Spiral Dining

I'm sort of obsessed with Groupon. Anytime a remotely vegan-friendly restaurant offers up a deal, I just can't resist. Sometimes, the deals are real duds (like the time Sky Grille in Memphis wouldn't let me use my Groupon for my cocktails even though it clearly said "$20 for food and drink"). But Groupon (and let's not forget Living Social) helps me branch out and try new local eateries. I rarely ever use Groupon for anything but dining out coupons.

But when Cat of The Verdant Life sent me a link to a Groupon deal offering a World Cuisine Spiralizer for $25 with shipping, I jumped on that. It was the one raw food tool that was missing from my arsenal, but thankfully, it arrived a few weeks back. Before, my raw spaghetti was more like fettucine because I only had a vegetable peeler for cutting wide noodles.

But now, I can make fabulous looking 'sketti to use in recipes like this Sweet Potato & Zucchini Mac 'n' Cheese from Eat Raw, Eat Well:

Not only does the spiralizer make for lovely noodz, but Eat Raw, Eat Well makes for lovely healthy dinner ideas. I've tried lots of raw pasta dishes over the years but never a raw mac 'n' cheese. It's so good, y'all! The cheese is a simple cashew cheese made in the food processor, and it's all topped with a sprinklin' of Chipotle & Cayenne Parma.

I was sent Eat Raw, Eat Well by Douglas NcNish to review, and it hasn't let me down yet. There are several other raw pasta recipes I'd love to try, like the Pasta Bolognese and Zucchini Pasta Aglio e Olio (zuke noodles with an olive oil-based sauce).

There are 400 recipes total ranging from raw Pear & Pumpkin Porridge to Raw Chickpea Hummus and Barbecue Pulled Burdock Sandwiches and Lemon & Cilantro Falafels. Yum!

I made one of the salad dressings from the book to top the salad I served with my raw mac 'n' cheese. This "Roasted" Garlic, Hemp, & Parsley Dressing was the bomb-diggity:

The garlic is "roasted" with a dehydrator, and even though I have a trusty Excalibur, I didn't "roast" my garlic for this dressing. I just forgot. You have to plan way ahead for that kind of stuff, and that didn't happen. But even without roasting, the garlicky green dressing was delicious atop my garden salad.