(Raw Vegan) Walnut and Spinach Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms

Day 25 of our “One Month Raw Food Cleanse”
A new restaurant opened in downtown Sebastopol named “Pesto”. It used to be “Alice’s Restaurant” but Alice decided to move on. I was listening to the owner talk about the different pesto concoctions they were planning in the future and it got me in the mood to come home and create another raw pesto recipe.

I’ve posted two recipes using raw pesto (Vegan Lemon Basil Pesto on Raw Zucchini Spaghetti on April 20, 2009 and Raw Vegan Pesto Pizza on a Sprouted Lentil Crust on May 18, 2009). Both of these recipes use the tradition basil and pine nuts as a base. Nutritional yeast is used instead of parmesan.

Today’s recipe combines heart healthy raw walnuts with nutrient rich baby spinach. Spinach is rich in vitamin A, C, B6, folate, calcium, iron, potassium and manganese. These make very nice appetizers and would be a great dish to serve to guests or bring to a potluck, but you’ll probably have to double it. Served with a raw soup, it makes a nice dinner item.

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(Raw Vegan) Walnut And Spinach Pesto Stuffed Mushrooms [8 small or 5 medium mushrooms]
8 small or 5 medium white button mushrooms
1 packed cup organic baby spinach
1/4 cup raw walnuts
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 small clove garlic, chopped
1/2 teaspoon extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1 full tablespoon nutritional yeast
Nama Shoyu soy sauce

Carefully remove the stems from the mushrooms and with a small spoon (a demitasse spoon works well) remove some of the inside so there is room for the filling. Clean the mushrooms with a damp paper towel. Save half of the stems for the filling. Toss the mushroom caps in a little Nama Shoyu and let them marinate for 20 minutes. Place the spinach, walnuts, lemon juice, garlic, olive oil, salt, half the mushroom stems and the nutritional yeast in a food processor and process until smooth but do not over process. Fill the mushrooms caps and serve. If you want these warm you can place them on a Teflex sheet and dehydrate at 115 degrees for one hour and serve immediately.

Per mushroom (when making 8 small mushrooms): 36.4 calories, 2.7 g fat, .3 g saturated fat, 0 g cholesterol, 1.4 g protein, 1.7 g carbohydrates and 1 g of fiber.

Menu for Day 25
Breakfast is Mango and Strawberry Breakfast Salad (Posted May 8, 2009). Lunch is a spinach salad with red onion, pecans and strawberries tossed with a lemon and oil dressing (I guess you can tell I stopped at the roadside stand and bought a few baskets of freshly picked strawberries!). Dinner is veggie sushi posted on May 9, 2009. Dessert is fresh cantaloupe with Dessert Helper posted May 20, 2009. I unfortunately had little luck with my Irish moss experiment. I tried to use it to make a strawberry pudding. After soaking and rinsing it, it didn’t really whip up into a smooth gel or gum like it’s supposed to. Maybe I didn’t use enough water. It still smelled like seaweed which I must admit, did not inspire me to put it in a dessert. I don’t want to give up since it has very important nutritional qualities.