Who inspires you?

The Daily Raw Cafe kids
My kids inspire me. Five different personalities running rampant, with five different thoughts, ideas and possibilities. Wow! I can't wait to see how they take on the world. Love them very much. During this time of year I like to take stock in what is important to me, what inspires and well, you get the point. Who (or what) inspires you?

"Inspiration:Life"

Coming January 2, 2008

Mushrooms and Scallions in Miso Broth
serves 4

juice of one lemon (or lime)
2 cups sliced mushroom
2 tablespoon miso

4 cups warm water

1/2 cup diced scallions

1 Marinate the mushrooms in the lemon juice for one to two hours.

2 In a large bowl place miso, add water. Stir until miso is dissolved. Add mushrooms and scallions.

Seaweed Chowder

My husband first made a variation of this chowder when we first adopted a raw lifestyle a few years back. I remember loving the taste and texture of the creamy broth. It has a nice balance between the rich, deep flavor of the walnuts and mildness of the seaweed.

Use kitchen shears to cut the Wakame into super, super tiny pieces. They expand at least ten times their size and you don't want have to chew through seaweed to enjoy the chowder.

Seaweed Chowder

3 cups water
1 cup walnuts
1 tablespoon yellow miso (optional)
¼ cup Wakame, cut into tiny pieces
1 carrot, sliced
½ tablespoon sea salt

1 In a blender, combine walnuts, miso and water until you achieve a creamy milk consistency.
2 Pour in a large bowl, add Wakame, carrots and sea salt. Stir. Let sit until Wakame expands.

Servings: 2

Wakame is rich in protein, calcium, iodine, magnesium, iron and folate.

National Mushroom Day

I love holidays, especially food ones.

Cream of Mushroom Soup
4 cups sliced mushrooms
5 cups water
2 cups soaked cashews
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup chopped yellow onions
1/4 cup chopped parsley

juice of one lemon
2 teaspoon sea salt, divided
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

1 Marinate two cups of mushrooms with olive oil, lemon juice and one teaspoon salt for at least an hour.

2 In a blender, process cashews and one cup of water until you achieve a thick cream. Remove from blender jar and place in a large bowl. Reserve a few tablespoons of cashew cream for garnish.

3 Add remaining two cups of mushrooms, onions, parsley, olive oil and remainder of water to the blender, puree until creamy.

4 Combine mushroom mixture and marinated mushrooms with cashew cream. Stir well. Season with one teaspoon salt and pepper. Garnish with reserved cashew cream.

Servings: 4

Selecting: Look for mushrooms that are firm with a fresh, smooth appearance.

Storing: Keep mushrooms in the refrigerator in their original packaging for up to a week.

Cleaning: Use a damp paper towel and brush off any dirt on the mushrooms.

Other mushroom recipes on the Daily Raw Cafe.

Portobello Steaks
Greek Portobello Pizza

Tuscan Mushrooms

Asian Mushrooms

Marinated Mushrooms

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Viva Raw Food!

Creamy tomato basil soup

6 tomatoes, seeded and diced
2 cups loosely packed basil leaves, plus extra for garnish
2 cups cashews, soaked
1 cup water
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 teaspoon sea salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Place cashews and water in a blender and blend until creamy. Add basil, tomatoes and shallot. Season with salt and pepper. Garnish with basil.

Basil Pesto

2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup pine nuts
1 garlic clove, minced
sea salt, to taste
black pepper, to taste

1 Place basil leaves in small batches in food processor and process until well chopped.

2 Add the nuts and garlic, process again until if forms a thick smooth paste. Slowly stream in olive oil. Stopping the food processor to scrape down sides of container.

3 Process until fully incorporated and smooth. Season with salt and pepper

4 Serve pesto over zucchini pasta.

A saladacco (aka Spiralizer) transforms yams, sweet potatoes, daikon and other root vegetables into angel hair pasta noodles.

Food Prep Tip: The noodles will be wet after you spiralize. Place them in a strainer with a pan underneath. Sit on the counter overnight to let it "dry out" a bit. Or you can put it in the dehydrator for an hour at 100 degrees.

Herbed Summer Squash

5 small summer squash, sliced

Juice of one half lemon

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1/4 c chopped onion

2 T olive oil

1 t turmeric

1 t dill

1 t sea salt

1/2 t agave nectar

1/2 t red pepper flakes

Lightly toss ingredients together.

This is my husband's recipe. He got the summer squash from the food bank and we needed to use it right away and this is what he came up with.

This dish turned into a good recycle dish, from what was left over, I blended it and voila, it turned into a Herb Summer Squash soup.

Daikon Dumpling in Miso Broth

Miso Broth

1 T yellow miso

1/2 carrot, shredded

1 c warm water

1/4 c diced scallions

dried seaweed, break into tiny pieces

1/2 lemon

Put miso, scallions, carrot and seaweed in a bowl with the warm water. Stir to dissolve the miso. Set aside.

Daikon Dumpling

1/2 daikon radish, cleaned

Sea salt

Asian Mushroom recipe (recipe below)

Use a mandolin to slice daikon in paper thin rounds (1/8-inch or less). Sprinkle rounds with sea salt and let set for an hour to soften. Under running water, rinse thoroughly to remove salt.

Asian Mushrooms
4 c mushrooms, finely chopped

1/2 c rice wine vinegar

1/4 c agave nectar

1/4 c Nama Shoyu

2 T extra-virgin olive oil

Put ingredients in quart bag and shake until coated well.

Add one teaspoon of the Asian to the center of rinsed daikon round. Fold over and pinch the ends to close.

Place dumpling into a small bowl, add 1/2 cup of miso broth. Squeeze lemon on top. Serve immediately.

Author's note: I love Asian food! And I really wanted to create something that was a dumpling. This soup hits the spot. The lemon juice at the end adds something great to the dish. It was my husband's idea and it was perfect. The lemon makes the dish pop wonderful flavors in your mouth. Very, very delicious!

Creamy Cucumber Soup (serves 4)

This is great on a hot day, very refreshing. My husband says it reminds him of the texture of cream of wheat. Maybe that's the next thing I'll work on.

This is very refreshing on a hot day and so simple to make.

Ingredients
2 cucumbers, peeled and chopped
1 cup cashews, soaked
5 sprigs chives, cut into small pieces
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup water
¼ teaspoon sea salt

1. Combine ingredients in a blender. If you want, save a few pieces of chives for garnish.