Raw Review

Not so long ago I munched my way through Thermomix’s Rawlicious booklet. It was an amazing experience and I was introduced to loads of new foods as well as learning a lot about my own food preferences. It has been interesting to see what has stuck and which habits have dropped off along the way.

The biggest change I’ve noticed is that I now rarely cook corn, asparagus, zucchini or any of the other softer vegetables. A combination of these raw vegetables and some cooked or sprouted beans or sustainably fished tuna has become a dinner option alongside steamed veggies and stir fries.

I found that eating vegetables such as cauliflower, broccoli and carrot in their raw state were too hard on my gums and sometimes my jaw would lock up temporarily. So I’ve decided these vegetables need to be cooked while I’ll eat the softer ones raw.

My lunch-time salad made up mostly of vegies from my patio and home-grown sprouts continues with the softer vegetables providing more options for supplementing my meal.

My breakfast of a cooked grain, some chopped fruit along with LSA mix has remained the same. If I can’t have that option then I turbo some nuts, coconut, sultanas and a piece of fruit which provides a worthy raw alternative and was inspired by the CADA recipe in Thermomix’s Taste of Vegetarian cook book.

But the raw gourmet options haven’t survived. As much as I enjoy sweets, I rarely make the health balls that often included ingredients such as dates, almonds and carob powder.

I would have thought that I was past the point of sweets tempting me, but I failed the test recently. A hamper arrived at my door and I then had the pleasant job of consuming its contents. Chocolates lasted barely 24 hours which was no surprise. And then the salty crackers soon disappeared. What surprised me most was how easily I hoed into some really nice sweet biscuits!

Fortunately a recent article in the Courier Mail (original article from the Daily Mail) absolved me of all responsibility. I felt so much better after reading this: A study has shown the hunger hormone ghrelin - which the body produces when it feels peckish - encourages the brain to seek out high-calorie food, no matter how much one has eaten. Ghrelin acts on the brain to make certain foods more attractive… and has also been shown to intensify the pleasurable feelings animals get from cocaine or alcohol.

All of this has given me some food for thought (pardon the pun). Over the last couple of months I have found myself returning to predictable meal patterns and have noticed the resulting boredom creeping back in. I shouldn’t be surprised that I lapsed so easily with the arrival of the hamper and also during the Christmas/New Year celebrations.

I recently had some asparagus, zucchini and grapes sitting in my fridge. Half of it morphed into a lunch-time salad while the rest of it was destined to become coleslaw but instead was combined into a green juice after being processed at too high a speed. I actually enjoyed the mix as a green juice more than as the salad. It was much easier to drink it than munch it. Who would have thought that juiced vegies would be easier?

Around the same time I googled raw food options and found some interesting web sites with equally enticing recipes. I think it’s safe to say that I have renewed my interest in raw food...

Brown Rice Buckwheat Pancakes and Cherry Juice

Wow, I really don’t need to buy brown rice flour anymore! I know, I know, I was told this before I even bought my Thermomix. Plus I’ve ground up some wheat or rye grain to mix in with the flour for my bread loaves so the Thermomix’s ability to mill grain into flour isn’t and shouldn’t be a surprise.

But there is a world of difference between knowing this and actually making some Brown Rice and Buckwheat Pancakes from milled brown rice and buckwheat grains within the Thermomix.

I’ve been making brown rice flour pikelets for years and since acquiring my Thermomix have often wondered about milling my own brown rice flour. But now I’m so pleased that I hadn’t reached the point of experimenting as this recipe provides a fail-safe process.

The recipe is in Thermomix’s “A Taste of Vegetarian” cookbook and it all worked perfectly. I’ve already sampled two pancakes while the rest are cooking. I varied the recipe by adding water to the milled brown rice and buckwheat groats and suspect the addition of ripe banana meant that I didn’t need to add an egg or any sugar. I’m very happy with this recipe and it has gone into my “keeper” list.

I have been playing with recipes over the past few days and I have had another success. This raw Cherry Soup recipe comes from the "Rawsome" book by Brigitte Mars, and my slightly modified form included pipped cherries, some soaked dates and water. I couldn’t decide whether I would prefer to drink it or eat it as a soup, so I “plated” it out into both forms and ended up drinking it from the glass. This “soup” recipe makes up a very nice juice, or would fit the bill for those looking for a nice, light raw soup as an entrée.