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What’s Vegan Living/Raw Foods?

Raw-food contains no animal products at all (unless you use honey, bee pollen, or nutritional yeast,).  Raw is when the food you eat is uncooked, and processed only by hand, or processed as a whole food, such as dried ground seaweed, or sesame Tahiti (possible exceptions: soy protein, vitamin/mineral supplements).  Foods may be ground, chopped, milked, soaked, sprouted, juiced, dried, pureed, and even fermented, just not cooked, heated above 117°C, or refined.  Raw food should be of organic origin and, in as far as possibly, seasonal and from a local source.

Why Raw?

I am ‘raw’ partly because I felt like a cooked food diet was making me sick.  Because everything was available to me, I was less conscious about the food I was putting into my body. I am also raw because food of the civilization-diet isn’t real anymore; it’s a fad and a thrill sold as entertainment just like Hollywood and video games and trendy shoes, produced and marketed with total disregard for life on the planet.  It comes at us screaming from bill boards, television advertisement, and cinema ads. Food is prepackaged and prepared with thousands of ugly industrial chemicals, and produced under conditions that none of us would ever willingly consent to work under.  Petroleum and paraffin derivatives, E-additives, nitrates, trans-fats, monosodiumglutimate, and acrylamide (just to name a few) aren’t food; they are cheap factory-food substitutes and recycled industrial by-products foreign to the human body.  Even mass marketed fruits and vegetables are generally packed with industrial chemicals, pesticides, fertilizers, color enhancers, and even flavor enhancers.  They are often grown in agricultural factories using artificial light and heat, chemically and genetically engendered, and gas-ripened.  Many vegetables are grown using hydroponics systems and liquid fertilizers so that their root structures never touch soil.  Over many years of this type of cultivation produce has lost much of its nutritional content.  Even foods cultivated outdoors in ‘real’ soil have lost much of their nutritional content over the last century because over farming and the use of chemical fertilizers and herbicides and pesticides have destroyed the quality of the soil.

Even when we buy organic foods, we boil, bake and fry all of the life out of our food and greatly damage its natural vitamin and mineral content.  We alter the cell structure of the plants we cook, and alter the chemical structure of the oils we use in food preparation by heating them. We end up feeding ourselves huge amounts of short-chain cooked carbohydrates, congealed proteins, and plant-foods left with little nutritional value. 

I don’t think that human beings are herbivores by nature, and I don’t believe that cooking your food or eating wild natural meat in moderation will kill you, or even necessarily make you sick.  I think we evolved to adapt to our environment perhaps more than any other animal has ever evolved to adapt.  We are soft boned and thin-skinned, we don’t even have fangs or claws, but we managed to take an entire planet hostage, and to take control over the lives of its species.  We have survived by eating insects and mice, by eating a diet of fruits, by enduring long periods of hunger, by eating nothing but fish and coconuts, or milk, blood and honey.  Whatever the dietary condition you name, the human animal has survived it.  We evolved to adapt.  And now we are in a position where we are no longer forced to adapt.  Now we are in a position where we are able to choose.

I am raw because I have a choice.  I think humans went seriously wrong somewhere along the line, and it’s gone so far that we no longer even question the liberty we have taken in defining other living beings solely as a source of food.  Our attitude towards, and treatment of those living beings is horrendous. That is not surprising, since we also take the liberty of milking petty privileges from the vast majority of other human beings on the planet at the expense of their inalienable right to health, self-determination and dignity.  A large portion of the population of the planet is active in producing the staggering amount food we eat daily, and are at the mercy of the corporations who own the production, but can’t even afford to partake in the product of their labor. In fact most of the labor population has been reduced to highly expendable ‘human resources’, and the land they live and work on has been largely reduced to ‘agricultural production zones’ by those in control of the means of production.  We are also in the process of totally destroying the eco system of the entire planet, and a good portion of that destruction is due to factory farming of animals and produce.  I don’t want to be a part of all of this, but I am.  You might ask what all of this has to do with going raw.

I knew that in order to live with any sense of dignity and internal harmony, I had to change something.  The world has become so grotesquely complex and so far removed from nature.  If history is and has always been written by the ‘winners’, and we are completely a product of history, then it only goes to say that the present is also a product of the ‘winners’.  Almost all I previously learned about nutrition was presented to me from the side of some of histories biggest winners, the huge multinational meat and grain industries.  The peripheral damage caused by these industries, whether to my own body, to the workers producing the food stuff, to the worlds water resources, the ozone, soil quality, was never discussed in connection with the food pyramid taught us in school.  I needed to pare the information I did possess about nutrition down to its most essential form.   

I felt the need to reduce my diet to its purest most basic, most nutritious, and most mutually respectful form and  to rid myself of the peripheral destruction involved in consuming a cooked non-vegan non-organic diet to the extent that I was able.

Sicknesses, such as obesity, coronary heart disease, fatty liver, diabetes, high blood pressure, stomach and colon cancer, and high cholesterol, that are usually associated with cooked diets high in saturated fats and refined sugars, are virtually eliminated by the vegan raw-food diet.  I have mentioned only a few of the most obvious health benefits associated with the vegan raw-foods diet, because I don’t even want to get into the debate around the claims of some raw-foodists that the vegan raw foods diet can cure aids, cancer, hepatitis, and a great variety of other ailments, because I am not a nutrition expert, a doctor, of a scientist. I don’t doubt that an increase in overall health, and an elimination of stored toxins from the body, and the elimination of carcinogens and industrial chemicals from the diet will make one more resistant to disease in general, and will improve ones chances of recovery from illness.  The increased intake of phytochemicals, such as phytosterine and phytoestrogyn, and others of the more than 60,000 secondary substances contained in undamaged plants and fruits, such as terpene, saponine, carotinoide, and flavonoids and phenol-acid, known for their anti-carcinogenic and healing properties may also increase ones resistance to cancers and other disease.  Many of these substances are seriously damaged or completely destroyed during the heating process. It makes sense to me that it is healthier to eat whole produce in its original form, raw and unprocessed.^back to top^

What is a raw-diet?  How and What do I eat?

I am 98% raw (I use a small amount of vinegar, a B vitamin supplement, and soy protein).  I went raw from one day to the next.  Some people prefer to adjust slowly to a raw foods diet by gradually adding more and more raw foods while reducing the amount of cooked foods they eat over time.  Some people prefer to stick with an 80% or 90% raw diet, keeping some cooked carbohydrates, such as baked sweet potatoes in their diet.

There seem to be many different nutritional concepts within the vegan raw and living foods diet.  Some people are fruitarians, or eat a diet consisting mainly of fruits. Others feel that too many fruits in the diet may acidify the body or may cause diabetes-like symptoms because of the amount of sugar in a high-fruit diet, and prefer to eat mainly vegetables.  Some people follow the 80-10-10 plan; 80% sweet fruits for carbohydrates, 10% dark greens for proteins, and 10% fats from avocadoes, nuts and seeds. Many people follow a more intuitive approach, using some basic nutritional information, and listening attentively to the needs of their bodies.  Still others stick to the pure whole raw-living idea, and don’t blend, dehydrate, combine etc.  If they get a kohlrabi, they eat it as it is. This is similar to mono-nutrition in which one eats only one fruit or vegetable during a mealtime, or for a defined period or time, such as eating only apples for a day, then eating only greens for the next.  There is also the whole ‘cooking’ raw idea, which includes extravagant recipes and meals that end up resembling cooked meals with cakes, puddings, roles, sauces, breads, jams, burgers etc. made out of uncooked whole foods. Whether people use dried or fresh herbs, spices, isolated salts (as opposed to nori powder, celery extracts and other high sodium whole ’salts’), and condiments such as vinegar, olive oil, raw-honey, stevia extract, herb-salt etc., seems to vary strongly from individual to individual.

I usually just eat a lot of mixed vegetable and root salad, sprouts, sauerkraut, fruit, avocadoes, and seeds.  In addition to that, but in limited amounts, I eat raw soups, smoothies, a few nuts, fresh herbs, crystal and sea salt, and small amounts of a variety of cold pressed oils.  I don’t usually eat, but also do not exclude from my diet, a little bit of raw soymilk or nut milk, vinegar, humus, and raw soy or nut crackers. 

I eat about five meals a day, and snack on fruit, sauerkraut, and sometimes nuts in between.  Since I have never eaten sweet food for breakfast (except fruit), I sometimes eat a salad or a sushi roll for breakfast.  I reserve the more processed stuff for variety, and not for regular consumption.  I started eating lukewarm soups when the weather got colder, but still eat only about a bowlful a week.  Generally I eat more vegetables than fruits because of the high sugar content in fruit, but when I leave home I always take a bunch of fruit with me. I am always on the look out at the market for unusual vegetables to add variety to my diet.  There is something of a movement to return old indigenous varieties of veggies to the shelves in the markets here, and luckily they come mostly from organic production.

So far I have found black carrots, pink and white striped beets, parsley roots, pastinak roots, fleshy lumpy tomatoes that taste like heaven, dark yellow turnips that taste like dirt and honey, black radishes, red radishes that have the form of carrots and the color of beets, and old solid local apple types.   It’s always an adventure finding a new vegetable, and it makes food preparation a lot more fun.

If I feel hungry, I eat.  I don’t force myself to eat an exact number of meals or amount of food every day.  In the summer I had days where I could only eat light juicy vegetable salads, and ate 5 or 6 meals of them a day, plus fruit snacks. 

I think that as long as you are clear on what your definition of raw is, you can find your own way intuitively. ^back to top^

Weight

I have read claims from a lot of people who complain that they can’t stop loosing weight on the raw foods diet.  You will probably loose some weight when you go raw no matter what you do, but if you eat intuitively instead of following some orthodox raw-food bible, I doubt that you will ever risk becoming emaciated.  If you feel that you are loosing too much weight, just consume more calories and combine your foods so that more fats are stored, and less are burned.  You can do this by eating sweet fruits or starchy foods with oily foods.  Add more avocados to your diet, eat them with sweet fruits; eat nuts with ripe bananas.  Eat grated pumpkin salad with extra pumpkin seed oil (make sure it’s the raw variety, most isn’t!) in the sauce.  Eat raw pineapple-nut cookies once in a while.  You won’t get too skinny!

I think that the raw-foods diet should not be abused as a weight-loss program. If you are over weight, you will loose weight on raw foods as your body cleanses its self and gravitates towards its ideal balance.  I think, though, that there is a big difference in approach when weight loss is seen as one thing among many in a search for ideal health and vitality, or when it is seen as a goal within its self.  I feel that, unless you have a serious heath condition relating to excess weight, that the desire to loose weight is usually of cosmetic nature, and is self destructive and self-defeating when it is seen as a goal in its self.  I know from personal experience that the quality of life increases in relation to ones closeness to ideal health, but pursuing a beauty-ideal is nothing short of self-degradation. 

Myth:

Raw food is hard on your digestive system.

Your body adjusts quickly to the digestion of raw foods, and after three or four days you won’t have any problems with your stomach.  Your body will also adjust quickly to the high fiber content in the food you eat.  In fact raw foods are excellent for digestion, and work wonders on your intestinal system.  If anything, your body will be grateful for the change in diet.  Your entire system will function efficiently, and your body will be freed to focus on cleansing your system of old stored toxins, rancid fats, and acquired ailments.  The first and most obvious changes you will notice will be the near disappearance of bodily odors, clearing of acne, softening of the skin, disappearance of flakey skin on elbows and knees, overall reduction in body mass, a clean energized feeling, a good feeling in the stomach, and some increase mental clarity.

Detox

…But you will detox when you go raw, and if you are not familiar with the symptoms of detoxification, you may think you think you have been struck with the plague in your first week after going raw.  Some of the symptoms may be:  terrible rank body odor, reeking breath, small pin-head sized white pimples on the chest and shoulders, itchy skin or mild rashes, mild fever, head aches, aching joints, short temper, general ill feeling…to be compared with the onset of the flu.  Though this sounds terrible, it does not last long, and can be sped along by consuming vast quantities of water, or water with fresh lemon juice.  You will not be bedridden or miss work because of detox, and it will only last a few days, maybe a week.  While you are going through it, just spend a little time thinking about how much crap you must have had stored up in your body, and of how you will feel and function when it has been eliminated.^back to top^

Nutrition and health problems with raw and vegan foods

B12

Many think that vitamin B12 isn’t a serious issue in vegan diet because it takes as long as three years on a diet completely free of any source of vitamin B12 in order to become dangerously B12 deficient.  Unfortunately B12 has everything to do with your central nervous system and by the time your body registers a complete depletion of B12 stores you have caused it serious and irreparable damage.  Green algae, once thought to be an excellent source of vegan B12 is now known to contain an analogue B12, useless to the human body and a hindrance to the absorbance of any other source of usable B12 that may be in your diet.  The body recognizes the analogue B12 as the real thing and allows it to lock into place on the vehicles used to transport absorbable B12, thereby blocking it’s transport into your cells where it is needed, or to your liver where it is stored for future use.  Some claim that the body actually produces its own B12.  And actually it does.  Unfortunately it produces it in the colon where it is not absorbed by the stomach lining, and it leaves your body in its original condition, never nourishing your cells at all.  Naturally fermented Kim-Chi, sauerkraut and brine pickled vegetables are a vegan source for vitamin B12 though, and if you regularly include small amounts of these foods in your diet you probably won’t risk a B12 deficiency.  I don’t think you should risk it at all, and I just don’t.  I take a B12 supplement.  I crack a daily tablet into quarters and take a quarter a day.  My supplements are high dose (an average of 200%RDA), and I do eat home made sauerkraut and brine-pickled veggies regularly.

Calcium and Vitamin D

Calcium fulfills so many different functions in the body in addition to keeping your bones healthy.  It seems like every time I scan the net or pick up any nutritional digest there is some new article on a newly discovered function of calcium in the body.  Putting everything I’ve read on calcium together it seems that the body needs between 600 mg and 1200mg calcium a day.  Though there are plenty of good vegan sources for calcium, it can’t be absorbed into the body without the presence of vitamin D.  Food sources of vitamin D include meat, fish and eggs, none of which are particularly vegan.  If you want to avoid having to stand in the wind and snow with your hands and face exposed to the icy winter sun (if there is any sun at all) for fifteen minutes after every meal, you may want to invest in a supplement.  I suggest that you pick up a combined Calcium and Vitamin D supplement, because though there are many plant sources for calcium you will have a hard time getting 1000mg of it from greens alone.  Some of the best vegan sources for calcium are the young top leaves of stinging nettles, all cresses, green cabbage, brussel sprouts, dandelion leaves, parsley, spinach, oranges, green olives, and most other dark leafy greens.  In order to ingest 1000mg of calcium you would need to eat one fairly large head of green cabbage or a kilogram of raw spinach.^back to top^

Protein and the essential amino acids

You are fat, water, and protein.  That’s it.  Without protein you just don’t function.  Your bones, hair, nerves, blood, skin…it’s all made from 20 different protein building blocks, the amino acids.  9 of those proteins are not found naturally in the body and have to be introduced through foods.  Millions, maybe billions of body cells have to be replaced, created, and repaired with amino acids every day that you are alive.  A lot of raw-food vegans say that the claim that the body needs between .8 and 1 gram of protein for every kilogram of body weight is a lie propagated by the meat industry as a ploy to keep the world addicted to the steak and burger.  Some claim that the body needs no more than about 30 grams of protein a day.  Every other report or article I have ever read on the subject, whether written by doctors and scientists or ‘experts’ in the fields of health and nutrition, or sport advisors claim that the body needs between .8 and 1 gram of the 9 essential (those not produced by the body) amino acids every day.    Typically eggs, dairy and meat are propagated as ‘the’ protein rich foods.  Animal proteins are also generally considered superior to plant proteins, more complete, and more easily and completely absorbed.  Moreover, raw vegans eat less of one of the main sources of good vegan protein, beans.  Many vegans sprout mung, garbonzo, lintil, and other beans, but I doubt that many raw vegans actually eat a whopping150 gram portion of sprouted beans twice a day.  To make matters worse, while the mineral and vitamin content increases during the sprouting period, the protein content goes down.  Though sprouted beans are still a good source of raw-vegan protein, they are no miracle food.   So how do raw vegans get enough protein in their diets?  100grams of high protein nuts (peanuts, cashews) deliver about 20 grams of protein, but about 70 grams of fat.  Eating some nuts is a great idea, and not just for the protein in them, but because they contain a lot of excellent stuff including omega-3 fatty acids.  Unfortunately your liver might not like it too much if you eat more than a couple handfuls of fatty nuts a day.  Besides, nuts, especially almonds, also contain some toxins that are not ideal for the body in larger amounts. 

My suggestion:  eat about 30 grams of nuts, especially walnuts and almonds, every day. Eat several tablespoons of seeds like pumpkin, sunflower, flax, and sesame seeds. Sprout adzuki bean, chickpeas and lintels and try to use a handful of them on every salad you eat, or try making a bean soup once in a while. Do your best to combine different types protein foods, especially following the classic ‘rice & beans’ complete vegetarian protein model.  Wheat is sproutable, and buckwheat or other grains can be soaked for 12 hours (or sprouted with some practice and patience) and sprinkled on soups and salads.  They are grains and should be eaten with beans, peas, and seeds to create a complete vegan protein.  Try including high protein vegetables in your daily diet.  Some good ones are green cabbage, kohlrabi, fennel, red cabbage, spinach, sweet corn, bell peppers, and avocadoes.  Will all of this be enough?  I don’t think so.  I do eat protein foods through out the day, because I believe that the wider the array of foods that my protein comes from the better the chance that I am getting all of the types of proteins that my body needs to combine in order to create a complete vegetable protein.  In addition to the whole food protein I also use 35 grams of soya isolate protein powder every day.  It is a pure soy based powder containing 91% protein and all of the essential amino acids (histidine, isoleuccine, leucine, lysine, methionine, phenylalanine, threonine, tryptophane, and valine) plus an additional 9 that are already produced by the body.  Sour foods, lemons, vinegars, etc. aid in the breaking down and absorption of proteins, so try always to include a good dose of something sour with your protein meals…whether this takes the form of a glass of lemon water, or vinegar on a sprout salad, it doesn’t matter.  If you don’t do it much of your protein will pass out of your body unabsorbed, so keep it in mind.

Omega-3 fatty acids

Don’t underestimate the bodies’ need for Omega-3 fatty acids.  One Omega-3 fatty acid, Docosahexaen acid (DHA), is even used in the psychiatry as an anti-depressive because it (as well as, to a lesser degree, other Omega-3 fatty acids) promotes the production of serotonin in the brain.  Omega-3 also reawakens the sensors that respond to the hormone leptine, the eating related hormone responsible for signaling the brain that the body has eaten enough food to fulfill it’s nutritional requirements and now is ‘full’.  Omega-3 also works wonders  breaking down blood fat levels and cholesterols. If you are just becoming raw-vegan from a diet high in fat and cholesterol you may want to jump-start the cleaning process by consuming larger amounts of omega-3 fats for a month or two.  There’s a hitch though.  Animal based omega-3’s are absorbed into the body much more efficiently than plant based ones.  In fact one of the best plant sources of omega-3, flax oil, only gives up about 10% of its Omega-3 for absorption into the cells.  Most, if not all, Omega-3 supplements are fish oil based.  I do my best to get it from plant sources.  I suggest eating 30-40 grams of nuts high in Omega-3 every day, eating a few tablespoons of ground or cracked flax seeds on salads in crackers or in smoothies, a handful of seeds, and two tablespoons or more flax oil a day.^back to top^

Enzymes

Everywhere you look in the raw-foods community you will see living whole-food enzymes praised to the extent that they often form the very foundation of pro-raw argument.  The theory is that the living enzymes in fruits and vegetables combine forces with the enzymes in our digestive mechanisms and break down food far more efficiently.  The claim is that more nutrients are set free from the food and the body is spared much of the energy normally spent producing its own enzymes and digesting foods.  This supposedly frees the body to concentrate on building up super-human immune systems, etc.  This is really just a bunch of crap.  Very few enzymes are known to play an assisting role in digestion because very few of them even survive the digestive process.  From the point of view of our stomach and the vile acids sloshing around in it, the enzymes in raw foods are seen as nothing so much as more food to be digested.  A few enzymes such as the papayan in papaya and the enzymes active in fresh unpasturized sauerkraut do manage to survive the acid fires of our guts and end up noticibly aiding the digestive process.  These enzymes are exceptions, and they don’t build up some sort of great army of kindered enzymes that camp out in your guts and battle disease, as some would like to think.  Instead, they aid in digestion for a meal or a moment, and in turn are digested themselves and pass out of the body like the rest of what you ate.  Enzymes are not bad for you.  In fact they are probably more healthy than neutral.  What they are not is some great miracle food on par with water from the fountain of youth.

Vegetable cellulose and nutrient absorption

Some vegetables contain such high amounts of plant cellulose, indigestible in its raw form, that much of its nutritional content remains bound up in the fiber cells and passes out of the body unabsorbed.  This is especially true of many of the hard dark green leafy vegetables such as kale and green cabbage, chard, brussel sprouts, and other veggies with a lot of insoluble fiber. I say this because if you plan on getting 20 grams of protein and 1000mg of calcium from, say, 1 kilogram of kale, and end up absorbing only a fraction of that protein and calcium, and this happens on a daily basis, or happens with more of your daily protein and calcium sources, you could end up with a protein and calcium deficiency.  Though this is only an example, here you have a simple raw mistake that could easily lead to deficiencys of two very essential nutrients, two that your body can not survive without.  There are some ways to help break down raw cellulose.  Chew.  Chew long and patiently, and keep chewing long after you are sure you have chewed whatever you are chewing on into a pitiless pulp.  Blend.  Make green smoothies and luke warm green soups with a powerful mixer.  Add lemon juice to greens and fibourous veggies.  Combine.  NEVER go on a long term mono-diet, no matter what anyone tells you.  Combining small amounts of brightly contrasting vegetables with different textures and strong aromas (basil, ginger, radish, melon, etc…), colors and tastes really helps you cover a whole broad spectrum of nutritional ingredients, and if you combine with zeal you will end up including many low cellulose plant foods in your meals.  It will help to keep you from falling into any number of nutritional loopholes that lay in wait for the unsuspecting raw-vegan.  Also combining bright strongly contrasting colors will help insure that you are eating a lot of plant foods that are high in nutritional content.  The rule is the more intense or saturated the color of the fruit of vegetable, the higher in overall nutritional content.  It only makes sense that a deep red bell pepper contains totally different nutrients than a stem of fresh basil, a cup of shredded red cabbage, or a ripe papaya.   Try combining such strongly contrasting foods into each meal.  Don’t count on your body absorbing textbook amounts of nutrients from the foods you eat.  Take precautions to make sure that you really are absorbing enough of the nutrients your body needs.  One of the best ways to do this is to listen to your body.  Only your body knows exactly what it needs.  Your books, your friends, your silly guru, they do not know what your body needs.  They have never lived in your body or fed and felt your body, and they have absolutely no way of knowing what it needs.  Respect your intuition.

Calorie restriction and nutrients

I think that there is a big difference between restricting calories on the Great White North American Super-Size Me diet, and restricting calories on a raw vegan diet.  One may be the only way to keep half the population from bursting their pipes.  A messy scene.  The other might just lead to some serious nutritional deficiencies.  A lot of  low-fat raw vegans don’t get enough calories to meet their daily needs anyway.  The amount of food they consume couldn’t possibly contain the nutrients needed to maintain good health.  I’m not trying to promote over eating.  In fact I think finding the fine line between never being truly hungry and never being really full, and walking it, is probably the healthiest way judge caloric intake.  We don’t all have so much intuition or self control though (I don’t) and tend to turn to someone elses rules to help keep us in check.  In a fat addicted, fat phobic, and fat land, those rules seem overwhelmingly to overcompensate.  Or maybe people just use those rules in a way that overcompensates for their own fear-of-fat.  No wonder either.  I just think that those rules really need to be looked at honestly and closely by any raw-vegan person considering trying them on.  An ultra low-fat concept like the 8-10-10 plan is definitely an example of a restricted calorie raw-vegan diet.  Most of the accounts I’ve read from people on the 8-10-10 plan have had a few frightening things in common.  Rapid weight loss, dry skin and lank matt hair, weak fingernails, a light airy hyper energy, loss of the menstrual cycle, spacey tiredness.  Sound good?

Listen to your body.  If you feel hungry you are probably hungry, and if you are hungry you should eat.  Follow your intuition, not someone else’s. ^back to top^

Basic Equipment

You should have the few basic things in your kitchen that make going raw fun and simple.  The following is a list of what I think are essentials.

Chopper

Blender (invest in a powerful one!)

Dehydrator (not really an essential)

Sprout tower and sprouting jars

Water filter

Grater, a large sieve, cheese cloth, several large canning jars and lids, a garlic press, a good solid oak chopping block, and most importantly

Three good knives and a double sided sharpening stone.

Invest in good knives.  If you can’t acquire them otherwise, buying them can be expensive, but they will make food preparation a joy.  Get a small solid paring knife, a good Japanese vegetable knife and a medium sized kitchen knife. Try to get carbon steel blades.  They oxidize to a mottled blackish color, and are a blitz to sharpen to a perfect cutting edge.  Ask at a knife store for tips on correct sharpening.  Don’t wimp out and use one of those evil little electric sharpeners.  They will eat your beautiful investment.^back to top^

Fruits and veggies

Try your best to always get organic produce.  There’s no way of knowing exactly what ends up in the factory farmed produce in conventional markets, unless you have everything tested before you eat it.  A lot of really spooky shit ends up in it though, and all of that ends up in your body if you eat it, including the blood sweat and tears of those who had to produce it.  I try to use as much locally produced fruits and vegetables as I can, but I also buy imported produce, especially in the winter when variety is scarce.  Since governments fatten on thriving business and export, I  check the origin of the imported goods I buy.  I don’t see much point in paying so much attention to my own well being while turning a blind eye to the well being of others, so I do my best to avoid buying goods from regimes known for their oppressive politics.  This is difficult since oppressive regimes are the rule, and not the exception, so I usually end up choosing ‘the lesser of the evils’ when I buy import goods.  Try to stick to fair trade products when buying exotic fruits.

At least it will insure that you aren’t ‘uuummmming’ and ‘aaaahing’ over the lush exotic flavor of some impoverished workers sweat.

Don’t peel your fruits and veggies unless it is really necessary.  The skins and peels contain most of the vitamins and nutrients, and there’s nothing ‘wrong’ with the skins unless you are eating non organic produce, in which case peeling it doesn’t help much anyway.  Celery root may be peeled, but you usually only need to scrub it with a hemp brush under running water and remove the stem cap and root end.  There’s no excuse for peeling carrots and apples.  Obviously onions, oranges, and hard shelled squashes such as pumpkin and butternut must be at least partly peeled. Don’t peel your oranges too carefully, the white fluff under the skin contains a lot of flavonides, carotene, and vitamin C. the same goes for pomegranates, the white tissue binding the seeds contains a lot of vitamin C, and the seeds of the pomegranate have anti-carcinogenic qualities.  Buy your lemons organic without exception.  The grated oily outside layer of the peel is an excellent spice, and can be used in sweet foods, sour foods, dressings and dips. The peel of non-organic citrus fruits should never be used.  They have been handled with very toxic substances. Unless turnips have been dipped in wax, remove only the hard skin around the stem cap and the root tail.  With kohlrabi you only need to remove the rootstalk and wiry skin surrounding it.  The greens on radishes, celery stalks, kohlrabi, fennel, and other roots and bulbs can be eaten if they are in fresh condition.  They usually contain much of the plants nutritional content, and they taste really good.

Don’t let produce go to waste.  If you have too much, just slice it and put it in your dehydrator so you can store it and use it later. Vegetables dried in the dehydrator usually take on a sweet taste and make an interesting winter snack. You can also grind them and sprinkle them on soups and salads, or use ground veggie powder to make vegetable bullion.

Make your salads and sauces in small portions to avoid putting any oily foods in your compost box.  Like most of the crap humans dump on it, the earth doesn’t appreciate fats, salt, and oils. ^back to top^

Warm drinks, Tea

You don’t need to make tea with boiling water!  Try pouring warm water over the tea and letting it stand for half an hour.  It can be kept warm, or re-warmed in a water-bath before you drink it.  You can also make a pot of tea with lukewarm water before you go to bed, let it stand overnight, and re-warm it the next day cup by cup. In the summer you can put a little tea in a gallon jar and let it sit in the sun for a few hours.  The heat of the sun is enough to make perfect tea.

If you prefer hot tea, I really don’t see the harm in making your tea in the usual way.  Tea is not known for its enzyme content, and contains no solid substance such as carbohydrates of proteins, which may be coagulated and damaged by the heat.

Nut and soy milks can be warmed in a water-bath too.

H2O

Drink lots of it.  It’s a great way to transport toxins out of the body.  Unless you draw your water from a virgin spring, filter it.  Even ‘clean’ tap water contains heavy metals and some industrial run-off.  Household water filters (pitcher type) are cheap, though with many you must change the filter every 4 weeks, and they only perform a basic reduction in the amounts of pollutants in your water.  A ceramic filter instillation directly on your tap is more expensive, but you only need to clean the filter occasionally, and it filters more effectively.  If you have the energy for it you can get a good quality expedition pump-filter, like one from MSG (mountain safety gear), because, though you will actually have to pump each pint of water by hand, it is solid, long lasting, portable, and will even filter swamp water. You can use it in your kitchen, and in the hills. 

Carbonated mineral water should be consumed in moderation or not at all.  The carbonation is acidic, and will sour your body.  Besides, no one ever bothers to recycle all of those millions of plastic bottles it comes in anyway…unless you consider pitching it into the woods from the car window as a form of recycling. ^back to top^

Sushi 

Sushi is a really simple way to make a handful of veggies into a beautiful meal.  If you are inviting someone to dinner who isn’t raw, it’s a nice treat, and people will leave with a different idea of ‘raw’ than they had before the meal. It’s fast and easy too, so you can make it if you are in a hurry.  It’s also nutritionally complete if you make it with a protein like humus spread, or peanut butter ginger sauce.  First I will explain how you put it together, and then I will give a list of good vegetable combinations, and at the end, a list of spreads sauces that complement sushi.  The recipes for the spreads and sauces are given under the “Sauces, Spreads & Dips” icon at the top of the page.  Sushi can be served with a spicy radish sprout salad, a bowl of warm miso-ginger soup, and tea.

1.   Lay your Nori sheet flat on the dry cutting board and put one heaping spoonful of your base spread onto the center of it.  Spread the mix out evenly with a rubber spatula or a soupspoon over the surface of the sheet covering all but one inch at the top.

2.   Place your vegetables and sprouts in neat order along the bottom of the sheet, working upwards and covering it about 2/3 in total.  Sushi is more fun to eat if it looks nice, so think about doing something special with it.  For example, place a stripe of grated red radish at the bottom of the sheet, carefully place thin strips of zucchini next to them, add black carrot strips after that, and finish with a bright green strip of cress.  This should give your pieces of sushi a bright red heart and a nice spiral of alternating colors going out from it.

3.   Carefully lift the bottom of the sheet and turn about a half inch of it, including it’s topping, over on its self.  Now begin rolling it slowly and compactly towards the top of the sheet using both hands.  You don’t want to squish the filling out toward the top of the sheet, so lift a little bit as you roll. Make sure that you keep the top inch of the Nori sheet clean.  When the roll is almost complete wet your finger with water and run it along the inch of exposed Nori.  Finish the roll so that the weight sits on the closing seam, and let it sit there for one minute before cutting it.

4.   using your sharp Japanese vegetable knife, and cut the roll in half.  Cut the halves in half, and cut each of the four quarters in half again.  Don’t press down when cutting, but slide the knife gently back and forth until it is cut through.  Make sure that the part of the Nori that is directly on the cutting block is cut all the way through.

5.   Place your small dish of sauce on the center of your plate, and arrange the sushi around it in a circle.  Place one paper-thin piece of ginger by each piece of sushi on the outside rim of the plate.  It’s ready to eat!

You can make a much lighter sushi by skipping the first step, but it is more difficult to roll, and you will need to let it sit for 10 minutes before cutting it so that the Nori sheet has time to absorb some of the moisture from the vegetables.  If you do not wait long enough the Nori paper will be brittle and will tear, and your roll will probably fall apart.

If you like to really stuff your sushi full of vegetables, you may want to buy a sushi roller.  Unrolled it looks like a placemat made of pick-up-sticks lying side-by side and woven together.  A new one will come with rolling instructions.

Try these combinations:

*Cucumber, carrots, avocado and radish sprouts

*Grated radish, carrots, zucchini and green sprouts

*Asparagus, red pepper, carrots and Mung bean sprouts

*Avocado, red pepper, carrots, and cucumber

*Fennel, radish, avocado, green sprouts

*Red cabbage, carrots, Mung bean sprouts, kohlrabi….

And many, many more …

Cut your vegetables into very fine strips, julienne them, and if you are using tough veggies like cabbage or fenchel, or roots like celery root or turnip, cut them especially fine.

If you are using avocado spread you may not want to use avocado as a filling too.

If you use a nut spread, or a soy or nut pulp spread, try a light simple hot sauce, like Wasabi powder with soy sauce and lemon.  ^back to top^

Soups

I don’t use nutritional yeast or add oils to my soups.  Nutritional yeast is not considered a raw food as the yeast culture has been pasteurized. If you want a creamier soup though, nutritional yeast can be added to all but the cold tomato soups.  Add one heaping tablespoon to each recipe or replace it with 2 tablespoons of soy or nut milk, a teaspoon of tahini, or a tablespoon of pine nuts extra to that already called for in the recipe.  Though most recipes call for the juice of 1/2 lemon, I prefer to roughly peel and chop a half lemon and add it to the blender pulp and all. 

Zucchini crème soup

Add to mixer 1 chopped or grated medium sized young zucchini, I clove of garlic, 2 tablespoons of pine nuts or 1 tablespoon of tahini, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, a pinch of crystal salt, and 8ounces of warm water. Blend till smooth.  Sprinkle with chopped parsley or nutritional yeast flakes.

White radish avocado soup

Add about 150 grams of grated white radish, 1/2 an avocado, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, salt, and 8 oz. Warm water to the mixer.  Blend away. Sprinkle with black cumin seeds.

Spinach crème soup

Chop 150 grams of fresh spinach, pack it in the mixer, add a clove of garlic, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, 1 tablespoon of tahini, salt and pepper, and 8 oz warm water.  Blend.  Decorate with a sprinkle of sunflower seeds.

Spinach lintel soup

Chop 100 grams of fresh spinach, add it to the mixer with just more than a half cup of sprouted green or brown lintels, I clove of garlic, 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, salt & pepper, and 8 oz warm water.  Blend and decorate with a few sprouts or pumpkin seeds.

Fennel crème soup

Grate one medium sized fennel, add it to the mixer with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, 1 small teaspoon of grated lemon peel, 2 tablespoons of pine nuts, (1 teaspoon of olive oil), salt and pepper, and 8 oz warm water, blend until creamy.

Tomato crème soup

Chop three medium sized ripe tomatoes, add fresh chopped parsley and basil, 1 clove of garlic, 1 tablespoon of tahini,  and 6oz warm water.  Blend until smooth.

Gazpacho

Chop four ripe medium sized tomatoes and add to it one chopped small red onion, 1 clove of garlic, 2 leafy stems of chopped cilantro, some parsley, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, 1 tablespoon of olive oil, salt and pepper, and 4oz cold water. Blend till not-quite-smooth.  Garnish with chopped parsley and pine nuts.

If you have more sense and patience than me, you won’t insult gazpacho with a food mixer.  You will instead chop all of the ingredients finely by hand.

Gazpoli 2 colore

Chop 4 ripe medium sized tomatoes, add to it 1 chopped small red onion, a clove of garlic, a full stem of parsley, 2 full stems of dill, and one leafy stem of basil, the juice of 1/2 lemon, 1/4 avocado, pepper and salt, and blend till fairly smooth. Pour 3/4 of the soup into a large soup bowl and add another 1/4 avocado, another full dill stem and leafy basil stem to the mixer with 2 tablespoons of water.  Mix again till smooth and pour in a spiral form on top of the red (pink) soup.  Top with fresh ground black pepper and a thin spiral of olive or avocado oil.

Kohlrabi soup with pine nuts

Grate 1 medium sized kohlrabi, add to blender with 2 tablespoons of pine nuts, 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, salt and pepper, and 8 oz warm water.  Blend until smooth.  Sprinkle with pine nuts and chopped parsley.

Strong Vegetable bullion

Grind 10 grams of mixed dehydrated vegetables in your chopper, place in bowl and add 1         small crushed clove of garlic, salt, pepper, 1 teaspoon of lemon juice, and 10-12oz of warm water.  Mix well.

Miso soups

Salads

You will notice from my recipes that I don’t use a lot of lettuce.  Instead of lettuce, I often use rocket (ruccola), dandelion, kale, spinach, or chard. As far as I know, there’s nothing wrong with lettuce, I just don’t like it that much. If you like it, try using the darker red and green varieties, they are more nutritious, and usually more authentic than the butter-head and iceberg lettuces.

My general formula for salads is:

1 dark green                ex: 2 leaves of chopped kale

2 roots                         ex:1 carrot and 1 small parsley root

2(+) bright colors        ex: 1/2 red bell pepper, 1/2c red cabbage

2 sprouts                      ex:  alfalfa and chickpea sprouts

seeds                            ex: 2 TBS pumpkin seeds.

If I make a salad with fewer ingredients I try to make sharp color contrasts.
For example:

1c grated red cabbage,

1 large leaf of kale, chopped

1 chopped yellow bell pepper

1/2 tomato

Lintel sprouts

sunflower seeds

but I also enjoy particular salad recipes.  Here are a few that I love.

Apple Fennel Salad

Cut one medium fennel in half lengthwise and chop it into fine strips, the finer the better.  Half and core one medium apple and chop it into small cubes, add 10 grams of roughly chopped raisins, the juice of half a lemon and I teaspoon of nut oil, salt to taste.  Slivered almonds, chopped walnuts, or pine nuts go well with this salad.

Orange Fennel.

Cut and dress one fennel as above, but cut one dissected orange into ‘cubes’ and add it to the fennel in place of the cubed apple. Before you peel the orange, grate about a quarter of the outer skin and add it to the fennel.  Add the juice of 1/2 lemon.  If your orange is not organic, add the grated peel of 1/2 lemon instead.  Chopped white raisins or grapes, and chopped walnuts can also be added to this salad. 

Wilted Fennel Salads

Cut one fennel as above, add a pinch of crystal salt and crush and rub in both hands with about the same force and duration as you would wring out a washcloth.  Add the grated peel and the juice of half a lemon, a small red onion chopped finely, a pinch of chopped red peppercorns, and a small teaspoon of celery seeds, let stand for half an hour before serving.  Sprinkle the salad with pine nuts or chopped walnuts for an extra thrill.

The fennel fruit salads can also be made with ‘wilted’ fennel.

Red slaw

Grate a quarter of a medium sized head or red cabbage, add one tablespoon of raw pumpkinseed oil and a handful of pumpkin seeds, the juice of half a lemon, a pinch of crystal salt, and you have a basic red slaw.  But basic red slaw is the best.  I wouldn’t want to adulterate the taste of it with too many flavors.

White slaw with grapes

Grate a quarter of a medium sized head of white cabbage.

Halve and deseed 1/2c of white grapes,

Mix the grated peel and juice of half a lemon with a pinch of salt, white pepper, 3-6 drops of stevia extract (or 1 tsp raw honey), and 1Tsp of walnut oil.

Mix sauce with salad and let it stand for 15 minutes before serving.

Instead of walnut oil, you can add a spoonful of tahini to the lemon juice in a glass, and mix it until it is creamy.  Add this to all of the remaining ingredients.

Zucchini lime wilted salad

Grate and lightly salt two small zucchinis. Squeeze gently and let stand for ten minutes. Add a teaspoon of raw pumpkinseed oil, limejuice and grated organic lime peel, and a handful of pine nuts or sesame seeds.  Let stand another 10 minutes, serve.

White radish with red peppercorns

Grate half a large white radish (150-200 grams) and add to it: 1/2 tsp chopped red peppercorns, 2 stems of finely chopped parsley, 1/2 tsp black fennel seeds, black pepper, lemon juice, 1tsp olive oil, and salt.  Add seeds or nuts if you like.

Carrot salad

Grate 2 medium sized carrots and add 1/2 tsp thyme (unless you have bohnenkraut at your disposal, in which case you should definitely add it to the carrots in place of the thyme!), 1 tsp olive oil, pinch of salt, black pepper.

Chopped or slivered almonds are great with this, but try it with a pinch of celery seeds or grated lemon peel too.

Red pepper herb salad

Cut half of one large red bell pepper in half (use only half), and slice each quarter into paper-thin strips. Cut one small red onion in half and cut into paper-thin half-rings. Place in center of plate and toss with a good handful of mixed bean sprouts. Finely shred 60g of red cabbage and place it in a thin ring around the red pepper mix.  Finely chop 2 big leafy stems of basil, 2 stems of cilantro, and 2 large leafy stems of parsley.  Sprinkle it in a ring on the outside of the cabbage ring.  Drizzle a mix of 1tablspoon of balsamic vinegar, 1 teaspoon of olive oil, pepper, and a good pinch of salt over it.  Sprinkle salad with pumpkin seeds.

Peanut & red pepper salad

Cube one big red bell pepper, chop or crush a handful (about 1/4c) of raw peanuts, mix and add a little bit of red pepper, salt, lime juice and lime peel, and a dash of olive oil.

Kohlrabi with pine nuts

Grate a whole small kohlrabi with the skin, add a handful of pine nuts, lemon juice, salt, and a tsp of raw walnut or pumpkinseed oil.

Waldorf salad

Grate a small celery root, chop or grate a medium sized solid apple, chop 1/4c raisins and 1/4c walnuts, add the grated peel of 1/2 lemon.  set aside.

Slowly mix the juice of 1/2 lemon into 1 TBS tahini until it becomes a paste. Thin it with 1 or two TBS fresh apple or orange juice, add 3-6 drops of stevia extract (or 1 tsp raw honey) and a pinch of salt.  Mix all together.  For creamier dressing, use a thick nut milk in place of juice.

Squash salads

Grate 200 grams of dark pumpkin or butternut squash, and squeeze it gently until it is softened and becomes slightly darker.  Add 2TBS grated or crushed almonds, 1 Tsp nut oil, lemon juice and a little bit of salt.  You can also add lemon peel to this salad, or a dash of cinnamon.

Avocado boats

Halve an avocado and carefully scoop out its flesh.  Cut the avocado into cubes, chop one shallot or a small red onion, halve 6 cherry tomatoes, and cube a three inch piece of cucumber.  Add lemon juice, salt and olive oil, or favorite sauce and fill the avocado skins with the mixture. Serve it on a bed of green sprouts or shredded lettuce.

Cucumber salad

Cut two small cucumbers (about 200g) into thin rings, and lightly salt.  Add 1 small finely chopped red onion, 1 clove of crushed or hacked garlic, a finely chopped stem of fresh dill, a teaspoon of olive oil, limejuice and grated peel, and black pepper.  Let it stand until the cucumber slices have wilted and soaked up the flavor of the sauce…about half an hour.  This salad is also good if you replace the dill with 1 finely chopped stem of fresh mint. 

Sprout salads

Smoothies

Ummmm…smoothies are great.

You will need a powerful mixer if you want to experience a real smoothie.

My smoothie base is usually a glass of water, 1/2 a peeled lemon,  and a banana.  I almost always add two or three additional fruits to the mixer and sometimes a handful of pine nuts or a heaping tablespoon of soy protein powder. If you want a meal, replace 1/2 glass of water with 1/2 glass of nut or soymilk.

You can add anything to the banana base: kiwi, mango, pitted cherries, persimmon, pear, grape, more banana, avocado, orange, peach, nectarine, melon, papaya, apple, and berries.  If you use half water, half soy or nut milk, the smoothie will be thicker and smoother.  If you replace all of the water with a milk you will probably feel ill digesting all of that oil though.  The same will happen if you use nut milk and avocado together. And, of course, if you throw a handful of pine nuts into the mixer, you shouldn’t add a milk or avocado.  If you like getting omega 3 fatty acids, try adding a teaspoonful of flax seed oil instead of the other fatty ingredients.  The flavor of the fruits will cover the slightly bitter taste of the oil.

I made a lot of berry and cherry smoothies in the summer, and I think they taste better without too many other fruits.  In fact, the best smoothie in the world is one made of water, 1/2 lemon,1 banana, and1 cup of cherries.

If you use a lot of sour fruits, you can add three or four drops of stevia extract to the mix.

Sauces, Spreads & Dips

Sushi spreads

I use only three spreads for preparing the nori sheet. They are all very simple to make.

Avocado spread

Avocado spread is simply 1/2 a ripe avocado mashed smooth with a fork, a pinch of salt, and a dash of lemon juice.  If your avocado is of fair size, this recipe will spread 2 sheets of nori.

Soy spread

Soak 25 g soybeans overnight, drain and puree with 8oz water.  Strain the mix in a sieve lined with cheesecloth, and slightly squeezes the pulp in the bag to get rid of the excess milk (strain it into a jar, you can use the soy cream in your next smoothie). Put the pulp into a small bowl and add it 1 tsp olive oil, I tsp lemon juice, I small crushed clove of garlic, and salt.  This will spread two sheets of nori.

Alternative:  take a little more than1/2 of the pulp left over from making 500ml of soymilk, or all of the pulp left from making 500ml of nut milk, and use it in the same recipe.

Humus

I use humus as a sushi spread when I have it in the fridge, but humus is also a veggie dip and a cracker spread, so I will give the recipe separately.  Just place a heaping TBS onto each nori sheet and spread.

Sushi dips

I use a little organic soy sauce in some sushi dips, but it can be replaced with a tablespoon of lemon juice and a pinch of salt in all recipes.

Horseradish dip

Grate a tablespoon of fresh horseradish into a small bowl, add I tbs organic soy sauce.   Mix well. Basta!

Wasabi dip

Put 1 full teaspoonful of wasabi powder in a small dish; add 1 tbs organic soy sauce.  Mix well. Or

Put 1 full tsp of wasabi powder in a small dish and add 1 tbs lemon juice and a pinch of salt. Mix well.

Ginger wasabi dip

Add 1 tsp grated ginger and one tsp wasabi powder to 1 tbs lemon juice and a pinch of salt or 1 tbs organic soy sauce. Mix well.

Ginger peanut sauce

Grind a full TBS of raw peanuts, grate 1 TSP fresh ginger, and mix well with a TBS lemon juice and a pinch of salt. ^back to top^

Spreads & dips

Spreads and dips can be used for dipping veggies, for spreading on crackers, but also as sauces for salads.  Thin them with lemon or lime juice, add more herbs, add a spoonful of olive oil.

‘Cheesy’ nut spread

Soak 20g pine nuts over night in a little water, drain and set water aside.

Put nuts in blender with 1-teaspoon olive oil, 1 teaspoon lemon juice, 1-2 tablespoons nutritional yeast, and salt.  Start blending and slowly add a little of the soak water until the mass in creamy. Thin with lemon juice or water for dip.

Basic soy spread

Soak 20g of soybeans overnight, drain and rinse. Put in blender with 1 tablespoon olive oil, 1 tablespoon nutritional yeast, salt and pepper, 1 teaspoon lemon juice and 2 tablespoons of water.  Blend till smooth.  You can add a clove of garlic, fresh herbs, a few pine nuts or extra lemon juice.

Thin with lemon juice or water for dip.

Humus

Humus, food of the gods.  Be careful with it, if is fatty, and we puny humans are also prone to loosing control and becoming totally addicted to it.

Soak 50g dry organic chickpeas overnight, drain them and sprout them in a dark place for one day, or until their tails just peek. Put them in the blender with three tablespoons of raw tahini, the juice of one lemon, 2 cloves of garlic, and salt.  Have a glass of water on hand and slowly drizzle a little as needed to assist blending. Don’t over-do it with the water or you will end up with salad sauce. Thin with lemon juice or water for dip or sauce.  Makes about 100g of humus.

Guacamole

2^nd most loved food of the gods. Mash 1/2 ripe avocado with a fork until it is creamy.  Add the juice and grated peel of 1/2 lemon, 1 clove of crushed garlic, salt and pepper, and a little bit of chili powder or chopped red pepper.  Thin with lemon juice for a dip.  If you are anything like me, this recipe only makes one portion.

You can add grated lemon peel or extra garlic if you like.

For more of a meal than a spread you can add 1/2 each finely chopped red onion and medium tomato.

Salad sauces

I try to keep my sauces very basic, but I have a few wild ones that I like to use sometimes for variety.

I usually mix the juice of half a lemon with 1 teaspoon of olive oil; add a little salt, and sometimes a clove of crushed garlic and a few fresh herbs. 

I have a huge assortment of cold pressed organic oils and fine vinegars that will spoil before I finish them.  Among them are cold pressed flax seed oil, pumpkin seed oil, walnut oil, hazelnut oil, avocado oil, olive oil with lemon peel, olive oil with pepper flakes, olive oil with truffle gratings, Normandy cider vinegar, sherry vinegar, estragon vinegar, white wine vinegar with orange peel, white wine vinegar with rose pedals, white balsamic, and three different dark balsamic vinegars.  I keep them there on the shelf overlooking my kitchen as a reminder of my first months raw, and how difficult I thought it would be to make my food taste exciting and new every day. I was a cook for many years and was panic stricken at the thought of the loss of a vast range of flavor possibilities when I first went raw.   I still use a little of the nut oils, the flax seed oil, and the olive oil, and once in a while I use a bit of my best dark balsamic vinegar, but that’s it.  Raw food is so amazingly full of flavor that I lost my interest in over doctoring it, and covering up all of its rich nuances. 

Green herb sauce

1 whole bunch (6-8 leafy stems)  of mixed fresh herbs (basil, cilantro, parsley, thyme, etc.), the juice of 1 lemon or lime, 3 tablespoons olive oil, 2 cloves of garlic, and a little water or fresh orange juice to thin, and a little salt.  Blend it all until smooth.

This is a strong sauce, so start with just a bit on your salad.  This is enough for a couple of day’s worth of salads for an avid salad eater.  It will only keep three days in the fridge in a closed jar.

Tahini sauce (1 portion)

To 1 full teaspoon tahini, slowly add the juice of 1/2 lemon, while mixing. Thin with a little water or fruit juice, add salt and pepper.  You can add chopped herbs or crushed garlic to this sauce.

Lemon herb sauce (1 portion)

Add  a heaping teaspoon of finely chopped herbs, and the grated peel of 1/2 a lemon to the juice of 1/2 lemon, salt and pepper.

Creamy nut sauce (1 portion)

Blend 1 tablespoon of pine nuts with 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and a clove of garlic.  You can add chopped or blended fresh herbs to this sauce, or thin with a little fruit juice or water. ^back to top^

Nut Butters

I only make nut butters in small quantities, about 30 grams at a time.  They are useful in making salad sauces, dips, and even in making crackers and smoothies, and they taste great with plain soy crackers as a spread, but nut oil gets rancid a lot faster than people usually think (I meant it like that).  Make small portions and store it in the fridge.

You can make butters from most nuts, but some will stick to the walls of the chopper more than others.  If you add any oil at all, add it after you take the nut butter mass from the chopper.

As a rule take 30 or 40 grams of whatever nuts or combination of nuts and chop them until they form a smooth oily ball in the mixer.  You may have to stop chopping a few times to redistribute the nut mass sticking to the sides of the chopper.  Remove the mass and add a pinch of salt if desired.  If the mass is too solid, add a small amount of nut oil or pumpkin seed oil and mix.  Don’t use more than a teaspoon of oil for 40 grams of nuts or you will end up with greasy syrup.

Nut & Soy Milk

Easy.  Soak 45 grams of soybeans or 70 grams of nuts overnight in plenty of water.  Rinse them and drain them then add them to the blender with 300ml water.  Blend them on high until they form creamy milk.  Line a large sieve with cheesecloth and strain the milk through it.  You may have to stir the milk with a spoon to help it through the cloth.  When most of the water is through squeeze the cloth to push out the last of the milk.  Replace the cloth containing the pulp into the sieve and slowly pour the remaining 200ml water over the pulp and stir again until strained.  Squeeze the cloth again until the pulp is semi-solid and well strained. 

A pinch of salt and a few drops of Stevia extract help round out the grassy flavor of soymilk. 

NEVER THROW THE PULP AWAY!  You use it for making spreads, crackers and patties.

Always store pulp and milk in airtight containers in the fridge.

Use both milk and pulp within three days.  Uncooked soy and nut milks spoil faster that pasteurized ones. ^back to top^

Crackers and Patties

Crackers are easy to make and really good and crispy-flakey.  The best crackers are made from the soy pulp left over from making soymilk.  From the 45 grams of dry soybeans used in making 500ml of soymilk, you can make four large crackers.

The best recipe I know is also the simplest one.

Put the well-strained soy pulp into a mixing bowl and add 10 grams of sesame seeds, a heaping tablespoon of nutritional yeast and a pinch if salt.  Mix it well and divide it into four equal parts making each into a ball.  If it is too wet to make a soggy ball from it hasn’t been drained or squeezed well enough and will be difficult to form into a cracker.  Pat each ball flat between your hands.  Getting the soggy mess to make thin patties is a bit of a trick, done easiest by flipping the patty from palm to palm and patting alternately until it is thin enough.  You will probably have to palm the patty off onto the drying screen of your dehydrator.  If you have plastic grid trays instead of screen trays, don’t pat them flat after you palm them off or they will get stuck in the grid.  Rinse your hands between forming each patty.  Don’t worry if they look a little messy.  They taste so good you wont care by the time you get to eat them.  Put your dehydrator on the highest setting (use a thermometer from time to time to ensure that your dehydrator isn’t drying hotter that 117°F!) and dry the crackers three to four hours, a little longer if they are over a half-centimeter thick, a little less if they are thinner.  This recipe is so good with humus spread that it’s scary to think about.

You can make endless variations from the soy pulp. 

Add five drops of Stevia extract and a little cinnamon for a slightly sweet cracker.  You can add crushed nuts or leave them out as you like. 

Put spinach powder and sunflower seeds in them for green crackers.

Put ground peanuts in them, or ground peanuts and a few drops of Stevia extract for a little bit of comfort food. 

I add a pinch of salt to all of the varieties, even the slightly sweet ones, and I always add a tablespoon of nutritional yeast too.  Nutritional yeast rounds out the flavor of the soy, and it’s a great source of B vitamins.  If you can’t or don’t use nutritional yeast, I suggest adding one or two drops of Stevia extract even to the ‘salty’ crackers just to round off the taste a bit. 

For slightly heavier crackers, use half nut pulp (left over from making nut milk) and half soy pulp.  If, you don’t have nut pulp at hand substitute it with ground nuts.  This is a little bit oilier, but tastes fine.  Process it as for soy crackers.

You can also make crackers out of pure nut pulp, but you get less pulp yield from 70grams of nuts than from 45 grams of soybeans.  You can make about three crackers from the nut pulp left over after making 500ml of nut milk. The crackers are a little buttery in flavor, and more crumbly than crunchy, but just as delicious as soy crackers.  They make a good base for the occasional decadent treat, pineapple-nut layer cookies:  get a pineapple when you are planning to make nut milk.  Pare the pineapple and puree a slice of it.  Place a spoonful of the puree on each nut-cracker while they are still in the dehydrator and nearly dry, and let them dry for another few hours. You can add a few drops of stevia to the nut cracker mix before drying it in this recipe, but it is really not necessary because the pineapple is so sweet.

Make up your own recipes.  Add cracked pepper or red pepper and crushed garlic.  Add chopped herbs and lemon peel.  Sprinkle poppy seeds on the surface of the crackers before you dry them.  Add chopped dried fruit, or make cookies by adding a few tablespoons of pineapple puree.  I just wouldn’t make confections too often.  Concentrated fruit sugars aren’t exactly healthy in excess, especially in combination with fatty foods like nut crackers.  On the other hand, if you feel you are loosing too much weight too quickly, snack away!

Patties

Patties are just thicker cracker mass forms that are only dried long enough to solidify them and form a ‘skin’ on them.  Make them about 1/2 inch thick, and dry them for about an hour.  You can add finely chopped vegetables, crushed garlic, crushed nuts, seeds, and some organic spices to them.  Serve them wrapped in lettuce leaves, or on salads.

Again, I don’t encourage people to make such recipes (crackers, cookies, and patties) on a daily basis.  In my opinion, they too closely resemble processed foods, and are also too heavy to be eaten on a daily basis. 

Drying Stuff and dried stuff

The enzymes are in hibernation in dried foods, and some people prefer to awaken them by soaking their dried food overnight before consuming it.

I prefer to limit my dried food intake (instead of soaking it), and to chew it carefully before swallowing it.

Nuts are considered dried food, and are usually blanched, force dried at temperatures above 117°F, or chemically treated to assist the shelling process.  You can’t really even be sure if organic nuts have been heat-treated, because it is almost never stated on the package. Whole unshelled organic nuts are really your best bet.  Soaking them overnight will revitalize them, but the texture of soaked nuts takes some getting used to.  It may be better for you, but I don’t do it.

If you find a spotty bright yellow mold on peanuts or walnuts, don’t just throw the nuts away.  Report it immediately to your nearest health official.  The mold is not entirely uncommon, and it is a very powerful carcinogen.

Bought dried fruits may contain sulfur, antioxidants, and softening agents.

I prefer to dry my own fruits, and have thus far only dried fruits that aren’t in season in the winter.  If you buy a dehydrator it will come with a table of drying times for each fruit or vegetable. 

Fruits must be cored or pitted and halved or sliced before drying.  If you half skin fruits, such as pears, you will need to slit the skin to aid the escape of moisture from the thicker arias.  If you slice your fruits, slice them in thick pieces or they will dry into a thin crisp fruit paper.  If you use a squeezed lemon diluted with a cup of water as a dip for the fruit before placing it in the dehydrator your fruit will keep its color. 

I dehydrated several pounds of apricots, plums, peaches and cherries before they went out of season, and I’m glad I did.  The winter seems more inviting with them in my kitchen. ^back to top^

Sprouts

Sprouts make up about 1/6^th of my veggie intake.  They are nutrition bombs, containing between three and ten times the nutritional content of the sleeping seed and the mature plant.  They are a good source of protein too.  I regularly make 7 types of sprouts, alfalfa, rocket, radish, chickpea, lintel, adzuki, and mung bean.  The green sprouts I make in a sprouting tower, the bean sprouts I make in pint canning jars and a dark bag.  Most sprouts take between 3 and 6 day to germinate, and have to be flooded or rinsed twice a day during the process.

Tray sprouting

You will be able to find a sprouting tower in any large whole-foods store or larger organic produce outlet.  It is generally a five part plastic tower with the approximate diameter of a salad plate.  It consists of three stacking sprouting trays and a water feeder all outfitted with small drainage valves, and a collecting tray.  You sprinkle between 1 and 2 TBS of dry organic sprouting seeds in each of the three middle trays, fill the top tray with water, place it on top of the tower, and empty the collecting tray on the bottom when the water has passed through the sprouting trays.  That’s it.  Twice a day for a few days.  You will see when the sprouts have reached maturity.  My alfalfa barely reaches the top of its tray by the fifth day when I ‘harvest’ it, the radish nearly pushes out of its tray after three or four days, and the rocket sprouts just reach the top after 5 or 6 days.  I always put the rocket sprouts in the top tray because they tend to get slimy and spoil if they stay on the bottom where slightly more moisture collects.  Radish has larger seeds, and needs a little more moisture, so they always get the bottom tray.  After you have sprouted a few rounds, you will get used to the differences between the seeds and the way they germinate. 

When the sprouts are mature, rinse and drain them and store them in the fridge.  Use them within three days.

Jar Sprouting

 I use four pint sized bell caning jars for sprouting beans.  I place roughly 50 grams of beans in each jar, cover them in twice the water, and let them soak overnight.  The next day I drain off the water, close the jars, place them in a large black drawstring bag (bean sprouts do not like sunlight), and hang the bag in the kitchen until the next day.  Thereafter I remove the jars, flood each with water, drain, close and replace them in the bag twice a day for four days, or until the sprout tails are about twice as long as the bean.  The warmer your kitchen, the faster the sprouting will take place.  If your house is particularly warm, rinse the bean sprouts three times a day.  The closed jars build gasses during the sprouting process that will stunt or kill the sprout if it builds up for too long. 

When the sprouts are mature, rinse and drain them, and store them in the fridge.  Use them within three or four days.

Adzuki sprouts are difficult and can take several days before the show any signs of life at all.  Just make sure that the beans you use are of organic origin or four days of effort will bring you nothing but a stinking spoiled mess. ^back to top^

Sauerkraut

Sauerkraut is the best!  It’s easy to make and it’s really healthy, full of enzymes, good for the digestion, and it’s really cheap. Best of all it’s an excellent source of natural vitamin B12.  Raw homemade sauerkraut tastes much better than even the best raw organic store-bought type. I make it in a series with two crocks packed within a week and a half of each other.  This way I always have a crock of it around.  Each crock has about a 2 1/2 gallon capacity and holds four medium sized heads of cabbage.

The recipe for one crock of sauerkraut:

You will need a large sharp kitchen knife, a piece of clean cheese cloth, a crock with about a 2 1/2 gallon capacity, a plate or saucer that fits snugly inside of the mouth of the crock, a clean leak-free plastic bag filled with about 1 1/2 quarts of water and tied tightly shut, a plate that covers the top of the crock,

4 firm healthy medium sized heads of organic white cabbage,

4 TBS of non-iodated salt (natural sea salt, crystal salt, most table salt)

(The iodine inhibits the growth of the enzymes and bacteria needed to sour the cabbage)

A large mixing bowl.

Quarter all four heads of cabbage and remove the cores. Cut the cabbage in long fine strips four quarters at a time.  If you have the patience for it, cut it into angle-hair.  The finer the strips, the more delicate the texture and flavor of the sauerkraut. Place four sliced quarters at a time into the mixing bowl and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of salt.  Turn, squeeze and gently rub the cut cabbage with the salt until the cabbage feels limp and soggy.  Place the first head in the crock and gently pack it down.  Repeat with the remaining heads, four quarters at a time, until the crock is full. The cabbage should be wet from the liquid extracted by the salt by the time the crock is full.   Punch the wet cabbage down into the crock until it makes a solid mass, and cover it with the cheesecloth.  Tuck the cloth in along the top of the cabbage and place the smaller plate on top of it.  Set the plastic bag of water in the crock on top of the small plate, and cover the mouth of the crock with the larger plate.  Check the crock in half an hour to see if enough liquid has formed to cover the cabbage.  If there is not an inch if liquid rising up over the cheesecloth, remove the plates and the bag, and gently punch the cabbage down again.  Replace the cloth, plates and bag, and let sit for four days in a cool cabinet.  Check for gas bubbles under the plate after four days, and rinse the cloth if the fermentation process is underway.   Check the crock every two days for the next two weeks to make sure that the liquid is covering the cabbage.  Rinse or change the cloth every time you check it, but make sure to ring the cloth (with clean hands) over the crock and not in the sink!  You don’t want to waste the sauerkraut juice. Note: the cloth may become slightly slimy after a couple weeks of fermentation.  In this case do not ring the cloth out into the crock. Any scum should be removed from the top of the sauerkraut if it forms.  This is not a sign that the sauerkraut has spoiled, but happens sometimes when the temperature in your kitchen changes often, or is a little too warm.

After two weeks dig an inch or two into the crock (the top layer won’t be as fermented as the cabbage beneath it) and test it.  You can let it ferment for up to four weeks, but you may prefer it earlier.  It should be tender and loose a lot of its crispness.  If you cure it in a cooler place for a longer period, the sauerkraut will become tenderer, have a strong mellow taste, and be easier to digest.  If you take it after two weeks it will still have a sharp crisp taste.

You can keep it for several weeks in the crock in a cold storage room, but don’t let it freeze or become too warm.  Freezing it will kill the enzymes in it, and warmth will spoil it sooner.  I prefer to remove it from the crock after three and a half weeks, place it in canning jars and put it in the fridge.  It will last for several weeks in the fridge.  ^back to top^

Warming Foods for cold winter days:

Pomegranate                           fennel                        peanuts           cayenne pepper

Kumquat                                 pumpkin                      coconut                  chili powder

Plums                                      sweet potato              pine nut                  curries

Apricots                                   onion                           walnut                     ginger

Cherries                                   nettles                        hazel nut                 garlic

Peaches,                                  beets                         pumpkin                  pepper

Raisins                                     cabbage                   almond                    horseradish

Dates                                       black radish              sunflower                basil

Figs                                         celery root                   pistachio                curcuma

Dark berries                            most roots                 sesame                   oregano

Bananas                                  Dark greens                                              Rosemary

                                                Parsley root                                                Thyme

                                                                                                                     Cinnamon

                                                                                                                        Vanilla

                                                                                                                        Saffron

                                                                                                                        Cumin

                                                                                                                        Cardamom

                                                                                                                        Coriander

                                                                                                                        Nutmeg

                                                                                                                        Clove

                                                                                                                        Mustard

                                                                                                                        Marjoram

I’d rather feel the earth beneath my feet, yes I would, if I only could ...
I surely would.

This Page was written by Colby (tiefgrund[at]magnolia.ch) and can be found on http://www.magnolia.ch