emily eats

Back in August 2007, Bon Appetit magazine set the ball rolling in my imagination when they published a story titled The Green Party.  The idea of eating a plate of green appealed to me even as I sat here in the cold New Zealand winter.  Since then I have had fun making up various plates of green-ness, including our lunch today.  We had missed having a green juice this morning, having switched in a beet, carrot, cucumber and ginger mix, so eating an all green lunch fit perfectly.

One thing I like to make sure of when I make salads is that there is a variety of textures incorporated.  This one uses avocado for the creaminess, the tomatillo salsa to keep it all moist and the green bell pepper for some crunch.

Green Salad

Serves 2

For the salsa:

12 small to medium tomatillos, husked and rinsed

1 green jalapeno, diced small

4 springs fresh cilantro

Juice of one lime (about a tablespoon)

5 drips El Yucatan Hot Pepper Sauce

5 drips liquid stevia (a natural plant derived sweetener; you could also drizzle in half a tablespoon of agave syrup)

For the Salad:

4 handfuls of baby spinach leaves

2 handfuls of microgreens

1 avocado diced into half inch cubes

Half a green bell pepper, diced

Method: Coarsely chop the tomatillos and place them in a jug or bowl. Add the diced jalapeno and cilantro and blend until roughly smooth. Add the hot pepper sauce, lime juice and stevia and pulse again a few times, to mix in.

Divide the salad ingredients between the two plates, towering the avocado in the center. Spoon the tomatillo salsa around the avocado over the leaves.  Sprinkle with some sea salt and fresh ground pepper.

… & Enjoy!

(Above: husked tomatillos)

I am not a big eater first thing in the morning, tending to eat lightly throughout the day until I get home and share dinner with Andy.  On weekends, where I have less structure to my days and fewer demands on my time and energy, it can sometimes be lunchtime before I enjoy my first meal.  Today was one such day.

It’s  early Autumn here in New Zealand, and we are on the cusp of saying farewell to one set of produce and hello to the next. On one night I might make a smooth butternut-vanilla soup, and the next day it’s still hazy enough to entirely enjoy a bright gazpacho.

Under today’s clear sunny skies, I gave a watermelon gazpacho a whirl.  The watermelon was disappointingly pale, despite having sat on our counter for a week attempting to ripen.  It  was therefore also a little bit light on flavor by itself, so I took the ingredients list from Raw Food Real World and increased the amount of ginger and chili involved, so it had a bit more bite to it’s base.  I also switched in the chives for the scallions again, as I generally prefer the more delicate member of the allium family. Whilst enjoying eating it on our sunlit couch, I recalled seeing a juice recipe for watermelon, ginger and lime and making a mental note to try it one day soon, for it really is a divine combination.

Watermelon Gazpacho Adapted from Raw Food Real World

Serves 2 healthy appetites

3 cups of diced watermelon, 2 of those blended smooth in a glass bowl

1 cup diced Telegraph cucumber

3 diced tomatoes

Small bunch of chives, snipped into small flecks

1 diced jalapeno

1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and grated over the bowl of blended watermelon

Half a cup of diced red bell pepper

Juice of one lime, squeezed directly into the bowl

Sea salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

The simplest method ever: Once you’ve blended that initial two cups of melon, you just mix it all together with a spoon. That’s it!

As the days go by, I am becoming more and more convinced that raw foodies are on to something. I am not going to become a 100% convert any day soon for a variety of reasons, but I am definitely going to be incorporating some of the amazingly flavourful recipes that appear in their uncookbooks. Without trying, more and more of my food is being eaten raw just because it tastes and feels so good. These past few weeks, I have been enjoying salad practically every day for lunch, and raw soups appear to be another route I can explore.

I have eaten gazpacho in a few different ways before and a few other soups which are traditionally served raw.  I’ve also previously made a Natalia Rose pineapple based soup and enjoyed that, so I wasn’t going too far out of the ordinary (for me, at least) to make the pineapple gazpacho from Raw Food Real World. One of the first things that caught my eye with this recipe was the inclusion of nuts. I like it when I come across something that makes me pause and imagine just how that will be. Intuitively, adding macadamias to a pineapple soup sounded just perfect.  A little bit of tropicana in our living room.

We ate it sitting on our couch together. Me thoroughly enjoying the multitude of textures and clean flavors and Andy telling me emphatically that he is very happy with me exploring more and more raw food recipes.

Pineapple Gazpacho adapted from Raw Food Real World

Ingredients:

1 pineapple

Small handful of chives

1 jalapeno chilli (I used a red one)

1 telegraph cucumber

1/2 cup freshly prepared pineapple juice

A good squeeze of lime juice

Small handful of raw macadamia nuts

1 tbsp cold pressed extra virgin olive oil

Small handful of fresh cilantro

Cut off a section of pineapple and run it through the juicer to produce a half cup of juice.  Chop the cucumber and rest of the pineapple into small pieces, as though you were making a chunky salsa.  Add all but a half cup of each into a large bowl.

Into the large bowl with most of the pineapple and cucumber add the pineapple and lime juices and snip the chives directly into it using your kitchen scissors. Finely chop the jalapeno and add that too. Give the mixture a quick stir, and then blend until smooth using an immersion blender.

Add the reserved cucumber and pineapple in, the olive oil and most of the cilantro. Briefly blend again for a few seconds, and then put the bowl in the fridge for about ten minutes.

Meanwhile, chop the macadamia nuts.

Before serving, stir in the chopped macadamias and their shards. Spoon into two bowls and garnish with the reserved cilantro.