Rawsome “grilled” cheese sandwiches with tomato-basil soup

Our creative Chicagoland interns Angelina Andriacchi and  Benjamin Eidenberg have been having a ton of the fun in the Creative Health Institute kitchen for the past month or so.   One week they got a hankering for grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup and they developed a rawlicious grilled cheese and tomato basil soup feast for us. My 5-year-old niece happened to be visiting that evening and she gave the recipes the thumbs up, too. I love the grilled cheese sandwiches. The bread has a wonderful garlic flavor. But I have to say, I loved the soup even more. This tomato-basil soup is one of the very best raw soups I’ve ever eaten. Good job Angelina and Ben. I really hope our blog followers enjoy these recipes as much as we have.

~ Patty

Creamy Tomato Basil Soup

Ingredients:

1 Cup Soaked Cashews

4 pints ripe cherry tomatoes

½ cup alfalfa sprouts

½ cup sundried tomatoes, rehydrated (use the water used to rehydrate tomatoes in soup)

1 ½ bunch basil (if you get two bunches save the other half and use as garnish)

½ bunch cilantro

1 lemon, juiced

½ red onion

½ red bell pepper

3 cloves pressed garlic

2 stalks celery

1 avocado

1 tablespoon ground flax

1 tablespoon salt (may need more to taste)

1 ½ teaspoon cumin

1 teaspoon paprika

Preparation:

Place as many ingredients as you can in blender. You will have to make several blenders to make the soup, and as you fill each blender add about 2 cups of water. You can add however much water depending on the thickness level that you desire. Once you have made a full bowl of the soup, taste the soup and add more salt, basil, lemon or other seasonings depending on what you think it needs. Place in the dehydrator to warm till time for service. You can garnish the soup with some dehydrated tomatoes and fresh chopped basil. Bon Appetite!

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Bread!  Onion and Rosemary Oat Bread

4 cups Soaked Oats (we used leftover CHI oatmeal!)

2 Cups Milled Brown Flax (grind it up so that the seed is broken, but not completely flour)

1 Cup Rejuvelac

¼ Cup Nutritional Yeast

1 red onion

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon ground rosemary

1 teaspoon dill

¼ cup water

Preparation:

In food processor, blend the oats, flax and rejuvelac. Set aside in a bowl. Then take ½ of the red onion, nutritional yeast, salt, garlic powder, rosemary, dill, and water and place into a food processor and blend. Combine those ingredients in with the oats and flax. Take the other half of the red onion and chop it to a small dice and mix the onion into the dough. Spread out the dough on dehydrator sheets, and dehydrate at 130 for one hour (to sweat the bread)  and then reduce the temperature to 110 and dehydrate until most of the moisture is gone.  You want to have some moisture still or else it will turn into toast (or crackers!). Be sure to flip the bread about half way through so as to dehydrate evenly. Once you flip the bread, sprinkle a little extra rosemary and press onto the bread for garnish. Bon Appetite!

I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter Garlic Butter!!!  It really does taste like butter!

Ingredients:

I Cup Coconut Oil (warmed in dehydrator)

¼ – ½ Cup Ground Golden Flax Flour

1 Tablespoon Salt

1 Tablespoon Turmeric

1 ½ Tablespoon Garlic Powder (you can used fresh pressed if you can handle the punch!)

1 ½ teaspoon White Onion Powder

1 ½ teaspoon yellow mustard

Whisk all of the ingredients except the flax together. Once everything is incorporated add the flax. Adjust seasonings with salt and garlic to taste. Because the coconut oil has been warmed in the dehydrator, the consistency will originate like melted butter. Place the butter in the fridge to allow it to set (thicken up) and mix periodically so that the flax will stay evenly mixed throughout. The butter can set in the fridge as quickly as 15 minutes and will be knife spreadable. You can control the consistency of the butter by placing it in the fridge and dehydrator to make it as malleable as you need to work with.