The Fresh Network Blog

Green Food on a Green Day

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from everyone at The Fresh Network!

We have some fabulous, easy and very green recipes to get you in the mood for your St.Patrick’s Day celebration.

Silvia Clausin came up with these ideas especially for you, so enjoy them and have fun this weekend!

Green cookies

½ cup buckwheat, soaked and blended
1 cup coconut flour*
½ tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of spirulina
½ teaspoon wheatgrass powder
¼ cup date paste**
1 ½ tbsp coconut oil, melted
½ tbsp lime zest
½ tbsp lemon zest
2 tsp flaxmeal***
1 tbsp honey
Pinch of salt

Indulge with no guilt

Celebrating special occasions does not have to mean indulging in heavy foods.

St Valentines Day is quite often associated with a chocolate feast but desserts drenched in sweeteners and heavily-loaded with cacao may not be the best choices for those who have just completed a detox, are in the middle or are about to embark on one.

If in the recent weeks we managed to inspire you to take steps towards a deeper cleanse, you may be already searching for healthy alternatives to traditional Valentines sweet recipes.   You can stop right there, as Silvia Clausin came up with an appropriate proposition, designed with The Fresh Network customers in mind.

Silvia’s Cherry & Orange Sponge with Kewra Cream is decadent enough to make you feel spoiled and beautifully light at the same time. Share it with your loved one, have it with a friend or … eat it all yourself and don’t tell anybody!

Perfect as a pudding or a morning tea!

Valentine's Day dinner, raw style

Menu created and tested by Silvia Clausin of The Raw Deli (with co-creator Ben Evans). Photography by Trish Gant.

Beetroot and pate ravioli
  
   

• 1 beetroot, peeled and thinly sliced (into 8 good slices, using a mandoline) 
• ½ cup of sunflower seeds (soaked)
• 1 Tbsp of Miso (unpasteurized)
• 2 Tbsp of olive oil
• 1 Tbsp of rosemary (fresh)
• 2 Tbsp thyme (fresh)
• ½ cup of water
• 1 clove of garlic, finely grated 

Process all the ingredients well except for the beetroot and a few leaves of thyme, when you have a pate-like consistency make it into 1-inch balls and place it in the middle of the sliced beetroot. Decorate with the thyme leaves and drops of olive oil.

Comfort food at it's best

By Sarah Best.

Do you ever have moments when another salad or piece of fruit just doesn't cut it? You want something different. Something heavier; more grounding. You want comfort food, dammit. A very common craving is for something seriously crunchy - crunchy like crisps, not crunchy like carrots. If you thought that that's not an option available on a raw diet, think again.

Allow me to introduce the kale chip.

If you've never heard of the concept, you can find full explanation plus recipe here. Seriously, you have to try these.

Kale: how can a green leafy thing that is capable of single-handedly ruining an otherwise perfectly palatable vegetable juice, be so crunchily, moreishly, teasingly gorgeous when coated in a blend of cashews, red pepper, lemon juice and nutritional yeast and slowly dried until crispy.

If you live in the US you may be lucky enough to be able to buy Kale In a Crunch kale chips. If you don't, and if you don't already have a dehydrator, it is worth buying one solely so you can make these. Just do it, and then thank me later.

If there's a better snack to chow down on while chuckling over Simpsons re-runs on a cold winter's night I don't know what it is.

Banana hazelnut shake

By Sarah Best.

I'm a big fan of shakes made of frozen banana "ice cream" and nut milk. Almond milk is lovely in these shakes, Brazil nut milk is better still, but I've just discovered the hands-down winner: hazelnut milk.

Although this is incredibly quick and simple to make (we are talking under five minutes), you'll need a well-stocked raw kitchen that includes a high-speed blender, a food processor with the "S" blade fitted, and a supply of peeled bananas in your freezer. Here's how you do it:

1. Several hours before you want to make this recipe, measure out half a cup of hazelnuts and then fill the remainder of the cup with water.
2. When you're ready for your shake, remove two bananas from the freezer and place in bowl of food processor so they defrost a little before you process them.
3. Pour away the soak water and blend the hazelnuts with a cup of fresh water.
4. Strain the mixture using a fine mesh sieve or a nut milk bag so you have a creamy milk and no "bits". Pour the milk back into the blender jug.
5. Process the frozen bananas until they are whipped into an ice-cream-like texture. This may take about two minutes, and the mixture may go grainy first, but keep processing and those bananas will morph into something that looks and feels like "Mr Whippy".  
6. Spoon this mixture into the blender with the hazelnut milk and blend until you have a cold, thick, creamy - and praliney, thanks to the hazelnuts - shake.
7. Pour into a tall glass and drink through a straw.

Green shakes

By Sarah Best.

I recently discovered a brilliant and very simple way to make green juices into a gourmet treat. This is a great alternative to adding fruit – though there is nothing wrong with adding some apple, pear or pineapple to take the edge off a potent elixir of dark greens. Add the juice of a lemon too and the interplay of sweet and tart will dominate, leaving the earthy bitter of the greens as a subtle – and decidedly more palatable – background taste. 

But bored of that after several years of it I started experimenting and came up with another way to make heavy-duty green juices taste good - even those with broccoli! I’m making my juices into shakes by adding nut milk, and they have never gone down as easily. Here’s an example: 

• 200g spinach or other dark greens
• 1 small head broccoli
• 1 red pepper
• 3 sticks celery
• Small piece root ginger
• Raw almond milk

Juice the first five ingredients and pour into a glass. Then add raw almond milk to taste – I find that two parts juice to one part nut milk is plenty.

The "can't get enough" salad

By Sarah Best.

It may be just me, but I love this simple salad so much I never get bored of it. I invented it about two months ago and since then I have had it as my main meal at least five days a week. Call me boring, but it is really good!

Plus, it couldn't be easier to put together and nor could it be quicker: it takes 5-10 minutes.

It has no dressing and just three ingredients: cucumber, avocado and dulse. This particular threesome is a match made in raw food heaven. Cool, crunchy, mild and refreshing cucumber, soft, creamy avocado and salty, feisty dulse.

I really like this so I use two cucumbers, a whole avocado and most of a pack of dulse in each salad. But you may be good with half these quantities.

Peel the cucumber/s and cut into slices - you can use a spirali or food processor for this part, or just "DIY". Place the cucumber slices in a bowl and chop the avocado in 1cm(ish) cubes over it. Then rinse the dulse quickly under a tap, blot it dry and tear it over the salad.

Then? Mix it round a bit and it's done.  

I have served this as a side when I have people round for lunch or dinner and it's always a hit.

And nutritionally? Cucumber is extremely hydrating and alkalizing, a great source of silicon and the best natural kidney cleanser known to woman. Avocado is packed with essential fats and vitamin E. As for dulse, it's a sea vegetable and gram for gram, sea vegetables are richer in vitamins and minerals than any other food group. And like avocado, dulse is also a great source of quality protein.

So there you go. I had to share this one with you and I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Banana maple walnut ice cream

By Sarah Best.

I have a new favourite ice cream. It's lovely, it's healthy and it's also super quick and easy to make - as long as you have a good food processor a stock of frozen bananas in your freezer (if you don't, just peel some, place them in food bags and put them in there, at least four hours before you make this recipe). A good food processor will turn frozen bananas into dreamy creamy ice cream in a couple of minutes and it's worth having one for that reason alone!

Banana maple walnut ice cream (makes one serving)

• 2 medium-sized frozen bananas
• 50g walnuts (this is also delicious made with pecans, Brazil nuts, hazelnuts, or a mix of all three)
• 2 tablespoons maple syrup
• a pinch of Himalayan crystal salt 

This couldn't be simpler. You just place all the ingredients in the food processor - fitted with the 'S' blade - and process for around 2 minutes. When it's ready it will have a gorgeous creamy consistency that's full of crunchy nutty bits. If you want it to also have chunky pieces, as in the photo, hold back some or all of the nuts and drop them into the processor after you've turned the bananas into "ice cream", processing briefly.

This recipe contains maple syrup, which isn't raw, although it is a very common ingredient in raw recipes and at raw restaurants. I just happened to have maple syrup on hand when I was playing around in the kitchen earlier this week and it gives it such a nice flavour I stuck on it! But this recipe would also work well without the sweetener or the salt. Those just make it extra special for those of us who don't have the willpower to be 100% pure!

When you're making this for more than one person it is easy to double, quadruple or even sextuple the ingredients - though if you are making more than two portions you may have to process in batches. I'm not sure how well this ice cream keeps in the freezer - it's never lasted long enough in my house to find that out!

How to make the perfect kale chips

By Sarah Best.

After my first attempt to make kale chips (kale "crisps" to us Brits, but somehow "chips" has a better ring to it in this context) I didn't expect to ever be writing an article with the above heading. That time I followed an internet recipe that involved marinating the kale in olive oil with various condiments and spices and then dehydrating it. The result: something that was vaguely "crispy" for a few hours but then wilted into a pile of limp, greasy, salty, distinctly non-crisp-like greenery. Ewwwwwww. Me at fault not the recipe I am sure. If my meals involve kitchen equipment it is usually a blender or juicer, while my dehydrator mostly gathers dust in the cupboard. So gifted at using it I am not.

But at the Raw Spirit Festival in Sedona the following week I had the good fortune to try the amazing Kale in a Crunch chips from Blessing's Alive and Radiant Foods. And shortly thereafter amazed myself when I managed to recreate the recipe. I can't claim my version is as good as theirs - it's certainly not. If you live in the US, don't waste your time making these - head on over to their website and order them from there. Simple! But since this product is not currently available in the UK this recipe makes a great substitute in the meantime. I used the ingredients they use, guessing the proportions, and added red chilli for a little extra kick.

Needless to say, there is no deep frying involved. You simply make a "sauce" to massage into the kale then you put the mixture in the dehydrator and prepare to be amazed at how crunchy it goes. That's thanks to the nut-based coating which takes on that texture when dried. You'll also be amazed at how cheeeeesy they taste. It's the nutritional yeast that achieves this flavour. The only downside to this recipe: it is as messy to make as it is challenging not to eat the whole batch straight out of the dehydrator!

Ingredients

• 200g curly leaf kale (if not ready chopped, you'll need to slice it into vaguely crisp-sized pieces, removing the stalks)
• 100g raw cashews
• 1 large red bell pepper
• Juice of one large lemon
• 25g-50g nutritional yeast
• 1cm piece of red chilli
• Himalayan crystal salt or Celtic sea salt to taste

1. Chop the red pepper into small pieces and add to a blender with the lemon juice. Blend until smooth.

2. Add the cashews, red chilli and 1/2 teapsoon salt and again blend until smooth.

3. Add the nutritional yeast and blend again. Doing it in stages like this helps you to get the smooth consistency you need without over-heating it. 

4. Put the kale in a large bowl then pour the blended mixture over it and massage it in until all the leaves are coated.

5. Place it on dehydrator trays with Paraflexx sheets and dehydrate at 110 degrees. After two hours peel off the Paraflexx sheets and place the chips-in-progress on mesh sheets.

6. By the time they have been in for eight hours they should be seriously crunchy. If they aren't, just leave them in until they are! Taste, and if they're not salty enough, sprinkle some over and then enjoy!

Try these and you'll swear that kale was put on the planet all those eons ago so that in the 21st century creative raw chef genius types could identify its true destiny as a crunchy savoury snack.

If you are a crisp addict you will love these and they may just convert you away from eating mixes of dead potatoes with trans fats when an attack of the munchies strikes. After all, why do that when you could be satistying your urges with vital, beautiful, natural, nutrient-rich whole foods? : )  

Raw chocolate pudding

By Sarah Best.

This is a classic dessert you'll find in many raw recipe books. Here's my version:

• 1 large avocado (1.5 medium or 2 baby)
• 2 tablespoons agave nectar
• 2 tablespoons cacao powder
• 1 tablespoon lecithin powder
• 1 teaspoon vanilla powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• a little water

Directions
1. Peel and stone the avocado, chop up, and place in blender jug along with the agave nectar and a couple of tablespoons of water. If using a large blender with a sizeable jug, it won't work with a smaller quantity of avocado than specified here...darn it ; ) Blend until you have a smooth, creamy consistency with no lumps, adding a little more water if necessary to achieve this.
2. Add the cacao powder, lecithin powder, vanilla powder and salt and blend again until fully mixed.
3. Taste and add a little more cacao powder if you desire a more chocolatey taste, or more agave nectar for added sweetness.

The lecithin is not necessary but it makes this even creamier and is also great for helping the liver process fats, which this recipe is rich in. Vanilla enhances almost any sweet recipe, and definitely any chocolate-based one. Same is true of salt - but a pinch is all you need! 

I love making this pudding with Real Raw Chocolate Powder from Ultimate Superfoods. It is darker than any other cacao powder and there is something very special about it. But if I'm out of cacao powder, I've been known to make this with a good (cooked) cocoa powder. The main thing about this dessert is that you get a seriously rich, creamy chocolate fix without any nasty dairy or refined sugar. Many brands of cocoa powder contain both of these, so look out for the real deal. If you're in the UK, try Equal Exchange's Organic Hispanola cocoa powder. It contains 100% fairly-traded, organic cocoa.

If you're new to the world of gourmet raw cuisine you may be surprised to see avocado as the base for a dessert. If so, you need to try this! Avocado works amazingly in any recipe that needs a soft, creamy consistency and also makes a great base for fruit smoothies.

The trick to using avocado in this way is to add just enough flavour (in this case the chocolate) so it cancels out the taste of the avocado. Get this right and you can serve this chocolate pudding as an elegant dessert at dinner parties and your guests will never be any the wiser. This is also the kind of thing you can whip up in two minutes any time you need a special treat!