Raw Food

What does Raw Food mean?

Raw involves not cooking food above 115 degrees Fahrenheit, to preserve the living enzymes and all the nutrients. Whats so bad about cooking you ask? Well cooking causing the formation of harmful compounds in your food. In fact burnt food, in particular, is very carcinogenic. Cooking also destroys the living enzymes in food, which are essential for digesting our food properly. As a result, your body has to work harder to produce those enzymes for digestion. Cooking also deteriorates the nutritional value of food, the longer you cook it. Raw food is basically a whole foods approach (no processed foods), without cooking to preserve the enzymes and nutrients.

Benefits of a (high percentage)Raw Diet

A raw diet, or even just increasing the amount of raw food in any diet, can have a great impact on your health. Everything from weight loss, more energy, clearer skin, improved digestion, and even weight gain for people that are under weight are just some of the benefits. Raw food (and just eating more veggies in general) helps to detox your body. The more you can detox to remove those built-up toxins in your body, the healthier you will feel. In fact, some raw foodists claim to feel more spiritually connected with this diet. These living enzymes really have a life force and eating more of this life force can help you to feel more one with yourself and the universe. AND one of the biggest benefits (at least for me) of raw food is not wasting time cooking! An excuse to not have to cook food during a busy work week? Count me in!

What do Raw Foodists eat?

Most raw foodists are vegan, eating mostly fruits, veggies, nuts & seeds, and fermented foods for added gut health. That means no grains and no beans. If you have to cook it, they don't eat it. Some raw foodists do eat raw meat products like raw milk, raw cheese, sushi and other raw meats, and raw eggs. Some very extreme raw foodists don't even eat dehydrated foods (cooked under 115 degrees) or seasonings since those are technically "processed" foods, not in their most natural form. But a lot of people that consider themselves raw foodists don't eat a 100% raw diet, and are more 60%-80% raw. BUT you don't have to consider yourself a raw foodists to incorporate more raw food into your diet.

Raw Food Kitchen Supplies

Raw food can be as simple as your want it. Aside from a basic cutting board and knife, these kitchen supplies are all you need. No pots and pans needed!

1. Food Processor: This is your new best friend. You can do anything and everything with this.
2. Blender: Great for basic fruit smoothies. You can opt for a Vitamix if you want to make raw soups or sauces that require a little more horsepower.
3. Spiralizer: Great for adding texture to veggies like summer squash and cucumbers.
4. Mandoline (optional): Great for making perfect sliced chips for dehydrators, if you have one. I like to use mine for radish salads.
5. Nut Milk Bags: For making Nut Milk, if you don't have a juicer.
6. Juicer (optional) : Great for making fresh fruit juices and nut milks. Also can be convenient for using up produce that is about to bad. Just juice it!
7. Dehydrator (optional) : Can be great for camping and for long term food storage purposes.

Raw Recipes

Here are some basic raw recipes that I really like because they're easy to make and still taste great. I don't mess around with fussy recipes. Less is more in my opinion. Enjoy!

Nut Milks

I cracked open a coconut for the first time!

Creamy Coconut Milk.

Coconut Milk is pretty simple to make, once you figure out how to open the coconut. All you need is a young thai coconut. After you crack it open, dump all of the coconut water into a blender. Scrape out all of the coconut meat and put that in the blender too. Blend and you have coconut milk. (Here's a nice video on how to open a coconut, link here)

Cashew Milk

Vanilla Cinnamon Cashew Milk

Makes about 4 cups

1 cup cashews
4 cups water
1 tbsp agave (or more to desired sweetness)
t tbsp vanilla extract (or half a vanilla bean)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp salt (optional)

1. Soak cashews in water for at least 2 hours.
2. Blend cashews and water in blender.
3. Strain nut pulp with a nut milk bag (or cheese clothe)
4. Add agave, vanilla, cinnamon, and salt to cashew milk.
5. Store in an airtight container.
6. Shake before using. Separation is natural :)

Juices & Smoothies

Orange Juice is one of my favorite juices to make. You can even switch it up, to make flavored orange juice, like mango orange juice.

Mango Orange Juice:

Serves 1:

 3 oranges
1 mango










My new favorite summer drink. Perfect for a hot summer day.

Watermelon Slushy

Serves 1:
Makes about 4 cups

1/2 of a small Watermelon, chilled in the fridge
Mint leaves (optional)

Scoop watermelon into blender and blend until smooth. Poor into glass, add mint leaves, and enjoy.

Fruit

Fruit is always an easy raw food to incorporate. Its sweet and the ultimate fast food.

It can be as simple or as fancy as you want it. You can eat fresh fruit, a prepared fruit salad, or even a nice carved watermelon cake for special occasions.

Thanks mom for the cake!

Veggies

Aside from basic salads, I love making veggie rolls. They're simple and easy to make. Enjoy with some soy sauce or almond butter for dipping.

Veggie Sushi anyone?

Swiss Chard Veggie Rolls

Spring Rolls with Rice Paper and Almond Butter. Not completely raw, but close enough.

Spiralizing is a great way to add some texture to your veggies. Making zucchini noodles is a great raw substitute for pasta. It can be as simple as zoodles (zucchini noodles), diced tomato, and fresh basil.

Zucchini noodles with raw tomato marinara.

Random Raw things I need in my life.

Cherry Tomatoes. I put cherry tomatoes on everything. I can't get enough. Substitute sweet cherry tomatoes for ketchup on eggs, burgers, hash browns, whatever you use ketchup on.

Cocoa Nibs. If you love chocolate, dark chocolate particularly, you'll love cocoa nibs. It's basically the raw form of chocolate. Slightly bitter but pairs well with fruit and sweet desserts. Personally, I really enjoy eating bananas with almond butter mixed with cocoa nibs. Simple and sweet.

Raw Food Take-Aways

Adding more raw food to your diet, particularly veggies and fruit, can really benefit your health. One of the best things about raw food is not having to waste time cooking your food. Busy cooking dinner and forget to cook the veggies? Sorry kids, we're having RAW broccoli tonight! Eventually you'll grow to love raw veggies more. You'll say to yourself, "How is it I forgot how great cherry tomatoes taste?!?!" You can see I've developed a bit of an obsession with cherry tomatoes. At least its a healthy one! haha. Eating more raw foods can be as simple as you want it to be. I hope you enjoy the recipes!