tomatoes – Kristina Hamlett writes to connect, heal, and be a force for change.

Meatless Monday: Raw Vegan Taco with Cashew Sour Cream

Tonight, I made raw vegan tacos using walnut “meat” and used Romaine hearts as the shell. I have used walnut before but never made fresh pico de gallo and cashew sour cream. The recipe came from mydarlingvegan.com. Everything came out well but I needed to add a bit more sea salt to the cashew sour cream and let it sit in the refrigerator a bit longer. I also added more cumin and hot sauce to the walnut mix. We fell in love with the pico!

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients

Walnut Meat

2 cups raw walnuts
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon dehydrated minced onion
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 tsp salt
pinch of cayenne

Pico De Gallo

1 cup cherry tomatoes, diced
1 jalapeño, minced
juice of 1 lime
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
salt to taste

Cashew Sour Cream (optional)

1 cup cashews, soaked 4-6 hours
1/2 cup water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon salt

Extras

12 leaves of romain lettuce
1 avocado
fresh cilantro

Instructions

To make the walnut meat, blessings d all taco meat ingredients in a food processor until walnuts break down into small crumbs. Do not over mix, they will quickly form a paste. Remove from processor and set aside.
Combine the ingredients for pico de gallo and refrigerate until ready to use.
If making cashew sour cream, drain and rinse the cashews. Transfer to a high-speed blender with remaining sour cream ingredients. Blend until completely smooth. Transfer to small container and refrigerate until ready to use.
To assemble tacos, place 2-3 tablespoons walnut meat on the bottom of a leaf of romain lettuce. Top with pico de gallo, avocado, fresh cilantro, and cashew sour cream. Once assembled, serve immediately.

We definitely will be making this again!

Meatless Mondays: Creamy Raw Tomato Soup and Avocado Pesto Butternut Squash Noodles

Today is Day 2 of my raw vegan challenge for the month of January. It was surprisingly easy. I enjoyed mangoes, Go Raw bars, raw slaw and a satisfying green smoothie Hubby brought me home on a break.

For dinner tonight, I decided to make a creamy raw tomato soup and avocado pesto butternut squash noodles. I have made pesto before (vegan but never raw) so I won’t post the recipe but the soup is new.

I am glad I started off this challenge with something besides a salad. Raw food can be so much more interesting.

Here’s the recipe:

Six small tomatoes
1 Red Bell Pepper
1 Avocado
Sea salt (to taste)
Black pepper (to taste)
Garlic or Herbs ( I used garlic powder)
Cherry tomatoes

Chop tomatoes, peel avocado and blend all ingredients together. I garnished the soup with sliced cherry tomatoes.

We both loved the soup! I can’t wait to try another raw soup this month. Thanks to lovingitvegan.com for the recipe!

Meatless Monday: Vegan Pesto Pasta with a Honeydew Lime Smoothie

Tonight, I decided to do things a little differently. Hubby and I are big smoothie lovers and I realized I’ve never featured any on my Meatless Monday posts. I decided to make pesto for the first time, too. I definitely had become a little too dependent on tomato and vegan Alfredo sauces so it was time to change things up. I got the recipe from greenevi.com and the Honeydew and Lime Smoothie was inspired by a YouTube video from Health with Kisha. I don’t remember her exact recipe but I remembered Honeydew melon and limes and I figured I could adjust according to my own taste.

We used a container of honeydew that was 1.17 lbs, the juice of 3 limes and blended it with ice.

Here’s Hubby hard at work juicing the limes for me:

We used organic red lentil penne pasta for our vegan pesto pasta. We love the Explore Cuisine brand for red lentil and black bean spaghetti.

Here’s the recipe:

INGREDIENTS

Pasta of your choice
1 cup of cherry tomatoes
¼ cup of pine nuts
1 cup of fresh basil (tightly packed)
1 clove of garlic
¼ cup of olive oil
1-3 tbsp nutritional yeast
salt, pepper
½ lemon (optional)

INSTRUCTIONS:

Prepare your pasta according to package instructions.
Meanwhile roast pine nuts in a skillet until lightly toasted.
Add basil, garlic, toasted pine nuts, nutritional yeast, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper to a food processor and blend until smooth. Mix pesto into pasta and add cherry tomatoes. Enjoy!

All the ingredients. I blended them instead of putting them in the food processor but the pesto still came out great!

Hubby has already said he wants to me cook everything again next week. I fell in love, too. The honeydew and lime smoothie was incredibly refreshing. I can see making that regularly especially when summer hits.

Let me know in the comments if there are any new plant-based recipes you have tried or want to try.