Sunflower Walnut Pate (TuNo) on a bed of sprouts

I love this pate, it’s so tasty, nutritious and versatile. It can be used in sandwiches and wraps, as a spread or dip or simply drop a scoop on top of a green salad. It’s also called TuNo because it tastes and looks very similar to tuna salad, but it’s vegan, in fact it’s a super-healthy raw vegan dish. Now if you’re one of those vegetarians or vegans who hates the taste and smell of tuna, you’ll still love this no fishy taste or smell. I suspect what most people really love about tuna salad is more to do with the added ingredients than with the tuna itself. But the tuna provides a vehicle and texture that holds it all together and gives you that high-protein full feeling. Well, the walnuts and sunflower seeds do the same in this case, and the taste really comes from the spices and other added ingredients.

Great dish to serve to your non-vegan friends – see how many of them can guess that it’s not actually tuna.

Ingredients:

1 cup sunflower seeds, soaked
1 cup walnuts, broken into pieces, soaked
1/2 cup celery, finely chopped
1/4 cup parsley, finely chopped
1/4 cup sauerkraut, finely chopped and juice to taste (can substitute pickles instead)
2 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 cloves garlic
1/2 teas kelp or wakame flakes
2 tbsp tamari
1 teas apple cider vinegar (ACV) or kombucha vinegar
2 teas ground cumin
1 teas paprika

Instructions:

Soak the sunflower seeds and walnuts for 4-8 hours. Drain and throw away the soak water. The soaking neutralizes the natural enzyme inhibitors in nuts and seeds making them more nutritious and easily digestible.

Add the sunflower seeds, walnuts, lemon juice, garlic, kelp, tamari, cumin, paprika and apple cider vinegar to the blender. Blend until smooth. If you have trouble blending it, add some of the sauerkraut or pickle juice. You don’t want it too runny, aim for the consistency of tuna salad.

Transfer to a bowl and mix in the chopped celery, parsley and sauerkraut (or pickle) by hand.

This will keep for several days in the fridge stored in an airtight container.

Sunflower Walnut Pate on flax crackers with sprouts and arugula

Serving suggestions:

• Eat by the spoonful
• Add a scoop to top off a salad
• Use as a dip with crudites
• Eat with flax crackers and sprouts
• Use in place of the rice, and add other raw vegetables for raw sushi
• Serve a as a spread on bread, in a pita pocket, or wrap with lots of salad vegetables

Let me know how you like it, and what other creative ways you invent to serve it.

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Kale Chip

I honestly cannot get enough of these delicious kale chips. They more than satisfy that spot that potato chips once filled, only without the greasy food hangover and the guilt. Kale is a super food among vegetables. It’s a brassica, a member of the cabbage family and is probably the closest relative to the wild cabbage. As such it has the same antioxidant power and cancer-fighting phytochemicals of the other brassicas. In fact, kale is number one in the antioxidant ratings according to The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth. If that’s not reason enough to indulge in my kale chip addiction, I don’t know what is!

Ingredients:

1-2 bunches of kale, wash, de-stem and tear into pieces
4 tablespoons extra virgin, organic olive oil
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon organic apple cider vinegar
1 teaspoon raw organic agave syrup
1 teaspoon raw organic tahini
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamon
1/2 teaspoon Himalayan or Celtic sea salt
dash of powdered ginger
dash of cayenne powder to taste

Instructions:

1. Rinse the kale under running water, remove stems and tear the leaf into pieces about the size of potato chips tossing them into a large mixing bowl.
2. In a smaller bowl or cup mix all the other ingredients together, beating with a fork until there are no more lumps of tahini and everything is blended together evenly. Drizzle the mixture over the kale pieces, then massage it evenly through the kale with clean hands.
3. Grab handfuls of the coated kale pieces and scatter onto dehydrator trays. If the mixture is quite oily and dripping off the leaves, use a Teflex or Paraflexx sheet on your dehydrator tray. Otherwise you can put the kale mixture directly onto the dehydrator sheets and they will be ready to eat a bit sooner. Try to break up any large clumps of kale, but you don’t need to take the time to lay every piece out individually, just make sure they are fairly evenly scattered over 3-4 trays.
   

   Kale Chips on dehydrator tray

4. Dehydrate at 95-105F degrees overnight. If you used the Teflex or Paraflexx sheets turn the kale chips out onto the regular dehydrator sheets the next day and dehydrate for a couple more hours until crunchy. Otherwise, test to see if the chips are crunchy. If they are you can eat them immediately, or store in a sealed glass jar for later.

More nutritional facts about kale:

Kale is also loaded with calcium, iron, and vitamins A, C, and bone-building vitamin K. It contains seven times the beta-carotene of broccoli and ten times as much lutein and zeazanthin, eye-protecting carotenoids known to help protect against macular degeneration. And 2 cups of the stuff contain about 4 g of protein and 3 g of fiber.
Source: The 150 Healthiest Foods on Earth: The Surprising, Unbiased Truth About What You Should Eat and Why

I can easily snack on 2 cups of kale in the form of kale chips, getting a nice dose of healthy, uncooked oils at the same time. Although it takes extreme self-control, I try to squirrel some of the kale chips away in a glass jar for later in the evening when I start getting the munchies, or junk food cravings. Funny enough I find they also satisfy the cravings for sweets I often get late at night.

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Kale Chip

Kale chips… the raw vegan alternative to potato chips. I’m addicted to them. I eat about a third of them before they even finish dehydrating. Even if I ate junk food, I’d choose kale chips over potato chips, or tortilla chips any day. Yes, they really are that good! And here’s the thing… kale is really, really good for you. Prepared this way it’s easy to eat a whole mixing bowl of kale in one sitting. My dogs adore them, I’m sure kids will too. They’re simple to make too, it’s easy to experiment, and it’s hard to go wrong with them. Here’s the most basic recipe for salted kale chips. So if you get the hankering for something salty, crunchy and oily instead of reaching for the potato chips, try some of these healthy, nutritious kale chips instead.

Ingredients:

2 bunches of kale, rinse and remove stem
3 tablespoon olive oil or hemp seed oil
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
Celtic or Himalyan sea salt to taste

Instructions:

1. Mix the oil, apple cider vinegar and salt in a large mixing bowl. It’s easy to add more salt later and adjust it to your taste.
2. Tear the kale leaves up into bite-sized pieces. Think potato chip size, they will shrink a bit once they are dehydrated. Toss the kale pieces into the bowl with the oil and vinegar.
3. Periodically mix the kale as you are adding it by tossing the kale in the oil and ACV mixture. Get your hands in there and massage the oil into the kale. You’re aiming to have the oil and ACV evenly coating all of the kale. It’s easier to do this if you add a bit of kale, toss and massage, add some more kale, toss and massage and repeat until you have used up all the kale.
   

   Making Kale Chips: Massaging the kale

4. Place a Teflex sheet on top of a dehydrator tray and drop a handful or two of the coated kale leaves onto it. Try to spread the kale around so it’s not all clumped together, but you don’t have to be too particular about placing each individual piece because it will shrink and separate a bit as it’s dehydrating.
   

   Kale chips spread on Teflex sheet

5. Dehydrate overnight at 105 degrees F.
6. In the morning, turn the kale onto a regular dehydrator tray to finish it off. Dehydrate for another 2-4 hours until crispy.
   

   Kale chips almost ready to eat

7. Eat fresh from the dehydrator or store in a tightly sealed glass jar to keep them crisp. I’m not sure how long they will keep because they never last for more than 2 days around me
   

   Store kale chips in a glass jar

Enjoy!

Variations:

I’ll be posting the recipes for more flavors soon, but once you get the idea from this basic recipe try experimenting with adding different spices.

• Want it a little hot and spicy? Try adding some cayenne.
• Craving a cheesy flavor? Just add some nutritional yeast or parmesan (if you eat dairy).

You get the idea. If you come up with some tasty variations be sure to share them in the comments.

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Rainbow Cole Slaw

I love cabbage, and this really hit the spot. So much so that I ate nearly the entire bowl myself. Using heirloom red cabbage and yellow carrots and fresh herbs from our garden the colors were intense. This photo doesn’t really do it justice. The taste was just divine, and the raw energy packed into this quick-to-prepare meal was just what I needed.

If you don’t like the taste of apple cider vinegar tonics, this is a good way to get the health benefits of ACV without really noticing it. You can also add whatever fresh herbs you like, I used cilantro, parsley and wild mint.

Ingredients:

1/2 small red cabbage
1 large carrot
2 tablespoons sunflower seeds
2 tablespoons pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup roughly chopped hazelnuts or almonds
fresh herbs (such as coriander, parsley, mint)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, or hemp seed oil
1 teas umeboshi vinegar
3 teas apple cider vinegar, or kombucha vinegar
1 teas rapadura sugar or agave nectar (optional)
Himalayan or celtic sea salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Grate the carrot and finely slice the cabbage. Chop the fresh herbs and toss with the cabbage and carrot.
2. Add the vinegar, oil, salt and pepper and toss gently until the vegetables are evenly coated.
3. Add seeds and nuts and serve.

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Ingredients:
1-2 teaspoons raw, unpasteurized Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV)
1 glass water

Instructions:

Apple Cider Vinegar Drinks

Mix 1-2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar in a glass of water. Take 3 times daily, before or during meals.

It’s not hard to make your own apple cider vinegar from either cores and peels or whole apples, check out the homemade cider vinegar recipe to see how easy it is. If you’re using store-bought ACV be sure to get one that’s organic, unfiltered, and unpasteurized in order to get the most benefit from it. Bragg’s make a really good quality cider vinegar.

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