Bell pepper

Raw Sunflower Red Hummus

This one tastes great and is just too easy to not share with the world. With just a little preparation, you can whip up some great tasting raw humus that will fill you up for lunch yet not make you feel like a nap is in order in just a few minutes. I like to call this my Sunflower Red Hummus.

The other day, I was pressed for time yet wanted this hummus. I’d already soaked the sunflower seeds and let them sprout overnight so they were ready. I looked at the clock and saw that I had fifteen minutes to prepare and cleanup before I had to run. Well, the total time was twenty minutes (including the quick cleanup) so I had to run really fast to make up that time!

Recipe:

  • 2 cups sprouted raw living sunflower seeds
  • 1 sweet red, yellow or orange bell pepper
  • 1 medium tomato
  • 1 carrot (or a few small garden carrots that you just dug and cleaned up!)
  • ½ a Myers lemon
  • ½ clove raw garlic
  • 2 tablespoons raw cold pressed olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 1 teaspoon smoked paprika (or a little less)
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • ¼ teaspoon cyan pepper!

All the wet ingredients go in first. And, well, you probably already know this from the picture below, but you’re going to blend this in a high powered blender until it’s creamy and smooth. So, if you put the wet ingredients o the bottom, they bill break down quickly and create volume that will carry down the rest. You might need to help some of the seeds and be careful not to get the seasoning on your plunger (if you need to use one).

This is a pretty heavy mixture so you’ve got to have a heavy-duty blender in order to keep it from bogging down. But it will. It will also heat up pretty quickly so watch out for that. I usually start out just fast enough to get the fruit (veggies) to spin and then turn the blender up as high as it will go and still turn the contents of the blender. If you flip the machine all the way to high, it all just lifts up and, well, you’re no longer ‘blending’ at that point. 🙂

The little cup on the left is exactly 1 cup. I like to fill it ¾ the way and it’s just the right amount for lunch. The bigger container just happened to work with my time constraints for the other little containers needed washing!

Once prepared, it easily lasts for a few days in the fridge. You’ll see the top darken (oxidize), but the rest should stay just made fresh.

This one is so easy that it’s hard to get wrong. My only real advice is to go light on the garlic. The picture shows a whole clove. I cut it in half before adding it. Too much raw garlic tends to overpower the other subtle flavors that really make this hummus shine.

…

It’s been a long winter and just a couple days ago I started to notice the spring air. It blew in and within about 24 hours all the plants that had been waiting to bloom sprung into early spring pinks, yellows and greens. We’re well past the equinox, so it feels a month late. Whether it’s early or late, it’s still warmly welcomed!

Red Bell Pepper Hummus

Because staying warm during the detoxification process is one of the most difficult things to do, I went searching to find some raw food that just might help tip the balance towards heat! And as luck might have it, I’ve stumbled across something that has done the trick two days in a row. I have to admit that if this is what it takes to help make the transition, I’m in.

After having researched a little and found that the reason why people get cold when they transition towards going raw is because the body goes through a detoxification process that ‘thickens’ the fluids in the body. All healthy raw foodists say that they don’t have a problem staying warm while eating raw, but most admit that during the transition phase, they need more fats. Knowing that both Sunflower and Sesame seeds are pressed for their oils, I figured I’d put that knowledge to use and find a way to include those oils in my diet.

Mixing together the benefits of sprouting, I started about a cup of both Sunflower and Sesame seeds and let them perform their magic for just over 24 hours. While Mother Nature helped these seeds transform themselves into amino acid power houses, I walked through the Saturday market and found a great deal on red bell peppers. It wasn’t until I got home and opened my mind to receive a creative recipe that I realized that I’d be combining the two to make:

Red Bell Pepper Hummus

When I first made this, I started with just the seeds thinking I was going to make some sprouted seed butter that I would simply gage down. Well, ok, it’s not that bad. But I wanted something good and it wasn’t until the mixture wouldn’t turn in the blender that I decided to add something with a bit more liquid in it. That’s where the red pepper comes in.

  • 1 cup Sprouted Sesame seeds
  • 1 cup Sprouted Sunflower seeds
  • 1 Tablespoon cold pressed olive oil
  • Little more than a pinch of salt
  • 1 large red pepper with the seeds removed
  • No more than 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper.

Yes, you are going to want the cayenne pepper in this one! The powder is pretty cheap and most health food stores will sell you large amounts for a song and dance. Without the cayenne, this ‘hummus’ is just peanut butter with red pepper mixed in.

I love it when I blend things up for it’s not really important what the ‘input’ foods look like beforehand. Thus, I just ripped apart this pepper discarding all the seeds. No need for knife work here.

Notice that the ingredients stack up making this look like it’s going to really produce a lot. Unfortunately, there is a lot of air space so it only yields a couple cups.

I have to admit that this is the first raw food meal that I had that thoroughly warmed me up! You can bet that I’ll be making more of this as my body cleans out. As I come across others, I will make sure to post them for anyone else that happens to have a similar goal: Having warm hands on a cold winter day! Yep. I’ve always had c-c-c-cold hands and I’m looking to change that – naturally.