Celebrating an all-natural lifestyle

Autumn Dinner Party

Ah, seasonal food. How sweet it is. How sweet, especially, at this time of year. Tomatoes and peppers still linger from August, while kale, carrots, and broccoli arrive by the bushel, and winter squash are just beginning to appear. There’s nothing quite like autumn.

In spite of the wear and tear that the impending holiday season can make on cooks, this remains my favorite time of the year to entertain. It allows me to showcase my favorite foods (dark greens, winter squash, broccoli, apples, carrots, beets – the list goes on and on) in all of their seasonal splendor, and with temperatures dropping outside, cozy dinners at home seem all the more appealing.

In honor of my favorite season, I’d like to start a new Choosing Raw tradition: the raw seasonal dinner party menu. With the advent of each new season, I’ll spotlight a high-raw, seasonal menu that you can use to entertain for friends, family, or just your roommate/companion. And I’ll do my best to ensure that they’re as accessible and tasty as they are 100% vegan, high-raw, and healthy.

I’ll begin with the dinner below, which I had the honor of serving to my pal Diana a few weeks ago. This meal was a true winner: comforting, cozy, and light at the same time. It began with a new soup creation that’s quickly rising to the very top of my list of favorite soups, and culminated in a half-cooked, half-raw beet “ravioli” that had Diana and I swooning in our stools (yeah, stools. I live in New York; high table dining is par for the course). It would be a perfect dinner to serve to anyone, raw or cooked, since it utilizes familiar flavors (root veggies, cinnamon) and textures (thick soup; crisp salad; tender ravioli). In short? It’s a winner. So much so, that I’m seriously contemplating making it for me and my mother on Christmas Eve (which, in practice, will mean a few bites for my intrepid mother, and the rest for me)—though I do try to concoct a new recipe each year for that occasion.

Without further ado, I present the Raw Autumn Dinner Party.

The Menu

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup
Kale Salad with Red Cabbage and Carrots
Beet “Ravioli” Stuffed with Sweet Root Vegetable Mash

The dinner begins with the soup, which I’ve been making nonstop since I first perfected the recipe. I serve it cold, natch, but you could absolutely warm it on the stovetop if you like!

Gena’s Raw Butternut Squash and Apple Soup (serves 2-4, depending on the appetites in question. If you’re making it for a group of four or more, you may want to double the recipe to be safe!)

4 cups butternut squash, chopped
1 cup fresh apple juice or cider
1/3 cup orange juice
1/3 cup water (a bit less if you like a very thick soup)
2 large stalks celery
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
4 pitted and soaked dates (or 2 tbsps agave)
1 tsp salt
Dash of soy sauce
Dash of onion powder (or some fresh onion, if desired)

Blend all in a high speed blender till smooth and creamy.

If you don’t have a high speed blender, raw squash will really be a pain, so I recommend steaming the squash and celery very gently first. Then, blend away. You can serve it cool, or reheat on the stove post-blending.

Next up is the “ravioli.”

Begin with a simple root vegetable mash. This one was:

Sweet Potato and Turnip Mash

4 sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 large turnips, peeled and chopped
1 heaping tbsp Dijon mustard
1 ½ tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsps agave
1 generous tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp nutmeg
½ tsp salt (adjust to taste)
Pepper to taste

Steam the root vegetables for about twenty or thirty minutes, or until very fork tender. Put them in a food processor with the remaining ingredients and blend till very rich and smooth – you may have to stop often to scrape the sides of the bowl.

To assemble the “ravioli,” slice red or yellow beets very thinly on a mandolin or by hand (it will be hard by hand, but not impossible!). You can also try a really great peeler or box grater.

Top each round of beet with about 1-2 tbsps of the warm veggie mash. Put another beet on top, and voila: a sweet, savory, and sumptuous half-raw pasta creation that will leave your guests smiling.

Finally, the salad:

Massaged Kale Salad with Red Cabbage and Carrots (serves 4 modestly)

1 head kale, washed, de-stemmed, and chopped finely
1 ½ cups thinly sliced red cabbage
3 large carrots, grated
2 tbsp olive oil
1 avocado
¼ cup lemon juice
Bragg’s Liquid Aminos

Begin by massaging the oil into the kale with your hands. Stop when it’s slightly wilted down and tender. Then, chop up half of the avocado and smoosh it into the kale, too. Add the remaining veggies, the other half avocado, lemon juice, and season it all with Braggs to taste (you could of course use salt or nama shoyu here).

Chew and savor!

Dessert could be anything you like. Avocado pudding or banana soft serve are always in season; you could also treat yourself to some fresh medjool dates (nature’s candy!) or dark chocolate. Ms. Diana was lucky enough to bring me a giant chocolate macaroon that fed two happy girls.

As far as procedure goes, I recommend the following:

Up to three days before the party:

Peel, chop, and store the butternut squash in an airtight container.

Day prior to party:

1)    Make the root vegetable mash. Put it in an airtight container and refrigerate.
2)    Slice the beets for the ravioli.
3)    Shred the carrots and cabbage for the salad; wash, spin, and chop the kale

Day of the party:

1)    Pre heat the oven to 125-150 degrees (or so). Put the root veggie mash in an oven-safe container and put it in the oven, covered in foil, to warm gently.
2)    Prepare the soup. If you want to, keep it in the oven in a pot while you make the salad.
3)    Assemble the kale salad.

If you take these steps, you should find that prepping for dinner on the day of the party takes no more than thirty minutes.

And the results, I promise you, are fabulous.

I hope this post shows you that you needn’t go crazy with raw cookbooks and dehydrators to put together a high-raw meal that guests will love. The best raw food—the best food of any kind—is simple, no-nonsense fare that highlights in-season produce without a lot of fuss.

And now, I’m off to contemplate what dinner party menus winter will afford me. Stay tuned!

xo

Edited to add: My friend Katie is hosting a very special, very worthy November mission at her blog. It’s called Operation Chocolate-Covered Kindness, and it’s helping her to raise money for two worthy charities. You can help her simply by going over to the blog and checking out some of her wonderful recipes (including a recent slew of raw desserts and sweets). Please join me in supporting her!

Savory Root Vegetable Mash

Hey guys!

As usual, I am blown away by the thoughtful and intelligent comments you guys left on my last post. If you haven’t had a chance to read it (or the responses) yet, please do!

If you read the comments, you’ll notice that I had to clarify a few times what the purpose of the post was. It wasn’t my goal to vilify food or to suggest that you should avoid eating–people, does that sound like me? And it was not, as some readers thought, to suggest that it’s wrong to take pleasure in eating. There is a tendency among some raw foodists to fixate on moving “beyond” food—to reach a place where food is as incidental and insignificant as possible—and I don’t subscribe to this way of thinking. It’s both healthy and natural to take pleasure in the experience of eating.

The purpose of my post was to say that we shouldn’t invest food with more significance than it deserves, nor use it as a crutch to cope with our struggles. Food isn’t devoid of meaning—it can signify pleasure and memory in a significant way—but neither should it be the prevailing source of one’s happiness, sense of self, comfort, ease, and so on. No single activity in life should so singularly control your emotions—working, studying, sleeping, exercising, sex, whatever—and eating is no exception!

But enough of that. Now that we’ve de-mystified food, let’s, um, talk about food.

Remember how I said I’d begin sharing a cooked recipe of the month? Last time, it was carrot fries. For the month of October, it’s going to be root vegetable mash. To be honest, I was going to come up with something much more elaborate and cool, but my kitchen time has been limited. And root vegetable mash is such a favorite of mine—and so versatile and tasty—that I figured I’d just go ahead and share.

For the past two weeks, I’ve been on a turnip kick. I’ve been spiralizing them, steaming them, roasting them, and shaving them into salads. I love them raw and cooked, but I do find that cooking brings out their sweetness. I’ve also found that they happen to go beautifully with another favorite root vegetable of mine: parsnips.

Though my pal Diana recently discovered she hates parsnips. I love them, A lot. Almost as much as I love carrots (almost–there aren’t many things in life I love more than carrots). And I’m always eager for a chance to eat them. So, with apologies to Diana for ruining a perfectly good turnip dish with the addition of parsnips, I present turnip and parsnip mash.

My basic template for all root veggie mash is simple:

1) Steam two or three cups of your favorite root veggie

2) Blend it in your food processor with a tablespoon of coconut oil, salt, and pepper.

Sure, you can get fancy if you’d like to, and add all sorts of herbs or spices (cinnamon and nutmeg are great; so are parsley and rosemary and thyme), but you really don’t have to; the sweetness of root veggies are enough to make them sing. An addition that can be very tasty is, oddly enough, a teaspoon of dijon mustard; I especially like this with turnips!

I recommend using any root veggies you like, in any combination (with the one cautionary suggestion that you pair beets with something really starchy, like potatoes, or else the beets won’t develop a pudding-like consistency).

A few nights ago, two large turnips, peeled and chopped, met three large parsnips, also peeled and chopped. They hung out in a steam bath for about fifteen minutes, went into my processor with some coconut oil, and got a good whirl (it took me a few minutes and a few stops to scrape the sides of the bowl). I added a teaspoon of mustard, a sprinkle of cinnamon, salt, and pepper, and voila:

A perfectly warm, comforting, and sweet treat.

Root veggie mash is a great way to enjoy root vegetables you might not be a fan of; by mixing them with others, you’ll mask their taste a bit. And it’s a great way to get some starchy food in a quick, digestible form; I love eating these mashes as a pre-workout snack. Try one out for yourself!

And while we’re on the topic of warm food, a few of you have written in to ask me how I stay motivated to eat raw in the winter and fall. The answer is, I never need “motivation” to eat raw—this lifestyle isn’t a challenge I hold myself to, nor should it ever feel that way. When I want cooked foods–and for me, this is usually cooked vegetables or grains–I eat them. This is very infrequent, but it happens more in the cold months, and I don’t hesitate to obey.

If you’re struggling to stay raw through the winter months, the answer might be for you to stop struggling so much! As I’ve said before, it’s not eating 100% raw that matters most, so much as eating a diet of plant-based, digestible foods in good combinations. It’s OK to eat cooked or steamed veggies, soups, easy-to-digest cooked grains, or other simple vegan fare when you want it; just remember to honor your digestion and to also include raw veggies in your diet. A combination of raw and cooked should serve you well, and you may find that by eating some cooked foods, your appetite for raw returns! And if you’re determined to stay the course, check out my friend EarthMother’s useful post on eating raw in winter months. I’ll try to share my own tips with you as temperatures drop, too!

Have a great day, all.

xo

P.S. Please vote for my friend Zesty in the Quaker Challenge!

Root Vegetable Salad with Maple Cinnamon Vinaigrette

Ah, autumn.

Season of cider and squash. Of pumpkins and pies. Of nubby sweaters and boots and wool jackets. Of chilly mornings on country porches, sipping hot coffee tea. Of jack o’ lanterns and roast turkeys root veggies.

In spite of the fact that I’m a warm weather girl, fall is my favorite season. I love the clothes (cozy sweaters, vintage boots, corderoys) the seasonal produce (root veggies, brussels sprouts, broccoli, and greens galore), the movies (have I mentioned that I’m a horror movie fanatic? Yeah. Thank god for Halloween), the return of concerts and opera and dance to a culture-parched New York City. I even like the early sundown; for homebodies like me, this simply means all the more reason to curl up with a good book.

Right up at the top of list of reasons to love fall is the appearance of root vegetables at the farmer’s market. Yes, my friends, it’s the little things. Give me a pile of carrots, parsnips (a very underrated veggie, in my opinion), yams, squash and turnips, and I’m gleeful. I eat these vegetables both raw and cooked; I prefer most winter squash baked or steamed, but I sometimes forgo cooking and slice them into salads or slaws. Carrots, beets, and parsnips usually get the raw treatment, whether blended into raw soups, tossed into salads, or simply sliced and marinated.

Since you guys have seen plenty of cooked root veggies on the blog already, I figured this was a good time for me to share a raw root vegetable recipe with you. And this one happens to be just about my favorite. It’s a medley of my beloved root veggies, dressed in a sweet, cinnamony vinaigrette. Best of all, it features a vegetable that I seldom eat, but should eat more often: the sunchoke.

What are sunchokes? Also known as Jerusalem artichokes, these guys are actually related to the sunflower family, and thus to artichokes—whose taste they mimic pretty closely. Cooked, their flesh is sort of a potato-like consistency. Raw, they have a slightly sweet, slightly nutty flavor, which I personally don’t find appealing in large quantities, but do enjoy when they’re shaved into salads. So I eat these guys raw and cooked, and I try to pick them up whenever I see them. They’re a great source of potassium and iron, and—note to my soup loving chefs—their creamy flesh makes them great for thickening and lending richness to blended soups in place of dairy (in season one of Top Chef, Harold Dieterle impressed a room full of classically trained chefs when he thickened a sauce with sunchokes in place of cream).

In this salad, sunchokes come together with parsnips, carrots (I used two carrot varieties, orange and red—the latter is more mild-tasting), sweet potatoes, and dried cranberries. Beets would make a great addition, too! You could also shred in some butternut squash, or even some non root veggies, like zucchini.

It’s probably clear by now that I’m a huge fan of adding sweet flavors to savory dishes. What makes this recipe shine is its sweet maple cinnamon vinaigrette. It couldn’t be more simple, but it’s highly delicious, and it could double as a marinade for roast vegetables, too.

Maple Cinnamon Vinaigrette (yields about 1 cup)

Ingredients:

½ cup oil of choice (I used a mix of olive and flax)
2-3 tbsps balsamic vinegar (start with two; if you like acid, like me, add another at the end)
¼ cup grade B maple syrup or yacon syrup (I used the latter, and it was great)
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsps Dijon mustard
3 tbsps water
¼ tsp salt
Pepper to taste

Directions:

Blend all ingredients in a blender, magic bullet, or food processor until rich and emulsified. Thin with additional water if you need to, but only if. You can also mix this dressing by hand, though it will take a minute for the syrup to break down.

I highly recommend doubling the recipe if you’ve got more than one person in your living space, cause it goes fast! But be sure to preserve some for:

Raw Root Vegetable Salad with Maple Cinnamon Vinaigrette (serves 1 very generously)

Ingredients:

1/3 cup raw carrots, shredded (use two colors for variety, if you like)
¼ cup raw parsnip, shredded
¼ cup raw sweet potato, shredded
¼ cup raw sunchokes, peeled and very thinly sliced
¼ cup dried cranberries (try really hard to find an unsulphered, unsweetened variety)
3 tbsps-1/4 cup maple cinnamon vinaigrette

Directions:

Toss all of the vegetables and the cranberries together. Dress with three tablespoons or a quarter cup of the vinaigrette—adjust to taste—and savor!

This salad is full of crunch, but shredding the vegetables adequately ensures that it doesn’t make for a frightening first experience with raw roots. In fact, this would be a terrific addition to any fall dinner party menu or Thanksgiving table. It’s sweet and familiar, and it showcases the season’s best produce. Best of all, it’s tremendously nourishing: thanks to all of the tasty roots, it’s high in vitamins A and C, potassium, iron, and a whole lotta fiber.

Yum.

For dinner a few nights ago, I served the root veggie salad alongside a giant kale salad. I adorned the plate with some of my leftover sunchokes, which I steamed, and topped the salad with some sunflower seeds.

The verdict? Autumnal comfort food. Raw style. What an awesome way to begin Vegan Mofo!

Hope you’re all cooking up some amazing vegan food for October already. And thanks for the great response to the return of Raw Wednesday! I can’t wait for next week.

Happy Friday!

xo