Tuesday, July 15, 2003

I ate raw food this weekend at a cooking class.

Dinner:
Nori rolls with dill, nut hummus, carrot, bell pepper, celery, and raisins
Dehydrated flaxseed crackers with guacamole and tasteless "almond mayonnaise"
Carrot soup with red bell pepper
Spicy mango curry salad (mmm) with cilantro
Salad with orange pieces, avocado, almonds, radishes
Dehydrated strawberry and raspberry pies on almond-date crust

Brunch:
Sesame milk
Almond milk
Hazelnut milk with vanilla
Raw oatmeal with cinnamon (like paste)
Fruit salad
Carob pie (tahini, honey, carob, OJ in an almond-date crust)
Pasta Salad

Treat this as 3 separate items which are combined just before serving.

1) 1 package small-sized pasta (ca. 16 oz.). Boil until just done in unsalted, unoiled water. Drain immediately in colander and run lots of cold water over pasta. You may do this step up to 24 hrs. before serving pasta salad. After draining, put in closed container in refrigerator.

2) Ingredients to add to pasta. Choose from among the following, but make certain to have at least one ingredient that's crunchy (like celery or onion). Approximately ½ cup of each for a total of about 2 to 2 ½ cups ingredients

Chopped celery; Chopped Bermuda (red) onion; Roasted red bell pepper; Sliced
cooked or canned mushroom; sliced black olive; sliced salami (small pieces);
chopped parsley

You can do this step 24 hrs. in advance and keep ingredients together in sealed container in refrigerator

3) Dressing. You will want about 1 ½ to 2 cups dressing. Try pouring most of it over mixed ingredients and see it it's enough. If not, add the rest. You can use the remaining dressing for a regular salad.
Approx. 3 or 4 heaping tablespoons best food real mayonnaise
Add some apple cider vinegar to the mayo and shake. Mixture should move around in jar but not be very runny
Pour in a bunch of olive oil to make a little under 2 cups.
Add minced garlic, salt, pepper, paprika, 1 teaspoon oregano.
Check out the taste. It should be a bit salty because it needs to flavor the unsalted pasta

At the end:

Empty pasta in large bowl. Dump ingredients over it and mix with big spoon. Pour over most of the dressing, if you need more, pour some more on until it's moistened to suit you. Empty container of 1 cup shredded Parmesan or Roma cheese. Mix together and serve.

Refrigerate any remaining. It will need more dressing since the pasta absorbs the dressing.