Brasil Hangover Salad

Lovely lovely warm music-in-the-streets life-loving Rio. Very unlovely hangover. I won't claim this salad cured my hangover, but it did enable me to make it the few blocks to the beach and a fresh coconut full of life sustaining head clearing electrolyte-filled water. The salad took a whopping hour to make, but only on account of massive hangover slow motion.

The Baghdad version would have dried figs and dried coconut carted in from Jordan and no cilantro, unless we brought it in fresh from Amman and then got a hangover within three days before it went off and was forgotten in the depths of the fridge. If I really were hungover in Baghdad, by the way, I'd try to con Sara into going to the cafeteria for the spinach, since that's a long walk in the scorching sun with no coconuts or spontaneous bossa nova along the way. If she wouldn't, I'd probably eat the ingredients sans spinach in bed while watching reruns of Dead Like Me and whining.

Brasil Hangover Salad
2 cups spinach
1 large handful cilantro, de-stemmed
1/4 cup shredded coconut, fresh (2 T if dried)
1 mango, cubes
2 figs, sliced
2 T almonds
1 T pumpkin seeds
1 T sunflower seeds
1 t balsamic vinegar
1 t olive oil
1 t lavender pepper

Toss in a big bowl, and mind the knife in your hungover state...

P.S. Have you had this new-fangled lavender pepper? It's black pepper mixed with dried lavender buds and a touch of sea salt. It adds an incredible little note to salads and veggies. (You can make your own by adding dried lavender to your pepper grinder and giving it a shake). Be careful about getting carried away with this new taste sensation and over-peppering, as you don't want to choke on a particularly peppery mouthful. Just sayin'.

Fat and Sassy

I hail from a small town in the Midwest, nestled in rolling hills and steeped in a strong German(...ish) culture. Specifics aren't important, but what is important is a lovely little cafe in a lovely nearby town that has lovely salads. The cafe is called "Fat and Sassy" (don't you love it?) and their signature salad is, of course, the "Fat and Sassy" salad. Chicken breasts are the crowning ingredient and it awkwardly involves a bit of brown sugar (sort of thing that could happen to any salad), but its core ingredients are a delicious combination. Here is the rawsome(!) version of the "Fat and Sassy" salad.

Fat and Sassy Salad
2 cups romaine lettuce
1/2 cup cherry tomatoes
1/2 cucumber, sliced
1/2 green apple, sliced
1/2 cup grapes
2 ounces raw nut cheese, crumbled (you can buy it from Dr. Cow or make your own)
2 tablespoons dried cranberries (be sure to check the label to make sure there isn't anything added to them, like sugar)
2 tablespoons candied walnuts (to make raw candied walnuts, toss raw nuts with agave maple syrup to taste, and dehydrate for 6-8 hours)

Toss. Drizzle with a balsamic vinaigrette (1 T olive, macadamia nut or avocado seed oil whisked with 1 tsp balsamic vinegar, a squirt of lime, a dash of agave raw honey and a sprinkle of sea salt) or enjoy plain with a few twists of black pepper. Serves one.

Honey Badger Don't Care Raspberry Pea Shoot Salad

Ever find yourself sitting around fretting about what to do with all those pea shoots? ME TOO. Somewhere between the U.S. and Canada I found myself loaded down with a slightly embarrassing number of pea shoots (don't ask). Running out the door to the airport, I hastily threw together what turned out to be a simple and delicious way to eat your way free from pea shoot bondage. The tart sweetness of the berries combined with the creaminess of the avocado and clean crunchiness of the sprouts makes dressing unnecessary, but if dressing is a must, I'd go with a simple lime vinaigrette and a sprinkle of sea salt and call it a day.

I recommend you chop up the pea shoots before assembling the salad, unless you want an unsightly mess of unwieldy shoots sticking out your mouth as you chew... Which may or may not be what happened to me while at LGA waiting for Air Canada flight 591 to Ottawa. Sorry to all in the departures area for my honey badger don't care pea shoots attitude, and the mess that ensued, but I was really hungry.

Pea Shoots Salad
1 cup pea shoots, chopped into bits that will fit in your hungry mouth
1/2 cup raspberries (if in Baghdad, substitute sliced peaches or pears - though the pop of color won't be quite as nice so you'll have to squint your eyes and imagine raspberries as you eat)
1/2 cup avocado, diced into small pieces
1 cucumber, split lengthwise and sliced
Sprinkle of black pepper

Toss. Add a lime vinaigrette (1 tsp olive, avocado or macadamia nut oil whisked with a half teaspoon vinegar, squirt of lime, dash of agave and sprinkle of sea salt) if desired. Serves one.

Pomegranates Are for Lovers

Confession time. Neither Sara nor I are in Baghdad; we're both on vacation. More on my raw vacation wanderings soon. While I was in Canada, a friend of a friend lent me a book called "Rawsome!" by Brigitte Mars. All obvious (and not so obvious, but so very delicious when you discover them) jokes aside, it's a damn good read. Mars laboriously details the positive points of an exhaustive number of common foods, as well as lists essential nutrients and where to find them. I would recommend it heartily, if for nothing else than its inspirational title (I will never again be raw; I will only be Rawsome) and upbeat narrative.

My favorite bit so far is on pomegranates: "Best of all is to eat a pomegranate with your lover." I do hope one day I'll indulge my evenings in pomegranates with a lover, rather than eating them alone in bed whilst reading "Diana: A Strange Autobiography" until falling asleep with the book on my face and pomegranate juice trickling down my chin onto my hair and the sheets.

Until then, in the spirit of pomegranate excitement, here's a recipe for a pomegranate cocktail originating with Jamie Oliver and updated by Served Raw. It has a lot of possibility, the basis being muddled pom seeds and mint leaves. For the alcohol, you might use a delicious organic vodka or raw sake, or a combination of more sturdy liquors as suggested below. For a minty pom twist on a classic g+t, substitute gin for the liquor and add a squirt of lime. If this is too tart for you, add a dash of agave and don't tell anyone. For a non-alcoholic version, use fizzy soda water instead of booze.

Pomegranates Are for Lovers Cocktail
1/4 cup fresh pomegranate seeds
4 fresh mint leaves
Your choice of booze (suggested: tequilla, rum and rye)
Crushed ice

Muddle 1 T pomegranate seeds with three mint leaves and add 1/2 - 3/4 ounce liquor. Strain into a freezable container and freeze for one hour. Pour into a glass. Garnish half-way up with additional pomegranate seeds and one mint leaf. Top with crushed ice; serve. 

Bagnola

There's nothing like a delicious bowl of raw granola to start your day off right. This Bagnola (inspired by a let's-pull-everything-out-of-the-cabinets-and-see-what-happens-when-we-mix-it-together moment - you know those moments) can be eaten like trail mix or enjoyed in a fresh foamy bath of raw nut milk. The buckwheat groats are supposed to be crazy good for you, and add a cereal feel. I always get grossed out when I soak and rinse them, because the soak water is full of gooey slime, but if you go to a safe place in your head and squint your eyes really hard while rinsing, it's not too terrible. I also envision all the residual goo magically evaporating during dehydration. Don't you dare tell me that's a unicorn idea.

Bagnola

1 cup buckwheat groats, soaked 30 m, rinsed and dehydrated until dry, crispy and goo-free (for you with your fancy dehydrator, maybe 4-6 hours, for us, a loooong time in a very slow oven)

1 cup goji berries

1/2 cup mulberries

1/2 cup almonds, crushed into bits

1/2 cup shredded coconut

1/2 cup dried blueberries

1/4 cup cocoa nibs

some chopped dates, if you want to get fancy, or sweeter

The sweet chewiness of the mulberries balances out the crunchiness of the groats and muskiness of the goji berries, and the coconut and blueberries add a little more texture and flavor zing. (The cocoa nibs just add... well, cocoa. My theory is chocolate goes in/with everything.) Throw in a container and shake.

Carry on the go as a snack, or blend 1/4 cup raw almonds, cashews or pecans (soaked/rinsed/dehydrated, if you're into that) with 1 cup pure water, and douse a hearty bowl of Baghnola. I bet if you mixed in some sort of adhesive-y material, like banana, you could dehydrate and make trail mix bars... science project for the fall.

Snack on This: Curry Sesame Seeds, Garam Masala Cashews and Chili Macadamias

Flavored sesame seeds - like kale chips (which have reached rock star status in 2011) - seem to be for sale all over the place. This is because, like kale chips, they're pretty damn delicious. But, they're expensive, so I wanted to make my own. And, I happened to have on hand an obscene amount of raw sunflower seeds. Why? Half advanced planning, half crazed hoarding. Every time I'm out of Baghdad, I fill my suitcase with food. Since I'm never sure how long it will be until I can get more raw cocoa and maca powder, coconut, sunflower seeds, goji berries, mulberries, agave and crack (I mean Nama Shoyu), I tend to ... let's say stock up. Amazon selling everything in bulk doesn't help (six bags of coconut in one go? Why not?) This is how I ended up with something like twelve pounds of raw sesame seeds stuffed in a kitchen cabinet in Baghdad. One can only eat so much sesame butter (which we have to make in tiny half-way-to-butter batches in our coffee grinder due to broken food processor situation.)

Flavored seeds and nuts, as it turns out, are incredibly easy to make. All you do is toss with flavoring and a bit of agave date syrup or maple syrup, then dehydrate. We use our oven as a dehydrator (it has amazing 30 and 40 degree Celsius settings and a convection fan setting), but in a normal dehydrator I think you'd go 6-8 hours.

Riffing on the same theme, I made some garam masala cashews, which all mysteriously disappeared from my desk drawer before I had any (eh hem, Ahmed.) I've also had delicious chili macadamia nuts, which are made the same way - toss with agave date syrup or maple syrup and chili powder, then dehydrate. Invest in really raw nuts, especially cashews if you can (Navitas sells them). Because of something or other to do with how the nut is extracted from the shell using heat, apparently many raw cashews aren't actually raw, they're just not roasted post-shell cracking. Also, since 2007, apparently American raw almonds aren't really raw, but pasteurized, but they're allowed to label them as raw anyway. Check out One Lucky Duck for really-raw almonds from Spain.

The flavor difference between "raw" nuts and really raw nuts is amazing. You won't regret it.

Curry Sesame Seeds / Garam Masala Cashews / Chili Macadamias

A big bowl of raw sesame seeds / cashews / Macadamias

A few tablespoons of curry powder / garam masala / chili powder

A tablespoon or two of agave date syrup or maple syrup - enough to make them sticky and the powder latch on

Mix up well; adjust curry and agave to your taste preference. Spread on a dehydrator tray and dehydrate 6-8 hours, or until no longer wet and sticky. Don't over dry. Store in a Ziploc - will keep for several weeks. Don't leave in your desk drawer if colleagues sneak in and eat your food.

Speaking of Mango...

Since you mentioned mango, I wanted to tell you - What's that? You didn't mention mango? You said "your housing extension is confirmed?" I could have sworn you said mango.

Speaking of mango, I've been meaning to tell you about my most favorite ever in the whole wide wild world life-altering amazing salad. I started making it a few years ago in Ghana, and it has never gotten old. It's so good that I've tried to spread it around the globe like I'm paid to promote it. Like I'm the leader of a mango avocado cult and have committed myself to preaching its virtues. By day I masquerade as an office worker, but by night I change into a mango avocado superhero outfit and brandish a cutting board and knife. It's beauty is in its simplicity:

Mango Avocado Salad

1 ripe mango

1 ripe avocado

a bunch of chopped fresh cilantro

a tiny squeeze of lime, if you must

The key is the ripeness. You want a today mango and a today avocado - not tomorrow, not a few days from now. In Ghana, this is how you buy them: today? or tomorrow? They sell them at stands next to each other in beautiful piles of possibility. Perfect ripeness will make a perfect salad. Trust the ladies selling them: they know today from today. You also want them to be roughly the same size, so they're equal players in the final game. The cilantro should be fresh and fragrant.

Ghana, by the way, is a raw food paradise. The papayas are enormous. The tomatoes taste like tomatoes. The oyster mushrooms may make you blush. The streets are paved with coconuts. The pineapples taste like coconuts. The tiny bananas are little pieces of heaven. The peppers are hot and powerful. The cocoa is plentiful. The kelewele - plantain roasted with ginger - isn't raw, but when its smell lazily drifts over the dark streets at night, it will make you want to sing.

Chop the mango and avocado into equal size chunks - just enough to fit on a fork (to do this easily with the avocado, cut in half, jiggle off each side from the pit, score the chunks, then peel away the peel and let them fall into the bowl. You do sort of the same thing with the mango, only it's a bit messier.)

Sprinkle with cilantro. Toss. Eat. Begin converting others.