling:

Step 6: Fold the Top and Bottom Flaps of the Collard Leaf Toward the Center

Like so:

Step 7: Fold the Side Closer to the Filling Over the Filling

Step 8: Starting with the Folded Side, Roll the Leaf Up

You’ll be rolling from the folded side to the unfolded side, right to left or left to right (I almost just said “along the x-axis.” YIKES.)

In this case, I rolled from right to left. And voila!

A neat, perfect little wrap. Slice it on a diagonal:

And serve, or wrap tightly in foil, saran, or cloth to pack up for lunch or dinner on the go.

Last night, I served my rolls with some leftover pressure cooker stew (that recipe will go up tomorrow) and some leftover crudites. Simple, semi-raw, and delicious:

Hope this settles the mystery, guys! It’s really not hard at all: just requires a little paint-by-numbers

If you’re suddenly motivated to try a leafy green wrap, let me know what you make! I’ll be back tomorrow with a 15 minute stew recipe and a recap of an important community service event. Stay warm!

xo

Today, my friends, you are going to learn two very important raw lessons:

1)    How to make nut pates and cheeses
2)    How to make collard wraps

Nut pates are one of the first things I teach new clients (and rawcurious friends) how to make at home. Why? Because they’re quick, delicious, and oh-so-versatile: you can use them in everything from wraps to sandwiches to salads to vegetable napoleons. Brimming with heart healthy fats and protein, they’re also a fun alternative to other soft spreads, like hummus, cream cheese, or refried beans.

What’s the difference between a nut pate and a nut cheese? Not much, except for consistency. I think of thicker mixtures  as pates; when you add more water (and make them softer), I think they begin to resemble cream cheese or even soft goat’s cheese.

You can adjust the flavors of these concoctions so that they mimic traditional recipes (I make a mushroom pate, for example, with soaked walnuts and spiced with thyme, that tastes a lot like the classic mushroom pate you might find as an appetizer at a dinner party; I also make a killer pine nut “ricotta”).

The basic idea is this: you soak a cup or two of nuts (1-2 hours for cashews, and overnight for almonds), throw them in a food processor with about ¼-1/2 tsp salt per cup nuts, and grind them till they’re in a pulp form. Then scrape the sides of the bowl and drizzle water in until the mix comes together and becomes smooth; if you’re looking for a chunkier mix, don’t process for too long. It’s a lot like making hummus in a food processor, and just as fast!

When I make nut cheeses, I always add a lot of lemon; this, to me, brings out the slightly sharp, tart taste I remember from regular cheese (it’s been a while, folks, so I’m not sure how accurate that memory is). I also feel free to add herbs, sun dried tomatoes, dill, black pepper, or whatever other kinds of mix-ins I’m in the mood for.

Tonight’s cheese recipe was one of my all time favorites: cashew ricotta with sun dried tomatoes and basil–AKA raw pizza cheese! It was Melissa who first noted that this cheese tastes a lot like pizza on a spoon. Pizza is, of course, another food I haven’t had in quite a long time, but I suspect she’s right. Regardless, this cheese is delicious, easy, and can be served in so many ways: stacked between layers of tomatoes and basil in a “napoleon,” in wraps as shown, or on top of zucchini pasta.

The recipe:

Cashew Ricotta with Sun Dried Tomatoes and Basil (AKA Italian “Pizza Cheese”)

1 cup cashews, soaked for two hours or more
Juice of one lemon
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp white miso (optional)
4 sundried tomatoes, chopped
¼ cup basil

Throw nuts in a food processor and process till ground well. Add salt, lemon juice, miso if using. Scrape sides of bowl and run processor again, this time drizzling some water in. Keep doing this until the cheese reaches the consistency you like. I aim for mine to look like ricotta:

Add tomatoes and basil and pulse until they are well combined into the cheese:

That’s it!

Serve as you like! This cheese is also great atop cucumber rounds or tomato slices as an appetizer. Last night I had some collards on hand for juicing that need to be used up, so I decided to make a favorite raw staple: collard wraps.

You may recall my 8 simple swaps post, where I suggested swapping collard leaves for regular old wraps. I can’t stress enough how great a tip this is: collard wraps are a light, healthy, and creative alternative to your usual wraps or tortillas. (If you follow food combining, these are a particularly great alternative to Ezekiel wraps because you can stuff them with nuts or proteins, rather than starches.)

A few of you emailed me after that post and asked how, exactly, you make collard wraps work. Here’s my trick.

Step one: de-vein the collard leave by slicing off the bottom of the stalk in a V formation and running your knife over the rest of the stalk to flatten the leaf, like so:

Step two: layer your cheese, pate, hummus, or other filling inside (I used about ¼ cup of the cheese), then pile veggies on top (here I used tomato, carrot, and some basil to complement the Italian flavor):

Step three: fold the bottom and top over the filling:

Step four: fold the sides over, wrap, and roll!

Chop off the tops on a diagonal if you want to look particularly fancy.

Of course you can use this technique for just about any kind of filling: a great recipe I’ll share soon is for a variation on Pure’s spicy thai lettuce wraps, which are stuffed with cabbage and carrot marinated in a spicy almond sauce. Hate the taste of raw collards? Well, I promise you’ll get used to it if you eat them more often! But if you’re shy, just go ahead and steam the collards for about two minutes: it’ll soften them and take any bitterness out.

I served these three wraps alongside a big salad of arugula, tomato, and lemon vinaigrette. Here’s the finished product:

It was a delicious meal!

I really hope you’ll all begin experimenting, not only with collard wraps, but with all sorts of nut pates. To move you along, here are a few of my other favorites, which will undoubtedly make an appearance on the blog at some point:

Sunflower Seed Pate (adapted from Nomi Shannon)

1 ½ cup sunflower seeds, soaked 8-12 hours.
1/3-½ cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
Handful chopped scallions
3 Tbs raw tahini
1 Tbsp Nama Shoyu
salt with add’l water, or none at all
¼ cup coarsely chopped parsley
Sprinkle cayenne pepper (or more to taste)

Soak sunflower seeds 8-12 hours, drain, then thoroughly rinse and drain. In a food processor, process the sunflower seeds, lemon juice, scallions, tahini, shoyu, parsley, and cayenne with a drizzle of water until the mixture is a smooth paste.

When thoroughly blended taste and adjust the seasoning.

Ani Phyo’s Ginger Almond Pate (from Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen)

1 Tablespoon ginger
1 clove garlic
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 cup almonds, dry
1 lemon’s juice
1/4 cup filtered water

Follow same technique as with other pates: combine all ingredients but water in processor, process, and then add water till desired consistency is reached. Delicious!

Raw Walnut Pate

2 cups walnuts, soaked
2 garlic cloves
2 green onions
1 cup fresh parsley
1 tablespoon oregano
2 stalks celery
2 tablespoons miso
1 tablespoon honey
2 tablespoons olive oil
sea salt

Directions:

Chop all ingredients, then blend to an even consistency in a food processor with water as needed.

Let me know what you create! And have a happy Friday, all.

xo