Red River Raw Borscht, Cauliflower Salad, Tomato Plate, Kale and Apple Salad

If you've been reading this blog at all, you know that my dh and I love beets - hot, cold, pickled, in soup, in salads, however they come and the redder the better. Recently I made a raw beet salad - and was absolutely amazed at how good it was. And I have tried a few raw soups with similar success. But raw borscht??? I didn't think so. I did, however find a recipe for a raw borscht with garlic and dill and a cup of soaked-overnight almonds (which would have 'creamed' it), and, of course, cabbage and beets in Brigitte Mars's Rawsome! and thought, well, it can be done. So I turned to my previous variations on conventional cooked borscht, thought of some amendements, and within minutes had a raw version chilling in the refrigerator. My dh pronounced it excellent, and I must say I enjoyed it thoroughly too.

RED RIVER RAW BORSCHT

3/4 pound red beets, peeled and chopped
1 large clove garlic
two large handfuls of fresh spinach (I'd have preferred beet greens, but it's early in the year for that)
1-1/4 cups cranberries (I used some I'd frozen earlier)
zest, juice and chopped flesh of 1 orange (blood orange, if you have it)
4 sundried tomatoes, soaked and chopped (soaking liquid reserved)
large handful dulse, lightly rinsed, chopped (other sea vegetable would be good, but I was keeping with red.)
1-1/2 tsp miso
2 or 3 dashes cayenne (optional, but it gives it a nice extra zip)
enough water to blend the ingredients and to reach the desired consistency

Set a few cranberries aside for garnish, if you wish, and put the rest of the ingredients with the soaking liquid from the dried tomatoes and a cup or more of water into a blender. Puree well, adding more water as needed. Add any extra water to bring to your preferred thickness. Taste for seasoning and adjust. Regrigerate until needed, for a cold soup, or serve at room temperature.

Garnish with cranberries and, if you like, fresh herbs, etc. Serve chilled with freshly ground black pepper.

And - oh yes, the name of the soup? My very first taste of borscht was in the late '40s and came from the kitchen of a lady who had migrated to Manitoba from the Ukraine. The soup was strong (not, I imagine, vegetarian!), chunky, full of many wonderful things, and was like no soup I'd ever eaten before. I loved it! This soup is named in honour of that long-ago hospitality. Thank you, Mrs B.


And now for some raw vegetable dishes we've been enjoying - nothing tricky, nothing fiddly, but all fresh and delicious!




CAULIFLOWER SALAD

This was pretty simple and almost embarrassingly easy, but it was good enough to pass on for a quick and easy dish to add to any array of salads or to have alone with some chunky French bread if you prefer. The addition of the sea vegetable adds a dimension I wouldn't have believed. Lovely :)

1 small head of cauliflower, cut into florets
2 or 3 green/spring onions, cut across into chunky rounds
handful of dulse, lightly rinsed and chopped into small pieces
a couple of handfuls of 'baby' carrots
1 or 2 tsp Bragg's Aminos / All-Purpose Soy Seasoning, or low-sodium soy (not strictly raw)
Zest and juice of one lime

Whisk the last two ingredients together and pour over the vegetables. Toss to lightly flavour all the vegetables with citrus and the soy. Serve with more lime wedges if you wish.


And sometimes the simplest methods sometimes escape me when I'm hassled for time. This is one of those. Tomatoes are great, just sliced and passed at the table, of course. When I'm thinking ahead even half an hour (an hour if I can), however, I like to increase the flavour a little this way (not a great photo or a very classy presentation, but you get the idea):



TOMATO PLATE

1 large tomato or as many as you wish to serve, thinly sliced
2 thin slices of onion, separated into rings or half-rings
sea salt
large handful cilantro, roughly chopped
1 lime
freshly ground black pepper
ground cummin to sprinkle to taste

At least half an hour before serving, sprinkle the tomatoes in a bowl with a little salt, layering with the onion and, if you wish, a little of the chopped cilantro. Squeeze a little lime juice over the lot.

Give the tomato mixture a couple of gentle turns in the bowl during the next half hour or so (being careful not to break up the tomato slices).

Arrange the slices of tomato and onion on a plate, add freshly ground black pepper and a sprinkle or two of ground cummin and the rest of the cilantro. Serve with lime wedges.

Everyone knows how much I love eating kale. It's full of good things, including loads of calcium, but it's also so good in flavour. There are different kinds of kale, but this lovely green curly kale is what is available to me now. I'm always making salads from it these days, and I just vary the ingredients and the seasonings to make it a little different each time.



KALE AND APPLE SALAD

1 head of kale
1 or 2 slices of onion
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 sweet red apple
small handful of raisins
raw cider vinegar, to taste
tsp raw agave syrup
Squeeze of lemon or lime juice to taste
sprinkle of Braggs Aminos, to taste (optional) - or you could use low-sodium soy sauce or tamari
dash or two of cayenne (optional)
freshly ground black pepper to taste

Strip the leaves only from the kale stems, wash, and tear into small pieces and place in a large bowl. 'Massage' these with your hands, deliberately bruising and wilting the leaves for a few minutes, until they take up less volume in the bowl and have turned darker green (as if lightly cooked). Don't worry about overdoing this - this pseudo-cooked texture is nice - taste a little as you go along!

Chop the onion, garlic and add to the kale when it is ready. If you're not going to serve immediately, chop/slice the apple just before adding the dressing - to avoid having the cut apple go brown - or sprinkle it with a little lemon juice meanwhile while it waits. Add the raisins.

Mix together the cider vinegar, agave syrup, lemon or lime juice, Braggs or soy sauce with the cayenne, if using.

Pour this dressing over the rest of the ingredients and toss. Serve in your favourite salad bowl (if you're not already using it!) with other salads or as a first course.

You'd be amazed at how lively we feel with eating so much raw food (although we're not 100 per cent raw - and our condiments are not yet completely raw) - and it certainly saves a lot of time in the kitchen! Next acquisition will be a dehydrator - than watch out!!!!!

CABBAGE SALAD ROLLS

Cabbage Salad Rolls

Today I was going to make a cabbage salad for part of our lunch, but once I got out the ingredients the thought was boring for once (we love cabbage salad, so this was distinctly odd!). As a result I ended up fiddling around with the makings for the salad but somewhat reconstructing it and changing the flavourings a little (it was chilly out, so I wanted something warmish).

Ingredients:

Six leaves of savoy cabbage, with the little V-shaped stem bit cut out of the base of each

The Stuffing:

2 carrots
1 oz sunflower seeds
1-1/2 tsp white miso
2 slices onion
3 cloves garlic
1 red apple
1 stick celery
1/3 of a thai chili (but make this to your own taste - thai chilies are hot!) - or use cayenne to taste
zest of half a lime
juice of half a lime
Tbsp raw cider vinegar
ground cummin to taste
salt and peppeer if needed

Garnish: I used a handful of alfalfa sprouts, but you could use anything you like :)

Put all ingredients except for the cabbage leaves and whatever garnish you're using into the food processor and chop to a fine texture. Mix well and taste for seasoning. You may need to add salt, pepper, lime juice or vinegar, whatever.

Put a couple of Tbsp of the stuffing onto the centre of each cabbage leaf, fold up the bottom and each side and roll away from you, snugly, until the cabbage forms a package for the filling. If it oozes out you have either not rolled tightly enough or you have used two much filling, so try again :)

Secure each roll with a toothpick if needed (I needed) and place seam-side down on a platter.

Garnish and serve. Eat with knife and fork or with fingers (like a wrap).

Here it is cut on my plate - but I'm so sorry the pic is so blurry. I'd have tried another photo, but there were no more models to pose for it!



We pronounced it a success! And of course it's raw :)

And now here's the apple blossom I immortalized on Saturday!



And those dear little baby maple leaves are so welcome when so many trees are still bare.

Beet & Apple Salad With Avocado, Red Quinoa & Lentil Medley, Tofu Red & Green Pepper Stirfry

BEET & APPLE SALAD WITH AVOCADO

[Edited to correct seasonings, etc.]

This salad was the star of the meal, I think, and appropriately we almost always have our salad first these days. (Okay, we used to always follow our main course with a salad course, and that's how I still stubbornly have pictured them in this blog, but lately, well, we have switched back to the North American custom. But don't hold me to it!!!! LOL

I took the time to slice three or four small cooked beets (we were making soup with the rest) and marinate them in garlic, a mix of vinegars (I think I used rice vinegar, red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, but cider vinegar might have been there instead of the red wine - I winged it!), 1 tsp or a little more of Dijon mustard, and some pepper (I generally use a mix of red, black, green which I grind fresh). Then the rest was simple, as you see. Some lovely greens on each plate, a few sliced onion shreds on top of them, and sliced red apple (sprinkled with a little lemon juice to keep them fresh looking) and then the beets arranged with avocado over it all. The marinade from the beets - a lovely thick red mixture - I spooned over the top. Simple and delicious.

RED QUINOA AND LENTIL MEDLEY

To follow, we had a 'medley' of some leftover plain cooked red quinoa (so pretty) plus some leftover lentils (previously cooked with herbs, onion, celery and carrot in the Tuscan style) and a few extra vegetables that were hanging around the crisper - celery, no doubt, onion, crushed dried chilies, etc. (I forget exactly - it was nearly a week ago). The vegetables cooked first in a little water in a skillet, the lentils and quinoa to follow with, I think, a Tbsp low sodium soysauce and/or a Tbsp Annie's Organic Vegan Worcestershire Sauce. Very pretty, very tasty - and very nutritious too I suppose ;)

And to accompany it -

TOFU AND RED & GREEN PEPPER STIRFRY



But of course we don't 'fry' but steam or water-'sautee' the vegetables. The tofu was marinated in a Tbsp low-sodium soy sauce, minced garlic, minced ginger, minced red chilies, then added to the 'stirfry' at the end, just to heat through. (Tofu doesn't need to be 'cooked'.) Celery, onion, ginger root, garlic, red and green pepper, etc., were the vegetables that day. Maybe mushrooms too - I usually do something with mushrooms whenever I find the excuse - just love them and always have a bag of them in the fridge.