Insalata Caprese

Insalata caprese is so simple to make. Just slice some tomatoes, garnish with pesto, add cheese, and arrange any way you please. As I'm trying to be completely vegan, I made nut pate' instead of using cheese.

Tomato slices with freshly made nut cheese and pesto

To make the nut pate', I placed sunflower seeds and almonds into the food processor. Once they got mashed, I added onions, celery, carrots and bell peppers. To see how it's done, check out this video of Jennifer Cornbleet as she makes "not-tuna pate".

To make the pesto, I placed several handfuls of basil leaves into the food processor, pine nuts, added garlic, a bit of olive oil (just a bit), added nutritional yeast to make it a bit cheesy, and added a pinch of salt. In case you've never made pesto, check out this video.

You gotta try it to appreciate how delicious freshly-made pesto and nut cheese could be.

How to Make Raw Desserts at Home

Tempting treats made right at home, by you, yes, you. All you need is youtube, a food processor, a blender, some ingredients like walnuts, almonds, maple syrup, and some time to make them come to life.

Raw, dairy-free, sugar-free, gluten-free chocolate-chip cookies

This wasn't even that difficult to make, even for someone like me who thinks of doing this maybe just once a year. I just placed soaked almonds in a food processor, processed them till they got mashed up, added raw cacao, maple syrup, chia seeds soaked in water for a few minutes, and carob chips. Then I placed them in the dehydrator at 105 degrees till they got sufficiently hard. 

If you want banana chocolate chip cookies without cacao, simply omit the cacao and add in bananas. With the bananas, you won't even need chia seeds. How simple is that! Check out this recipe on youtube.

Raw, gluten-free, dairy-free, sugar-free walnut carrot cake

What went into this? Soaked walnuts, dates. raisins and grated carrots. Placed them in the food processor and pressed them into a baking pan (not to bake it, just to give it shape). Then for the topping, I just placed coconut oil, maple syrup, and some more walnuts into the blender till they turned into a paste. This doesn't need dehydration. Just put it in the freezer and eat when you're ready. 

And it doesn't take a genius to make this. Just saw the recipe posted on Facebook in the morning and made it as soon as I got up.

The thing I love about raw desserts is that you don't need a recipe. Just throw in a bunch of ingredients that you like, and adjust the amounts of the maple syrup or dates according to taste.