Strawberriez kream cheezcake by Ani Phyo

This is my first attempt at a raw cake and the result turned out amazing. The recipe is in Any Phyo’s book Any’s Raw Food Desserts: a little raw food dessert bible to own.

For the base you’ll need:
* 1 cup almond meal
* a pinch of sea salt
*1/2 cup of pitted dates

For the cream:
* 1 table spoon grated lemon zest
* 1/2 cup lemon Juice
* 1,5 cup of cashew nuts
* 1/4 cup coconut oil
* 1/4 cup of filtered water
* seeds of 2 vanilla beans

Topping:
* some strawberries
* agave syrup

The crust is obtained mixing the almond meal and the salt with chopped dates: use a mixer to chop off the dates into smaller pieces and work them into the almond meal by hand. Sprinkle a pan with some almond meal and push the “dough” into a cake pan so that the border rises halfway around the pan side. To make the cream combine the cashew nuts, the water, the melted coconut oil, the lemon juice and zest and the vanilla beans into a blender until smooth. Spread the cream onto the crust ad keep the cake in the refrigerator for about two hours. Decorate with fresh strawberries and the strawberry sauce made combining the fresh strawberries and the syrup into a mixer: my suggestion is to make it when yous serve the cake as the taste will remain fresher. Voilà: le gâteau est prêt! Incredibly easy and delicious. Thanks Ani!

strawberriez kream cheezcake

Filed under: Any Phyo, Raw, raw vegan

Let’s do it (almost) raw!

I have been experimenting with some raw recipes recently. Today I felt like something raw, fresh and easy to make so I tried my fingers at raw sushi. Yes pure raw vegan sushi. The recipe is incredibly easy and calls for some cauliflowers and some soaked sunflower seeds to replace the rice. I soaked the seeds overnight, this tends to make all nuts and seeds more nutritious and digestible (I have learnt to do it with almonds, cashew nuts, etc..). I chopped roughly the cauliflowers in the mixer until it resembled rice than I added the sunflower seeds, I mixed the mixture with a spoon and added a spoonful of cider vinegar. I let it stand for a while until I chopped the vegetables: carrots, avocado, cucumber and mushrooms. I laid the rice mixture on top of a nori sheet and added the desired vegetables, some toasted sesame seeds and obviously one of my favourite tastes: wasabi without which there is no sushi. I then rolled the nori sheets,left them aside for few minutes and rolled them again in another nori sheet to add resistance to the rolls. I cut them and eat them straight away, the pics were taken in a hurry, I was so hungry I could not wait! Voilà les fotos:

raw sushi

Filed under: raw sushi, raw vegan, raw sushi

Crudo Café + A Vegan Restaurant in Switzerland

* Crudo Café

Saturday night I went to my first raw food event organized by Crudo Café, part of Eva, the Flemish Vegetarian and Vegan society. It was my first time at a gourmet raw dinner and I have to say it was mind blowing! I was served entrées, 3 soups: a shiitake mushrooms soup, a Thai carrot soup (get me the recipe now because my creamiest carrot soup has never felt this velvety !) and a paprika and mint soup; Pad Thai entirely made of vegetables; mushroom and broccoli curry and a wonderful coconut and walnuts dessert. The evening was very pleasant, I went there on my own and I had the pleasure to share the table with 4 other people. We were all so pleased with the food presented to us that we could not believe raw vegetables could be so malleable.

As the organizers Stefan Lemoine and Jan De Ceuleneer rightly explain: “we are alienated from our food and its origins and addicted to food that undermines our health (and the planet). With Café Crudo our aim is to combat both of these points. Raw food is a valuable addition to our current diet which is too full of meat, fats and sugars.”. It was a total 10/10 for me and easily the most delicious meal I have ever had in Belgium so far.

Theevent is organized (regularly I hope) at restaurants around Belgium and it aims to promote vegan, healthy ways of eating as part of the Eva philosophy about ethical eating. All preconceptions about raw food were crushed on the spot by the beautiful and delicious dishes served on the night. Well done Crudo! Now, when’s the next one because I so want to come back!

mushroom and broccoli curry

coconut and walnuts cake

* Swiss Vegan Hotel

Yup, you’ve heard t right, a vegan hotel in cheeseland! Pretty amazing considering the setting! Well done Swiss Vegan Hotel! One reason to go to Swiss I guess.

Swiss Vegan Hotel

Filed under: Eva, raw vegan, Swiss Vegan Hotel

Jònsi goes solo + Good Heart raw recipes

– Jònsi of Sigur Ros is out with a solo album titled Go: magical (and theatrical) atmospheres from Iceland, one of the coldest and coolest land on earth. I have always loved the artistic mind behind Sigur Ros because of his ability to build magical musical landscapes, no doubt inspired by the harshness and openness of the Icelandic countryside. The upcoming concert too promises to draw you straight into Jònsi’s imaginary world with a set of special effects and animations: there is an interesting video interview with the production company behind this concerts, go and have a look. It seems like something not to miss and I am definitely going to travel in order not to miss it! Here is the first video form the Go album.

– Jònsi and his boyfriend Alex also have a website JonsiandAlex in which apart from their music project Riceboy Sleeps (another good album) they share a raw foods recipe book titled Good Heart. You can download it or you can read it online: it’s visually a very nice pdf full of healthy and yummy recipes the due have collected loving together. Cool work guys!

We love vegan artists, we adore vegan raw artists like Jònsi and Alex, especially when they come bounded in such a creative couple. Following is Happiness, a track from their Riceboy Sleeps.

Both Jònsi’s own site and Jònsi & Alex sites are full of amazing visuals, something the due obviously take great care of. Jònsi and Alex [*sigh*] such an amazing lovestory.

Filed under: Jònsi, music, raw vegan, vegan cooking