Raw Christmas!

[subbacultcha]

I realise this is a bit early but I want to be prepared. This will be my first raw Christmas and my family have always made a big deal out of Christmas dinner. I want to show them how good raw food is. So I thought we could get all our raw Christmas recipes together!

Here's one I found for raw mince pies, and I know veganbear has a Christmas cake/bar recipe somewhere...

Mince Pies With Whipped Cream
Recipe by Russell James
Makes 15 pies

For the pastry
1c almonds
1c walnuts
1c pecans
1c raw jumbo rolled oats
20 dried soft apricots

For the filling
7 soft dates
juice of 1 orange
1t orange zest
1 apple
½t mixed spice
1c raisins
For the cream
1c courgette, peeled and chopped
¼c agave nectar
1c cashews, soaked 2 hours
1t psyllium husk powder
1t vanilla extract

• Soak nuts overnight and fully dry them in a dehydrator. To make the pastry, first process the nuts and oats in a Vita-Mix dry jug or coffee mill so that you end up with a fine ‘flour’.

• Transfer the mixture to a food processor with an ‘s’ blade. Add apricots one at a time until the whole mixture becomes sticky. If you are using apricots that have been soaked, you may find that you already have a dough-like consistency. If the mixture isn’t forming a ball in the processor at this point then add some water (soak water if you soaked the apricots) a few tablespoons at a time until it does.

• Roll out the mixture on a flat surface so that it is about twice the thickness of a pound coin. If mixture sticks to rolling pin, mill some more oats to dust the rolling pin and rolling surface with.

• Using a pastry cutter that will cut a base to the required size for your baking tray, cut the bases from the rolled out dough. Place these in a muffin baking tray that has been lined with Cling Film. You will need to re-form and re-roll the dough to get the most from it. Use any left over dough to build extra pies!!! Place the baking tray in a dehydrator at 115 degrees F.

• To make the filling, remove stones and flowers from dates and place in food processor. Add the orange juice, zest and mixed spice. Process and add water as needed to produce a creamy consistency. Mixture will need to occasionally be scraped from the sides of the processor using a spatula.

• Chop apple into small pieces and add to mixture. Process for a further 15 seconds.

• Add raisins to mixture and stir in with a wooden spoon/spatula.

• Remove bases after the 3 hours and fill with raisin mixture.

• To warm the pies, return them to the dehydrator on mesh sheets for as long as you can keep your hands off ‘em!!! They should be ready after an hour.

• Whilst they are warming, process the courgette, agave and vanilla in a blender until smooth. Add the cashews and process again until mixture becomes smooth again. Add the psyllium and blend a final time. When fully blended leave the mixture to firm up for 5 minutes. Transfer this mixture to a piping bag and pipe onto the warmed pies. You are now ready to enjoy raw mince pies with whipped cream!!!

[aililiu]

thank you for that. i LOVE mince pies.

[EZ rider]

For a nice Christmas looking cold soup you can make a red and green soup like this:

in the blender:
+) enough water to cover the VM blades
+) 1 large Avocado
+) 1/2 a peeled Cuke
+) some ice

on the cutting board:
+) chunk up 1 bright red Bell Pepper

Place the red Bell Pepper into the Bowls and then pour the thick smooth green blended ingredients over the red Bell Pepper chunks. Serves two.

[freebird]

That looks so awesome, I was thinking about gettting the Xmas recipes ready... am going to my sister's for the season and it's not a raw house though they are tolerant and helpful. looks like I will be making these as Mince pies are harder to come by than gold bullion in her house. :D

[Barbie2]

I'm dreaming of a Raw Christmas. Not like the ones I use to know. Hear the blender mixing and the fp whirling. HeHe. I just couldn't resist.

[aililiu]

I'm dreaming of a Raw Christmas. Not like the ones I use to know. Hear the blender mixing and the fp whirling. HeHe. I just couldn't resist.

LOL! thats brilliant. you should add to that.

;) :D

[lily]

Thank you... I'm intrigued with the cream for the mincepies, having courgette and psyllium husk in it... it doesn't make my mouth water with anticipation, though the actual mince pies sound yummy. Think a cream made from macademias or cashews would be lovely with them. Or raw ice cream,,, mmmm

lily

[subbacultcha]

I will be making the mince pies this week so I'll let everyone know how they turn out.

Here's a nice-looking recipe from Kate Wood:

Goji Mincemeat Mess
by Kate Wood
from Raw Living, published by Grub Street, 2007

Serves eight
Food processor, blender
1 hr

This was Jamie Oliverís idea. Eton Mess is traditionally made with strawberries, cream and meringues. He did a Christmas version with mincemeat; this is my raw version with mincemeat, cream, and clementines. It's more or less the same mincemeat recipe from Eat Smart, Eat, Raw, but with goji berries in, and the recipe for cashew cream made with macadamia nuts instead.

Mincemeat:
1 orange
1 lemon
350 g grated apple
125 g Lexia raisins
125 g mixed vine fruit
125 g goji berries
60 g dates, chopped
1 tbsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
pinch ground nutmeg
pinch ground cloves
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp agave syrup
1 tbsp yacon syrup
1 tsp miso

Juice the lemon and the orange, and grate the rind. Using a wooden spoon, combine everything together in a large bowl, so it's nice and evenly mixed.

Macadamia Cream:
2 cups macadamia nuts
45 g zylosweet
1 vanilla pod
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cups water

Put everything in the blender and whiz to a thick cream.

4 clementines

Peel and separate the segments.

To assemble:
In a large glass dish, make a bottom layer with half the mincemeat. Cover with a layer of cream, and dot with clementines. Use the remaining mincemeat for another layer, top with cream again (you don't need to use it all, it is very rich; you may find yourself with a few spoons leftover. Refrigerate it for another day or dehydrate for a sweet snack). Finish with the clementines, arranging them artfully over the top. You may want to add a few gojis or carob chips or some such to complete the effect.

[carolg]

Sub,
Thanks bunches for the recipes posted.
carolg

[curlygirl82]

Never too early to start thinking about Christmas dinner! :) Thanks for posting this. You'll have to let us know how it turns out.

[Raene]

I've never eaten mincemeat pies. What else are common Christmas foods? All I remember eating is ham.

[klomasius]

Too early to think about what's for eats at Christmas?? It's already December!

I'll be having an early raw Christmas with my mum, son and partner here at my place and I plan to go all out. Then I'll have my traditional family get together on Boxing Day (26th) which I'll probably just make a gourmet cake or pie and a simple salad.

My mother adores the idea of a raw Christmas and we did it last year with great success, below is a pic of a cheezecake I made last year for christmas day.

This year I'm still thinking about the menu, but it'll probably look something like this.

Savoury
Julienne vegetables in marinade warmed in the dehydrator
Usual salad of greens, tomato, avocado dressing
Another salad of some sort
Nut meat roast or burgers with herbed tomato sauce
Crackers with pesto, mushroom, tomato and hummus dips
Sliced carrots, celery, tomatoes, avocado etc.


Sweets
Choc Coconut Bounty Cake
Berry cheezecake with fresh coconut cream
Banana coconut ice cream with fresh berry sauce
Fruit
Some kind of biscuit
Chocolate

Drinks
Lime and mint sparkle made with natural sparkling spring water collected from our favourite holiday destination.
Selection of sun teas.

But I'm open to ideas and suggestions! I'm sure there'll be plenty of good ones. :D

[rawviveyourself]

thank you so much for starting this thread.....i took a class before thanksgiving so i felt ultra prepared for that, but just today as i signed up for the december challenge i thought 'what the heck will i make for christmas dinner...?' so great timing - i'm all about thinking about getting a menu together early. plus i have holiday parties before then and will have to take some good raw food to those, too.....

[SandyGrl777]

Any ideas and recipes would be greatly appreciated - this will be my first Christmas raw and want to have variety for myself because I know my old pattern of getting bored with same ole - have been making recipes with dehydrator which is awesome..

Thanks everyone

Sandy

[curlygirl82]

chocolate cheezecake recipe, please? :)

[klomasius]

chocolate cheezecake recipe, please? :)

Er... if you mean the pic I posted, I didn't really work to a recipe!

It has RPs Brownie recipe as a base, and macadamias and cashews as base for the filling, with lemon juice, bananas, cacoa powder, sweetener, pinch of salt and around half to a cup of melted coconut oil to harden it (you could use pysillium husks, chia, less water etc to get the same effect).

I write down all my recipes now.. :)

[curlygirl82]

yum!! sounds so good. thanks.

[jacsam]

I'm dreaming of a Raw Christmas. Not like the ones I use to know. Hear the blender mixing and the fp whirling. HeHe. I just couldn't resist.
I love it.....LOL!!!!

[Nayeli_Raw]

Someone posted this last year.. I dont know how Christmasy it is but I think I will try it. This is 100% plagerized. I thought it looked good so I copy pasted it to a notepad last year, and I was looking at it today and thought it maybe good for our Christmas Dinner.

Spinach & Cream Pasta Casserole

Serves 4

Pasta
2 or 3 zucchinis, peeled

Make linguine size pasta with the help of a spiral slicer. (Although any type/size would work well too.)

Sauce
1 cup cashews and/or macadamias
1/2 to 3/4 cup water (depending on desired thickness)
1 garlic clove
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tsp salt

Grind nuts until fine then add other ingredients and blend until smooth.

Marinated Spinach
2 cups spinach, thinly sliced (or more, to taste)
1/2 tbs olive oil
1/2 tbs oregano
1/8 tsp salt

Place all ingredients in a bowl and massage to wilt the spinach.

Marinated Criminis
1 cup crimini mushrooms, sliced

Toss mushrooms in a little olive oil and tamari, and let marinate for at least 1 hr.

Pine Nut Parmesan
1/2 cup macadamias
1/2 cup cashews
2 Tbs pine nuts
1 Tbs lemon juice
1Tbs flax meal
1 clove crushed garlic
1Tbs nutritional yeast
1/2 tsp salt

First process macadamias and cashews until ground. Then add the rest of the ingredients and process until well mixed. You don’t want to overprocess the pine nuts as they release a lot of oil.

Assembly
Toss the noodles with the sauce. Gently fold in the spinach and half of the marinated mushrooms (save the rest for garnish).

Place mixture in a dish.

Sprinkle with Pine Nut Parmesan.

Top with remaining mushrooms.

Dehydrate at 110 degrees for 1 hour (optional)


Carmella's Notes:
You'll probably have extra sauce and parmesan, but I'm sure you'll find some way to use the left-overs.

Oh, and the parmesan freezes really well too.

Enjoy!

[Raene]

That sounds D-licious!!

[carolg]

Nay,
Thanks for recipes. Went to your blog. CO relatives. Where? Here between Denver/Boulder. Congr. on upcoming babe!!!!! Love your sharings.

carolg