Asparagus-Fennel Rawvioli with Miso-Mushroom Ragout

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...