Rawvioli is so good.  There are so many ways to do it, but the basic idea is to take a veggie that can be thinly sliced (zucchini, beet, turnip, jicama) and put a dollop of "cheese" inside, making a delicious little pocket.  Basic raw cheese recipes are usually a blend of creamy nuts (macadamia, cashew or pine) with sea salt, lemon juice and sometimes herbs, nutritional yeast or probiotics*.  Add a basic marinara and you have a creamy, delicious, meal, reminiscent of the old Italian classic.  But it is also very heavy and full of nuts.  If you want to cut the nut content, you have to replace it with something...  How about asparagus, spinach and fennel?

Ingredients:
2 medium-large zucchini, sliced into paper-thin rounds with a mandolin slicer
10-12 Asparagus, trimmed and chopped
1 c. fennel bulb, chopped
1 c. packed spinach
1 large clove garlic
1/2 c. hemp seeds
1/3 c. cashews
1/3 c. purified water
1/2 t. sea salt

Directions:
Blend the cashews, water and sea salt in a high speed blender.  Add the remaining ingredients and blend until almost smooth, leaving small chunks of asparagus and spinach.  (Alternatively, blend until completely smooth for a creamier texture.)

Place a small spoonful of the asparagus mixture on one zucchini round, then cover with another piece of zucchini.  You can stop here, but if you have access to a dehydrator, try dehydrating the little rawviolis for about four hours at 104 degrees.  This will give the zucchini more of a pasta-like texture and warm the rawviolis to a nice temperature for serving, without disturbing any nutrients or enzymes.

You can make a traditional marinara, but I wanted something different, so I made a rich miso- mushroom ragout to serve with these little treats:

Ingredients:
2 c. chopped cremini mushrooms (roughly eight mushrooms)
1/4 c. evoo
1 T. chickpea miso (or substitute the miso you have/love, but start with 1/2 T as some miso is very strong)
1 T. miso tamari (or regular tamari or Nama Shoyu)
1/8 c. purified water
3 T. chopped parsley

Directions:
Blend all ingredients in a high speed blender until smooth.

To serve:  I like the idea of serving on a big white plate (as the canvas) with the gravy artfully drizzled onto the plate and the rawvioli place in over the gravy, then garnished with parsley, but you can do whatever you like.  ;)

*If you choose to add probiotics and let the cheese culture, the health benefits increase, as the "good bacteria" that is found in cultured foods is so good for the digestive and immune systems.  Just be aware that the culturing will continue until the cheese is gone!  Refrigerating will help to slow the process, but will not stop it completely.  More on cultured nut mylks, yogurts and cheeses later...

Something for the kids and the parents.  My first day cooking for a family with small children, I created this recipe, and, thankfully, the kids were really into it.  This is a great recipe for sneaking greens into little ones... and their parents.

Ingredients:
1 1/4 c. diced yellow onion (about 1/2 medium onion)
1/4 c. purified water
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1 t. coconut oil
4 c. diced tomato
2 large Lacinato kale leaves, chopped
1 1/4 c. diced cauliflower
1/2 c. plain rice mylk
1 T. fresh basil leaves, minced
1 T. nutritional yeast
1/8 t.  sea salt
1/2 t. coriander
cracked pepper to taste

Directions:
In a large pot, sweat the onions over a medium heat with the water.  Add the garlic and coconut oil and allow to caramelize to a golden brown.  Reduce the heat to medium low, add the tomatoes, cauliflower, rice mylk, basil, nutritional yeast, sea salt, coriander, and pepper.  Cook covered for 10-15 minutes, until the cauliflower is softening.  Remove the cover and increase the heat to medium, allowing the stew to thicken for 20- 25 minutes, adding the kale about 5 minutes before you remove the pot from the flame.  Serve over brown rice or quinoa.

Dinner party.  An apartment full of people, hungry and ready to have an amazing meal.  Three different types of raw-violi, each with it's own sauce.  Hors d'oeuvres, salads, dressings, lentil-yam croquettes with herbed  beet coulis and creamy drizzle...  But I'll get to those later...

I get home from the store, with my re-usable bags overflowing with watercress and cascades of kale. I wrestle my bike through the door and Mac helps me unload the bags.  And then, I realize - I forgot the pears!  I had soaked and sprouted the pecans, sun seeds and hemp seeds for the pear tartlettes.  I was all ready to make a cheesecake filling, a cacao drizzle, a berry reduction.  But without the pears, it would've been a plain old cheesecake.  Delicious, but not new, and the night was supposed to be all about new recipes.  I didn't want to go back out into the cold.  So I looked around, and...  CARROTS!  Let's make a carrot cake.  :)

Cake:

Ingredients:
1/2 c. pecans, soaked
1/2 c. sunflower seeds, soaked and sprouted
1/2 c. hemp seeds, soaked and sprouted
3 1/2 c. chopped carrots (roughly 5 carrots)
1 t. sea salt
1 t. coriander
1 t. nutmeg
1 1/2 t. cinnamon
1 1/2 - 2  g. raw stevia powder 
2 T. maple syrup
1 1/2 c. raw, dried, flaked coconut
1/2 c. dried cranberries

Directions:
Put all ingredients except for coconut and cranberries into food processor and process until it is a uniform batter.  Transfer into a bowl and add in coconut and cranberries, mixing by hand.  Spread onto a teflex sheet into a 1/2" tall loaf, then separate into little cakes using a 4" round cutter.  It should make 11 full rounds with a little left over.  Dehydrate at 104 degrees for 2 hours, flip onto screens and dehydrate for another 2-3 hours.

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1 c. cashews
1/2 c. maple syrup
1/2 c. fresh lemon juice
1/4 c. water
1/2 t. nutmeg
pinch of salt

Combine all the ingredients in a high speed blender.  (If you don't have a high speed blender, make sure that the cashews are well-soaked and try it in a regular blender.)

Assembly:
You can put a dab of frosting in the middle of a dessert plate to keep the cake from sliding around.  Put one cake over the dab of frosting, spread a nice thick layer of frosting over the cake, top with a second cake, another thick layer of frosting.  Garnish with fresh grated carrot and berries, mint leaves, whatever you have around.  I used dried mulberries, which were delicious and gave an extra little burst of superfood goodness.