Celebrating an all-natural lifestyle

Roast Veggie and Goat “Cheese” Wrap, and Two Announcements

Wow. Thank you all so much for the amazing response to my post on coping with unwanted body commentary. One of my main goals for Choosing Raw in 2010 is to have many more conversations about body image, self-perception, self-acceptance, and life with and after disordered eating. I was amazed by the quality of discourse in the comments section after my post (I always am), and I thank you for it.  I hope you’ll keep doing that as I ruminate on these topics, starting provocative conversations with each other and with me.

I thought I’d take a little interlude from body and self-acceptance talk to talk about something far less deep: yesterday’s lunch. Remember my raw, vegan spin on roast beet and goat cheese salad?

I made it, you may recall, because I had a beautiful hunk of fermented macadamia cheese handy, and because roast beet and goat cheese salad was my very favorite goat cheese dish in my pre-vegan days. My second favorite dish was roast vegetable and goat cheese sandwich creations (the finest one of these, I thought, was served at Craftbar here in the city). Yesterday, as I packed my work lunch, I realized that I had an abundance of three things: 1) leftover fermented mac cheese, 2) leftover roast beets, and 3) a big ‘ole tub of my raw, marinated veggies, which I’d also dehydrated for a few hours to soften (making them akin to a raw version of “roast” veggies). Lucky me, I also had some collard greens, so it seemed like a no brainer that my lunch would have to be a high raw, all vegan spin on a roast vegetable and goat cheese wrap.

When lunchtime rolled around at work, I simply layered my marinated veggies, my roast beets, and my “cheese”:

And wrapped it all up. In the end, it looked like this:

Avec salade, it fed body and soul better than any wrap I remember. Hooray for innovative work lunches! I sometimes say that I’m not a fan of leftovers, but every time I do something like this with them, I change my tune.

Before I sign off, I have two big announcements:

1) Tickets for the 2010 Healthy Living Summit go on sale tomorrow at 9 p.m.! For a recap of last year’s summit, you can read my review here; this year, I’ll be in attendance not as a guest, but as a speaker! Caitlin and I will be hosting a panel on body image and self-acceptance that we call “Stop Staring Over Your Shoulder: How to Avoid the Self Comparison Trap.” Our goal will be to analyze the negative effects of comparing yourself to others (specifically, comparing your body and lifestyle habits to others peoples’). I’ll be talking about the proliferation of healthy eating “trends,” the dangers of eating in a way that’s out of step with your needs, and the rise of orthorexia (a term I still have mixed feelings about). Caitlin will talk about the anxiety created in the media by photoshopping and unrealistic portrayals of the female body, and competitive fitness routines. We hope it’ll be a provocative and inspiring conversation, and we’ll want lots of participation. Which means I’d love to have to have some of my CR readers in the audience! If you’re interested in traveling to the Summit, information on registration will go up on the website tomorrow, so please check in.

2) Since we’re all enjoying these conversations about body image, I wanted to give you a head’s up that I’ll have a guest post up sometime tomorrow and/or Thursday on Kate’s blog, Eat the Damn Cake. The blog, which has been up and running for a few months, is full of daring conversations about body image, food, feminism, and beauty. The post I’m contributing is one of the more intimate ones I’ve ever written on my own relationship with my body, so I’ll be giving you all an invitation to check it out when it goes up. Hope you’ll take a peek!

On that note, I’m off to work and then sleep. But I wanted to let you know that I got through this morning’s workout with my customary friendly exchange with Gina (no hard feelings), and little thought given to my hulky, muscled, strapping lower body

I also had my first physical therapy appointment, which left me momentarily sore, but my pain is a little better tonight. Fingers crossed for some real recovery!

xo

Raw, Vegan Spin on Beet and Goat Cheese Salad

Hola!

GREAT response to my chia seed giveaway! Keep them coming. For those of you who didn’t check in yesterday, I’m giving away a giant bag of chia seeds. Come and get’ em!

Yesterday’s sun and cheery disposition persisted well into today, which was busy, but touched by beautiful weather. Yay! Double yay for the fact that I got to spend a little time in my kitchen—not as much as I would have liked, but just enough to keep me sane.

I often here the same thing from clients, friends, and acquaintances who are thinking about veganism: “I’d love to, but I don’t think I could ever give up cheese.” Cheese, it seems, inspires some  pretty fierce devotion—a fact that’s hard for me to understand, since I never much liked the stuff. Even pizza—most beloved of beloved foods—was never a fave.

I did, though, have one fondness when it came to fromage, and that was for goat cheese. Odd, maybe, given that I’m sensitive to the more fragrant, soft varieties of cow’s cheese, but there you are. I liked to toss it in salads or with roast veggies, and while I can’t say I miss it, I can say that the challenge of finding a vegan simulacrum has been on my mind. Simultaneously, I’ve been meaning to try a fermented spin on nut “cheese”; I adore my nut cheeses, which I’ve written about here and here. And I’ve been curious to see how they would taste fermented.

So this weekend, I was on a dual mission: 1) make fermented vegan cheese, and 2) make it taste like the goat cheese of my memories. Let’s also throw in 3), which was to replicate the goat cheese dish I used to most enjoy: roast beets, spinach, and goat cheese salad with candied walnuts. A few hours later, mission was accomplished!

Fermenting: it sounds so intimidating. In fact, it’s an easy process: making kraut, kimchee, coconut yogurt, and fermented nut cheese is as simple as watching and waiting. You mix your ingredients (sometimes with the addition of probiotic powder), and leave them in a warm place for at least 6-12 hours (in the case of something like sauerkraut, you’ll have to leave them for at least three days). When the fermenting process is done, you’re left with a tangy food that’s loaded with healthy bacteria and is optimal for smooth digestion.

To make a fermented nut cheese—either the one I’m about to share, or any variety—you begin with one cup of raw nuts or seeds. Soak them in filtered water for at least six hours (this will do for seeds, cashews, and pine nuts) and up to twelve (better for almonds, Brazil nuts, macadamia nuts, walnuts, and pecans). If you’re soaking the nuts for more than six hours, stop once to drain, rinse, and replenish the nuts with fresh water.

The next step is simple: when the nuts have finished soaking, you place them into a food processor with 2 teaspoons unpasteurized miso and a few tablespoons of water. You can also add ½ teaspoon of probiotic powder; not necessary, but great for your belly. (You can simply break apart a few probiotic capsules, if you like, to get the powder.) Process the mix till it’s crumbly but still holds its shape: I aimed for my texture to resemble ricotta cheese.

Wash a mason jar with hot water and soap, and dry it thoroughly. Place the fermented nut cheese in the jar, making sure there’s enough room for the mix to expand a bit, which it will as it ferments. Cover the jar with cheesecloth or a nutmilk bag, and secure it, with a rubber band. Place the mix in a warm place—85-95 degrees is optimal—and leave it be for six hours or more. Twelve hours is an optimal fermentation time, but if you let it go much longer than that it may turn a bit sour.

For my raw, vegan “goat’s cheese,” I used a cup of macadamias, and I soaked them about thirteen hours (overnight and then some). I blended them with my miso, processed till smooth, and placed in a glass jar covered with a nut milk bag. The temperature in my apartment is wacky these days—it’s freezing one day here in NYC, stifling the next, so my heat is on and off—so in order to assure that the cheese would ferment properly, I placed the whole jar in my dehydrator overnight and set it at 90 degrees.

It emerged looking something like this:

The top of any fermented nut or seed cheese will be either a little yellow or a little gray. That’s OK – it’s a part of the fermentation process. If you’d like, you can scrape off this thin covering. Then, give it a taste; it ought to be tangy, soft, and a little salty. Yum!

The next part is fun: you season the nut cheese however you’d like. It’s easiest to do this by pulsing the mix in your food processor again, but it’s fine to do by hand, too. I recommend that you add some sea salt and lemon to any fermented cheese; even with the miso, it’ll most likely need it. In addition to giving it flavor, the salt and lemon combination will make it taste far more like actual cheese. I added ¼ tsp sea salt and a good dose of lemon to my mac cheese, but take note: you could add dill, oregano, sundried tomatoes, black pepper, or any combination of herbs and spices you’d like to make the cheese taste better and more authentic.

By the time I was done, I had a cup of tangy, salty “cheese” that was, honest to god, a dead ringer for goat’s cheese as I remember it. I was flabbergasted. And it looked pretty similar, too! Check it out:

Thrilled with my efforts, I brainstormed about my salad. I had roast beets on hand (I usually do) and salad greens. I also tend to keep a tub of traditional French vinaigrette in the fridge, which is what I wanted to dress this salad with; the recipe is below, but any lemony vinaigrette will do. The only remaining components were the candied walnuts I’d planned on. Keep in mind that, if you’re in a rush, you can definitely skip these, and use raw walnuts instead! They’ll simply add a nice touch to the salad.

It’s very easy to make a raw spin on candied nuts: you coat them with agave/raw honey, a touch of oil, salt, and cinnamon. Typically, you should dehydrate the coated nuts for at least 12-24 hours, but it’s also possible to take a little shortcut, as I did. With not a lot of time on my hands (a few hours), I did a quick spin on candied walnuts: I mixed a teaspoon of agave nectar with ½ tsp coconut oil and a dash of cinnamon. Into this I mixed 1 oz of walnuts, and stirred to coat. I popped them into the dehydrator for 6 hours, and they emerged still sticky, but delicious.

With these in hand, I was ready to make:

Vegan Roast Beet, Goat Cheese, and Spinach Salad with Candied Walnuts (serves 1)

For the salad:

3 cups baby spinach (or a spinach + mesclun mix)
1 medium or large roasted beet, chopped
3 tbsp raw, fermented vegan “goat cheese”
1 oz (or so) candied OR raw walnut pieces

For the dressing:

1 ½ tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon minced shallot (I don’t add this, but it’s very traditional)
1/4 teaspoon Salt
1/8 teaspoon Black pepper
1/4 cup Good olive oil

Whisk all ingredients till smooth and emulsified.

Assembling the salad is a cinch: simply toss the salad ingredients together, and whisk in enough vinaigrette to coat lightly. The resulting salad is as close to a beet and goat cheese salad as any vegan dish could be; I’d even wager that an amateur cheese fan might be fooled.

Or maybe not. Most cheese fans I know (hi bun!) tend to have discerning palates. So if you are a cheese lover, and you have to have the real deal, here are my tips

•    Try goat’s cheese, which has little or no lactose, if you’re prone to bloating or touchy digestion
•     If you like the taste of hard cheese, you might try raw cheddar style goat cheese, which is increasingly available in health stores
•    If you’re going to eat regular, bovine cheeses, opt for a local, organic variety if you can.

But really, you should give this mac cheese a try. It’s a very pleasant surprise!

With that, the work week begins. Nighty!
xo

Collard Wraps with Italian “Pizza Cheese”

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