Thanks for getting so excited about yesterday’s juice post! Before I tell you all about the fantastic raw “beet ball” recipe I recently made from recycled juice pulp and almond pulp, I wanted to pause to answer a couple of questions that popped up about juicing. If I don’t answer your particular question in this list, feel free to ask away in the comments section!

Isn’t it true that juicing makes your blood sugar “spike,” because you’re not eating the juice with enough fiber and protein to slow sugar absorption into your bloodstream?

It’s true that fruit juices raise blood sugar, which is why they may not be suitable for diabetes or people who are sensitive to sugar. But for individuals who respond normally to fruits and sweeter vegetables, juicing in moderation should not be a problem, especially if juice is consumed in proximity to a properly balanced meal. I often drink juice *with* a meal, or I drink it as a snack not long before another meal, which means that the sugar is digested more slowly than it would be if I were to use juice as a meal replacement, which I do not recommend. This way, the many nutritional benefits are delivered without too much blood sugar variance.

Additionally, be aware that you can create many tasty, all vegetable blends, and that you can adjust the sweetness of your juices as you wish! I often do straight greens with only a little carrot. On days when I need more simple sugar as fuel (right before a workout, for example), I do more fruit. Balance is key.

Why can’t I just blend vegetables up in a Vita-Mix to make juice? I don’t have a juicer.

For more detail on this question, I could refer you back to this post, straight up from the CR archives! But in short, I’ll say: the point of juicing is to flood your body with nutrients without activating digestion through the absorption of fiber. This is not to say that fiber is bad; fiber is great! But to ingest the amount of vitamins and minerals one has access to in a juice, one would have to eat or blend a lot of vegetables. For people with sensitive digestive systems, juicing is a relief: it allows for maximum vegetable consumption with minimal irritation from enormous amounts of dietary fiber.

I do not personally subscribe to the popular theory that digestion is a horrible, taxing process from which we must intermittently offer our bodies period of “rest” in the form of fasting or juicing. I believe our digestive systems are meant to process ample food, several times daily. But I do have moments when I want to perk up with a ton of vitamins and some simple sugars, and I’m not in the mood to digest a giant bowl o’ vegetable, or to fill up completely (for example, if I want a really nutrient dense but light afternoon snack in preparation for a full dinner). This is where juicing can be really helpful.

It’s also a tool to simply increase the nutritional power of your lunch or dinner without adding too much heft!

Blending is great, too: it allows for rich nutrition with the addition of fiber, which helps to create satiety and is generally good for bowel and heart health. But it’s a different creature altogether from juicing; more filling, more of a “meal” experience, and not always as likely to provide quite the same amount of vitamins with as little fuss.

Now, if you want to create regular fruit and vegetable juices with your Vitamix, you can most certainly blend them and then strain them, reserving the pulp (as I always do) for recipes. Check out Sarah’s helpful tutorial! This is a perfectly acceptable means of juicing without a juicer!

What kind of juicer do you recommend?

I use a Breville Juice Fountain Plus. It’s hardly the fanciest juicer, but it’s very decent, it was a good price for me, it has stood the test of time, and the pulp is "wet” enough that I can use it in many fun recipes (super dry pulp can be impossible to work with).

Hope this is helpful!

So: almond pulp. I promised you guys a recipe on Sunday, and now I’m here to deliver. Most of you requested cookies, and I’m sorry to say that I’m not sharing a recipe for those: rather, this is a savory dinner/lunch recipe. But I promise I’ll come up with some incredible cookie recipes, too!

These raw, vegan “beet” balls use flax and almond pulp as a base. The addition of beet pulp, left over (of course) from my juice, makes this meal rich in ingenious conservation skills: juicing is not necessarily the most cost-effective health habit, so I like to counter the volume of vegetables that go in my juicer by always using the pulp in bread, crackers, burgers, and more. Ditto for homemade almond milk, when I make it. Nothing in my kitchen goes to waste.

Can this recipe be modified for non-juicer, non-dehydrator, non-blender homes? It’s a little tough, but you can experiment with grated beets, almond meal, and an oven. I know I’ve been throwing you guys a ton of “appliance-heavy” recipes lately, and I’m sorry for that: it’s just that pre-med/blogger life really means planning ahead, and my dehydrator helps me to preserve things for later enjoyment. Tomorrow’s recipe will be gloriously appliance free!!!!

Raw, Vegan Spaghetti and Beet Balls (vegan, raw, gluten free, soy free)

Makes about 10

1 1/4 cup beet pulp OR grated beet, squeezed well to remove moisture
3/4 cup almond pulp, as dry as possible
1/4 cup + 1 tbsp flax meal
2 tsp Italian seasoning or oregano
1 tbsp dried basil or 2 tbsp pesto
1/4 – 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
Black pepper to taste

1 large zucchini

1 recipe of my raw marinara sauce

1) Mix all ingredients by hand or in a food processor. Add as much water as necessary to get a sticky, firm dough.

2) Shape mixture into 10-12 “balls.” Dehydrate at 115 degrees for about 6 hours, rolling around for even dehydration. You may also bake these at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

3) Spiralize 1 zucchini, or use a grater to grate the zucchini, and top it with half the beet balls. Add a heap of raw marinara sauce, and dig in!

Hope you enjoy these delicious, vegan “balls.” I suspect I’ll get to work on a cooked version for you guys soon, too. And keep in mind that they make great, savory snacks!

Anyway, it’s back to studying for me! Don’t forget to tune into tonight’s VegNews Twitter Chat with me and other plant-based health professionals! 9 pm EST. Be there.

xo

Thanks for the intelligent commentary on yesterday’s post. I look forward to more discussions about vegan attire!

Switching gears today, I’m here with a new raw bread recipe—carrot oat bread, to be precise. You may be thinking that I’ve started to repeat myself: I already have two recipes for raw bread (here and here) that features carrots and/or dried fruit. So what am I doing making another one?

Well, I’ll be honest: I have a lot of carrot pulp to use up. That’s one reason. And since I’m not in the mood for carrot cupcakes again, bread it is. I am not, however, repeating the same flatbread/cracker like concoctions I’ve already made—promise! Instead, I’m bringing you a soft, dense, and thick bread, that’s a lot more like the real thing than my thinner, crispier breads have been.

The trick here was substituting oat flour for the usual mix of ground nuts/seeds and flax that I typically use. How did I make raw oat flour? By simply grinding up raw oat groats in my coffee grinder (which I don’t actually use for coffee; I use it for flax, chia, and grains that I want to make powdery for my recipes). If you have a Vitamix or a grinder, you too can make the homemade raw oat flour; if you don’t, you can grind up rolled oats in a food processor, or you can simply use store bought oat flour (Bob’s Red Mill makes one that is gluten free, no less).

Raw, Vegan Carrot Oat Bread (gluten free if you use GF oats, soy free)

Makes about 10 slices

2 heaping cups carrot pulp or grated carrot that has been squeezed thoroughly to remove excess moisture
1 cup oat flour
12 prunes, soaked in hot water for 30 min or more and drained
1/4 cup water + extra for blending
1 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup flax

1) Place pulp and prunes in a food processor fitted with the S blade. Process with the 1/4 cup water till the mixture is smooth.

2) Add oat flour, flax, sea salt. Process mixture into a “dough” that forms a ball. You may need more water, but don’t assume you will: drizzle it in only if your dough is much too pasty.

3) Shape your “dough” into a cute mini-loaf. Score the top into thick slices, about ten.

4) Dehydrate at 115 degrees for about 4 hours. Flip it so that the bottom is exposed, and dehydrate for another 3. Slice dough along score marks, and dehydrate the slices for another hour or so. If it’s still moist, keep dehydrating, but remember that the bread should be chewy, not crunchy. Don’t overdo it!

Alternately, you can bake the bread at 300 for about 40 minutes. However, I urge you to check it often, since I haven’t tried this method myself, and I don’t want to give you instructions that will ruin it!! It’s too cute to ruin:

Of all the raw breads I’ve made, this is by far the most “bready.” The slices are quite small, you’ll find—they kind of resemble biscotti—but for a loaf that is 100% raw and vegan, they’re not bad at all.

Along with some almond butter and apple? An incredible raw breakfast.

A few other cool things about this recipe: first, since we’ve all been discussing student-friendly food, note that the ingredients are fairly inexpensive. Prunes are less costly by far than dates, and oats are infinitely less pricey than nuts! Carrots are usually budget-friendly, and flax is cheaper than, say, chia. To say nothing of the fact that the recipe is a chance to reuse juicing leftovers.

Second, this recipe is friendly to my readers who find the volume of nuts/seeds in the raw diet a little intimidating. Though I do think that nuts and seeds have an important purpose in all vegan diets, I totally understand that they’re overused in many raw recipes. Oat groats, though unconventional, are a fun alternative.

And the taste? Well, I love it. This bread isn’t very sweet; don’t expect it to taste like a cupcake in spite of the prunes. I think they give it just enough sweet flavor. It tastes a little “bready” from the oats, and I think the salt lends it a lot of flavor, too. It’s a very mild, very basic bread upon which you can stack all sorts of toppings, dips, fruits, and veggies.

Before I go, have you picked up the January issue of VegNews yet?

In addition to featuring great articles by Jasmin and Corinne, it also features my regular column, “Raw Done Right.” This month’s recipe? A wonderful raw pad thai, which was made all the more appealing in Hannah Kaminsky’s amazing photography:

Hannah, will you always make my food look that good?

Check out the latest issue of the magazine for the recipe, and many other mouth-watering delights!

xo

So happy that I made you guys so happy with my Alo yoga gear giveaway! If you haven’t entered yet, now is the time: I’ll be announcing my winner on Wednesday of this upcoming week.

So I think you can probably guess why I decided to make carrot cake pancakes the other day. Part of it was the wholehearted response to my carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting:

And part of it was this:

The several metric tons of frozen juice pulp that dearest Valerie—who is becoming famous for her diligent juicing habits—gave me last Friday. I’ve been hard at work to use it all up. Check out raw sandwich action yesterday—that’s bread a la Valerie:

And the carrot pulp, which Valerie kindly separated, is going fast, in all sorts of carrot themed things. A few mornings ago, I thought, why not pancakes?

Why not pancakes indeed. Now, I’ll warm you: these are very healthy tasting pancakes. That is, they’re not going to necessarily please a crowd of more mainstream eaters with mainstream tastes—for that, I’ll direct you to my classic blueberry pancakes, or my chocolate chip pancakes. But these—which have a thick texture and only a very mild amount of sweetness—will be just right for my healthy food lovers out there. Orange hued and bursting with plump raisins, these guys will be a treat with some cashew butter and maple syrup, or a dollop of my raw, vegan cream cheese frosting:

or you can serve them plain, with fruit:

Either way, they are delightfully healthy and filling.

As with all of my baked goods, I’m including a gluten-free option in the instructions, below!

Carrot Cake Pancakes (vegan, can be made GF, soy free)

Makes about 4-6 pancakes

3/4 cup whole wheat pastry flour (to make these GF, try sweet white sorghum flour, GF flour mix, or brown rice flour)
1/2 cup oat flour
1 cup almond milk
1 tbsp coconut oil
1 tbsp agave syrup or maple syrup
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
2 tsps baking soda
1.5 tbsp flax meal
1 cup carrot juice pulp OR grated carrot, squeezed thoroughly with paper towel or through cheesecloth to remove excess moisture
1/2 cup raisins

1) Put a greased skillet on low heat while you prep the pancakes.

2) Mix flours, baking soda, flax meal, cinnamon, and ginger in a large mixing bowl.

3) Whisk together the coconut oil, agave, and almond milk.

4) Add liquid ingredients to dry, and then mix in the carrot pulp or grated carrot and the raisins.

5) Drop the mixture by 1/4 cup scoops onto your skillet. Flip when bubbles are appearing on top and the pancake is firm. Finish cooking the other side, and serve hot!

Along with freshly cut, farmer’s market gala apples? Talk about starting the day off right. Cramming for finals isn’t nearly as bad when there’s good food nearby.

If you’re home tomorrow morning and searching for new breakfast ideas, give these a shot! Your home will smell of winter spices, and your body will thank you for sneaking some fresh veggies into your morning meal.

Till soon,

xo

As a student, I have been amused to see school lunches on everybody’s mind this week. As you probably heard, last Monday, Congress overruled a proposal to turn down the nation’s school lunch program, in which tomato sauce on pizza is counted as a vegetable. The new rules would also have cut sodium in school meals and reduced the overwhelming number of potatoes that are served to kid (white potatoes, no doubt, and I’m guessing quite a few end up in the “fry” form).

It’s grim stuff, but no matter how incensed I’d like to get about it, I’ve decided to channel my frustration into hopeful imagining. What if more lunchroom sandwiches looked like this?

That’s avocado, lettuce, tomato, and tahini dressing on flax and chia bread, served with an apple (and some un-pictured butternut squash and apple soup).

OK, so that’s an extreme example of vegetable infatuation. I realize that few kids will gobble down the stuff I eat with utter abandon (though I’m sure there are some kids out there, raised on veggies, who would!). Even so, imagine: rather than white flour in white bread that would raise the kids’ glycemic index after eating, and lunchmeats packed with nitrates, sodium, and the shadow of factory farming, and sodas packed either with corn syrup or with aspartame, kids could enjoy the following nutrients:

From the raw chia and flax bread: Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids, calcium, protein, fiber, and what’s leftover from numerous veggies

From the avocado: Heart-healthy polyunsaturated fats, which have the added bonus of helping to signal satiety and prevent overeating

From the lettuce and tomato: Vitamins A and C; lycopene, alpha-tomatine, and powerful antioxidants.

From the tahini dressing: Traces of calcium and minerals, as well as a lot of taste.

What a world that would be.

Here at school, I’ve noticed a lot of unhealthy eating—diet soda and nibbling at soy crisps among some of the young women (it’s strange, by the way, to be exposed to college age eating disorders again at this point in my life) and Taco Bell, Subway, and lots of white bread and potato chips for many others. Both approaches are pretty void of nutrients, which is the main source of my concern. In spite of how people always say doctors have poor eating habits themselves, however, my fellow post-baccs are a pretty healthy bunch: lots of awareness about good eating habits, and a tremendous collective zeal for exercise (those who suffer through Orgo together, sweat together). I like to hope I bring a little inspiration to the group through the daily experience of bringing “weird food” to campus: chia puddings, raw bars, and salads that take up more room in my bag than do my textbooks. I’ve even got some of my peers hooked on kale chips.

So for now, while I can’t do much to change the stubborn, bottom-line driven thinking among the powers that be here in the nation’s capitol, I can at least share my passion for veggies with the world. Starting now.

Gena’s Favorite Raw Sandwich (raw, vegan, gluten and soy free)

Serves 1

2 squares Chia Flax Sandwich Bread (follow my instructions for chia juice pulp crackers, adding 1/4 cup flax and using 1/2 cup water. Score and cut into sandwich size pieces rather than crackers!)

Veggies:

• Avocado
• Cucumber
• Tomato
• Beet
• Lettuce
• etc.

Drizzle of my tangy tahini dressing

1) Pile bread high with veggies.

Close it all up:

And enjoy with fresh fruit, as well as some raw or cooked soup, some salad, or some whole grains/beans.

Delicious. With fingers crossed, maybe vegan—or even high raw—lunches will be more commonplace in twenty or fifty years. Maybe they’ll even be in school lunchrooms.

A girl can hope.

Before I sign off tonight: more Thanksgiving ideas!

Vegan Colcannon with Kale

Black Bean and Sweet Potato Enchiladas

Raw Stuffing!

Roasted Cauliflower and Parsnip Soup

Back here tomorrow, in the midst of cooking…

xo

In my last post, I showed you my delicious recipe for pretty in pink crackers: in translation, these are pink-hued crackers that I made with the remnants of some beet and vegetable juice.

I also mentioned that I’d had some extra pulp leftover after I made my crackers, and that I’d made another tasty meal with it.

Above you have raw nori rolls, stuffed with a nut pate that I made with my leftover pulp and tons of fresh veggies. They are plump, savory, and simple to make:

They’re also raw, vegan, and full of healthy fat, vitamins and minerals, and iodine rich nori. You can absolutely prepare these with shredded and processed beets and carrots, rather than juice pulp, but if you are using pulp, these get extra bonus points for being a wonderful way to use up the byproducts of your daily green juice.

People tend to get really freaked out about sushi-making, and there’s no need. Yes, making traditional sushi can be time consuming (I find that getting the rice to a perfect texture and adjusting its seasoning alone is a process) but raw nori rolls are really easy: you just pile some pate, hummus, or other filling onto the bottom 2/3 of a nori sheet, pile veggies into a line along the center of your filling, and then roll from the bottom edge up to the top. Seal with a touch of water. I always wait about 5-10 minutes before cutting my raw nori roll, as the nori becomes softer and a bit easier to handle. Once you slice your long roll into pieces, you have a restaurant worthy and beautiful treat to share with your friends:

I fill my nori rolls up with all sorts of things: parsnip and cauliflower “rice,” pate, hummus, dressing and veggies, and regular ‘ole brown rice, just to name a few. But I think I like the texture of a pate base the most: reminds me of my beloved nori rolls at Bonobos in NYC!

(photo courtesy of Sophia)

Any kind of nut pate will do, but I personally love a little ginger in my nori pates. I’m also a huge fan of my pumpkinseed pate for raw sushi!

To make today’s sushi rolls, you’ll need juice pulp, preferably with some beets and carrots, or you’ll want about a cup and a half of grated carrots and beets. The rest is a mix of almonds, dates, sea salt, lemon, and a hint of ginger: simple, clean, and impossibly tasty.

Raw Nori Rolls with Beet and Veggie Pate (raw, vegan, gluten and soy free)

Makes 4 sushi rolls

2/3 cup almonds
1/2 tsp sea salt (or to taste)
1 1/2 cups pulp from vegetable juice of choice that features beets and carrots OR a cup and a half of shredded carrots and beets
2 pitted dates
1/4 tsp ginger powder OR put ginger into your veggie juice, and the flavor will carry from the pulp
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup water

4 sheets nori
1 small bell pepper, sliced into thin strips
1/2 small cucumber, sliced into thin strips
Salad greens

1) Place almonds in a food processor and grind with sea salt till a fine meal.

2) Add pulp, dates, ginger (if adding) sesame oil, and lemon juice to processor. Pulse just to combine. Then, turn the motor on and, with motor running, add water in a thin stream, stopping occasionally to scrape sides of bowl. Continue adding water till the pate is a consistency you like. If you use shredded veggies, you’ll probably need less water.

3) Place a sheet of nori on your cutting board in a horizontal direction. Cover the bottom 2/3 of the sheet with about 1/4 cup pate. Fill the center of the spread with a long strip of veggies. Roll upwards from the bottom of the sheet (the edge that has filling on it) upward, and seal the end with a bit of water.

4) Repeat, using the remaining sheets. Cut all rolls into even pieces, and serve.

Traditional sushis these are not, but they’re no less tasty for it. Serve with a big salad, topped with some lentils or beans and a great dressing, and you’ll have a perfect, high-raw meal on your hands!

Before I sign off, I wanted to congratulate my friend Chad Harbach on the publication of his new novel, The Art of Fielding. I’ve known Chad for years now—we spent our first publishing drink discussing Moby Dick, which is how I knew we’d be friends—and can tell you that he’s as brilliant as he is unassuming and kind. He’s editing and writing for N+1 for years now, and it makes me really happy to see his name on a book spine, too. For all of you who ask me frequently for book recommendations, this is my fiction pick of the fall.

Chad, congrats—I wish I were in NYC to toast you. But I know that the whole publishing world is doing it in my stead.

xo

Every day, I get emails, tweets, and comments asking me how to “go raw.” Since I don’t tend to think of raw food in all or nothing terms, I find the language of “going raw” a little problematic. But even if you are committed to going all raw, I’d tell you the same thing I tell everyone: add first, subtract later. And I’d add this piece of crucial advice: don’t start by thinking about your favorite cooked entrée (say, lasagna) and trying to make a raw version in the dehydrator. Make every simple dish raw (soups, salads, veggie sides, dressings, dips) and cook the rest. If you get your bearings quickly and want to invest in a dehydrator, go for it, but I don’t think it’s the place to begin.

For this reason, I think I sometimes run the risk of sounding anti-dehydration, which isn’t entirely true, either. If anything, this was the summer of Gena and her dehydrator: every week, I whipped up a batch of kale chips, crackers, raw flatbread, and apple chips at the least. For a lady who owned a dehydrator for a full five months before she even opened the box, this is a pretty impressive track record! I still don’t tend to make any entrees in the dehydrator (if I want lasagna, I’ll make a simple raw version, or I’ll cook one with some regular old noodles), but I do use it at least 3-4 times weekly for packable snacks.

More often than not, my dehydrated goody of choice will be some variation of my juice pulp crackers. I make these again and again and again, using a variety of seasonings, flax/nut/pulp ratios, and textures. I love raw crackers (they get packed as a snack or part of my lunch every single weekday), and now that I have a couple of midday breaks in my school schedule, I can hurry home and use my juicer. More juicing (hooray!) means more organic juice pulp to take advantage of: I really hate throwing away piles of high quality veggies, even if what’s left is mostly fiber.

Yesterday, I had some beets on hand, so I made my first beet/veggie juice in ages (I usually use carrots or apple for sweetness, but I should really start using beets more often). The scarlet colored pulp that was leftover from

• 4 beets
• 2 carrots
• 1 cucumber
• 3 stalks of celery
• a bunch of kale
• half an apple

…looked perfect for some vividly colored veggie crackers. Here’s how I used it up:

Pretty in Pink Crackers (raw, vegan, gluten and soy free)

Makes about 30 crackers

2 full cups of beet and other veggie juice pulp
1/3 cup flax or chia seed, ground
1/4 cup pumpkin seeds
1/2 tsp sea salt (add more if you’d like to) 
2 tsp dried parsley OR an herb mix you like: parsley, thyme, rosemary, etc.
1 scant cup water

1) Add chia and/or flax to the pumpkin seeds and grind in your food processor (fitted with the “S” blade) till powdery.

2) Add pulp, sea salt, parsley. Run the processor and drizzle in your water, stopping to scrape sides now and then, till you have a pasty but spreadable mixture. Use your judgment: if your pulp was very “wet,” you may not need a whole cup of liquid.

3) Spread onto Teflex lined dehydrator sheets and score into cracker shapes. Dehydrate at 115 degrees for 8 hours (or overnight), flip, and continue dehydrating till crispy. Enjoy!

If pumpkin seeds (also known as pepitas) aren’t your thing, feel free to use almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds, or hemp seeds. They all work fabulously in raw crackers. And also feel free to vary your pulp: the point of this exercise is to use up all that glorious produce, so even if you don’t have the beets that give my crackers their hue, you can proceed with this recipe template.

Later this week, you can expect another application for veggie pulp with beet in it. For now, I’ll remind you that, if you don’t have a juicer, you can always grate and then process veggies to provide the base for these kinds of raw crackers. And you can also always bake them at 350 or so for about 35 minutes. We’re all about flexibility here at Choosing Raw

Speaking of flexible things, I have an organic chem model set that’s begging me to build some cycloalkanes. On that note, I bid you all a good night!

xo

Hey all! Glad you liked my Aloo Gobi wraps. They’re mighty delicious, and they’ve quickly found a place on my “to make again soon” list.

I’m back today with a very different kind of recipe. It is, I’m sorry to say, yet another raw cracker recipe, but I’m taking a break from the usual flax or chia meal/pulp/spice formulation to share something a little heartier and more flavorful. I love the simplicity of my regular old juice pulp crackers (flax or chia variety) but what I’m finding lately is that being in class till noon, on my feet from noon to 3:30, and studying till the wee hours means that I need foods that are higher-fuel than the usual. Flax and pulvarized veggies taste great (to me) but they’re not quite high enough in the fats and/or protein I need to keep going over an extended period of time—especially since I don’t have much room for food breaks in the summer class schedule.

So that’s where these crackers came from. I wanted to keep the basic idea of my juice crackers intact (juice pulp, spices, salt, flax or chia to bind), but add some nuts or seeds for a little extra calorie and nutrient density. I used almonds to make that happen, but keep in mind that you could certainly use cashews, sunflower seeds, or pumpkin seeds, too. They’d all be delicious, and seeds are typically cheaper than tree nuts.

What’ll make you happiest about this recipe is that I’ve included both non-dehydrator and non-juicer recipe variations—this means you can make these crackers even if you don’t have raw food appliances at home! I hope it’s also a reminder that eating raw is simply a means of preparation; anyone can harness the benefits of plant-based nutrition at home, often with no more than a good knife and a mixing bowl. I use a food processor (my most used kitchen appliance) here, but you could even use a spice mill to grind the nuts and then mix by hand.

What’ll make you second happiest is that this recipe is a guaranteed crowd-pleaser: whether it’s the ginger and tamari, the thick texture, or the simple goodness of green, it’s a recipe tasty enough to appeal even to those of us who’d find regular juice pulp crackers a little bland. You can enjoy them on your own, or share them with anyone: I call that a winning proposition.

Crowd Pleasing Green Crackers (raw, vegan, gluten free, soy free if you replace tamari with coconut aminos)

Yields 35 crackers

1 cup almonds (not soaked)
1/4 cup chia seed
2 – 2 1/2 cups green juice pulp with ginger (if you don’t have juice pulp, use 2 cups grated zucchini and 1 inch grated ginger, along with a fistful of spinach)
3-4 tbsp regular or low sodium tamari (use your own taste here; I like these salty, but you can absolutely modify for a lower-sodium diet)
Black pepper to taste
Juice of 1 lemon
2 cups water

1) Grind almonds and chia seed in a food processor (or coffee grinder, or spice mill) till finely ground.

2) Add the juice pulp or veggies, tamari, black pepper, and lemon juice. Pulse to combine (you’ll probably need to work on scraping the bowl as you do this).

3) With motor running, begin adding water. You may not need two full cups; what you want is to keep adding water and scraping the bowl until you have a mixture that’s still sticky and thick, but spreadable.

4) When you’ve created a proper “dough,” remove it from the food processor and spread onto a single Teflex dehydrator sheet (you want these crackers relatively thick). Score into cracker shapes.

5) Dehydrate at 115 degrees for 7 or 8 hours. Flip the cracker dough over (you may want to put a new Teflex sheet on top, flip the whole thing, and peel the first Teflex sheet off). Continue to dehydrate for 4-5 hours. Break the crackers apart, and serve.

If you don’t have a dehydrator: Line a baking sheet with parchment, and spread the dough onto it evenly. Bake at 350 degrees till nice and crispy: I’d guess this take 40 minutes or so, but use your kitchen intuition to see when it’s done.

As I said before: crowd pleasing. Seriously. Hope you try them soon!

And now, a big announcement: I’ve been nominated for two VegNews Magazine Veggie Awards! I can’t believe it! I just found out at the end of last week, and I’m so delighted to share the news with you. Now, I try never to grovel here on my blog, or ask you guys for much (except your killer comments and thoughts), but I’m hereby genuflecting and asking you all to please support me with your vote!

Voting can be done here, and it’s very easy: you can either enter your vote for all categories (which I suggest doing, so that you can show support for movers and shakers in our community!) or you can skip ahead by hitting “more veggie awards please” at the bottom, until you get to the “people and media” page. I’m listed under best column (“Raw Done Right”) and best blog (“Choosing Raw”).

For voting, you qualify to win a year of Luna and Larry’s Coconut Bliss Ice cream, a Vitamix, trips around the world, and pounds of vegan chocolate. All for a click of the mouse. And you’ll also be doing me a huge personal favor, which is to show your support for CR. It has been very tough to keep up my blog with summer pre-med studies, counseling, and (starting now) MCAT prep, so I really appreciate that I’m still being offered the chance at this award, which is a big honor in the vegan community. I’d be so excited if you all helped me to get there.

With that, back to work. See you all tomorrow!

xo

So, so glad you you enjoyed my 7 links post! If you’re new to my blog, I hope that the post inspired you to explore the archives a little, and delve into new territory. I’m also happy that a lot of you discovered the posts that matter most to me. I’m excited to see what my tagged ladies have to say!

As I’m sure you’ve noticed, I’ve been on a cracker roll since my summer term began. There’s a good reason for this: I’m usually eating lunch at school or on the go, I snack frequently because my days are long, and I’m a big fan of dips and spreads, which means I need a handy vehicle to serve them with.

Raw crackers have been my catchall solution for on-the-go eating lately. They keep forever, they allow me to use up my juice pulp from juicing, and they’re easy to pack. They’re also versatile, tasty, and—at least when I make them—vegan and raw. I’ve had so many variations lately, including my lemon thyme crackers:

My chia juice pulp crackers:

And my gingery carrot sunflower crackers:

These are all savory crackers, and they’re traditionally flavored (well, as traditional as raw food can ever be!). Last week, since I had some leftover apple pulp on my hands, I decided to put a sweet spin on my typical juice pulp cracker recipe. I loved the results, and I’m here to share them, but for all of you without juicers, I’m going to offer a non-pulp option, too! The nice thing about these crackers is that they’re remarkably light (I didn’t go too heavy on the flax meal) so they offer sweetness without too much density.

Sweet & Light Crackers (raw, vegan, gluten free)

Yields about 40 crackers

1.5 cups carrot pulp and 1.5 cups apple pulp (OR, use 1.5 cups grated carrot and 1.5 cups chopped apple)
5 tbsp flax meal
1/2 cup pitted dates (about 7 large ones), soaked for a few hours or overnight
Salt to taste (I used about 1/4 tsp)
Water

1) Place all ingredients except for water in a food processor and process to break down, till mixture is crumbly. Stop and scrape sides if needed.

2) Begin processing with the motor running and add water in a thin stream to help keep the "dough" moving. Keep stopping to scrape the sides of the processor as you go along.

3) Continue to add water till you have a mixture that’s thick and a little sticky, but easy to spread. This may take a while, but be patient!

4) Spread onto Teflex sheets and score into square crackers (or flatbread shapes). Dehydrate at 115 degrees for about six hours; flip, and dehydrate for another four. Serve.

See the little specks of date in these crackers? SO delicious!!

If you add ample salt here, you’ll find that the crackers are a perfect marriage of savory and sweet. In fact, I served them the other evening with savory ginger lime edamame hummus (which is already a big hit!) and some kale salad:

And it’s really hard to beat 4 ingredients.

Speaking of 4-ingredient recipes, I’m in the middle of a busy school week (3 quizzes, 7 assignments, 4 labs, and an exam on Tuesday) so this will be a week of hurry up recipes. See you back here tomorrow!

xo

So happy you guys liked my latest hurry up vegan recipe! That quinoa salad was polished off last night, and the leftovers were good to the last drop. I hope some of you get a chance to test it soon.

Speed is the theme of today’s post, too: it’s a recipe that takes about five minutes to prepare, and I’m hoping to finish this post in about that amount of time. I know I’ve been giving you guys a lot of juice pulp recipes these days—and I’m sure that’s a blessing for some readers, and a drag for others—but I’m going to have to ask you to bear with me, since I am trying to juice consistently throughout this busy time, and more juice means more pulp to recycle.

One of my favorite uses for juice pulp is to make dips and spreads, as well as my customary juice pulp crackers. I make a green guacamole that I love, and there’s also a carrot dill spread that’s near and dear to my heart. Today’s little recipe is really no different from these—you’ll see in a moment how totally repetitive it is—but it’s worth sharing some photos so that you can see how wonderful 4-ingredient recipes with cooking castoff materials can be.

Carrot Avocado Pate (raw, vegan, gluten free)

Serves 2

1 heaping cup carrot, celery, and cucumber pulp (any carrot combo would be great)
1 small avocado
1 squeeze lemon juice
1 tbsp tamari/nama shoyu

Process in a food processor till mushy. Eat however you like. In my case, that means serve it with salad and some raw crackers of your choosing.

If you are into juice pulp, try this soon! Sometimes, the fastest foods can be the tastiest.

And now, it’s back to work I go. I’ll have a special restaurant review for you tomorrow!

xo

So glad that everyone enjoyed my big questions. In posing them, I mentioned that my mother simply cannot seem to get used to the weirdness of my food, but made a bold prediction that one day she will. My friend Karen wrote in saying,

Good luck on that prediction that one day your weird food will look normal to your Mom…I’ve been eating a clean vegetarian/vegan diet for 25+ years and my otherwise worldly and intelligent and lovely parents still don’t get it!

Yep, I thought. That’s probably true. I’ve gotten my mom to appreciate almond milk and the odd raw entrée or two, but the foreignness of my diet will never cease to amaze her. Or other people, for that matter.

This week, as I ease into a new and much more intense class schedule, I’m also easing into a lot of bonding time with my fellow post-baccs. We eat together, perform labs together, study together, complain together, cry together, laugh together, and yes, we also eat together. When you’re stuck in class with the same group of people from 8am-3pm daily, you grow very accustomed to seeing what they eat: snacks, packed breakfasts, packed lunches, treats, beverages, and treats.

Most post-baccs eat the predictable stuff: PB&J, turkey sandwiches, muffins, yogurts, fruit, snack bars. And then there’s me, munching on my packed chia and fruit puddings:

I’ve noticed that I usually get some quizzical looks when I eat these guys. Ditto for my homemade snack bars and energy balls. And let’s not even start on kale salad.

Of course, I’m used to a certain amount of eyebrow-raising when it comes to my diet, and that’s fine with me. But I’m also very determined to share the joys of vegan and raw food with the world. This summer, I’m bringing my plot to take over the world with veggies celebration of colorful food to the Georgetown campus, and I’m starting with my fellow post-baccs.

Today, a few of us gathered in the library for a brief respite between lab and lecture. My friends Peter and Anna eyed me suspiciously as I ate crackers that looked like this:

“What are those,” Peter inquired.

“They’re carrot and sunflower seed crackers,” I replied. “They’re a little weird, but tasty.”

I broke off a piece for Anna and Peter, and, as they began to munch, I had a moment I often have, which is wondering if my food appeals to everyone, or if it’s only tasty to me and my readers and other people who share our (slightly offbeat) tastes. If the latter is true, I think I’m doing a great job cooking for me, but maybe I’m not doing as great a job sharing veganism with others.

Much to my delight, Anna perked up. “Mmmmm,” she said. “These are really good! Do you have more?” I didn’t—I had scarfed them all down—but I was almost giddy with excitement about her excitement. I promised the gang I’d bring more in, and then I breathed a sigh of relief, because the whole exchange reminded me that it is possible to make food that’s simple and good enough to appeal to seasoned raw foods lovers and mainstream eaters both. Thank goodness I can stay true to my own tastes while also delighting the tastes of other people.

And the best part? The crackers started with carrot pulp. Yes, carrot pulp. If only my friends had known.

Gingery Carrot and Roasted Sunflower Seed Crackers (vegan, mostly raw, gluten free, soy free)

Makes about 40 crackers

1 cup sunflower roasted sunflower seeds*
2 1/2 cups carrot pulp
4 tbsp flax meal
1 tsp sea salt (or more to taste)
Black pepper to taste
1 tbsp minced ginger, or 1/2 tsp powdered ginger

1) Place sunflower seeds in a food processor fitted with the “S” blade. Grind well.

2) Add the pulp, flax, and spices to the bowl. Process till the mixture is thick but moist enough to spread.

3) Spread mixture onto two Teflex lined dehydrator sheets and score into cracker and/or flatbread shapes.

4) Dehydrate at 115 degrees for about 6 hours. Flip the dough (it should be dry enough to peel off and do this) and dehydrate on other side for another 4 hours.

Non-dehydrator option!: Spread onto parchment lines baking sheets. Bake in an oven set to 350 degrees for about 40 minutes, or until dry and crispy.

*You don’t have to use roasted sunflower seeds if you feel strongly about it: I did because they really enhance the taste for this particular recipe.

These crackers are oh-so-savory and flavorful!

Yet another way to use up your juicing leftovers, conserve veggies, nourish your body, snack on quality food, and maybe, just maybe, share the love with others.

And if you’re not into crackers, my raw carrot falafel just might be a crowd pleaser, too.

What’s your favorite vegan or raw recipe to share with your friends? Do you consider yourself an offbeat eater? If so, how do you reconcile your own tastes with the world around you?

xo