Plant Based U

Fat-Free and Low Fat Vegan Plant Based Recipes

Raw Dips

Raw Vegan Recipe: Zucchini Cashew Ranch Dip

by 18 Comments

Hey everyone! The other day I was invited over for a friend’s house warming and I assumed that I would be the only vegan attendee. So what I did was brought a few things that I would be able to eat, that would also appeal to other types of tastes as well. I made some vegan nachos using seasoned soy beef and some vegan cheese to show off that vegan food could be tasty. BUT I only make that kind of food when I’m serving people totally unfamiliar with vegan food. I don’t make that kind of food at home or for myself. So I also wanted to bring a healthy option to balance that out.

I thought of serving a veggie tray as that would be quick and easy to bring as well. Lucky for me my local grocery store now makes veggie trays without that dairy based dip in the middle, so I could run out and grab it and just focus on making the dip portion from scratch. Of course I could chop the veggies myself as well, I just didn’t really have a handy travel tray so this worked well for me.

I had been thinking about a way to make a tasty ranch-like dip, but lower in fat. And I was inspired by my Hemp Seed Hummus recipe from Savory Raw Dinner Recipes which uses raw zucchini as the base instead of nuts to cut out some of the extra calories. But I didn’t want it to just taste like raw zucchini so that’s why I added some raw cashews so it had that nice creamy taste to it as well. I promise you won’t be able to taste the zucchini. 🙂

This recipe was a real hit and everyone could not believe that I had made it myself (or that anyone would be a vegan chef let alone a low fat one) but I was very happy that everyone found it delicious even after I told them there was raw zucchini in it! Hurray! Score one for the low fat vegans.

So I wanted to share this recipe with you because quite often I hear the pleas of newbies craving something tasty to dip their raw celery and broccoli into and this is very easy to make at home.

I use a VitaMix for my heavy duty blending, but don’t worry if you don’t have one I have included some tips like soaking your cashews and dates, that will help make the blending process in your regular blender much easier.

Raw Vegan Zucchini Cashew Ranch Dip

Makes enough dip to serve with 1 large veggie tray

Ingredients:

1 medium/medium large zucchini peeled and diced into small cubes (approx 2 1/4 cups)
1/3 cup cashews, soaked for a few hours and drained
1-2 medjool dates, pitted, soaked and chopped
2- 2 1/2 tbsp meyer lemon juice
1 tbsp nutritional yeast *optional for flavor
1-2 small cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tbsp diced sweet onion (or 1 tsp of onion powder)
1 tbsp chopped curly leaf parsley
1 green onion/scallion, sliced (green top portion only)
1/4 tsp Herbamare or salt or to taste
Fresh ground pepper to taste
Splash or two of unsweetened almond milk (if necessary to blend in a regular blender)

Directions:

1. Combine everything but the parsley, green onion, salt, and pepper in a Vitamix or a food processor and blend. (It’s important to have everything in small pieces so it’s easier to blend together. A high powered blender with a tamper is preferable.)

2. Add remaining ingredients and blend on medium low to break up the fresh herbs into smaller pieces. Taste test and add additional salt, pepper or lemon juice as desired.

3. Refrigerate before serving.

Additional Tips:

If you have a Vitamix you do not have to soak the cashews or the dates or use the almond milk, but if using another blender or food processor that is lower powered it is highly recommended to make this dip easier to blend.

Let me know what you think of this dip! And what is your favorite raw veggie for dipping?

Fat Free Raw Vegan Mango Cilantro Salsa

by 7 Comments

FTC Notice: This blog post contains affiliate links and product links that go to supporting the blog.

This raw vegan mango salsa is probably my favourite ever.  When you have delicious ripe mangoes mixed with the cilantro, red onion and tomatoes it’s heaven.  I serve this on many things! Salad, lettuce wraps, cabbage bowls, as a dip etc. Try this out you will love it!


This recipe is also featured in my Savory Raw Dinner Recipes book and dvd set.

If you’ve never seen an ataulfo/champagne mango before this is what it looks like. You can generally find these in the grocery stores or Asian markets from April to July/August in North America. Outside of that season, they tend to get brown spots and are bad inside, kind of like bad avocados. They taste MUCH nicer and sweeter in season. I love putting these types of mangoes into my plant-based recipes in homemade salsa for burritos, tacos, or burrito bowls.

How To Tell If An Ataulfo Mango Is Ripe:

This type of mango will turn pale yellow to light orange on the peel. It will be soft to the touch and smell fragrant. You should only cut open this mango when the skin starts to wrinkle and look “old”. Trust me then it will be juicy and sweet. If you have any that get black spots on the skin keep them away from other mangos so they don’t spread. As it ripens the black spots will spread. Cut these parts out and don’t eat them.


 

This is what an ataulfo mango looks like when cut open. It is stringless unlike the Kent or Tommy “red and green” skinned mangoes. And is much more delicate.

Raw Vegan Mango Cilantro Salsa

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 ataulfo/champagne mango
1 small tomato, deseeded, diced
1/4 cup red onion, diced
1/4 cup cilantro diced
1 clove garlic, minced


Directions:

Score the mango into cubes and cut off with a knife or spoon, or peel the mango and use square plate or veggie chopper to cube. Combine ingredients in a bowl and mix gently.

Variations: 

Thai, Filipino, and Indian Honey mangoes are of the same family, you can certainly use these mangoes as well for this salsa. It is much better with a stringless variety, so these are my first pick over the “red and green” style mangoes.