Hazelnut Miso Dressing

It’s magic. Every single time. And even now after so many years I’m awed at the infinite possibilities!

Take any nut or seed, add a few flavourful ingredients, grind with a little water, and you have the best damn salad dressing (or dip or sauce or spread or or or...) in a matter of minutes! Ta-da! 🧚🏼‍♀️👩🏻‍🍳

I always harp on about how going vegan up-levelled my cooking skills in incredible ways. But when it comes right down to it, what it basically did was give me freedom.

When I learnt to use familiar ingredients in new ways (like making mylk out of sesame seeds or creamy pasta sauce out of beans), my mind blew open. 🤯 It suddenly felt like I had permission to mix anything with anything and prepare it in whatever way I liked. No. More. Rules. 😀

I never have to wait around to have specific ingredients at home when I’m in the mood to cook. Something ran out of stock? No biggie. Just try putting this in there instead of that and see what happens. More often than not, what happens is deliciousness. 😂

If I were limited to animal based butter, cheese, sour cream and such, I’d never have ventured into scrumptious plant powered magic like the dressing in this salad.

🌰 Hazelnut Miso Dressing 🥗

1/4 C Hazelnuts
1 T White Miso Paste
1/2 Soft Date
1 tsp Apple Cider Vinegar
1 small clove of Garlic
Few drops Bhut Jholokia Hot Sauce
Large Splash of Crisp Vinous Brew (from @viazeme )
Water
Nutritional Yeast (optional for additional kick)

Grind into a thick, creamy paste, using water as required. Toss salad veggies in it and enjoy! (Works great as a spread/dip too).

The salad has English Cucumber, Cherry Tomato, Spoon Lettuce, and Chives. I also mixed in a generous amount of freshly crushed black pepper and a sprinkle of dried orange peel powder.

 

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Raw Fettuccine in Almond Bell Pepper Sauce

When it comes to making raw main courses, my go-to dish is zucchini fettuccine in a creamy cashew and basil sauce. It's a hugely popular dish among our raw food guests at Carrots and pretty much anyone who's tasted it.

People who're new to this kind of cuisine barely believe it's vegan, leave alone completely raw. :)

Last week, on my usual raw food Thursday, I became quite hungry in the evening after a bit of gallivanting with my boys. I wanted to have zucchini pasta but I wanted to push myself to create something new too.

So I switched up the ingredients in the sauce a bit and the result was GLORIOUS! You just have to taste this thing to believe it.

You can also watch a video for the method of making Zucchini Fettuccine on an older recipe post: Raw Zucchini Fettuccine and Sun Dried Tomatoes in Cashew Sour Cream Sauce.

Here's the recipe for this one:

Raw Fettuccine in Almond Bell Pepper Sauce

1 small Green Zucchini

1 small Yellow Zucchini

1 small Red Bell Pepper

1/4 Yellow Bell Pepper

1/4 C Almonds

2 cloves of Garlic

2-3 pitted Dates

Juice of 1/2 Lemon

Pepper

Salt

Basil

* Wash the zucchinis well and using a vegetable peeler, scrape them into flat, fettuccine noodles (including the peel) and keep them aside
* When you reach the soft, seed part at the heart of the zucchinis, chop them up roughly and keep aside
* Into a dry grinder jar, add almonds, garlic, dates, pepper and salt grind into a fine powder
* Add the red bell pepper, zucchini and lemon juice and blend until creamy (happens very quickly)
* Place the zucchini noodles in a serving dish, pour the creamy sauce over it and mix well
* Garnish with chopped yellow bell peppers, shredded basil leaves and chopped almonds
* Enjoy! :)

Raw Vegan Superfoods Smoothie

I've decided that every Thursday, I'm going to go completely raw. I've already done this two Thursdays in a row and am feeling pretty proud of myself. Of course, it does help to be spending most of my waking hours at a restaurant where pure juices and fresh salads are our speciality. ;)

I started this mainly with the intention to get my creative juices flowing so I can delve deeper into making more raw foods. As a friend of mine who went raw for 21 days told me, the best way to push yourself to come up with more raw foods is to go raw yourself.

Though I currently don't think I have the will power or inclination to do this strictly for even one week, leave alone three, in a row, I believe once a week could be quite easy to keep up. :)

Though I haven't been hit with any sudden inspirations to create fancy, raw dishes, there are so many cool little things I've already learnt about how my body and my mind work. I'm sure that as I keep going, I'll have a few interesting ideas for raw dishes.

And while I'm on this journey, I'm hoping to find a bit of time to share some recipes here with you all.

Here's one for a fantastic, power packed smoothie I made myself for breakfast yesterday. It was amazing how it kept me going for a few hours!

Try it yourself and enjoy! :)