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.

VEGANISM

Truth: Veganism is a slightly more bad-ass version of vegetarianism, which means that practicing vegans don’t eat meat or any other animal products. Being vegan is therefore insanely difficult in any rational, 21^st century society – which means it’s also therefore really Hip. In fact, it’s not uncommon to see vegans carting their own food into restaurants (super-earth-friendly greens and raw onions, which they probably grew themselves) in some organic type of paper bag. Because this is what you have to do when you’re vegan: don’t trust anyone. And especially not anyone that cooks.

Hearsay: I know all this because I’m a pseudo-vegan myself. And blah blah, it’s a long story, but I have weird health issues that make cheese and dairy products bad for me, plus I can’t eat anything fattening, so I can’t really eat meat either. This means that I appear to be every bit as high-maintenance (and Hip!) as a vegan, but I won’t talk your ear off about saving the environment and/or how cruel we human beings are to cows. I mean, we are total assholes to cows. But that’s not why I have to refuse that burger. The hearsay part of this is that I think normal vegans have strict moral codes and standards about where and how they buy/grow their food. Because I’m pretty sure veganism “means” something. (It does, right?) And that, of course, is Hip.

BS and Speculation: But here’s what really tickles me about veganism. Unless your parents were genuine, vintage, legit-as-shit hippies – you weren’t raised vegan. You probably grew up on steak and potatoes like the rest of us, and you probably didn’t go vegan until sometime in your teens or twenties. And this is what makes veganism Hip as Hip can ever get: it’s a lifestyle choice. And, sure, you probably have a good reason. Hell, you probably have weird health issues. Sure, I know, you really do. (I really do, you guys!) But inside of you, there’s also probably a kid that totally craves a McDonald’s double cheeseburger with bacon every now and again. And that’s just awesome. So next time you chow down on your alfalfa sprout salad, chew on them apples, too, for a change.