Tag Archives: vegan

Cafe 118 – Winter Park, Fl

12 Mar

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Next on the list of our surprisingly fabulous long weekend of vegan eats in Orlando is our dinner at Cafe 118. Once I found out that this restaurant was started up by Matthew Kenney (of Pure Food & Wine in NYC, and author several raw books) I was beyond excited. It’s located in the picturesque downtown Winter Park area right along with all the other fine dining.

We drove past a Shipyard Brew Pub on the way here, so knowing we were going to be doing some serious beer tasting after this, we kept our meals fairly light. Thomas is pretty sure he’s allergic to cashews now too, so the waitress was great about going over the menu with him.

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I ordered the Mexican Chopped Salad, that came with sweet corn, avocado, chili chips, and “queso blanco” which was absolutely fantastic. A little on the small side for a meal, but listed under salads with the smaller price tag of $13.

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Thomas had the entrée Taco Salad, only without the cashew based sour cream. This was outstanding, and was even better than my salad. The portion size here was also much better at $17. Although some of the ingredients were similar to mine, it had more veggies, raw “refried beans” and a couple of sauces drizzled over it, including a delicious mole sauce.

Impression:

This place is fantastic! Most raw organic places tend to be slow and pricey, but their service was comparatively fast, about that of a regular restaurant. For the quality of the food and location, I thought the price point was pretty fair, though clearly not in my budget for an all the time eatery. Regardless, if they weren’t closed on Sunday, I would have made it a point to come back and try more. I will definitely be back.

Cafe 118 is located at 153 E Morse Blvd, Winter Park, Fl 32789. 407-389-2233. Open Mon 11.30am-5pm (no dinner), Tue-Thur 11.30am-9pm, Fri & Sat 11.30am-10pm, closed Sun.

My Nature’s Delight Raw Vegan Cafe – Winter Haven, Fl

11 Mar

Unfortunately, both of our phones were so dead they wouldn’t even stay on at this point, so we weren’t able to snap up any pictures of food. I tried to get Thomas to draw the dishes out for you, but he had a few other things going on this week, so I will have to give you a picture free post for now.

We started our long weekend off last Friday by heading up to Winter Haven. For those of you who aren’t sure exactly where that is, it’s about an hour west of Orlando. Winter Haven is one of those towns in the central part of Florida where the South truly begins. (South Florida is New York south, as far as people go.) And along with being friendly, and having a little drawl on their words, the inhabitants of this town are typically of the meat loving, southern food eating variety. So imagine my surprise when a happycow.net search pulled up a raw vegan cafe!

I had done searches in the area before, but this had never come up, so I was excited to go check it out. (Maybe it was recently added?) When I asked Thomas if he knew the location, he said, “Oh yeah, it’s by the barbeque place.” Which was sort of funny to me, because I think there are a lot of barbeque places in this area. It was really hard to tell by their website what kind of food they offered, and when we got there, there was woman in the cafe area asking for italian ice.

My Nature’s Delight Raw Vegan cafe has a good amount of seating, and the large space is divided up into cafe/nutrition store/grocery. They had a daily special posted and a sign for italian ice, but I still wasn’t sure what kind of food we could get, because I didn’t see a kitchen, as it’s hidden behind an office door. Then the server brought us a couple of menus. The raw vegan cafe is a bit of a misnomer, as they had a good selection of both raw & regular vegan items. I ordered a raw pizza and Thomas got a veggie burger. We also ordered guacamole and chips, but sadly, their avocados weren’t ripe enough, so they let us know they couldn’t do it.

Thomas said his burger was good. It came very plainly served on sliced, multigrain bread, with lettuce, tomato, veganaise, and he thinks there may have been a pickle. Also, a good amount of round, corn tortilla chips scattered around the perimeter of the plate.

My raw pizza was awesome! It was a large square of dehydrated onion? bread, cut down the middle to make two large triangles. It had a thin layer of raw hummus, and was covered in lots and lots of finely chopped greens (which I  was craving so badly!). Anything else that was on it escapes my memory (see lack of photos) but there may have been tomatoes. It was served with a generous portion of dehydrated slices of starfruit surrounding it, that made a lovely complement to the pizza. So much so that I kept adding them to all my pizza bites. SO good. I kept talking about it all day.

After eating we did a little shopping. The grocery and freezer section is crammed full of all kinds of vegan food & treats, some of which I had never even seen before, and that my WF does not carry. I talked to the owner, and she was super nice. Apparently they’ve been in this location since 1992, and have just kept expanding over the years. If you’re in the area this is definitely THE place to check out. 

My Natures Delight is located at: 3015 Cypress Gardens Rd. Winter Haven, Florida 33884. Store: 863-324-1778, Cafe: 863-318-8778. Open Mondays – Fridays: 8 am to 8 pm, Saturdays: 8 am to 5 pm, and Sundays: 12 noon to 5 pm. 

Coconut Red Lentil & Split Pea Soup

23 Feb

I followed a link for roasted brussel sprouts the other day, and ended up finding this soup recipe on La Petite Maison Verte. As I read further, I found it amusing that the recipe had a history. She had found it on 101 Cookbooks, who was turned on to it by her neighbor, who had adapted it from a copy of the Esalon cookbook. And now I pass it onto you, as I have made it. ; ) I had about a cup of roasted onions, carrots, and steamed collards that I used instead of fresh carrots, and though I attempted toasting the curry powder, I’m not sure that it made much of a difference. It may make more of a difference if you’re actually toasting the whole spices and grinding them yourself, as they do in traditional Indian cooking, so I just left it as an option.

This one is definitely going in my permanent rotation. It made a lovely meal on one of our last “winter” cold snaps. The pictures aren’t the greatest, but it was really delicious!

Coconut Red Lentil & Split Pea Soup

1 c. green (or yellow) split peas, rinsed
1 c. red lentils, rinsed
7 c. water
1 piece of kombu

olive oil for misting
1 medium onion, sliced thinly
1 medium carrot, peeled and chopped or sliced
3 tbsp. fresh peeled and minced ginger

2 tablespoons curry powder (optional: toasted by heating over low heat in a small skillet until fragrant)

olive oil for misting
4-5 green onions, thinly chopped cross-wise
1/3 cup raisins
1/3 cup tomato paste
1 14-ounce can [light] coconut milk
1-2 tsp. sea salt  ( or low sodium soy sauce/shoyu/tamari or bragg’s, to taste )

1/2-1 c. fresh or frozen chopped greens, optional

Directions:

1. Place lentils, split peas, water and kombu in a large pot and set to boil. Meanwhile, in a medium skillet misted with olive oil, add onions and carrots and cook over low to medium heat until softened. When lentils and water boil (skim off any foam!), add onions, carrots and 2 tbsp. of the ginger. Cover and simmer 30 minutes.

2. Mist the skillet you cooked the onions and carrots in with a little more olive oil (or you can use a thin layer of water), and set to medium. Add green onions, remaining tablespoon of ginger, and raisins. Cook for 2 0r 3 minutes, stirring frequently, and add tomato paste. Cook an additional 2 or 3 minutes.

3. After soup simmers for 30 minutes, add green onion mixture, curry powder, coconut milk, salt and greens, if using. Simmer uncovered for 20 minutes. At this point you can use an immersion blender, or pour it very carefully into a blender in batches to get a wonderful, smooth consistency.

Enjoy!

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(Raw) Vegan Milkshakes

19 Feb

Today we had a classic lunch of burgers and shakes, just done a little different. The burgers were simple enough… Gardein patties on sprouted grain bread with ketchup, mustard, and pickle relish. For dessert, we had these luscious vanilla milkshakes. (I was out greens, so no green smoothies today!) The little flecks of flax seed are reminiscent of vanilla bean. You can make these raw by using raw nut milk! You can customize these however you like by adding fruit, raw cacao, peanut butter, etc. :)

(Raw) Vegan Milkshakes
2-4 servings

2 large ripe bananas, frozen
3 c. of non-dairy milk
1 tbsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. ground flax seed, optional
2 handfuls of ice cubes
pinch of cinnamon, optional
squirt of raw agave, optional

Directions:

Add all ingredients to a blender and blend until smooth. Adjust ice, milk or agave if necessary.

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Raw Taquitos / Raw Taco Meat

13 Feb

I had seen raw tacos popping up all over the place lately ( here & here ) and decided to make my own attempt at nut/seed based raw taco meat. I used collard leaves to roll them up into cute little taquitos, but you can also use romaine leaves to eat these as raw tacos.

Raw Taquitos
3-4 servings

1 bunch of collard leaves, cut down the middle, rib removed

3/4 c. raw walnuts, soaked for 2+ hours and drained
1/4 c. raw pumpkin seeds, soaked for 2+ hours and drained

2 small carrots, cut into pieces
small shallot or about 1 tbsp. of finely chopped onion
2 sun-dried tomatoes, soaked for 10 minutes and drained

1 tbsp. taco seasoning of your preference, mine is the one from VCF

1 recipe Avocado Salsa, below

Directions:

1. Pulse pumpkin seeds and walnuts in the food processor until you get small crumbles. Scrape out into medium bowl and set aside.

2. Pulse carrots, onion, and sundried tomatoes until finely chopped. And add along with taco seasonings to nut/seed mixture. Use a fork to mix until well combined.

3. Take one half of a collard leaf (inside up) and place about 2 tablespoons each of nut meat and avocado salsa, and roll tightly. (see pix below!)

Avocado Salsa

1 or 2 ripe haas avocado
2 tbsp. of lime juice
1 medium tomato, seeded and chopped finely
2-3 tbsp. of finely chopped white onion
1 minced garlic clove
1 large handful of cilantro, chopped finely
1/4 c. of fresh or frozen corn kernels*, optional
salt & pepper, to taste
cayenne pepper or 1/2 a jalapeño, chopped finely, optional

Directions:

1. Scoop out avocado into a bowl. Add lime juice. Add all other ingredients, and mash to desired consistency. Eat fresh or chill in the fridge to let flavors combine further.

*If using frozen corn kernals, just run them under some warm water in a fine mesh sieve before adding.

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Result:

These were super good and will definitely be added to the regular rotation! We eat that avocado salsa right out of the bowl with a spoon.

Raw Apple Pie #1

12 Feb

I get a little weird about how much nuts are used in raw recipes. Though I didn’t notice any weight gain from eating high raw, I was mindful of this when I selected my recipes. Then I found out about buckwheat groats. Turns out you can use them for crusts instead of nuts! For my 1st raw apple pie attempt, I didn’t exclusively use groats (just in case!), but at least they were only about a third of the bulk of the crust. I used 1 1/4 c. of groats, but 1 c. would have sufficed so that’s what I jotted down below for you. I just didn’t want to have a 1/4 c. laying around. : )

Next I will probably try some kind of raw cacao banana pie!

Raw Apple Pie #1

1 c. buckwheat groats
1/2 c. raw almonds
4 dates
2 tbsp. of raisins
1 tsp. oil, I used light olive oil
1.5 tbsp. raw agave
2 tsp. cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves
pinch of ground ginger
small pinch of salt

1 apple, cut into chunks
1 ripe banana, broken in half or quartered
2 tbsp. raisins
1 tsp. of cinnamon

1 apple, thinly sliced for topping

Directions:

1. Add buckwheat groats and almonds to a food processor and grind down to a sandy texture. Add dates, raisins, oil, agave and spices, and pulse until well combined. Press firmly into a pie plate with a rubber spatula.

2. Add apple, banana, raisins and cinnamon to processor and blend until smooth. Scrape out with spatula and spread onto crust.

3. Arrange apple slices in a pinwheel pattern to completely cover pie. Sprinkle with cinnamon and cover tightly with plastic wrap.

This slices up best when left to set in the fridge overnight!

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Sinfully Good Salad Bar

7 Feb

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Work was a little crazy this morning, so I wasn’t able to get out early enough to go home for lunch. Which also meant I wasn’t going to get to eat that raw caesar topped with leftover marinated tofu that I had been looking forward to. So I decided to hit the Whole Foods buffet instead. I got this monster of a salad which included:

Lots of kale, carrots, broccoli slaw, zucchini, red peppers, quinoa, wheat berries, lentils, sunflower seeds, buffalo tofu, lemon juice, dill & nutritional yeast.

I enjoyed this SO much, and it totally hit the spot for a mostly raw lunch, with some cooked grains/proteins. I saved most of the buffalo tofu for Thomas, because it’s his favorite, but pretty much killed this massive salad! : )

I love that Whole Foods has a buffet for when you can’t actually get to your own kitchen!  

Angelica Home Kitchen custom sammies

7 Feb

When I asked Thomas yesterday what he’d like to eat in the next few days, he asked me to make the yummy sandwiches I accidentally came up with a while back trying to recreate the Sam or I sandwich from Angelica Kitchen in New York. Instead of the kraut and seaweed that appear on said sandwich, I use oven roasted carrots and onions, and some steamed greens. For variety, any of their sandwiches can easily be made into a bowl, by serving over a grain instead of bread. All of the recipes come from their cookbook, Angelica Home Kitchen (available cheapest on their website). I was happy that at least if we were eating cooked food, we’re eating some quality macrobiotic deliciousness! Regardless, after eating some of the leftovers for lunch today, I couldn’t help but notice the difference in how I felt eating cooked food again. I missed the lighter feeling of eating raw, and am thinking lunch is probably a great time to continue to do so.

The recipe for Soba Sensation sauce makes a lot (a whole spaghetti jar’s worth) but I’m going to use the rest of it over a package of soba noodles later in the week as a bed for some [made from their cookbook] Candle 79 crusted seitan. Oh and P.S., Thomas is making seitan this week, the long way, from actual bread flour using Candle’s recipe. So wish him luck! ; )

Baked Tofu with Lemon-Rosemary Marinade, pg. 105

I made a double batch because there is a tofu eating monster that lives in my house, and also because the other recipes make so much!

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Oven-Roasted Onions and Carrots, pg. 168

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Steamed Greens, pg. 99 (Just steam them for 5 minutes. That’s it.)

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Soba Sensation Sauce, pg. 209

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That’s a tasty sandwich! Served on sprouted grain bread.

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Raw Vegan Nachos

25 Jan

So maybe seeing raw vegan nachos on Greenwave’s menu stuck with me, or maybe it’s just that I really love nachos… either way, I had raw vegan nachos on the brain. After reading a few recipes for sauces, I figured I had some pretty good ideas of my own to try, and took to the Vitamix. I think the secret to this sauce is really the smoked paprika. A nod to what makes Bang, Bang Cafe in Seattle’s vegan mac so good. I put a bit more turmeric, smoked paprika and cayenne than what’s listed below, but that’s a good place to start, and then you can customize it to your palette.

I really love the flexibility and creativity I’m feeling with raw food. It’s great to have so many fresh ingredients on hand and just use what I’m in the mood for, or what needs to be used up. For the nachos, I cut up the last three pieces of raw onion bread I picked up Saturday at Greenwave. They were starting to get crispy from sitting in the fridge, so they really worked well. For toppings I used the last of some romaine I had, a big handful of chopped cilantro, a seeded, chopped tomato, and a few sliced kalamata olives. Then I drizzled it all with this raw vegan nacho cheese sauce. I didn’t use any additional water because I liked the thick consistency, so I started with about 1.5 cups worth, and used about 1/2 cup of it. I saved the rest for another use.

This is obviously a limitless recipe of possibilities, and I must say… the sauce came out AWESOME! :)

Raw Vegan Nacho Cheese
makes 1.5-2 cups, depending on consistency

1 c. of raw cashews

1/2 yellow bell pepper
1/4 c. of water, plus more if you want it a little thinner
~1/2 tsp. olive oil
juice from 1/2 a lemon
1/2 a small shallot or a little bit of onion
~ 1/2 tsp. smoked paprika (or more)
~ 1/2 tsp. turmeric (or more)
2 pinches of salt
cayenne pepper, optional

Directions:

1. Put dry cashews in a high powered blender or food processor and chop until they’re a fine powder.

2. Add all other ingredients, and blend until smooth. Adjust seasonings and thin with additional water as desired. If using a vitamix, you can blend a bit longer to warm mixture a bit. I just held the carafe to monitor the temp.

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High Raw, Week Two: Kale Salad & Thai Wraps

22 Jan

So this week we continued on our raw journey, though it wasn’t full raw; we added in some grains. Thomas had some grits for breakfast a few days this week, and we had that brown rice. We also ate a whole loaf of sprouted grain bread, most often toasted.

After I made the brown rice to go with the beet burgers on Monday, I ate the leftovers for lunch Tuesday with some sunflower seeds, nutritional yeast, and dijon mixed in. It was tasty and filling, but it felt heavy after all my raw food eating, and all I craved for the rest of the day was a kale salad, in the worst way! So for dinner I came home and made a BIG kale salad adapted from The 30 Minute Vegan‘s Rainbow Kale Salad, pg. 138 (amongst other things, I added a pear for some sweetness),  and a whole lot of Thai Wraps adapted from RAW FOOD real world. This made so much that we were able to eat this yumminess for days (the latter is actually an appetizer recipe for 12), a major plus.

Kale Salad

1 bunch of kale, stems removed and chopped into tiny pieces
1 half green cabbage, shredded and chopped
1 grated carrot
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped finely
1/2 yellow bell pepper, chopped finely
1 green pear, finely chopped

Dressing:

1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp. evoo
1 garlic clove, grated
1 tsp. maple syrup
1 tsp. braggs
pinch of cayenne

Directions: Combine salad ingredients in a very large bowl. Whisk dressing ingredients and massage dressing into salad with clean hands. Let it sit in the fridge or out for a little while to let the flavors absorb, and the kale soften slightly.

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I made a lot of adjustments to the  Spicy Thai Vegetable Wraps, RFRW pg. 143. I cut the oil in half for the chopped raw cashew mixture, which worked just fine. I used green instead of savoy cabbage, and for the almond butter sauce, I halved the recipe, and had more than enough sauce to coat it completely. I also used a combination of lemon and lime juice, and instead of a red chile,  a little cayenne and red pepper flakes. My bean sprouts went bad, so sadly they were also left out. Also, I ran out of basil, so I just used a little more cilantro and mint. I didn’t bother at all with the tamarind dipping sauce, since they were plenty tasty on their own. So I ended up with…

Thai Wraps

1/2 c. raw cashews, chopped
1/2 tbsp. sesame oil
couple pinches of sea salt

1/2 green cabbage, shredded

2 tbsp. maple syrup
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbps. lime juice
2″ piece of ginger, chopped
pinch of cayenne
pinch of red pepper flakes
3/4 tbsp. braggs
1/2 c. almond butter

1 bunch of collard greens, stems removed and cut down the middle into two halves
2 small carrrots, cut into matchsticks
1 ripe mango, cut into thin strips
large handful of cilantro, finely chopped
large handful of mint, finely chopped

raw cashews, sesame oil, sea salt, mixed in a small bowl

maple syrup, lemon juice, chopped ginger, cayenne, crushed red pepper flakes, braggs, and almond butter blended in blender and tossed into green cabbage

ready to assemble

take the stem out of the collard leaf and use half for each wrap

fill and roll

I ended up with 10 beautiful wraps. 12 if you don't have any halves you don't like.

Results:

The leaves were really sturdy and thus, made these keep really well. So we were able to eat these delicious and fresh tasting wraps for days. The flavors complemented each other well, all the different textures were nice together, and provided a lot of crunch. Once they were all assembled, I thought they would’ve looked like pretty little Thai enchiladas if I had drizzled them with some tamarind dipping sauce, but I was already ready to be out of the kitchen and eating at that point, so I didn’t bother! ; )

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