Today I’m sharing a review for some amazing raw organic sauerkraut I had the pleasure of tasting as well as a new recipe of mine… Lightly Onion Bread.
Farmhouse Culture’s Sauerkraut
I was asked to review Farmhouse Culture’s sauerkraut and more than happy to do so. I’m a huge kraut lover. I like making my own, but now that I’m a new mom, it’s not as easy to find the time. Now that I know this brand is available, I may never make it again, because these are so good – haha. Here is part of the email I received when I was asked if I’d try them…
Kathryn Lukas, the owner of Farmhouse Culture, is trained as a chef. The krauts — while having the obvious nutritional benefits of raw fermented foods — really stand out for their terrific flavor. The krauts are now available in Southern California in Whole Foods and other specialty stores and offer a refreshing zing to sausages, salads and other dishes. An underutilized, yet flavorful addition to many foods, Kathryn’s krauts are different from industrially produced sauerkraut in their nutritional value and flavoring. The krauts come in flavors like Classic Caraway, Smoked Jalapeno, Horseradish Leek, Apple Fennel and Garlic Dill Pickle.
- The krauts are raw, vegetarian, contain pro-biotic bacteria and can last for months refrigerated in their reusable glass jars.
- The krauts are practical: sauerkraut is a convenient, long-lasting natural food to have on hand.
- It’s a “super nutrition” food: Sauerkraut is a true raw superfood, high in Vitamin C and full of beneficial pro-biotic bacteria. Naturally fermented raw vegetables are rich in lactic acid, an essential aid to good digestion. Research suggests that raw sauerkraut may also have anti-carcinogenic benefits.
- Farmhouse Culture krauts are local, seasonal and sustainable: they are committed to using only ingredients that are sustainably and seasonally grown by regional farmers within 100 miles of Santa Cruz.
The verdict? Mega delicious. My whole family is in love and they told me that when I order some that they want me to order for them, too. I tried the Horseradish Leek, Smoked Jalapeno, and Caraway. Loved them all! I want to try the others, too. Check out the flavors here. If you can’t find it at your Whole Foods, then you can order it online here. Although I could eat sauerkraut by the fork, my real two favorite ways to enjoy it are as follows:
Krautwich! I take two pieces of hearty organic whole grain bread and lightly toast it. Slather organic hummus on one piece. Top that with lettuce and top that with a hefty serving of sauerkraut. Add the second piece of bread for an addictive sandwich that you’ll want more than one of!
Kraut Mound on Raw Bread – using the Lightly Onion Bread below, I scoop a mound of kraut on top of a slice and enjoy!
Speaking of Lightly Onion Bread… here’s a new recipe of mine. Perfect for eating plain, as sandwich bread, topped with hummus, dip, and/or sauerkraut.
Put the Brazil nuts and sunflower seeds in a bowl. Add enough water to cover them by about an inch. Let them soak like this for 6 to 8 hours. Place the oats in a bowl and do the same thing… cover with enough water by about an inch. Let them soak like that for 6 to 8 hours.
Drain the water off the Brazil nuts and seeds. Rinse them and place in a food processor, fitted with the “S” blade. Drain the water off the oats, give them a rinse, and place in the food processor with the nuts. Add the remaining ingredients. Process until smooth. Allow to sit and thicken for 1 hour.
This is after flipping it and removing the Paraflexx sheet.
Transfer to a dehydrator tray, lined with a nonstick Paraflexx sheet (or parchment paper). Spread out the bread dough until it just about reaches the edge of the tray. (Using an offset spatula makes this really easy.) Dehydrate at 130-140 degrees F for one hour. Reduce the temperature to 105-110 degrees F and dehydrate for 12 hours. Flip the bread onto a tray without Paraflexx. Then, remove the current Paraflexx being used. Continue dehydrating until you reach desired dryness (approximately 10-12 hours). Cut into bread slices. I usually cut it into 9 slices.
I love raw vegan nut milks. Currently, my favorite is a simple almond milk with a hint of vanilla added (recipe and instructions below). It’s… Unsweetened – Smooth – Refreshing – Satiating – Nourishing – Nutritious – And, Super Delicious. It’s easy to do and I find myself making a batch about 2-3 times a week so I stay stocked.
Every raw foodie should always have a quart of raw vegan nut milk in his / her refrigerator because apart from the great elements noted above, it’s versatile and can be used in many ways such as:
~ Drinking by the glass – yum – what an awesome snack! Want it to be more filling? Enjoy it alongside a couple of raw cookies (cookie recipe here)
~ Adding to green smoothies (in place of water) for a creamy texture and to help take the “green” edge off.
~ Make warm chocolate with it (that’s instead of “hot” chocolate) by blending it with raw cacao powder
~ Using in soups, salad dressings, or desserts such as ice cream, mousse, and pudding
~ Umm – hello! – with raw granola! One of my favorite ways to enjoy it.
~ For those of you in the transition route to raw (or with family members who aren’t ready to jump into 100% raw) try these ideas: let them eat their regular boxed cereal but replace the milk with fresh raw almond milk. Or, make a batch of cooked oat groats. Let them cool and toss in some raisins for sweetness. Then, serve a bowl of this comfort love with a “raw almond milk moat” around it.
Below is my favorite recipe right now. Simple and fun to make. My recipe is unsweetened and made with almonds. But! The exciting thing is that there are so many variations that you can do so let me detail some of those before getting to my recipe.
Different Nuts or Seeds – I make mine with Raw Organic Italian almonds which (almonds) lend a light sweetness naturally on their own. But, you can go for a more earthy raw milk with Brazil nuts. Or focus on omegas and make a milk with walnuts or hemp seeds. Looking for extra calcium? Try sesame seed milk. Want a more decadent milk? Try pecans. You can also make it with sunflower seeds (vitamin E) or pumpkin seeds (iron, zinc), although these aren’t my favorite for flavors in a raw milk, they’re chock full of excellent nutrients. Cashews make a wonderful, neutral tasting milk that is super creamy. You can also use macadamia nuts if you’re looking for a more “Hawaiin” flavor. ;) Perhaps pistachios or hazelnuts or pine nuts are more your style – have at it you Glittering Gastronomist! Or… mix them all up and make a Mutt Milk!
Most nuts and seeds require some soaking to either a) increase the digestibility of them by removing enzyme inhibitors or b) to make them easier to blend. I would probably soak all of the options noted above, based on those two reasons, with the exception of hemp seeds. They don’t have the enzyme issue and they’re very soft, easy to blend.
Exciting Flavors – I’m partial to raw vanilla powder, but there are so many others available. You can use any extract that you can get your hot little hands on. Try any of the following: orange, coconut, mint, lemon, almond, hazelnut, cherry, rum, maple, or more! And, ehem…. chocolate milk (using raw cacao powder and a sweetener noted below for fantastic raw vegan chocolate milk).
Sweeteners – My current affair is with an unsweetened raw milk, but as I noted, the almonds are already a little sweet on their own. If I were making it with another type of nut or seed, I might add a sweetener and any of the following can be great for that: raw agave nectar, raw coconut crystals, stevia, dates, prunes, raisins, etc.
Salt – You can add a pinch of salt to enhance the flavor of the raw milk.
With all of these options there are like a gajillion varieties of raw vegan nut milk that you can make. You’ll never get bored!
So let’s get to the recipe I promised! You’ll need 2 cups of raw almonds, water for soaking the almonds plus 5 cups of water for blending, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla powder.
Put 2 cups of almonds in a bowl and fill with filtered water. Note: soaking nuts and seeds can leave unsightly stains (usually temporary). I had just finished
using this bowl for soaking other nuts and decided to use it again before putting in the dishwasher.
Let them soak on your counter overnight (or for at least 12 hours) and if desired, remove the skins.
Not necessary, I just can’t help myself sometimes – it’s kind of addicting. I also change the water after about
6 hours or so (if I’m awake), but that’s not really necessary either.
Drain the water from the almonds, give them a quick rinse,
and place the soaked almonds in your blender with 5 cups of new, filtered water.
Get out your nut milk bag to strain the milk and a big container (or bowl) to strain the milk into.
(You can also use a paint strainer bag from the hardware store like I have here.)
Pour the milk into the nut milk bag, over the bowl, and help it along by squeezing it.
Stay tuned for my next blog post where I show you a great recipe for the leftover almond pulp!
Voila! 6 cups of awesome, healthy, delicious, nutritious Raw Vegan Almond Milk!
This will stay fresh in the fridge for up to about 5 days.
Remember… you can use a Sharpie on your glass mason jars. It easily scrubs off with a sponge and water.
UPDATE: I’ve been buying my raw organic almonds from Bremnar Farms Roadside Stand recently. More info in this blog post about the validity of almonds and their true rawness. Check it out.
What are your favorite raw vegan nut milk flavors? Do you make your own raw vegan nut milks frequently? If not… what’s stopping you?
Here is one of my latest and greatest concoctions! I love it so much that at night when I’m going to bed, I’m already looking forward to the next day when I get to make it. It’s that good! I named it Cherry Chocolate Bomb Shake because it’s the bomb! This fun shake is loaded with superior nutrition including superfood hemp seeds, raw chocolate powder, and hemp protein powder, along with organic fruit. It has about 35 grams of raw vegan protein, which is great for the little baby growing inside me. Oh, and I recently shared this recipe with another pregnant mama friend of mine and she went crazy for it. She loved it so much that she went to the store and stocked up on the ingredients so she could make it over and over. YUM! I’m going to say it again…. YUM!!! OH! And this will make a perfect Valentine’s Day shake.
Cherry Chocolate Bomb Shake Recipe by Kristen Suzanne of KristensRaw.com Yield 3 cups
I’m featuring this salad recipe in my email newsletter this month (sign up here), and I wanted to share it here… because it’s SO good! This highly nutritious salad is refreshing, delicious, and full of flavors that combine effortlessly to deliver one awesome salad.
Kale freakin’ rocks the nutrient house! And, no, it’s not something that is just meant to decorate salad bars (as my husband used to think – ha ha!). It’s loaded with antioxidants and phytonutrients shown to help fight cancer, aid in detoxification, and fill you up with super star nutrition including iron, calcium, protein, fiber, vitamins A, C, K and much more!
Fennel Orange Kale Salad By Kristen Suzanne of KristensRaw.com Yield 2 servings
1 medium bunch curly kale 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 2 tablespoons hemp oil 3/4 teaspoon fresh orange zest 1/4 teaspoon Himalayan crystal salt pinch nutmeg 1 cup fennel bulb, thinly sliced* 1 cup orange, peeled, seeded & chopped 8 kalamata olives, pitted & chopped 1 tablespoon fennel leaves, chopped
Destem the kale. You can leave the more tender parts of the stem (toward the top of each leaf) in the salad, but the harder stems toward the bottom of each leaf should be torn out. Tear apart the kale leaves (or use a knife and chop them) into bite-size pieces.
Place the torn kale into a large bowl. Add the lemon juice, hemp oil, orange zest, salt, and nutmeg. Take a minute and massage all of these ingredients together with your hands. Add the fennel, orange, olives and fennel leaves, and gently toss to mix. Enjoy!
I wanted food today that contained plenty of chlorophyll, nourishment, and was EASY to make.
Monday’s Menu Super Shake 4 Brazil nuts 1 quart Cucumber Plant Blood Super Shake Huge salad featuring King Garlic Hemp Dressing (pictured here, recipe below) Large bowl of Spicy Thyme Bisque For dessert? DATES!
I whipped up a super easy and delicious dressing, King Garlic Hemp Dressing. I use the word “King” before “Garlic” because in my mind, garlic is indeed the king of spices. (Ginger is the queen.) Garlic is loaded with antioxidants, and it’s one of the world’s oldest medicinal foods. Back in the old, old days, garlic was given to soldiers to keep them healthy and fight infection, as well as to Egyptian slaves building the pyramids to give them stamina. It’s also been said that it helps ward off vampires… but, ehem… we, Twilight fans, know that notion is so silly.
Here are a few ways garlic could help you Lower cholesterol ~ Prevent blood clots ~ Anticancer properties Fight the common cold ~ Lower blood pressure Antibiotic ~ Antiseptic ~ Antifungal ~ Antimicrobial
But! In order to get the opportunity to reap any of these benefits, the garlic should be consumed Raw (yeah, that’s right up our alley) and you have to smish (yes, that’s a technical word – ha!), chop, blend, or crush the whole thing (don’t go swallowing a whole clove, not likely to do you any good). When you smish, chop, etc., you release the amino acid alliin, which mixes with the enzyme allinase, yielding allicin – responsible for most of garlic’s super powers.
Storing Garlic The best way to store your garlic is in an open container in a cool, dark place (or in one of those cute garlic jars, as pictured above). No refrigeration needed. If you properly store it, unbroken garlic bulbs could stay fresh for up to 6-8 weeks. However, once you break off a clove from the bulb, the clove will last about 3-10 days.
Odor Issues Yes, when you consume garlic, it sticks by you for hours… sometimes it seems like days! Sure, you can chomp on parsley to help (a little). But, you want to know the tested, tried and true way to make sure no one smells garlic on you? Simply make sure the people around you are eating garlic. Seriously… that’s the sure-fire way.
Recipe Time For a super, nutrient-packed dressing loaded with essential fatty acids, nutrients, and chlorophyll, whip this up in about 3 minutes and you’re all set!
1 cup hemp oil 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice 3 large cloves garlic 1 1/2 teaspoons Italian seasoning 1/2 teaspoon Himalayan crystal salt
Blend it all thoroughly (I let my high speed Blendtec run 30-45ish seconds). Stored in an airtight container in your refrigerator, King Garlic Hemp Dressing will stay fresh for up to five days.
Aahhh! Here it is. I found the recipe – thank goodness. I was so elated that I found it that I had to make another batch on Saturday afternoon. Yum!!!
We went to a birthday party that night and I used a little round cookie cutter to cut mini Cherry Chocolate Brownie Bites. Then, I put them in a little plastic bag from a craft store (I use bags like that for Raw goodie-gift-giving), tied a little ribbon around the top and gave them to the birthday guy. He was so excited that he immediately started sharing them around the table.
Confession: Later that night after we arrived home, I ate half of the 8X8 glass-baking dish worth of them. Goodness, they’re so freakin’ good.
Using your food processor, fitted with the “S” blade, pulse to briefly mix the ground almond pulp with the lucuma, chocolate, salt, and hemp seeds. Add the remaining ingredients and process until the mixture sticks together when gently pressed between two of your fingers. Press the delicious mixture firmly into a glass 8X8 dish. Cut into squares (or whatever shapes you’d like) and serve plain or topped with Raw vegan ice cream for extra indulgence.
Vitamineral Green Loading Update All is well with myexperimental loading of Vitamineral Green. I’ll admit… it’s pretty icky the way I take it, but when you’re loading it like I am, I just want to plug-n-chug it, get it over with, basically don’t breathe while drinking it (you get the point) haha. I take a glass mason jar, add a couple heaping tablespoons of Vitamineral Green Powder, add 1 cup of water, and often times I add a tablespoon of Fruits of the Earth Powder, too. Shake it up and drink it down. (Ick!) Then, I chase it with a cup of plain water. On some days, I toss down another heaping tablespoon later in the afternoon.
I'm Kristen, and welcome to my blog. I'm a wife, mom, author, and I love to eat so food is usually the topic of my blog posts. I'm a former (almost decade long) vegan turned back omnivore who enjoys reading, rebounding, coffee, and dark chocolate. More...
Krautwich! I take two pieces of hearty organic whole grain bread and lightly toast it. Slather organic hummus on one piece. Top that with lettuce and top that with a hefty serving of sauerkraut. Add the second piece of bread for an addictive sandwich that you’ll want more than one of!
I'm Kristen, and welcome to my blog. I'm a wife, mom, author, and I love to eat so food is usually the topic of my blog posts. I'm a former (almost decade long) vegan turned back omnivore who enjoys reading, rebounding, coffee, and dark chocolate. 
