Raw Burgers with Mango Salsa

I have often extolled the virtues and benefits of eating as many foods in as close to their natural state as possible. Avoid processed foods, eat whole foods, eat organic, eat local, yada yada … you’ve heard it all before, probably from people who have put it more compellingly than I ever could, so I’ll just proceed as if we already all agree on this point 🙂

We eat a lot of raw food here at the Outpost, through no concerted efforts other than we really love fruits and vegetables, and we happen to be fortunate enough to live in a place where terrific produce is available year round. The thing, is, though, that most of our raw cuisine consists of smoothies, salads, nuts, and crudités. Not exactly blog worthy cuisine, eh?

From time to time, however, I do like to concoct more elaborate raw dishes. I have a few favorite raw recipe books that I turn to when the urge to go all-out raw strikes:

Raw Food Real World by Matthew Kenney and Sarma Melngailis
Rawvolution by Matt Amsden
Living Cuisine by Renee Loux Underkoffler
I am Grateful by Terces Engelhart

There are also some really great raw food blogs out there.

I happen to have a few of the items that make the more involved raw food recipes easier to prepare: a food processor, a blender, and a food dehydrator. (If you do not have a dehydrator, you can still make lots of the recipes that require one by using your oven on a low temperature. I would not recommend this for the recipes that require long hours in the dehydrator, but for shorter drying times – such as the burger recipe below – I think it would be just fine.) I do not have the other appliance that would round out the-well stocked raw kitchen: a juicer. When necessary, I get around that by purchasing fresh juice from one of our island natural food stores when a recipe requires it.

Earlier this week I was reading The Sunny Raw Kitchen and was intrigued by Carmella’s post about some jalapeño burgers she recently made. The recipe was originally posted here. I made some modifications to the recipe and my modifications to the recipe are posted below. She had paired her burgers with these avocado fries and I did not see reason to mess with a formula that seemed pretty sure-fire (and I happen to love avocado), so I made those, as well, and followed the recipe with no modifications.

To top off the burgers and avo fries, I made a simple mango salsa, which was absolutely delicious, and the recipe is also posted below.

Raw food is fresh, delicious, and great for you. I am impressed by raw foodists and chefs who do it so well because I think they exhibit a wonderful creativity and imagination in the kitchen. I am not going to be giving up my baked cupcakes or tofu anytime soon, but it’s all about a healthy balance, no?

For those of you who need further convincing on this whole raw food thing, just scroll down to see the raw carrot cake I made from Living Cuisine … absolutely divine, I tell you …..

Raw Burgers

2 cup walnuts, soaked for 4 hours
1/2 cup smoky sun-dried tomatoes, soaked until very soft, reserve 1/8 cup soaking water
1 small poblano pepper, finely chopped
1/2 onion, finely chopped
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp Tandoori seasonings
Salt & pepper to taste

In a food processor, combine all ingredients and process until you achieve a thick, paste-like consistency. Be sure to scrape down the sides during processing to ensure that all ingredients are well incorporated. Remove from processor.

Shape into small patties. Place patties onto a teflex-lined dehydrator tray. Dehydrate at 115F for 2 hours. Flip the patties onto the dehydrator screen for an additional 2 hours.

Salsa

2 tomatoes, diced
1 mango, diced
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp lime juice
1 tsp chili garlic sauce
¼ cup cilantro

Mix all ingredients in a bowl.

And dessert … delicious carrot cake:

Read Full Post »

Mango Marinated Tofu Kabobs

This has been an incredible year for mangoes on Maui. Everywhere I look this summer, I see enormous mango trees laden with golden orange and red orbs of fruit. While we ourselves do not have a mango tree, we have been fortunate to be the recipients of many of our friends’ and neighbors’ excess yields of the season.

It is hard to outdo the taste of fresh mango. Nothing exemplifies the exotic nature of Hawai’i quite like it.

With this season’s bounty we’ve enjoyed mango smoothies, mango lassis, mango pie, mango and sticky rice, mango in rice, mango and tofu, mango for breakfast, mango for lunch, mango for dinner …. you get the idea.

Earlier this week we received our latest batch of mangoes from a friend. We looked at these mangoes and decided that they were destined to be pioneers in our kitchen of new mango concoctions (new for us, at any rate). We test drove several recipes, and the one that I am sharing with you today is for a grilling marinade.  (Feel free to ask the questions, “Who are you to tell me what to do with my marinade?” and use it as a baking marinade instead. I won’t be offended. I appreciate your renegade spirit.)

I marinated tofu for several hours and basted some veggies from our garden to make kabobs that we grilled for dinner – they were delicious. I, like Ben Stiller in “There’s Something About Mary”, love food on a stick … just make mine vegan. Something about food on a stick just says summer time. The marinade would probably work as well on seitan or tempeh and on any veggie of your choice. It’s also quite adaptable – by adjusting the curry or adding more chili garlic sauce (or chipotle … or Tabasco…) you can make your kabobs as spicy as you’d like. Enjoy the experiment!

Mango Marinade

1 ripe mango
2 tbsp teriyaki
1 clove garlic
½ tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 tsp curry
½ tsp chili garlic sauce

Process all ingredients in food processor until smooth.

I used this marinade on tofu that I drained and pressed. I marinated the tofu for several hours before grilling it. I then basted the marinade on zucchini, red pepper, mushrooms, and Japanese eggplant just before grilling. Be sure to grill the kabobs evenly on each side and baste your kabobs with any extra marinade when you turn them during grilling. Be sure to spray your grill liberally with non-stick cooking spray before putting your kabobs o the Barbie or else you’ll be tempting grilling fate and will very likely end up with the remnants of kabobs clinging to the grill.

Read Full Post »