Raw Tostadas with Cheezy Hemp Nacho Sauce

As much as I love preparing raw food and delving into recipe books for inspiration, it’s rare that I follow a recipe to the letter. But there’s always that rare exception to the rule, and I humbly offer one here.

Kristen Suzanne’s Cheezy Hemp Nacho Sauce is, in a word, Perfect! I made it for the first time today and, truth be told, I found myself really, really wishing that I could unscrew the bottom of my Vita Mix to get every last drop into my greedy little mouth. MMM-MMM-Amazing is all I can say.

This sauce tastes a lot like a Mexican Salsa con Queso. But instead of goopy, mucusy cow cheese, it’s made with clean-burning, highly digestible hemp seeds!

Hemp seeds are one of my favorite vegetarian food protein sources. Besides tasting incredibly creamy and sweet and nutty all at the same time, hemp seeds are a whole food offering an ideal balance of beneficial essential omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. They also boast a complete, well-rounded amino acid profile, providing 25% protein by weight. Additionally, tasty hemp seeds are rich in fiber, contain plenty of critical minerals like zinc, iron, calcium and magnesium and are a good source of antioxidant vitamins A and E.

Cheezy Hemp Nacho Sauce is not only nutritious and delicious but versatile, offering a variety of serving possibilities. It makes a great dip with raw veggies or raw chips, is sure to be incredible on top of zucchini noodles (I intend to prove this very soon!) and makes a superior nacho sauce, natch.

Come lunchtime today, I was fortunate to have some homemade chia tortilla shells in the fridge, along with a nice variety of fresh, bitter winter salad greens picked at the CSA last week. I warmed the shells in the toaster, chopped the greens, whipped up the sauce and voila! These delectable Raw Tostadas were born.

I made them two ways: 1) sauce on top of the greens (pictured on the red plate), and 2) sauce under the greens, with Herbamare-kissed avocado slices on top (plated on blue). Both were divine, as you might imagine from the photos.
No dehydrated tortillas on hand? Consider a simple wrap-style tostada instead, using nori sheets, romaine lettuce or collard greens to encase the sauce plus greens or any veggies of your choice. It's all good.

Kristen Suzanne’s
Cheezy Hemp Nacho Sauce

Add the following ingredients to high speed blender and blend until creamy.

1/3 cup water
1 clove garlic
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 chopped red bell pepper
1 cup hemp seeds
2 ½ Tbs nutritional yeast flakes
1 Tbs chili powder
2 tsps tamari
½ tsp Himalayan crystal salt
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp cayenne pepper
1/8 tsp turmeric powder

So easy! So tasty! Happy munching! And be sure to visit Kristin's blog for more yummy recipe ideas and high raw inspiration.

Carrot Pulp & Coconut Flax Crackers

I'm always looking for tasty ways to use carrot pulp leftovers from juicing. I know, I know: juice pulp is great for the compost.... but what about me?! It's tough to just toss away all that bright orange beauty, so often, I save it in the fridge. (I confess, I'm a saver. Some might even venture to say hoarder [how many "bag bags" does one family really need?] but let's not go there.)

Okay, so the fridge is full of carrot pulp. Now what? Well, I have my ways. I feed it to the dog - either mix raw carrot pulp into her food or cook it into the fish scrap and chicken leg stews she loves so well. I feed it to the kids - tucks nicely unnoticed into tuna salad, for instance. I've also tried blending the pulp into raw Cream of Carrot soup and Orange Sunshine salad dressing. (Haven't had great success there yet but am still game for trying. Recipes, anyone?)

By far, my favorite use for the stuff is as a filler for raw flax crackers. Used this way, carrot pulp adds color, texture, flavor and vitamin A nutrition. Plus there's no extra work of grating or chopping, seeing that carrot pulp is pre-pulped, and all. Flax crackers and chia chips were made for carrot pulp. Hence it features prominently in my Spicy Sunflower Chia Chip recipe on this blog, for instance.

Recently, Raw Chef Dan sent out an email with a recipe for "Coconut Toast" which sounded so good, I made a batch straight away. When cracker met tongue, we promptly fell in love at first bite. The richness of the coconut oil paired with the crispy crunch sensation of the tiny flaxseeds creates savory heaven in your mouth, like a macaroon, but not, if you know what I mean.

Anyway, one good recipe deserves another. The following is a mod of RCDs Coconut Toast original using... naturally.... leftover carrot pulp from juicing, as well as sunflower seeds (inexpensive) instead of almonds (expensive). It's really good, really easy and really cheap. With all the fuss about how pricey the raw food diet can be, what could be better? Here's how they look, all scored and ready for drying. Pretty!


CARROT PULP & COCONUT FLAX CRACKERS

1 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup golden flax seeds
3 cups water
2 cups carrot pulp, leftover from juicing
2 cups dried coconut flakes
1-2 tsp Himalayan pink salt (I used 1 but will up it next time)
1-2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Food process or grind the sunflower seeds and flax seeds together to make a gritty meal. Soak this in water for one half to one hour. Stir in remaining ingredients. Place equal amounts of dough onto 3 teflex sheets, and use wet hands or a spatula tool to spread dough to edges. (For a thicker, "crispbread" style cracker, divide the dough onto just 2 teflex sheets.) Use a rubber spatula to score into 16 squares per sheet. Dehydrate at 110 degrees for 4 hours; 6 hours for thicker version. Flip crackers onto mesh, peel off teflex and continue to dehydrate 4-6 more hours or until you attain desired dryness. Store in airtight container in fridge.

Note: I plan try this another time using leftover ALMOND pulp (from making almond milk) instead of the sunflower seeds. That cracker will be a waste-not-want-not dream come true!

BONUS: Remember all that prior posting about Properly Combined Sandwiches, and how bread and nuts don't mix? Well, if you use flaxseed crackers, which are already a seed/nut to begin with, for the bread, you can spread on the tahini, pumpkin seed cheese or raw almond butter to your heart's delight! Enjoy!

The Properly Combined Sandwich

I adore fresh salads and generally rely upon them as my midday meal of choice. But sometimes I get tired of eating salad every afternoon, simply because I want to take a break from using utensils! In such cases, I want my salad to be somehow contained in a neat tidy package, so I can pick it up and just bite in with freedom and abandon. What I really want is... a sandwich!

Of course, sandwiches are usually made with bread, a food item that rarely appears in my dietary repertoire. This is why I love the Veggie Wrap concept. Any salad combo can be rolled into a nori sheet or large green leaf (think cabbage, collard or romaine) to create a satisfying sandwich sub.

Typically when I don't want the salad in a bowl, I wrap it up this way. But there are days when I crave something more substantial to accompany my fresh raw greens, something chewy and grainy...hmmm. What could that be? Bread, perhaps?

We all know that a standard sandwich involves bread plus a protein filling, say peanut butter, cheese or meat. The problem here is that, as explained in an earlier post, eating bread with protein is a no-no. Starches don't combine well with proteins due to the conflicting types of digestive enzyme environments they require (alkaline for starches, acid for proteins). Eating them together overburdens the digestive system, saps your energy for hours to follow and can lead to gas, bloating and weight gain. The best thing to combine with starches (or proteins, for that matter) is vegetables alone. So what's a lunchtime sandwich craver to do?

Enter the Properly Combined Sandwich (PCS). Basically, this is simply a raw vegetable sandwich on whole grain bread with condiments and avocado, if desired. (The veggies are usually raw but you can use cooked veggies as well from time to time.) To my knowledge, the official PCS title was coined by Harvey Diamond, a natural hygiene proponent, in his bestselling 1985 book Fit for Life. You'll see it used by many others as well, because, well, the concept is here to stay!

So. To create a Properly Combined Sandwich, start with the highest quality 100% sprouted grain bread or 100% whole spelt bread (or wraps) available. Perhaps your local natural bakery can be of service here. If not, both the Alvarado Street Bakery and Food for Life companies make tasty sprouted grain breads, bagels and tortillas that may be found in the freezer section of many grocery stores across the country.

Next, consider fillings. While raw veggies like tomato, lettuce, sprouts are famous typical sandwich supporting players, in the Properly Combined Sandwich they earn starring roles. And top billing goes to that most creamy and delectable of starch-friendly vegetable-fruits, the avocado. (I eat avocados every day I can get my hands on them - they are one of my favorite foods...)

Condiments like stone ground or dijon mustard, organic salsa and miso can also be important features in the Properly Combined Sandwich. Spread a little mustard on your sprouted grain bread, add a layer of sliced avocado and pile high with veggies of your choice: spinach, lettuce, mushrooms, tomato, sprouts, grated carrot, chopped garlic, parsley, red onion, cilantro - the sky's the limit.

I recommend eating one or two open faced sandwiches rather than a single two-slice number to maximize your raw veggie intake. Place a flat leaf of lettuce on top if you need something to hold onto. Alternatively, toss a raw salad with your favorite dressing, add avocado and spoon into a sprouted grain tortilla lightly spread with mellow white miso. Roll, wrap and eat - incredible! Or fill a corn tortilla with chopped lettuce, avocado, green onion and salsa to create a soft taco style sandwich.

A Properly Combined Sandwich is fresh, colorful and delicious. Best of all, it digests beautifully, so it won't cause you to bloat up or gain excess weight. In fact, you may even lose weight eating this way. And with so many veggies to use for fillings, the Properly Combined Sandwich never gets boring! Just remember to save any dense protein items (hummus, raw goat cheese, almond butter) for your starch-free green leaf and nori wraps.