Month: October 2010

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Warm Butternut Squash Soup

In a raw vegan diet you can also eat warm food too! For the past few days, it’s been getting cold in Hong Kong and I wanted to share a recipe that a friend ask me to do for a detox workshop.

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Ingredients:
1/2 cup butternut squash
2 cups water, hot
1/3 cup macadamia nuts
1 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon Irish moss, (paste)
1 pinch ginger ground
1 pinch cayenne
1 teaspoon parsley

Place water, squash and Irish moss paste and blend until smooth.

Add the rest of the ingredients.

Use a drainer to serve and remove the foam and some nut meal.

Decorate with dry parsley.

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Mango Parfait

 

I learned that “Parfait” meas “Perfect” in French. This dessert was traditionally made using sugar, eggs and cream perfect ingredients to become totally overweight and sick! Inspired from Cafe Gratitude I share this recipe that is closer to perfection regarding health and taste too!

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Ingredients:
1 ounce irish moss, (soaked for 1 hr)
250 ml almond milk
2 cups mango
1/3 cup agave syrup
2 tablespoons vanilla
2 tablespoons lemon jucie
1/12 teaspoon turmeric
2 tablespoons lecitin
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 tsp cinnamon

Blend Irish Moss and almond milk until smooth. No chunks left behind!

Add the mango, agave, vanilla, lemon juice, salt and turmeric powder, and blend again until smooth.

Then add the lecithin and coconut oil, blend again until emulsifies.

Set on fridge for about half an hour and garnish cinnamon powder using a paper fan, so spreads on the edges to make a smoke effect.

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Mango and Goji berries Mousse

Orange colors are bright in November to celebrate not only Halloween but also “Dia de los Muertos”, a Mexican festivity that honors the “Day of the Death”. In this festivity food offerings are made to the deceased family members and friends, so the Death take the “essence” of the food with them.

This dessert is fast an easy to make and is a nice dessert offer for the living too!

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1/3 cup goji berries, soaked in water (for at least 1 hour)
1/2 cup mango, fresh
1 tsp Irish moss paste
2 tablespoons coconut flower nectar
1/2 cup water

Place water, goji berries, and Irish moss paste and blend until smooth, then add the rest of the ingredients.
Decorate with chunks of mango on top.

Place on fridge to set for 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Keeps for 5 days in fridge


Source: USDA

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Irish Moss a gift from the Sea

 

Sea vegetables are an excellent source of minerals, such as iron, magnesium and calcium, and B-vitamins like folate,? riboflavin and pantothenic acid. They are also rich in lignans, a plant compounds that recent research have showed to protect our body against cancer growth. Irish moss in particular, has showed some benefits for treatment of damaged lungs from pneumonia, smoking, emphysema, chronic bronchitis and possibly Mycoplasma and Chlamydia.

Back to the kitchen!

Irish moss is usually sold in a dry form, preserved with salt. This way it can last for many months, if we want to use it for raw food dishes, first we need to take the portion we are going to use, I suggest to start with 1/2 cup.

We wash the dry Irish Moss at least 5 times, until all the salt is removed. Sometimes you will some cotton strings from nets, also try to remove, until its pretty clean. Then we need to soak it for at least 3 hours, I like to leave it over night to allow it to rehydrate fully.

We will notice that the Irish Moss will expand in size, from this point we prepare IMOP (Irish Moss Paste).

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Ingredients:

1 Cup of soaked and cleaned Irish Moss
2 Cups of water

Place ingredients on high speed blender (highly recommended) and blend until smooth (until the blades make no more sounds with the paste). Remove the paste, if you see any small chunks blend again or remove them.Place paste in a glass container and keep on fridge.

Keeps for 1 month on fridge.

Irish Moss Nutrition Facts

Source: USDA

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First way to use Irish Moss:

Make your usual nut milk and add 1 tsp of Irish Moss paste, blend again until smooth, notice difference? More thickness with less nuts and fat!
[stextbox id=”alert” caption=”Warning”]Do not over use Irish Moss! Go with small amounts otherwise it will taste like seaweed![/stextbox]

In Hong Kong it’s called “Sam Wu Choi”, it’s sold in many organic health food stores.

Keep in touch for further tips and secrets!

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A Picture is worth a thounsand words, this one has three: Hazle nut milk, Cacao, Vanilla and Palm Sugar

Gianduja Dream

We have to thank Caffarel for the invention of Gianduja , a mixture of hazel nuts and cacao, from this blend many creations of chocolates and spreads like Nutela have come to existence. This recipe resembles a raw version of amazing ingredients in their natural form, creating delicious and healthy drink.
Hazle nuts or filbert nut are rich in oleic acid, vitamin E and antioxidants.

 

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Ingredients:

2 Cups of hazel nut milk*
2 Tbs raw cacao nibs
1 Tsp vanilla extract
3 Tbs of palm sugar
1 pinch of sea salt

Blend hazel nut milk with all ingredients on a high speed blender until smooth, for a thicker consistence use 1 tsp of Irish Moss Paste
*Blend 1 cup of raw hazel nuts with 2 cups of water for 20 seconds, drain using a milk bag or fine mesh drainer, dehydrate pulp and keep on freezer for further recipes.

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Coconut Noodles with Aloe Vera

It’s been more than a year since I started this blog, and I wanted to thank all of us for dropping by and sharing your thoughts about this amazing food. I’m moving on with a new name that resonates to my believes and lifestyle. So moving on with something easy to prepare at home and I consider as a detox soup, due to the healing ingredients and simplicity.

I love Aloe Vera not only for being a beautiful plant, but it’s the best gel not only for sunburns and shaving, but also for having strong anti-inflammatory benefits and improving conditions of blood sugar and hepatitis.

We can enjoy it by eating it raw and fresh with a Thai coconut noodles (made by cutting the pulp like chiffonade, after being carefully extracted) and coconut water; making it’s a simple and refreshing dish.

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Ingredients

1 Thai Coconut
1/2 Cup of chiffonade coconut pulp
1/3 Cup of fresh aloe vera cubes
1/3 Cup of raw cucumber cubes
1 Cup of coconut water

*With a sharp knife remove skin and cut into 5mm cubes.

Mix all ingredients, and enjoy!

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