Click here for the new site, www.joziuncooked.com.
That’s right, we have finally gotten our own domain. I’m happy to report we are hosted on a very eco-friendly, wind-powered server (thanks Green Geeks). We are still having some teething problems with the new site, so bear with us as we get it fully functional, and then make it even better than this one was.
Click here for the new site, www.joziuncooked.com.
Posted in Uncategorized
I have gone a bit dehydrator crazy of late. I have tried to avoid this, since I naturally gravitate towards breads and other not-so-healthy baked goods. I figured keeping even the healthier raw versions of these out of my diet would be good for getting rid of the cravings. But alas, dehydrated breads and crackers have stormed the kitchen of late, and this week’s take-away includes one of them– a delicious raw, vegan, gluten-free brown bread.
Main course: Not-tuna salad sandwich: a delicious sunflower seed-based tuna salad with fresh veggies on dehydrated (gluten-free) “brown bread”. Served with a side salad. R50
Dessert: Caramel-filled brownie: a chocolate brownie with a date caramel filling. Tastes too good to be good for you. R20
How it works:
Please email joziuncooked[at]gmail.com to place your order. Let us know how many main courses and desserts you want. We will send payment details. Once your payment is received, your order is confirmed.
All orders must be in by Monday, 30 August at 12:00. Pick-up is on Tuesday, 31 August from 12:00-14:00 in Observatory, or 17:00-19:00 in Melville. Alternative arrangements also available upon request. Please inform us of any food allergies or special dietary needs.
I have been experimenting with the Raw Chef’s falafel recipe. The recipe is delicious as it is, but given the various dietary requirements of various friends and clients, I have developed a number of adaptations. For example, I have replaced the sun-dried tomatoes in the recipe with mushrooms, with very good results. I have also replaced the onion with red pepper. This was also very tasty. The moral of the story is, if you start with a good recipe, you can tweak and adapt it endlessly and it is likely to be delicious each time.
The Raw Chef's falafel patties
I also make the falafel as flat patties, rather than round balls, so it dehydrates faster.
Raw vegan falafel wrap, "unwrapped"
Raw vegan falafel wrap
1/2 batch of the Raw Chef’s falafel (here)
10 smooth spinach leaves, with part of the tough stem removed
chopped plum tomatoes
sprouted lentils
shredded carrot
diced cucumber
raw hummus (see recipe previously posted here)
Instructions: Place a spinach leaf flat in front of you. Break up a falafel patty into a few pieces and put them across the short edge of the leaf. Top with tomatoes, carrots, cucumber, sprouts and a drizzle of hummus. Roll up the leaf around the filling and enjoy. You can use any vegetables you want in the filling, and can also use other types of leaf for the wrap (e.g. cos/ romaine lettuce, swiss chard, etc).
Raw vegan falafel wrap
Sorry for the blurry pictures. I think the camera lens needs a serious cleaning.
Raw vegan strawberry chocolate parfait
Raw vegan strawberry chocolate parfait
sliced strawberries (about 6 per serving)
chocolate mousse (see recipe posted here. Skip the first few ingredients and start with the avocado, since you won’t need a crust)
coconut- cashew whipped cream (see recipe below)
cacao nibs for garnish (optional)
Instructions: Use a wine glass or a short juice class for this. The prettier, the better. Begin with a layer of sliced strawberries, top with a layer of chocolate mousse, then another layer of strawberries, another layer of mousse, one more layer of strawberries and then coconut-cashew whipped cream on top. Top with a few slices of strawberry and cacao nibs for garnish.
parfait
Coconut-cashew whipped cream
2-3 Tb Irish moss, washed and soaked
water to blend
meat and water of 1 young green coconut
small handful of cashews, soaked
1 Tb lemon juice
pinch of vanilla
agave or other sweetener, to taste
additional water as needed to blend
Instructions: Begin by blending Irish moss with some water in the blender, until it becomes gelatinous. Then add coconut water and some of the coconut meat in the blender, to form a creamy texture. Add cashews, agave, lemon juice, vanilla and water as needed to blend into a thick cream.
This meal is not to be missed! A delicious, hearty raw vegan version of falafel that tastes much better than the traditional fried version. And since strawberries are back in season, a decadent fruit and chocolate parfait.
Main course: Falafel- Delicious dehydrated falafel patties with fresh vegetables and marrow (courgette) hummus in a spinach wrap R 50
Dessert: Parfait- Layers of chocolate mousse and fresh strawberries R 20.
How it works:
Please email joziuncooked[at]gmail.com to place your order. Let us know how many main courses and desserts you want. We will send payment details. Once your payment is received, your order is confirmed. All orders must be in by Monday, the 23rd of August at 12:00.
Pick-up is on Tuesday, the 24th of August from 12:00-14:00 in Observatory, or 17:00-19:00 in Melville. Alternative arrangements also available upon request. Please inform us of any food allergies or special dietary needs.
This week’s raw vegan recipes might be slightly less detailed than usual (which is already not that detailed), as they involved a lot of improvisation. That’s the beauty of raw food, after all– you can play around with ingredients to suit your taste, without much risk of messing up the recipe. The shepherd’s pie is not terribly photogenic, either, but I promise, it tastes delicious.
Raw vegan shepherd's pie filling
Shepherd’s pie (serves 4)
Filling ingredients:
8 baby marrows (courgettes/ zucchini), peeled if not organic
8 small carrots, peeled if not organic
1 small onion (optional)
8 baby portabello mushrooms (or other medium-sized mushrooms)
1 red bell pepper
8 plum tomatoes
1/2 head of cauliflower
handful of fresh parsley, chopped
olive oil
lemon juice
tamari
herbs and spices: pinch of rosemary, sage, thyme
Filling instructions:
Dice all of the vegetables, toss with olive oil, lemon juice and tamari, and let marinate overnight. If you wish, you can dehydrate the vegetables for about an hour to soften them a bit more. Add chopped parsley and herbs after marinating overnight, and toss to combine.
Topping ingredients:
8 small parsnips, peeled
1/2 head cauliflower
1 cup cashews
salt and pepper to taste
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1-2 Tbsp olive oil
Topping instructions: process all ingredients in food processor or blender until they form the consistency of mashed potatoes. Feel free to add additional herbs and spices if you like.
Assembly: Place vegetable filling into 4 serving dishes. Top with “mashed potato” topping to cover. Garnish with a sprig of parsley or fresh rosemary.
Raw vegan shepherd's pie with topping
Raw vegan strawberry cream pie
crust ingredients
1 cup nuts (almonds or brazil nuts are great), soaked overnight
1/2 cup pitted dates
1/4 cup shredded coconut
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
Crust instructions: process all ingredients until a dough forms. Press into a pie tin, or individual tart/muffin tins. Place tins in freezer to set.
Raw vegan strawberry cream pie, with a little bit of puree topping
Filling ingredients:
1 cup strawberries, chopped
1 cup cashews, soaked at least 4 hours
juice of 1/2 lemon
1/4 cup agave (or to taste, depending on sweetness of berries)
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
Filling instructions: process berries and cashews in food processor until smooth. Add remaining ingredients and process until smooth, adding a little water if needed. Add coconut oil last and blend until smooth. Pour filling into crust and place in freezer to set.
Topping ingredients:
1 cup strawberries
approx 4 Tbsp washed and soaked irish moss
approx 6 Tbsp water
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp agave (or more to taste)
2 Tbsp coconut oil, melted
Topping instructions: Place Irish moss and water in the blender and blend until a gelatinous paste forms. This may take a couple of minutes. Add lemon juice and agave and blend until combined. Add strawberries and blend until pureed. Add coconut oil and blend until mixed.
Spread topping over filling and return pies to the freezer to set. They can be stored in the freezer and defrosted before eating, or stored in the refrigerator.
Raw vegan strawberry cream pie
The strawberry cream pie is truly delicious! If another fruit is in season, you could substitute it. Mango would be delicious, or passion fruit (granadilla, which would need to be strained for the filling), or even kiwi if you don’t mind a green pie.
Today’s workshop was great. We made heaps of delicious raw vegan dairy alternatives– nut milk, three nut cheeses, plus cheesecake and ice cream. Rather than just have a cheese tasting, we turned them all into delicious dishes to make a raw vegan feast. Here they are:
Raw vegan carrot and coriander (cilantro) soup
First, we made nut milk (walnut milk, which is especially rich) and turned it into a delicious carrot and coriander soup.
Then we made a delicious Mexican-spiced cheese dip, which we ate with crudites and flax crackers– some from Sprouts (I love these!) and some that I made (more on that in another post).
Raw vegan mexican cheese dip with crudites and flax crackers
We also made almond feta (one of my favourites). Because it’s a 24-hour process to make it, I had started it the day before. So we made a new batch, but also ate the one from yesterday in a delicious salad with mixed greens, strawberries, cucumber, spring onion and a citrus dressing.
Making the raw vegan almond feta cheese
Salad with almond feta
The third and final “cheese” was macadamia ricotta. We made lasagna roll-ups, one of my current favourite raw appetizers. They are so pretty!
Raw vegan lasagna roll-ups
For dessert, we made a classic cashew cheesecake on a nut crust– using the nut pulp leftover from making milk, along with some extra pecans and dates. Yum!
Raw vegan cashew cheesecake
And since two desserts are better than one, we also made ice cream. Or banana soft serve, as some people call it. I’m afraid the picture’s not so pretty, but the ice cream was wonderful, especially with raw cacao nibs on top.
Raw vegan chocolate soft serve ice cream
It was a great day and a delicious meal. Somehow meals always test better when you’ve prepared them yourself, and when you share them with an interesting group of people. Here are a few more pictures from the workshop (special thanks to Heidi for being a superstar photographer). Enjoy!
The feast (minus a few items)
Raw vegan chefs at work
Lots of learning going on in this kitchen!
Seems we’re hovering in limbo between summer and winter at the moment, so this week’s take-away is a raw vegan version of a traditional winter comfort food. Dessert, however, is a summer classic. This way we’ve got all the seasons covered.
Main course: Shepherd’s pie- marinated vegetables topped with a “mashed potato” (parsnip and cashew) crust. R 50
Dessert: Strawberry cream pie- rich but light strawberry and coconut filling in a nut crust. R 20
How it works:
Please email joziuncooked[at]gmail.com to place your order. Let us know how many main courses and desserts you want. We will send payment details. Once your payment is received, your order is confirmed. All orders must be in by Monday, the 16th of August at 12:00.
Pick-up is on Tuesday, the 17th of August from 12:00-14:00 in Observatory, or 17:00-19:00 in Melville. Alternative arrangements also available upon request. Please inform us of any food allergies or special dietary needs.
This week’s raw vegan take-away was an amalgamation and adaptation of a few different recipes. One of the great things about working with raw food is that you can feel free to mess around with recipes. It’s not like baking a cake, where the ingredients need to be just right or the chemical reaction won’t work. With raw meals, you can’t really mess up. Whatever you do, it will be fine.
Raw vegan curried spinach with carrot & cauliflower "rice"
Raw vegan saag (curried spinach puree)
I got this recipe from a lovely little raw recipe book by Jonsi and Alex. It’s a free download. I highly recommend it. So far, everything I’ve made from their book is delicious.I modified their recipe slightly, but not much. It’s tomato, avocado, garlic, ginger, curry and other spices, and spinach, all mixed in the food processor or blender. Then you can sprinkle chopped veggies on top– onions, tomatoes, bell peppers, etc. Even sprouted lentils.
Carrot & cauliflower biryani
This one comes from the recent “Hot Raw Chef” competition hosted by Living Light Culinary Arts Institute, a raw food culinary school in California. A bunch of people entered the competition with a wide range of raw vegan recipes– some simple, some complicated. I’ve tried a few and they’ve generally been ok. While I usually like making my rice from parsnips, I thought it would be good to try something different. Normally I find cauliflower rice to bitter, but the combination of equal parts cauliflower and carrot, with shredded coconut and spices, is sweeter. I add raisins to mine for a little extra sweetness. You can watch the video for the recipe at the Hot Raw Chef site. For the recipe booklet, I think you need to sign up on their mailing list.
Raw vegan pear crisp
Raw vegan pear crisp recipe
This recipe was inspired by a lovely apple pie by Heathy Pace. I was going to share the “play by play” photos of preparation, assembly, etc but they were too dark. Sorry.
Ingredients:
1 cup almonds, soaked overnight
1/2 cup dates, pitted
pinch of salt
pinch of vanilla
4 pears
juice of 1/2 lemon
pinch of nutmeg
1 Tbsp agave syrup
Instructions: To make the crust, process nuts in food processor until ground. Add dates, vanilla and salt and process until crumbly.
Press half of the crust mixture into the bottom of muffin or tart pans.
To make the filling, peel and core 2 pears, slice them and put them in food processor or blender with lemon juice, nutmeg and agave. Process until smooth. Peel and core the other two pears and chop them finely (small dice). Mix the diced pears into the pear puree. Pour this over the crust in the muffin pans, then sprinkle the rest of crumbly mixture on top. Set at least 1 hour in the refrigerator.
The filling for the pear crisp
Monday is a holiday–Happy Women’s Day– but we’ll still have raw vegan take-aways on Tuesday. This way you can feel like you’re on holiday for yet another day by getting delicious healthy food prepared for you on Tuesday.
This week’s menu:
Main course: Creamy curried spinach with a carrot & cauliflower biryani R 50
Dessert: Pear crumble R 20
How it works:
Please email joziuncooked[at]gmail.com to place your order. Let us know how many main courses and desserts you want. We will send payment details. Once your payment is received, your order is confirmed. All orders must be in by Monday, the 9th of August at 12:00 (remember it’s a holiday this week).
Pick-up is on Tuesday the 10th, in Observatory (from 12:00 to 15:00) or Melville (17:00-19:00). Alternative arrangements also available upon request. Please inform us of any food allergies or special dietary needs.
This week’s recipes were borrowed and adapted from some of the world’s top raw chefs. So I can’t really claim the credit for these.
raw vegan tacos
Raw Tacos
1 batch of Raw Chef Russel James’ quesadilla filling- I can’t reprint the recipe without permission, but it’s based on pumpkin seeds, mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes, with some spices and other good stuff thrown in.
guacamole (see recipe here)
fresh salsa (see recipe here)
shredded vegetables (e.g. carrots, bell peppers, red cabbage)
Cos/ romaine lettuce for wraps
Instructions: Place cos lettuce leaf on a plate. Fill with shredded veggies, then taco meat, then guacamole and salsa on top.
Pineapple cream cake
This was based on Ani Phyo’s recipe, with a few modifications. I decided not to put the crust on top of the filling, just underneath it. I used agave, not honey, of course. And I put a layer of fresh pineapple on top of the crust, before putting the creamy filling in.
I didn’t manage to snap a picture of the cakes when they were whole and pretty, but here’s one with a few bites out of it, just to give you an idea.
Raw vegan pineapple cream cake, minus a few bites
Delicious! Though if you’ve got hours and hours of time to make a cake, I’d actually recommend this pineapple cake. It’s amazing!
A blog about cooking and eating vegan and raw food in Johannesburg (and the rest of the world) by a serious food lover.
