Fit Fare

It’s the New Year. Perhaps you’ve decided to give the raw lifestyle a try? That’s great! You have your fresh fruits, vegetables nuts and seeds in the frig, now what? Preparing delicious, raw gourmet cuisine is easy when you have the right kitchen tools. Here are some basic items (with recipes) to get you started.

A sharp knife is worth its weight in gold in raw food preparation. You can cut, mince, chop, slice, dice and more with a good knife.

Avocado slices with lemon
1 avocado
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1 teaspoon flax seeds
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon sea salt

Cut the avocado in half. In the shell cut avocado into slices. Place ½ avocado slices on a plate.
Squeeze lemon juice over the slices. Sprinkle on ½ teaspoon flax seeds, pepper and sea salt.
Garnish with a lemon wedge. Repeat with other half.

The food processor is handy for preparing pesto, grinding nuts and root vegetables.

Basil Pesto
2 cups fresh basil leaves, packed
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup pine nuts
1 garlic clove, minced
sea salt, to taste
black pepper, to taste

Place basil leaves in small batches in food processor and process until well chopped.
Add the nuts and garlic, process again until if forms a thick smooth paste. Slowly stream in olive oil. Stopping the food processor to scrape down sides of container.
Process until fully incorporated and smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

A nut milk bag is useful for straining nuts for nut milks or sprouting sprouts. *Insider Tip* Nut bags can be a bit pricy; to cut costs go to Home Depot and buy a paint straining bag. It works just the same but a fraction of the cost of nut milk bags.

A standard household blender is great for making the green smoothies, but if you want to turn almonds into almond butter or coconut meat into cream, a high-speed blender is the ticket.

Coconut milk
Meat from 1 Thai Young coconut
1 cup coconut water or pure water
1/4 cup raw agave nectar
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, plus extra

Blend coconut meat and water in a blender until smooth.
Add raw agave nectar, almond extract and nutmeg.
Garnish with extra nutmeg

To turn zucchini into various pasta noodles in no time flat, a spiralizer is a great addition to the raw kitchen.

A dehydrator could be considered a raw foodist’s “oven.” It creates raw breads, crackers, cakes, fruit leather and nut burgers at very low temperatures, therefore keeping the precious enzymes intact.

Sun-dried tomato bread
Adapted from Ani Phyo’s Black Sesame Sunflower Bread
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked until soft; save water
1 cup walnuts, soaked
1 cup flax seeds, ground
⅓ cup flax seeds, whole, unsoaked
¼ cup black sesame seeds
1 clove garlic, minced
¼ teaspoon sea salt
1⅓ cups sun-dried tomato water, saved from soaked sun-dried tomatoes

In food processor, mix flax seeds, salt, garlic and sun-dried tomato water. Add walnuts and sesame seeds.

Divide the mixture into two and spread them on two dehydrator trays about 1/4-inch high.

Dehydrate at 110 degrees for 4 hours. Flip and score (use a pizza cutter) the bread into 9 slices. Dehydrate another 4-6 hours.