Watch Video: 4 min, 24 sec

In this video I’ll show you how to make a beautiful, delicious, refreshing ice cream using cashews with folded in pineapple, and shaped into a cake form. This raw food demo was recorded during my workshop at Mom Tri’s Villa Royale in Phuket, Thailand on January 24, 2010.

Pineapple Ice Box Dessert
(fills one loaf pan to make about 8 servings)

Crust

Cauliflower is one of my favorite vegetables, and it was abundant at the farmers’ market today. So, I picked up a big, beautiful head to whip up my mash for dinner. Cauliflower comes in white, green, and purple varieties, and works wonderfully processed into a mash. This is my version of mashed potatoes. Cauliflower has a kick to it, which I love. But if it’s too strong for you, try the following trick:

To soften the kick of raw cauliflower, process on it’s own first with 1 cup of filtered water. Strain through a cheese cloth or nut milk bag. Some of the pungent flavor will run off with the water. Or, you can also substitute with broccoli, which is much milder.

Serve with a gravy on it’s own, or alongside your favorite recipe(s).

Cauliflower Mash
Makes 4 servings, about 4 cups

To keep your mash lighter in color, you can use white miso paste. I used a red paste, and it was still light in color. I added a touch of olive oil, but for even more creaminess, I use avocado. Avocado creates spots of slight green, which I don’t mind, since I love the color green. Besides, the gravy will cover it up anyways.

I used to use Psyllium Seed Husk powder in this recipe, but this batch didn’t seem to need any stiffening up, so I skipped it. If your mash is too runny, add a teaspoon at at a time, up to a tablespoon, of Psyllium to thicken.

• 1 head cauliflower, broken into small pieces, about 6 c
• 1/4 cup avocado, cubed
• 2 tablespoons miso, any unpasteurized color
• 1 teaspoon garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 teaspoons thyme or sage, dry

Place all ingredients into your food processor. Process until smooth.

Mushroom Gravy
(from Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen, page 190)

A rich and creamy gravy that’s easy-to-make in your blender.

Place all ingredients into your blender. Blend smooth.

Here’s a super fast and easy recipe I made the other day when I had very little time to eat, but needed a break from my computer for a few short minutes. I didn’t feel like a green salad, and wanted something a bit more substantial.

Zucchini noodles tossed with diced tomatoes and avocado with a touch of garlic, rosemary, and oregano for an Italian flavor. This is delicious and beautiful.

Simple Rosemary Oregano Noodle Salad
Makes 1 serving

• 1 cup zucchini noodles, from about 1/2 zucchini, spiralized
• 1/2 cup diced tomato
• 1/2 cup diced avocado, peeled and seeded
• 1/4 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/8 teaspoon rosemary, dry
• 1/4 teaspoon oregano, dry
• 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice

Place all ingredients into a mixing bowl. Toss to mix.

To serve, transfer into bowl. Garnish with 1 tablespoon hemp nut.

Enjoy immediately.

Listen to my conversation with Rhio and Leigh from March 19th, 2010.

Watch video: 4 min, 41 sec

This is a video shot during my workshop at Mom Tri’s Villa Royale in January. In it, I’ll show you how easy it is to make delicious, nutritious Thai Spring Rolls with an Almond Dipping Sauce. My yummy, super healthy, raw food version of a peanut inspired sauce is made using kaffir lime leaves, chilies, and almonds. The rolls are made by filling collard leaves with julienne zucchini, mung bean sprouts, and fresh herbs like cilantro, mint, and basil.

Thai chilies are spicy hot, so you’ll want to adjust the spice level to suit your tastes. Removing the seeds will help to decrease the spice level. Capsicum is what makes chilies hot, and is the ingredient found in most diet pills for its metabolism boosting properties. Capsicum increases circulation, decreases inflammation, and boost our immune system.

Thai Spring Rolls with Almond Dipping Sauce
(makes 4 servings)

Thai Dipping Sauce

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 4 kaffir lime leaves
• 1 Tablespoon Nama Shoyu
• 2 Thai red chilies, to taste
• 1/2 cup + 2 Tablespoons  raw almonds
• 1 lemon’s juice
• 1 cup water,  as needed

Fillings

• 1 zucchini, julienne
• 1 cup mung bean sprouts
• 1/2 bunch basil, de-stem
• 1/2 bunch cilantro, de-stem
• 1/4 bunch mint, de-stem
• 1-2 Thai chili, finely chop

Wrapper

• 3 large collard green leaves, de-stem and half

To make dipping sauce, place sauce ingredients into your blender, adding water as needed. Blend smooth.

To wrap, place leaves onto flat surface. Layer with fillings, and roll.

Serve with dipping sauce.

Watch video: 8 min, 15 sec

Kate Magic was visiting from the UK last fall. In this video, you can watch our visit to Erewhon Natural Foods in the heart of Los Angeles, CA. I believe Erewhon was SoCal’s first natural food market and co-op. It’s full of the healthiest foods, cookbooks, natural eco green cleaning products, and lots more. Rooted in macrobiotics, they have a great book selection too.

Erewhon offers a huge array of raw food products in their store, it’s probably the largest raw selection in the world. The raw food goodies take up 2 full isles, end caps, plus a refrigerated section. It’s always a treat to peruse the isles to see what new raw food products have hit the marketplace.

Kate and I enjoyed a lovely day playing around West Hollywood. We started out at lunch eating delicious collard roll wraps, then stopped into Trashy Lingerie next door. Since raw foods keep me at my ideal weight, makes my skin smooth and clear, and helps me build a lean, strong body, it makes shopping for and wearing lingerie easier.

Next, we visited a thrift store, which is my favorite way to shop. It’s recycled fashion, eco, green, good for our environment, and it’s true that one person’s trash can be another person’s treasure. Finally, we then made it over to Erewhon.

Kate will be back in LA in August this year. I look forward to continuing our SoCal adventures together!

Here’s a sneak peak into one of my favorite recipes from my new book, Ani’s Raw Food Essentials (available June 1st). We shot this recipe last Thursday for TV, cable, and web.

I’ve been craving raw Tomato Chili the past few days, so I made sure to pick up some beautiful tomatoes, bell pepper, and fresh oregano at the farmers’ market. When I went to make this last night, I realized I had run out of chili powder, so I used chipotle powder instead. It turned out spicy hot. To help cool it down, I made a batch of raw Taco Nut Meat, which helped a bit, but not enough. So then I added some Cashew Sour Kream, and that helped. It was delicious, and energized me to write late into the night.

This recipes is simple and quick to make. I enjoy the mediation of chopping with my knife. But you can also just place ingredients into your food processor and let it do the chopping for you for an even shorter prep time.

Tomato Chili with Taco Nut Meat
(from pages 145-146 of Ani’s Raw Food Essentials)
Makes 4 servings

TOMATO CHILI

• 3 cup tomatoes, chop
• 1 cup red bell pepper, chop
• 1/4 cup celery, chop
• 1/4 cup yellow onion, chop
• 1/3 cup mushroom, chop
• 1/3 c corn kernels
• 1 teaspoon garlic, mince
• 1 – 2 teaspoon chili powder, to taste
• 1 teaspoon cumin, powder
• 3/4 teaspoon oregano, fresh or dry
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, to taste

Place all ingredients into a large mixing bowl, toss to mix well.

Place half of your mixture into your food processor or blender and puree. Scoop back into bowl with mixture and toss to mix well.

NUT MEAT TOPPING

• 1 cup walnuts
• 1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 tablespoon cumin, powder
• 2 teaspoons coriander, powder
• 1 teaspoon bragg’s or nama shoyu, or 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, to taste

Place all ingredients into your food processor, and process into small pieces.

To serve, scoop raw Tomato Chili into bowls. Top with Taco Nut Meat. Enjoy.

Tomato Chili will keep for 1-2 days in fridge. Taco Nut Meat will keep for a week or more.

Moby, one of my favorite musicians, was at the Skirball Cultural Center last night on tour speaking about his new book Gristle. It’s a compilation of 10 chapters on topics including health, environment, and government subsidies that make less healthy food cheaper and more accessible that healthier options. Moby’s got quite a sense of humor. He’s funny.

Moby co-edited Gristle with leading food policy activist Miyun Park, a spunky, tattooed, muscular, well spoken, Korean American beauty. Nice to see a strong Korean American woman who obviously tells it like it is, no holds bar.

Moby explained how he used to be one of those annoying, extremist vegans, and would irritate his family and friends. Today, he has compassion and understanding for people from all backgrounds and experiences. Rather than being militant about veganism, he recommended we lead by example by looking healthy and happy. I love his message, and share the same philosophy. We won’t win people over by making them feel bad, alienated, or wrong.

I was happy to be able to gift Moby with an early copy of Ani’s Raw Food Essentials, and Miyun with a copy of Ani’s Raw Food Desserts.

I met up with the lovely Frances Fisher, nominated in 1998 for her outstanding performance in the film the Titanic. Frances was sharing with me her story about her last Christmas event that was catered vegan. No one realized there was no meat served. That’s always the best way, when the food tastes so good, no one misses the meat!

I looked up Frances’ age (born 1952), and my goodness, she looks great! Obviously, her diet and lifestyle make her radiate with health and vitality.

The same crew where all there to see Moby as the past several days of vegan events: Brendan Brazier (contributor to Gristle, bravo!), Robert Cheeke, Jordan and Jolia Allen, Benny Chan, Kato Space, and many other friends. It was a great eve, and I’m realizing I need to get back to the Skirball to check out the exhibits during the day soon.

I’m excited about my newest book Ani’s Raw Food Essentials, available everywhere by May 3rd. It’s a huge hard cover book with over 250 recipes. It’s printed in 2 color, like Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen. My goal is to make my books accessible, and get these recipes into your hands so you can enjoy making healthy treats with them. By printing in 2 color instead of full color, the book only costs $27 rather than $45. There’s gorgeous color inserts, as you can see from the photos above.

JOIN ME:
UPDATED confirmed book tour dates for California:

• May 7, Friday, 7 pm - Book Soup in Hollywood, CA.
  Talk and book signing.
• May 8, Saturday, 12 to 1 pm - Erewhon Natural Foods in Los Angeles, CA.
  Demo and book signing
• May 15, Saturday, 1 to 2 pm, AuLac in Fountain Valley, CA.
  Talk and book signing.
• June 5, Saturday, 11:45 am - San Francisco Ferry Building Farmers’ Market, SF, CA. Demo and book signing.
• June 6, Sunday, 1 pm potluck followed by Ani’s 1 hr demo @ around 2 to 3pm - “San Francisco Raw and Living Foods” and “San Francisco Vegetarian Society”, Mission Community Room, 630 Valencia Street @ corner of 17th  Street, San Francisco. Talk and book signing.
• June 7, Monday - The View from the Bay, SF, CA. TV appearance. Join mein the studio audience by reserving a free seat. Call 415-954-7733 or rsvp online (note under ‘comments’ my name and June 7th).
• June 25th, Friday - YogaWorks, Larchmont, Los Angeles, CA. A community event, book signing, talk, book give aways, and raw tastes sponsored by LifeFood Organic. Attendees will receive a gift of 1 free week of yoga. 5.45pm to 8.30pm.

Keep posted on my events by joining my fan page on Facebook.

Ani's Miso Soup featured on the cover of Vitamix's Create Cookbook, Professional Series

My raw food Miso Soup recipe is featured on the cover for the new Vitamix Create Cookbook. It’s included inside the box with every professional series Vitamix blender.

Ani's raw food recipes in the Vitamix Create Cookbook, Professional Series