Transition Gradually

For someone new to exploring a raw food lifestyle, just “adding more raw foods” is a great strategy. Later you can decide percentage, but “more” will make a difference in your life, especially if you add “more” on a regular basis.

And speaking of more … the more nutrients you consume, the less food you need. Raw organic plant foods have more nutrients than cooked foods.

It is not necessary to eat 100% raw to benefit from raw foods. Often a little shift will be easier to maintain. For example, if you are eating cooked jams/jelly with sugar, change to whole berries without any added sweetener. If you use sugar in your coffee or tea, substitute stevia.

Organically grown plant foods taste better than those treated with pesticides, so avoid conventionally grown fruits and vegetables. Instead of regular packaged crackers, look for raw, organic flax seed crackers. Simple adjustments like these are easier to make than strict rules that make you feel like a failure when you can’t or don’t follow the rules.

Drink the best water available to you and you will have less of a craving for bottled juices or soda or milk. Want a little flavoring in your water? Add some fresh lemon or cayenne pepper or cinnamon. If you want a sweet drink, select some of your favorite fruits, prepare for eating, put in blender with some water, blend and enjoy.

Honor Your Preferences

Your own habits and preferences are important. If you like the idea of a raw food eating style, honor your preferences, take your time, and transition slowly.

As you are discovering the proper percentage for you, ask yourself this question repeatedly: how does this taste to me? As you regularly have more raw foods in your meals, your tastes will change. Likely you will find that raw foods become more delicious and cooked foods become less delicious. Or perhaps, you will find that everything you choose is tasty and perfect for you.

Remember: if after one bite the food does not taste good, stop eating! If it tastes good at first and you continue to eat and it begins to not taste good, stop eating! Let your feelings and taste guide you.

Meal times are often social times for most people. You may find that by deciding to eat raw foods at home and cooked foods when you are with friends or on a business trip that you find the right balance for you.

Find Your Way

Experiment. Read. Ask questions. Find your own way. Be gentle with yourself. Enjoy the process. Keep a positive attitude. When you decide that your own well being is the priority, you will find the right balance or percentage.

What is the best percentage of raw for you? The one you can maintain!

Needless to day, I grew up with the notion that "soup" meant something warm or hot. These days, I have soups nearly every day when I’m not traveling, and they’re neither warm nor hot! They’re raw and room temperature. My friend Jill calls my soups, "salad to blender to bowl."

Here’s a recipe with some alternatives. We prepare some variation of the soup rather regularly because we love sprouted peas. When the children were little, we found that they loved to watch the peas quickly sprout a little tail. We learned lots of ways to use the peas they sprouted!

Sprouted Pea Soup: 4 Servings
Ingredients 2 cups sprouted peas 1 cup snow peas or sugar peas 1 medium avocado 1 small-medium apple 1 ½ cups best available water ¼ tsp ground cayenne pepper Celtic Sea salt to taste (or use any highly mineralized salt)
Directions Prepare apple and avocado by removing non-edible parts. Put all the ingredients in a blender or food processor until it reaches the desired consistency. See a variety of suggestions below.

Sprouted Peas. We sprout these ourselves; however, some health food stores are now carrying peas that have been sprouted. I’ve pictured sprouted peas above, as distinct from pea sprouts (below), which are long with a leaf at the end. We purchase our peas for sprouting at a variety of places (see the left navigation bar in the "Sprouting Seeds" section for suggestions). Our special favorite is the San Francisco Mix at Sprout People. We use the peas when they’ve sprouted about 2-4 days.

Snow or Sugar Peas. To be honest, we usually make the recipe with sprouted peas. However, snow peas or peas right out of the pod are a nice addition. We have also added pea sprouts, as shown above, as another texture.

Avocado. Nicely ripened avocado makes this soup creamy and green, adding healthy fat and subtle flavor. When we’re ready to make the soup but without a properly ripened avocado, we use raw, soaked nuts. They also require proper timing, as almonds need to be soaked about 24 hours and cashews or walnuts need to be soaked 6-8 hours. Allow 3-4 nuts per serving.

Apple. We’ve prepared this soup without the apple and it’s just as tasty. The apple adds wonderful nutrients, crunch, and crispiness. "An apple a day …." If you haven’t had your apple that day, be sure to add one to this soup.

Water. Opinions abound about the "right" water to consume. I try to stay away from the controversy; besides, some people cannot get the water that raw food purists consider to be the best. So, you choose what you believe is the best available water.

Cayenne Pepper. We use ground cayenne pepper often. If that’s not to your taste, you’ll still find this a wonderful dish if you omit it. Because peas have a more neutral flavor than many vegetables, experiment with your own favorite herbs or spices.

Celtic Sea Salt. Be certain not to spoil this wonderful raw soup with "regular" table salt. What you want here is a highly mineralized salt, of which there are many to choose from. Sea vegetables are another alternative, about ¼ to ½ teaspoon. Another alternative is celery. When we add celery to this soup, we place the water and celery in the blender first to break down the fibers. Then we add all the additional ingredients because they need much less blending.

Texture. Varied textures create different taste sensations. This soup, as many raw soups, can be successful as chunky, smooth, or pureed. We usually prefer a chunky soup, as that reminds us to chew. Chewing is an important part of the digestive process. Here are some considerations for experimenting:

• Blend these ingredients into a puree. If you do that, be certain to save out some of the sprouted peas or pea sprouts for garnish.
• Create a nice texture this way: blend the ingredients briefly, remove most of the soup to a bowl, puree the remaining, and add the puree to the briefly blended soup. This thickens the soup, but without any artificial ingredients.

Temperature. At our house, we eat most of our foods at room temperature. If you like a different temperature, consider:

• For a warm soup, heat the water (be careful to keep it below 118° if you want a truly raw soup) or place the soup in the dehydrator or on a warming tray enough to warm it. Some people, especially in colder climates, prefer warm foods.
• If you like it chilled, start with refrigerated ingredients, then place the soup in the refrigerator for a brief period.

Whatever you eat, eat with a smile on your face and love in your heart.

To do this properly requires planning, as you need to soak the raw almonds for 24 hours. You’ll find multiple sources for raw, organic almonds on the left navigation bar.

Raw Almond Milk: 2 Servings
Ingredients 1/2 cup whole, raw, organic almonds ( no shells) 1 1/2 cups purified water (best water available) Sweetener, see choices below (optional) 1/4 tsp vanilla or dash of cinnamon (optional)
Equipment blender nut milk bag Directions 1. Soak the almonds in 2 cups water for 24 hours; rinse well, discard soak water. 2. Place all ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth. 3. Strain through a nut milk bag. You can use a nylon bag designed for this purpose, a hemp bag designed for sprouting, or a double layer of cheese cloth. 4. The liquid is the milk. The pulp has plenty of nutrition and uses.

Soaking the Almonds. Raw organic almonds are incredible food. The reason they have long shelf life is that they have a natural growth inhibitor on the outside. That is toxic — not deadly, but not pleasant, especially for sensitive individuals. The 24 hour soaking removes this. I usually change the soak water several times, just to remove the toxins. The almonds are now ready, or they can be left, drained but still wet, for several hours unrefrigerated or several days refrigerated.

Blending the Almonds. You can do this recipe in any blender, but you’ll have finer pulp in a high-speed blender.

Straining the Pulp. If you just want to experiment with making the Almond Milk, I suggest you use cheese cloth, as that is so easily accessible, even if potentially messier. I find the help sprouting bag is acceptable, but I don’t suggest you purchase one of this purpose. If you’re going to purchase anything, I recommend the nylon bag. Please note: a little more than "straining" is required. You must actually squeeze the bag or cheese cloth to get the most out of the blended almonds and water.

Flavoring the Milk. Almond Milk is wonderful straight without any sweetening or flavoring. To my taste, almonds are already sweet. Stevia and dates are often used as sweeteners for raw foodists. Cinnamon added to almond milk is awesome, with or without additional sweetener. Add hemp nut seed to it and you will be in ecstasy.

Using the Milk. That’s easy, drink it! I’ve created some yummy desserts using the almond milk as a base.

Chocolate Almond Milk. To the above, add raw cacao; you may need to adjust the sweetener. I also often add carob, which is a regular ingredient in my recipes.

Using the Pulp. If you love Almond Milk, you’ll want to be creative about using the pulp that’s left over. I’ve discovered or invented quite a number of uses for the pulp. Use the pulp in raw (or non raw) cookies or bread, Raw Food Energy Soup or any other soup, smoothies, or dehydrate it for later use. Dehydrated almond pulp adds an interesting texture to any of the recipes you might add fresh almond pulp.

Enjoy!
After a few times, you won’t need a recipe.