Raw Zucchini Pasta w/ Almost Raw Marinara
Hoppin' John Salad
Jicama & Pepper Salad
w/ Snap Peas & Corn
I'm excited to be back in the kitchen! And I'm excited to share with you some of my most favorite summer time dishes. With the temperatures up in the triple digits, I prefer to keep my meals simple and use a lot of raw vegetables. Not only do raw fruits and vegetables contain live enzymes, they also have a high water content. Because of this, these foods are very easy to digest and they help keep our body well hydrated during these hot summer months. In his lecture on the Vegetarian Society of Hawaii web site (www.vsh.org) John Westerdahl Ph.D indicates that the water in the cells of plant foods is a great source of water for us because it gets absorbed into our cells more efficiently. That makes a lot of sense! Plant foods in general are what our body craves!
One dish that I'm really excited about is a Raw Zucchini Pasta (picture above) made with my favorite new kitchen gadget, the *Spiral Slicer. I top this with an almost Raw Marinara made with garden fresh tomatoes and spices. The reason it's not completely raw is because I can't find sun dried tomatoes, at a reasonable cost, that aren't packed in oil or that don't have sulfur dioxide as a preservative.
I find tomato paste works very well in giving this sauce a rich flavor like the sun dried tomatoes would. And, if you heat the sauce just a bit, you hardly know it's not real spaghetti. One of the reasons I'm so excited about this dish is because I don't normally like zucchini. But because it's so nutritious, I've tried and tried to find ways to make it good. And this so far is the best!!
Another dish that I'll be demonstrating is a Hopin' John salad (pictured above). This is NOT a raw salad but more of a grain based salad using cooked brown rice and black eyed peas. The grains and beans together make a great hearty meal for the finicky man in your life, and when you pile this on a bed of romaine lettuce and garnish with garden fresh tomatoes, it adds the powerful anti-oxidants and phyochemicals that would normally be missing from this salad alone.
The third dish that I will be demonstrating is a Jicama & Sweet Pepper Salad w/Snap Peas and Corn (picture above). I've been making different versions of this salad for years and just love it! Because it's completely raw and contains a lot of high water content veggies, it's perfect for lunch when you don't want to eat something heavy that will take a lot of energy to digest. I need my energy for work during the day, not for digesting a heavy meal. With all the sweet veggies in this salad and the sweet vinegar dressing, you're sweet tooth will be satisfied and you wont want (or need) that late afternoon high sugar snack.
Are your kids asking for money for the ice cream truck or are they begging you to stop for a Shaved Ice after swimming? Instead, offer to make them a home made icy cool refreshing treat. Frozen Cherry's will be the fruit in this Lemon Cherry Slush (no picture yet) but any frozen fruit will work.
So there you have it! Whether you are into raw foods or not, this class will teach you how to make three delicious summertime dishes and will also give you ideas to incorporate into other traditional favorites that will help make the transition to a plant based diet satisfying and enjoyable. I look forward to seeing you at class!
*When I purchased my Spiral Slicer I bought 3 of them to get free shipping. The two remaining are available for purchase at my cost of $20. First come first serve!!
