I’ve had raw green soup every day since I got my blender until today when I became suddenly inspired and wanted to make an exciting dinner for myself. Before I knew what was happening, I was in the shop buying pine nuts. I’ve got several pots of basil on my window sill which is great. Two different types as well, one is “Monsterous Basil” which really does have massive leaves but is not quite as strong tasting and then I have the more usual basil which is extremly delicious.

Pesto

The great thing about pesto is that it is supposed to be raw, so no compromises have to be made. Even the cheese generally used, parmesan, is usually raw. So, this is what I used:

• Fresh basil, probably about 25 grams
• Pine nuts, about 40g
• 1/4 of a smallish red onion
• Parmesan, about 30g
• flax oil, 50ml

I used the “mill” attachment on my blender, but if you’ve got a food processor that would probably be the best tool for the job. I started out with just the pine nuts and ground them up a bit, then added the basil, a bit at a time, then the onion and grated cheese. When it was looking quite smooth, I stired in the flax oil.

Salsa

I then decided to make a tomato salsa:

• 4 tomatoes
• 2 sticks of celery
• 1/4 red onion
• a couple of slices of fresh ginger
• some fresh chili (also from my windowsil garden!)

Everything went into the blender, fairly simple.

I served both the pesto and salsa with a big mixed green salad – malva, jack by the hedge, nasturtium, watercress, spinach and rocket. The pesto was great, the salsa was reasonable, but they really didn’t go together in the same meal, so I ended up eating the salsa more as soup and having the pesto with the greens which was very good.

Banana and Sesame Pudding

Yep, I still had room for pudding so I made what is quickly becoming a favorite – banana and sesame pudding. First I grind about 40g sesame seeds and 10g cacao nibs (in a seeds mill or coffee grinder). I then mash this mixture with a banana and a teaspoon of raw cacao powder. And that’s it. Very quick and simple to make and delicious.

Festival

So that’s it for food today. I’m currently very busy organising the Funky Raw festival. We’re going back to Keveral farm, August 8 to 13 for raw food, yoga, tai chi, qi gong, lots of music and dancing… basically lots of fun, come and join us.