giving an old enemy another chance May 12, 2008
Posted by a-k in cookbooks, fruit, herbs, nuts, raw, smoothie, soup, vegetables.trackback
pineapple-cucumber gazpacho with jalapeno and cilantro
awhile back i ranted about the book raw food real world. and while i still find classism and elitism at the root of my various issues with the book, i thought i’d give it another look-through to see if there were any relatively simple, less exotic (read: cheaper ingredients) recipes i could try out.
with the arrival of spring comes a renewed interest in light and fresh foods for me, particularly raw ones. i’m sure that many people living in cold climates manage to sustain some high level of a raw diet, but i’m not going to be one of them. however, i am trying to be more conscious of what i am eating, which includes eliminating certain ingredients (mostly refined/white and overly-processed ones) and eating more raw fruits and vegetables. the green smoothie thing is still going pretty strong for me, provided i have the ingredients and don’t have to be at work by 630 am (this happens three times a week)…my blender sure is getting a workout lately! but luckily it’s a lot easier to clean than other blenders i’ve used. and i know i’m not alone in trying green smoothies or trying to “be better” about what enters my digestive system.
so, back to my day-off raw (or mostly raw) food endeavors… this makes it easier because i don’t necessarily have to worry about whether a will eat it because she’s at work. this actually spanned last night’s dinner, and today’s breakfast and lunch (dinner is tbd). i got a free organic pineapple from work last week, which was really the thing that reminded me of rfrw - one of the recipes i made from it when i first got it was a cheater version (i used canned pineapple) of the pineapple-cucumber gazpacho with jalapeno and cilantro. it claimed to make four servings, but it was easily two (or maybe i was really really hungry). since it was an extra-light soup, we had it with some quinoa. it was delicious! i could easily eat this on those blistering, muggy summer days, and it doesn’t require anything fancier than the pineapple.
because i wanted something different, and because a took the last banana to work, i ended up making a different kind of drink for breakfast this morning: the fig and grape cleansing shake.
red grapes, black mission figs, star anise, vanilla, a pinch of salt, water and ice.
i don’t have a vitamix so this wasn’t as smooth as it could have been, but it was a nice change, and very filling and hydrating. i haven’t had grapes in ages! i think it would be good with some ginger too.
and lunch today was definitely the most labor intensive of the three (though because of some nut soaking) and by far the most expensive (again because of the nuts). it is titled celeriac and green apple soup with black truffle. but i wasn’t going to buy myself a black truffle (much less know where to find one) or black truffle oil, when i already have a (seemingly endless, though tiny) bottle of white truffle oil. nor did i want to buy a plastic container of chervil to use as a garnish. all of this especially since i was using 3/4 c of macadamia nuts, which don’t come cheap! i didn’t follow the recipe exactly; i eyeballed measurements as far as the celeriac and green apple, and added some rosemary that i had in the fridge. my half batch this time seemed to make a lot, but the soup was elegant and tasty despite my lack of straining out the pulp and nut particles. i’d make this again for a special occasion, but it won’t be going on my list of regular raw soup recipes (that list isn’t actually real).
i still prefer ani phyo’s book to this one because of the simplicity and wallet-friendliness, but if i were to, say, plan a romantic candlelit dinner involving some raw food, i would probably use rfrw. i think i still need to work on the idea that raw food doesn’t have to mean a gourmet meal from ecopolitan, and try out some recipes that use seeds rather than nuts. this year’s garden should provide plenty of opportunity to make my own creations too. however, cooked food is not forgotten here, it’s just being supplemented.
oh my! what perfect summer meals :]
I’m finding your raw food recipes interesting to follow because I’d like to try some as well but haven’t gotten around to it yet. Thanks for the posts!
Awesome! Changing for the better really does feel good.
The purple smoothie is really pretty and sounds lush.
hello,
i’ve been reading your blog for a while, but this is the first time i’ve commented. our family has been vegan for three years and we’re trying a raw diet now. this was one of the first raw books i checked out from the library, and i just wanted to say THANK YOU. the book bothered me a lot but it was very difficult for me to put my finger on just why. it bothered me a lot how the female author was pictured here and therand e in non-food-related ways, basically as the barbie-doll raw-food eye-candy. the elitism and classism bothered me as well. and i’ve discussed the fanaticism in the raw community frequently since we started doing raw food last week. we’re a low-income family and we’ve already made a lot of sacrifices to be able to keep ourselves (and our children) in whole plant foods for the past three years. we’ve always made it work by avoiding processed foods and buying locally when we can and in season. replacing cooked prepared foods like tofu and bread with raw foods means that we can buy a lot of raw nuts and seeds without spending more money, so it’s possible to be raw on a strict budget. but i can’t stand reading most raw cookbooks because they’re full of ingredients that i either a) can’t pronounce, b) can’t find, c) can’t afford, or d) can’t use in good conscience. and, as you said, they tend to be quite laborious and time-consuming. and seeing too much of that really defeats my desire to try improving my health through this diet. the attitude of petrified fear toward “toxins” and “mucus” also disturbs me, and the rigid theology (which i do believe is the right term) that smacks of little more than an eating disorder. so i’m with you on this! i’m really hoping to make this diet work because i do feel amazing, but i’m working really hard to avoid the rhetoric and fanaticism. thanks for addressing this issue in such a succinct way.
chandelle- i agree very much with what you said in addition to my own short assessment (re: female eye candy, epecially). and, like a friend of mine said, the obsession with treating your body like a sewer system that needs to be obsessively cleaned is really over the top (mucus and toxins). many times when i read about the benefits of going raw, it sounds very much like a disguised eating disorder… luckily i am finding ways to make less exotic raw recipes that i am excited to try out. i definitely think it can be done!