Experience Nutrition

Tag: raw recipes

  • Experience Nutrition:  Zucchini Lasagna Two Ways: Raw & Baked. The Farm at South Mountain CSA Recipe

    Experience Nutrition:  Zucchini Lasagna Two Ways: Raw & Baked. The Farm at South Mountain CSA Recipe

    Honored and happy to create the Recipe #51 for the CSA at The Farm at South Mountain, right here in my neighborhood. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to create new recipes for the CSA members, with ideas on how to prepare the veggies, fruit, and herbs in their weekly CSA.

    During our Coronavirus Stay-at-Home, with everyone cooking more at home, I am happy that our farmers are still working so hard to bring great food to our community. I’m also grateful that our Arizona farmers’ markets are still operating as “essential grocery stores.”

    Yesterday (Friday) afternoon, when I picked up this week’s CSA at The Farm, it was 99 degrees in Phoenix, and my AC was not working, so I decided to create a Raw Dish with the CSA veggies. Although, not at all planned, I then wanted to experiment with a cooked dish with those veggies as a base.

    I hope you enjoy creating a simple Raw or Cooked Zucchini Lasagna, along with a Raw Hempseed Cream.

    Enjoy the video for a glimpse of The Farm at South Mountain, where we are transitioning into our Summer growing season, along with the Raw and Baked Lasagna recipes.

    Spring CSA Week 7: 4.25.20

     For the CSA members, items in the CSA include:

    • Roots: Beets, Carrots, Purple Daikon Radishes
    • Greens; Glacier Lettuce, Salad Greens
    • Veggies: Zucchini
    • Citrus: Grapefruit
    • Herbs: Basil & Dill
    • Aromatics: Green Onions
    • The Farm Eggs
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    The Farm at South Mountain. Soil & Seed Garden. CSA 4.25.20

    Raw Zucchini Lasagna

    This week’s recipe was inspired by our warm Arizona weekend and the Soil & Seed Garden zucchini. The Raw Lasagna recipe features the end-of-season purple daikon radish and carrots. Enjoy with a Grapefruit Hempseed Herbal Cream.

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    Lasagna & Hempseed Cream Ingredients

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    Ingredients: Zucchini Lasagna. Hempseed Grapefruit Herb Cream.

    Lasagna Veggies

    Prep the zucchini, carrot, and daikon radish, and enjoy Raw Lasagna with Grapefruit Hempseed Cream.

    Serves 2

    SIMPLE INGREDIENTS

    • ¼ zucchini
    • 1 carrot
    • 1 daikon radish
    • 2 tbsp olive oil
    • Pinch sea salt

    SIMPLE STEPS

    • Thinly slice veggies with a mandoline or veggie peeler.
    • Place veggies, not touching, on parchment paper.
    • Drizzle veggies with olive oil and sea salt.
    • Let the veggies sit for 10-15 minutes.
    • Save the veggies to create the veggie lasagna.

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    Hempseed Grapefruit Herb Cream

    This raw hempseed cream was inspired by The Farm’s grapefruit and fresh dill, lemon basil, and green onions. This Hempseed Cream can be made very quickly since we do not need to pre-soak hempseeds, and you can add flavor with whatever herbs you have in your kitchen or garden right now.

    SIMPLE INGREDIENTS

    • ½ cup hempseeds
    • ¼ cup grapefruit juice
    • 1 TBSP grapefruit zest
    • ¼ cup olive oil
    • 3-4 stems of dill, lemon basil
    • 2-3 onion green onions
    • Pinch sea salt
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    Mise en Place: Hempseed Cream

    SIMPLE STEPS

    • Place all ingredients into food processor.
    • Process until smooth.
    • Add water, as needed, for creamier sauce.
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    Raw Hempseed Grapefruit Herb Cream

    SIMPLE PLATING

    • Layer the zucchini, carrot, daikon radish and the cream.
    • Garnish with Glacier Lettuce and fresh dill and lemon basil.

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    BONUS RECIPE: Baked Zucchini Lasagna

    Since I ended up with extra ingredients from the Raw Lasagna, I decided to cook a really quick and easy baked version of the lasagna. Hope you enjoy this version, as well.

    SIMPLE EXTRA INGREDIENTS

    • All ingredients from the Raw Zucchini Lasagna
    • 1 tomato, sliced
    • 2 small sweet peppers, sliced

    SIMPLE STEPS

    • Pre-heat oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
    • Layer all ingredients into a baking pan.
    • Cook for 20-30 minutes.
    • Enjoy!

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    Stay in touch with us on www.facebook.com/ExperienceNutritionAZ and Instagram @experiencenturitionaz and tag us #experiencenutritionaz on your Raw and Cooked Zucchini Lasagna dishes and other plant-based culinary creations.

    By Melanie Albert, Plant-Based Cooking Leader, Founder & CEO, Experience Nutrition in Phoenix, Arizona. Award-winning cookbook author, speaker, corporate wellness, team building, retreat leader, and caterer.

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    Self Care: Sunflower!

  • A New View of Healthy Eating: Vegan Pesto Recipe for Spiralized Organic Veggies

    By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC

    This past Saturday at the Downtown Phoenix Public Market, I had the opportunity to lead a fun, hands-on cooking class, SHOP+CHOP+COOK.  During this class, I guided the participants to create their own veggie pasta. Often we think about making veggie pasta with zucchini, but during this class, we also spiralized a local organic butternut squash and a few sweet potatoes. 

    We also created a delicious vegan, dairy-free pesto with pre-soaked raw cashews, fresh organic basil from Maya’s Farm, a little lemon, garlic, extra virgin olive oil, and sea salt. This dish was so incredible that a local farmer friend of mine with “The Community Exchange” Table stopped by and enjoyed the left-overs.

    The key takeaways from this class were that we can make a pesto without cheese and we and eat some veggies raw that we would generally think we’d need to cook.

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    EXCERPT from A New View of Healthy Eating

    Spiral Veggies with Nut-Based Creamy Dressing

    Learn how to spiral colorful veggies and create a simple dressing with raw cashews and basil.

    Basic Salad Dressing: Raw Cashews & Basil Pesto

    A vegan, dairy-free, creamy dressing is the base for this colorful raw spiral veggie salad. With fresh basil and lots of garlic, this refreshing dressing is a perfect alternative to a cheese-based pesto.

    SIMPLE INGREDIENTS

    • ½ cup raw cashews, soaked 3-4 hours in water
    • ½ cup fresh basil leaves
    • 1 fluid ounce fresh-squeezed lemon juice
    • 2-3 garlic cloves, minced
    • 2 tbsp fresh-squeezed lemon juice
    • 1 tsp sea salt
    • ¼ cup organic extra virgin olive oil

    SIMPLE STEPS

    • Place all ingredients except organic extra virgin olive oil into food processor.
    • Add olive oil little by little until smooth.
    • Taste and add extra garlic, lemon juice, or basil leaves to create a taste that’s right for you.

    Cashews are an excellent substitution for cheese in raw vegan dishes, as they are creamy and smooth in sauces and dressings.

    A raw spiral veggie salad is a perfect way to introduce raw food to everyone, from young kids to adults. It’s simple, delicious, and fun to prepare.

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    Spiral Veggies

    SIMPLE INGREDIENTS

    • 1 large zucchini
    • 1 butternut squash, solid end, peeled
    • 1 sweet potato
    • 1 red beet
    • 1 golden beet

    SIMPLE STEPS

    • Spiralize veggies into long, pasta-like shapes using a spiral vegetable slicer with a small blade. Be sure to spiralize the red beets last and separate them from the other vegetables to limit bleeding.
    • After spiralizing each vegetable, slice to make the pieces shorter.
    • Allow the vegetables to sit at room temperature to dry.
    • Toss all spiralized vegetables together.
    • Add pesto to the vegetables and toss.
    • Serve and enjoy this fresh raw salad.

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    Spiralizing veggies is very mindful and meditative. I love creating the long, beautiful spirals with a rainbow of different colored vegetables.

    Have fun experimenting with spiralizing different types of organic veggies and creating a vegan pesto. Share your dishes with us on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/NewViewHealthyEating

    I’d like to take a  moment to thank everyone who has already purchased my new book, A New View of Healthy Eating. It was a joy to share the book publically for the first time at the Downtown Phoenix Farmers Market this weekend.

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