I feel like I can't keep up with all the posts I want to write, but eventually they'll all make their way up here, if not in the ideal order. I have yet to post about my meals in NYC this past weekend, but I'm going to skip ahead to tonight's dinner, a loose reproduction of my Saturday night entree.
But first, a quick nod to juice. As you know, I love the stuff. As you probably also know by know, I am a huge fan of cocktails. I have yet to make fresh juice to mix into a cocktail, but I have started passing my juice off as a cocktail in and of itself. Here, yesterday's carrot juice cocktail -- on the rocks -- in all its glory.
In case you didn't figure it out by the title of the post, I made raw vegan lasagna for dinner tonight. When I ate it at Pure Food and Wine over the weekend, I couldn't believe how dang tasty the stuff was. With the aide of the (un)cookbook Raw Food/Real World [see bookshelf at right], courtesy of my beloved Snacks, I was eager to give it a shot. I didn't recreate the recipe faithfully (I almost never do), but I think it came out quite well. It even passed the man test. A health-conscious, veggie-loving man, but still.
For the pesto, I took about 2.5 cups of basil, maybe a 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds, one clove of garlic, a tablespoon or two of lemon juice, a drizzle of amazing olive oil, some salt, and some pepper, and put it in the cuisinart attachment of my blender. (Oh, I also hate measuring; I play to taste, not numbers. Sorry if that isn't super helpful.)
Before:
After:
The "ricotta" (I know, I know. It's not ricotta. It's not cheese. Call it something else. But for ease of explanation, we'll call it "ricotta," eh?) was about a cup and a third of soaked raw pine nuts, about a tablespoon or so of nutritional yeast, a little more lemon juice, a pinch of kosher salt, and water added slowly until it became the consistency of ricotta. This was also whipped up in the cuisinart attachment.
For the tomato sauce...I cheated. I bought a jar of Trader Joe's organic tomato sauce. It's been cooked. So sue me.
To assemble it all, I peeled the zucchini and cut into thin (1/8") strips. I topped with the "ricotta," pesto, and sliced cherry tomatoes from my sister's garden. These tomatoes made the dish. Try to tell me these don't look beyond delicious:
I just kept layering the zucchini, ricotta, pesto, and tomatoes until I liked the look of it. Best part? No waiting for it to cook. Assemble and devour. Hurrah for instant gratification.
We paired it with one of my favorite wines, a 2005 J. Lohr Cabernet Sauvignon. My friend Brooke gave me a bottle of this once, and I always think of her and her family, which only makes the wine that much more wonderful.
But first, a quick nod to juice. As you know, I love the stuff. As you probably also know by know, I am a huge fan of cocktails. I have yet to make fresh juice to mix into a cocktail, but I have started passing my juice off as a cocktail in and of itself. Here, yesterday's carrot juice cocktail -- on the rocks -- in all its glory.
In case you didn't figure it out by the title of the post, I made raw vegan lasagna for dinner tonight. When I ate it at Pure Food and Wine over the weekend, I couldn't believe how dang tasty the stuff was. With the aide of the (un)cookbook Raw Food/Real World [see bookshelf at right], courtesy of my beloved Snacks, I was eager to give it a shot. I didn't recreate the recipe faithfully (I almost never do), but I think it came out quite well. It even passed the man test. A health-conscious, veggie-loving man, but still.
For the pesto, I took about 2.5 cups of basil, maybe a 1/4 cup of sunflower seeds, one clove of garlic, a tablespoon or two of lemon juice, a drizzle of amazing olive oil, some salt, and some pepper, and put it in the cuisinart attachment of my blender. (Oh, I also hate measuring; I play to taste, not numbers. Sorry if that isn't super helpful.)
Before:
After:
The "ricotta" (I know, I know. It's not ricotta. It's not cheese. Call it something else. But for ease of explanation, we'll call it "ricotta," eh?) was about a cup and a third of soaked raw pine nuts, about a tablespoon or so of nutritional yeast, a little more lemon juice, a pinch of kosher salt, and water added slowly until it became the consistency of ricotta. This was also whipped up in the cuisinart attachment.
For the tomato sauce...I cheated. I bought a jar of Trader Joe's organic tomato sauce. It's been cooked. So sue me.
To assemble it all, I peeled the zucchini and cut into thin (1/8") strips. I topped with the "ricotta," pesto, and sliced cherry tomatoes from my sister's garden. These tomatoes made the dish. Try to tell me these don't look beyond delicious:
I just kept layering the zucchini, ricotta, pesto, and tomatoes until I liked the look of it. Best part? No waiting for it to cook. Assemble and devour. Hurrah for instant gratification.
We paired it with one of my favorite wines, a 2005 J. Lohr Cabernet Sauvignon. My friend Brooke gave me a bottle of this once, and I always think of her and her family, which only makes the wine that much more wonderful.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment