A Raw Day

After attending a media event at Saf Restaurant last night, it got me to thinking how easy it is to make great food, without cooking it.  I always say that the best food starts with great ingredients, then it's up to you how you use those ingredients to get the best tastes, textures and flavours.
So I have challenged myself to eat great food all day with out cooking any of it - and this does not mean I am surviving on a few lettuce leaves!  I am training twice today, once on the river early this morning and again later tonight on the erg and with weights, so I need some good protein and carbs.
Luckily I happen to love raw fish, which is obviously a great source of protein and, armed with a food processor have come up with some great textures and flavours with other ingredients I already had in my fridge.  This is my favourite way of cooking - get out the ingredients you like then just start playing!  With raw food having a food processor is a must, as this is how you make lots of delicious sauces, pastes, or in this case rice!
As I was only playing I didn't write down quantities of anything, so you just have a rough recipe here of what I did , but the whole point is that you experiment yourself with what you have.
Pesto - firstly I made a pesto with a handful of baby spinach leaves, a few basil leaves, some walnuts, garlic and extra virgin olive oil.
Tuna - marinate in soy sauce, honey and mustard (or wasabi if you have it would be great), then roll in sesame seeds just before slicing to serve.
Parsnip 'rice' - place a peeled and chopped parsnip in the food processor with a handful of pine nuts and pulse until you have 'rice'.
Vegetables - slice a large carrot and courgette with a vegetable peeler then toss the thin slices with rocket leaves and a tiny amount of sesame oil.
Place the vegetables on the plate, top with the parsnip rice then a sliced avocado.  Slice the sesame tuna and place on top then drizzle around the pesto, followed by balsamic glaze.  Looks amazing and tastes delicious.

So, on to pudding!
Place a couple of figs, 4 prunes, a knob of stem ginger and a little of the stem ginger syrup and a pinch of nutmeg into a small blender and blitz until smooth.
Stir into natural yoghurt, not quite mixing it in, then spoon into a glass, top with chopped pecans and drizzle with honey - heaven in a glass!

Tonight I am hoping to do a raw soup similar to a gazpacho - I have lots of red peppers and celery so they lend themselves to that.  My protein may have to come from creamy mozzarella chopped into the soup.  I can't wait!

Do you have any great unusual raw recipes?  Do share them with me.