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Login Here Signup Here Signup using Facebookhi I am making the transition to raw at the moment. The biggest issue for me is to break old eating habits and get used to new routines for raw food preparation. i enjoy salads and soups, but sometimes when i come in from the cold after a long stressful day I feel like some comfort food. Something warm filling and wholesome.
Can anybody suggest some raw foods and recipes that would fill the spot? Can they be prepared quickly?
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I live in Kentucky and before the weather warmed up, I found myself using cayenne pepper and a lot of it, in almost everything I fixed… Soups and smoothies from this site… The colder I was the more cayenne I added… Hope this helps… :} Where do you live??? Love your photo!!!
i love using the dehydrator to warm and soften veggies for dinner when it’s cold. you only have to stick them in for 40-45 minutes on 115.
here’s a little routine i do:
“sauteed” veggies: you can slice rather fine slivers of red peppers, onions, & zucchini, toss with some olive oil, sea salt and pepper and a little lemon juice. place on the dehydrator tray.
“sauteed” spinach: roughly chop spinach, toss with olive oil and minced garlic. place on dehydrator tray.
tomato sauce: cut tomatoes into small pieces, play on dehydrator trays. (rest of recipe coming up…)
once you’ve done that, have a warmed up glass of water with some lemon. relax as you sip and chop greens, celery, radishes, cucumbers (etc) into a salad bowl. whisk some olive oil, lemon, and any herbs you have on hand together to make a dressing.
usually once i have that all cleaned up and finished it’s time to get the veggies out of the dehydrator.
{while you prepare the sauce you could even put your salad bowl in the dehydrator just to get the fridge chill off of it}
sauce: blend the semi-dehydrated tomatoes with some olive oil, a big slice of red pepper, a little garlic, a little onion, and lots of fresh basil.
PLATING: bed of spinach, top with assorted veggies, spoon over some of the sauce. enjoy with side salad.
if you want something heavier, make a seed cheese, or have a whole avocado with the salad.
thank you for joining me in my kitchen ;)
Ooh, pianissima, that sounds good!
I like cocoa: warm water, cacao powder, agave, a little maca powder, and the meat from a young coconut, or you could use a nut milk in place of the water and coconut meat, and either run it long enough that the blender warms it, or slightly warm the nut milk before, or slightly warm the cocoa after blending… Yummy no matter what! :)
i made some awesome raw comfort food last night from this site! the “better than alfredo” sauce over zucchini pasta. my blendtec made the sauce slightly warm and it was so rich and creamy. highly recommended and easy!
You might enjoy zucchini grated and then put through a creamy pine nut dressing, make some raw flatbread to go with it.
well well – thank you for all the great suggestions, I can’t wait to try them. My dehydrator has been gathering dust for months so it is time to dust it off and get it cracking. Using pepper to “heat up” the dish is a great idea. I put a chilli in my breakfast smoothy this morning and that certainly raised the heat level! I will buy some zucchinis today too. thanks for your help.
I live in Brisbane Australia – I’m glad you like the photo, I am a sagittarius so that is why it resonates with me – also it is time to make some changes in my life and plot a new path…
keep the suggestions coming they are most appreciated.
well well – thank you for all the great suggestions, I can’t wait to try them. My dehydrator has been gathering dust for months so it is time to dust it off and get it cracking. Using pepper to “heat up” the dish is a great idea. I put a chilli in my breakfast smoothy this morning and that certainly raised the heat level! I will buy some zucchinis today too. thanks for your help.
I live in Brisbane Australia – I’m glad you like the photo, I am a sagittarius so that is why it resonates with me – also it is time to make some changes in my life and plot a new path…
keep the suggestions coming they are most appreciated.
I have a couple of favorites. I love making spicy indian food and chili. Warm these to touch on the stove or in the dehydrator – the jalapeno heats up the dish nicely.
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Braised Broccoli in Garlic Sauce~~~~~~~Chop the broccoli into small pieces. Combine the remaining ingredients in a large bowl. Place the broccoli pieces in the bowl so that they are covered with marinade. Refrigerate the dish for 8 to 16 hours. Drain the marinade and place the broccoli pieces on a mesh dehydrator tray. Dehydrate for 1 to 3 hours at 105 degrees. Serve immediately.
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CHILI~~~~~~~
Base:
1 c. soaked/strained walnuts 1 c. carrots Chop both of these ingredients in food processor and transfer to a large bowl with the following:
1 portabella mushroom, defeathered and chopped into small cubes 1/2 c. minced celery 1/4 c. minced shallot 1/2 minced red bell pepper (works well if frozen first)
Sauce:
1-1/2 c. Sun dried tomatoes and 3/4 c. of soaking water (Soak for two hours) 1 T. honey 1 T. olive oil 2 T. green onions (the white stalk is best) 2 T. Nama shoyu 2 cloves garlic 2 T. fresh oregano or 1 T. dried 2 t. chili powder 1 t. cumin 1 t. apple cider vinegar 1 t. lemon juice Feathers from the portabella mushrooms
Mix this all in a blender
Pour sauce over the base, mix well and serve.
Sprinkle with cayenne pepper for a hotter sauce.
This will stay fresh for a week in the fridge.
- ADAPTED from Alex Ferrera’s “The Raw Food Primer”
**To defeather a portabello: cut off the gills – the black things that are on the underbelly. You still use them, but separately.
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Matar Paneer~~~~~~~~~~~~~ adapted from the original recipe at http://mattyeleesvegankitchen.blogspot.com/2008…
Matar Paneer is Peas and Cheeze cubes in a milk tomato curry sauce. Begin the dish early in the day for the cheese to have time to dry. If using frozen green peas, thaw to room temperature.
Cheeze Cubes: 1 cup sunflower seeds ground in coffee grinder 1 cup pine nuts, ground 3 tbsp olive oil juice of 1/2 lemon 1/2 to 1 tbsp brown rice or white miso sea salt to taste
Process sunflower seeds until finely ground. Add olive oil, lemon juice, and miso – process until very smooth and thick. Add sea salt to taste. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto a mesh screen and dehydrate at 105 degrees for 8 hours. Then using a spatula, turn each cheese cube and dry for 2 additional hours.
Tomato Curry Sauce: 1/4 to 1/2 c. soaked sunflower seeds
Burgers are always a good one. I’m sure there will be some good recipes on site.
I posted a recipe on this site called “Yellow Squash Casserole” it is good when I am craving comfort food. It is a different texture than many other raw dishes I eat. It might help you a bit too, and it’s easy to make!
When I was in grad school, I had a professor that would answer many of our questions with, “Now that sounds like a good thesis topic.” Channelling her, I’m thinking comfort food – now that sounds like a good recipe category! :)
EDIT: Just checked – there is a comfort category! We also have some that show up under warm.
Winona – Thanks for posting those recipes! I just posted on another thread how I never eat raw broccoli much, except for a few weeks last fall, when I ate it a lot, but putting it with garlic sounds really good now, for some reason – yum!
No problem! The broccoli recipe came out FANTASTIC. It’s so simple, yet so good. It really tasted like stir fried chinese food!
so many wonderful ideas
Winona quick question about your cheese – do you sprout the sunflower seeds first or use them dry? Do you put the pine nuts in whole or process them first? it looks delicious
I have been making breads in my dehydrator and storing them up. Adding a lot more spices and chillies has made a difference too. I think my big problem in the past was not making tasty warming meals, and relying on quick drinks and salads. This would lead to cravings and desire for some TLC which led me to breaking my raw diet.
I have also learnt to make smaller loads for the dehydrator. I used to think that I had to fill all 5 trays otherwise it was being wasted. This also meant that if I did not like something then it was a big waste. Now by making smaller quantities I am practicing as I go. Also I do not have to take up the whole kitchen to make something. The smell through the house is great too.
Does anybody else have any favorite comfort foods they turn to when they need some TLC?
rrhiys – I use dry sunflower seeds. I grind them in the coffee grinder before mixing them with the other ingredients. I also grind the pine nuts before mixing them with the other ingredients. However, if your food processor can handle these ingredients, feel free to mix everything and blend away. You don’t want to add more liquid than the lemon/oil recommended, or it won’t dry into the flaky cheese.
I second the recommendation to make small batches of recipes in the dehydrator. I used to load up the dehydrator, then find out that I didn’t love the recipe and wasted a lot. Now, I do test size batches (1 burger or 3 crackers or 1 pizza crust) since I’m new to making raw foods.
My ultimate comfort food this weekend was the raw ratatouille recipe on goneraw. Marinade it for 1-3 days, then warm it to touch in a pan or the dehydrator. Then enjoy, perhaps with some squash or zucchini noodles. I also love warm zucchini noodles with a jalapeno walnut patty (recipe above, in this post) topped with cashew curry dressing. Mmm fantastic!
rrys! first of all love your pic!! is that you? second what is more comnfortng that smashies and peas? with gravy? the parsnip whip and mushroom gravey on this site are to die for and i add peas to my bowl jsut for fun i use the frozen kind if i dont have fresh and soak them in hot water until warm! i also enjoy warm bread with veggies and sort of spicey nut cheese…everyone elses ideas sound fab too! spice is nice!
Mushroom gravy?! Must…have…mushroom…gravy…...........Mmmmmmmmmm!
I just posted my delicious comfort food Almond Cream Linguini
hmmm winona
I just printed off your linguini recipe – looks very flavoursome and can’t wait to try it. I am drying some cheese at the moment. I didn’t have any pine nuts, and the ones in the shop looked old and stale, so substituted barely sprouted pumpkin seeds. The whole house smelled rich and spicy when I walked in… feeling groovy now it is time to turn them over
omshanti – I love that photo too but no it is not me – what are smashies?
smashies, mashed potatoes in the cooked world, parsnip whip on this site! sorry we have lots of code words in this house that i forget are not common knowledge outside the family! hhaha good thing i didnt mention”cotch”( cottage cheese, said by a three year old friend)
haha omshanti cotch – sounds really bad! lol! be glad you never learned about “vallina coke, fries no ice” that’s how my 3 year old sister used to order food at McDonalds.
rrhiys – cool that you substituted pumpkin seeds – how interesting! i bet walnuts/cashews could be an interesting substitute for pinenuts. cool that you’re going to try my linguini – i positively love that recipe! wowee.
Winona- the Matar Paneer sounds so yummy! I will be making that this weekend!