Raw Valentine Ravioli

One plate, two forks...

...A girl can dream, can't she? Ha hahha:)

Well, at least I know there are some raw foodies out there that have someone special in their life that would just love to share a beautiful plate of raw ravioli:)

Click here for this lovely recipe from raw chef Sarma Melngailis, featured at G Living.

I reduced the recipe to about about 1/3, so many of the ingredient amounts were estimated:)

Today I used both red and golden beets. The golden beets have a slightly milder flavor than the red, but I think they both worked well in the recipe. Of course, I cut them into little heart shapes for Valentines Day:)

I used an orange bell pepper for the delicious sauce, and subbed cashews for the pine nuts called for.

This fabulous meal came together very quickly and easily, and I thought it was awesome! Such a beautiful blend of flavors:)

If you haven't had beet ravioli before, this would be an awesome recipe to try!



Thank you to Sarma for sharing this recipe online for us all to enjoy!

Hope you all have a wonderful day!!!

Sarma's Beet Ravioli

Another winner from the pages of Living Raw Food by the lovely Sarma Melngailis.

Pages 201-2 feature this amazing entree.

At first glance, you might think such a beautiful meal would have lots of ingredients and take forever to make. I was pleasantly surprised that this was not the case :)

To start, prepare the pine nut "goat cheese" filling for the tender ravioli. Simply process* the perfect mix of pine nuts, oil, shallot, lemon zest and juice, nutritional yeast, s&p...see how easy:)

*One tiny little 'oopsie' here, I let it go a bit too long in the processor, and it got a little oily, but still tasted incredible:)

The delectable Rosemary-Cream Sauce includes half of the goat cheese with the addition of lemon juice, garlic, rosemary, water, s&p. I added slightly less water to create a very thick sauce. Again, so easy...

The last step involves slicing beets thinly, and cutting shapes as desired. Since it is how the ravioli is presented in the book, and it is getting close to Valentine's Day, I thought hearts would be nice. Next step is giving them a little soak in oil, lemon juice, and salt.

While they are soaking, you may want to give your fingers and cutting board a nice little scrub, since they will most likely be a lovely shade of pink by now:)

To finish, I drained the beets on a paper towel(don't yell at me, my fellow green peeps) and filled them with a little cheese mixture. Lay them on a plate with some fabulous Rosemary-Cream Sauce, a few drops of balsamic, a sprig of rosemary(or micro greens) and you are done!

This is absolutely one of the tastiest beet ravioli I have ever had. The fact that it is so easy to make is a huge plus. I especially adore the lemony flavors in it.

Sincere thanks to Sarma for sharing this fantastic recipe.

Chad Sarno's Beetroot Ravioli

This is an amazing and versatile recipe from Green Chef Chad Sarno . It is found on the gliving website. Click here for the recipe.

There are some steps that will take time to prepare. You may actually need a few days:)

The creamy cheese filling can be made using probiotic powder, or rejuvelac. I already had some rejuvelac on hand, so I used that.

Soaked cashews are blended with the rejuvelac, and cultured 14-16 hours. I like to let my cheeses go 24 hours, since my house is usually a little chilly.

Once the cheese is fermented, it is mixed with some lovely herbs, nutritional yeast, pepper, and salt. I prefer to use dried herbs in most of my cheeses, as the fresh ones add moisture and sometimes separate from the cheese. I left out the shallots called for, and used a bit less salt.

The green garlic oil needs 1 day to infuse, but I made it earlier and kept it in the fridge:)

The beet ravioli wrappers need at least an hour or so to soften in the garlic oil and some salt and pepper.

To assemble, simply fill the beet slices with a little cheese, drizzle a bit of the green oil and balsamic, and add a sprinkle of chives. I had a wide beet, so I used 1 beet slice folded over instead of 2 per ravioli:)

This was so good! Well worth the time needed to make it:) Thank you to Chef Chad Sarno for this recipe!

The delicious cheese was my favorite part of this recipe. I did a little remix with the ingredients and used it as a dip for some red beet chips. Simply slice and dehydrate a beet until crisp. Sprinkle with the green oil and balsamic, add a few chives, and dip in the creamy cheese.

I also formed some cheese into a heart shape by packing it in a cookie cutter. This really took care of my 'cheese and cracker' craving! The crisp crackers were another variation of my rosemary crackers:

Italian Herb Crackers

2 cups almonds, soaked 8 hours, rinsed and drained
½ cup Chia seed, ground fine
¼ cup nutritional yeast
1-2 tablespoons dried Italian herbs
1/2 -1 teaspoon salt, to taste
1 cup fresh water

1. In food processor fitted with “S” blade, grind almonds till coarse.

2. Add herbs, chia seed, and salt and process till combined.

3. With machine running, add water to form dough.

4. Let stand a few minutes to thicken.

5. Divide between 2 teflex sheets and roll covered with cling wrap.

6. Peel back wrap and sprinkle with extra herbs, if desired.

7. Replace wrap and roll lightly to set herbs.

8. Score as desired, or cut into shapes with cookie cutters as shown.

9. Dehydrate at 112 degrees, turning halfway through until crisp.

Store in glass jars for several weeks.

Sarma's Chanterelle and Kalamata Olive Ravioli

Sometimes you can just look at a recipe, or read the name, and know you will love it:)

Chanterelle and Kalamata Olive Ravioli, Macadamia Cream, Herb Sauce, and Pistachio-Parsley Salad.
See what I mean!


Sarma Melngailis' latest book, Living Raw Food, features this lovely recipe. The ravioli was created by chef Amanda Cohen. The book jacket said it is the most beloved entrée at Pure Food and Wine, Sarma's famous restaurant. After making it, I know why:)

The pasta is made with young coconut meat, and a small amount of flaxseed, zucchini, shallot, and salt. It whips up quickly in the blender. My coconut had very thick, firm meat, so I needed a splash of water to blend. The creamy mixture was dehydrated for a few hours and created a surprisingly sturdy pasta. The directions say to dry for two hours before flipping, but mine needed about three. One hour after flipping, the pasta was done.

An hour or so after the dough had been drying, I chopped the mushrooms for the filling, and mixed them with a little oil and salt. These needed to dehydrate for about 2 hours. This was also the time I started to soak the macadamia and pistachio nuts needed later in the recipe.

The dried dough cut very nicely into squares. I used a serrated ravioli wheel to cut the dough, but it also worked well with a standard ravioli cutter if you happen to have one;) I find another great way to cut tender dough is with a pizza cutter. I wrapped my trusty metal ruler with cling film, and used it as a guide to cut along.



The next step was to make the Macadamia Cream, since you need the solids from making it in the filling. Soaked macadamia nuts are puréed with water, a little garlic, and nutritional yeast. The blended cream is then strained. I pushed it through a mesh strainer with the back of a large spoon, which worked well. The remaining solids are added to the filling.

The strained cream is placed back in the blender with a little soaked pistachio. I needed a bit more water to the final sauce to make it blend, and it was still a little thick, but I like it that way:)

The flavorful filling is made with the dehydrated mushrooms,the reserved solids from the cream, olives, shallot, nutritional yeast, oil, salt and lemon zest. I omitted the salt since the olives had enough salt for my taste:)

The last component needed for the ravioli is the Herb Sauce. This is an amazing blend of basil, parsley, tarragon, thyme, scallion, rosemary, lemon zest and juice, oil and salt. It is prepared quickly in the food processor.

I also whipped up a little Pistachio-Parsley Salad. This is a beautiful mix of parsley, lemon juice and zest, oils, nuts, salt and pepper. I chopped the pistachios in the food processor in the same bowl after the herb sauce was poured out, so they had an extra touch of flavor.

Time to assemble!
I used my tiny ice cream scoop to place a little of the filling onto half of the pasta squares. Top with another square and squish together a little. I laid them on the cutting board and brushed them with the herb sauce.

Place a little cream sauce on the plate, and arrange the ravioli around it.

I added a bit of the Pistachio-Parsley salad, and my signature "rosebud" garnish, made with lemon peel:)

Thank you to Amanda Cohen for this amazing recipe, and of course to Sarma for sharing it in her lovely book.

Raw Porcini Ravioli in Cream Sauce:)

This was another one of those recipes that I knew I had to try once I saw it! The recipe is Raw Porcini Ravioli in Cream Sauce by snowdrop. It can be found on her blog Adirondack Raw Food Connection. (Yay!!..another raw foodie in the Adirondacks:))
This is such a lovely recipe. I really enjoyed making, and of course, eating it. Aside from the soaking time for the cashews and mushrooms, it came together very quickly. The ravioli are thinly sliced turnip, filled with a creamy purée of parsnip and marinated mushrooms. After warming about an hour in the dehydrator to soften, they are placed on a beautiful cream sauce with a sprinkle of fresh chopped parsley. Simply elegant!
Enjoying this for dinner tonight turned an ordinary day into something special!
Thank you to snowdrop for the wonderful recipe:) I am looking forward to your upcoming book!

Here are the mushrooms I used, found in the produce section of the market.