Raw Gingerbread Nuggets + Juice Pulp Pate

Happy Monday everyone! I made a veggie juice this morning and decided to make something crazy with the remnants. Am I the only one who gets more excited over the juice pulp than the juice itself? I made a super simple juice pulp pate that can be served with crackers, other veggies or on top of a salad. For the base I used soaked pumpkin seeds, you can use sunflower or even almonds. Pumpkin seeds give it a moderate creaminess that I like.

Exhibit A: Kale, Carrot and Celery Juice

Exhibit B: Juice Pulp Pate

Here are the ingredients:

1 cup of packed juice pulp
1 cup of soaked pumpkin seeds
3-4 tbsp tamari (taste test to see what you like)
1 tbsp of hemp seed oil
1/4 (or more) cup water (depending how dry or wet your pulp already is)

Blend up the pumpkin seeds first with the tamari, oil and about half the water. Blend until smooth (ish) Add in pulp and the rest of the water and blend until smooth. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve!

And what is for dessert? Why these low glycemic, high raw gingerbread nuggets! They're so yummy especially if you freeze them before you eat them. Best ever. These are great because they are sweet but use molasses to stick together instead of agave which can be waaaay to sugary for some. Molasses is high in minerals like iron, copper and manganese and has a pleasant licorice kind of flavour, and paired with stevia it tastes just like gingerbread cookies!

It was hard for every nugget

But one day, the world came to see...

For the nuggets you'll need:

1/2 cup ground raw almonds
1/3 cup shredded coconut
1/4 cup raw buckwheat groats
3 tbsp sesame seeds
1 tbsp hemp seeds
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp fresh grated ginger
20-25 drops of vanilla stevia
Pinch each of nutmeg and cloves
3 tbsp of black strap molasses

Mix together dry ingredients first and then add in molasses and stevia. Mix with your hand until doughy and you are able to form into balls. If it's too sticky, add in more almonds or coconut. Wet your hands with a bit of water and press into little nuggets. Freeze until firm and enjoy!

Oh and here's a random smoothie: Blueberries, pear, brown rice protein powder, chia seeds, roasted maca, green powder.

Cheesy Hemp Dip (w/ Manitoba Harvest Hemp Seed Butter)

Have you guys heard of hemp seed butter?  Manitoba Harvest makes a really good hemp butter that I've been using in hummus and now in this cheesy hemp dip. It's definitely a "healthy tasting" nut butter, not as creamy as say peanut butter, but that's cause you're getting your full spectrum of omegas, I mean come on, not many butters can do that! This dip is really good with celery (cue the cheese whiz :P), as well as crackers, tortilla chips, in sandwiches and on top of salads.

Then you top it off with hemp seeds...like so...

And there you have it: a dreamy creamy cheese dip

2 tbsp hemp nut butter
2 small cloves garlic
1 red bell pepper
1 tbsp chopped sweet onion (possible to do without it)
Juice of half a lemon
1 cup sprouted sunflower seeds
1 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp paprika
Sea Salt, to taste (I used quite a bit)
Pepper, to taste

Combine all ingredients in food processor. I made mine in a magic bullet, it worked fine. (If using a bullet though, blend the wetter ingredients first, then add in the sunflower seeds and stir in the hemp seed butter at the end). Add garlic powder before salt so you can adjust the saltiness accordingly.

Coconut Cashew Curry Hummus (Vegan, GF)

Nothing says vegan like good old hummus! I don't know if you guys remember our review on Living Intentions Raw Nuts, but one of my favourite varieties was the Thai Curry Cashews and Coconuts. I am such a fan of cashew butter as well, I bought some in bulk and wanted to put it to good use and not just eat it out of the jar like many of us do :P And the colour is so sunshine yellowy it's stunning! Enjoy!

You are my sunshine

My only sunshine

You make me happy with carrot sticks

1 1/2 cup chickpeas
1/4 cup water
2 tbsp cashew butter
1 clove garlic
1/2 tsp ginger, or 1 tsp fresh minced ginger
Juice of half a lemon
3 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp shredded coconut (ground down)
1 1/2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp coconut nectar
Salt and Pepper
Roasted cashews (garnish)

*Magic Bullet Friendly* Combine chickpeas, water, lemon juice, garlic, ginger (if fresh) and oil in the bullet with cross blade (or food processor). Pour chickpea paste into a medium bowl. Add all other ingredients. Makes enough hummus for 6 people, w/ carrot sticks and chips!

Sweet Potato Hummus (Vegan, GF)

This isn't your ordinary sweet potato hummus, this one has a secret! Every sweet potato hummus recipe I looked up was very bland, pretty much hummus but with a sweet potato thrown in. I wanted to play up the sweet potato flavour because I love it so much, I added cinnamon, coriander, and cumin and here's the secret: coconut aminos. Coconut aminos is a substitute for Bragg's aminos or soy sauce. It has a nice fruity/smoky taste, hard to describe, but it goes very nicely with the sweet potato. If you don't have coconut aminos, substitute the olive oil for coconut oil and add only 1 tsp soy sauce (coconut aminos is less strong). You can buy it here, if you're interested in it, oh and it's raw so it can be substituted for Nama Shoyu, which I've considered buying but you have to buy that huge quantity of it, and I'm not exactly a soy sauce freak. Top with toasted almonds and cinnamon and you're in for tasty vegan treat!

Coconut Secret Coconut Aminos

1 medium sweet potato
1 cup chickpeas
2 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
2-3 tsp coconut aminos
1 small clove garlic
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp coriander
Pinch of sea salt
Black pepper, to taste
Toasted almonds, for topping

Combine all above ingredients into a food processor, process until smooth. Makes enough for 6 people.

If you don't have sweet potatoes, or chickpeas but still want to make hummus check out our recipe for Indian Lentil Pumpkin Seed Hummus.

Raw Raspberry-Lime Jam (Vegan, GF)

Presenting...raw living jam! This tart, berry-licious jam was the end product of a huge measuring cup of chia seed gel. Why did I make so much chia gel? I don't exactly know but the fact is, is that there's a mass amount of chia gel in my house, so I was googling what I could do with it and raw jam came up.
The chia seeds are what make this jam not only jelly like, but greatly beneficial as well. Chia has a higher antioxidant content than blueberries, they have more iron than spinach and twice the calcium than cow's milk. As well, all of the essential amino acids are included, except for taurine. Consuming it in gel form is in a sense pre digesting the seeds because your body would jellify them anyway once they entered your tract. Thus, more energy for your body to spend doing other, more important things other than digesting seeds!

Raspberry used to be my favourite jam back in the days of sketch, so I decided on raspberry with lime, an unexpected, but supremely delicious combination!..you'll see ;)

Jam on sprouted grain bread

1/3 cup chia seed gel
3/4 cup raspberries roughly mashed
4 tbsp raw honey OR agave syrup
2-3 tbsp lime juice (depending on taste)
2 tsp lime zest

Chia Gel: Combine 1/3 cup chia seeds with 2 cups water, let sit for 10 minutes until very thick.

Combine chia gel, raspberries, sweetener, lime juice and lime zest. Spread on bread, crackers, or raw desserts! Makes just over a cup of jam.

A perfect raw food offering for a friend :)

Green Guacamole (Vegan, GF)

Three little avocados sitting in the fridge, what is one to do?! Why, make guacamole of course! I never considered meddling with the ever so-holy guacamole, but this worked out great and gave it a lovely green hue. If this doesn't please your veggie friends, you didn't use enough spinach :)

3 Haas avocados (very soft)
1 lime, juiced
1/2 tsp salt
Ground pepper, to taste
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cayenne
1/2 onion diced
2 tomatoes, diced
1 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 clove of garlic
1 tbsp olive oil (if needed)
1/2-1 bunch of spinach, wilted

Mash the avocados, combine with spices, juice, onion, garlic, tomato and olive oil. Wilt spinach by massaging by hand for a few minutes or until the leaves dramatically reduce in size, you may want to add more depending on preference (I added one whole bunch of spinach, because I love my greens!). You will be left with some juice, drain this out and do not put in with spinach. Fold in wilted spinach. Makes one big bowl, serve with dehydrated raw crackers, rice chips, or carrot sticks.

Indian Lentil Pumpkin Seed Hummus (Vegan, GF)

This weekend we went up to the cottage to soak up the last weekend of summer. We wanted to make hummus and veggies to eat as a snack on the dock but there were no chickpeas so we substituted green lentils and used pumpkin seed butter instead of tahini and threw in some indian spices and came up with a super delicious dip!

1/2 cup dry green lentils
2 Tbsp pumpkin seed butter (sunflower seed butter works too)
1 clove garlic
1 tsp ginger
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/4 tsp cinnamon or garam masala
1/4 tsp cayenne
Salt and pepper

Cook lentils according to package until tender and drain. Puree all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Sprinkle with pumpkin seeds and a dash of cayenne.

Our mom loved it! And the indian spices make it really nutty and flavourful. Don't be afraid to adjust the spices if you like more heat. :)

-Jennifer

Roasted Garlic Hummus (Vegan, GF)

We found this recipe on http://closetcooking.blogspot.com. It was super garlicky! I might advise to not put in the two extra raw garlic cloves.

Here's a link to the recipe:

http://closetcooking.blogspot.com/2008/03/roasted-garlic-hummus.html