Impressions of a Raw Vegan Diet

Happy Saturday all!

Saturday is my favorite day of the week, no contest. It’s the day I load up my fridge with fresh organic produce and take a Bikram class or two, followed by an afternoon of down time. <3

Today I’ll be sharing what I’ve been eating the last two days to give an impression of an all-raw vegan diet. Please realize there is no one clear-cut raw (nor vegan..) diet, just like there is no one ‘cooked’ diet! Par l’example, some raw foodists choose to eat very simple and clean, hardly touching stuff like raw cacao and not eating too much (if any) dehydrated foods. They would eat mostly fruit, veg, greens, maybe some sprouted seeds and thrown into the mix. In my experience, these are the people having been raw for a long time. Then there’s people who eat a lot of gourmet raw dishes; raw lasagnas and pizzas, fancy rich desserts, dehydrated breads, wraps, cookies, etc. Usually, these are the people who are still in a transition phase. And of course, then there’s everything in between! For me it differs from day to day, or even from meal to meal. At the moment my breakfasts and snacks are very simple, but instead of mostly salads, my lunches and dinners are a bit more elaborate these days. I still consider myself transitioning, and I am having too much fun with my dehydrator and new gourmet recipes not too. And I love that when I don’t feel like putting together an actual meal, I can make fast-food in under 5 minutes (salads, sushi, zucchini pasta) and still be it far healthier than any ready-made processed food . So, with all of that in mind, here’s one example of what a raw vegan diet could look like:

Thursday July 14th

Breakfast

Kale/Superfood smoothie

Snack: small apple (addicted to apples at the moment!)

Lunch

Zucchini Linguini w/ homemade sunflower tomato spread, sundried tomatoes & pine nuts (+ some cherries)

Pre-Bikram snack: cherries & grapes

Post-Bikram Snack: nectarine

Dinner

Small bowl of marinated & dehydrated veggies (or: “stirfried veggies” :p) with sesame seeds. Dessert: lots of cherries (+ a lovely tummy ache for terrible food combining…)

Snack

Fruit Cobbler

Friday, July 15th

Breakfast

Carrot/Romaine juice (6 carrots + half a head of Romaine). I needed carrot pulp but I don’t like straight up carrot juice. This was great, though!

Kale/Superfood smoothie

Lunch

Raw sushi; 2 raw nori wrappers, sprouted quinoa, homemade sunflower/tomato spread (love this stuff!), cucumber, avocado, sesame seeds

Snack

BIG handful almonds + chocolate/kale smoothie on the go

Dinner

Raw wrap (the raw chef recipe) with falafel (inspired by choosingraw). I love how it looks like this meal almost contain no veggies (just sprouts) while in actuality the wrap is almost all veg (zucchini) and so are the falafel (carrot pulp!).

Snack

Strawberries with cashew/coconut whipped cream

Recipes

Stirfried Veggies
Side-dish
* 1.5 cups thinly sliced vegetables (I used red bell pepper, portabello mushroom, zucchini, red onion)
* 1 T sesame oil
* 2 T soy sauce (I use liquid aminos)
* 1 T agave
* 1 T lemon juice
* optional: 1 t smoke powder
* sesame seeds

Combine all ingredients except veggies and sesame in a small owl and whisk. Put the veggies in a plastic baggie and pour the marinade over. Close the bag and shake well. Let marinade for ~30 minutes.

Raw option: lay out on a nonstick dehydrator sheet, sprinkle with sesame seeds and dehydrate at 105F for ~ 3-4 hours.

Cooked option: you could also stirfry or grill these in the oven! In the oven, they probably need only 10-15 minutes.

I really liked the raw version, that didn’t taste raw at all actually, but more like strifried or even grilled vegetables. They would make for a great side dish to a meal or to bring to a party!

Fruit Cobbler
Serves one
* One small apple
* One small peach
* handful pecans
* 1.5 T agave
* 1-2 t cinnamon

Mix all ingredients well in a bowl. I marinated these on 105F for 3 hours, you could also place them in the oven just to warm them up a bit (or eat as is!). I bet this is also going to be a favorite for me during the winter, as the cinnamon is nice & warming and straight out of the dehydrator they are nice and warm .

PS: 9 smoothies, one large batch of chips and 3 salads later: I did it! I finished all of my 3lbs (nearly 1.5kg) of dinosaur kale in one week! Now if you’ll excuse me I’m off to get another load.

Love,

Sabine