Raw Vegan Brownies from "Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 People" by Jennifer Cornbleet

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.  

Raw Food/Real World: 100 Recipes to Get the Glow

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. 

Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 people by Jennifer Cornbleet. 

 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.

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.  

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.

No fancy tools needed for this recipe.  Food processor!

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.  

Then you just roll them in crushed walnuts or coconut shreds if you want.

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.

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!

More Dr. Oz "Forks Over Knives" and Anupy's Vegan Indian 3 Note (Black Lentils, Kidney Beans, and Chickpeas) Dal

Teen Taal Dal, Three Note Dal, or Black Lentils with Kidney Beans and Chickpeas.

Getting ready to be simmered to perfection with Anupy Singla's magical Indian Slow Cooker Book recipe. 

After Anupy's Awesome Magic......Finished Black Lentils with Kidney Beans and Chickpeas.

3 Note Dal.  Teen Taal Dal.  

The first 7 Minutes from Dr. Oz's "Forks over Knives" show.  Guess what?  Nearly every recipe in "The Indian Slow Cooker" fits the bill!  AND they are cheap, cheap, cheap to make!  Plus almost no work.  The most taxing part of Anupy's dishes (for me) is grating the ginger and mincing garlic.  The book won't put you out much more than 10 bucks and you will have a lifetime of healthy eating, if you use it.  I have, um, more cookbooks, and mostly "uncookbooks" (raw) than I need.  And I have used this book more than ANY of my other books! And it shows with it's tumeric tainted pages! It's a severe weakness of mine.  I am not a vegan that is blah about food.  I am vegan for ethics first, but being vegan has allowed me to actually eat as much as I want and not really show it.  Because I love food so much, I am always looking for foods that I truly don't need to "limit".  I went through a tofu cheesecake period where I swore I found the Holy Grail.  Protein, lowfat cheesecake.  Now I would replace that Agave with some Coconut Sugar or Date Syrup, but I just wasn't going to accept a life that I had to limit my piece of cake to one.  

Just Sayin'.....if you were intrigued by Dr. Oz's "Forks Over Knives" show, and you either love Indian Food, or you want to try something new, then you really must get her book!  Most of the dishes have ZERO oil, meat, or dairy.  So to do it "Engine 2" like, then skip any oil, skip the meat dishes, and either skip the milk or substitute a nut or soymilk instead.  The eggplant dishes call for some oil, but I was thinking you could probably replace with just a little bit of water instead (if you are using zero oils).  Plus no bitching about how is it so expensive to be vegan.  Her dishes cost very little and feed an army.  And have all of Dr. Oz's favorite spices like tumeric, ginger, garlic, chilies, onion, cilantro, and cumin.  And Beans basically fight everything evil in the world.  The best part?  No soaking required.  So for busy folks, you score.

Indian Bay Leaves??  Figured since I bought them in the Indian Store, they were the right ones!

Well, 3 note Dal (this sounds like a John Adams piece or something?  Or Philip Glass?  Who apparently is Veganish) really makes a meal. A Meal with meaty Black Lentils, Chickpeas, and Kidney Beans.  Remember, Black Lentils are called Kaali dal, Sabut Urad, Whole Black Gram, or Whole Matpe Beans.  They aren't the same shape as our "Lentils".  I encourage you to find the right beans, because they really do impart more of an Indian flavor.  The Chickpeas and Kidney Beans are just the plain old dried beans you can find in bulk at Whole Foods or wherever you find your dried beans.  

Indian Bay Leaves and Green Cardamom

Making a paste from Onion, Ginger, Garlic, and Chiles.

Roasting Cumin and Coriander Seed in Cast Iron Skillet.

Saute the Onion & Chili paste first.  Then add the Cumin-Coriander blend, tumeric, red chili, and salt.

Mixture after cooking for several minutes.

Adding all ingredients to CrockPot (aka slow cooker).  And the tomato Paste. Push the button.  Run errands, go to work, go to bed.  And when you wake up.......OMG, an Indian Lady wandered into your house in the middle of the night and cooked  for you!  

Most of Anupy's dishes carry a fair amount of spice.  However, all you have to do to tone it down, is reduce or remove whatever your body won't handle!  If your gut isn't taking to the onions, garlic, or chili, then there are enough other spices that aren't as bold, like bay leaves, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, and coriander, that the dish will still taste great.  And she uses Course Salt, so if you are using finer salt, then you will need to reduce it.  I cut the salt in 1/2 for all of the recipes because I am using Sea Salt that is not course.  It's easy to add what you want at the end, but impossible to take it out once it's in there!

So Anupy's dishes pretty much naturally fit the bill for the "Forks Over Knives" diet.  Just ditch the handful of meat recipes at the end of the book (she's really a veggie girl anyway), skip any minimal amount of oil she might add (try water for the eggplant, or veggie broth), and use nutmilk if there is milk present.  Most of the recipes need no adaptation.  There is NO reason to take fiber pills folks, not if you eat plants!  Don't believe those idiotic commercials where the chic is running on the treadmill eating apples.  That's just people trying to sell you something you don't need (unless you are doing some serious colon cleansing, then you can just buy psyllium in bulk from Mountain Rose).

This dish is super yummy.  Sort of a very filling Indian Chili with lots of spicy flavors and textures creating a very in tune 3 Tone Dal.  This isn't any dissonant dal, nope, 3 gleeful tones, all saying "Eat Me."  

Buy The Indian Slow Cooker Book




"There is no religion without love, and people may talk as much as they like about their religion, but if it does not teach them to be good and kind to beasts as well as man it is all a sham."  -Anna Sewell, Black Beauty




And Dr. Oz, you really need to get this chic on your show.  Cut the salmon shit and get Anupy to come wow you with some Rockin' Rajmah.  Ain't no BPA's or Mercury hiding in her food, nope, she's the real deal.