This is one of those recipes where you just raid your fridge and make something. And, in this case, it turned out pretty well. Now, if you don’t have papaya, you can sub mango, but keep in mind that it’ll completely change the character of the sauce, both in texture and flavor.

Serves one

3-4 ears of corn, kernels separated

A handful of broccoli florets

1/2 of a cucumber, diced 

A couple mushrooms, diced (optional)

4-5 medium tomatoes

1/2 of a papaya

Arugula to taste

Combine the first four ingredients in a bowl. Blend the tomatoes and papaya, adding in the arugula slowly. Check every so often to see if it’s too arugula-y for you. When it’s perfect, put that into the bowl and mix well.

Pretty simple, no?

So, I know it’s been a long time since my last post. Almost a month, in fact. Not that it’s any excuse, but things have been…well, a little crazy lately. Last week I relocated, as I do every three months, from the jungles of Hawaii to the suburbs of Pittsburgh. Now that I’m somewhat settled (and the internet’s reliable), I should be able to post more regularly.

So, without further ado, here’s a little something my dad cooked (or uncooked, heh heh) up using the ingredients we had on hand. And wowza, is it good! Pretty high in fat, though, so don’t go eating ten bowlfuls a day. But you can lower the fat by using jelly coconut meat as opposed to hard, thick meat - or even leave that part out, if you feel like it. It’ll be more watery, but hey, you can have a lot more of it. I don’t know, you can figure it out. There are options.

I put in cucumber because it was what I had at the time (the picture below was taken of a slightly different version of this soup, and doesn’t include the broccoli…definitely use the broccoli). You can put it in, but you don’t have to. It changes the overall feeling of the dish, and you can decide for yourself whether you like that or not.

Serves two for lunch or an appetizer

6 cups of coconut milk*

1 broccoli head

2 large handfuls of cilantro

9-12” of lemongrass

1 key lime OR 1/2 a lemon

1 jelly coconut OR kelp noodles

1 cucumber (optional)

*Coconut milk is made by blending hard coconut meat with coconut water - or regular water, if you don’t have it - and straining out the pulp. You can play with the quantities until you get the consistency the way you want it, but do keep in mind that the more coconut you add, the fattier it gets.

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Cut the stem of the broccoli head into chunks. Put the coconut milk, broccoli stem, and lemongrass into the blender and blend well. Strain that. Put the strained broth back into the blender and add 3/4 of the total cilantro and the lime or lemon juice and blend again. Pour into a pretty bowl. Cut the broccoli top into bite-sized florets, dice the cucumber (if using) and fashion the jelly coconut into noodle-like strips. If you don’t have a jelly coconut, you can use kelp noodles instead. Mix into the broth, and top with the remaining cilantro. Try not to scarf it down in two seconds.

Black sapotes are a close relative of the persimmon. They’re picked hard and are ripe and ready, like persimmons, when they’re very soft. Only use them when they’re super soft! They grow where persimmons do, so you can probably find them fresh in Florida or California, or you can buy them online here when they’re in season.

I would have let you guys see it, except it was gone about two minutes after I pulled it out of the freezer. It. Was. So. Freaking. Good. And the only fat was a little bit of coconut in the crust! So it’s a guilt-free dessert that definitely doesn’t taste guilt-free. What are you waiting for?!

Serves…well, one person, but in reality, however many people you end up sharing with

2 black (chocolate) sapotes

1.5-1.75 pounds of bananas

Young coconut water, as needed

The equivalent of about 1/2 a vanilla bean

.5-.75 pounds of dates

1/2 of a hard coconut (or about 3/4 cup of shredded coconut)

(Note: Find the dish you want to use. Plan all your amounts accordingly.)

Blend the dates and coconut on a low speed until a doughy consistency. Press into a dish and put in the freezer.

Scoop the black sapotes into the blender first, and start to blend on a low-medium setting. Add in the bananas as you blend, making sure not to change the color. Add in coconut water if needed to blend, but you want the mixture to be pretty thick. When you’ve got the right amount and texture, add in the vanilla and blend thoroughly.

When the crust is frozen, pour in the filling and put back in the freezer. It took overnight to completely freeze ours.

Serve frozen and eat quickly! (It melts into goop if you let it sit too long, but that’s alright too - all tastes the same!)

veganinsuburbia:

Seriously, if you haven’t tried doing this before - do it. I get more excited about eating this than I have done any other dessert. Well, other than apple crumble :D

You can mix in berries or mango, or make a date sauce, or put it in a pie…the possibilities are endless!

The other day I wanted mushrooms.

To normal people, this might not sound like a strange occurrence. But my personal mushroom experiences have been…less than perfect. Recently I had some freshly dried mushrooms - courtesy of one of the other families in the community - that were beyond fantastic, and the dried shiitakes in my Thom-Yum inspired soup hit the right spot. Other than that, though, my basic experience has been in front of a toilet bowl at two in the morning. So I was surprised.

Anyway, we finally got mushrooms yesterday, and I was so excited to try them today. I expected alarm bells to go off, to have the Hallelujah chorus blaring in the background…and yet it wasn’t so. I found that, in practice, my ongoing relationship with fresh mushrooms hadn’t changed. It was anticlimactic, to say the least. I ate them, but without much joy.

So is there a point to this story? I suppose so, if only to tell you that cravings shouldn’t always be trusted. If you abstain and find a different way to meet your needs, you just might end up happier.

On a related note, I made a delicious soup. I know what you’re thinking: “Yeah, yeah, what else is new, Sydney?” Seriously, though. It was amazing. It’s been rainy here in Hawaii all day and I wanted something warming and exotic. Normally, in this situation, I would do a coconut-based soup or sauce, but I’ve been off overt fats for a week or two. So I had to figure out a no-fat way to satisfy that. Suffice it to say that it worked out. Well.

Serves one, as a side or a light lunch

4-5 small-medium tomatoes

Half of a small papaya (or a quarter of a typical Maridol)

A little bit of coconut water (or regular water, if you don’t have any)

1t curry powder

1-2t coriander seeds, ground or whole

Chinese cabbage

A few of your favorite mushrooms, dried or fresh

Cilantro

Garlic chives

Blend the tomatoes, papaya, curry, and coriander, but leave half of one of the tomatoes to add into the base. Check the consistency; if it needs to be thinned out, add coconut water in small increments. Cut the tomato, Chinese cabbage (straight across; then you get the aeshetically pleasing long, thin strips) and mushrooms (if using fresh ones), and mix into the base. Add the cilantro and garlic chives on top for garnish.

This calls for surinam cherries and mulberries, which we have on the property, but I realize that not everyone has access to them. So, although the surinam cherries really make the dish, you can substitute any blend of berries or acidic fruits. Be creative! Let me know how your different concoctions turn out!

Serves about three saucy people

Coconut Crepe:

3-4 coconuts’ worth of young meat

Coconut water, as desired

Berry Sauce:

1 mango

A cup or so of your favorite berries

Blend the coconut meat, slowly adding in the water until you get a nice consistency (not too watery, but thick enough that you get a nice, thickish layer when spreading). Pour the mixture onto dehydrator sheets, making sure to not spread it too thin. Keep in mind that it is going to dehydrate; we want these to be paper-thin when they’re done. Dehydrate at 110 degrees (or thereabouts; you can adjust the time if you’d like to keep it at a lower temperature) until dry, probably about six or seven hours.

Blend the sauce ingredients, but save a small portion of the mango and a few berries to mix into the sauce.

If your crepe turned out right, you should be able to scrape it off the sheet in one piece. Mine didn’t do that, so I decided to fold it on the bottom, like a cake layer. But if you did it right, you should be able to assemble it like a crepe or a samosa-type fold. Use any remaining sauce to drizzle prettily over the top. Garnish with mangoes and berries, if you’re like me, or mint if you’re a better dehydrator-er.

I hate almond butter. I don’t like nuts in general, as they tend to close my throat up and feel too heavy to me. That being said, this is fricking delicious. It’s sweet, yet savory. Exotic. And so good I literally licked the plate when I was done.

Serves two - three

3/4 cup of almond butter

1/2 cup of coconut water

1/2 lemon, juiced

1t-1T ginger

1 clove of garlic OR 5-6 garlic chives

Your favorite kind of raw noodles

Some chopped veggies (green beans, tomatoes, peppers, peas, etc.)

Blend everything together and pour over noodles and chopped veggies. Pretty easy. I used carrot and yellow squash noodles, since we didn’t have any zucchini or cucumbers left, and it turned out fantastic. Kelp noodles would also be good, as they’d soak up the flavor of the sauce.

I mentioned some seaweed soak water that works in this - add two or three tablespoons - in place of nama shoyu (what most raw Pad Thai recipes call for) but it’s not necessary.

You can adjust the coconut water based on how thick you want it to be. As it is, it worked well to coat everything, but was a bit thin. That’s fine by me, since it’s so fatty, but others might prefer it thicker.

So, I’m back in Hawaii. There’s not a lot in season at the moment, but we have craploads of lemongrass, so this awesome soup came into being. It tastes so complex and…well, not raw. And it has no fat. Bring it on, I say!

Serves two as a starter

4 cups of coconut water

1-2T lemongrass shoots

1/4 cup of your favorite seaweed

4-5 Keffir lime leaves (or a bit of lime juice)

1t-1T ginger (optional)

1/2 lemon, juiced

2T cilantro

Two or three cups of your favorite chopped veggies

Put the seaweed in half a cup of water and soak for about fifteen to twenty minutes. Then, blend a cup of coconut water with the lemongrass, lime leaves, ginger, and lemon juice. Strain that mixture and blend with the remaining coconut water and cilantro. Mix in the veggies, and you’re done!

For the veggies, I used shredded carrot, Chinese cabbage, diced zucchini, Bell pepper, and some mushrooms, but you can use whatever turns you on. The broth is the important part.

This recipe was borne out of part of an apple pie recipe I made recently. It is so good and so like conventional applesauce it’s crazy. And it’s just two (or three) ingredients!

Makes a sizable portion for one

4 apples, chopped into large-ish pieces

10-15 dates

Cinnamon to taste (optional)

Blend until applesauce-y consistency. Seriously, it’s that easy.

Makes a light lunch for one

2 small-medium tomatoes

1/2 mango

small handful of raisins (optional)

1 zucchini

Blend the first three ingredients. Make the zucchini into noodles, using a spiralizer or potato peeler. A peeler will make fettuccine-like noodles, whereas a spiralizer will make spaghetti.

The raisins are optional. They make the sauce thicker and sweeter, which may or may not be a good thing, depending on what you’re going for. It’s good either way.

Seriously. This is delicious. Just make sure you get good tomatoes and fresh corn; that’ll make it or break it.

Serves 1 - makes about four tacos

1 small avocado

1 medium tomato

chunk of bell pepper (maybe about 3” by 4”)

2 green onions

1 ear’s worth of corn kernels

half of a lime, juiced

1.5t cumin (optional)

dash of black pepper (optional)

Mash the avocado. Mix in the cumin, black pepper, and lime juice. Chop the tomato, pepper, and onion. Add those and the corn to the avocado. Mix well.

You can use it in lettuce leaves, for tacos:

Or just eat it plain:

Either way, it’s really freaking good.