Raw Pumpkin Cheesecake

Recently I went to my favorite raw dessert blog, SweetlyRaw.com to look at her pumpkin recipes. She has many on her blog, several of which I've tried and loved. I appreciate that she has so many to choose from. This recipe is inspired by her, though I changed a few things in the filling. Check out Heather's blog and try some of her recipes. She's a true chef. Try my recipe if you want a truly raw pie that uses raw pumpkin.

Crust: (Heather's recipe)
1 1/4 cups almonds
1/2 c. pitted, packed dates, chopped
1/4 c. raisins
4 T.  cacao powder
1 t. vanilla
1-2 t. water if needed
Pinch of salt

In a food processor grind the almonds to flour. Add the raisins, dates, salt and cacao. Grind until broken down. Add the vanilla and water. Grind and then press some mixture together to make sure it sticks. Add a little more water if needed. Press into silicone molds.

Filling:
1 medium sized pie pumpkin chopped
1 c. cashews soaked for two hours
1/2 c. hemp milk
1/4 c. tablespoon maple syrup
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla
1/4 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
1/4 t. cardamom
3/4 c.  liquid coconut oil

Blend all but the oil in a blender until completely smooth.  Add the oil and blend again to incorporate. Pour the mixture over the crust. Chill for 3 hours in the freezer to set.

Chocolate Drizzle:  optional
1/4 c. liquid coconut oil
1 T. raw cacao powder
1/2 t. maple syrup

Whisk all ingredients together. Lightly drop some chocolate from a spoon onto the cheesecake. Use a chopstick to swirl the chocolate into the pumpkin filling. Chill for 3 hours in the freezer to set.

Butternut Squash Pasta with Spinach and Mushrooms

Lately I'm into vegetable pastas. Fall is an abundant time for squash, which makes great noodles. Butternut squash is a brilliant yellow and has a cheesy flavor to me. I might be influenced by the color, like when orange cauliflower is called cheddar cauliflower (but doesn't take at all like cheese). But I maintain that the flavor of butternut squash is a little cheesy. I look for squash that has big bottoms because that is the part that will be spiralized. The long necks will provide some squash for pasta, but the majority will come from the bottom part. Note: I use the smaller neck parts in smoothies with pumpkin pie spices.

Noodles:
1 large butternut squash spiralized
salt

Toss noodles with a little salt and let soften for about 10-15 minutes. Rinse well and drain. Set aside noodles until dressing is made.

Spinach:
3 c. baby spinach
2 T. olive oil
2 T. lemon juice

Toss spinach with oil and lemon juice. Set aside.

Mushrooms:
2 c. mushrooms
2 T. olive oil
1 T. balsamic vinegar
1 T. coconut aminos

Slice mushrooms and toss in other ingredients. Let marinate for about thirty minutes.

Pasta Sauce:
1 c.  cashews soaked for at least 1 hour
1 T. lemon juice
1 T. white miso
1 T. nutritional yeast
1/2 filtered water
Himalayan sea salt to taste

Blend all ingredients in a high speed blender until smooth.

Assembly:
Drain mushrooms of marinade. Put mushrooms and spinach in a large bowl with pasta noodles. Gradually add pasta sauce until you have your desired amount. Toss the noodles in the dressing. Salt and pepper if desired.

Kiss My Cabbage

Hey, I want to tell you about a great line of raw fermented foods I recently discovered. I was at the Linden Hills Farmer's Market here in Minneapolis and came across this lovely woman named Adrienne Logsdon who makes "Kiss My Cabbage" fermented foods ranging from sauerkraut to kimchi. She uses fermenting crocks (yea!) and doesn't use sugar (double yea!). I sampled all the flavors and loved them all, especially her curry kimchi. She's based out of St. Croix Falls, WI but sells at smaller markets as well. The vegetables are grown on a nearby farm called Burning River Farm in Frederic, WI whenever possible. I really enjoyed talking to Adrienne and greatly appreciated her dedication to pure raw fermented foods. I also love her simple labels that remind me of making potato stamp prints on old grocery bags when I was a kid. Please look her up on Facebook and support her when you see her products. They are tasty and so good for you. I was a little sad that I had already spent all my money on other vegetables, but I spent what I had left on this lemon garlic cabbage. It was the only item for which I still had enough cash.  I would have bought one of everything if I had seen her first. But at least I used some of what I bought to make my own batch of brussel sprout kimchi which is fermenting as we speak. And yes, I use a crock, and no, I don't use sugar.

Pad Thai with Kelp Noodles

Tonight I made a quick dinner that took about fifteen minutes but was very satisfying. I made a simple dressing to put over kelp noodles, savoy cabbage and some red peppers. It was easy, bright, and fun to eat with chopsticks. Eating well couldn't be simpler.

Pad Thai Sauce:

1/4 c. raw organic almond butter
1/4 c. coconut oil liquified
2 T. Bragg's Liquid Aminos
juice of one lime
2 T.  sesame seeds
1 red hot chili
1/4 to 1/2  c. filtered water

Blend all ingredients in a blender. Set aside.

Pad Thai:
1 12 oz. package of kelp noodles, rinsed
1 c. thinly sliced savoy cabbage
1/2 c. basil leaves ( keep some out for garnish)
1/2 red bell pepper chopped plus a few tablespoons for garnish

Put all ingredients into a large bowl. Pour dressing over noodles, cabbage, basil and pepper. Toss mixture in dressing. Garnish with basil leaves and red pepper. Serves two.

Note: I have to buy kelp noodles online because I haven't found them readily available. Try vitacost.com for some good deals.

Lotus Pear Tart with Fig Crust

I made this tart for a dinner with a friend who doesn't have the sweet tooth I have.  I told her I was still serving dessert because dinner isn't done until then. So I came up with this little tart using pears and figs and coconut nectar because it's less sweet than agave. I had an Asian theme to the dinner, so when thinking of something sweet that would go well, pears came to mind. I don't really even know why, but I went with it. To tie it all together, I topped the tart in dried figs in the shape of a lotus flower.  With the pears and dried figs, it's a perfect tart for fall.  It even looks like fall.

Lotus Pear Tart with Fig Crust:
Crust:
1 c. almonds soaked and dehydrated
7  dried Symrna figs with the stems cut off (these are the yellow figs)
3 medjool dates

Process all ingredients in a food process until the dough is sticky. Press into a tart shape with your hands or use a 6" quick release cake pan with removable bottom.

Filling:
1 c. soaked cashews
1/2 c. soaked macadamia nuts
2 pears (use different kinds for fun: I used a Bosc and an Asian pear)
1/4 c. coconut nectar
1 t. ginger
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. vanilla
1/3 c. coconut oil

Blend all ingredients except coconut oil until well incorporated. Add coconut oil and continue blending until mixture is smooth and creamy.  Pour into tart shell. Refrigerate for a couple of hours until filling is firm to touch.

Garnish:
1 pint dried black mission figs, each fig cut in half

When tart is set, place fig halves in a circular layered pattern resembling a lotus on the top of the tart.

Isn't she beautiful?

Lemon Custard with Raspberry Filling

Looking to make a quick dessert that didn't require too much prep time or dehydrating time, I made this lemon custard, which is really just another variation on raw cheesecake filling. I didn't want the heaviness of a crust to get in the way of the flavors, so this time I chose to layer the custard with some blended raspberries. Easy, quick, beautiful and satisfying, yet it looks kind of fancy. Perfect for those dinners where you'd like to end with something sweet but don't have the time to make a cake or pie.

Lemon Custard with Raspberry Filling:

Custard:
1 c. soaked cashews
1/3 c. lemon juice
1/4 c. agave plus 2 tablespoons
1/3 c. coconut oil at room temperature
2 T. lemon zest
seeds scraped from one vanilla bean
pinch of sea salt

Blend all ingredients except coconut oil in a high speed blender until well incorporated. Add coconut oil last and blend again until thoroughly mixed. Pour half of mixture into two glasses and set in refrigerator until the custard is firm to the touch. This usually doesn't take more than twenty minutes. Keep the other half of custard mixture at room temperature.

Raspberry Filling:
1 pint fresh raspberries
4 T. agave
1 T. lemon juice

Blend ingredients in a high speed blender. Pour a layer onto the custard cups. This layer should be thin, about half what the custard layer was. Reserve the remaining raspberry filling for a final garnish.

Next, spoon the remaining custard into the center of the raspberry layer. The raspberry layer will fill around the sides of the custard so that the custard looks like a little island floating in a raspberry sea. Set the cups in the refrigerator again until the top layer of custard is firm to touch.

Spoon a few drops of raspberry filling onto the custard centers as a final garnish. You are ready to serve your beautiful desserts.

Lima Bean Avocado Dip with Flax Crackers

I made two different kinds of flax crackers to be able to take to work for lunch. One was a plain flax cracker and the other was an olive flax cracker. I needed something to put on them, so I made this really quick and tasty dip out of lima beans, avocado and raw tahini. I often make a cashew cheese to go with crackers, but this time I wanted something a little lighter with more vegetables. It was a great snack full of healthy fats in the flax meal and avocado, protein in the tahini, with the lima beans in the dip and celery in the crackers serving as vegetables. I used a dehydrator to make the crackers, but you could also make these in your oven by setting it to the lowest temperature and cracking the door open.

Flax Crackers:

Plain Version:
1 c. chopped celery
1 1/2 c. flax meal (ground flax seeds)
2 T. oregano
1 c. filtered water
1 t. Himalayan sea salt

Process all ingredients in a food processor. Spread mixture thinly on a Teflex lined dehydrator sheet. Score the crackers for easy separation after dehydrating. Dehydrate crackers at 105 degrees for about 5-6 hours. Flip crackers and remove Teflex sheet from the tray. Continue to dehydrate for another 5-6 hours or until crackers are crisp.  Break or cut crackers into desired sizes using scored marks as guides.

Olive Version:
1 c. chopped celery
1 c. flax meal (ground flax seeds)
1/2 c. buckwheat groats
1 c. filtered water
1/2 c. pitted kalamata olives
1 t. Himalayan sea salt

Process all ingredients in a food processor. Spread mixture thinly on a Teflex lined dehydrator sheet. Score the crackers for easy separation after dehydrating. Dehydrate crackers at 105 degrees for about 5-6 hours. Flip crackers and remove Teflex sheet from the tray. Continue to dehydrate for another 5-6 hours or until crackers are crisp.  Break or cut crackers into desired sizes using scored marks as guides.


Lima Bean Avocado Dip: 

1 package frozen lima beans
1/2 avocado
1/4 c. raw tahini
1 jalapeno pepper
2 T. apple cider vinegar
juice of 1 lemon
1 t. cumin
 pinch of Himalayan sea salt

Process all ingredients in a food processor. Spread dip onto crackers and enjoy.

Raspberry Linzer Cookies

I made this variation of a Linzer cookie, originally called Linzertorte and hailing from Austria, based off a recipe by Matthew Kenney. Linzer cookies are traditionally two blanched almond cookies with a layer of black currant jam in between. The cookies usually have a cutout on the top layer so you can see the jam beneath. The ones I made use a raspberry jam because it's my favorite flavor. Mine are really big because the cutout I had was large. Truth be told, most of my kitchen equipment is currently packed in my garage while my house is on the market, so I didn't have access to my smaller cookie cutters. So these are bigger than usual and have an angel shape cutout. The nice thing about the angel cutout is that the cutouts became their own little bite-size cookies. So cute! The cookies are also traditionally dusted with a bit of flour, which, honestly, I just forgot to do. So I'll tell you to do what I didn't do, but it doesn't matter in taste. These little (well, big) nuggets made me a bit nostalgic, as cookies often do. Who takes the time to make real homemade cookies anymore? I guess I do, and I hope you will, too.

Raspberry Linzer Cookies: 

Cookies:
3 c. almonds ground into flour
1 c. coconut flour plus 1/2 c. coconut flour to be set aside and used for dusting
3/4 c. agave
2 T. lemon zest
2 T. coconut oil in liquid form
1 T. vanilla seeds scraped from beans (I use Ojio wildcrafted vanilla because the scraping has been done for you)
pinch of sea salt

Mix the almond and coconut flours until well combined. Add the remaining ingredients and process the dough in a food processor using the "dough" button, if you have this option.Otherwise pulse the dough until it forms a ball.

Roll out the dough onto a Teflex sheet. Place another Teflex sheet (or parchment paper) over the dough and roll the dough evenly with a rolling pin. You can also smooth the dough with your hands if you don't have a rolling pin. The goal is to get the dough as smooth  and thin as possible without it falling apart.  As the dough rolls out, you'll find you have more than what can fit on one Teflex sheet. Take the extra, ball it up and repeat the above process on another Teflex sheet. I ended up with three sheets full of cookie cutouts.

Using a cookie cutter (preferably a Linzer cookie cutter with fluted edges but any will do) cut into shapes. Divide the cookies in half. One half of the cookies will have cutouts. You can either use a smaller cookie cutter to do the cutouts or cut small circles into each cookie. You should have an equal number of cookies with cutouts and without. If your cutout shape was done with a cookie cutter, keep those shapes because they'll make their own little cookies. Place the Teflex sheets containing the cookies  (and cutouts) onto dehydrator trays. Dehydrate the cookies at 105 degrees for about 10 to 12 hours, flipping about halfway and removing the Teflex at this point. Cookies should be crisp but hold together.

Jam: 

3/4 c. raspberries
4 dates
1 T. lemon juice
1 T. chia seeds
1 t. vanilla
pinch of sea salt

Blend all ingredients in a high speed blender until smooth. Place in the dehydrator for about 2 hours until jam becomes slightly thick but still pliable.

Assembly:

Spread about 1 T. of jam on a cookie without a cutout and top with a cookie with a cutout. Repeat until all cookies are paired with jam in the middle.

Dust each Linzer cookie with coconut flour. Voila. Enjoy with a warm cup of tea and think fondly of Grandma.