Melon Mustard Gazpacho - Vegan MoFo 2013 Day 10

This cold soup was the first recipe I created for this year's Vegan MoFo when I found out about it in August. But I hadn't found the right time to post it until now.

Since I kicked off MoFo with a tutorial on making Almond Mylk, I ended up posting various recipes related to that throughout the first week. Then early in the second week, there was a Creamy Tomato Basil Soup recipe which was a guest post on my blog by Manasa and I didn't want another soup recipe here very soon after that.

Today finally seems to be the right time for me to be sharing this. Since it's a weekend, I don't want to spend too much time online. So there are no HowDos and no stop-motion videos. Just a simple and refreshing recipe for you to quickly whip up and enjoy. :)

I grow my own organic mustard leaves by planting mustard seeds in a pot. These are very good for health and have a really delicious flavour. I recommend that you grow your own organic mustard leaves too if you have a garden or a well lit balcony where you can place potted plants. They grow very quickly and easily.

If you can't get your hands on mustard leaves, you can always use other greens. I suggest that you use something with a hint of spiciness to it, like arugula or radish greens.

Melon Mustard Gazpacho

1 Musk Melon
2 Tomatoes
1 C Mustard Leaves
1/2 Lime
1/8 tsp Salt

* De-seed, peel and cube the musk melon
* Cube the tomatoes
* Add the musk melon, tomatoes and mustard leaves into a blender jar
* Squeeze lime juice over them and add the salt
* Blend well (it's okay if a few small chunks are left)
* Serve fresh and raw
* Enjoy! :)

By the way, Rando is back. Yay! :)

For those of you who don't know, RandoMoFo is a randomiser for Vegan MoFo. Every time you visit RandoMoFo.com, a totally random Vegan MoFo participant's blog is loaded. And since I love surprises, this is my absolute favourite way to blog hop during MoFo and drool over all the delicious food posts.

Give it a go, you'll see why I like it so much. But let me warn you, Rando is a highly addictive fella. So if you're a Vegan MoFo blogger, first finish writing up your blog post for the day before you get on the Rando ride. ;)

Raw Cinnamon Apple Crumble with Date Almond Sauce - Vegan MoFo 2013 Day 9

I thought I'd save this recipe for tomorrow, but then I realised that we're almost half way through Vegan MoFo and I've only shared one measly dessert recipe with you so far! *gasp* That is just not an acceptable way for me to treat my precious blog readers.

There's another reason why I felt like doing a dessert post today. Spirits are at an all time high at Veganosaurus Headquarters. And here's why...

Yes, we got a brand spanking new power adapter for the laptop today. Woohoo!!! :D :D :D

When you look at the way everyone's partying now, you would never believe the kind of drama that happened here just one week ago.

This kind of mood definitely calls for dessert, don't you think? :) Here you go...

Raw Cinnamon Apple Crumble with Date Almond Sauce

2 Apples - chopped into small pieces
1/2 tsp Cinnamon Powder
Pinch of Salt

* Toss everything together in glass dish
* Cover with a glass lid
* Keep in a sunny spot for sun baking for 3-4 hours

6 Seedless Dates

* Soak them in fresh, clean water for 3-4 hours

1/2 C Almonds
2 T Sesame Seeds

* Grind coarsely in a dry jar

How to proceed:

* To 1/4th of the almond-sesame powder, add the dates and their soaking water and grind to a smooth paste
* Add a few spoons of water and blend into a sauce
* Toss the apples with the remaining 3/4th of the almond-sesame powder to form the apple crumble, and place into individual serving bowls
* Spoon the sauce over the apple crumble
* Serve at room temperature or after chilling for a while
* Enjoy! :)

Raw Zucchini Fettuccine and Sun Dried Tomatoes in Cashew Sour Cream Sauce - Vegan MoFo Day 8

Wow, that name was quite a mouthful, wasn't it? Even by my usual standards. I promise that this dish is worth every syllable though!

When it comes to raw food, there's nothing like zucchini/courgette to replace regular pastas; be it zucchini lasagna, flat zucchini noodles, or if you have a fancy spiralizer tool (which is so on my I-want-this list), zucchini spaghetti! It's the one vegetable, which when combined with a creamy raw sauce, has that perfect al-dente pasta texture. It's something that you just have to taste to believe!

Since it is of utmost importance that the zucchini pasta is super thin, I use a vegetable peeler to quickly scrape it into flat, fettuccine-like noodles. This whole dish takes five minutes to put together but tastes like a laborious work of art! :D

In the summer I make real sun dried tomatoes. But since we've barely had any sunlight in this monsoon season, I made the batch used in this recipe by dehydrating cherry tomato halves in the oven at 70°C. If you don't want to make your own, you can buy them locally in Bangalore at Food Hall and a few other grocery stores that carry speciality goods.

If you like, you can substitute fresh cherry tomatoes for the sun dried ones in this recipe. But sun dried tomatoes have a significantly richer flavour and better texture, so if you are able to get your hands on them, you should definitely use them.

The nutritional yeast makes the sauce mind-blowingly flavourful. In India, you can currently order it online from i2cook. I know there are a few more sources of these precious, golden flakes coming up here soon and I'll keep you updated about them. :)

Here's a step-by-step HowDo guide (oh, how I enjoy making these HowDos) for this recipe, followed by a typed out, text version.

Raw Zucchini/Courgette Fettuccine and Sun Dried Tomatoes in Cashew Sour Cream Sauce

1 small Zucchini
1/2 C Sun Dried Tomatoes
1/4 C Cashews
2 cloves of Garlic
1 T Nutritional Yeast
5 Raisins
Juice of 1/2 Lime
Salt

* Wash the zucchini well and using a vegetable peeler, scrape it into flat, fettuccine noodles (including the peel) and keep them aside
* When you reach the soft, seed portion at the heart of the zucchini, chop it up roughly and pop it into a mixie jar
* Add the cashews, garlic, raisins and salt give the grinder a quick whirr
* Squeeze in the lime juice and add a splash of clean, filtered water
* Blend into a smooth, creamy sauce, adding more water as required
* Place the zucchini noodles in a serving dish and add the sun dried tomatoes
* Pour the cashew sour cream sauce over everything and mix well
* Enjoy! :)

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup - guest post by Manasa of Cure yourself with Food - Vegan MoFo 2013 Day 7

Today, I have a special guest post from Manasa Rajan of Cure yourself with Food. Manasa is a Nutrition Coach who lives here in Bangalore, India. I met her for the first time at one of our Vegan Bengaluru monthly potlucks and was very impressed to hear about the healthy, high raw diet that she and her family, including her young daughter, follow.

When I decided to include a few guest posts for MoFo this time, I knew one of her recipes would be perfect to share here. I was very happy when she agreed to create a raw recipe for my blog. And what a delicious, refreshing recipe it is!

Apart from her blog, Manasa can also be found on Facebook and Google Plus. Thank you for guest posting on Veganosaurus today, Manasa! :)

Now on to her post...

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When Susmitha asked me to do a guest post on one of my raw vegan recipes, I was a bit tempted to do a raw dessert with nuts and fruits. But lately I have been craving more savoury and spicy foods; my lunch seems to comprise of some kind of raw soup everyday. So, I decided to share one of my favourite raw soup recipes, which is making its presence on a loop in my kitchen. Creamy tomato basil soup!!!

The potted tomato plants on my balcony are offering little plump red beauties, which I cannot get myself to put on the stove to 'cook', I want to preserve and enjoy them in their natural, whole (and organic) lusciousness.

So, here's to raw vegan (really) fast food!!!

Ingredients

1/4 cup raw cashews (soaked for 4-5 hours)
5-6 medium sized tomatoes
1 1/2 cups hot water
1 ghost pepper (or a regular green chilly)
3-4 black pepper corns
1-2 tsp dried basil
1 clove of garlic
sea salt to taste
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil

Process

Rinse and drain the cashews. Put all the ingredients in a high powered blender and blend. The motion of the high powered blender like a Vitamix will heat up the soup, but if you are using a regular blender, you might need to run it a bit longer and be really careful with the steam being generated in the jar. Warm the soup a bit (do not boil), if you prefer. You can taste the soup and add more seasoning if required.

Stuffed Bajji Menasinakayi with Walnut Cilantro Pesto - Vegan MoFo 2013 Day 6

Last Thursday, we had a little freak out session at Veganosaurus Headquarters, but by the end of the day things had calmed down. After successfully posting a raw, vegan recipe for the fifth day of Vegan MoFo all of us went to bed with peaceful smiles on our faces, blissfully unaware of what was in store for us the following day. *insert ominous music here*

On Friday afternoon, our Internet's phone line went dead! *Gaaahhhhhh* I was left to depend on the data plan on my phone to have access to the Internet for the long weekend. Yes, I did freak out for a while but soon I decided to go with the flow, and calmed down.

How did I keep up the morale around here, you ask? Well, I just did not bother to mention anything about the phone line to Veganosaurus, Kip and the other monsters. Thankfully, they were too busy stuffing their faces with Gowri and Ganesha festival food to wonder why I wasn't Vegan MoFo-ing. And so, all was peaceful in these parts through the weekend. And before they could figure out what had happened, we got our precious Internet connection back! *sigh of relief*



Today I'm back with a very special recipe I put together, Stuffed Bajji Menasinakayi with Walnut Cilantro Pesto. This recipe could work with any kind of Chilli Peppers, but I decided to use these because they are very easily available locally (they're commonly used to make deep fried snacks called Bajjis), are the perfect size for stuffing and can be enjoyed raw because they are not overly spicy.

Before I move on to the recipe, I just have to make an appeal. My fellow Vegan MoFo-ers, if you have Captcha Text/Word Verification for commenting on your blogs, please, please, please disable it! At least during MoFo. It's such a slow, painful, annoying process to go through when someone wants to leave nice comments on your blog posts. If you're wondering why you have so few comments on your posts, it's very likely because of that darned Word Verification. Try disabling it for a while and see what a huge difference it will make. And if you're worried about those pesky spammers, just put your comments on moderation like most of us have. That way, you can publish the genuine comments and report the spam ones.



And now, Stuffed Bajji Menasinakayi with Walnut Cilantro Pesto. Since this is a recipe I totally invented, I thought it would be good to have a step-by-step video tutorial plus a text version of the recipe for it. Here you go...

 

 

Stuffed Bajji Menasinakayi with Walnut Cilantro Pesto

For the filling:
1 C Moong Sprouts (Mung Bean Sprouts)
2 small Carrots - grated
Lots of Lemon Juice
Salt

* Mix, cover and keep aside for half an hour for the flavours to blend.

For the peppers:
4 Bajji Menasinakayis (Banana Peppers)

* Make long, lengthwise slits in the peppers and carefully scoop out the seeds using a spoon.
* Save the seeds for the pesto and keep the peppers aside.

For the pesto:
1/2 C Walnuts
1/2 C Cilantro
1 T Raisins
1 fat clove of Garlic
Seeds from the de-seeded Bajji Menasinakayis
Salt

* Grind everything together.
* Add a little water and blend well into a creamy paste.

How to proceed:
* Stuff the hollowed out chillies with the sprout mixture.
* Place them on a plate and pour oodles of pesto over them.
* Enjoy! :)