Jul 12, 2010

raw alfredo primavera

Raw Night

To the delight of my children, I made another raw meal. For us, Mondays are the ideal day to make raw because that is when I go to Whole Foods and the vegetables are extra fresh - very important when they are naked, so to speak. It is especially important that summer squash be fresh because the older they get the more bitter they become. Not a good thing.

I lost a part to my spiral slicer, so I just used my knife to cut the squash into thin, long strips. I tossed the slices in a little olive oil and dehydrated them for about an hour. Sort of the extent of my cooking tonight. I also tossed some spinach with diced red onion and dehydrated that, too.

The olive 'bread' I tossed in the dehydrator the night before; it didn't need to be crispy because I wasn't shooting for a cracker.

The Alfredo sauce was really excellent. I wouldn't say it is 'Alfredo' sauce, but calling it Macadamia Pasta Sauce fits better for how it tasted. The sauce had a little garlic, olive oil, lemon juice and coconut vinegar. Mixed with the squash strips, tomatoes, olives and the spinach, it tasted very flavorful and quite good. Another raw surprise for David. It was harder to sell to the kids, though, who passionately dislike squash of any season. This meal was inpired by recipes in the cookbook Eating Raw by Mark Reinfeld.

Cost Breakdown:
nuts: $4
vegetables: $6
olives, oil, lemon: $1
flax seeds, sunflower seeds, olives: $3
Total to annoy 3 kids and feed 2 adults:
$14.00




8 comments:

  1. Hi. I had to hop straight to your blog after seeing the photo on foodbuzz. I had my fingers crossed that you would have the recipe on here and I was happy to find it! Looks absolutely beautiful.

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  2. looks beautiful! love all the colors! i really need to start trying raw food

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  3. Thank you, ladies! This one tasted really good, even I was a little surprised, and is a very easy one to try as a first raw dish. Dehydration is optional (without the 'bread'; doesn't need it anyway), but can be safely accomplished in a low oven because you are not drying for a long time.

    I am going to post the pasta sauce because it was changed enough from the original recipe in that particular book that I don't feel guilty. Besides, a nut sauce is a nut sauce no matter which nut you use.

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  4. how wonderful! I think I'll make this tonight! thx!

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  5. the olive bread sounds like a great pair w this dish, did you make it? How? I noticed flax& sunflower seeds in your breakdown, did you just toss those in w the salad?

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  6. Hi Gwen,

    Thanks very much! The pasta is so wonderful to make; if you do, notice that the stove stays off. So lovely.

    Here is the recipe for the...

    Olive Bread:

    1 c whole flax seeds, ground fine in a spice mill
    1 c whole sunflower seeds, ground in a spice mill
    1 tomato, chopped
    1/4 c kalamata olives, chopped
    2 clove garlic, minced
    2 T (or less) olive oil
    1 onion, chopped
    1-2 t salt (taste before adding the second teaspoon)
    1 t basil, dry or 2 T fresh
    1 t oregano. dry or 2 T fresh

    Put everything in a food processor and pulse until it all combined well. Leave a little chunky. Spread on a dehydrator tray 1/4 inch thick. Dehydarte at 105 for 5 hours, flip and dehydrate for another 5 hours or until it is to your liking. This is not supposed to be crunchy.

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  7. YUM! thx. cant wait to eat this tonight! ;-)
    i don't have a dehydrater, so we'll see what I can come up with. ;-)

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  8. You can dry it out in the oven on 250, but it will not be living food. You would get a taste of it though, to see if you like it and THEN you can get a dehydrator. I just have a Nesco brand ($50) that I've used successfully for 8 years now.

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