Raw Vegan “Potato” Salad

Sundays are my favourite day of the week. We make a habit of getting together for lunch every Sunday, so no matter how busy any of us have been, it gives us a chance to catch up on the happening’s in everyone’s week. It also gives me a chance to try out new culinary creations on a willing group on diners. It is great to be able to get feedback from 7 others, whose food preference’s are very diverse. We have vegan, vegetarian, omnivore, as well as some food allergies and sensitivities.

Normally, I like to prepare most of our food from scratch, but today opted to do hoagies with organic tetra-boxed tomato soup. Mostly, because I have been wanting to play around with a raw vegan hoagie idea I got from www.meganelizabeth. com. I love her recipe videos, as they are simple but tasty. A while back, she did a clip on using a head of romaine in place of a bun, and filling the inside with some low-fat, raw vegan morsels. I have been wanting to do this for a while, and since I had a couple of the petite heirloom lettuces left from earlier this week, I decided to give it a shot.

Image by sushiesque via Flickr

When I hit the grocery store this morning to pick up the buns and cold cuts and cheese for the non-vegan of our clan, I saw a beautiful jicama(pronounced HIC-uh-muh). They are similar in taste and texture to water chestnuts, so if you like those , you will love jicama. Many times they are already past their prime, so if I see one that is fresh looking, I have to try to figure out something to do with it. It was screaming a raw, vegan potato-type salad to me, as they look like potatoes when they are diced up, and have a similar taste, except sweeter. I didn’t  keep an accurate account of what went in the salad, but it went something like this. (Sorry for the fuzzy picture, still working on my photography skills)

Jicama Salad with raw vegan hoagie

Jicama Salad

1 fresh jicama, peeled and diced
4 organic green onions, chopped
3 organic radishes, chopped

Combine in a bowl and toss with the following dressing.

2 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup of organic apple cider vinegar
1/4 to 1/2 cup of spring water
Blend this up with the lower amount of water.  Then add:
1/4 cup of organic extra virgin olive oil
1/2 avocado

At this point you may need to add more water, if it is too thick. I was aiming for a slightly runny mayo blend.

After adding the dressing to the veggies, I added some sea salt and dried dill. I also experimented with adding some prepared organic Dijon mustard to a bowl of this, and it tasted so much like potato salad!

It seemed to go over well, except for those among us who don’t like water chestnuts. Everyone else who tried it, enjoyed it. I know I sure did!

The filling that I used in the veggie hoagie was some tomatoes, cucumber spears, avocado slices and slices of mango. I really enjoy lettuce wraps, and this is a tasty variation of those.

We ended the meal with an apple crisp that my youngest daughter helped put together. We still have an abundance of apples from my mom’s tree, and this is a great way to put them to good use. The topping uses quinoa flakes instead of oats. Even my daughter who doesn’t like quinoa enjoyed this, scraping the pan clean! I am going to have to play around with the ingredients on this one a bit before I post a recipe, but I will share a picture of the finished product, just to whet your appetite!

Quinoa Apple Crisp

So another week is off to a good start and I look forward to see what life has in store for us!

From our home to yours, many blessings on your week,

Jenny