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Raw Vegan Brownies From Jennifer Cornbleet's "Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 People". What do you need? Ingredients and maybe 10 minutes!!  I can't even remember now when I first started truly "flirting" with Raw Foods. It was before I had ever been to Pure Food & Wine in New York, but prior to eating there, I had no idea that you could made gourmet raw food or that you could make it so incredible tasting. Even though the place is uber trendy and dripping in a "Sex in the City" kind of hipness (without Samantha's boyfriend being a waiter), I still consider it the best "foodie" experience I've had (excluding anything my mother makes of course! And she has been known to make a mean raw vegan carrot cake). So the Pure Food & Wine experience was the turning point that eating a lot of raw could be very cool and of course I anxiously awaited the arrival of their cookbook at my doorstep. |
The first book with recipes from the "Pure Food & Wine" restaurant in New York.
Well....it came and it is indeed a beautiful book, but it is not the best "everyday" book nor is it the least intimidating book for raw virgins. Most recipes have slightly lengthy ingredient lists and a few different "parts" to assemble. So...I ordered another book, slightly less romantic and no photos of the author showing you, apparently, how "sexed" out you suddenly get if you eat raw, but practical. And for a middle aged chic who isn't throwing dinner parties for the "who's who" in the world, um, this is the book I needed to have.
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I think this is the absolute EASIEST, most realistic raw food book I own. No flax crackers, no 12 step recipes, and no 2 pounds of goji berries or 1 cup of olive oil for an eggplant. Really healthy eats with basically zero work. I am into this. When you get old you don't feel like expending THAT much work for food. Or you might "feel" like it, but the inertia of your butt makes you more likely to READ uncookbooks than actually USE them. |
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| Can you say 4 ingredient brownies? |
At first I ignored it slightly, as it didn't make any promises of perfect health or overnight beauty by eating raw & it didn't include very many photographs. But then after I actually read some of the recipes, I realized, Hey, I actually have this stuff in the house at this moment & this looks like it take 5 minutes to make. Hence, this was probably the first book I actually discovered a few recipes that I could used on a regular basis and no dehydrating or busting open coconuts.
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| I bought the Sunfood brand of Cacao because I haven't been using cacao at all but was bringing something to a friend's house. Well, I had to buy it from Whole Foods and this was the brand they had. However, if I am planning on using Organic Raw Cacao, then I order it online either from Mountain Rose Herbs or whoever else may have a good price. Lots of stuff that has intimidating prices at whole foods, such as hemp seeds, chia seeds, rooibos tea, can be found much cheaper elsewhere. I can buy one pound of Rooibos from Mountain Rose for about ten bucks. Fair trade, Organic. |
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| No fancy tools needed for this recipe. Food processor! |
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| You can make the brownies whatever texture you choose. I prefer them a little chunky. You don't want to "overprocess" them where they get SO sticky that it is difficult to do anything with them. I have made these brownies with regular (non raw) cocoa powder, and the texture was totally different! They were super sticky and I had to throw in a whole lot more nuts in order to try to do anything with them. |
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| Then you just roll them in crushed walnuts or coconut shreds if you want. |
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| You could flatten them more like cookies as well, but I have a really hard time making anything look visually presentable (including myself!). So, I stick to balls. |
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| Depending on the amount of dates you use or if you add stevia, these brownies are not overly sweet. I love them that way. However, if you are nursing a real sweet tooth or transitioning from a real "American Diet", then obviously, add some more sweet stuff!! Stevia might be your answer because it won't change the texture. If you add too much of any type of syrup (Coconut Sap) or dates, they may get too sticky. |
Here is Jennifer Cornbleet telling you how to make the "Raw Vegan Chocolate Mousse". She uses agave nectar in this video, but you don't need too!! You can use dates, date sugar, coconut sugar, stevia, whatever!! This was before the "National Agave Controversy".
And here is my post on Jennifer Cornbleet's "Raw Vegan Hummus" made with Zucchinis.
And another post that includes Jennifer Cornbleet & Awesome Raw Vegan Chocolate/Carob Avocado Pudding!
Or if you feel like hot & spicy food packed with unbelievable amounts of protein, that is dirt cheap to make & simple!! Then check out Kala Chana (Black Chickpea Curry" from Anupy Singla's "The Indian Slow Cooker" book!
Do any readers have this book (Raw Food Made Easy)?? What are your favorites from it?
I have tried the Marinara, the Mousse (chocolate avocado), Walnut and Sunflower Pates & more. I really liked everything! There are a lot of simple raw collard/kale/swiss chard types of salads in this book too!
My auntie "Artina" recently expressed an interest in raw foods and veganish stuff (that is healthy, no white flour cake books here!). Does anyone have any suggestions for a Raw or Vegan flirt that doesn't want to spend that much time in the kitchen and probably wants to eat a more "simple" diet? With an emphasis on healthy?? Tell me your favorites & which books you use the most from your shelves! Which books do you suggest she buy first??
I don't have a lot of vegan cookbooks because when I went vegan, there were only a couple!! My favorite, most used "cook" book is "The Indian Slow Cooker" by Anupy Singla. But this isn't the best book for my auntie Artina because she is not a spice or Indian food lover. My most used raw books are probably Ani Phyo'
s, Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 people, some of Cafe Gratitude's recipes,
Alisa Cohen's "Living on Live Food". Gosh, I usually have a few recipes I gravitate towards in each book. Oh, I do love Renee Loux Underkoffler's "Living Cuisine"
and have made a lot of her cracker & snacky recipes. This was the Raw Vegan Carrot Cake that my folks made me for my birthday one year. It ROCKED!
