Howdy Folks,
With a strange schedule on Saturday, my normal big day of raw food prep will be reduced to only a few hours in the afternoon. On Friday night I'm going to try this apricot yogurt cake with sweet cream and anise syrup in Matthew Kenney's newest book, Entertaining in the Raw. It's not that complicated but I think the ingredients are exotic and exciting. He even uses garam masala! Gotta love Matthew's creativity :-)
So on Saturday afternoon I'm going to try Russell James' Spinach Masala recipe:
http://therawchefblog.com/winter-warmer#more-57
Anyone try this one out yet?? Russell is another one of my favorite raw food chefs.
I would love to hear about any other favorite raw Indian recipes that aren't too time consuming or involve a day in the dehydrator.
Love to hear what others think of this recipe and/or some other lovely Indian flavored raw recipes.
Cheers!
Joyce
Comments
damn that does look good- if i weren't juice feasting id make it tonight.
Yeah it does look really good!!
Carmella Soleil from RFC made it and like it a lot. She posted the recipe with the ingredients a bit more organized (for me anyhow)
http://www.rawfreedomcommunity.info/forum/showthread.php?t=324
We have a lot of raw local spinach in the co-op so this will be a nice recipe this weekend!
Anyone want to do a 'group project' and make this on Saturday and then report back?
I will totally make this on Saturday. It looks delish. I'm drooling a little.
That looks amazing!
If i can get to the market before saturday ill make it then. :)
Too bad there isn't a picture of it. He has some great pictures and great food!
I made his Curried Cabbage without the wraps. It is great... not sure if it's supposed to be Indian.
germin8, click on the link I posted above for Carmella's spinach masala. She posted a small photo.
Or just imagine some nice fresh spinach with a few mango chunks smothered in a nice creamy sauce with a bowl of cauliflower/parsnip/ or jicama rice :-)
Hi Evergreen! So glad you made the spinach and found it to be good. Very helpful to know about it being a bit sweet. Maybe I'll cut back on the mango and raisons initially. It's always easier to add ingredients rather than take them away :-)
Carmella organized this recipe in a more user friendly way. Here it is from her RFC website:
"At last, I finally got around to making Russell James' Spinach Masala, posted on his blog.
Man, once again 'The Raw Chef' delivers! Raw Gourmet Indian food at its best!
Spinach Masala
By Russell James
250 g spinach (8.8 oz or half pound)
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon Himalayan salt
2 teaspoons macadamia oil (or substitute with olive oil)
1 cup diced mango
1/2 cup raisins
2 teaspoons mustard seeds
1/8 cup onion, diced (I used leek)
Sauce:
2 cloves, garlic crushed
2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 tablespoon garam masala
1 cup fresh coriander, roughly chopped
2 cups cashew or macadamia nuts
1 cup water
2 teaspoons agave
2 teaspoons shoyu
- Wash 'n' chop the spinach then in a large bowl mix the spinach, lemon juice, salt and oil. Massage with your hands until the spinach becomes soft and creamy.
- Add the mango, raisins, mustard seeds, onion and fresh coriander and mix again.
- Next we need to make some sauce so put the remaining ingredients in a VitaMix or high speed blender and process until smooth. You may need to add more water to the mixture to get it to the consistency of yoghurt.
- Mix the sauce in with the spinach and you're done! This also tastes great if you put it in the dehydrator for an hour at 115 degrees.
I served this with Ginger Rice... Yummo!"
here is the picture
http://thehappyrawkitchen.blogspot.com/2009/06/spinach-masala.html
it was really quick to make...remember mine is only half a recipe there was still a lot of sauce:)
Wow Evergreen, your photo is amazing!!! It looks so pretty with the sauce around it and the mango slices and currents sprinkled on top! I might do something similar but instead put jicama rice around the spinach. (I'm thinking of flavoring the jicama (processed in the FP and then drained well) with ground up pinenuts (in a coffee grinder) and white miso and a few indian spices. Hope that will work well)
I look forward to checking out your blog sometime today or over the weekend! Love discovering lovely raw food blogs! So much fun :-)
Ok, I'm off soon to City Market to get all my ingredients!! Yay!! Love Fridays!!!
Beautiful shot Evergreen!!!
A beautiful presentation of food is always music in my tummy!! There's nothing like Awesome Eye Candy!!! :) I am in for Saturday...if time allows...busy Father's Day weekend. However, it looks pretty simple so should not be too time consuming. To Saturday and Russell's Spinach Masala!! :)
Hi SimplyRaw, Great that you'll be making the masala if time allows. I'm doing a 10K charity run for battered women tomorrow morning down at the lakefront. Hoping to be home by noon so I can make the spinach masala. And now I'll also have to squeeze my apricot cake making into that same time slot due to a schedule change..... summers are busy indeed!
Oh I'm making your yummy looking Curry Kale salad on Sunday since Kale salads are my favorite!!!!
evergreen - your spinach masala picture is so beautiful! It looks so gourmet I wish I could prepare food like that. Are you a trained chef?
awwww, thanks guys for the compliments:) as usual everyone here is soooooo nice.
hi Mikfizzle...you are so sweet. I really enjoy making food and I probably have a few more years doing it than you;)
I'll check out your blog too!!!
good luck to everyone in whatever you are up to this weekend...I just got back from the cutest graduation ceremony ever...kindergarten class with a total of 7 little ones this year:)
just a hint, if you are going to mold the spinach, drain out any juice so it doesn't leak out onto the plate. I had a very juicy mango.
it would have been nice to see how the chef did it:)
Evergreen: your photo is amazing. I can't wait to make this. I just hit up the farmer's market and whole foods and got everything I need. Will be making it (excitedly!) tomorrow evening.
I have NO cashews or macadamias, however, I have loads of almonds. I think I'm going to try it with them, or sunflower seeds if I have enough. What does everyone think? Will it be totally gross if I don't use cashews or macadamias?
hi silystarfish
thanks for the nice comment:)
almonds have a great flavor, but can be a little gritty sometimes.
if you have enough sunflower seeds, I think those would work best, and give a creamier texture to the sauce.soak them for an hour or two if you have the time.
happy un-cooking everyone!
hi Joyce!
I just made this since you were asking about it and it sounded so good!
It is very good in my opinion but sweeter than I realized because of the mango and raisins(I had to sub with currants, scallions for onion, and didn't have fresh coriander)
I just made 1/2 the recipe and eyeballed some of the ingredients. Also I did not see the bottom of the instructions, so I plated the spinach and dolloped the dressing around it. I will post a picture and my substitutions on my blog so you can see it. I can send a link when its up:)
Your blog looks beautiful, I am going to check it out right now:)
edited to add: If coriander is the same as cilantro, I would sub parsley:)
thank you evergreen for the nice comments about my blog :) they really made my day
I used sunflower seeds and leek (instead of onion).
Is fresh coriander the same thing as cilantro? I used cilantro.
Dinner is at 6, I've got my plate in the dehydrator to warm it a little. It was fantastic at room temperature.
Joyce: Thank you for bringing this recipe up!
Howdy Folks!! I am reporting to let you all know that this was a wonderful recipe!!! Wow!!! Both my husband and I loved the Spinach Masala! Thanks a million Russell!!!
Here is my updated blog and photo album:
http://beautifullivingfood.blogspot.com/
http://picasaweb.google.com/jholsten/RawVeganSavoryDishesByJoyceHolsten#
Hi Silystarrfish, so glad yours turned out fantastic!!
Anyone else try this over the weekend?
omg does that look good! well done guys!!
JoyceH your pictures turned out great!
I unfortunatly didnt get to go to the store but i did have oodles of tasty spinach salads : )
im glad that your husband enjoyed it.
Joyce, you really are an inspiration! I love your site and really envy all the amazing dishes you prepare.
I will have to give this recipe a go. :-)
Thanks for the kind words :-)
hi everyone!
Joyce... your beautiful pictures are making me hungry for this again:)
Also, you are so lucky that your husband enjoys this with you!
Silystarrfish....I'm glad the sunflower seeds worked out, if I make this again I may try it with those:)
Mikfizzle...you are welcome, keep up the good work!
Hi Evergreen! Oh my gosh that spinach masala was sooooo good! Better than I anticipated which was nice! You have a lovely blog! I enjoyed checking it out! Keep making your beautiful raw food! :-)
This weekend I'm going to make Russell's stuffed vine leaves with cashew mint aioli sauce (on his blog). And I'm also going to try Mattew Kenney's quiona tabouli as well. Summer is so nice for Mediterranean/Greek style recipes :-D
Fresh local strawberries from the Intervale (in Burlington) so i'm going to try and come up with my very own strawberry cake concoction ;-)
ps - I got the grape leaves at Healthy Living. They were imported from Greece in a jar. Probably not raw but close enough! Everthing else will be raw.
hi Joyce... thanks for checking out my blog, and the follow :)
those stuffed vine leaves look great! Russell James is quite talented for sure!
I am looking forward to seeing your results on your lovely blog :)