A Date with Kale

Last night Denise hosted our monthly post-cleanse pot luck at her house, to which I brought the Free Range Chickenless salad from Alissa's latest book Raw Food for Everyone. It's delicious! And easy to make. And was a huge hit. At the pot luck, we also be prepared lots of cheesy kale chips! Of course, they weren’t done and ready to be munched on last night... but oh how delightful they'll be after a day or so of dehydrating.

The Kale Chip "Cheese"
- 1 C cashews (pre-soak for 4-5 hours)
- 1 1/2 lemons (juice from)
- 2 T water
- 2 T nutritional yeast (or more!)
- 1 T paprika
- 1/2 red pepper
- salt to taste

Place all ingredients in food processor and process until smooth. Rub the "cheese" all over broken up kale leaves until coated. Dehydrate 24 hours or longer. I don't know how long they'll stay crunchy after they're removed from the dehydrator, because they've never lasted long enough to find out! So, so yummy. Kale chips going into the dehydrator pictured below:

An update on the progression of Each Peach Cafe smoothie bar... We are unable to come to an agreement about the terms for the space we like at the moment, so our negotiations continue and our search resumes! There is so much real estate available right now, I don't foresee any problem finding the right space AND the right offer. In the meantime, Lori and I have some fabulous things in the works to make our delicious, healthy smoothies available sooner than later... Stay tuned.

Free Range Chickenless Salad
- 1 small zucchini, coarsely chopped
- 1 celery stalk, coarsely chopped
- 1/2 C Quick Cheese (1/4 C macadamia nuts, 1/4 C cashews, 1 t nama shoyu or Braggs, 1 t lemon juice. Combine ingredients in food processor and add water as necessary)
- 2 T apple cider vinegar
- 2 1/2 t Salad Seasoning (celery seeds, cumin seeds, dash of red pepper flakes)
- 1 shallot minced
- 10 to 12 grapes, halved
- 1 apple, cored and diced
- sea salt, pepper, paprika to taste

Whisk together the cheese, vinegar, salad seasoning, and other seasonings. Add zucchini, celery, shallot, grapes and apple, and toss to coat. Arrange with radicchio, romaine, or other leaf of your choice. Serve!

Enjoy!
Augusta