Carrot-Almond-Kalamata Spread – Unlikely Yet Delicious Combination
Sometimes I just play around with foods that I have available or what I am craving at the moment. One day I had some soaked almonds that I was going to use to make milk but I wanted to make some kind of meatless pate for dinner to pair with some flaxseed crackers I had mad the day before. I was also craving the earthiness and saltiness of olives and had a jar of pitted kalamata olives. I thought that maybe blending them up with some carrots might be interesting and it really was tasty! The most interesting thing about this was that my 16-year old goddaughter, staying with me at the time also loved this spread! I have since introduced this to attendees of my raw and raw fusion classes here in Tampa and it’s been popular.
Make sure to start out with raw almonds and soak them for at least eight hours (10-12 for nuts is preferable). It doesn’t matter if you leave the skins on. Soak your nuts and seeds accomplishes 3 great enhancers: 1) softens the texture so that you can make mylks, spreads, puddings, cremes etc.; 2) removes the anti-nutrients from the skin/peel as those block absorption of all the “good stuff”; and 3) the act of soaking and germinating awakens more of the inherent micronutrients in the seed/nut/grain/bean and increases the bio-availability.
Carrot-Almond-Kalamata Spread
Vegan-Grain & Gluten Free
Ingredients:
¾ cup of raw almonds, soaked
½ cup of pitted kalamata olives
2/3 cup of carrots, peeled and chopped into chunks (or use baby carrot
1 tsp. dried rosemary
Optional: Add 1 TB of either cold-pressed olive oil or raw tahini to make it creamier
Soak almonds for 8-12 hours, drain and rinse. Place carrots in food processor and process until they are pretty well broken down. Add olives, rosemary and tahini and process until you have a paste-like consistency. Add almonds and pulse until blended but keep kind of chunky.
Serve as a dip for crudites or as a spread base for lettuce or collard wraps. Also great for crackers.
Responses