Beetroot Ravioli With Cashew Cream Cheese Recipe

Author Kris Carr is on a mission to make wellness fun, delicious, and … sexy. Her new cookbook, Crazy Sexy Kitchen: 150 Plant-Empowered Recipes to Ignite a Mouthwatering Revolution, is filled with 150 nourishing recipes and lots of cooking tips to make healthy eating easy every day. Take this plant-based spin on comforting pasta. “Homemade raw ravioli may seem daunting, but it’s actually quite easy,” Kris says. As for the filling, she calls it “a smooth, dairy-free alternative to cream cheese,” and it’s so tasty you’ll want to lick it off the spoon. With a fresh asparagus salad on the side, you’ll fall in love with this Mediterranean-inspired meal.

Beetroot Ravioli With Cashew Cream Cheese

Yield: 4 to 6 servings
Active Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 24 hours and 30 minutes

Ingredients

For the cashew cream cheese
2 cups cashews, soaked for a few hours or overnight in water, to soften
½ cup water
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon nutritional yeast
1 tablespoon onion powder
1 ½ tablespoons finely diced chives
¼ cup finely minced parsley
1 ½ tablespoons finely minced shallots or red onion
½ teaspoon sea salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

For the marinade
¼ cup olive or garlic oil
1 lemon
Sea salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

For the beetroot ravioli
2 large beets, peeled and sliced into paper-thin rounds
1 cup cashew cream cheese

For the asparagus salad
½ bunch asparagus
1 ½ tablespoons toasted pumpkin-seed oil, or quality olive oil
½ lemon
Sea salt, to taste
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

For the garnish (optional)
Fresh minced chives
Aged balsamic vinegar
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Sea salt, to taste

Instructions

Prepare cashew cream cheese
Blend the soaked cashews with water and lemon juice in high-speed blender, until smooth. Pause often to scrape sides of blender and fold ingredients to ensure a creamy texture. Transfer the mixture to a bowl and add the nutritional yeast, onion powder, chives, parsley, shallots, salt, and pepper, mixing thoroughly.

Prepare marinade
Combine olive oil, squeeze of lemon, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Add sliced beets and marinate for at least 1 hour to overnight.

Prepare ravioli
Lay half of the sliced, marinated beets on a flat surface (these are the bottom of your ravioli). Using a spoon, scoop one tablespoon of the cashew cream cheese in the center of each beet slice (you could also use a pastry bag). Cover the cheese with another sliced beet to complete the ravioli.

Prepare asparagus salad
Shave the asparagus into long, thin pieces using a vegetable peeler. Combine the asparagus, toasted pumpkin-seed oil, squeeze of lemon, and a sprinkling of salt and pepper in a bowl, and gently toss to mix ingredients well. Do this just before serving, to ensure you keep the crispness of the veggies.

Serve
Place 6 to 8 ravioli on each plate. Arrange a handful of shaved and dressed asparagus salad on top of the ravioli. Garnish with minced chives, a drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar, cracked pepper, and a pinch of sea salt, if using.

Copyright © 2012 by Crazy Sexy Wellness LLC. Published and distributed by Hay House, Inc.