Stuffing Croquettes with Wild Mushroom Gravy
Raw, Vegan – Completely Grain and Gluten-Free!
When the holidays come along, it can often be a desolate time for people who have made a paradigm shift in their eating — especially if they haven’t found vegan, raw or gluten-free options that are appealing.
My favorite has always been stuffing. For years my hosts on Thanksgiving or Christmas would be kind enough to make a batch for me that had never been stuffed inside the turkey, but once I made the shift to eating more raw foods and avoiding gluten I knew it was time to create a new tradition.
These croquettes taste exactly like stuffing! But there are no grains, no gluten, no animal products and they can be made either fully raw, dehydrated at 115 degrees or raw fusion, by baking in the oven at a low temperature. Just place them on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet. You only need to bake them a short time – an hour or two – until the outside is dry as the inside should remain soft (just like stuffing.)
These have also been popular with mainstream eaters. I serve the Stuffing Croquettes with a Wild Mushroom Gravy that can also be eaten as a soup or used as a sauce (see photo below) Accompanied by a totally refreshing and simple Cranberry Orange Relish and a side dish Green Beans Siciliano. The green beans were “tempered” a Raw Fusion technique and topped with a raw puttanesca sauce as in this recipe.
For the wild mushroom gravy – you can use any kind of dried mushroom you can find, or a medley of them. I especially love porcini for the taste and also that porcini mushrooms are a rare vegan source of Vitamin D.
Stuffing Croquettes
Ingredients:
1 ½ cup walnuts soaked overnight, rinsed
1 ½ cup almonds soaked overnight, rinsed
2-3 TB. chopped poultry herbs (thyme, sage, rosemary)
2 stalks of celery finely diced
½ tsp. cumin
2-4 TB. of water or vegetable broth
2-3 scallions chopped
Sea salt to taste
Dash or two of black pepper
Directions: Combine first 5 ingredients in food processor with “S” blade and mix, adding water or stock as needed to moisten. Stir in scallions. Form oblong shapes and dehydrate on Teflex or parchment paper in dehydrator for 3-5 hours at 115 degrees. You want them nicely browned on outside, but still moist on inside. If you don’t have a dehydrator, you can try these out in a metal or glass pan lined with parchment paper. Place in oven at lowest temperature and leave door slightly open. When outside is browned, they are ready.
Wild Mushroom Gravy
Ingredients:
¼ cup tahini or raw almond butter
1 cup of dried forest mushrooms (shitake, porcini, portobello, chanterelle – or mixed)
1 cup white or bella mushrooms, quartered
½ cup soaking water from mushrooms
2 TB. Vidalia onion, chopped
1 TB. Bragg’s liquid aminos
½ tsp. Celtic sea salt
2-3 large mushrooms, minced
1 scallion, minced
Prep: Cover 1 cup of shitake or forest mushrooms with warm (not hot) water and soak for at least 1 hour. Remove mushrooms but retain liquid.
Directions: In a blender, combine the nut butter, quartered mushrooms, forest re=hydrated mushrooms, onions, Bragg’s, salt, soak water and water. Blend until smooth Mix in minced mushrooms and top with minced scallions or chives. Mixture should be thicker for sauce or gravy and thinner for soup. You can heat this mixture in a high-powered blender like a Vitamix or gently on a stove but don’t let it boil to retain the enzymes and nutrients.
Serve with Cranberry Orange Relish and Green Beans Siciliano.
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