Vegan Fusion World Cuisine

A year ago, I visited Portland and Seattle.  In Portland I had an amazing raw pizza at Blossoming Lotus.  The Vegan Fusion World Cuisine cookbook actually has many of their recipes including a version of this entree.

The raw pizza is a little intensive to make as you need to mix up and dehydrate the crust, then make the nut cheese and lastly prepare the sauce. With some left over Baja Cheese from the tacos last week, I opted use that and save some prep time. The cheese has a green tint in the picture because there is a ton of cilantro in the Baja.

One interesting thing about the crust recipe is they suggest spreading the batter 1/2 inch thick in the dehydrator.  My memory of the dish was a very thin crust, so I modified it went with 1/4".  This worked well, but next time I will probably cut it down to 1/8".  The Live Sauce recipe is delicious and I never would have guessed that some grated beets are a secret ingredient.  They probably help make the vibrant red color of the raw sauce.  All in all, I was pretty happy with this recipe and am looking forward to trying others from this book which is full of beautiful pictures.  Expect about 50% raw vs cooked dishes with this title.

 Live Greek Pizza: devoured quickly with the spinach on top!

Ani's Raw Food Kitchen

While I love raw food, I have difficult time eating a high raw diet in the winter.  Now that spring is starting to roll around, this week I'm trying to eat 90% or more raw and it seemed like a good time to break out one of my favorite raw books: Ani's Raw Food Kitchen: Easy, Delectable Living Foods Recipes. 

Tonight I opted for the Baja Raw Burritos.  They are filled with a seasoned almond/walnut "meat" and brazil nut cilantro cheeze. Honestly I was expecting to like this recipe, but wasn't planning on being completely wowed.  These are amazingly good!  Believe me, I can't wait to put together a batch of the leftovers tomorrow.

These are supposed to be rolled up, but I decided to keep the leaf open so you could see the tasty fillings. This one is topped with salsa.  Tomorrow I'll add some extras like carrots and tomato slices too.

My photo really doesn't do these justice.

If you don't have the book, there is similar recipe on her website.  Though, it is definitely worth buying.  Ani introduced me to one of my favorite smoothies that she calls the Pear Frosty.  The Mango Lassi and all of the Mylks are really delicious.  I'm looking forward to trying another new recipe later in the week!