Plant Based U

Fat-Free and Low Fat Vegan Plant Based Recipes

Raw Vegan Recipes

How To Enjoy Eating A Lot Of Apples or How To Have an Apple Happy Meal!

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So you live in a Northern climate, it’s winter, there’s not a lot of tropical fruit around, there’s not really any “ripe” fruit around, you don’t have a lot of money to spend on produce; you’re hungry and want an easy inexpensive meal.

My friends, let me introduce to you the apple. It’s quite versatile and easy to get ALL over the world all year round. They keep well, can lasts for weeks if not months in the fridge or a cold cellar.



But how do you get this apply-goodness inside you without it being a pain in the jaw and eating all those waxy peels?…

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80/10/10 Recipe: Raw Vegan Pomegranate Apple Grape Juice

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FTC Notice: This blog post contains affiliate links which go towards supporting the blog. We got some delicious pomegranates from Costco this week, so I’ve been eating them different ways, snacking on the seeds, straight juice and mixed juice. Today I’m having an (80/10/10 diet approved) antioxidant rich breakfast: a bowl of raspberries and a pomegranate, red grape, apple juice. Pomegranite juice on it’s own isn’t so bad, it just has a really bitter aftertaste. If you find it too strong and want to enjoy some nutritious juice this season, mix it with other sweet juices. Apple, grape, or pear works best. Maybe even an apple celery pomegranate concoction would be nice as well. To juice a pomegranate you’re going to want to use a citrus juicer.  The kind you press the handle down onto it. I have a Breville 800CPXL that works great You can try a hand held citrus juicer, but they’re not easy to juice like oranges, and you will find you get whole pieces stuck in crevasses near the peel. For the rest of my raw vegan juice I used my regular Breville centrifugal juicer , which I enjoy as it’s much easier to use and clean than my previous Jack Lalane juicer. I tried that one and actually returned it, it was too messy to use and clean.

Raw Vegan Pomegranate Apple Grape Juice

Ingredients: 1 pomegranate 2-3 peeled apples 2 cups of red grapes (sweet) Directions: Cut the pomegranate in half and using a citrus juicer, juice half of the pomegranate at a time. Really press down with the juicer until the pomegranate seeds all come out. Repeat with the other half.  For any seeds you missed in the strainer, use a spoon and push down on them to pop out the last bits of juice. Take your apples and grapes and run them through a centrifugal juicer. Pour into a tall glass, ensuring the extra foam stays in the container and doesn’t go into the glass. Now pour your pomegranate juice into the glass with the other juice and mix. Serve with ice cubes if desired. Enjoy your delicious juice without the bitter aftertaste of pomegranate!

80/10/10 Recipe: Raw Banana Pear Berry Smoothie

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This is a really easy 80/10/10 and raw vegan fruit smoothie to make, using some ripe fruit. You want to use ripe bananas that are soft and lightly brown speckled and pears that have turned from rock hard green to soft yellow with some brown flecks.



Make sure you have ripe pears as well. If your pears have any bad spots in them cut them out before using. If your pears are really ripe like mine were it won’t add much of a gritty texture to your smoothie. Unripe, hard pears are NOT good in smoothies!

 

Raw Vegan Banana Pear Berry Smoothie

Ingredients:

3 large ripe bananas
2 very ripe bartlet pears, seeded
2 cups frozen mixed berries



Directions:

Place bananas, pears and berries into Vitamix or blender. (If you don’t have a Vitamix you need to add some water to blend) Using the tamper, push the fruit down towards the blade and turn onto 5 and then up to high. Blend for 45 sec to a minute until smooth.

Enjoy!



What do you think of this smoothie recipe?



How To Make Homemade Low Fat Raw Vegan Almond Milk In A Blender

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Almond milk is something that many people use nowadays, whether they are vegan or have dairy allergies. Sure you can buy some (non raw) almond milk at the store for your smoothies or cooking, but there’s likely going to be sugar, preservatives and other additives and synthetic stuff in it as well. While it is convenient to use pre made almond milk, it’s not a good idea to base your whole diet on processed packaged foods.



It’s very easy to make at home, and most cost effective if you enjoy using almond pulp in recipes like raw bars, cookies, crackers, or drying it out to use for almond flour. This raw almond milk is great for using in raw smoothies, raw banana ice-cream and raw dressings.

This low fat almond milk is also a nice pretty white colour and not browny tinged from additives like processed almond milk! Beautiful.



How To Make Your Own Homemade Raw Vegan Almond Milk

Ingredients:

1 cup of whole raw shelled almonds
Enough water to cover almonds if soaking overnight
4 cups filtered water (for making milk) If you want it even thinner use 5 cups of water.

Required tools:

Container to soak almonds
Metal mesh strainer/nut milk bag
Vitamix, Blendtec or other blender

Directions:

1. Soak almonds in a bowl or container with enough water to cover and let sit overnight, around 8 hours. (You can skip this step if you have a Vitamix or Blendtec)

2. Drain and rinse the almonds. Place into Vitamix or other blender with 4 cups of filtered water. Blend for about 45 sec to a minute on high. Just until all the almonds are in tiny pieces and it’s frothy.

3a. If using a nut milk bag hold the bag open over a large bowl and gently pour the blended almond milk into the middle of the open bag. Be careful not to spill pulp over the sides. Pour a little at a time and put the blender container down and close the bag at the top and squeeze the bag into the bowl to separate the almond pulp from the almond milk. You can either save the squeezed almond pulp to dry into almond flour or use to make cookies or nut balls or compost it. Continue this process until you have separate all the milk from the almond pulp. If you can’t stand and squeeze you can hang the bag filled with pulp and almond milk up above the bowl and let it drain for a while or in between breaks. Using a good quality nut milk bag you should only have to strain the milk one time if you didn’t spill any pulp over the edge.

3b. If using metal mesh strainers: get out 3 medium bowls or containers. Hold your small metal mesh strainer over one of the bowls and pour the almond mixture slowly into it. Fill up the strainer and then use a spoon to push the liquid down from the pulp. Place the extra pulp in one of the bowls if you want to save it for later. This will take a while. If using a metal strainer, keep filling it up with almond mixture and filtering the pulp from the milk with your spoon and set the pulp aside. Rinsing your strainer in between each filter will make it easier to strain and get rid of the little pieces stuck to it.  After you have filtered your almond milk once, you may want to filter the whole thing a few more times for a smooth milk. Place your filter over the last clean bowl and pour your filtered almond milk over it. You should see some froth and a little pulp being filtered out the second time. Rinse your other bowl and strainer and filter back and forth until your almond milk is smooth to your liking. I do this 6-8 times with a metal strainer for the smoothest milk.



5. Once you’re done you can store the almond milk in the fridge. Depending what you want to do with it you can leave it plain, or blend in a date and some vanilla for sweet almond milk.

I leave mine plain so I can use it for things like banana ice-cream, chia “tapioca” pudding, smoothie base, dressing base etc. I just add pitted dates or vanilla extract  or fresh vanilla bean to the recipe if I need a sweet milk.

Best used within 3 days. Store in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator.

Have you ever made your own plant based milk at home? What’s your favourite?



80/10/10 Recipe: Raw Vegan Persimmon Fruit Pudding

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We’re coming into persimmon season soon, so I highly recommend trying them this year if you haven’t yet. You can find persimmons at Asian markets or specialty ethnic grocery stores.

Persimmons look rather like an orange-red tomato and are short and fat. When they are unripe, they will be rock hard and VERY starchy and need to be cut with a knife. Some people like the Thais enjoy eating fuyu persimmons raw in salads more like a vegetable, but personally I find they leave an awful starchy film on my tongue. So I prefer to only eat persimmons that very ripe, when the starch has fully turned into sugar and they are so delicious this way.

This persimmon pudding tastes 1000 times better than it looks, trust me! You can use ripe fuyu, or hatchia persimmons for this recipe, but I used fuyu. It took me about a week and a half to ripen them on my counter until they were soft, juicy and wrinkly on the outside.

 

This recipe is featured in my upcoming DVD series Savory Raw Dinner Recipes!

Raw Persimmon Pudding

Serves 1

This makes a great small breakfast, snack or dessert.

Ingredients:

2 fuyu persimmons, very ripe
1 banana, fresh or frozen
1-2 tbsp raisins
dried coconut (optional)

*Only use ripe persimmons. They will be very soft, a little wrinkled on the outside and look overripe, but I assure you they are not. They are absolutely amazing blended when they are at full ripeness. If yours are still hard or slightly hard, leave them alone until they are very soft!

Directions:

1. Slice the persimmons in half, scoop out insides and put into Vitamix or blender.

2. Add banana and blend on high. (For a nice cool pudding, use a frozen banana)

3. Top with raisins and coconut or fruit of choice.

Enjoy!

80/10/10 Recipe: Low Fat Raw Vegan Green Pea Lemon Dill Blended Soup

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Green peas and dill are some of my favourite green things to eat. So I decided to combine them into a tasty raw soup recipe.

This is sort of a chunky style raw soup with diced veggie chunks in a blended base. Feel free to customize it as you like, but I find that having something to chew on in raw soups is nice so it’s not just eating smoothie with a spoon.

Alternately, if you don’t love green peas raw, you can substitute more of something else like zucchini, cucumber or even diced peppers.

Raw Green Pea Lemon Dill Soup

Makes 2 servings

Ingredients:

Soup Base

2 cups zucchini, peeled and chopped
2 cups yellow or orange tomatoes, chopped
1 cup of celery, chopped
1/2 cup dill, chopped fine
4 green onions, chopped
5 or 6 small dates, pitted
1/2 lemon, juiced
1/4 cup of chia gel (or a tbsp or two of chia seed)
2 tsp celery powder or 1/2 tsp salt (optional)

 

Veggies:

1 celery stalk, diced
1/2 cup zucchini, diced
1/2 cup cucumber, diced
1 cup fresh or frozen peas
1 green onion, diced

*Using a veggie chopper is the fastest way to get the vegetables into little cubes to stir into the soup.

 

Directions:

1. Blend soup ingredients in a Vitamix or blender until well combined.

2. Divide soup and veggies into 2 bowls and garnish with extra dill or green onion.

Enjoy!

What do you think of this recipe?

80/10/10 Recipe: Fat Free Raw Vegan Blender Applesauce

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This is a really easy recipe 80/10/10 style recipe that you can use as a quick breakfast, a snack, replacement for cooked applesauce in baking or a raw dessert. If you have a few bruised apples laying around, it also takes care of those too!

Raw vegan apple sauce is also very kid friendly for a quick meal. I use ceylon cinnamon in this applesauce recipe. It is OUT OF THIS WORLD! You can check it out here  at our store. It doesn’t have a dry bitter flavour like the regular hard cinnamon sticks you find at the grocery store. Ceylon cinnamon is made from a different cinnamon tree and actually tastes like sweet cinnamon, almost a mix between powdered sugar and cinnamon. It’s sugar free of course and tastes great for many different dessert toppings.

Fat Free Raw Vegan Blender Applesauce

Serves 1 or 2

Ingredients:

3 medium apples, peeled and cored
1 banana fresh or frozen
1 date, pitted
1/2 cup water
1 tsp ceylon cinnamon (this is the true sweet cinnamon you can get it here at our store)
dash of allspice

Directions:

1. Place apples, water, banana, cinnamon and allspice in a Vitamix (or food processor) and push down using the tamper, and blend until creamy. Using a frozen banana will give you a nice cool applesauce.

2. Garnish with sliced or chopped apple, raisins, shredded coconut or additional cinnamon.

3. Serve immediately, or refrigerate for later.

Makes 3 cups

Additional Tips:

I use this when I also need some applesauce for baking, and just omit the date and cinnamon if it would affect the recipe. It’s a great way to use up some extra apples and banana when you don’t want them to go to waste!

 

80/10/10 Recipe: Raw Vegan Summer Heaven Smoothie

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This is a really quick smoothie that you can make in the summer. It’s an 80/10/10 fat free style smoothie that is really delicious! I didn’t think that I would like watermelon with banana, but trust me it’s very delicious and this way you don’t need to add water to your blender. Make sure your fruit is ripe for the best taste.

Raw Vegan Summer Heaven Smoothie

Serves 1

Ingredients:

1/8 of a large watermelon (about 20 ounces 3 1/2-4 cups)

2 peaches, peeled and destoned

2 bananas, peeled

Directions:

Place ingredients into Vitamix or blender in order above. Blend until smooth. *Tip: use cool watermelon or frozen bananas for a refreshing summer drink.

Approx: 512 calories

80/10/10 Recipe: Raw Winter Vitamin C Smoothie

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Winter time can be a little harder to get a wide variety of fresh ripe fruit. So this is an easy staple that you can add to your breakfast regime. Just make sure you are using fresh squeezed orange juice (home-made is best) and ripe bananas (that are very speckled and sweet). An unripe banana or sour oranges can really ruin your smoothie, so make sure you use quality ingredients that taste good on their own first.

If you find that you are feeling cold in the winter months, make sure you take your fruit OUT of the refrigerator before using it. You do NOT want to be drinking cold smoothies and eating cold fruit when you are already feeling cold. Then your hands will get cold and you will feel like crawling back under the covers and staying in bed.

It also helps to do a few jumping jacks or running on the spot in the morning to get yourself warmed up and feeling more energized when it’s cold and blah outside.

Raw Winter Vitamin C Smoothie

Serves 1

Ingredients:

1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice

1 tbsp hemp seed

2 bananas, ripe

3-4 apples peeled, cored and chopped

Directions:

1. Place ingredients in Vitamix in order above and blend on high until smooth and creamy. If you have a regular blender you may want to chop up the apple into smaller pieces to make blending easier.

Enjoy!

What do you think of this recipe?

80/10/10 Recipe: Raw Vegan Cherry Dream Smoothie

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Raw Vegan Cherry Dream Smoothie

Serves 1
Ingredients:

1/2 cup water
2 cups pineapple
2 cups black cherries, pitted
1/2 mango (ataulfo is best)

Directions:

Place ingredients in order into Vitamix or blender. Blend on high until smooth. You can use fresh or frozen of any of the fruit ingredients, but fresh is best for the full flavour of each fruit.

The best tool I have found to help with pitting cherries is the Cherry It Cherry Pitter, which I got on Amazon. It rocks, for when you want to eat a bunch of cherries nice and neatly, blending them or freezing them. It can also do olives too. Not that I have tried though! This cherry pitter will be your new best friend during summer time. I love sitting around with a big bowl of pitted cherries and just enjoy popping them into my mouth one by one.