Raw adventures

Yes, folks, it's the latest trend, and I am enjoying it! Ever on a quest to feed my body really great stuff, I have been acquainting myself with raw food for a while. Kombucha is a gateway drug, and I walked through the gate and kept on going.

I've found that the raw food diet is not for the lazy (try whacking your way into a Thai baby coconut) or those lacking in money (nuts are expensive). But working on an organic vegetable farm, there are loads and loads of the best vegetables on the planet for free. So it seems like the perfect time to experiment with the raw food diet. And experiment I have. I even found some hungrily willing guinea pigs!

It was my turn to make dinner one Sunday, and I only had 2 other people to feed, one of whom had just gotten off the Appalachian Trail. So I decided to begin simply. In early summer the most obvious raw food to me is salad. Tree & Leaf grows loads of leafy green vegetables, so I started with frisee & romaine and went from there. It was still early enough for snow peas and red cabbage, so those went on top, along with red apples. The centerpiece is carrots topped with freshly grated ginger. Recently I've really enjoyed creating beautiful food, and this salad was certainly pleasing to the eye as well as the taste buds.

Then the dressing! I wanted it to be new and inventive, so I went to Ani's Raw Food Kitchen to explore. I found a really awesome salad dressing that involved oranges, jalapeno, cucumber, cashews, lemon juice, olive oil, ginger, and garlic. I substituted lime for lemon and omitted the ginger from the dressing in favor of having it right on top of the salad. It turned out smashingly! The cashews lend a nice creamy texture to the dressing- I just kept eating it, and so did David and Mary.

It's been pretty awesome eating raw food. Pretty consistently I feel awesome and have loads of energy. It does take more work because there's all that prep to do with the vegetables and remembering to soak the nuts and seeds in time for what you want to make. No more easy filling up on rice or pasta or beans. But more and more, I feel like I need less food. I consume less. That's cheaper! This morning Shimmi & I cracked open 2 Thai baby coconuts (on sale for $1.37 a piece!) and then made awesome shakes with the coconut water & meat, bananas, carob powder, and dates. Rarely, rarely, have I felt as amazing as I did after that shake this morning. Pretty frackin' sweet.

It's a bit more difficult a venue in which to create off-the-cuff food. It's taken some learning. Normally I can just create food with little or no thought, recipes, or training. Raw food was completely foreign to me, and while I feel like I'm just whetting my raw foods intuition, I've finally eaten and experimented enough of it to create a tasty little beet salad. Enjoy!

Fresh Beet Salad

2 large beets, grated
splash of orange juice
drizzle of white balsamic vinegar
drizzle of honey, to taste
8 thinly sliced brazil nuts (soaked and rinsed well)
1 Tbsp. thinly sliced red onion (preferably red torpedo)
2 tsp. fresh grated ginger
1 clementine, sectioned
a bit of coconut butter on top, preferably liquid/slightly melted (optional)

Mix the beets with orange juice and put in serving bowl. Drizzle vinegar & honey on them and top with nuts, onion, ginger, and clementine. Top with coconut butter (Artisana brand) if you feel luxurious.