Zucchini Pasta with Pesto Sauce

Zucchini made into "pasta" = the best. It is water rich, alkaline and nutrient rich. I have been on a serious pesto kick lately, pureeing just about any leafy green and nut that I can get my hands on. 

Based off of Pesto Pasta in Raw: The Uncook Book. This is a much more allaborate recipe than my typical one

For Pasta:

1 zucchini, cut lengthwise into pasta-like strips

1/4 of a red pepper, thinly sliced

1/4 c of marinated onions*

1/2 tomato, diced

5 basil leaves, chopped

leaves from 1 sprig of oregano

leaves from 1 sprig of rosemary, chopped

8 sun-dried tomatoes, soaked in warm water for at least 10 minutes, chopped

1/4 jalapeno, chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

juice from 1/2 lemon

Pre sauce

Mix together and set aside.

*1 onion thinly sliced and marinated in 2/3 c tamari for 10 minutes - 8 hrs

For Sauce: (This makes more than you need for the pasta so add as much as you desire!)

3 cloves garlic, chopped

2 handfuls of walnuts

1/4 c basil leaves

2 handfuls of baby spinach (MI spinach is finally in season!!)

1 heaping T miso

2 T olive oil

1 t salt

8 sun-dried tomatoes, soaked in warm water for at least 10 minutes

Blend sauce ingredients in a food processor or blender until smooth.

Add water to reach desired consistency (I used 1/2 c).

Pour as much as you want onto the pasta and refrigerate the rest.

Remember how I actually eat my food? Pasta curled up on my couch with my laptop ;)

This is not an all local recipe but all ingredients can be bought trash free. For Ann Arbor residents:

-Herbs can be bought unpackaged at Sparrow Market.
-All vegetables can be purchased packaging free.
-Tamari, sun-dried tomatoes, walnuts, miso, salt, olive oil can all be bought in bulk at the People's Food Co-op.

Sweet Potato Ravioli Stacks

Boy do I love playing with my food. The colors of this far from traditional lasagna makes playing way too easy.

Based off of Rawxy's Ravioli Stacks who I currently have a blog crush on.

Sweet Potato Ravioli Stacks

Ingredients:

1/2 of a sweet potato

4-5 T Goaty Seed Cheese (recipe below)

4-5 T Spinach "Ricotta" Stuffing (recipe below)

1 T salt

Directions:

Slice the sweet potato as thin as possible with a mandolin or a sharp knife and steady hand.

Dissolve the salt in water and soak the sweet potato slices for 2 hours.

Rinse the salt off of soaked slices.

Layer the cheeses between the sweet potato slices.

Garnish* as you wish and enjoy!

*Try lemon zest, pesto mixed into olive oil, chopped olives, parsley leaves...

Goaty Seed Cheese

Raw vegan and based off of Melody's recipe.

Purple from using homemade red cabbage sauerkraut!

Ingredients:
1 c raw sunflower seeds, soaked for 4 hours
1 c sauerkraut (if you don't make it yourself, make sure it's unpasteurized)
2 T miso (make sure it's unpasteurized)
2 t Dijon mustard
1 t apple cider vinegar

Directions:

Blend all ingredients in a food processor until smooth.

Spoon into a bowl and cover with something breathable (cheesecloth, dish towel...).

Allow those lovely bacteria cultures to proliferate!

...AKA let it ferment on the counter overnight.

Spinach "Ricotta" Stuffing

Raw vegan and also from Rawxy

Ingredients:
1.5 c sunflower seeds, soaked

3-4 c packed spinach

1/2 c sun-dried tomatoes, soaked in warm water for at least 10 minutes
1 T kalamata olives

1 garlic clove, chopped
2 T nutritional yeast
1 T olive oil
2 T lemon juice
1 T dried Italian herbs
3/4-1 c water (enough to move in blender)
sea salt to taste

Directions:

Blend all the ingredients except the water and salt in a food processor or blender.

Slowly add in enough water to create a smooth and creamy texture.

Taste and add salt to your liking.

 

Oreo-style

Happy Peanut Butter Day!

It was a strange and wonderful coincidence that I found out the it is peanut butter day about 5 minutes ago after making dinner with peanut butter!

Photo from MenuPages

This is not a Low Carbon recipe, considering it used packaged and non-seasonal ingredients, however it is vegan, healthy and delicious. Matt and I visited H-Mart which is a huge asian supermarket in Naperville and I was literally like a kid in a candy store. So many interesting and exotic things to look at. Anyways, that was the inspiration for cooking an asian-themed dinner.

Pad Thai Soba Noodles with Spicy Peanut Sauce
Adapted from Healthy Happy Life

Ingredients:
8 oz of Soba (buckwheat) noodles

Boiling Broth
5 c water
1/4 c soy sauce
1 T miso
2 T ume plum vinegar
1 t hot chili oil
zest and juice from 1/2 an orange
3 T maple syrup
1 T sesame seeds

Steamed Veggies

head of broccoli, cut into bite-sized pieces

any other veggies you want (I used diced red peppers)

Toss-Ins
a handful bean sprouts
1 T sesame oil
1 lime, juiced
juice from half of an orange

1 orange, peeled and diced

1/4 c peanuts or raw cashews, chopped
1/4 c sesame seeds
4 scallions, chopped thin
1" ginger, grated
another splash of ume plum vinegar

Spicy Peanut Sauce
2/3 cups of leftover noodle broth
squeeze of lime juice
1/4 c peanut butter (or other nut butter)
3 T maple syrup
2 t hot chili oil

Garnish

1/4 c parsley
1 lime, cut into wedges

Directions:

Bring boiling broth ingredients to a boil.

Add in noodles and cook according to directions (mine were for 4 minutes).
Pour noodles into a colander to separate from broth, reserving broth.

Put cut veggies into a sauce pan and add an inch of water.

Cover, bring water to a boil and steam veggies until tender, about 5 minutes.

Strain and add veggies to noodles.

Add all toss-ins ingredients to noodles and veggies.

Bring peanut sauce ingredients to a simmer in a small sauce pan.

Stir continuously until reduced to a thick sauce.

Sauce can be adjusted to personal preferences: adding ginger, chillies, garlic, almond milk...

Pour sauce over noodle mixture and toss well.

Garnish and serve!

Creamy, salty, spicy, filling, delicious.

Happy Peanut Butter Day!

Miso Soup

The People's Food Co-op got new bulk miso! For the past two years that I have been buying miso from them, they have had white miso in bulk. White miso is much milder than other misos and is sometimes called sweet miso. This is really good for making dressings but I definitely prefer a darker full-flavored miso.

This past Saturday my world got flipped upside down. Red Adzuki Bean Miso:

Basic Kombu Dashi
Dashi is a basic Japanese soup stock that can be made with kombu, bonito flakes, sardines, and/or dried shiitaki mushrooms. Here's a recipe for the kombu one. Kombu is a type of sea vegetable (can be bought in bulk at the People's Food Co-op).

Directions:
Soak kombu in cold water for 30 minutes in a pot.
Bring water to an ALMOST boil.
Remove kombu from water right before it boils.
Done.

Miso Soup (with Daikon, Carrot, Mushrooms, and Wakame)
There are a bajillion ways to make miso soup. You can put just about anything in it as long as you end with adding miso in. Here's my miso today!

Ingredients:
dashi (recipe above)
3 daikons (1)
greens from 1 daikon (1)
1 carrot (2)
a handful of dried mushrooms (3)
a handful of wakame (4)
4 T red or brown miso (amount depends on how much dashi you start with) (4)

Directions:
Soak dried mushrooms and wakame separately in water to rehydrate.
Heat dashi to a simmer.
Cut daikons in half length-wise, thinly slice into half moons and drop into simmering dashi.
Thinly slice carrot and drop into simmering soup.
Once daikon and carrots are cooked (soft to the touch) add in wakame and mushrooms.
Remove daikon greens from their stem and drop into simmering soup.
Allow to cook for a couple more minutes and then remove from heat.
Dilute miso with an equal amount of water.
Add miso to soup once it cools a bit.*
Enjoy!

*Letting the soup cool before adding the miso is an important step. Miso is a fermented bean paste so if you add it to simmering water, you will kill all of the happy bacteria that is so good for you!

(1) From Whole Foods Market, labelled as "Local" because they bought it from a farm in MI
(2) Left over from making snowmen yesterday :)
(3) I dried these myself from the fall. I believe I bought them from Tantre Farm originally...
(4) Bulk section of the People's Food Co-op

Miso Tahini Dressing

Ingredients:
2 T tamari
2 T brown rice vinegar
2 T mirin (or any cooking wine)
2 T miso*
2 T tahini
Crushed red pepper to taste


Directions:
Mix ingredients together. Done.
Add some water if you prefer a thinner dressing.


This dressing works great on a salad but would also be good on a cold noodle dish or baked with tofu.


*The People's Food Co-op sells local white miso in bulk!