In the Raw

Ever since I made food for that Spring Detox Event, I’ve been on something of a raw food kick.

I made plenty of raw food in culinary school, and I’ve eaten at a handful of raw food restaurants, and I’ve found it all to be completely underwhelming. I’ve always assumed that if you wanted to eat raw, you needed a bunch of equipment, like a dehydrator and a Vitamix, and even after spending all of the money to outfit your kitchen, you’d be eating depressing food.

Enter Ani Phyo. Evan randomly got a copy of Ani’s Raw Food Desserts at work and brought it home for me. I started thumbing through it one night, and was amazed by how good everything looked. I wasn’t convinced, though, until I tried a couple of recipes. I then decided that Ani Phyo was a genius (The Mayan Crunch Truffle Balls are particularly epic), and went out and got a copy of Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen. I’ve been working my way through it, and I have to say, every time I look at a recipe, I’m like, “No way is that going to taste good.” Then I make it, and it’s delicious.

The picture up above is of raw oatmeal. It’s the easiest thing in the world to make — you simply soak raw oat groats overnight, then drain them and blend them with water. I like to top mine with goji berries, which I briefly soak first to make them less pungent-tasting. It tastes like regular cooked oatmeal, only cleaner, and I now eat it for breakfast a couple of times a week.

Since I’ve been experimenting, I decided to go back and tweak my raw spinach soup recipe, which I wasn’t 100 percent happy with the first time around. Here’s the new version, which, in my not-so-humble opinion, rocks the house:

Raw Spinach Soup
Serves 2 as a main dish

Ingredients:
2 cups packed spinach leaves
1 medium cucumber, peeled and cubed
1 avocado, pitted and skinned
1/2 teaspoon chopped ginger
2 large cloves garlic
2 tablespoons nama shoyu*
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 cup water
Sprouts, for garnish (optional)

Directions:
Place all ingredients in a blender, and blend until smooth. If soup is too thick, thin with additional water. Serve immediately.

*Nama shoyu is raw, unpasteurized soy sauce. You can usually find it at health food stores. I found mine at the Flatbush Food Co-op, which is just like the Park Slope Food Co-op, only you don’t have to be a member to shop there, which makes it extra awesome.

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