Eating moreraw foodis a great way to gain extra energy, add more immunity enhancing fruits and vegetables to your day, and ensure you’re not taking in processed foods or animal products related to diabetes and cancer.Creating meals based around whole, plant-based raw foods may also be a healthy way to manage your weight. Sticking with raw foods at every meal may seem like a restrictive way to eat, but the truth is that there is nothing restrictive about it! You can literally recreate all of your favorite comfort foods using raw ingredients, and there isn’t a reason you have to sacrifice flavor, texture, or satisfaction just because you’re sitting down to a fruit and veggie meal.
From elegant breakfast carrot cake bites and exotic smoothies, to rich pasta dishes and deliciously creamy mousse, there’s a raw food recipe out there to meet all of your culinary desires. And you don’t have to spend hours on end in the kitchen just to make your meals shine – here are 10 quick and easy raw food recipe ideas you can make with nothing more than a knife, a cutting board, and your trusty food processor:
1. Un-Tuna Pate
Make a quick meal out of un-tuna pate and romaine leaves by throwing sunflower seeds, fresh herbs, lemon juice, garlic, and a little dulse and soy sauce into your food processor. Just pulse the ingredients until it resembles a pate and then spread the concoction on romaine leaves. Top the pate with fresh tomatoes and sprouts for a filling lunch or dinner.
2. Zucchini Hummus
Sprouted chickpea hummus is a delicious way to enjoy your raw food diet, but it takes time to sprout the chickpeas. If you’re in the mood for hummus yet short on time, use zucchini instead of chickpeas! Along with tahini, garlic, cumin, lemon juice, and a pinch of salt, process the zucchini in your machine to create a creamy, flavor-filled hummus that take just a couple of minutes to make.
3.Cheesy Pepper Dip
Sweet pepper dip awesomely complements cucumber chips, crudités, dehydrated flax crackers, and even apples. All that’s needed are a couple of red bell peppers, a handful of cashews, a couple of dates, about a quarter cup of nutritional yeast, a pinch of paprika, and a little coconut aminos or soy sauce. Pulse the ingredients in your processor, adding a tablespoon of water at a time, until you achieve a thick and creamy consistency.
4. Vegan Cream Cheese
Contrary to popular belief, cream cheese isn’t just for bagels and dairy laden desserts. It makes a perfect spread for collard wraps, it can be used to thicken blended soups, and it works well as a base for raw vegan Alfredo sauce too. To make your own quick vegan cream cheese put cashews, coconut flakes, miso, lemon juice, sweetener, and a pinch of salt in your food processor. All that’s left to do is process away until your cashews turn into cream cheese.
5. Stick-to-Your-Ribs Chili
Chili is a great way to fill up after a long and active day, and creating a raw version won’t disappoint. Raw vegan chili can be made right in your food processor. Add fresh and sun-dried tomatoes, a bell pepper, some onion and celery, as well as cumin and chili powder to your food processor.
Pulse until blended, but make sure that a few chunks of veggies are still present. Transfer the mixture to a large bowl and add fresh corn off the cob, a cup of chopped tomatoes, half a teaspoon of liquid smoke, some fresh herbs, and a pinch of salt to the mix. Thoroughly stir the chili until well combined and enjoy!
6. Simple Spinach Pesto
Toss homemade pesto with zucchini noodles for a quick pasta meal, stir it into creamy butternut squash soup, and slather your raw vegan wraps with the stuff. In fact, you’ll probably want to make a double batch of pesto to keep in the fridge because it’s so versatile.
To make your own pesto put a few cups of spinach, a handful of pine nuts, some nutritional yeast, salt and pepper, and a little olive oil into your food processor. Process the ingredients on high, stopping to scrape the mixture off the sides of your machine a few times to make sure that everything gets blended evenly.
7. Walnut Taco “Meat”
Process some soaked walnuts, sun-dried tomatoes, a chunk of onion, a little cumin, and a clove of garlic until well combined but chunky. Use it on a bed of lettuce and veggies to create a raw vegan taco salad, roll it up in chard leaves and top the rolls with homemade vegan sour cream to make rich and filling enchiladas. This mixture is also delicious stuffed inside mushrooms and dehydrated for an hour or two.
8. Sweet Banana Ice Cream
Who doesn’t love indulging in a bowl of sweet ice cream once in awhile? Even on a raw food diet, you can enjoy all the greatness that ice cream has to offer with simple ingredients like bananas and dates. Just peel and freeze a bag of bananas and then process them with some pitted dates for extra sweetness. Easily kick things up a notch by including ingredients such as berries, cacao powder, vanilla extract, and nuts.
9. Chocolate Avocado Mousse
While banana ice cream is good enough to eat every night, mousse is another decadent way to end the day. Using a food processor, you can make a batch of chocolate mousse in less than five minutes. Process a couple of avocados, a few tablespoons of cacao powder, a handful or two of pitted dates, and a bit of vanilla extract until it’s really smooth and creamy. You may need to add a couple tablespoons of water to achieve the consistency that you prefer.
10. Nut and Dried Fruit Energy Balls
If you’re looking for a nutritious snack on the go, look no further than nut and dried fruit energy balls. You can make your own using a couple cups of your favorite dried fruit such as dates, mulberries, cranberries, blueberries, cherries, and currants. You’ll also need a handful of your favorite nuts including almonds, walnuts, and pistachios.Put your ingredients in the food processor with a little salt and mix until the fruit and nuts turn into sticky dough. Then take small handfuls of the mixture out of the food processor’s bowl and roll them into small balls. Store them in plastic baggies a couple at a time for snacking convenience.
Raw food really can be easy, all with the help of the food processor (or even a high speed blender). You’ll find that clean up is also super easy after creating these recipes and similar concoctions that you happen to come up with yourself.
Lead Image Source: Carrot Cake Bites
