Wakame salad

In my last post I wrote about my diet dilemma. It seemed like I was gaining weight on a raw food diet (probably due to a combination of high sugar from fruit and high fat from nuts). Following this I've brought some healthy wholegrains back into my diet: quinoa, millet (my fave), amaranth and oats. The improvement is incredible,  I feel so much more energetic and I quickly got back to my ideal weight! What Okriina from Keittiökameleontti (an inspiring blog filled with excellent raw recipes in finnish) said when she commented on my last post really hit home. I believe I was not absorbing protein well from raw nuts. 

Anyway, I digress. Just wanted to post a recipe that gives you guys some idea of what I eat these days. This is a simple raw asian-inspired wakame salad, boosted with toasted sesame seeds (you could use soaked and dehydrated too, if you are on a raw food diet). As lunch, it would work wonderfully on its own. For dinner, I served it along with vinegared millet.

WAKAME SALAD

Salad:
1 small zucchini and/or cucumber
4 medium carrots
1 small apple
1C or more of green peas, preferably snap peas
5 stalks of wakame seaweed
couple tbsp toasted sesame seeds

Dressing:
1,5 tbsp brown rice vinegar
Sweetener of choice, I used a bit of xylitol here
4 tbsp cold pressed sesame oil
Mineral-rich salt (Himalayan, gray sea salt)

Soak wakame for 5 minutes in cold water. Julienne the zucchini, carrots and apple. Chop up the wakame. Mix together the veg. Blend the dressing ingredients, taste and adjust it according to your liking. I use toasted sesame seeds here for flavor, I just love them combined with the sesame oil in the dressing. This would be even better with snap peas, but as you can see from the pic this time I only had regular ones.

VINEGARED MILLET
3/4 C millet + 3C water (or thereabouts)
2 tbsp brown rice vinegar + salt + a little bit of sweetener of choice
2 strips of Kombu seaweed

Cook the millet in water with salt and kombu. Remove from heat, chop up the kombu and mix it in along with vinegar, salt and something sweet to round off the taste.

Exciting New Year 2010

A special thank you to all my readers for hanging along and following my new blog. Geek gone raw has not been around too long, and it is really in an experimental stage trying to find its own niche in the vast world of online blogs - any feedback is therefore greatly appreciated. I'd like to wish you all a wonderful, exciting New Year 2010 full of challenges!

Here are some snap shots of our party spread:

Indian-spiced rudabaga wedges (first pic)

Curried split pea burgers

Guacamole

Amazing Hummus (with fresh parsley, sprouted sesame seeds and turmeric)

Faux Ketchup (organic tomato puree, braggs raw unfiltered apple cider vinegar, dark agave, spices)

Marinated garbanzo beans (olive oil, coconut oil, pepper, Himalayan salt, lemon juice)

Seasonal organic vegetables for dipping

We also made some raw pomegranate chocolate, which we will enjoy with a glass of real Champagne. Of course champagne isn't really health food, but there is something to be said about all things in moderation. One glass a year won't certainly do any harm.

Enjoy your evening! Eat well :)

Creamy tomato soup, dressed up simple salad, coconut-chive steamed salmon

Yesterday night we had a simple but flavorful meal. The soup was improvised on spot, and I was amazed how delicious and creamy it was without any dairy, nuts or avocados. Here's what went into my blender:

Creamy tomato soup for 3
½ Zucchini + some cucumber (depending on how thick you like your soup)
4-5dl raw tomato juice (buy or make your own)
5-6 sundried tomatoes (at least)
1 small red onion
1-3 cloves of garlic (I put all three, my husband loves garlic)
few heaping tablespoonfuls of raw tahini
couple tablespoons of cold pressed olive oil
1-2 tsp raw & unfiltered apple cider vinegar
a fair bit of fresh basil
Himalayan salt & pepper

You may want to cut up the zucchini, onions and cucumber before they go into the blender. The tahini is what makes this soup so delectably creamy. I made my tahini myself, I'm not even sure I could find raw organic tahini anywhere in Finland. Or how much it would cost if it was sold somewhere.

Raw Tahini:
1C raw, unsoaked, unhulled sesame seeds
Himalayan salt to taste
1-2 tsp raw honey
juice of ½ lemon
cold pressed oil (sesame or vegetable) until desired consistency is reached

First blend the sesame seeds alone until they become like a powder. A coffee grinder may also do the trick. Then blend in honey and lemon juice. Finally while the blender is running add oil one drop at a time and stop when the sesame seed butter has reached desired texture.

Simple Salad:
Iceberg
Tomato
Orange
Cucumber
Dark leafy green such as lollo rosso

Lemon poppyseed dressing
1-2 tbsp poppy seeds
juice of ½ lemon
cold pressed vegetable oil
Himalayan salt & pepper

It's amazing how a tasty dressing can work magic even with the most basic salad.

This salmon recipe is of course not raw, but if you are like me and are concerned about your intake of B12 this is a way to add it to your dieth in a healthy way. Needless to say, the flavor of well-prepared salmon... it just happens to be one of my favorites.

Steamed coconut-chive salmon:
As fresh, wildcaught pure salmon you can get
Cold pressed, organic coconut oil
Chives
Himalayan salt & pepper

The idea is to first quickly steam the salmon (don't overcook, leave it juicy!), and then combine with some coconut oil, chopped chives and season it the way you like it. I buy my salmon fresh and whole, chop it up and stick it in the freezer. The head and bones I use to make my own fish broth.

Again, to emphasize what I wrote in the first post: this blog is about eating healthy and balanced, not necessarily 100% raw. My goal is to eat a versatile enough diet that there is no need for supplements.