Saf, Kensington

It was vegan Emma's Birthday a few weeks ago, which is always great because it means I get to go and play with Vegan Emma for a while and it almost always involves good vegan food (like most of our play dates). This year we met up after my training day in London, then went to Saf in Kensington. Emma had a voucher so we could only choose a few things on the menu, but I found it hard to chose out of 3 items, so would have definitely struggled with the full menu. The restaurant is based in Kensington above a Wholefoods (I could spend days in this shop), we rushed there after both being stuck on the same train in different carriages! 

I chose the starter before I went otherwise we would have been there all day! Emma already knew which one I was going to go for, but really, how could I resist raw vegan cheese. The dish sounded amazing, Pesto au Poivre: basil pesto between layers of cashew cheese with a pink peppercorn crust, served with rocket salad, dehydrated raw flax seed crackers and drizzled with a balsamic glaze. It was one of those dishes that tasted as good as it sounded, lovely crunchy flax crackers, with salty cheese and a thick layer of pesto. This was definitely the best cheese substitute I've ever tried and to be honest I would rather eat it over dairy. 

Emma had Dolmades: vine leaves filled with cauliflower rice, pine nuts, cumin, lemon juice and dill served with a vegan yoghurt and cucumber dip. I'm a bit afraid of vine leaves, but tried one anyway for the sake of my blog (and because I couldn't resist). I can confirm that they were also delicious. 

For the main I went for the Asparagus Farinata: slow-roasted asparagus tips in a chickpea farinata crêpe served with lemon- tarragon aioli and house salad. I feel a bit sad with myself for choosing this one because although it was really yummy, Emma and I made something similar not too long ago and I feel like I should have ventured out and had the raw pad thai. This can only be a good thing though, as it means that I will have to go back to try it :)

I loved trying the raw dish at Saf and I'd definitely recommend it for a filling, nutritious meal, you can check out the website here. I had a lovely vegan Emma's birthday (I hope she did too) and we finished the evening off by visiting the roof top film club in Hoxton and watching the Big Lebowski :) 

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Emma's Raw Apple Pie

The time has come for my first ever guest post! My lovely vegan friend Emma made a raw apple pie for this months vegan pot luck and I thought it would only be fair to share it with you. I'd heard a lot about how amazing this pie was so I was very excited to try it! It lived up to all my expectations, the flavours are better than any non vegan and cooked apple pies I've tried! Over to Emma:

This apple pie is great as it contains no sugar and is really healthy, as well as being a real treat.After reading so many different recipes online I decided to just make it up myself. I have discovered it is very popular with everyone, vegan, raw or carnivore!

Raw Apple Pie! 

Ingredients

Serves 4-6


350g dates

100g almonds, ground.
100g brazil nuts

8 apples

1 lemon

Cinnamon

Crust:

Put 250g of dates, brazil nuts (you can use any nuts) and almost all of your almonds into a food processor and blend.
The mixture should become a ball and not be too sticky, just add more almonds if it is.

Sprinkle the rest of the almonds thinly in your pie dish to stop the crust sticking.

Press the mixture into the dish tightly and evenly.

Put into the fridge while you prepare the filing.

Lovely Crust!

Topping:

Peel and core 2 apples and slice thinly.

Place in the juice of 1/2 a lemon and set aside.

Filling:

Start by peeling, coring and chopping 4 of the apples and placing them in a food processor along with the rest of your dates.

Originally I was only going to use dates in the crust but I wanted my filling to be thicker.

Add the juice of 1/2 lemon and a generous teaspoon of cinnamon.

Blend thoroughly.

Peel, core and chop 2 more of your apples and blend until chopped into small pieces, do not overdo it.

Mix the two together.

Spread the filling evenly over your crust.

Decorate with the sliced apple and sprinkle with cinnamon.

Put in the fridge for an hour to set.

Enjoy!

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Raw Food

I forgot to blog about this, because as a complete failure I lasted one day! I truly admire all Raw foodists because they take a massive interest in raw food and what it can do for you. But I love cooking and cooked food too much and one day was enough for me! I started my first day with a smoothie, which I usually do, but it all went down hill from there. I had a salad with my homemade hummus which was okay, but I usually have hot food for lunch and because my work place is freezing I really wanted some warm food. And by the time I got home, I was really missing it! For dinner I had raw courgette pasta which was okay, but nothing compared to what I usually eat. I pretty much already wanted to give up. So the next morning I went to a health food shop in buckingham and couldn't really afford anything I wanted so brought some raspberries from the super market instead. After eating them all I went for a run and started to feel really sick and decided I definitely wanted to stop and when I got home I ate a whole pizza! I do feel annoyed with myself that I couldn't even see it out for 5 days. But I think it would have been a miserable few days, as I just love food too much.

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Raw Diet

Raw courgette hummus.

Fully stocked raw fridge!

Starting tomorrow I will be trying a Raw Diet as an experiment, something to write about and hopefully a bit of a detox. I've been reading up on the benefits of a raw diet and the main benefits seem to be more energy and feeling cleansed. At first looking through all the recipes I felt extremely excited about all the new foods I will be eating next for the next 5 days, hopefully this lasts as it will make it so much easier if I can get really stuck in to making all of my meals. I did a quick shop today for everything I needed for the first day, and decided I will start with a smoothie, and have a salad with raw hummus for lunch. I haven't quite decided what to have for dinner, but I like the looks of courgette noodles. I started off today with making my own tahini and courgette hummus for my lunch, it was quite easy to make and will hopefully make my lunch for tomorrow a bit more exciting. I will blog for the next 5 days about what foods I've discovered and how the diet is making me feel. Wish me luck!

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