Raw Food Thursday: Spanakopita, Dinosaur Kale Dolmas, Celery Soup Shooters

Raw Food Thursday 12/04

Spanakopita
(recipe below)

Dinosaur Kale Dolmas
(adapted from Trotter/Klein)

Celery Soup Shooters
(recipe below)

A Greek-styled raw food night... we'd been trying to come up with a spanakopita recipe this week, and couldn't quite hit on the right combination of color and texture to recreate the phyllo. It wasn't until we were at our co-op (Kent Natural Foods) yesterday that we saw a gorgeous cauliflower just waiting for us to take it home... ;)



Spanakopita

1/2 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup water

1/2 tsp. dill seed, freshly ground
1/8 tsp. allspice, freshly ground
1/2 tsp. celery seed, freshly ground
1/2 tsp. thyme
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 tbs. lemon juice
2 tbs. olive oil
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper, freshly ground
1 garlic glove, smashed
1 1/2 cups chopped cauliflower

Soak the flax seed and water together for 15 minutes

Grind the spices together and add to the flax seed

Add the rest of the ingredients and the cauliflower and puree until completely combined. Your blender will not like you. At all. Even your vita-mix will complain slightly.

You'll need two teflex sheets. Spread the mixture evenly across the entire surface -- an offset spatula works wonders here -- trying to keep it roughly in a square shape.

Place both sheets in the dehydrator at 105F for 90 minutes.

After 90 minutes, check to see if the edges are starting to get dried out. You want to see a little of that -- not too much, as it will become brittle, and you won't be able to cut and fold them later. If it looks firm enough across the entire sheet, you can try to flip it over. If not, wait another 15-20 minutes.

If it's looking good, flip the entire sheet over onto another tray (we like to place one on top, and then flip both over so it doesn't go flying).

Now this is the tricky part -- peel one of the corner edges back, sloooooooowly. If you have a small offset spatula, see if you can loosen the corner edge of the cauliflower off of the sheet and hold it down while peeling the rest of the teflex off. You'll have some of the mixture remain on the sheet as you're peeling it back -- don't worry -- you can scrape it off and re-apply it once you've peeled the sheet off. But slowly is the key here.

After flipping both sheets, place them back in the dehydrator for 30-45 minutes at 105F. Again, keep an eye on them so they don't become too brittle -- softer is better here.

Remove from the dehydrator and place the cauliflower sheets on a cutting board. Using a pizza cutter or sharp knife cut from top to bottom making 5 equal sized strips. Repeat with the other sheet and stack together. They are now ready to be stuffed and folded into triangles.

Spinach Filling For Spanikopita

2 cups of baby spinach, thick stems removed
1 tbs. lemon juice
zest of one lemon
1 tsp. olive oil
1/8 tsp. nutmeg, freshly grated
Sea Salt & Pepper to taste
1 tbs. of pine nuts
1 tbs. currants

Toss all of the ingredients together, place on a teflex sheet, dehydrate for 30-40 minutes at 105F. Remove and roughly chop.

Pine Nut Cheese

1 cup Pine Nuts
1 tbs. White Miso
1 tbs. shallot, minced
1 tbs. lemon juice
1 garlic clove
Sea Salt and Pepper to taste

Add all of the ingredients to the vita-mix and puree until smooth.

Spread half of the pine nut cheese out on a teflex sheet and dehydrate at 105F for 4-6 hours, flipping once.

Take the other half of the cheese, add a splash of water, mix well, and use as a dipping sauce.


Assembly:

Place a long strip of the cauliflower in front of you on a work surface. Place 1 tbs. of the spinach mixture about an 1/2" from the bottom. Place a chunk of the pine nut cheese on top of the spinach. Grab the bottom right corner and fold it over the spinach and pine nut cheese to the left side. Repeat, folding the strip upwards into triangles until all edges no longer have any exposed spinach (about 5 turns). Trim the excess wrapping. Place in the dehydrator for 20-30 minutes at 105F. Serve with the dipping sauce.



The dolmas were adapted from Trotter/Klein, using Dinosaur (Lacinato) Kale in place of the grape leaves. The kale leaves had the center rib cut out all the way up to about 2 inches from the top, then were tossed with olive oil, nama shoyu and pepper. They were put into dehydrator for 30 minutes at 105F. Finally, they were assembled with the parsnip, pine nut, lemon juice, parsley & currant filling, and rolled up. You can put them back in the dehydrator for a couple of minutes if you like them slightly warm to eat.



The soup was a last minute addition...

Celery Soup Shooters
(makes four)

2 ribs of celery roughly chopped
1/4 cup water
1 tsp. celery seed, freshly ground
1 tbs. lemon juice
1 tsp. olive oil
1 tbs. pine nuts
salt and pepper to taste

Add of the ingredients and puree in the vita-mix, check for seasoning and pour into shooter glasses. Garnish with celery leaf.

Tags: raw food wednesday, raw food, raw, pine nuts, lemon, cauliflower, spanakopita, dinosaur kale, dolmas, celery, soup, garlic, vegan, food, dinner, tofu666