A few days ago the organic restaurant Brío in Tarifa asked me to do a cooking demo of healthy snacks and appetizers. We decided to use local & fair trade ingredients and RAW cooking techniques to talk about the importance of eating living foods. I prepared several vegetable patés that I will detail later (and give the recipes, heh, heh). Among them, this Carrot and Turmeric Pate, a fresh and vibrant snack of simple preparation and impressive results.
One of the participants asked if the vegetable patés sold in supermarkets are also healthy and, well, if we could spare ourselves the work and buy them without hesitation. And yes, it is true that there is a great variety of vegetable patés but, I am afraid, most of them are ultra-processed foods. The advantages of making our own patés are quite a few:
- They are cheaper.
- Preparation difficulty equals none.
- We control the ingredients we put in them: organic, gluten-free, fat-free, whatever we decide.
- They are fresh and living foods, contrary to the purchased ones that are pasteurized and therefore without probiotic and enzymatic properties.
- Made at home do not contain additives, thickeners, preservatives, etc.
To encourage you to make your own patés, we are sharing some of our favorite recipes starting with a winner recipe, our RAW Pate de Campagne. We also love this fantastic Sardine Pâté from Irena Macri and a light and RAW Beetroot Pâté to add more probiotics to your table. We end up with the easiest of all, a vegan Black Olive Tapenade, a Mediterranean classic.
We recommend combining our Carrot paté (as in the photo) with a Moroccan Carrot Salad (onion, carrot, coriander, oil, cumin and lemon juice). The crunchy contrast of the salad with the creaminess of the pate is fabulous. All of them very Mediterranean flavors, like this website, right? The flavor of creamy carrots thanks to the Tahini, the perfume of orange peel and the flavor punch of coriander and lemon make it an ideal snack for the first days we walk out to feel the Sun’s warmth on our skin.
- 1 cup / 140 g sunflower seeds
- 1 cup / 130g carrots, peeled and chopped
- 1 teaspoon peeled and grated fresh turmeric
- 1 tablespoon minced ginger
- ¼ cup sesame seeds
- 3 tablespoons raw tahini
- 1 tablespoon unpasteurized shiro miso
- 2 tablespoons lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon of orange juice
- 3 tablespoons nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon of sea salt
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- Soak the sunflower seeds in 3 cups of mineral water for 3-4 hours. Drain and rinse.
- Place the rinsed seeds on a tray and allow to dry well.
- In a food processor, finely chop ginger and carrots.
- Add the sunflower and sesame seeds and process until you get a paste as fine as possible.
- Add tahini, miso, lemon and orange juices, salt and pepper and process until smooth.
- Add the nutritional yeast and turmeric and incorporate until well mixed.
- Taste and correct for salt if necessary.
- Place in a paté terrine or mold.
- Garnish with orange zest and refrigerate to set.
- Optional: garnish with fresh coriander leaves and a few drops of EVOO.
It is essential to dry the seeds well before processing. Otherwise you can get a watery texture, a too runny paste.
Depending on the power of the food processor, transfer the pasta to a bowl and continue with a hand mixer until the desired consistency is achieved.
Felipe Agee says
Tahini and Miso, The Middle East meets Japan! Fantastic!
How does Raw and Living Foods answer the crisis of the global spread of American processed food chronicled by Mark Bittman in his latest book: “Animal, Vegetable, Junk: A History of Food, from Sustainable to Suicidal”?
(https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/apr/25/our-unequal-earth-mark-bittman-cheap-food-american-diet)
Saludos!
Javi says
Many thanks for your comment, Phil. As you can see on the side bar on the page, Raw food means that (raw): unprocessed, minimally touched ingredients. I would say it is on the opposite side of the ultra-processed food crisis you mention.
Cheers from Spain!