Cool Coconut Soup and Sun Breads

Super Simple Super Soup!

(Serve with Sun Bread or Un-cookies)

In raw-foodie world, anything you can obliterate to a liquid is considered a "soup." I have many "soup" recipes up my sleeve. This is the all-time favorite. Beautiful first course; elegantly refreshing any time of year; and a crowd pleaser that takes seconds to make! It is fresh and delicious without any seasoning at all, or you can make it into a raw version of an Indian curried soup. (The golden-beat version definitely shines better with the spices.) All ingredients are organic.

Inspired by Heidie Van Pelt's recipe for Sunny Coconut Chi, this soup is slightly sweet with subtle exotic seasonings

You will need a Vitamix or other high-speed blender.

Ingredients:

1 Fresh fennel bulb and tops

16 ounces of frozen coconut mylk* (or more, if you have a crowd)

2 TBS raw honey

A pinch of sea salt

1/2-inch piece of peeled fresh ginger (optional)

1 cup of clean-source water

Stop there or make an Indian curried soup by adding exotic blend of any or all of fresh ground seeds listed below (I recommend keeping it light!)

Fresh Grind the following seeds in a spice grinder or clean coffee mill with 1/4 tsp of course ground sea salt. It helps powder the seeds:

• A pinch of Cumin
• A pinch of Cardamon
• A pinch of Clove
• A pinch of Star Annis

Instructions:

Wash fennel. Place all ingredients in Vitamix, blend on high until smooth. Adjust for seasoning. Pour into glasses or bowls and serve immediately. (Reserve left-overs, add extra honey, process again and place in the freezer and serve as sorbet later.)

*You can open two 8 oz cans of organic coconut mylk and pour the contents into a plastic zip-lock, then, freeze overnight. Or you can purchase frozen coconut mylk in 1 pound bags from most Asian and Indian grocery stores.

Variation: Super Sunny Super Soup!

Substitute golden beats and the beat stems, leaves removed, for the fennel. Add a pinch of cayenne with the spice blend listed above. (Inspired by beautiful organic golden beats brought to a "stump the chef" session by Cynthia Wilson of Topeka, a fine foods aficionado who also inspired my Chocolaty Cheeze Cake recipe with her lovely mouse!)

Sun Breads with Honey "Butter"

You will need a food processor and a dehydrator, or 8 hours of direct sunlight and a bug screen.

You've had sprouted grain breads. However, in the raw food world, breads made with grains and their gluttons are a drag on the system. What to do instead! Make sprouted SEED breads! Seeds are not mucus-forming. the breads are dense, like cookies, but they are glutton-free raw bread substitutes. I make them sweet, sour-dough, savory and plain. We love them all!

Inspired by Katrina Blair's recipe for Savory Pumpkin Seed Bread (made with oats), these palm-sized, grab-and-go snacks have become a staple recipe for people on the go and a great accompaniment to any meal. Saundra Debella offers to crawl across cut glass for my Chocolate Almond Bagels! (recipe listed as "variation" below)

Basic ingredients:

• 2 cups of sprouted buckwheat grouts
• 2 cups of sprouted pumpkin seeds
• 1/2 a large onion or 1/2 a small zucchini or 1/2 cup of pumpkin flesh
• a pinch of sea salt
• clean source water (for "soda bread" use bottled naturally sparkling water. It also makes it fluffier)
• 1 TBS of sunflower oil (optional)

Flavors of choice:

• garlic and fresh herbs
• honey, cinnamon and shredded carrots or apples
• honey mustard curry
• carob maple ginger
• date, raisin, yucan syrup
• raw cacao maple walnut

Experiment! It's fun.

Instructions:

Wash and drain sprouted seeds and grouts 2 times daily until ready to use.

If using garlic or whole ginger, add to the food processor first with salt and other seasonings. Add the wet seeds and grouts process until smooth, adding a bit of water at a time to form a dough. Use wet hand to form small loaves or use a large spoon to dolop a cookie-sized blobs onto tefex sheets. Dehydrate at 105 degrees, flipping once. Store refrigerated. Re-warm at 115 degrees prior to serving.

Variations:

For Chocolate Almond Bagels, use the basic recipe with the pumpkin or zucchini flesh, add 3/4 cup ground almond pulp, 1 tsp of almond extract, seeds scraped from a vanilla bean pod, 1/2 cup of soaked flame raisins, 2 to 3 soaked dates and enough raw cacao to turn the mix black-brown. Sweeten with raw honey AND maple syrup to your liking. Stir in whole sprouted almonds, skins removed. Spoon onto teflex sheets, form bagel shapes with wet hands. To really spoil yourself, serve with Almond butter or Peanut-butter frosting! (Nut butter mixed with equal parts basic honey butter) YUM! Have a warm tea near by.

For Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, use the basic recipe with the pumpkin or zucchini flesh, add 3/4 cup ground raw rolled oats, 1/2 cup of soaked flame raisins, 2 to 3 soaked dates, tsp of almond extract, seeds scraped from a vanilla bean pod, nutmeg and cinnamon to taste. Stir in whole home-made chocolate chips. (Melt cocoa butter in a double boiler, stir in raw cacao or carob powder and grade B maple syrup, with a pinch of live sea salt. Pour onto parchment paper, chill, break into chips.) This recipe can be dehydrated, or chilled!

Tip: Put "toppings" on the bottom by placing a small amount of pumpkin seeds, almonds or other toppings of choice on the teflex sheet first, then plopping a serving of the dough on top. It makes it easier to flip the breads over later. Flipping the breads allows for a more even "crust." Some breads are wonderful with a gooey center (especially the sweet ones). But, you defiantly want to flip them to avoid a soggy bottom!

Honey "Butter"

You will need a food processor or Cuisinart Smart Stick hand-blender. Make at least 3 hours in advance to allow time to set into a spread.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup raw honey (room temp)
• 1 cup of raw sunflower oil
• 1/2 tsp fine ground living sea salt
• a pinch of turmeric (optional)
• herbs of choice or ground cinnamon (optional)

Instructions

Blend ingredients until smooth transfer to a small stainless steel or glass container. Place in the refrigerator to set.

How can all that coconut oil be healthy?

Here is an excerpt from Jim Fly's newsletter that answers many questions about coconuts:

Our emphasis this week is on coconut products, which have proliferated in recent years as more and more research validates the healthfulness and unique properties of this tropical tree fruit.

I recall going to a seminar in Las Vegas several years ago given by Dr. Bruce Fife, N.D., the individual who has written the most about the often-misaligned coconut--(it's high in saturated fat, for example).

At that time, coconut oil and various other products were just being introduced to the health food industry. Previous to this, coconut, due to its high content of saturated fat, was being partially blamed for the high rate of heart disease. Remember the movie popcorn scare? But, as Dr. Fife pointed out it was precisely partially or fully hydrogentated coconut oil that was the real culprit, just as other healthy oils become dangerous when subjected to the hydrogenation process, which produces transfats, or plastic fats, that oxidize LDL cholesterol and set the stage for hardening of the arteries...

South Sea Islanders and other people living in the tropics, when eating a traditional diet that relies heavily on coconuts, have one of the lowest rates of heart disease in the world. And, here's why, according to Dr. Fife:

Coconut's saturated fat is a unique type of fat composed of Medium Chain Triglycerides, which the body mainly burns as fuel instead of storing as fat! Coconut also contains lauric acid which the human body turns into monolaurin, an antiviral, antifungal and antibacterial substance. Another MCT in coconut is capric acid, which converts into monocaprin, another antiviral. So, the theory goes, Coconut can possibly function as a metabolizer and immune system booster. At any rate, it is not the skull-and-crossbones fat of culinary paranoia. Oh, and by the way, pure coconut and coconut oil is one of the most hypoallergenic foods there is--most people with food allergies do not react negatively to coconut.

Live Vibe: Blended Soups!

This simple elegant "soup" may become your favorite way to celebrate fennel!

Cool Fennel, Honey, Coconut Soup with Fennel Sun-Breads

Do not try this with a normal blender. You will need a high-powered Vitamix or other work-horse industrial machine of choice.

In addition to romantic, beautiful and unique, this simple elegant soup is great medicine! Anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial and isotonic, it is a great choice for combating flu symptoms or recovery from surgery or injury resulting in bruising or inflammation.

Start with frozen coconut mylk (The frostier the coconut mylk, the more refreshing the soup becomes. I like it sorbet-like-consistency so I can eat it with a spoon! Jamie likes his drinkable right out of the glass! (Let the coconut mylk defrost a bit or run the Vitamix longer for soupier soup)

Organic Ingredients:

• Frozen organic coconut mylk*
• 3 small or one large frond and bulb of organic fennel
• 1/4 cup raw organic honey

Place all three ingredients in the Vitamix and let it run until smooth but still cool. Pour into goblets or soup bowels. Serve immediately. No need to worry about left-overs. There won't be any!

Optional Garnish: fresh ground nutmeg and coriander seed.

Variations: Use 1/2 the amount of fennel and add a frozen persimmon or ripe pear for a cool fruit soup. Serve with coconut crackers. (See: "What's in the Dehydrator at Val's")

*Buy frozen bags of coconut mylk or pour a can of organic coconut mylk into a zip-lock bag and freeze flat on a tray, so that it can be easily broke into pieces.

Below is a recipe for sun-breads I adapted from Katrina Blair's Savory Pumpkin Seed Bread. Check out her stuff at www.turtlelakerefuge.org. She is an inspiration!

Live Vibe: Sun Bread!

Organic Ingredients:

• 2 cups of sprouted buckwheat grouts
• 2 cups of sprouted pumpkin (or sunflower) seeds
• 1 tsp living sea salt
• 1/2 a large onion (or 1 cup of cubed zucchini or pumpkin flesh or shredded carrot)
• one 4-inch piece of hand-harvested sea vegetable of choice (I used Kombu)
• 1/2 to 1 cup of clover honey, to taste
• 1/2 organic onion
• Freshly harvested herb of choice: I used fennel for this one
• Natural sparkling water (for bread making only, not for seed sprouting)*
• Raw organic sunflower or walnut oil
• Have organic psyhilym husk powder, powdered oat grouts or rolled oats** on hand for thickening, if needed.

* Gourmet tip: You can do this with clean source water that is not sparkling. However, I have discovered that the carbonation gives the "bread" a nice yeasty-soda flavor and a pull-apart-bread-texture not obtained with flat water.

**Allergen alert: Be aware, oats are not glutton free.

Instructions:

1. Soak and sprout sunflower seeds and grouts separately, 1 to 3 days.

(If you have a method you like, do it.)

Here's my method: Soak covered with clean source water overnight or sometimes a full 24 hours. I change the water half-way through. After that, rinse and drain twice daily, returning wet seeds and grouts to a clean bowel, covered until plump. the seeds may split open and develop "tails". That's good! Treat them gently. (Both grouts and seeds can be refrigerated to slow the process if needed.) On the final day, I add the sea veggie and extra water. I also expose the grouts and seeds to indirect sunlight on the final day before making bread.

2. Rinse and drain the seeds and sprouts one last time. They should be wet, but not watery, when you pulse them.

3. Optional: Take out 1/2 cup of seeds for garnish. Place in a jar with Nama Shoyu or Raw Tamarind Paste. Shake it. Let rest.

4. Place all the ingredients including the sea veggie (now plump and wiggly-fun from soaking) into the food processor. Pulse, then grind into a paste.

5. Add sparkling water and oil at the end while the mix is turning. Consistency can be mold-able bread-dough-like substance or a batter. It works either way.

More liquid = thin "slices" of bread or pliable "wraps."

Less liquid =dense, moldable, sticky dough = loaves with chewy centers.

6. Adjust thickness by adding in small amounts of powdered oat grouts or rolled oats or psyhilym husk powder, only if needed.

7. Adjust seasoning. Note: Dehydrating will intensify flavors, so be spare with the salt! Add more honey and some mustard, if it strikes you!

8. Pour batter (or use wet hands to form loaves) on dehydrator sheets. (In the summer, I put these outside under screens. This works great too! My lovely friend, Gretchen, in !Costa Rica! can sun her breads in December! Go for it! Report back, please. )

9. For garnish: Press reserved seeds into the top of loaves or sprinkle them onto your batter. You can also use sprigs of fresh herbs, soaked fruits (raisins, yum!) or sprouted grains and nuts of your choosing.

10. Dehydrate at 105 degrees to desired "doneness." (I like loaves with chewy middles and firm but not crunchy on the outside. For thinner breads, I like pliable "wraps." Make both types from one batch by adding more water to remaining batter once you have formed enough loaves to satisfy.)

11. Flip once. Dehydrate the bottoms just long enough to oxidize a "crust." You will see what I mean.

12. Let cool to room temp. Store loosely in brown paper or paper-lined plastic bags in the fridge. Also keep indefinitely, frozen. Thaw in dehydrator as needed.

13. Eat plain or fancy. Make wraps, spread with honey "butter." This is a living food made of seeds. It combines with starches or proteins, oils or herbs and with all veggies. Yummier than you might think!

Live Sun-Bread Workshops!

Call to arrange a sun-bread workshop for you and your friends.

A one-hour workshop in you home for 10 people or more is $18 each

(A minimum of 5 people is $35 each.)

Includes: a big salad, bread & cracker-tastings and spreads.

(You keep the bread we make in your dehydrator!)

Makes a great lunch program!

OR

Attend a Demo & Dine on a Wednesday evening. I will demo bread and cracker making after the meal portion of the evening. We will eat the bread at Thurday eve's class. You can come to both sessions for a free-will love offering, sliding scale $10 to $25. You will learn everything you need to know to get you started in one class!

For more information call:

Val at 816-364-6922