Macaroons of a Different Color

Happy Raw Wednesday!

I enjoyed a delightful raw dinner tonight, thanks to the usual inspiration.

This was also my first experience with sprouts, which were obviously a worthwhile purchase if only for their artistic value. Aren’t they pretty?

Funny to think that these sprouts likely provided one of my bigger protein hits for the day, or so I learned in this post. Can you believe that they’re nearly 35% protein? But who’s counting, right? RIGHT?

Anyway, I bought a bag of mixed sprout salad at the farmer’s market today, and I think it contained sunflower sprouts, pea shoots and buckwheat. Don’t quote me, though. I’m quite the novice sprout-identifier. I found them rather strong at first, but once I got used to the taste, I was munching along like any other cow. And I mean that pretty literally—there’s just no graceful way to eat sprouts. They will inevitably stick out of your mouth, and all you can do is chew your cud until they break down enough to pull in and swallow. It’s actually kind of funny to look down your nose cross-eyed and watch them wiggling in front of your face while you’re chewing. I would have taken a picture of myself with sprouts sticking out of my mouth, but I do like to pretend I have some dignity left.

A very slurp-worthy raw soup accompanied my salad tonight as well. I intended it to be Creamy Zucchini Soup, straight up, no adaptations, but apparently I’m incapable of following a recipe, even when I want to!

In fact, I kind of mangled it. I’m not sure where my brain was vacationing, but I will just count myself lucky it came out delicious. Ingredient measurements were ignored, proportions were inadvertently doubled…I even got as far as taking the olive oil out of the cabinet but managed to not use it at all.

But of course, it turned out fine. I mean, come on—zucchini and avocado? Marriage made in heaven.

It was also a fabulous dip for my pulp crackers. These things are deceptively tasty!

Raw soups are great because more often than not, they’re a triple threat: soup, dressing, dip.

Indeed, the soup was playing all three parts for this meal!

While we’re on the topic of dehydrator-less yet dehydrated-nonetheless snacks, I thought this might be a good opportunity to share another yummy use for juicer pulp I came up with. And what better time than Raw Wednesday?

I hereby give you the Pulp Macaroon.

Take my word for it, they taste far better than they look.

Macaroons, especially the raw variety, are tres chic in the blogosphere right now, in case you haven’t noticed. Not wanting to miss out on the fun, I combined my cookie craving with a practical sensibility and put a couple juices’ worth of pulp to good use.

Pulp Macaroons

Ingredients:

• 3 cups pulp from your juicer*
• 1/4 cup agave nectar
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1 cup unsweetened, shredded coconut
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp cinnamon (optional)

*It doesn’t much matter which vegetables/fruit your pulp is made of, but I do recommend that it include apple. My pulp always contains apple and I think that may have been the key to the nice fruity-sweet flavor the macaroons took on.

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to “warm,” or lowest setting, preferably under 200*.
2. Use a food processor to blend pulp until fairly smooth, stopping to scrape down sides as needed. No large pieces of fruit/vegetable should remain.
3. Add remaining ingredients and process until well incorporated (you can also do this easily by hand).
4. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Shape macaroon dough into balls by the rounded tablespoonful and arrange on the cookie sheet.
5. Dehydrate in the oven for one hour with the door closed. At the end of one hour, crack the door and dehydrate for another two hours, or until dry to the touch (but don’t overdo it!). The bottoms may brown slightly; that’s ok.

Makes 25-30 macaroons

I can’t deny that these macaroons are super-chewy—they’re made almost entirely of fiber, after all! But then again, the coconut is to blame as well. It takes me nearly just as long to chew and swallow a One Lucky Duck macaroon, come to think of it.

Anyway, they won’t be winning any beauty contests, but as far as I’m concerned, I’m pleased to have a sweet new use for juicer pulp. Not being one to waste food, it has frustrated me to throw away dozens of juices’ worth of pulp over the past few months. Juicing is not cheap, after all! It’s easy enough to throw a small scoop of pulp into a smoothie once in a while, but I don’t make smoothies nearly often enough to make that my primary pulp usage. The pulp crackers are great, but I really only think to eat them when I have something to dip them in, and you know as well as I do how often that happens!

The macaroons, on the other hand, have been the ideal snack to have on hand, both at home and at the office. I’ll pop one or two whenever I get the munchies and they really hold me over quite well. They have the advantage of being able to satisfy multiple cravings: cookie, candy, fruit, vegetable—they’ll just morph to suit your palate, promise. Not to mention the fact that they’re begging for fun additions like cocoa powder, dried fruit, nuts, etc. And I’m sure I don’t need to say it, but they’re amazing slathered in almond butter, naturally. :)

And for those of you without juicers, I can’t in good conscience recommend that you adapt the macaroon recipe with whatever compost-stuffs you have lying around. I will not be responsible for snack-happy crazies digging through the trash.