Food & recipes

Food Focus: The Raw Diet

Keep your mind clear and your body radiant with these delicious raw food recipes

Keep your mind clear and your body radiant with these delicious raw food recipes
A diet of locally grown, organic fruit and vegetables means less water consumption, air pollution, and toxic runoff into waterways. Plus, being vegetarian reduces the pollution connected to animals raised for meat.

The raw food way of eating is delicious, easy, fun and nutritious. Fresh produce contains living and healthful enzymes, which are killed when it’s cooked above 118 degrees Fahrenheit. Raw foods, however, still contain these enzymes, which help us to digest foods completely without relying on our body to produce its own cocktail of digestive enzymes. A raw-food diet can significantly lower blood pressure, and has been found to benefit those with rheumatoid arthritis and fibromyalgia. And because raw vegan food is completely cholesterol-free, it’s a heart-healthy diet too.

Butternut squash soup

Serves: 4

1 large butternut squash, diced (approx 2 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/4 cup cold-pressed extra-virgin olive oil
1 sprig fresh rosemary
1 1/2 roma tomatoes
1 clove garlic
2 tbsp agave nectar
1 tsp sea salt

Decadent butter nut chips

1 cup butternut squash, diced
1/2 roma tomato
2 tsp dried seasoning
1 clove garlic
1/4 cup pine nuts
Juice of 1/2 lemon

1. To make the chips, blend all the ingredients in a high powered blender. Spoon 2 inch rounds onto a dehydrator tray (available from ukjuicers.com) covered in a non-stick drying sheet. Dehydrate at 110 degrees for 8 to 12 hours. (Will be crispy when finished).

2. For the soup, blend all the soup ingredients in a high powered blender until well combined. Enjoy fresh from the blender with the chips, or place in dehydrator at 115 degrees for 20 minutes and enjoy it slightly warmed.

Asian Infusion

Serves: 4

4 zucchini, julienned
10 enoki mushrooms
2 cups marinated portobello mushrooms
1 ripe avocado
1 cup dulse
1 1/2 cup chipotle cheese
1/2 cup miso dressing

For chipotle cheese

2 cups of pine nuts
1 1/2 cups of water
Juice of 1 lemon
1 roma tomato
1 large dried chipotle pepper
2 tsp chilli powder
2 cloves garlic
1 tsp sea salt

For miso dressing

8 oz extra-virgin olive oil
2 tbsp raw ground-sesame tahini
1 tbsp miso paste
Juice of 2 lemons
1 green onion (small white bulb only)

1. To make the chipotle cheese, blend all the ingredients until rich and creamy.

2. For the miso dressing, simply blend until mixture emulsifies.

3. Then, toss all of the ingredients into a large mixing bowl until rich and creamy. Stack into a compression mould and fill until well packed.

4. Invert, forming tower of mixture, and top with a sprinkle of enoki mushrooms for garnish.

“Why not create your own herb garden or vegetable patch? You’ll eat the freshest of produce and save a trip to the green grocers, plus get intimate with Mother Nature”

Cupboard tool kit

High-powered blender: You’ll need a blender with a strong motor, as a lot of raw recipes require blending nuts and seeds.
Dehydrator: Essential for preparing crunchy and crispy crackers, as well as marinating vegetables.
Mixing bowls: Glass or stainless steel is preferable, avoid aluminum, which leaches into food.

Kitchen essentials

Apple-cider vinegar: Cider vinegar has amazing healing properties and can be used to create a variety of dressings and sauces for your raw dishes.
Miso: Miso paste enhances flavour and creates a salty taste, the brownrice type is preferable.
Young Thai coconuts: The water from this type of coconut is the purest on the planet and full of electrolytes. Plus, the flesh can be used in all sorts of wraps and desserts.
Celtic sea salt: Sea salt in moderation is great as a garnish and flavour enhancer. It’s important that it be used instead of table salt to avoid chemical nasties.

The authors

Doreen Virtue and Jenny Ross are both top raw food experts and have compiled their extensive knowledge to produce The Art of Raw Living Food, (£10.99 Hay House). Doreen Virtue is a vegan, whose diet is 80 to 90 per cent raw. She’s also a metaphysician and attributes an increase in her psychic abilities to her diet! Jenny Ross, is a raw-food chef and the founder of Creative Blend, a company that distributes raw food meals to health food stores.