“STEEMIT CULINARY CHALLENGE # 32: Picnic Al Fresco or all'aperto Meal. Paleo-Raw Vegan Food.
This is my first time doing this as I'm new to STEEMIT.
I would like to introduce myself since I really want to make some connections in the culinary and just in general topics here on Steemit and probably in real life, who knows. And as well offer my help or collaboration to anyone as long that is within my possibilities :). We all can help each other
First of all, I need to show my lovely company for this picnic date, my girlfriend because I made this a surprise. I brought everything to her workplace and we had a little picnic in the grass outside her office.
She loved the surprise and I loved actually doing it. Thank you for having this kind of contest and good luck to everyone :) also thanks for checking my post out :D
I have to say me and my girlfriend both try to eat healthier so I made this meal paleo and mostly raw vegan since we actually enjoy this food.
All this food was prepared this morning of Tuesday 6/27 in around 3 hours since I had to catch her for lunch at noon. hahaha A busy day for me! anyway, it totally worth it. She was so happy and me too :) <3
*Raw Vegan Chocolate Mousse
*Zuccinni Carrot Pappardelle with Olive Tapenade
*Spanish Style Cauliflower "Rice"
*Sesame Strawberry Avocado Tapa (non paleo neither raw)
Sesame Strawberry Avocado Spread (raw vegan)
For the spread you will need:
75 gr sesame seeds
250 gr strawberries
1 avocado
2 Tbs walnuts
Honey to taste
First, we need to break down the sesame seeds to a flour like consistency in the blender.
add strawberries and blend until smooth and creamy, add water if needed.
Pour out, then we cut open the avocado and smash it as if we are making guacamole.
Chop the walnuts for garnish
Then drissle with honey.
as you can see in the picture at the beginning of the recipe I mounted this in regular bread that is why they are not even vegan or raw, or paleo or anything. if you don't and choose a vegan alternative you are good to go :)
Bread was made by me last week as well.
Moving on to one of the main dishes, the pasta dish.
Really simple pasta, you just need a peeler :) or really good knife skills.
Zucchini and Carrot Pappardelle:
2 carrots peeled
2 zucchinis
4 oz sweetheart grape tomatoes
Time to peel them to the core :)
For the Tappenade:
For this we need:
1 Cup black olives
1/4 Cup Olive Oil
3 ea garlic cloves
3 tsp of capers
Basically, we just blend everything until the desired consistency.
super simple and delicious. Actually, this is what my girlfriend liked the most.
She was eating it with the bread.
and BAM, you can add sundried tomatoes or basil to change it a little bit.
That is what I love about food, especially raw vegan food, that you can just play with it. Change this here move that there and you will probably end up with something great. or at least something that you can eat no matter what.
Really fun to create with.
Next:
Spanish Style Cauliflower "Rice"
oh yeah this is our Salt and Pepper buddies :D ahhaha
I was making all this food at my girlfriend place because she has the food processor!!
But that will change pretty soon, Hopefully, I will be moving in at the beginning of August.
Then at the end of the year when her lease is up we need to decide if we stay there or find a new place :)
hahaha, new adventures to come! But I'm excited I think we are both ready and we really want to move on and hopefully, get married next year :D
For this we need:
First, we will core the cauliflower
cut it into pieces you can put in your food processor.
YOU CAN ALSO SHRED BY HAND, in that case, I would just cut it in half and shred to the core.
Then you shred I did in our food processor
Then you chop everything else, small dice on the onions and basically slices as thick as you like on the mushrooms.
in my opinion, you could also throw the garlic in that shredding process. why not.
Then we move on to cooking. cook the chorizo on a separated pan to make sure it is cooked properly. Remember to stir every once in a while on those veggies.
Once the chorizo is cook and vegetables are soft (around 8 mins) you can add the tomato paste and seasonings to the cauliflower and also add the chorizo to it.
Be sure to stir pretty good and let the flavor marry for couple minutes.
I used some fresh cilantro as garnish.
And last but not least!
Raw Vegan Chocolate Mouse
One of our favorites and one of the recipes we created, With this we also make raw vegan cheesecakes.
For Chocolate Mouse:
This recipe is super simple, what you need is a really good blender. Definitely a Vitamix or Blendtec something that can handle the nuts :P
We add everything to the blender except the coconut oil. and blend until smooth
Then we add the coconut oil at the end. In this case, I adjusted the sweetness but the recipe calls for the final amount.
and then we re-blend until smooth. Be careful if you think your blender is having issues with it you can make it thinner with some water or coconut water.
Actually, my girlfriend's blender start to smell like burnt pretty bad, but I knew it could take the job ;D
Been around Vitamixes for a while
and BAM. In this case I used local cherries and strawberries to top it off also cacao nibs.
mmmmm
She loved it!
I even saved her mine since I don't have a sweet tooth ahhaha but I do make lots of sweets.
I put these bad boys in the freezer for around 1 hour so they were perfect for the sunny afternoon
Someone really enjoyed it...
I really enjoyed making it :)
This is me, Luis Duarte :D aka tu tio luis.
Nice to meet you all.
Now onto my picnic basket, I had a challenge:
How to fit all this, into this!!
But I love challenges :P if are food related.
Also I had a salad you can see it top left corner but I forgot to take it.
I put it in the freezer for a second because the sprouts were getting soft and I forgot to grab it hahaha.
So I guess it doesn't count for the challenge. I will post some pictures at the end anyway.
Anyway I think that forgetting that salad actually helped everything else fit perfect :)
Even plates.
This is my lovely picnic blanket, not as crazy but beautiful and old. It belong to my grandaunt it might not even be a picnic blanket hahaha
So here we are! Picnic time with my beautiful company on this lovely day!
88° weather and both are super hungry. that means!
Time to unpack
I did not forget the dressing hehehe :D
couple minutes later it was all done and we were just chilling on the grass :D
It was time to go back to work. The date was over but it had been amazing :)
So this is my entry, hopefully is not too long. I still don't have the skill to convine pictures and stuff like that :D sorry.
I would like to make sure everyone note that I live in California and we are blessed with good crops most of the year, so most of my shopping list is from local farms :) I hope I can start growing some of our own once we move together.
To make the spread more kid friendly I would make it on the sweet side or spread it over a sweet bread, the pasta can be spiralized and make it look like noodles and use a tomato base tapenade.
Also you saw my Jamaica water or Hibiscus tea.
Easy to prepare this is my recipe
1 lb of hibiscus flower per
1 gallon water
1 Cup sugar
Comvine all the ingredients and bring to a slow simmer or even less and stir
Let it infuse for around 15 minutes or until it cools down and strain it
Adjust sweetnes if nessesary.
Thank You for taking a look :)
Good luck all the contestants.
Soy tu tio
Nice work
Welcome to steemit
Thanks :D Hello.
Do you do this culinarychallenge?
No
ahhahaaha you should :P haha is fun.
JK
Welcome to Steemit! Great post filled with pictures!
aahah yeah. Well, I guess if it is about pictures and showing how good the food looks. I better take a lot and one will be good :P also I rally enjoyed creating all this food and sharing it with my loved one. So it is a good way to keep the memory :D
i really enjoy your pictures and your dish looks super tasty ! :)
lots of thanks :)
first one of them but not last that is for sure.
WOW @tioluis my mouth is hanging open I'm so impressed by the whole presentation, food, photos and all!!! I reckon a few more surprise picnics with lovingly-prepared fresh food and your girlfriend will end up proposing to you haha! Seriously though... you have put so much thought and time into each item, everything looks and sounds fantastic. You even made tea! I honestly can't decide which is my favourite thing... hmmmm... perhaps your Sesame Strawberry Avocado Tapa... it really jumps out the photo with that gorgeous rich colour. I'm so glad to hear you had fun making all this too, and look forward very much to seeing more of your wonderful food here on Steemit :-)
ahhahaha she doesn't have to hahaha she knows I will... hahah maybe I will even post it. But still is a surprise :P
Thanks well you will see more of my food and more of me in future contests. That is for sure. You should also resteem the winner posts so they have a chanse to get a little extra reward ;) maybe even the sponsors too.
I'm glad you and more people liked it :) Thanks for hosting this.
Soy tu tio
Fantastic job @tioluis! Lots of hard work here I see and use of local, fresh ingredients that are in season.
Made with tender loving care and what a wonderful surprise for your soon to be bride. How could she say no? ;)
ahhaha She won't :P
hopefully. Thanks, I'm glad you liked my presentation :)
Congratulations @tioluis on your first SCC trophy! Very well-deserved, your entry was amazing! Hope to see you next round for the Newbie Special :-)
Woot 3rd place.
Thanks
Damn dude, you got skills haha, congrats on 3rd place :)
Upboated and followed.
ahahah thanks. I will steal this GIF hahah xD
Very well done, bravo! Congrats on 3rd place in the challenge
Thank you :)
I'm thinking what to do for next one. hahah but I did pick some wild berries already