View Full Version : Raw Food
I recently completed a 2 Week Raw Food Challenge successfully, eating a minimum of 75% Raw Food by weight daily. I feel terrific, have lost 23 lbs., have a tremendous amount of energy, am exercising daily and plan to continue eating a Raw Food diet. I attended a lecture by Raw Food Chef Cherie Soria, of Living Light Culinary Institute recently and have been reading a lot of Raw Food recipes and watching YouTube and other videos re: Raw Food and cooking (or "un-cooking") Raw Food. I really like many of Ani Phyo's recipes and also enjoy her videos on YouTube and her website (www.aniphyo.com).
I recently purchased a Vitamix Professional Series high-speed blender, a Nesco American Harvest food dehydrator (and promptly ordered an additional 4 trays for it!) and a World Cuisine Tri-Blade Vegetable Spiralizer and am enjoying making amazing foods, including delicious low-carb raw garlicky hummus (with zucchini instead of chickpeas), raw marinara and raw arrabbiata sauces, raw cashewcreme, raw nut butters, raw seed and nut pâtés and dehydrated savory golden flax seed crackers.
Does anyone else eat a Raw Food diet? Do you have any favorite low-carb Raw Food recipes?
I'm taking advantage of inexpensive, locally grown, in-season produce and am preparing and freezing sauces and vegetables and dehydrating vegetables, fruits and making health snack foods and crackers in my food dehydrator to prepare for the months ahead. Raw Food has added a whole new dimension to my Simple Living.
You lost 23 pounds in two weeks?
No, I lost 23 lbs. since May 12, 2012, when I started eating a minimum of 75% Raw Food by weight, with medical supervision. I recently completed a 2 Week Raw Food Challenge, which included classes and "un-cooking" demonstrations, which has really heightened my interest in all things Raw Food.
I have gotten quite a few good raw food cookbooks out of the library. The books have a mix of simple and complex recipes. Also some have easily gotten ingredients and some have a bunch of hard to find ingredients.
Have noticed that some of the authors have tastebuds that match up a bit better to ours than others. Have tried to figure out what the differences are. Some have a bias toward sweet, some to sour, and some to savory. Some have what to me taste like discordant ingredients. If they were a decorator the house would be orange and purple. Some are more skilled at melding ingredients so the dish tastes like a finished dish rather than something that is progressing toward a meal.
To me a fun thing is to use rounds of cucumber like a cracker for hummus, salsa or other spreads.
Tussiemussies
8-1-12, 8:03pm
Hi RCW , I was on a low carb diet a few year back and since I don't eat meat or eggs it was almost like having a raw food diet since I would eat lots of fruits and veggies then something for protein. It worked really great, I had a wasting again but felt a little deprived so I switched over to weight watchers.
Are cooked beans included as part of the diet?
@Amaranth: I've had a similar experience with Raw Food cookbooks. That's why I was hoping to get some recommendations, recipes and ideas from folks here. Thanks for your help!
Hi RCW , I was on a low carb diet a few year back and since I don't eat meat or eggs it was almost like having a raw food diet since I would eat lots of fruits and veggies then something for protein. It worked really great, I had a wasting again but felt a little deprived so I switched over to weight watchers.
Are cooked beans included as part of the diet?
Since 75% or more food by weight is raw with a Raw Food diet, one can consume up to 25% cooked food of any type, including cooked beans.
FWIW, 1 serving of beans or lentils count as 1 serving each of carbohydrate and protein, according to the ADA exchanges. I tend to eat non-starchy beans like string beans more frequently than starchy beans, such as lima beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, etc.
Tussiemussies
8-1-12, 11:22pm
Since 75% or more food by weight is raw with a Raw Food diet, one can consume up to 25% cooked food of any type, including cooked beans.
FWIW, 1 serving of beans or lentils count as 1 serving each of carbohydrate and protein, according to the ADA exchanges. I tend to eat non-starchy beans like string beans more frequently than starchy beans, such as lima beans, kidney beans, pinto beans, etc.
Thanks RCW...:)
You're welcome, Tussiemussies! :)
Many vegetarians opt to eat more starchy beans and lentils for non-animal sources of protein. I find moderate portions of lean protein much more satisfying than beans, but everyone is different.
Another place to get good ideas is
http://fatfreevegan.com/
Besides the Raw category, some of the beverages, and salads, as well as random other recipes work for raw foods.
A number of people here have used the Eat To Live book or the website
http://www.drfuhrman.com/weightloss/about.aspx
The website has a lot of recipes, many of which are raw, but you need either the sample or annual subscription to be able to read them.
If you like smoothies, you can get a lot of raw foods into those.
Thanks, Amaranth! I've bookmarked the sites you mentioned and will check them out! I have found a lot of carbohydrate-laden vegan and vegetarian recipes and tons of Raw Food dessert recipes, all of which are things I'm trying to avoid. I rarely drink smoothies, but when I do, I always limit the fruit in smoothies to just 1 small (2" diameter apple"), or equivalent, per serving. In general, I tend to prefer the fiber of whole raw vegetables to steamed and cooked ones.
I wanted to post this picture here of a composed raw vegetable salad that looks like a wrap or sushi
http://pinterest.com/pin/221731981624274475/
Picture is originally from here
http://www.pjsrawcuisine.com/default.html
Tried to insert the image using the pinterest link, but when I looked at it on the board, it just had a red X and no image showed. If anyone knows how to get it to show, would like to learn.
Thought it was a fun example of a salade compose.
This was my lunch yesterday! (Raw Thai Zucchini Wraps & Salad w/ Raw Marinated Mushrooms & Onions)
On many of these hot summer nights, we have been eating "salad is your main meal" a la Fit to Live. Several kinds of lettuce, cabbage, tomatoes, cukes, snap peas, carrots, tomatos, radishes, avocado, berries, grapes, etc topped with toasted seeds all in a huge bowl. After a while, we now crave our daily salad. And usually a green smoothie most mornings. I figure we eat at least 60% raw.
That's awesome, pinkytoe! I crave one or more salads daily, too! I currently eat around 80-85% Raw Food and feel terrific!
Good for you RCWRTR!! I know a couple people who eat raw and don't want to go back to their old eating habits because they feel so great eating a raw diet! I've thought about doing it on and off for a while. I actually did it for about 1.5 weeks but then my excuse is that people came in town so I got off it. I did feel great though and my sense of smell came back when I was on the raw diet. What inspired me to try raw originally was this documentary called Simply Raw: Reversing Diebetes in 30 Days. http://www.rawfor30days.com/index4.html
Have you seen it?
I have seen it, Minz! I would definitely encourage you to get back on the Raw Food bandwagon! :)
I have seen it, Minz! I would definitely encourage you to get back on the Raw Food bandwagon! :)
Perhaps I will! Another thing I liked about eating raw food was how little garbage I produced....and I actually found it less expensive than the way I was eating before.
Thanks for the inspiration!
I got a boatload of fresh organic produce for $48 recently. We save a lot of money by eating a predominantly plant-based Raw Food diet. We also save money on medications and doctor's visits because we are healthier.
Now is the time to start stocking up and dehydrating and fermenting things for the winter! I recently learned how to make Raw Sauerkraut with fresh cabbage, carrots, caraway seeds and sea salt, using a wide-mouth Mason or Ball-type canning jar and cheesecloth. It was so easy and it turned out beautifully!
SteveinMN
8-14-12, 12:49pm
I recently learned how to make Raw Sauerkraut with fresh cabbage, carrots, caraway seeds and sea salt, using a wide-mouth Mason or Ball-type canning jar and cheesecloth. It was so easy and it turned out beautifully!
RCWRTR, would you share? I've wanted to make my own sauerkraut for a while now, but every recipe I've seen so far calls for big vats and presses and a lot more tending than I have to give my salt-fermented pickles. I'd love an easy recipe I can make pretty much anytime.
Sure, SteveinMN.
Raw Sauerkraut is delicious. I like it better than the traditional kind.
Cut a bunch of fresh cabbage and a few carrots in thin ribbons (aka "chiffonade"-style) or use a spiralizer, such as the World Cuisine Tri-Blade Plastic Spiralizer, which I use (http://www.amazon.com/World-Cuisine-A4982799-Tri-Blade-Vegetable/dp/B0007Y9WHQ) or food processor.
You can use a combination of green and red cabbage, but be aware that the red cabbage tends to make the sauerkraut turn purple!
Toss cabbage and carrots, sprinkled with 1 tsp. caraway seeds (optional) and 1 T of sea salt per 1 quart jar.
Pack the mixture tightly in clean, wide-mouth Mason or Ball-type canning jars, filling the jars to 1.5" from the top. Cover the jars with a 6" square piece of cheesecloth and secure with rubber band.
Leave cabbage sit on your kitchen counter for 3 days. Each day, remove the rubber band and cheesecloth, use your clean fist to push the cabbage, carrots, caraway seeds and sea salt down and drain off the extra moisture that forms as the sauerkraut slowly ferments and replace the cheesecloth and rubber band.
After three days, you can refrigerate the sauerkraut. It keeps for at least 2 weeks in the refrigerator -- if it lasts that long!
You can vary the ingredients, but be sure to include only low moisture content vegetables. I recently made a batch with Brussels sprouts, green cabbage, red cabbage, celery seed and raw unhulled sesame seeds that was quite tasty!
Thanks for telling us how to make the sauerkraut. Flavoring it with celery seed and sesame seeds sounds delicious.
I've mixed horseradish in it before to vary the flavor.
What are some other good ways to flavor sauerkraut?
@Amaranth: Shredded raw red beets are great, too!
Thanks, RCWRTR! This weekend is a Farmer's Market weekend, so I'll pick up the ingredients.
You're welcome! I love the variations, as it keeps the Raw Sauerkraut fresh and interesting. I also like that the carrot makes it a bit less, well, "sauer".
Thanks for the additional flavoring ideas. The sweeter beets and carrots would make a nice contrast with the sauer aspect. Do the golden beets work ok too?
I've not tried golden beets in Raw Sauerkraut, but I expect they would work nicely.
Powered by vBulletin® Version 4.2.5 Copyright © 2025 vBulletin Solutions Inc. All rights reserved.