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.