Raw Zucchini Chocolate Cake

For whatever reason, many of the recipes I worked on this week ended up being raw or mostly raw.  In part, I was continuing my quest for some travel-friendly treats for my son and decided to try some raw fruit and nut balls, similar to Larabars.

I was also testing recipes for my menu planners for limited diets free of gluten, grains, dairy, eggs sugar and other common allergens.  Many raw recipes work great for people with a lot of food limitations.  The only drawback I find is that they use nuts extensively, which is a common allergen.  I find though, that seeds such as pumpkin, sunflower and sesame seeds can be used in place of nuts in some of these recipes.

As far as eating raw nuts goes, it is really best to soak them for a varied amount of time, depending upon the nut or seed.  This process is what releases their enzyme inhibitors and unlocks their full nutritional value.  In terms of soaking, you can either soak just long enough to germinate, or longer to sprout (however it’s difficult to sprout some nuts).

I have to admit that I didn’t soak the nuts and seeds in the recipes I tested this week.  This was partly due to the recipes not asking me to do this and in part laziness and impatience on my part.  However, if I were to do them again, I would soak the nuts and seeds in these recipes.

Here is a list of some new and yummy things I made this week:

Cashew Apricot Bliss Balls and Cherry-Walnut Bites

Cashew Apricot Bliss Balls (raw).  These turned out pretty good but if I made them again, I would use a different kind of dried apricot.  The ones I used were from Trader Joe’s.  They are unsulfured but I had forgotten how tart they are.  I also used lemon zest instead of orange zest, simply because I didn’t have an orange.  But they would be a lot better with the orange zest.  I also would up the cardamom and ginger powder as they were not that noticeable.  Also, like I said above, I would soak the cashews for 2-2 1/2 hours.

Cherry Walnut Bites (almost raw;  can be made raw with raw chocolate or leaving out the chocolate).  These are delicious.  If I made them again, I’d use raw chocolate or raw cacao powder.  Again, I would soak the walnuts – they require 4 hours germination time.

Seed Cheese from Rawvolution (raw).  This cheese if made from sunflower seeds so it is great for dairy-free and nut-free diets.  The original recipe for this raw and dairy-free cheese calls for a raw soy sauce called, Nama Shoyu.  But since many people I cook and plan for can’t eat soy, I left this ingredient out.  I balanced out the recipe by adding a little salt and water.  I also used only about 3 cloves of garlic, verses the 5-6 called for.  It was plenty garlicky for me and my husband really liked it.  We’ve been enjoying it on pasta and toast.  When I make this again, I plan on soaking the sunflower seeds – they require 2 hours germination time.

Curried Kuri Squash Soup

Curried Kuri Squash Soup (from the Kuri Squashes from our garden – not raw).  I didn’t write down this recipe as I made it this time.  But I normally cream this soup with ground up cashews and season it with curry, ginger, and salt.  I think I also added a bit of honey to sweeten a bit this time.

Raw Zucchini Chocolate Cake

No-Bake Zucchini Cake (almost raw; can be made raw with raw cacao).   This is a quick and easy, yummy dessert.  It may seem strange not to bake the zucchini but you really don’t need to!  It is rich, moist and dense.  But also so healthy, you could have it for breakfast.  When I make this again, I’m going to soak the nuts for 6 hours.

Raspberry Cream (raw) This is my new favorite smoothie or dessert.  Don’t let the avocado in it fool you – it is simply delicious and you wouldn’t even know the avocado is in there!  I made it as the recipe called for and also with dates instead of banana.  Both were yummy.  Sorry, no picture.  Both times I made it, it disappeared too fast!

Balsamic and Basil Salmon: cooked in a cast iron skillet, this was Monday’s dinner. Fast and easy, I simply cooked the salmon with a bit of lemon juice and olive oil.  Seasoned with salt and dried parsley.  When it was done, I drizzled a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar on top and garnished with freshly chopped basil from the garden.  Very fast and very good!

Raspberry Cream Recipe – adpated from www.WildHealthFoods.com

• ½ cup frozen or fresh raspberries
• 1 large ripe banana or about 4-5 soft dates
• 1ripe Avocado
• Pinch salt
• about 1/2 cup or so homemade almond milk

1) Blend all ingredients until smooth.

2)  If you want to make your own almond milk, soak 1 cup almonds overnight, drain the water, then blend with 5 cups filtered water and a bit of raw honey.  Strain through a mesh strainer or “nut bag.”  Yum!

And once again, I am writing this post as part of the Tuesday Twister Carnival at GNOWFGLINS.com. Make sure to check out the other wonderful and nourishing foods the other participants cooked up this week!

I receive a lot of emails from people who have found my site and are looking for ideas for their very limited diet.  Some of these people are at a complete loss as to what to eat because their diet is so limited.  I received one of these emails from someone last week inquiring about a diet for her daughter.

Here was her list of foods that her daughter was told to avoid:

gluten (wheat, barley, oats, spelt, kamut, tricale, and all products containing gluten such as soy sauce, etc)
grain (includes rice, millet, teff, and other gluten-free grains)
dairy
egg
soy
corn
banana
kiwi

This is a similar list to many of the people who come to me.  There are definite variations and more limited diets like those without any meat or fish, legumes, nuts, all fruit, etc.  But I thought I’d start with this diet to give you some ideas on where to start.

So what do you do when you get a list like this?  My hope is that in this post, I can give you my process for starting to come up with some foods and recipes you can eat when you receive a long list of foods you should be avoiding, even temporarily.

I am also working on compiling my recipes into menu plans for different diets such as this one so that people can have a menu planner for their specific limited diet.  I am also going to start writing some blogs about how you can start to do this for yourself!

1.  Focus on what you can eat, not what you can’t! Make a long list of all the foods available in your grocery store, farmer’s market and local health foods store.  Make categories for the main food groups and list all the foods under them that you can find.

Categories would include: meat, seafood, dairy products, fruits, vegetables, herbs, spices, glutenous grains, gluten-free grains, grain-free “grains,” condiments, nuts, seeds, legumes, and sweeteners.

The most difficult part of receiving a list such as the one from this woman for her daughter, is that you have to be very creative when it comes to having foods that resemble grains, baked goods and pastas.

As a little help in the grain and grain-free department, here is a list that you can start with.  There may be others on the list I haven’t thought of or forgot to include:

Wheat-free grains:
spelt, oats, kamut, rye, barley plus all gluten-free and grain-free “grains”

Gluten-free grains and flours:
rice, all varieties
brown rice
corn
gluten-free oats
teff
millet
sorghum

Grain-free “grains,” flours and seeds
buckwheat

quinoa

amaranth

chia seeds

potato starch

sweet potato flour

yam noodles

pumpkin seed flour

coconut flour

almond meal

pecan meal and other nut meals (made from grinding any nut very finely)

blanched almond flour

flax seed meal

hemp seeds (great as protein powder)

tapioca – this is made from the cassava root

arrowroot

besan or chickpea flour

sunflower seeds (can be ground)

sesame seeds (can be ground up as well)

As you can see the grain-free list is pretty long!  I could probably keep going but I’ll stop there.  It’s really just a matter of knowing what to do with these ingredients once you figure out that there is quite a bit of variety out there!

2.  Highlight all the foods you can eat on the list. Focus on these foods and what you can create from them.  This first step will help you immensely if you can get through it.

3.   Going  back to the example diet that I listed before, here are the things that her daughter can eat based on doing this process.

All meat and seafood - this is a huge plus if you’re in this boat.  The challenge with this is some kids just don’t like meat or won’t eat it.  But if you aren’t a vegetarian but have a limited diet, this helps a lot with meal planning.  Also, you can bread fish and chicken with almond or pecan meal and it makes it more appealing to children.

You can also make chicken puree and slip this into things like potato pancakes.  More on this in a future post.

All veggies and all fruit except for corn, banana and kiwi.  It’s also helpful that her daughter can still eat potato as this is in a lot of foods and can also be used as a starch in baking.  Vegetables and fruits are so versatile – a great opportunity for creativity.

All beans except for soy. Beans are hard to digest in general so this may be something that she would eat every now and then but it also depends on her health issues.  Chickpeas can be ground into a flour as well as others such as fava beans.  I personally don’t like the taste and find them hard to digest as flours but they are an option.

All nuts and seeds. This is extremely helpful that she can still eat nuts and seeds.  Peanut butter isn’t even on her list (though this is a legume).  Nuts can be used as nut butters, flours, nut milk ( which would be a good option for her for a milk alternative since she can’t have soy or rice), cheese (though commercial brands have casien in them), as breading on chicken or fish, dairy-free cheese sauces (cashews) or just eaten whole as a great snack.  They are most digestible however if they are soaked and then dehydrated.

Most condiments: mustard, ketchup, vinegars, lemons and limes, oils.  As far as mayo goes, you can find an egg-free version but it’s made with soy.  I have a recipe for mayo made from cashews but I haven’t tried it yet.

All herbs, spices, chocolate and carob: You can make a meal with a piece of fish or chicken, some garlic and onions, vegetables and some fresh herbs and spices.  Very simple but very good.  There are infinite ideas and recipes out there in terms of just using meat or fish, vegetables and fresh herbs and spices.

She can also still eat chocolate and carob as long as it’s dairy-free and grain-free.  You could make grain-free chocolate or carob muffins, cookies, cakes, etc (search for grain-free and egg-free dessert recipes).  Even make your own hot chocolate with some cocoa powder, nut milk and a sweetener.

All sweeteners: also another plus.  Try to stick to raw honey, agave, molasses and real maple syrup.

Some alternatives for what she can’t eat:

Eggs: This can be a tough one if you’re used to baking with eggs or having them for breakfast.  However, there are several egg substitutes you can use when you’re baking, as long as you’re not making a quiche.  There are egg-free quiches but they are made with tofu, and she can’t have soy, so that is out.

As far as some other breakfast items, this is going to be more challenging without the eggs, grains and dairy-products.  But here are some ideas:

turkey or chicken sausages
grain-free pancakes
amaranth bread
turkey bacon
quinoa or buckwheat muffins, made grain-free, egg-free and dairy-free
nut butter on grain-free crackers
fresh fruit – smoothies, fruit salad

Dairy-free alternatives: This is really a topic in and of itself, so I won’t go into this completely.  But as I mentioned earlier, her choice milk would be almond or another nut milk or hemp milk.  You can make your own nut milk very easily.  Coconut milk would also be a good option.

As far as cheese goes, here is a good dairy-free cheese that is also grain-free.

Some people can eat ghee in place of butter, which is clarified butter.  Also, coconut butter is a great alternative to butter.  It is delicious!

She can also eat coconut yogurt and coconut ice cream, great alternatives (and yummy too) since she can’t have dairy, soy or rice.

Cornstarch alternative: Arrowroot powder can be used part for part in baking recipes that call for cornstarch.  You will also need to find a corn-free baking powder for baking.

Soy-free soy sauce: One last tidbit I’ll leave you with.  Here is a recipe I recently came across for soy-free soy sauce.  It looks very good to me but I haven’t tried it yet.  A good alternative for someone who loves asian food but can’t have soy.

4.  Get organized: Once you have compiled a list of recipes you’d like to try that fit your new diet, the next step is to organize them for them week.  Print them out or make copies from cookbooks.  Then look through the ingredients to see what you need to add to your shopping list for the week.  Then, yes, go shopping, or order unusual ingredients online.

5.  Be brave and take baby steps: Take the last step and be brave to try something new.  It can seem daunting at first to use unusual ingredients you’re not used to using in cooking and baking.  But start with something most familiar to you and go from there.  Take baby steps.  Try one or two new ingredients a week so you don’t get overwhelmed by too many choices.

6.  Don’t get too discouraged: Expect to have some flops.  You’re learning something new and it may take some time to learn some new tricks of the trade.  But be patient and keep trying.  Pretend you’re on an adventure and your next meal is your next mission.  This may sound corny but if you can get excited about creating new and delicious foods, you will most likely have better results than if you think you’re making another disaster.

Good luck!  I’d love to hear from you so leave a comment about your own adventures in allergen-free cooking and baking!

All the best,
Sarah

Sliceable Dairy-Free Cheese

I found this recipe for sliceable dairy-free cheese a while back on a forum and finally made it the other day.  It seemed like every time I looked at it, it just seemed too complicated but I think that was just a first impression.  It is actually very simple and tastes pretty darn good. It is soft but still sliceable and resembles a white, mild cheese like Montery Jack.

The great thing about it is it is free of casein (milk protein), which many of the commercial dairy-free cheeses contain.  The only cheese I have found that is actually free of casein is from Galaxy Foods.

It does contain cashews, so it won’t work for people who are nut-free.  And there are a few changes I would make based on my first experiment with it.  It seems as though I can never follow a recipe exactly so I also made some changes as I made it.  I’ll add these changes below in the recipe.

I made chicken burritos the night I made the cheese and it was really great on them!  It really added some nice creaminess and cheesiness to the burritos!

I haven’t tried this yet but the recipe says you can freeze the cheese and then shred it for pizza cheese.

Another tip from the recipe is for making the cheese to resemble American or cheddar cheese:  blend in 1/4 cup pimentos and 1 tsp paprika to the recipe. (see tips below)

The original recipe is called Sliceable Cashew Cheese and it is from Best Gourmet Recipes from the chefs of Five Loaves Deli and Bakery by Neva Brackett.  This is the original recipe with my changes:

Ingredients:
2 cups cashew nuts

3/8 cup emes kosher gel (I used regular gelatin because this is what I had.  I only had 3 1/2 packs which was only a little more than an 1/8 cup – I still firmed up nicely but is still pretty soft.  I would like to try agar agar next time because I prefer this to gelatin)

1 ½ cups boiling water

2 Tbs. Lemon juice ( could use a hint more, you could also try balsamic vinegar if you don’t have lemon juice)

2 Tbs. nutritional yeast flakes (I would add at least 1 more Tbsp next time, maybe 2 because I would like a bit more cheesy flavor)

1 Tbs. Salt (I only used 1 tsp.  1 Tbsp seemed a bit much but now I think I would do at least 1 1/2 tsp. )

1 tsp. Onion powder (instead of onion and garlic powder, I added two cloves of garlic.)
½ tsp. Garlic powder

1 Cup Cold water

Steps:
1. Place all ingredients in the blender except the 1 cup cold water. Turn on and blend for 1 or 2 minutes until very smooth.

Hint: Place a towel over the lid of the blender before turning on. Hot liquids tend to splash out.

2. Add 1 cup cold water, blend briefly and pour into containers of your choice to chill and slice when firm.

Hint: This recipe makes a white cheese resembling Jack cheese. If you want half of it to resemble American cheese in color, pour half of it into a 1 pint mold and blend in ¼ cup pimientos and 1 tsp. paprika to the remainder. This can be frozen, so you might want to make a double recipe and keep it handy for future use, Frozen Cashew Cheese shreds very nicely if you do it while still frozen, and makes a great topping for Pizza. To thaw, set out at room temperature for an hour. Don’t try to thaw it in the microwave–it will melt and not be sliceable.

Prep time: 15 min Chill time: 4 hr or overnight. (It only took ours about an hour to be ready to be eaten with our burritos.)

I would love to hear if you make this and your thoughts about it.  I am going to freeze part of my batch and see how it grates.  I think this is what I am most excited about!