This is the first RAW gourmet dish I’ve made! Me and my friend Elin were totally stoked discovering RAW food when we visited NYC last june, and this is my personal favourite! We tried a lot of places, and we tried Quintessence first. I was in seventh heaven and had this salad 3 times, and now back in Sweden, I got the ingredients and, and made it like 6 weeks in a row for lunch, it’s totally addictive and out of this world delicious!
It needs 4 – 6h non-intensive cooking preparations, soaking and drying cashews and red onion. Do it when you are home an evening or morning, it’s easy, and a totally OTW Out of This World lunchsalad!
For 3 servings of dressing you need to put
- 1 C natural cashews soaking 4 – 6 h
This so they will be more easily digestible, removing the enzymeinhibitors all nuts have so as not to sprout before the big spring rains come and say it’s ok now! Soaking deactivates the enzymeinhibitors. Give the nuts a thorough rinse afterwards, removing the enxzymeinhibitors.
Slice thinly, preferably with a mandoline. A mandoline can be found cheap at second hand stores
- 1 – 2 red onions, enough to cover an bakingsheet, makes 2 – 3 servings
Oven dry slices at 114° for 2 – 3h. I turn my oven on the lowest temperature and prop the ovendoor open with a chopstick or fully open if that gets to hot. You can also leave a deep oven tray with water near the roof of the oven to keep it cooler. Oh what a sweet chewey bacon taste!
Best tip for peeling an onion easily: let it soak, let it soak, let it soak! 5 minutes is enough, this makes the skin elastic and easy to peal of.
For the dressing blend the soaked cashews with:
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- 3 dates
- 2 teasp miso, I use Clearsprings brutal Hatcho which is unpasteurized
- whitepepper
- oregano
- juice of 1/2 citron c.a 1/8 C
- 1/2 – 1 C water to make it pourable, but still thick!
On each plate put
- 5-7 romaine lettuce leaves torn in pieces
chopped dandelion leaves can be added for a wilder taste
- at least half an avocado in big pieces
- 1 tomato in thin slices
Pour the dressing over the sakad in a rich spiral and top with the red onion rings and lots of homemade gomashio.
Gomashio = unhulled sesame seads soaked 4-6 h, and then sprouted for a day if you have the time, and then dried in the oven for 1 – 2 h. Blend the sesameseeds with a tiny bit of salt. I use 1/2 C dry seeds to 1/4+ teasp salt
Talk about an energizer! The dressing is creamy and mild, sweet in a not in your face way, with a little zip from the white peper, and something different! The romanelettuce, dried onions and the gomashio are very crunchy making a nice contrast. Truly gourmet! I’ve had it for 5 days now!
Quintessence is on 263 East 10th Street between Avenue 1 and A. Go to Union Square/14th Street and walk if you’re in town. Open until 10 p.m., and fridays and saturdays to 11 p.m.
Alexandra Esser
Food to change the world 