As you might recall, the last time I was in Carefree, we visited one of Ora’s clients-turned-friend, Sara. She runs a raw vegan academy, and now, a successful cafe.
Her inspirational messages and quotes are all over the restaurant.
Sara was still in the building process four weeks ago, and opened THREE weeks ago!
The classroom area is set up and in use for food preparation on busy nights.
Zen decor!
We started off with a combo platter. This had almond falafel with whipped avocado on top, lemony almond hummus, olive tapenade, dill and shitake mushroom pate, a green salad with dill, kale, parsley and tons of other greens I couldn’t identify…
and my favorite part of this dish: spicy seed crackers with sesame, pumpkin, flax and other things I can’t name. I honestly didn’t know half the ingredients that were in these! Sorry!
Ora chose the Rawgasmic sandwich. This had onion bread (made of smooshed nuts and onion) and was filled with greenery as far as the eye can see! This was layered with more whipped avocado and had a bunch of sprouts in for good measure.
I asked Sara to surprise me and choose my meal. She brought out raw vegan sushi with carrots, jicama, almond hummus, some kind of green lettuce, all wrapped in nori.
(Again, REALLY sorry I can’t be more specific – I’ve never had such trouble identifying ingredients! These were all disguised so well!)
This was the most crunchy thing I’ve ever consumed in my life. It came with a lovely ginger dip. I enjoyed the flavor, but my jaw ached a little after chomping on the roll.
She also brought out her “WOW tower” – this contains almonds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, chia seeds, and tons of other seeds (argh, so sorry) that have been soaked to release the healthy enzymes, combined with carrots, (maybe) tomatoes, (maybe) spinach, all piled into a healthy tower.
The texture was interesting – if you’ve ever had chia seeds you know that they get kind of slimy, like flax seeds, but it wasn’t a BAD slimy. There was also a spicy bite to it, just a hint of chili flakes.
I ate a quarter of this and then was stuffed to the gills.
This food is DENSE!
I WAS stuffed. WAS. Until I saw the dessert trays.
We ordered a tiramisu and a sweet potato pie to split three ways. If you’ve never had raw vegan food and are scared to try it, GO FOR THESE DESSERTS! The tiramisu was topped with a macadamia nut cream, and layered with Sara’s homemade dark chocolate and an almond and medjool date crust.
My only complaint was that I almost died eating this because I kept inhaling the powdered cocoa on top.
The sweet potato pie was like a pumpkin pie, but instead of pumpkin, it was mixed with rainbows and smiles. It contained sweet potato, parsnips, cardamom, cinnamon and cloves atop an almond and medjool date crust.
Overall, it was delicious, but I felt like I’d swallowed rocks by the end – SO DENSE!
Definitely something to try at least once in your life!
It was a very, very difficult day. The sun was almost TOO warm!
Nothing like a good hike up a cliff to look out over the sea.
Like I said, it was a really, really difficult day.
Although I received these two bags of chips free from Tostitos, my opinions are my own, yada yada yada. You know the drill.
Lots of whole ingredients and mixes of grains – I do like that!
The roasted garlic and black bean was sadly pretty bland. There was absolutely no garlic flavor at all.
Let me first say that I’m not a huge fan of chipotle. These chips, however may have converted me! They taste very similar to Doritos, but given the option between the two, of course I’d take the chips with the whole grains and all natural ingredients!
Blessed beyond belief!
