Raw January Days 2 through 5 -- Mushroom Shiro, Cinnamon-Coconut Cream, and more

I'm in the working half of my week, which means I need to consolodate. Fortunately I made enough food in the first half to get me through! That's the funny thing about food prep....it takes the same amount of time to make one serving as it does to make six the majority of the time.

On Day 2 I had a fruit bowl topped with cinnamon coconut cream (recipe below!) and hemp seed for breakfast; lunch was leftover Cucumber Soup; for dinner I made--get this--mushroom shiro! It's only my favorite Ethiopian dish from Blue Nile! While my version isn't as good as the real, it's a decent approximation of the stewed original.

Shiro is ground chickpea powder, which is combined with berbere in this very delicious stew. Instead of chickpea powder, I used ground macademia nuts. Dehydrating the veggies gave them a cooked feel that is absolutely necessary when dealing with dishes that are traditionally cooked over a long period of time. In the absence of injera, I used lettuce leaves. See below for the recipe!

Day 3 was met with a breakfast smoothie of aloe, wheatgrass, ginger root, peaches, and beet greens (which are actually red--go figure).For lunch I had more of Day 2's mushroom shiro. As I had an absurd amount of carrots, I went with this carrot linguine dish by Russell James (see photo, right). Naturally, I had to make a few adjustments. I followed the linguine recipe to a T, aside from using all carrots rather than the carrot/parsnip split. I managed to amass 6 pounds of carrots from the organic co-op, and I thought carrot linguine seemed a fitting way to diminish the bounty. The only change I made to the macademia mozzarella was to add a clove of garlic to the purée. It tasted very much like Alfredo sauce and helped cut the sweetness of the carrots. The red pepper sauce had more augmentation, as I found the original to be a little....I don't want to say bland, but I felt it needed a little boost. Four rehydrated sun-dried tomatoes and half a tablespoon of chili-infused olive oil found its way into the red pepper puree. Adding a few cracks of black pepper completed this dish that I am pleased to say went over very nicely with the spawn.

Day 4 I was back at work, so it was filled with leftovers. I failed miserably at the raw cinnamon rolls I had attempted to make, so instead the "dough" got dehydrated into sweet bread (I'll make my second attempt when I'm off work again!). Another fruit bowl for breakfast, followed by mushroom shiro for lunch and a hefty salad for dinner. I also put the "mostly" in "mostly raw" by having a baked potato at work. Hey, a girl's gotta eat!

Today is Day 5, and I'm planning on having another salad for dinner, and as soon as I finish here I'm going to whip up a smoothie with buckwheat, spinach, chia seeds, and blueberries. I think for lunch I'll just do a fruit salad with the sweet bread that was salvaged from the cinnamon roll attempt.

Anyway, on with the recipes!

Cinnamon Coconut Cream

Ingredients:

1 c fresh coconut meat

2 tsp agave nectar

2 tsp cinnamon

pinch of sea salt

Directions:

Blend all ingredients until smooth. Makes 1 cup of thick cream. This is great with fruit or blended into a smoothie. My youngest daughter thought it was yogurt and was quite happy to eat it with a spoon!

Raw Mushroom Shiro

Ingredients:

2 c assorted mushrooms, chopped

16 grape tomatoes, halved

1/2 medium yellow onion, thinly sliced

2 tsp olive oil

1 tbs nama shoyu

1 tbs + 1 tsp berbere spice blend

1 tbs lemon juice

1 c macademia nuts, soaked and dried

2 cloves garlic

1 tbs fresh ginger, grated

1/4 tsp ground red pepper

1/4 c tomato juice

1/2 teaspoon salt

12 large lettuce leaves

Directions:

Toss mushrooms, tomatoes, and onion in oil, nama shoyu, one teaspoon of the berbere, and one teaspoon of the lemon juice. Spread on dehydrator sheet and dehydrate 2 hours at 105F.

In a blender, pulse the nuts until finely ground. Add the garlic and remaining berbere and lemon juice. Pulse again to chop the garlic. Add remaining ingredients and blend until smooth.

After dehydrating, coarsely chop the onion. Stir mushrooms, tomatos, and onion into the macademia sauce. Serve with lettuce leaves substituting for the injera. Alternatively, serve over parsnip rice.