Smoothies and Salads

Week 10 began on Monday. We’re just about at the halfway point of coursework. Sigh. So much done and so much left to do in class. And so much to do to prepare for my life after school. 🙂  In three months, I will be done with classroom time and will need to get out there and work!

Smoothies, Juices, and Milks

This week we are continuing our exploration of all that is raw food and Monday started with juice, smoothies, and milks. We made vegetable juices, nut milks, and smooth drinks. We used coconut milk, cacao, almonds, kale and other greens, ginger, and lots of other great ingredients. I was surprised how much I liked the vegetable juices, including one with ginger that was delicious. I also tried wheat grass for the first time – it was actually kind of sweet! Wheat grass is supposed to be a great juice for detoxifying the body. I’m not sure, but I felt pretty good after the morning session.

We used a Champion juicer and a Green Star double-auger juicer, as well as a couple of Vita Mixes to make the drinks in class.

Below: Wheat grass growing in class. The patch on the bottom was planted by my classmates and I on Friday during class.

Below: A Green Star double auger juicer recently given to the school – one of the better juicers available.

Below: Chef Alicia juices some wheat grass for the Natural Epicurean students.

Below: Chef Alicia pours each of us a shot of fresh wheat grass.

Below: Wheat grass shot with an orange wedge chaser. The chaser really wasn’t necessary, I think because the juice was so fresh that the bitterness was not very prominent.

Below: Chef Alicia squeezes some almond milk after blending almonds in a Vita Mix.

Below: We made several nut and seed milks: Almond, sunflower, pumpkin seed, and hemp. All had very different flavors.

Below: Chef Alicia shows us how to open a fresh coconut. I opened one myself later on in class.

Below: Chef Alicia talks about making juices like the ones below.

Raw Salads and Such

We rolled right into the afternoon to make some salads and soups with Chef Shahnaz. On the recipe list were gazpacho, carrot soup, kale salad, caesar salad, Thai coconut soup, and several others.

Below: A delicious Mediterranean kale salad.

Below: Everyone loved this raw vegan caesar salad. It has dehydrated almond meal “croutons.”

Below: Pear arugula salad with Meyer lemon.

Below: A raw vegan tortilla soup (left), a sea vegetable salad (top), and two bowls of Thai coconut soup (bottom and right).