Here is the recipe for our special Valentine's day item we had at the cafes on Wednesday!  If you missed it's one night only appearance at Cafe Gratitude, then try making a special meal with this rawesome recipe here!

Ingredients:

Ingredients

• 1/4 pound whole dried hominy (pozole)
• 1 1/2 white onions peeled and halved
• 15 tomatillos (paper skin removed)
• 4 peeled garlic cloves
• 2 poblano chiles
• 1 serrano chile
• 2 Tbl. olive oil
• 1 cup coursely chopped cilantro
• 2 tsp. dried Mexican oregano
• 1 1/2 quarts vegetable broth
• salt and pepper

This Superfood Asian salad is pack with yummy flavor and nutritional benefits! This recipe is brought to you by Alice Liu, General Manager of our Berkeley Cafe.  Thanks, Alice!

• 4 or 5 Persian Cucumbers (small ones) 
• 1/2 tablespoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, I recommend Bariani Organic & Raw* OR Sancha Inchi Oil*
• 1 - 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 teaspoon of sesame oil 
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt, I recommend Himalayan Pink Crystal Salt* 
• 2 tablespoons of Sea Palm, soaked and chopped*
• 1 tablespoon of Chia Seeds
• a Dash of ground white peppercorn, optional

I first experienced the joy of kale massages at a retreat for student food activists on an anarchist farm in Sebastopol, CA, in 2010. Yes, I fell in love with it so head-over-heels that I still remember exactly where I learned it, and who taught it to me (an adorable deadlocked girl from San Luis Obispo named Anna).
Why did she teach me to knead these dark green spiky leaves? When kale gets a massage, it releases oils that help lubricate it and make it delicious to eat raw (untouched and uncooked it can be a bit abrasive). When you add lemon juice and olive oil, these soak into the leaves, since they’ve been punctured by your kneading. This means every bite of kale is covered in flavor!

Ingredients

This spicy soup is as delicious as it is satisfying!  Try it as an entree with some raw bread, or a salad.

Makes 3 cups, serves 3-4
2 cups carrot juice
1 large avocado (save a bit for the garnish)
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon minced ginger
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon lemon juice
½ jalapeño pepper
½ teaspoon chopped garlic
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper
5 mint leaves
15 large basil leaves
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon olive oil
Place all ingredients in your blender. Purée until smooth. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary.
Pour into three or four bowls, and garnish with a mint leaf or a thin slice of avocado.
Note: to gently warm this soup, simply blend a little longer. The friction alone will create heat.

Have you ever found yourself in the position of needing to loose more than 100 pounds?  Have you ever taken a leap of faith from a secure, successful career to choose your own freedom and fulfillment?  Do you know what it is like to loose the weight, leave the job, and learn to fly?

Well, Alison Ottaway does.  As far as miracle stories go, I believe Alison has lived through 3 or 4 of them, and is still going strong.  It all began in her early twenties, when she refused some chocolate raisins offered her by a friend.  One small step gave her the courage to become the woman she knew she was meant to be, exercising at home, shifting her diet, and ultimately loosing over 140lbs.  A year and a half later, she felt like a new person, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

By her late twenties, she was leading a life that by most accounts could be termed 'successful.' She had a stable marriage, a mortgage, and a highly lucrative job at Microsoft. However, her BMW, expensive lifestyle, and nights spent out drinking did not satisfy her, and she found inside herself a growing desire to feel vibrantly free and alive. Again, it was time for

Recipe by Chaya-Ryvka Diehl of www.theLivingVision.com (Chaya@theLivingVision.com)

If you have not yet found yourself a full on kale chip addict I am hoping to get you on the wagon. If you are already submerged in the world of kale chips and the cravings that go along with them, I am here to give your pocket book some serious relief as well as introduce you to the wonderful world of cashew free kale chips that will  ROCK YOUR WORLD!!!

Kale chips are so very easy to make, and they do not have to be cashew based to be super delish. These crispy, crunchy, mouthwatering and nutrient dense snacks are a revolutionary addition to anyone's diet! Not to mention that if you find yourself sneaking some deep fried chips every once in a while these are an excellent replacement that WILL hit that scrumptious comfort food snack spot.

Picnic ready side dish!  Here's a recipe that I've been digging lately.  I found it on the Raw Food Talk forums, which I suggest you peruse !  This is a raw take on the traditional coleslaw recipe and a pretty amazing rendition of raw vegan mayonnaise, if you ask me.  I have a jar of this homemade recipe in my fridge at this very moment, and I've been using it on everything lately.

First, you need to make the mayonnaise:

Remember that game "telephone" that you'd play as a kid?  One person whispers something into the next person's ear, and that person would whisper what they heard to the next person and after 10 kids, you'd have a totally different phrase?  I love how recipes work kind of like that.  Each person translates some version of a dish that they've learned in the past, and then the next person creates their own rendition... over time we've got a beautifully diverse spread of dishes representing various locales, cultural specialties, dietary needs and creative explosions.

I have the awesome luck of living next to Chandra Gilbert, one of my favorite chefs of all time, and our Director of Operations at Cafe Gratitude.  Chandra is one of those people who appreciates every vegetable that comes into season and knows how to rock simple ingredients into a knock-your-socks-off kind of dish that keeps the flavors of the original ingredients roaring.  In Chandra's neverending generosity, she spent an evening showing me this heart-warming and tantilizing soup recipe and introduced me into making the holy trinity of mirepoix- the base for any soup or sauce from scratch.  I share this recipe with you as a sort of rendition of what she showed me that evening.