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Raw Sprouted Buckwheat Granola

tumblr_mejikgAR1Y1ra92m5When fall turns to winter, we all start looking for our sugar fixes.  We seem to have a physiologic insistence for heavier, denser food, specifically in the form of carbohydrates.  For Craig and I, that urge hit on December 1st.  For the most part, we eat the Paleolithic diet, which consists of raw foods, cooked vegetables and grilled meat.  I occasionally eat quinoa but generally no grains, starches, dairy or refined sugars. The benefit of this kind of diet is my lymphoma stays in remission. I also have no ups and downs in terms of weight gain or energy level, and have zero food cravings.  Reason enough to keep me on the straight and narrow, and feel good about it.

Craig has adapted well to this way of eating although he seems to have more carbohydrate requirements than I do.  He occasionally eats some flat breads and rice, but it is fairly minimal. But when I saw him return from a food-shopping trip with packaged pancake mix, I knew it was time to build more carbohydrates into our winter diet.  Lately, I also noticed myself prowling the kitchen on the hunt for a snack at night.  My usual snack of celery and peanut butter wasn’t cutting it.

Although there are fantastic raw food desserts recipes to choose from for a high protein/low glycemic sugar fix, I tend to make raw sprouted granola as my snack of choice because it has just the right heft and crunch factor for my tastes. After pouring myself a heap of granola into a bowl, I add coconut or almond milk and call it good. Craig, well, he might not be as easily satisfied with raw sprouted granola as I am.  I can hear him now crying out in his best grumpy old man imitation, “Where’s my pie?”

Why bother with soaking and sprouting grains?   Because when grain is soaked in water, it ferments which helps to pre-digest it.  And when the grain is sprouted, its nutrient (Vit B, C and protein) content is increased, and its enzymes are intact.

Raw Sprouted Granola

2 cups sprouted buckwheat (soak buckwheat overnight, drain and let sit in a colander until a sprout forms to the length of the grain.

1 cup almonds (soak overnight) chop into chunks

1 cup sunflower seeds (soak overnight) chop into chunks

8 – 10 dates (soaked and pureed)

½ cup coconut flakes (optional)

1/3 cup coconut oil

¼ cup maple syrup (optional)

1 tsp cinnamon

½  tsp salt

Optional: You can add walnut, cashews, and pumpkin seeds.

Mix all the ingredients together.  Dehydrate at 105 degrees until crunchy (12hrs). Add dried apricot or other dried fruits if you wish.  Store in a glass Mason jar.

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Welcome Aronia

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Don, a neighbor and fellow urban gardener, dropped by the other day bearing gifts from his own garden, a pint of the most delicious honey from his beehive and an Aronia  (chokeberry) plant. Aronia seems like a fine addition to my outdoor pharmacy because it is disease and pest resistant.  And that’s exactly the quality I want in every thing I ingest because I want to be disease and pest resistant too.    I’m sad to say my white currant bush does not have this quality so Aronia will probably replace it.

Aronia is also productive. One plant can potentially produce up to forty pounds of berries.  Not just any berries, either.  Aronia Melanocarpa fruit contains more antioxidants than most other berries, more antioxidants than blueberries, cranberries, elderberries and even pomegranates. I’m not surprised that this superfruit has shown promising results in research studies on cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure and cancer because all you have to do is look at its color to know it’s good for you. In Chinese medicine, we view all the dark purple-pigmented fruit, which are high in phenolic substances, as the most potent blood builders.  Don says it’s very easy to pick the berries off the stems too so the combination of being highly productive, medicinally potent and easy to pick makes this plant very attractive to me.

I might have to convince myself that I like the taste however.  It sounds like it has a dry, sour, astringent taste so I probably won’t be gorging on them raw like I do cherries, grapes, blackberries and red raspberries.   Probably they’ll be better cooked but I’m imagining they will mix well with other fruits for juicing or desserts.  We usually freeze over twenty gallons of blackberries which we use in smoothies throughout the winter. Hopefully by this same time next year, we’ll be throwing in a handful of Aronia berries into our Vita-Mix blender too.

Aronia, I like you already.

 

Parsley Farm Berry Smoothie

(creamy and satisfying)

¾ cup frozen berries (any kind)

½ -1 frozen banana (chopped)

1 cup milk (rice, coconut or almond milk)

1/4 cup cashews

1 -3 dates

Adjust the amounts of banana and dates depending on the sweetness you prefer

 

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On Making Sauerkraut

tumblr_mdrtfiZ9EZ1ra92m5I always have containers of bubbling fermenting vegetables around so I can get my live food hit all year. In my kitchen, you’ll see glass jars of cabbage, turnips and tomatoes, crocks of cucumbers and chickpea miso, and plastic buckets with rice sake, all breaking down into highly digestible delectables. Fermentation not only is an excellent way to preserve vegetables, it also increases nutritional content, removes toxins and generates enzymes in the process.  Eating fermented food introduces lactobacillus bacteria (probiotics) into your digestive system. When it comes to health and strong immunity, lactobacillus bacteria is your best friend-the one who will watch your gut.

I love dipping into these containers for a quick snack or for an already prepared tangy side dish, which is sure to brighten every meal.

If you always wanted to know how to make sauerkraut, here are instructions from my favorite fomenter of fermentation, Sandor Ellis Katz:

http://www.wildfermentation.com/making-sauerkraut-2/

Here’s a video demonstration:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i77hU3zR-fQ

IExperiment. Befriend Bacteria. Don’t fear mold.

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Crunchi Mungchi Sprout Salad Recipe

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During the winter, I like to have light, raw foods available beyond the kale, turnips and root vegetables still in my garden. Sprouts contain vitamin A, C, B1 and B6, and are rich in minerals, protein and enzymes.  They are easy to digest, high in fiber but low in calories and cost so they are the perfect food to keep you light during the winter.

For sprouting, I use the Easy Sprout Spouters from www.sproutpeople.com because I get good crop of sprouts every time I use them; I like its design and ease for completely draining water from the sprouts.  I would recommend buying two or three Sprouters so you could be sprouting different kinds of seeds, legumes or grains at any one time.

Parsley Farm’s

Crunchi Mungchi Sprout Salad Recipe

This delicious crunchy clean tasting salad has a strong bite from the radish additions.  It will clear your nostrils and satisfy your palate at the same time. See last blog post for more on the benefits and hazards of horseradish.

4 cups sprouted mung beans (1/2 cup dried mung beans)

1 cup green cabbage (thinly sliced)

1/3 cup red onion (thinly diced)

1 small daikon radish (thinly diced)

1 green pepper (thinly diced)

1-2 tsp horseradish sauce

1/3 cup mayonnaise

water to thin sauce

½ squeezed lemon

1 tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

In a medium bowl, mix mung bean sprouts and thinly sliced cabbage, green pepper, onion and daikon radish.  In a small separate bowl mix mayonnaise, lemon, horseradish sauce, salt and pepper and enough water to make a thin consistency.  Add more horseradish sauce if you want it spicier. Mix in sauce with mung bean sprout mixture.