Raw food is the nutrition craze that is spreading like wildfire. In a nutrition world of mixed messages (some tell you to only eat cooked food, others – only raw) – I've been experimenting, carefully monitoring my levels of energy, mental clarity, sexual energy, creative flow and emotional stability.
I am impressed how much higher I score in all departments when I eat mostly raw food. Pleasuring my taste buds and emotions used to be my primary goal when eating. For the past few years, food has become primarily fuel and medicine; but since I still like my food to be appealing to the senses, I have been playing with easy to make, delicious recipes. Here are two of them:
Raw Ciorba
(Pronounced tchor-buh)
Ciorba is the Romanian sour thick soup of my childhood, usually made with root vegetables, chicken, meat or fish, and rice.
Mix in a blender:
- 1-2 leaves of either kale, collard or chard
- Juice from ½ lemon
- Optional: 1 tbsp Ume-Su (Umeboshi Vinegar)
- 2 large tomatoes
- 1-2 small (Lebanese) cucumbers or 1 English cuke
- Fresh herbs: parsley, dill, etc. For an authentic Romanian flavour, chop and add a handful of Lovage. Lovage seems to be more popular in Quebec, but I found mine at the Wheat Berry health food store on Main Street. Lovage (in Romanian: Leushtean) is said to be an aphrodisiac, hence the name!
- ½ red, orange or yellow pepper
- ½ small onion
- 1 garlic clove
- ½ cup walnuts (they will give the texture of 'as if' rice
- 2-4 cups water to taste, making your ciorba as thick as you like
- Pepper to taste. My favourite spice is Mrs. Dash
Pour in soup bowls, garnish with parsley et voila!
Berry Pop'O'Tana
My usual natural pop is a mix of orange juice with Perrier, plus cranberry juice and a splash of lemon juice. But the other day I ran out of orange juice, and decided that if I don't have bread, I'll eat cake. So I took some berries out of the freezer, and made myself the most delicious smoothie-pop ever!
Blend together:
- Two cups of frozen berries. Costco has huge bags of mixed blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.
- Splash of lemon juice
- ¼ cup cranberry juice. My favourite is the not-from-concentrate "Just Juice" brand I buy at Loblaws, in the health food section
- After blending well, add ½l Perrier or other fizzy mineral water, and blend with a quick pulse on your blender
Pour in tall glasses, decorate with slices of lemon, lime and mint leaves, and enjoy!
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