Hip! Recipe of the Week: Jonsi and Alex's Raw Strawberry Pie

So this week’s wondrous recipe has a special heaping helping of Hip. Why, you ask? Because it came directly from that god-among-men himself, Jonsi.

For those that don’t know, Jonsi – former frontman of Sigur Ros – is a half-mad, half-blind Icelandic musical genius. He and his boyfriend Alex also happen to be raw vegans, which means they’re the badest badasses on the block when it comes to food. They don’t cook anything. Ever. Hardcore!

How can I be like them, you ask? (My, you are curious today.) Well, fortunately for you, they make it easy by hosting an online raw vegan cooking show. And that’s where today’s recipe comes from:

http://vimeo.com/5744893

Now, you could just watch this video (and you should, because it's awesome and would make you significantly Hipper). Or you could follow the directions my roommate and I have listed below. Enjoy.

Ingredients:

1 cup almonds

1 cup dates

2 cups coconut flakes (unsweetened)

4 tablespoons coconut oil

½ cup agave syrup

2 cups strawberries

Special equipment:

One helluva good food processor and blender

Directions:

Crush the almonds, dates, and 1 cup of coconut flakes in the food processor. Jonsi and Alex blend the ingredients one at a time, but you’re welcome to try them all together. Dump them into a medium-sized mixing bowl, add 2 tablespoons of coconut oil, and knead everything into a dough with your hands. It will be a little crumbly.

Press the dough into an eight-inch cake or pie pan. Then, as Jonsi and Alex say, “build the walls.”

For the filling, blend the remaining ingredients until creamy. Pour them over the crust and refrigerate for two hours. If this is too long to wait, you can you use frozen strawberries to make the process faster.

Garnish with sliced strawberries and serve.

Ta da! Jonsi and Alex would be proud.

Hip! Recipe of the Week: The Good Salad

So there’s this little place down in the city called Good. It’s a microbrew and grill, so you can bet your ass they have amazing burgers and beer. Plus, it’s located a in a strip mall (which is very LA), and it’s impossible to park there (which is very Hip).

But since I’m a pseudo-vegan, I can’t eat their burgers. Thus, last time I was there, I was forced into one of the best decisions I’ve ever made: Good's Ahleia brown rice salad.

I tried to make it myself tonight, was successful, and have hereby set forth the recipe for your reading and eating delight.

Ingredients:

Red leaf lettuce

Red onions

Tomatoes (yes, preferably red)

Brown rice

Feta cheese

Tofu (firm)

Dressing:

½ cup honey

2 tbs yellow mustard

2 tbs lemon juice

½ cup olive oil

Directions:

So since this is a salad, it’s pretty easy. Yes, even you can do this. Start off by cooking the brown rice – either on the stovetop or in a rice cooker. I’m an idiot at doing it on the stove, so I just dump a cup of rice into the ol’ cooker with a two cups of water and let her rip.

While the rice is cooking, prep the dressing. Tonight, my roommate and I made this, but wound up having way too much dressing for just us. So either halve this or be prepared to save it.

Then, tofu. We pan-fried ours, by sautéing a little garlic in the pan, then slicing the tofu into quarter inch strips and adding it in when the garlic was cooked. Fry until the tofu is crispy and delicious-looking. Season with salt and pepper.

Then do your salad stuff in a bowl. Go easy on the red onions – they are potent! Be generous with your feta. When the rice is done, mix it in. Lay the tofu on top. Dress it lightly with the homemade honey mustard.

Muah! Enjoy and say to yourself, "Thank you, Good, for your salady goodness." Or, if you want to say it in person, go here: http://www.goodmicrobrew.com/

Hip! Recipe of the Week: Eggplant and Goat Cheese Sandwiches

This week’s delicious food is a pseudo-vegan classic: eggplant and goat cheese sandwiches. I use this basic (very quick and almost stupidly easy) recipe from Epicurious as a guide, modifying it only a little.

Ingredients:

2 large garlic cloves, minced

3 tbs olive oil

1 foot-long piece of baguette, cut lengthwise

1 small eggplant, cut into 1/2 inch slices

3 medium tomatoes

3 oz. soft fresh goat cheese

fresh basil leaves

Directions:

Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat) or preheat broiler (I broiled, way easier!). Combine oil and garlic in small bowl. Let stand 5 minutes.

Brush cut sides of baguette and both sides of eggplant slices and tomato slices with garlic oil. Grill cut sides of baguette until toasted, about 2 minutes. Transfer baguette, cut side up, to plates. Season eggplant and tomatoes with salt and pepper. Grill eggplant until cooked through, about 6 minutes per side; transfer to plate. Grill tomatoes until warmed through, about 1 minute per side; transfer to plate.

Spread goat cheese on bread, dividing equally. Overlap eggplant slices, then tomato slices on baguette halves, covering completely. Garnish with fresh basil leaves. Cut each sandwich diagonally into 4 sections and serve.

And you can check it out yourself at http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Eggplant-Tomato-and-Goat-Cheese-Sandwiches-612

But first off, I don’t grill my bread. That just takes too much time and adds a bit of fat that doesn’t make the sandwich significantly more flavorful. Also, I’ve never used fresh basil leaves (because my basil plant died), so I simply add dried basil to the garlic and oil base and brush it onto the eggplant and tomato slices before I broil them.

I also like to broil a few slices of red bell pepper and top the sandwich them and with lettuce. But that’s just me, because thin sandwiches don’t tend to fill me up.

Anyway. Make it, love it, be Hip.