crazyrawlife
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‘meaty’ raw burritos
I learnt something new at work yesterday; “calling an audible”. For those of you who don’t follow American football in any detail (I’m trying, but as an Australian I still like rugby union), this means the quarterback (the star of the game and typically the one with the cutest butt – think Tom Brady, or at least I do because I live in Boston and have been programmed to do so) can change a play they are given from the coach if it doesn’t work for them. Overnight (and quite annoyingly), the term has become a part of my managers’ work speak. However, it was interestingly empowering to have a term to explain what I often do to recipes when I was making dinner last night… usually I call it bastardizing, which doesn’t quite have the same ring!
So anyway, last night I called an audible on Juliano’s Bella Burritos. Having been away on vacation, I only had a few staples in the fridge and some surprise goodies from my weekly CSA to work with but I was desperate to make a raw meal after having a lot of cooked food recently.
Given the food situation I was a bit reluctant to open Juliano’s Raw: The Uncook Book as he often uses a lot of, and random, ingredients – although having said that, his stuff is always tasty! Using the one portobella mushroom I had as my focal point, I found the recipe for Bella Burritos, I discovered I had a few zucchinis and a lettuce from Farmer Bob’s farm, and I know that I can walk out my front door and get cilantro for the pesto… I was good to go!
I have provided my take on the recipe below as I really liked it and haven’t tried the real thing :) That being said, you can get the book and make it yourself, or call an audible on this recipe too and make it to suit you, the basic premise is fairly forgiving.
Ingredients:
- 2 cups portobello mushroom, diced (this was one fairly large mushroom)
- 1/3 cup diced red/green/yellow pepper depending on what you have available – I actually used a purple pepper last night, first time I had ever seen one but got it in my CSA
- Around 10 cherry tomatoes, quartered
- 3 garlic cloves, crushed
- 1cm jalapeno pepper, grated
- Splash cold-pressed olive oil
- Juice of 1 lemon
- Fresh / dried herbs to taste – I had fresh oregano (it was the only herb to survive in my garden!) and dried rosemary + thyme
- 5 black olives, pitted and chopped
- 6 sun–dried tomatoes
- I wish I’d had sweet onion to put in it so would perhaps suggest adding it if you have it :)
- 1/3 cup nama shoyu
- 2 zucchini
- 4-8 romaine lettuce leaves
- Cilantro Pesto – details below…
Instructions:
- Put everything except the zucchini, lettuce and pesto in a bowl and marinate for at least 10 minutes
- Peel the zucchini into thin strips or spiralize
- Place zucchini on lettuce leaves (I like to use two) and top with the marinated vegetables and pesto – you might want to strain the vegetables first
- Wrap and eat!
A hearty, healthy and filling meal for: four not very hungry people; two hungry people; or one hungry person who wants left overs, i.e. me. I had two two burritos for dinner last night and had enough for two again tonight, I just stored the zucchini and marinated veggies separately.
Cilantro Pesto – no audibles here, this is Juliano’s recipe only halved.
- 1 cup cilantro, chopped and packed
- 1/3 cup walnuts
- 1/3 cup fresh squeezed lime juice
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/4 cup spinach – I had this available last night but didn’t even see it on the recipe until typing it up, whoops! Juliano does say it’s optional though…
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- 1/2 tbls minced garlic
- 2 tsp minced jalapeno
- 1/4 cup olive oil
Place in blender and blend until smooth.*
*I started out with that annoying problem of not having enough food in the blender to get it going… until I discovered top speed on my BlendTec!! It was sooooo exciting. I have always used the settings, i.e. sauces, smoothies, ice cream etc. and use the ‘speed’ buttons for low speed things but apparently it goes all the way up to 10 and I seriously thought the thing would take flight! It did a wonderful job of the pesto and even turned off all by herself after about 20 seconds, I guess she was tired :)
xx
2 Comments on “‘meaty’ raw burritos”
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“I started out with that annoying problem of not having enough food in the blender to get it going… until I discovered top speed on my BlendTec!! ”
Interesting! Fun to know you’ve dealt with that too. I’ll have to try the top speed. I have a problem with smaller batches of cashew cream type stuff. I love my blendtec :)
Yay, another Blendtec girl! We seem to be few and far between Michelle. Top speed is my new favorite thing :)