Day #6: Baking Falafel

This week, I came to the Peace, Love, and Raw Café not at my usual Wednesday slot, but on Friday, the afternoon of Valentines day. Upon arriving, I saw celery, parsley, a huge tub of chick peas, sunflower seeds, and a myriad of spices laying out on the working tables.

 

Sprouted Chick Peas

 

The work station

 

I cut all the stems off, leaving only the leaves

 

“We’re making Falafel!” Nicole said. I was actually super excited. I had been wanting to try cooking falafel at home, but here, where all the ingredients were already laid out was even better.

First, I clipped celery and parsley.

Me in action

“The stems get really chewy and tough in the falafel, so we just get rid of as much as we can and take the leaves,” explained Nicole. After 30 minutes or so, I had a nice looking bunch of parsley and celery leaves sitting in a bowl below me.

Next, I cut up onions. Wow, what an experience. Let me say something first though: It was Valentines day, I was single, there had been a lot of chocolate I had willed myself away from (trying to stay healthy), and my plans for later included an all-girls movie marathon and a lot of pizza. I was feeling rather down -not to mention, in need of a good cry. So standing there, looking at the 6 onions I was about to cut up, it didn’t dawn on me that they were about to give me exactly what I needed. Halfway through cutting the first one, I began to feel the sting. Then my eyes started watering. But on that particular, somewhat depressing of a day, I welcomed the tears. By the time I was on the sixth, tears were running rampant on my face, mascara was trickling down, and I just kept feeling better and better.

Once that was over, I sliced up the cloves of garlic. Then, I helped Candice, one of the other workers, weigh, mix, and blend the ingredients. I weighed out the chickpeas, sunflower seeds, lemon juice, onions, garlic. We blended that mix and then added in the spices: cumin, coriander, and some olive oil. We deposited the “falafel dough” into a big bowl. The dough looked lumpy, with little unblended parsley leaves sticking out -kind of like vomit, if I’m being completely honest. But the lemony, spice-filled aroma was intoxicating!

Falafel Dough

Weighing and Blending ingredients

Candice continued making more batches of the falafel dough (6 more), while I began scooping up little balls of falafel with my scooper and depositing them on a dehydrating sheet. The thing that kept coming to my mind was: THESE ARE THE CUTEST THINGS EVER!!!!! Right as I was thinking this, Candice goes, “Aren’t they so cute?” So yes, not only are falafel balls super cute, but, I also really like the people that I work with.

The cutest little falafel patties!

Balls on the left, patties at the right

I was able to fit 16 falafel balls onto one sheet in rows of 4 by 4. Then, Nicole showed me how to smush them down a little bit into more a patty shape so they would dehydrate more evenly. I continued to do that for about an hour.

Going into the dehydrator

Internship Time: 1.5 hour, Write-Up time: .5 Hour

Cost, Material: NA

Total Time: 58 hours

Day #3 of PLR Internship: Strawberry, Lemon Cheesecake

Carried in by the brisk wind outside, I arrived at the café to a chorus of, “Tali, you’re here,” from the workers! I felt like part of the team as I grabbed an apron, washed my hands, and looked to Nicole for direction.

On my way over to where I saw her working, I observed one of the workers peeling almonds. After soaking the almonds overnight (better for our digestive systems), the worker slipped the almond crust off of the almond! It was so interesting to see the almonds skinless, almost like they were naked.

Soaked Almonds

The Whole Process: Soaked to Skinned

 

Skinned Almonds

“What’s great about interns is that we can have a little fun,” she said with a devilish grin. “We’re going to make a cake!” She grabbed up the recipe book, flung it open, and started listing out ingredients for me to grab. Excitedly, I rushed around the kitchen finding things -soaked and sprouted cashews from the freezer, walnuts, coconut oil, freshly-squeezed lemon juice, pale pink Himalayan salt, agave nectar, date paste. It felt like a scavenger hunt since I knew where little of it was.

First, we made the crust, throwing date paste, almonds, walnuts, cacao nibs (which I had never seen before: they’re basically partially ground up cacao beans), agave, and coconut butter into a food processor. Then we weighed the crust mixture and divided it by two for two evenly weighted crust dishes. This is an important concept in cooking: weighing quantities to make sure that all the servings are equal.

The crust of the cake -date paste, cacoa, walnuts, coconut oil, and almonds

After setting those in the freezer to harden, we defrosted and pureed strawberries and coconut oil for a sweet, delicious middle layer. Then we poured the strawberry puree on top of the crust and set them back in the freezer. Finally, we began to make the middle. We were making a sweet lemon, cashew filling -cashews, lemon, coconut oil, agave, and date paste. I was surprised to see how much sugar went into even “raw” and “healthy” desserts. The “sugar overload” is almost impossible to avoid! I blended al the ingredients together after measuring out and weighing each!

Coconut Oil melts on a double boiler

Melted coconut oil and cacao powder

measuring and weighing ingredients

Pouring the filling on top!

For the final touch, we drizzled the extra strawberry puree on top of the smooth and flattened filling, running a fork through the drizzle to create a beautiful creation on the top of the cake! For something that always seemed so hard, it was actually quite simple. Then we set the two cakes into the freezer for a final drying time. Unfortunately, I never got to taste it. Although, I am quite sure it would’ve tasted amazing!!!

Final Product: A Scrumptious Strawberry-Lemon Cheescake

Lemon cheesecake with strawberry puree drizzle

Before designing the top!

Internship: 1.5 hour, Write-Up: .5 hour

Cost: NA, Materials: RAW’s food and supplies

Total Time: 47 hours

Cooking with New Vegetables – Rutabaga and Kolhrabi!

This past Sunday was primarily a day of cooking for me and my family. Wanting to prepare healthy dishes for the week, we headed to the store and came across a number of interesting looking and unfamiliar foods! Feeling adventurous, we bought some of them, took them home, and found recipes for them.

Bok Choi

Kolhrabi at its finest

What was so fun about this, was how odd and unique the plants looked! In fact, I recall thinking: Please, let these not be poisonous! But actually, they all tasted pretty normal –not to mention, some of them had great flavor.

One such vegetable was Rutabaga, a cross between a turnip and a cabbage that originated in Sweden. While the rutabaga may taste inedibly bitter to some, I thought it tasted rather plain, although it had a delicious crunch. The rutabaga is known for its high levels of Vitamin C, containing 25 mg for every 100 g (42% of daily recommended dose). We added this crazy vegetable to the recipe “fall slaw,” a great recipe. The recipe calls for a unique vegetable combination –intermixing carrots, rutabaga, kohlrabi, and celery- along with some apple, lemon, and pumpkin seeds. The dressing was a tahini past with maple syrup, lemon, a pinch of salt, and water. To my delight, the spiralizer came in handy for the carrots, apples, and rutabaga! The whole slaw just looked amazing and tasted great. Plus, good protein sources came from the tahini (sesame seeds we ground up), pumpkin seeds, and a bit from the veggies.

Great Fall Slaw from rawmazing.com

We also got Kolhrabi, which went straight into the Fall Slaw. The word that came to mind when I saw this little green vegetable with long, lush, green stems was “adorable.” For some reason, it just looked so cute. Looking online, we discovered that you can eat the long leaves like you do kale and chard, so we saved those for our morning smoothies. Kolhrabi comes from the same family as cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, kale, and collard greens –with a texture similar to a broccoli stem but a bit milder. Kolhrabi has many noted health benefits. It is rich in vitamins and dietary fiber, yet low in calories, fat, and has zero cholesterol. Like rutabaga, it is an excellent source of vitamin C, providing 62 mg per 100 g. It also contains a myriad of phytochemicals like isothiocyanates, sulforphane, and indole-3-carbinol. What’s more, it contains notable amounts of B vitamins and minerals.

On top of that, my mom and I tried out another new recipe: Shepherds Pie from one of Kimberly Snyder’s recipe books The Detox Diet. While Shepherd’s pie is traditionally heavy with meat, cheese, and a bread crust, this one used a hearty mix of corn, peas, celery, and seasoning for the insides, and a delicious, savory yam topping for the “crust!” It was warm, filling, and deliciously gooey! Plus, it was all vegetables so no worries about loading up on fats.

Cooking up the “pie stuffing”

Blending the yam “crust”

Corn, carrots, peas, and celery laid out!

Adding the “yam crust”

Piping hot out of the oven!

Shop time: 1 hour, Cook Time: 2 hours, Write-Up time: .5 hour, Research: .5 hour

Cost: fresh vegetables ($25), Materials: Fresh vegetables and produce

Total time: 45 hours

About Peace, Love, and Raw Cafe

Owners of Peace, Love, and Raw, Nicole and Leland Harmell, prepare a raw dessert mousse.

Starting as a wholesale business in 2012, Peace, Love, and Raw expanded in April 2013 to be a “grab-and-go” deli. As of the beginning of 2014, they are still going strong.

Everything on the menu is gluten-free, corn-free, soy-free, vegan, and organic. Customers can find an assortment of raw juices, smoothies, bars, and other simple snacks and desserts. The deli’s products are reasonably priced, according to co-owner Nicole Harmell. The Harmell’s vision for their business has always been to feed people like themselves, who want to buy healthy food but can’t spend $10 on a single bar. To create inexpensive prices they try to buy their ingredients in bulk.

Chocolate crepes filled with blueberries.

Initially the deli’s products were drastically under-priced to make them affordable for everyone, but with retail mark-up prices and the extra time put into preparing the food, like sprouting and soaking all of the nuts, the cost increases. Nicole said Peace, Love, and Raw was designed to be a safe place where people can enjoy food without worrying about toxins, chemicals, or contamination.

“One of the main motivators for us to open Peace, Love, and Raw was because there was no place we felt safe eating downtown; we couldn’t find anywhere that served really healthy, organic, gluten-free food,” said Nicole. They also place emphasis on their store being allergy-friendly, a place people can leave feeling energized and satisfied, said the owners.

The grab-and-go policy encourages people to enjoy their food outdoors with both Sylvester Park and Heritage Park nearby. The deli is located on Legion Way between Columbia Street and Capitol Way. “The passion my wife and I have for food and healthful living is going to be the key factor in making our business a success,” said Leland.

Not only is the idea of “raw, healthy” food really trending right now, but Olympia is the perfect locale for such a business because the market is full of people who are interested in health, wellness, fitness, and the community, according to Leland.

Olympia’s two nationally renowned co-ops are great for business at Peace, Love, and Raw, since it is both a deli and a wholesale business.

Vegan German Cacao Cake.

Deli’s raw mousse topped with strawberries.

Already, the deli has gained recognition for it’s RawNaimo bars, a chocolatey dessert. According to Leland, the chocolate layer is 100 percent Raw Cacao, which is one of the highest sources of magnesium, a nutrient that Americans tend to be deficient in. The Harmell’s use soaked and sprouted nuts, taking extra time and care to increase the bio-availability of the nutrients for their customers; and, they have many other healing ingredients throughout, including raw coconut oil, which is shown to protect people from viruses and bacteria, he said.

“The health benefits of our RawNaimo Bar are great and we can talk about them all day, but once you taste it, you’ll feel the peace and love,” said Leland. “This is dessert you can feel good about. To us, this is the most effective health education,” he said.

“We want to foster an atmosphere of creativity and community in our deli, so anyone with an idea for our menu is welcome to share their thoughts; it’s my belief that we can make anything raw, we just need people to let us know what they want,” he said. As the business gains momentum, their product line will expand to different types of entrees such as sandwiches and soups. A potential possibility is to open up another deli in Southern Oregon, where the sense of community is very similar to Olympia’s; and then later another store farther down the west coast, said Leland. “If we have a vision of being bigger than we are today, then we’ll grow; and if we have passion, then we’ll grow fast,” he said.

Clearly, PLR is a place of the future, sporting a wide array of beneficial products and a genuine enthusiasm for reaching out to others and educating people -hands-on through food- about the value of a healthy lifestyle.

Write-up Time: 2 hours, Interview Time: 1 hour

Cost/Materials: NA

Total: 27 hours

*Pictures Taken by Sarah Rosnick.