Although eating raw foods sounds good in theory, I just can't get the image of endless salads and carrot sticks out of my mind. That is, until I received a copy of Alissa Cohen's Raw Food for Everyone: Essential Techniques and 300 Simple-to-Sophisticated Recipes in the mail.
Cohen herself has been on a raw foods diet for over 20 years and owns two vegan, raw restaurants on the east coast. In her book, she says that her goal was not to cater to the raw-eating crowd, but to show everyone how good raw, healthy food can be. After the lunch I just had, I have to say that I'm a believer!
Mushroom Pate
1 cup chopped button mushrooms
3 cups chopped portobello mushrooms
1 cup pecans
1 cup walnuts
1 teaspoon chopped fresh sage
1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1/2 cup diced onions
1 garlic clove
1 teaspoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1. Put all ingredients in a food processor. Blend together until combined. The mixture should be smooth with some texture, but not soupy.
2. Pack the pate into a decorative mold or dish. Chill for 1 hour before serving. Store in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.
This pate (sorry I can't get my computer to add the accents aigu and circonflexe for some reason)(and yes, those are about the only words I remember from high school French) was truly fantastic. I see if becoming a staple here!
Avocado-Cucumber Soup
2 Avocados, peeled and pitted
2 cucumbers, coarsely chopped
1/2 cup chopped fresh dill
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1. Put all ingredients in a blender or Vita-Mix. Blend until the soup is smooth and creamy.
2. Serve at room temperature or refrigerate for 1 hour. Stir before serving.
I used my food processor instead of the blender only because my blender doesn't seem to work well these days. It seems to have worked just fine, although the soup was a little thicker than I thought it would be. I could very distinctly taste both the cucumber and avocado, yet I had a weird sensory thing going on where I felt like I was just eating a bowl of guacamole. The jury is still out on this recipe, but it's definitely made me want to explore more cold soup recipes.
If you're trying to eat healthier, just want to try something new, or you're an old pro at the raw foods diet, Raw Food for Everyone is as the title would indicate: for everyone. There are 300 recipes to try, plus Cohen has added so much additional information on eating raw that you can really come up with your own creations too.
Last but not least, Raw Food For Everyone doesn't come out until later this week. But fear not, you can win a copy right here before you can buy it. Just leave me a comment telling me if where you are on the raw foods journey. Never tried it, but interested? Just dabbling? Life-long pro? Let me know! I'll pick a winner this Friday, October 29th.
Interested in learning more? Alissa's website is also packed with great information!
9 comments:
I understand the thinking behind the raw food diet, and I know we should be eating more raw, fresh foods that haven't been over processed... I just need more ideas for how to do it besides salads and veggie trays! I'm definitely going to try that cucumber avocado soup! I would love to win this book!
I've never tried the raw food diet before, but it sounds interesting. I would love to win this book and give it a try.
Mushrooms come really cheap around here, so that pate is next on my to-try list. Thanks for sharing!
That soup looks delicious. Healthy and delicious is very good. I am working on improving our eating habits. I must visit you more often for inspiration.
Thanks for linking to My Meatless Mondays
I thought raw food diets were silly until my son came a long and I swear, he eats everything raw! He likes his veggies raw. He likes nuts and berries, his natural tastes are totally raw!
I have not experimented with any actual raw recipes, but I've been curious. This mushroom pate looks like something I really want to try, especially given that we now can't eat gluten, corn or dairy in our house!
I have never tried a raw food diet, but would love to learn more about it. Thanks for sharing those recipes!
These recipes look so good! This is right up my alley with my no gluten, corn or dairy diet.I try to eat (and I really have to) more vegetables everyday, but it can get borning. Even my veggie egg white omelets get old.
I try to each as much raw foods as I can, but have found that money has kept me from being 100 percent raw. I am definitely open to learning new recipes that I can fit in my budget.
Here's some additional info on eating raw I found helpful:
What is raw food? Very basically it is natural food (fruits, grains, seeds, nuts, vegetables, legumes) that has not been heated above 118 degrees. When food is heated above 118 degrees, the enzymes present begin to breakdown and become useless. These enzymes are important because they allow our body to extract maximum nutrients from the food. Heated food is simply less nutritious then raw, unheated food.
*Why does this work? Because that magic number (51% raw) allows your body to recognize enough of the food to digest it, rather than attack it. When you eat cooked food, your body doesn’t recognize it: it causes leukocytosis. This is where white blood cells are released into the stomach to deal with the “invader”. Your body doesn’t know the difference between cooked food and a virus. Having leukocytosis many times a day is the reason why our bodies can end up in a terrible auto-immune self-attacking state.
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