Vegetarian Alternative to Ground Meat!

So today I have made a pretty cool discovery that will be great for vegetarians or anyone who is just looking for a plant-based and raw alternative to meat every once in awhile. Before today I have only used it as "meat" in a raw chili recipe, but today when my boys were wishing for meat with their pasta, I decided to experiment.

I got the main idea for this concept from Ani Phyo, one of my most favorite raw food recipe people, and tweaked it for my own needs. Here's the recipe:

1 cup raw walnuts--run through your food processor until they are in small little bits, like chopped up cooked ground meat would be

then add in

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1 tablespoon Bragg's liquid aminos

2 teaspoons of ground coriander

half a teaspoon of sea salt

Mix it all up and voila! you've got a nice meat substitute! We just added it to the pasta and it definitely did the trick of giving the visual, textural, and flavor of ground meat. Mixing this stuff up takes just a minute (less than cooking meat!) and is certainly less expensive than meat. If you wanted this to taste more like taco flavored, you could add cumin and chili powder. If you wanted it less salty, leave out the Bragg's.

You could use this in salads, chili, casseroles, etc. I hope that you will tell me how it has worked for you!

Walnuts are tremendously healthy for you, especially when raw. (so I would suggest adding this to your cooked and heated foods right before eating, and not heating it, though of course you could) Even if you aren't vegetarian, this is a great way to occasionally add in a powerful nutrient into your diet. Right now we have raw walnuts for sale, so this is a perfect time to stock up.