Butter lettuce rawvioli with carrot almond sauce

I love food that comes in packages. Not the plastic kind, mind you, but the kind you can eat. Spring rolls, collard wraps, raw raviolis! There's something so special about the making of these foods, a magic in wrapping and sealing up something delightful, like a secret. Only to release it again as the flavors unfold on the tongue.

Here is a second version of Rawvioli for the jewel house blog. This one features butter lettuce, a creamy walnut red pepper and oregano filling, and a delectable carrot almond sauce. It is really very simple to make, though it helps to have a food processor and a juicer for the carrots to make the sauce. You can use store-bought carrot juice if you must.

Butter Lettuce Rawviolis with Carrot Almond Sauce

adapted from The Raw Food Primer  by Suzanne Alex Ferrara

For the sauce

• 1 cup carrot juice
• 4 Tb. almond butter
• 1/2 a ripe avocado
• 2 Tb. shoyu (unpasteurized soy sauce) or tamari
• 1 Tb. miso
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 Tb. maple syrup (not raw) or raw honey
• 1/2 ts. turmeric powder

Place all ingredients in a food processor or blender. Blend until smooth, scraping down the sides and adding water to thin to desired consistency


For the rawvioli

• 1 cup walnuts, soaked in water 8 hours (or use sprouted walnuts)
• 1 cup chopped zucchini (about 1 medium)
• 1 Tb. miso
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 Tb. fresh oregano
• 1 Tb fresh rosemary
• 1 Tb. nutritional yeast

• 1/2 cup minced red bell pepper 
• 1/2 cup minced celery
• salt and cracked black pepper

• wilted butter lettuce leaves
• basil, thinly sliced

Leave the butter lettuce leaves out of the refrigerator long enough to wilt. This gives them a slightly elastic quality that keeps them from tearing as you wrap the rawviolis.

Put the walnuts, zucchini, miso, garlic, herbs, and yeast in a food processor and blend until creamy.  Place the mixture in a bowl and stir in the finely chopped bell pepper and celery. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Remove the heavy center vein from each leaf. Place about a tablespoon of filling on a leaf and roll up into a little package. Serve atop the carrot almond sauce and flecked with basil ribbons.