RAW GRANOLA

I soak overnight, then sprout the buckwheat groats (1 cup), oat groats (1 cup), sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds(1/4 cup each). If I am adding almonds, I soak them overnight as well.  The exact quantities can be changed and modified to  your taste. You can time everything so that it is all soaked, sprouted and ready at the same time or you can do like I do (because I am still figuring the number of days everything takes). I start the grains 1-2 days in advance and then soak and sprout the sunflower and pumpkin seeds. The night before I am going to make the granola I soak the almonds.  If my timing is off, which is more often than not, I rinse and drain those that are ready to be used (before the others are) and store them in the fridge in an air tight container or bag. Taking them out each day, giving them a good rinse and letting them drain before putting them back in the fridge. Here is a picture of the buckwheat sprouted.

Sprouted Buckwheat for Raw Granola

When everything is finally ready, rinsed and drained, I dry them in the dehydrator at 115 °F until they are just “dry to the touch”. Then I pour everything into a large mixing bowl and add some goji berries and cranberries (can use other fruit; just have fun with it), about 1/4 cup of shredded coconut (can add more if you want) and mix well.  To this I add 1  tsp of vanilla depending on the size of the batch and 1/4  cup coconut oil melted and 1/4 cup of agave plus 1/2 to 1 tsp of cinnamon, 1 tsp of vanilla and celtic sea salt to taste.  Mix together using a large spatula or clean hands.  Taste and if needed add more cinnamon, salt, vanilla or agave if the granola is not “clumping” together. You could add cacao to this or use cacao coconut butter to make a chocolate granola and omit the cinnamon. The possibilities are endless!

Pieces of Raw Granola

I like to spread the granola onto non-stick sheets making sure to keep the thickness uniform. Press gently to compress the granola so that it will stick together. Make sure that the layer of granola is not too thick (1/4 inch is good), or it will take for ever to dry. Dehydrate at 115°F at least overnight, and if you want large pieces of granola (more like a granola bar) you can dehydrate for 1-2 days. And in hindsight, you can score lines in the granola sheets to make it easier to break into “bars”. Please note that the granola will be pliable when you first take it out of the dehydrator, but will “harden” once it returns to room temperature. The granola after 1 or 2 days of dehydrating is crunchy and similar to store bought granola.  Shorter drying times will result in a softer granola. To test your granola, break a small piece off of the sheet and let it cool. Then determine if the consistency is to your liking.

Raw Humus

Another raw addition was raw hummus that I enjoy for lunch with veggies. There are many nut based humus using cashews or almonds. I LOVE humus and now that I have tried both almond and cashew humus, I can honestly say that I like them as well as the traditional humus. The cashew recipe I have used is from The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Eating Raw. It is very good. I have also tried the live oatmeal, made spicy nachos and the nacho cheese dip. The nachos and cheese dip were a hit with the TDs and TG. The almond humus recipe I found in I Am Grateful: Recipes and Lifestyle of Cafe Gratitude and it too is very tasty. There are many recipes I would like to try in this cookbook.  Especially the desserts. The cheesecakes look divine. The almond milk was very easy to make and to my amazement very good. I don’t know why I was surprised at how good it was, but I will continue to make my own milks now that I know how to.

I found a lighter version of humus here. Susan of Rawmazing.com has a great blog with some very tasty recipes and photos of raw dishes she has created and prepared. This humus is very light using zucchini and cucumber  instead of garbanzo beans. I made this and it is wonderful with veggies, on crackers and in wraps.   If you are interested she has cracker recipes that are very straight forward to prepare and they are delicious.  Her desserts make you drool just looking at the pictures. Definitely a site you need to check out.

Date and Walnut Scones

I found this recipe in The Raw Food Revolution Diet and thought it looked fairly easy to prepare and I had all the ingredients on hand.  The pre-planning involved sprouting the wheat berries for 3 days. And soaking and dehydrating the walnuts. Then using my food processor to process the wheat berries, walnuts and dates plus cinnamon and salt. I tasted this after I removed it from the processor and I thought it needed more cinnamon. So, I sprinkled some more on top of the dough along with some goji berries and folded the dough over several times to work everything in.  I formed the dough into a round about an inch high on a non-stick sheet and cut it into 8 wedges that I spread out on the sheet. Then I placed the scones in the dehydrator for 2 hours at 125 °F, decreased the temperature  to 105 °F and dehydrated another 2-3 hours. The scones were transferred to a mesh sheet and returned to the dehydrator for another 4 hours.  The cool part of this is that they can be stored in the fridge for 1 week or if frozen – 2 months! “Sweet” as my friends would say.

You can top these with a berry date jam or sweet cashew cream.  I like them with almond butter on top too! I had the TDs and TG taste test these and they gave them two thumbs up.  TG thought they had a consistency of cake. I think he meant that there were denser than conventional scones.

Well, enough yakking and more cooking.

Here are a few pictures of my Kittycats.  They are all rescues and I love them dearly.

Rose the youngest.

Pete in the middle.

Eddie the oldest.

Enjoy cooking and the food you create!  Have some fun with your animals friends!