Raw-cipes for Love

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!