It’s cold and a mix of snow / sleet here in Missouri. Last night for dinner my husband hinted that it was just too cold for raw food. With using lots of ginger or other warming spices, I have rarely felt the need to have cooked food due to what’s going on outside. So as I pondered what to make, I decided to clean out the refrigerator and make room for holiday uncooking that I am doing. Any excuse to put platters of cocoa coconut Congo Bars in the cold box is a good thing to me!
So it’s Butternut Squash Surprise! When people complain that all they do is cut up vegetables for a raw or vegetarian diet I laugh. I would rather cut up veggies then sit in a doctors office or wait in a fast food line any day.
This is a simple, inexpensive and fast meal and a few items feed a family of 4 without a problem.The picture is of everything prior to cooking – looked so good with all the color and delicate scents.
There was:
1 Carrot
1 Apple
2 Onions
2 Handfuls of Cranberries
1 Small Butternut Squash
a bit of leek, 2 dried Mission Figs, a dash of flax seeds and cinnamon
Cover your veggies and I bake for 30 minutes at 325. That does make the veggies still firm and not as cooked – my mother likes it cooked for an hour so things are really soft. If you add in the pan some white wine or herbal tea, the steam cooks things a bit faster and added additional flavor. I garnish with cilantro and drizzle a bit of agave syrup but really the dish is sweet enough. The addition of curry or red pepper can give this dish a savory twist. It’s such an easy dish to tweek to you liking.
Most days my lunch is simple; a green salad, a mono veggie, nothing really time oriented as work days need my attention more than playing with food. But today I felt I wanted something a bit more exciting with all the orders plying up. I had been wanting to try a salad I saw over on Roshi’s Raw - Vietnamese Style Cabbage Salad
I ended up changing the recipe listed over at Roshi’sbecause of what I had on hand (that’s where the surprise comes in) so here’s my modified version. I love lots of ginger and next time I’ll make sure I have basil. I’m thinking of adding hot spices or broccoli sprouts too just for winter time heat. The final product with my tweeks tasted more Japanese than Vietnamese because of the amount of ginger I think. Doing this I also realized I really need to work on my knife skills – I can’t julienne worth a darn.
Salad
handful green cabbage
handful purple cabbage
1 large shredded carrot
handful shredded daikon radish
1 julienned cucumber
handful of chopped mint and cilantro
raw pumpkin seeds
For the Sauce
1/8 C soy sauce
1/8 Agave Syrup
3 large spoon fulls of cream coconut
a 1″ nub of grated ginger
1/8 C lemon juice
1/2 C chopped cactus
black cracked pepper to taste
I made of the two parts separately and let the sauce marinate for a while so the cactus releases the mucilage (or slime). I blendered the sauce so to have a more even consistancy. The cactus caused the sauce to cling better to the raw cabbage and not be so watery. The creamed coconut gives it that nice smooth texture but I wanted to cut down on the fat content.
This was an odd combo to me – pepper, pineapple and cucumbers. I found this recipe over at The Kitchen Dispensary and have to say the picture made me want to make it.
I had some pink peppercorns along with cracked black pepper, Kentucy mint and spinach still growing in the cold farm plus 3 pineapples that a friend sent me.
