Raw Thai Casserole

Do you ever get stuck in food ruts? I sometimes find myself thinking about dinner and I can only remember two or three things I like to make! Usually, those were things I have made recently, and thus I get stuck in a rut until my taste buds are tired of the same old thing. Thankfully, I have this blog now to remind me of what else I can make :) After a pretty hectic week or two, I have decided to get back into more raw (un)cooking.

And to help any of you out who also get stuck in ruts, I will be posting some more raw recipes and linking up to some other sites, too. Also, check out my new "Raw Recipes" tab for more ideas!

This raw dish was easy and super quick to make. And you've got to hand it to raw food meals for not making much of a mess in the kitchen. No skillets, or baking dishes means less clean up- and that means so much to me. I love making a mess in the kitchen, but I'm no fan of the aftermath clean-up. Thankfully, I married a great dishwasher :)

Raw Thai Casserole

Serves 3-4Ingredients
For the Sauce part:

• 4 Tbsp raw almond butter
• 1" piece of ginger, peeled and finely grated or minced (I use a Microplane)
• 1 large or 2 small cloves garlic, minced or grated
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• paste of 2 sweet tamarind, or about 1/2 Tbsp tamarind paste (These look like large peanuts if you can find them whole. The inside looks like a date. You can find whole tamarinds at Whole Foods- usually near the tropical fruits- or your local Asian/ International market. If you find a paste, it may or may not be raw. You can also substitute 1 date or 1/2 Tbsp date paste here.)
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
  
• Optional: 1 Tbsp red curry paste - not completely raw because these usually use tomato paste that has been heated, but this definitely adds a good flavor to the dish

For the Casserole Part:

• One small to medium head of cauliflower
• 6-8 fresh basil leaves
  
• 3-4 green onion, diced
  
• 1/2 red bell pepper, diced
• Assorted chopped vegetables of your choosing- I used broccoli, okra, cucumber, and carrot
• 1 Tbsp fresh chopped cliantro
• Top with chopped raw cashews or peanuts, and sprouts would be nice too
  

Method

• Blend all sauce ingredients together using a fork or in a food processor if your tamarind is thick.
• Chop the cauliflower into smaller chunks and place it with the basil in food processor. Pulse until the cauliflower is the consistency of couscous. If you don't have a food processor, you can mince the cauliflower and finely chop the basil with a chefs knife- this just takes longer.
• Toss the couscous-like cauliflower/ basil mixture, with the chopped onion, bell pepper, and cilantro, in with the almond butter sauce mixture in a large bowl.
• Chop your assorted veggies and add 1 cup chopped vegetables at a time to the mix until you feel like you have reached a good casserole-like consistency.
• Top with chopped cashews or peanuts, sprouts if using, and serve.

Thai cooking seems to translate well to raw eating. You can also make your favorite Thai recipes raw by replacing canned coconut milk with young coconuts, nut butters with raw ones, and tomato paste with a sun-dried tomato/ fresh tomato mixture. Here are some other Raw Thai Dishes (or ones that can easily be made raw) that you may want to try:

• Creamy Thai Coconut Soup from The Sunny Raw Kitchen
• Thai Salad with Spicy Dressing (raw w/out the meat) from the Nourishing Gourmet
• Thai inspired truffle treats (can easily be made raw) from Deanna of The Mommy Bow (who introduced me to tamarind with this soup recipe. Thanks :)
  

This recipe has been linked up to: Slightly Indulgent Tuesday @ Simply Sugar and Gluten Free