Umm Umm... Raw Living Celery Dill Soup

Tue, 6 Mar 2012 20:03:23 -0500

This is the fifth soup in a series of 20 Elegant Raw Soups I'm developing for the Creative Health Institute in Hodunk, Michigan, a non-profit learning center where I've been training as a raw chef and holistic health counselor in the tradition of Ann Wigmore.

I've created quite a few recipes during the year and a half that I've been involved with the raw living foods lifestyle to address some health challenges and this is my favorite recipe so far. A master chef friend of mine who has trained hundreds of raw chefs in the United States and Europe agrees I hit it out of the park with this creation. He thinks this soup is an award winner.

Well, I don't like to brag and I don't plan to enter it in any contests -- but I wanted to share it out here in the blogosphere for others who are interested in raw LIVING foods. We really don't eat like rabbits after all. And with so many people entering the raw food movement these days, I think it's important to those of us who are concerned about addressing health issues to remember there's quite a difference between raw food and living food. Raw food is food that's dehydrated below 118 degrees to preserve the nutrients and enzymes. LIVING food is food that's also prepared below 118 degrees but, additionally, it is in a state of growing and therefore jam packed with healing nutrients and enzymes.

And that's the beauty of this soup. It's totally delicious and gourmet -- and yet it's amazingly healthy and healing.

It's so healthy I could serve it to raw living food pioneer Ann Wigmore if she were still alive today and dropped by my house for dinner. Despite the fact that it tastes AMAZING, it fits within her strict health-food guidelines.

Enjoy!

Serves 12 to 14

Ingredients:

•3 Organic English Cucumbers

•4 Bunches Organic Celery

•10 Organic Roma Tomatoes

•10 Cloves Garlic

•1/2 Cup Soaked Almonds

•2 1/2 Cups Purified Water

•3 Organic Avocados

•1/4 Cup Coconut Aminos

•1 Cup Alfalfa Sprouts

•1 1/2 tsp Dill

•1/2 tsp Mustard Powder

•(Optional) Pinch of Himalayan Sea Salt and Dill for garnish with Celery leaf.

Directions:

1. Juice cucumbers, celery, tomatoes and garlic. Set aside in very large bowl.

2. Blend almonds and water; strain pulp in nut milk bag and pour into large bowl with vegetable juice. Whisk.

3. Ladle 4 cups of juice/milk mixture into high-speed blender and add sprouts, 1 1/2 of avocados, mustard and dill. Blend at high speed until smooth.

4. Set aside another four cups of juice/ milk mixture.

5. Empty blended mixture (with avocados and spices) into large bowl of juice/milk mixture.

6. Pour second batch of juice/milk mixture into blender. Add remaining 1 1/2 avocado. Blend at high speed until smooth.

7. Pour blended juice/milk/avocado mixture back into large bowl.

8. Whisk vigorously until blended well.

9. Ladle six cups of soup mixture back into blender and blend at high speed.

10. Pour blended mixture back into main bowl.

11. Repeat steps 8, 9 and 10 until soup is very smooth and completely blended.

12.You may enjoy this delicious raw living soup at room temperature, warm it in your high-speed blender by blending it on high speed for about five minutes (my favorite option), or set it in the dehydrator at 105 degrees for two hours before serving. If you dehydrate it, be sure to whisk it again before serving as the juice mixture will separate from the milk mixture as the soup sets.

13.When you serve it, sprinkle it with dill and a celery leaf and, if you are willing to stray from Ann Wigmore's strict raw living food guidelines, a pinch of Himalayan sea salt (the salt contains about 80 minerals so I consider it healthy in small amounts).

Chocolate Chia Pudding Pie

Sun, 4 Mar 2012 16:03:38 -0500

Chia seeds are all the rage for their health benefits. The tiny black seeds we used to spread on clay pets in the 1970s are considered a superfood today. Chia seeds are believed to boost energy and curb the appetite and -- in my opinion -- they make perfect pudding.

For the past few weeks I've been experimenting with various chia puddings. For a lovely raw vegan pudding just whisk one cup of chia seeds into four cups of your favorite nut or seed milk and add in flavors and sweeteners to your taste. I had really been enjoying my chia pudding sweetened with homemade raw applesauce (just blend up apples in a high speed blender) and coconut nectar (it's low glycemic and thus tolerable for most diabetics) when I got the idea to turn it up a notch -- you know, to CHOCOLIFY. What's good can be great when you add a little chocolate, right?

My friends from Norway and Sweden thought so -- this simple and uber healthy dessert was a huge hit with them (and I took it as a high compliment because the Scandanavians seem to have a corner on chocolate).

As if it isn't "super" enough that the pudding pie includes chia -- it also has yummy, healthy raw chocolate. Did you know raw chocolate has more antioxidants than any other food on the planet? And the antioxidants in raw chocolate assimilate especially well into your body.

So -- go ahead and have your chocolate chia pie -- and eat it too.

:-)

Serves 12 to 14 depending upon size of slices

Pudding Filling Ingredients:

2 cups chia seeds
6 cups hemp milk (or your favorite nut or seed milk)
3 T cacao powder
1 1/2 cups date paste
1 t Himalayan sea salt
1 T vanilla
1 T lecithin

Pudding Directions:

Blend all ingredients except chia seeds and pour mixture into a large bowl. Pour in chia seeds; whisk vigourously and set aside.

Crust Ingredients

2 cups almond flour
1 cup date paste
3 T cacao powder
1/4 cup melted (in dehydrator below 118 degrees) cacao butter
1/2 t Himalayan sea salt

Crust Directions: Blend all ingredients in a high-speed blender. Scoop into spring-form pan and pat evenly at the bottom of the pan. Pour pudding mixture on top. Set in freezer for two hours. Let sit at room temperature for 1/2 hour before serving. Optional -- sprinkle top with cacao nibs.

PattyJane's Open Salon Blog

Umm Umm... Raw Living Celery Dill Soup

Chocolate Chia Pudding Pie