From the Light Kitchen, by Stephie McCarthy
Featuring recipes with veggies fresh and raw, nutritious dishes cooked with care … herbs … soups… … grains … kefir tea …sprouts… ceviche … eggs … plus select cured foods, vinegars, and preserves without sugar. All of my recipe Archives by CATEGORY here
featured recipes
~ favorite soup ~
Savory Shiitake Hot-pot
Greens and mushrooms tempered in hot broth for just 40 seconds are colorful, nutritious, and soft enough to substitute for Ramen and rice noodles. Shiitakes loose their spongy nature and endive/Tango lettuces stand up well when flash-wilted to combine with nut butter, salt and red pepper (read more).
Sprouts and nuts marinade
Vegan strawberry butter
Dry fresh berries into a versatile paste that captures the complex flavors of the berry, that combines beautifully with warm notes like basil or mint, cinnamon, orange, black pepper, jalapeño, balsamic vinegar, and sweeteners. (read more)
Mini-cheesecake molds from recycled containers
We like miniature cheesecakes, fresh from the freezer—instead of one large pie melting in the fridge. Our lemon-cashew cheesecake with carob cookie crust was a big hit on Thanksgiving, and thanks to the quick mini-molds we used, each serving stayed pristine in the freezer until defrosted. (read more)
Eggplant "bacon" chips, salad
This is the kind of vegan treat I am really happy to discover. Though it's a bit time consuming to make, it's well worth it for the savoriness it adds to dishes like spinach salad. (read more)
Pea sprouts, from seed to salad
Fresh peas are back in season, but the peas from our local store were terrible: astringent, mealy, and very expensive! I knew they wouldn't taste much better cooked and, not wanting to waste them, it was an easy decision to try my hand at sprouting. (read more)
Green olive & kale pesto
I've always been crazy about green olives and they are wonderful paired with fresh kale. Some markets sell raw olives, but if you can't get those, do try this recipe with what you can find from a good olive bar (read more).
Tomato confit, tomato jam
Turn inexpensive hot-house tomatoes into a luscious ruby-red jam. Pronounced "con-fee", from the French word to conserve, this fresh jam will keep a long time in the refrigerator and can replace more expensive tomato ingredients such as sun-dried tomatoes in sauces and toppings. (Read more)
Raw watermelon and chocolate/carob cookie
I bought a box of watermelon chunks and put them in a dehydrator for a day on a low setting, and kept drying until I have what I now call "waisins." Sticky, incredibly sweet, and easy to re-hydrate, you can use them in any number of recipes, like this cookie/brownie. (read more)
Artichoke herb purée (read more)
Kefir tea
Kefir water brews faster than kombucha tea with similar taste and no caffeine. I just made a chai tea flavored batch (read more).
Broccoli antipasto (read more)
After a life time of gourmet-gluttony, cookbook addiction, and late night meals of Ramen noodles sprinkled with herbs, I found myself drained instead of energized, fragile instead of strong, anxious, tired, and coping with lots of little ailments like cluster headaches, ringing ears, and sore throats.
Raw food went a long way towards curing my ills and restoring my energy. The next step for me was to develop recipes and techniques that would preserve the rich enzymes and vitamins of raw food, but diminish the sometimes grassy, crunchy, same-ness of so many raw food recipes. Thus, Essentially Raw was born.
My raw food recipe index is here.