Raw Vegan Stuffed Tomatoes

So, here I am again, this time with a pledge that come what may, I will post my recipes regularly. No more delaying and a backlog of recipes to be shared. The interesting thing is that nowadays I am following a vegan diet, well, trying to follow it wholeheartedly. So, expect a lots of vegan diet recipes in the coming days from me. Today, its the recipe of raw vegan stuffed tomatoes, a healthy and no-cook recipe! I am so excited with this vegan diet that it has become the driving force for me to start blogging my recipes once again!

Why I am becoming a fan of vegan diet?

This is a question that is obvious, not for anyone else but for myself. See, I have been religiously going to gym for months now and sadly, there was no visible signs of losing weight. But, a tough person like me who rarely lets herself down with depression (thanks to my genes!), I had started changing my diet, all for losing some weight. But as you know, if you are the only one in the family who wants to follow a low fat diet, its a little difficult task. To my utter surprise, this one fine day, my hubby declared, he is going to have healthy foods now onward! Why he said this has a long story behind it that I will, hopefully, write someday in some of my other blog. Now because I am talking about why I started appreciating vegan diet, let me share with you that in only two weeks, I was able to lose 4 kg weight! Isn't that inspiring and motivating like anything! Let me also share that I am not only having vegan diet since two weeks now but in fact, I am having raw vegan diet, well about 80% of raw vegan diet. Only 20% of my daily meals consist of cooked food these days. And the most important point here is that I am enjoying this vegan diet!

A secret: I never imagined or believed that I can go without roti and rice for days together! But I am actually doing this! I am excited!

Now you might be wondering why I am not having roti or rice? Because I don't feel like having them. I am so full after having all the raw foods, my mind can't even think of having anything else. If you are wondering what I am eating, check out the below list:

My daily vegan diet plan to lose weight

• Morning after waking up- 4-5 Tulsi leaves and a tiny piece of ginger, after half an hour 10 soaked almonds
• Breakfast- 1-2 bananas
• Mid day snack - a bowl full of fruits
• Hunza tea- It is a herbal tea. I'll share its recipe some other time.
• Lunch (consisting of plate 1 and plate 2)- Plate 1 is salad (a good amount of it) and plate 2 is dal or vegetables cooked with very little oil. 1 roti is permissible here but I don't feel like having it.
• Evening snack- a filling vegan snack like dal vada, veggie chilla, raw banana kofta, mashed aloo-chana chat etc. Note that I make them in only 1-2 tsp oil, thanks to my kitchen gadgets like steamer, air fryer, microwave oven, non stick pans and tawa.
• Evening tea -Hunza tea
• Dinner- (consisting of plate 1 and plate 2)- Plate 1 is salad (a good amount of it) and plate 2 is dal or vegetables cooked with very little oil. In fact, most of the days, I don't have dinner because all that I eat whole day long is so filling that I don't feel like having dinner. My evening snack works like early dinner on such days.
• Tiffin- You can also call it mini snacks. Because fruits and other raw vegetables digest easily and faster, you feel like eating something at times. Therefore, I eat small amounts of dry fruits like walnuts, raisins, cashews, dried figs and apricots, coconut, roasted chana, raw peanuts, or dates whenever I feel hungry.

You can see that I keep eating all the day long still I am losing weight. Its all because of vegan diet and exercising in gym. In fact, walking 30-40 minutes is enough along with such a diet. But because I am now used to go to the gym, I prefer doing some exercises there.

This recipe of raw vegan stuffed tomatoes is one of the items I made for dinner two days back. It also worked as the combined plate 1 and 2 of my dinner. 2 pieces of these stuffed vegan tomatoes were enough to fill my stomach. And it tasted delicious otherwise my hubby would not have taken an extra stuffed tomato. And when he says its tasty, I don't have any option to doubt about it as he has extra sensitive taste buds. So, enough talking about my new founded vegan diet, let me share the recipe of this raw stuffed tomato with you.

Raw Vegan Stuffed Tomatoes Recipe

You will need three groups of ingredients for this stuffed tomatoes recipe- raw filling for tomatoes, flavored nuts butter and tomatoes.

Ingredients for filling tomatoes:

1. Mixed sprouts (I used moong, moth and chana sprouts)- half a cup
2. Raw peanuts (soaked for 15-20 minutes)- 2-3 tbsp
3. Raisins- 10-15
4. Coriander leaves (dhania patti, chopped)- 1-2 tbsp
5. Salt- a pinch of it
6. Black pepper- 1/4 - 1/2 tsp

Ingredients of nuts butter:

1. Almonds (soaked for 5-6 hours)- 10-15
2. Cashew (soaked for 10-20 minutes)- 5-6
3. Garlic cloves- 4-5
4. white pepper-  1/2 to 1 tsp
5. Coriander leaves - few sprigs
6. Lemon- 1/2 to 1 
7. Salt- as per taste

Tomatoes:

4 medium big tomatoes - Select those that are ripe but tight

Steps for making raw vegan stuffed tomatoes

Prepare the nuts butter:

• Peel the almonds and garlic cloves.
• Take all the ingredients except lemon (almonds, cashews, garlic cloves, coriander leaves, salt and white pepper) and place them in your mixer grinder's chutney jar.
• Grind the ingredients to get a smooth buttery paste.
• Take it out in a bowl
• Squeeze the lemon half and mix its juice to your flavored nuts butter. 
• Stir well to mix and keep aside in a bowl.

Make the filling for stuffed tomatoes

• Take the raw peanuts and crush them using mortar and pestle (hamam dasta). If you don't have it, grind it in your blender but only for a few seconds. You need to ground it coarsely. Do not make a powder of peanuts. The bigger the chunks of peanuts, the better it will be.

• Now in a bowl, place all the ingredients of filling- sprouts, peanut chunks, raisins, chopped coriander leaves, salt and black pepper. Remember, you have used salt in the nuts butter also. So, use a very small amount of it in the filling.

• Add 3-4 teaspoons or more of the nuts butter.
• Mix all the ingredients well. Check for seasoning and add some more salt and pepper if needed.
• Your filling for vegan stuffed tomatoes is ready.

Make the vegan stuffed tomatoes

• Take the tomatoes and cut them into two halves. You will, therefore, get 8 pieces of tomatoes from 4 of them.
• Scrape out the tomato pulp. I haven't used this pulp in this dish but saved it for other purpose. If you want, you can mix the tomato pulp into the filling made for your vegan stuffed tomatoes.
• Now stuff your raw vegan filling into each half of the tomatoes.

• On top of it, add a dollop of your flavored nuts butter.

Your raw vegan stuffed tomatoes no-cook recipe is ready. Enjoy them as they are or serve them with some soup. You can also have these vegan stuffed tomatoes as snacks. They are delicious and filling!