Carrot and Arame Salad

Not only am I always looking for unusual salad recipes but am always interested to find new and tasty ways to use seaweed for its incredible nutrition. I half invented this recipe and half stole it from something I saw in the salad bar in Whole Foods. It's always a quick but nutritious light bite that's easy to whip up, since I always keep these ingredients in the cupboard.

Carrot and Arame Salad

Two whole carrots - peeled and grated

Handful of dried arame, soaked until soft - around 10 minutes

Sprinkle of black sesame seeds

Japanese Dressing

Two tablespoons cold-pressed sesame oil

One tablespoon brown rice vinegar

One tablespoon tamari

Half tablespoon of rice mirin

Half teaspoon of wasabi powder

It's simple - mix all the solid ingredients, then mix all the dressing ingredients in a glass and pour. I hear if you let the wasabi powder stand for 10 mins or so the flavours get stronger but I never ever have the patience to wait for this! Mark commented that this would be nice with a piece of salmon for a more substantial and Japanese influenced meal. If I make extra Japanese dressing, I always keep it and it tastes great with prawn and avocado, or spinach and sesame seed.

Banana Spring Rolls with Mango Sorbet and Blueberry Coulis

I managed to pick up a ton of fruit going cheap at the market this weekend. I ended up putting half of it in the dehydrator to make dried fruit and half of it in the freezer to make sorbet or ice cream. Since I had the dehydrator on anyway, I decided to experiment with a dessert I'd be thinking up for a while now. I guess you could as easily call this banana pancakes but I've still got Asia on my mind so decided it reminded me more of spring rolls, although obviously a sweetened version! This is a raw dish but more by accident than anything else and will be enjoyed by anyone who likes light, fruity desserts.

This is going to be my entry for the Cinco de Mango fiesta, organised by the Mele Cotte blog. This is a blog event to celebrate mangoes and also Cinco de Mayo, the big Mexican festival.

Banana Spring Roll Wrappers

Two bananas

Half a cup of rice milk

I blended the bananas and rice milk in my hand blender and spread them across the puree trays in the dehydrator. It is tricky to get the timings just right - I think it probably took about 6 hours at 125 degrees to get them to the right consistency.

Mango Sorbet

Two mangoes, peeled, sliced and frozen

I took them out of the freezer and let them defrost for thirty minutes before putting them through the Champion with the blank plate on. Very simple.

Blueberry Coulis

One packet of blueberries

Splash of agave nectar

Splash of water

Just blended them up with the hand blender until they were a good coulis type consistency.

To put them all together, I peeled the banana off the dehydrator sheets and cut into smaller sheets of similar lengths. I put two dessert spoons of the mango sorbet at one end of the banana sheet and rolled it up like a spring roll but leaving the ends open. I drizzled the coulis over the top and served immediately. Best eaten with your fingers definitely.

Coriander and Cashew Nut Pesto

I wanted to try making an Asian style pesto sauce - thought it would be great over salads. It also turned out to be raw, but this wasn't really deliberate.

Coriander and Cashew Nut Pesto

One bunch coriander

Two tablespoons cashew nut butter

Small knob of peeled ginger

One garlic clove

One tablespoon of sesame oil

One deseeded red chili

Juice of one lime

One stalk lemongrass chopped

I put all of the ingredients in a my handheld food blender and whizzed it up. If the consistency is too thick, just add a little water until it reaches the right consistency for pouring.

Here, I have served it in a salad of steamed cabbage, steamed broccoli, bean sprouts, sliced mushrooms and prawns.

Cinnamon, Walnut, Apple & Raisin Granola - Gluten Free!

Breakfast. It's just the best meal of the day. I have never ever held any truck with those who just gulped down a cup of coffee and got on with the day. That would put me literally in the worst mood ever. Breakfast is also the one meal you can eat which no one bats an eyelid at if it is entirely sweet - honey, cinnamon, fruit etc are all some of my favourite flavours and ones which I can really indulge in at breakfast.

I used to eat a lot of raw food, I wasn't 100% raw but definitely followed a high raw diet. I enjoyed it too, I felt pretty good but I've let it slip big time lately. This is mostly because I've moved in with The Boy now and he's not interested in eating raw and it is way too difficult to cook separate meals for two but also for one or two health reasons. Nonetheless, a few 'raw' favourites are still making regular appearances in my diet including this raw granola which I put in my dehydrator to 'cook'. If you didn't want a raw version, you could easily do this on a baking tray in the oven. Here's the recipe:

Walnut & Apple Granola

1/2 cup soaked sunflower seeds (soak for 2 hours if poss)

5 medjool dates

juice of 1/2 a lemon

big squeeze of honey

vanilla essence

cinnamon

1/2 cup sunflower seeds

1/2 cup pumpkin seeds

2 cups walnuts

1 cup almonds

1 cup Lexia raisins or sultanas

Put the apples, dates, lemon juice, honey, vanilla essence, soaked sunflower seeds and cinnamon into a food processor and blend until it forms a kind of smooth paste. If you haven't soaked the sunflower seeds, the mixture might benefit from a splash of water to help it reach a paste consistency. Transfer to a bowl.

Next pulse the walnuts, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds in the food processor until they are broken down but still chunky, not too fine. Mix the chopped nuts into the paste and spread either onto dehydrator sheets or onto a foil lined baking sheet. I'd bake for 20 mins or until crunchy and golden.

I keep this in an airtight container and simply pour a little rice milk over it for an extremely tasty breakfast.