These crepes were dee-licious! Just thinking about how to describe them to you makes me want to try them again. I wish I had taken a photo of the luscious inside, but once we started eating… there was no stopping. (hee hee)

The recipe is from Matthew Kenney’s book everydayraw. I seem to be stuck in this book lately… but that’s a good thing. I have tried several of the recipes from this book as you see from former posts. Vanilla-Almond Macaroons and Super Goji-Cacao-Maca Bars... are both coming out of the dehydrator tomorrow!

I’m very curious about a raw food diet. I am feeling healthier than ever and have increased energy and concentration. I have even dropped a pound or two. The other day, I made some pasta with sauteed veggies for dinner. Afterward, I felt tired and sleepy. Interesting… for now, my goal is to increase my knowledge of raw food preparation so that I can make more raw food choices daily.

Victoria Boutenko writes in her book: 12 Steps to Raw Foods that she finds people who are compulsive eaters do better going all raw as it takes out all temptation and decision-making. But I’m not a compulsive eater. I’ve always been a pretty conscientious eater. I was over weight at one time, but that was due more to a change of lifestyle. I became less active  and at the  same time started eating too much of the wrong stuff. Anyway, I like variety in food and while it is too early to tell… I suspect I’ll be eating both raw and cooked plant-based foods, with a larger proportion of raw.

Back to the recipe….. yummy, yummy. This dish has three parts: the crepes, the filling and the sauce. The first two items need to prepared ahead of time in the dehydrator. A couple of notes on serving sizes. The crepe recipe yielded six crepes for me. I made half of the Portobello Sausage recipe and had plenty for the crepes and some leftover. I also made half of the Lemon-Thyme Yogurt Sauce recipe (or 1 pint) and there was way more than enough sauce for six crepes. (And I love things saucy!)

As for choreographing the meal, start with the Portobello Sausage first. In fact, make it easy on yourself — prepare and dehydrate it the day before. It keeps well in the refrigerator and you can put it into the dehydrator with the veggies to warm when you’re pulling together the final dish.

One thing I am learning from raw food preparation is that you need to be prepared and organized especially with some of these gourmet raw dishes. Read the recipe for each element all the way through. (I’ve been at fault on this several times… and have had to come up with an alternative for dinner.) I’ve created a little Excel chart where I can pen in information. It makes tracking  the soaking, marinating and dehydrating times a little easier. I usually hang it on my refrigerator door across from the dehydrator.

A few words about coconut meat; In everydayraw,  Kenney calls for “young coconut meat.” While this is by far the most tender “meat” — even in Hawaii it can be hard to come by so I have used coconuts that are less than what you would call young. Young coconut meat or thai coconut meat is soft and gelatin-like. Meat from older coconuts is harder and thicker. My husband is the coconut connoisseur in the family and he has mastered opening coconuts with a machete to retrieve the water and meat. Around our house, the young coconut meat gets eaten right away along with the water. Since, most of the meat we get is from older coconuts, there is usually too much to consume in one sitting so we save the meat in the freezer.  I have been using it in my raw recipes and although this isn’t was exactly what is called for in the recipes, it seems to be working out just fine. Opening a coconut takes a bit of technique so if you’ve never done it before do some research. Here is an informative video about coconuts and how to cut them open from Kevin & Annmarie on the Renegade Health Show.

Lastly, Kenney notes: “Portobello mushrooms are very meaty and are probably the best type of mushrooms for this dish, but it would also work with a cremini or even a white button mushroom.” While Portobellos are currently about $11.69 where I live, I decided to use Cremini mushrooms for the sausage and one portobello to accompany the rest of the crepe veggies. This may have created a less juicy or tasty sausage. In fact, if I were to make this crepe again, I would leave out the Portobello Sausage and instead add 1-2 sliced Portobellos to the rest of the marinated veggies and dehydrate them all slightly longer, 1-2 hours — to bring out the juices. All the recipes are below. Experiment and see what you like best!

SAVORY CREPES
Yield 8-10

Crepe ingredients:
1/2 cup flax meal
1/2 cup chopped yellow squash
1/4 cup chopped young coconut meat
1 1/2 tsp lemon juice
1 cup water
1 TBS agave
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp coriander
1/4 tsp cumin

Assembly:
2 cups spinach, torn by hand
1 1/2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 cup seeded and chopped tomatoes or 1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
1 cup chopped portobello mushroom cap(s)
1/2 cup sliced red onion
2 TBS nama shoyu
2 TBS olive oil
1 TBS apple cider vinegar
4 crepes
Portobello Sausage*
Lemon-Thyme Yogurt Sauce**

Crepe Preparation:
Blend all ingredients in Vita-Mix until smooth. Spread thinly ino 6 to 7-inch rounds on Teflex dehydrator sheets. Dehydrate 5-6 hours until dry but very pliable.

Assembly:
Toss spinach with 1-1/2 tsp olive oil and salt; let sit in warm area for 15-20 minutes. Toss vegetables with nama shoyu, 2 TBS olive oil, and apple cider vinegar; let sit 20-30 minutes. Spread vegetables on Teflex dehydrator sheets and dehydrate at 115 degrees for 30 minutes, until veggies are soft and well marinated.

Combine spinach and marinated veggies in a medium bowl, cover and marinated veggies ina medium bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate or keep warm in dehydrator until ready to serve.

Fill each crepe with 1/2 vegetable mixture plus protobello sausage pieces. Fold into desired shape. Drizzle Lemon-Thyme Yogurt Sauce over crepes and serve.

*Portobello Sausage
Yield 15-20
3 TBS olive oil
2 TBS nama shoyu
1 TBS umeboshi plum paste
1 TBS apple cider vinegar
4 cups chopped portobello mushrooms
2 cups chopped eggplant
1 cup almonds, soaked 8-12 hours
1 cup pumpkin seeds, soaked 8-12 hours
1 TBS coriander
4 scallions, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup parsley, coarsely chopped
sea salt to taste
black pepper to taste
In a large bowl, whisk together olive oil, nama shoyu, plumpaste, and apple cider vinegar. Toss in mushrooms and eggplant, and allow to marinate 15-20 minutes.

Process almonds, pumpkin seeds, and coriander in food processor into small pieces; do not over process. Place mixture in large bowl. Process marinated mushrooms and eggplant with scallions, garlic, and parsley in food processor until chunky; add to bowl with almonds and pumpkin seeds.

Stir mixture until ingredients are well combined and season with salt and pepper. Shape mixture in patties or balls and place on dehydrator screens. Dehydrate 8-12 hours, until crust forms on outside.

** Lemon-Thyme Yogurt Sauce
Yield 1 Quart
1 3/4 cashews, soaked 1-2 hours
1/2 cup young coconut meat
1/4 cup water
6 TBS lemon juice
zest of 2 lemons
2 TBS finely minced fresh thyme***

Blend all ingredients except thyme in Vita-Mix until smooth and creamy. Add thyme and blend for a few moments until thyme is well incorporated. Serve or store in refrigerator 3-4 days.

Printable Recipe

*** If you are a very clever photograph sleuth, you may have noticed that there is no thyme in my sauce. Yes, in the final phase of putting this dish together, I omitted the fragrant flavor of thyme. An error, I admit — but the sauce was delish none-the-less.

Where to begin? The dehydrator has arrived. We are finally hooked up with a Vita-Mix and I am feeling a little overwhelmed with information on raw cuisine.  Figuring out the timing of prepping is a bit confusing with the scheduling of nut & grain soaking along with the dehydration process (which can sometimes takes 24 hours or more). A former employer once said to me that getting up to speed and learning all the information necessary for my new job was like trying to drinking from a fire hose. This analogy seems apt here.

My husband is very supportive of my culinary adventures but he doesn’t understand what all the fuss is about when it comes to the dehydrator. He keeps reminding me (and with good reason) that eating whole foods is best. Why process raw food? We can just eat salad and greens every night.

Well, I wish some days that I was ok with a green salad every night but somehow I seem to crave a variety of tastes and confections. Hmm…. but here I am soaking nuts that will later be put into the dehydrator. Does seems a little  backwards? No not really, in a sense I am “cooking” certain foods without heating them to the point where the valuable enzymes in the food are destroyed and I am creating flavor!

There is a moment when you are baking in an oven when a wave of succulent flavor wafts through the room… from my observation this is just before the dish you are baking is ready or ripe for eating. A similar but different thing happens in the dehydrator… the aromatics of the food take off and they continue to emit a garden of lusciousness throughout the dehydration process. Recently for example, while testing out recipes from Matthew Kenney’s everydayraw book the aromas have been incredible. I made Chocolate-Ginger Macaroons for a dinner party that I am going to Saturday night. They take 24 hours to dehydrate. I started them yesterday (Wednesday) and  they were oozing the smell of melted chocolate into the room after just a few hours. Today, I have Portobello Sausage dehydrating and again, after just a few hours, the aroma is wafting through the room — a sweetness of coriander and parsley… this put together with the chocolate macaroons makes for a room filled with the succulent blend of loveliness. Ahhh….

On to recipe stuff… The Chili dish was just one of two raw dishes that I tried lately. It came from Matthew Kenney’s book everydayraw. I prepared it in my pre-dehydrator days and it was easily my (and my husband’s favorite) out of the two with a nice zesty chili flavor with a nice proportion of raw veggies.  Mattew’s Sour Cream and Salsa Fresca recipes were great accompaniments to this dish. (I threw together my own little version of guacamole.)

The second dish was the Soft Corn Tortillas and Spicy “Beans” (see photo below) from Raw Food Real World written by Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngailis. Both these books have appetizing photos and you will be salivating page after page because everything looks so good!

The tortillas in this recipe were excellent. Sooo easy to make and super delicious! Eating them with the Chili is worth considering for the next time I make them. The “beans” are a mixture of sundried tomatoes, ground sunflower seeds, onions, cilantro, fresh tomato and seasonings that have been dehydrated. In RFRW, Kenney and Melngailis spread the “beans” onto the tortilla and top with an Avocado-Corn Guacamole and Tomato-Lime Salsa. Instead of these, I used sliced avocado, romaine, cilantro and a few sliced grape tomatoes. The “beans” need to be spread sparingly, like a pesto, onto the tortilla. The remaining 90-95% of the filling can be guacamole and salsa or whatever else you decide to put in there. As you can see from the photo, this is something I didn’t do the first time making and the “beans” with a large quantity of dried tomatoes took over the dish . Tonight, I had leftovers and put only 5-10% “beans” and the remainder filled up with guacamole and it was delicious!

Still the Chili is my favorite… check it out for yourself!

CHILI
Yields 2 Quarts

1 portobello mushroom
1/2 cup minced celery
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
1 cup almonds, soaked 4-6 hours
1 cup chopped carrots
1 1/2 cups sun-dried tomatoes, soaked
2 cups water, fresh or from sun-dried tomatoes soaking liquid
1 TBS olive oil
1/4 cup nama shoyu
1 clove garlic
2 TBS fresh oregano
1 TBS dry oregano
2 tsp chilip powder
1 TBS cumin
1 TBS apple cider vinegar
1 TBS agave
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

Place mushrooms, celery, onion and bell pepper in a large bowl. Pulse almonds and carrots in food processor until a chunky consistency is achieved; add to bowl. Blend remaining ingredients in Vita-Mix until smooth; add to bowl and mix all ingredients until well combined. Store in refrigerator and warm in dehydrator prior to serving.

SOUR CREAM
Yield 1 Quart

2 cups of cashews, soaked 4-6 hours
1 cup water
1/2 cup olive oil
3 TBS lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp salt

Blend all ingredients in Vita-Mix unitl completely smooth.

SALSA FRESCA
Yield 1 1/2 Quarts

4 cups of seeded and diced tomatoes
1 cup red onion, minced
1 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
1/4 cup lime juice
2 tsp sea salt

Mix all ingredients in a large bowl.

This dish is going to change my diet… or at the very least it has made a major impression on me regarding raw food and its preparation. It was so tasty! I am already searching books for my next raw recipe and have ordered my very own dehydrator!

So without further ado let me introduce you to the Live Un-Stir Fry with Cauliflower Rice — a delectable medley of vegetables and sauce served over a bed of cauliflower and nuts. The sauce in this dish was particularly yummy and I can imagine it working well on any kind of mixed salad. I’m not sure why I am so stunned. Is it that food in its least processed and cooked state tastes better? Have our taste buds become conditioned to the processing and cooking of foods. Perhaps it is that I prepared this dish for dinner and I felt satisfied yet not overly full afterwards. Later after dinner, I was active and didn’t get sleepy even though I sleep like a baby most nights. Of course, these all could be coincidences… but I’m here to tell you — if this is a good example of raw food… the Vegan Sprout is going to prepare more of it! Try this one yourself. See below for the recipe — yet another great dish from the 30 Minute Vegan by Mark Reinfeld and Jennifer Murray…. um, um good!!

LIVE UN-STIR FRY WITH CAULIFLOWER RICE
Serves 4 to 6

Vegetable Medley
2 cups chopped napa cabbage
1/2 cup chopped red cabbage
1/2 cup thinly sliced carrots
1 red bell pepper, seeded and julienned
1/2 cup julienned snow peas (optional)
1 cup thinly sliced shitake mushrooms
2 TBS chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 cup thinly sliced onion
3/4 cup cashews

Spicy Vegetable Rice
makes 1 1/4 cups
1/2 cup sesame oil
3 TBS agave nectar or pure maple syrup
2 TBS umeboshi plum vinegar or raw apple cider vinegar
3 TBS Nama Shoyu
1 small kaffir lime leaf, or zest of 1 lime
1 (1/2″-inch piece) peeled fresh ginger
1 garlic clove
1 TBS dehydrated onion flakes
1 tsp seeded and diced Thai chile or jalopeno
1 stalk lemongrass, finely chopped (only the bottom part)(optional)
1 TBS tamarind paste (optional)
1 tsp toasted sesame oil (optional – leave out for the completely raw version)

Cauliflower “Rice”
4 cups cauliflower florets
1/2 cup macadamia or pine nuts
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 TBS dehydrated onion flakes
1/2 tsp garlic powder

1. Combine all of the vegetable medley ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Place all of the dressing ingredients in a blender and blend until creamy. Add to the vegetable medley and toss well.
2. Prepare the cauliflower rice by placing all of the ingredients in a food processor and pulse-chopping until a smooth but textured consistency is reached. Do not overprocess or it will get too mushy.
3. Serve the vegetble medley on a bed of cauliflower rice. If you have more time and want to try something fancy, you can press the cauliflower into a ring mold for an elegant style of presentation.

Variations:
- Add 1 1/2 cups of sliced young coconut or your favorite veggies such as zucchini, cucumbers, bean sprouts, or lightly steamed broccoli to the vegetable medley.
You can serve the vegetable medley over quinoa or rice.

If you have more time:
If you have a dehydrator, you can create more of a sauteed vegetable effect by dehydrating the vegetables in the dressing for 30 minutes at 130° or until warm to the touch. On a bright, sunny day you can also try to place the bolwl of veggies in the sunshine, stirring occasionally for 30 to 45 minutes to soften them up quite a bit.

You can also replace the cashews in the vegetable medley with Spicy Cashews: Simply combine 3/4 cup of chopped cashews (or macadamia nuts or almonds), 1/2 tsp of sesame oil, 1/2 tsp of chile powder (chipotle, if you can find it), 1/2 tsp of onion powder, 1/2 tsp of sea salt and a pinch of cayenne in a small bowl and mix well.