Please enjoy this guest post and a raw pate recipe from our friend Vanessa. Vanessa shares some tips on how to prepare and easily digest the large amounts of nuts often required in raw food recipes.

DIVE INTO RAW FOODS
By Vanessa Nowitzky

If you’re like me, after you’ve been drinking green smoothies a while, you start to feel more alive and crave more raw foods. Have you noticed this? Green smoothies alkalinize the body, and taste is relative to chemistry. When the body’s chemistry is more alkaline, acidic low-energy cooked foods lose their appeal. Instead, you hunger for high energy, living food. And now that you’ve got more energy from drinking green smoothies, it’s a good time to tackle some of those gourmet raw dishes we keep hearing about!

Many raw food recipes call for nuts and seeds, which can be difficult to digest, particularly in the large quantities used in many raw dishes. One good way to help yourself digest nuts is to make sure you soak them ahead of time. A seed is an amazing package of life lying dormant, waiting for the right conditions to sprout. To keep from sprouting before conditions are right, most nuts or seeds contain enzyme inhibitors that are like a lock on the door. All the life in the seed is asleep until that lock is unlocked. It could last years in this state of dormancy- no wonder raw nuts feel very heavy in the stomach. Soaking nuts and seeds in water at room temperature gives the seed the right conditions for sprouting. Then the enzyme inhibitors wash away and the enzymes begin to work their magic, bringing the seed to life. Once the living enzymes are at work, the seed fills up with energy, ready to grow. Before it even sprouts an actual “tail” it is an active live food and will yield its enzymes to the one lucky or wise enough to consume it.

Nuts require at least 8 hours of soaking; I usually let them soak overnight. Seeds need only 6 hours but can also go overnight. Afterwards be sure to throw out and thoroughly rinse off the soaking water as it contains the enzyme inhibitors, which make digestion difficult. Nuts and seeds that have been soaked should ideally be used the same day, though they could keep two days in the fridge. If they are made into pate or milk, the product will keep 2-4 days, depending on how much natural preservatives, such as honey or garlic or lemon, are in the ingredients. If you have a dehydrator you may dry the nuts or seeds for 24-36 hours at 105 degrees and they will then keep up to 6 months (the longer you dry them the longer they keep.) They also attain a “toasted” texture and flavour. These dry nuts are great for grinding into crumbles for pie crust. Remember that you may need to adjust the liquid content accordingly when using dry or wet seeds in recipes.

(Note: Due to various shells and shelling processes, not all nuts and seeds benefit from soaking. The exceptions include cashews, Brazil nuts, pine nuts and hemp seed. Flax seed need not be soaked if it is ground.)

Another way to keep digestion easy is to only use one nut or seed per recipe, and to include a lot of greens. Here’s an easy pate that tastes lovely on lettuce or collard greens.

Sunny Apricot Paté

1/2 cup sunflower seeds (soaked ahead of time; may be dehydrated)
1/2 cup baby carrots
2 green onions, chopped
2 large cherry tomatoes or one small roma tomato
a handful of baby spinach
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 soaked dried apricot
squeeze of lemon juice
light sprinkle of cumin
sprinkle of cayenne

The apricot is the tangy secret to this delicious paté. Using a food processor, first grind the seeds, then the carrots, then add the other ingredients and grind all well until thoroughly blended to a pate.

Cut collard leaves into two by removing the middle stems. Use each half leaf as a wrap: pat a large spoonful of paté into the middle and roll the wrap up with some sprouts or a sprig of miner’s lettuce.
Makes about 6 rolls; serves two for dinner with a salad, or double the recipe and offer as satisfying snacks for a party.

If you would like to try more recipes for nuts and seeds, you may take a look at my e-book here: “Nuts Over Nuts!”