Lemon Curd

Do you have a food in your life that when you eat it, it is usually by the spoonful and you can't stop and you keep going back for more and more? That is my relationship with lemon curd (or used to be when I ate dairy and eggs). I think most people feel this way about peanut butter as well.

My friend Brooke and I were talking about lemon curd and our love for it, so I decided to create a raw vegan version.

Lemon Curd:
1 cup young thai coconut meat (preferably not too thick so it breaks down fully in the blender and becomes very smooth)
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice (I include the pulpy bits from juicing because hey, why not?)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon zest
3 drops plain liquid stevia (optional, you can just add more agave)
3 teaspoons agave (or more to taste if you like things quite sweet)
2 tablespoons coconut oil




Blend all in vita mix or high speed blender until totally smooth but be careful not to heat up the mixture too much. Those high powered blenders have a tendency to cook food if you are not careful.

You can add about 1/16 or 1/8 tsp of tumeric for colour, but be careful not to get the flavour - start out with small amounts. I will get some fresh tumeric from Calgary next time I go in and see how that plays with the colour and flavour. As you can see, I did not add any colouring to mine today.

Oh my gosh I love lemon curd!

The Gnocchi Process

So the reason I sprouted lentils, dried them and turned them into a flour in the first place (see last post) is because I had an idea to make raw sprouted lentil gnocchi. Cool huh? I think Gnocchi translated to layman's terms means "lots of work" - cooked or raw, it seems to be a lengthy process.

I made four different batches, testing, adding, taking away. I didn't come up with a final "This is it!" recipe, and I'm yet to master the texture, but they are pretty fun and very easy to make (if you have the time to sprout, dehydrate and grind - see previous post for instructions).

Here is my lab work:

Juice one onion
Juice a few stalks of celery

ALL GNOCCHI
¼ cup lentil flour
1/8 tsp powdered sea salt (grind sea salt to a powder in a coffee grinder)
a few grinds of pepper
1 tbsp ground chia seeds

variation #1
3 tsp onion juice
½ tsp water
1/8 tsp olive oil
2 pinches each: dried oregano, fresh parsley, dill + cilantro

* this recipe was a bit dry and had a strong onion flavour but quite fluffy inside

variation #2
1.5 tsp onion juice
2 tsp water
1 tsp olive oil
fresh herbs

variation #3
3 tsp celery juice
½ tsp onion juice
1 tsp water
1 tsp or less olive oil
chopped fresh sage

* this variation was good, more olive oil was a nice flavour, but too much will make it more tough. Sage was tasty but I prefer the other fresh herbs such as cilantro, parsley, dill and basil.

Mix ingredients well in a bowl with a spoon.
Roll into small balls and press with a fork to get tine marks
Place in dehydrator for 10-20 mins to warm



I think the trick here is to add some water to make them more fluffy. Celery juice was really nice as well. If you are going to try this at home make a few variations as I did and see what one you like the best. If you don't want them to have a hard outside from the dehydrator coat them in olive oil first. If you come up with a better recipe let me know!

I made two different sauces for these little guys. First was a raw orange tomato vinaigrette and the second was a fresh sage cashew cream sauce w. truffle oil. Both were good but the tomato sauce cut the strong flavour of the lentils nicely. Sprouted lentil flour tastes like fresh peas kind of.

Raw Tomato Vinaigrette
2 medium organic orange tomatoes
about 1/6-1/4 cup raw cider vinegar
1-2 tbsp agave, or to taste
a few pinches of salt
1/2 clove of garlic if u must…
¼ cup olive oil

blitz all but oil in high speed blender. Then whisk in oil. You can also just add the oil to the blender and emulsify, that's what I did.



For the sage cream I soaked and blended raw cashews with lemon juice, fresh sage, sea salt, pepper, water, some celery juice... gosh I can't remember what else, some olive oil perhaps...
Pretty much just follow my recipe for dill cream sauce from the "Peas Out of the Pod" post from August but leave the dill out and replace it with a few leaves of sage and maybe a touch of fresh parsley. Add some celery juice and taste for goodness. Top it all with truffle oil. God I love that stuff.

Happy experimenting!

Red Raw... Red Raw

Harvest Season!
I have been taking advantage of the tomato harvest in B.C. over the past couple of weeks. The fruit truck delivers cases of beautiful organic B.C. Roma tomatoes on Wednesdays and the dehydrator at my house has been running non-stop making me "sun dried" tomatoes. I think I'm going to end up with about 8 liters or more!

I also got the largest leek in the history of leeks last Wednesday. I wish I took a picture of it because you would all be impressed... but then again I did grab it out of the bin bearing the sign "miracle vegetables: curing world hunger".

I thought... what am I going to do with a miracle leek and one ton of tomatoes? What would Wonder Woman do? Make a garam masala curry of course!

So late one night I chopped up 2 dehydrator trays worth of quartered roma tomatoes, the miracle leek and threw them together in two large bowls. I generously coated them in garam masala powder, olive oil, pink sea salt, a touch of pepper and a splash or two of raw apple cider vinegar. Then I spread them out onto two dehydrator trays and wilted them overnight at 105 degrees.

Before:

After:


The Dish: Red Garam Masala Coconut Curry w. Parsnip Apple Rice, Crispy Leeks + Sprouted Lentil Papadum

I did not measure anything, just kept adding and tasting, adding and tasting until it was just right. Below is the general idea.

Red Garam Masala Coconut Curry Sauce:

A few handfuls of the partially dehydrated toms + leeks, but less leeks. Some fresh onion, about ¼ of a small one. Fresh ginger (about 1 tbsp or more), one fresh roma tomato, 2 tsp whole coriander, some cumin, coconut milk made at home*, sea salt, chili flakes, cayenne, soaked dried pepper (I used dried pasilla pepper, soaked in water to re-hydrate), garam masala as needed, coconut oil, warmed to liquefy (about 1 tbsp).
All blended in a vita mix

*Coconut Milk:
Either use fresh young coconuts blended with coconut water OR 2 cups raw dried coconut flakes blended with 4 cups of water and strained through a nut milk bag. I used the later for this recipe. I kept adding it to the tomato mixture until I reached my desired consistency.

Tomatoes can be quite gelatinous. I believe this is due to the high pectin content. The more coconut milk I added, and the more I blended, the less gelatinous the sauce became and even if your sauce starts to congeal, a quick whisk usually solves the problem. You can also try whisking in more melted coconut oil or olive oil.

Every curry needs rice!

Parsnip Apple Rice:
3 med/large parsnips
¾ - 1 med apple
¼ cup cashews
sea salt
2-3 tbsp miso/coconut oil blend, or just a couple tbsp coconut oil and 1 tbsp white miso
2 green onions minced

pulse parsnips a few times first then add rest (except green onion) and pulse more until grain of rice size. Transfer to a bowl and stir in green onions. Cover and place in dehydrator to warm until ready to use.

Slice 1 zucchini thin and coat with sea salt and olive oil. Dehydrate for a couple of hours at 105-115 degrees.

Smoked Pepper Sprouted Lentil Papadum

I spent a few days sprouting lentils on my counter. 1 night soaking, 2 days sprouting, until they had nice little 1/2 inch long tails. I then dehydrated them until they were crispy dry (about 8 hours).

THEN, using my smaller dry blade vita mix container, I tuned them into fine lentil flour. NOW we are ready to make raw papadums!


This recipe is also vague, but as long as you use about 4-5 tbsp water for every 1/4 cup of lentil flour, it is hard to screw up.

Approx. 1/2 or 1 tsp of smoked black pepper (or regular pepper)
1/4 cup lentil flour
4-5 tsp water
sea salt
A bit of olive oil (1 tsp or less)
Form into balls and flatten with spoon, very thin!

Wet spoon for ease of spread. I tried to use parchment paper and a rolling pin and it worked ok, but still had to smooth with spoon after, and the paste stuck to the parchment. Dehydrate these at 105-115 until they are very hard and crispy, about 8 hours, transferring to mesh screen half way through.



When everything is done, place some rice in a bowl, top with sauce, garnish with zucchini, masala coated crispy leeks, a masala coated partially dried tomato, fresh cilantro and a papadum.



Sounds like a lot of work, but when you don't plan things, sometimes they just come together (I had already sprouted and dried lentils a few days earlier to make sprouted lentil gnocchi - which was pretty fun - I may post that next).

Enjoy the harvest!