Date Squares

Raw Vegan Date Squares

Ingredients:

2 cups cashews/ almonds/ walnuts
1 cup raw oats
1 tsp cinnamon powder
35 large pitted dates
Juice and zest (grated peel) of 1 large orange

Method:

CRUST - In a food processor, grind the nuts and oats into powder.  Add cinnamon and pulse again. Add 20 dates and pulse again till the mixture starts clumping together.

FILLING - In a food processor, blend the 15 remaining dates alongwith orange juice and zest until smooth.

ASSEMBLY - Press 2/3 of the crust mixture into a pan lined with wax paper or foil.  Press down with your hands hard to make the base firm.  Spread the filling mixture in a thin layer on top of this.  Then loosely sprinkle the remaining crust on top of the filling.

Optional - Spread some dried grated coconut on top.

Raw Lauki soup

Try this nutritious live soup. You will love it.

Ingredients

·      2 cups chopped lauki - (unpeeled of course!)

·      3 cloves garlic

·      handful of celery leaves or fresh dhaniya

·      4 pitted dates

·      4 tbsp fresh grated coconut

·      salt to taste

Method

Put all the ingredients in the blender. Add water as needed and serve cold.

Steamed Beans with Gun Powder

Chop and steam a bowl of green beans till they are soft enough to eat but still crunchy.  Toss them in 1 tbsp of gunpowder, 1 tsp of flax seed powder and add salt to taste.

Variation: Add some crushed peanuts or toasted sesame seeds and lemon juice.

It's that simple! :)

Green Smoothies

Ingredients: 40% greens - spinach, coriander, mint, etc. 60% fruit - bananas, papaya, mango, chickoos etc.

Method
Put all the ingredients in the blender and mix till very smooth. Serve immediately.
Variation : Add a squeeze of lemon juice.

Awesome Broccoli Snack/ Salad

Ingredients: For the dressing - 1 tbsp cashew butter (FabIndia) or homemade peanut butter or seasame butter/ tahini, juice of 1-2 lemons, 1 tbsp powdered flax seeds, 1 tbsp jaggery or date syrup, salt and herbs to taste.  2 cups broken broccoli florets,

Method - Break the broccoli into small florets and chop the stalk into bite size pieces.  Steam lightly till crunchy but not too hard/ soft.  Takes 1-2 mins in a steamer.  Mix all the dressing ingedients in a food processor or whisk with fork and pour 1/4 or 1/2 the dressing as per your taste.

Cashew butter is heavy so go easy but much better than oily dressings and so creamy.  Enjoy!

Chocolate Banana Whip

Ingredients: 3 cut up and semi-frozen bananas.  Freeze for about 3-4 hours.  1 tsp cocoa powder, pitted dates, date syrup or honey, 1/2 lemon juice.  Variations - Cinnamon powder, vanilla essence powder.  Sometimes, I add a tbsp of cereal to get a crunchy feel and leave out the cocoa.  You can also add a handful of chopped nuts and some raisins.

Method: Whip banana and other ingredients in blender.

Something magical happens and it looks and tastes quite close to cream/ ice-cream.  You could eat it just as it is or garnish with chocolate sauce and nuts for kids or the kid in you!

Rice Puff Bhel

Ingredients: 1 cup rice puffs, 1/2 cucumber, 1 tomato and 1/2 onion chopped into small pieces, some coriander and green chilly for garnishing.  Tamarind chutney or homemade saunth, 1/4 cup peanuts.

Variations- For the crunch factor you could add a tbsp of seviyan or other crunchy namkeen, or some roasted chanas insteady of peanuts, you could also add 1 small boiled potato or some steamed corn.  You can also mix in some green chutney or simply lemon juice and some gur syrup.

Method:  Mix everything in a bowl and enjoy!

I love this recipe when I am craving something chatpata and don't want to have dahi as that is heavy.  So quick and easy to make with so many variations possible.