Raw Cauliflower and Carrot Soup

I visited the Thermomix Forum and noticed a comment about the Cream of Cauliflower soup recipe in the Rawlicious recipe booklet. I had been thinking about steaming some cauliflower for my dinner but decided instead to make a raw cauliflower and carrot soup with avocado.

 








Recipe ingredients:

160g cauliflower

100g carrot

20g olive oil

20g lemon juice – half a lemon

Dash or two of shoyu sauce

Dribble of honey

375g water

Avocado chunks

Shallots chopped

Instructions:
Add the cauliflower, carrot, olive oil, lemon juice, shoyu sauce, honey and water into the Thermomix bowl. Process for 20 seconds on speed 8.
Warm the mix at 37 degs C for 4 minutes on speed 1.
Add avocado and shallots into serving bowls and pour the mix over the top.

I tasted the mix before adding the shoyu sauce and honey and felt that the lemon had contributed too much, but after adding these extra ingredients enjoyed this soup enough to eat the second bowl that the quantities provided. 
I might leave out the lemon juice, shoyu sauce and honey next time as carrot has such a sweet taste that I don’t need these additions. It turned out to be a slightly chunky soup as I had processed the mix on speed 8 rather than 10 which I was happy with.

I’m pleased that I made this soup as I have been mulling about eating more of my food raw. After trawling through the Rawlicious recipe booklet and moving on to playing with aspects of the 80/10/10 diet, I had gone back to cooking my dinners while including a cooked grain in my breakfast and a cooked legume in my lunch.

I recently watched the “Food Matters” dvd which includes a focus on raw food. One of the speakers recommends 51% or more raw food each day saying that this quantity of raw food will mean that the body won’t react to the remaining amount of cooked food. I might already be at or above this percentage as I eat a fair amount of fruit earlier in the day. However the final comment that I noted from the dvd was that an 80% raw food diet is healthy.

Another comment that I was interested to hear was that two handfuls of raw cashews would give me the therapeutic equivalent of a dose of Prozac. I’ve never considered taking Prozac and prefer to stay away from taking heavy duty drugs. But the next time I’m feeling stressed, as I’m prone to be occasionally, I’ll dig into the cashew supply to check out this theory. Much better to eat nuts than go nuts!

Vegetable Lentil Soup

I bought a slow cooker some years ago and then promptly ordered two cookbooks from Amazon. One of the cookbooks has since been passed onto Lifeline for their next Book Fest while over time I have developed some preferences from the other.

Of course, having become a Thermomix advocate means that I’ll do my best to convert any recipes I find in a competitive cookbook to work even better by using the Thermomix. And that’s exactly what happened when I cooked a modified version of a recipe for Spicy Vegetable-Lentil Soup from the cookbook “America's Best Slow Cooker Recipes” which I worked out could no longer be obtained from Amazon but is still listed there. 

I started out thinking I’d make this lentil soup in the slow cooker, but as I perused the ingredients and instructions, I realised this was a perfect candidate for a Thermomix conversion. Naturally I replaced some ingredients that I didn’t have on hand. 

Recipe Ingredients:
half a cup of red lentils
1 inch ginger
1 clove garlic
chopped onion
½ tsp cumin seeds
Granny Smith apple peeled cored and diced(90g)
2 medium carrots peeled (370g – well maybe they were large!)
chinese bok choy chopped (50g).
½ tsp of Thermomix stock concentrate
½ teaspoon curry powder
600ml water

Instructions:

Wash the red lentils and set them aside.
Process the ginger and garlic for 5 seconds on speed 7.
Push the ginger and garlic down into the lower section of the bowl.
Add onion, cumin seeds, Granny Smith apple, carrots and chinese bok choy.
Process the mix for 5 seconds on speed 7.
Add stock concentrate, curry powder and water with the soaked red lentils.
Cook in the Thermomix for 20 minutes at 100 degrees C on speed 1.
Blend the mix at speed 6 for 10 seconds.

Yummm... It’s been a while since I’ve made this soup and it has always been in the slow cooker. I previously blended the soup at a higher speed which gave it a creamy consistency. This time around, I’ve deliberately blended it at a lower speed so that the consistency of the lentils will show through. I really enjoyed eating this soup. It tasted delicious and I promptly went back for some more.

This made a lovely dinner after which I set a new resolution to troll through this cookbook to see if there are any other recipes that I’d like to convert to the Thermomix.

Simplified Raw Soup

I’ve just had a raw meal in the form of a beetroot, corn and pumpkin raw soup. It feels like such a long time since I’ve dabbled with raw soups but I’m so pleased I have.

I know I’ve pretty much discussed raw soups in the past but I couldn’t help putting up my prescription for a pleasant tasting raw soup. It’s so simple that it could well be my shortest post. 

Recipe Ingredients: 
300g vegies/fruit
200g orange juice and/or water

Instructions:

Blend vegies/fruit with the orange juice and/or water in the Thermomix for 30 seconds on speed 8.

I think I’m right! It is my shortest post even including my non-Thermomix conversion – well, up to this point at least! I’ve often thought that a quick meeting is a good meeting and I know my brother influenced me in this thought so I’m all for providing a post that is a quick read!

But wait! I’m sure you won’t mind if I post the photo of my dinner tonight. I made it just as I mentioned above with a couple of variations...Just to be really precise which I suspect is embedded in my nature, here are the ingredients that I used.

Dinner ingredients:
60g beetroot
110g corn niblets
170g pumpkin
190g orange juice
30g water

Final instructions:
Blend all ingredients in the Thermomix bowl on speed 8 for 20 seconds.
I added a further 60g water as the soup was too thick for me and blended again on speed 8 for 10 seconds and the consistency felt right.
After plating up, I scattered some chopped shallots for taste as well as aesthetics.

Naturally the beetroot made its presence visually felt and past experience indicates that this presence will be kinaesthetically felt over the next day or two as it moves through my body. But I don’t mind as beetroot has long been recommended to me as a good source of iron which I was sometimes lacking during my earlier years.

This soup had a lovely light taste and I really enjoyed eating it, and I certainly plan on returning to raw soups in the not too distant future.

So much for the short post! I do try to write short and sweet to reduce writing and reading time. After all, reducing is the first step in that all important mantra – Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

Raw sweet potato and apple soup

I reckon apple goes with most things in the same way that avocado merges in very nicely with soups or salads.So tonight I have made a raw sweet potato and apple soup.

Recipe Ingredients:
160g peeled sweet potato
60g apple
50g tomato
210g water 

Instructions:
Blend sweet potato, apple, tomato and water in the Thermomix on speed 8 for 30 seconds.
Dish out with a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

Later I remembered some cooked chick peas and they merged easily into the mix. The sweet potatoes contributed to a very pleasant tasting dish while the apple gave the soup a nice sweet slant. All in all, I was very happy to eat this for my dinner.

Raw Strawberry and Cabbage Soup

This really hit the spot - a lovely cool soup at the end of a particularly hot day. It’s the night before I pick up my next Food Connect box and I had some cabbage in the fridge and a punnet of strawberries in the freezer. What better way to use them than to combine into a summer soup!

Recipe Ingredients:
200g strawberries
100g cabbage
20g mint and basil
200g water

Instructions:
Blend all ingredients together in the Thermomix on speed 8 for 20 seconds.
Sprinkle mint leaves to adorn the top.

Dinner Options; Raw Zucchini and Corn Soup

So what does one eat for dinner... My standard response in the past would be a stir fry, steamed vegetables or soup. But now I’m looking at how I can become predominantly raw, as in 75% or more raw food most days as compared to the 50% plus raw I do at the moment.

So I’ve just found out that someone who eats 75% plus raw food is called a raw foodist. I’ve had a few labels in the past and I do give some thought to the label that might be assigned if I move in a particular direction. And I can say I am comfortable with a label of raw foodist if I meet the criteria.

I imagine that the easiest way to meet the criteria would be to start most meals from a perspective of it being a raw meal and then allow the occasional non-raw addition to the meal. Or snacks in between meals might be non-raw like the precious mini-muffins that I make for my Mum and myself.

So tonight following on from my success with the raw cabbage and apple soup, I have made some Raw Zucchini and Corn Soup.

Recipe Ingredients:
Chunks of zucchini
Niblets from half a corn cob
Small tomato
Small apple peeled and cored
Thin slice of onion
Dash or two of tamari
210g water

Instructions:
Add zucchini, corn, tomato, apple and onion (which amounted to 360g for me) into the Thermomix bowl.
Add tamari and water. Blend together for 30 seconds on speed 8.
Sprinkle some sesame seeds on top for aesthetic appeal.

I keep meaning to warm any raw soup I make to 37 degrees C which is acceptable under a raw food program. But I forget and then I find that I’ve really enjoyed the soup as is, which is exactly what happened again tonight. While the apple was the only common ingredient between tonight’s soup and the Cabbage and Apple Soup made the other night, the consistency of the two soups are very similar. I suspect that the types of vegetables used in both soups are very similar. There was a little bit left over after filling my bowl which I happily finished off.

So now I’m considering how I can continue replacing my standard dinner options of a stir fry, steamed vegetables or cooked soup. What I’ve come up with so far are salad, soup or a whole food such as a mango or some grapes.

It’s becoming clear to me now that raw soups are fairly easy and can be basically made up from whatever ingredients are available at the time - or should I say that raw soups are fairly easy to make in the Thermomix. I’d like to think that I can make up an appetising salad after a few years of including salad greens and tomatoes from my patios into my regular lunch-time salad. I’ve included the idea of a whole food or fruit because this idea was mooted by Victoria Boutenko in her book "12 Steps to Raw Foods".

It will be interesting to see what dinner options I’m actually using in a month or two’s time...

Raw Cabbage and Apple Soup

After enjoying the cooked cabbage soup, and receiving the thumbs up from my Mum who has made her own variation of cabbage soup in the past, I decided to try a similar combination as a raw soup.

Recipe Ingredients:
2 dates
Sprigs of mint and basil
100g cabbage
Small apple cored 
130g water
Mint as garnish  

Instructions:
Mill dates for 15 seconds on speed 7.
Add mint, basil, cabbage, apple and water and blend for 30 seconds on speed 8.
Sprinkle the soup with some mint sprigs
 

I really enjoyed this as the cabbage and apple melded together very nicely. It probably helps that I like eating cabbage raw, which I was doing as I cut the cabbage into chunks. Perhaps that explains why there wasn’t enough, which I’ll fix next time by including more. I might not worry about the dates in the future as they seemed superfluous and the soup would have been smoother without them. Alternatively, I could soak the dates overnight which might soften them enough to blend in with the other ingredients.

All in all, I consider this a successful lunch, albeit as an appetizer as I didn’t make enough and even with more of this soup I would most likely supplement with another small dish.

Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup, Simplified Soup and Jam

My Mum isn’t well. She has overdone things for not the first time. After pulling out sliding wardrobe doors to put some new shelves inside, an annoying pain developed in her hip. Just to confuse matters, some blisters developed on her left foot which happened to be the same side as her hip pain. Perhaps something had bitten her on the foot while she was outside. As a result her foot was throbbing. She was able to move around her home on a pair of crutches, but even then her speed was snail’s pace.

In the past similar problems with her back have been easily fixed by her chiropractor. But after getting an all clear from a back x-ray and as the pain became unbearable, she finally agreed to visit the doctor. After a brief examination the diagnosis was shingles in her foot with referred pain moving up to her hip. Unfortunately the diagnosis came long after the 72 hour time frame within which anti-viral medications can be taken to help clear up the disease.

So my Mum went into hospital for just over a week and has now returned home. While she’s a little more mobile than she was, she is still dealing with the pain – particularly just after she’s been on her feet too long. She’s starting to hear this as a message to slow down.

One way I can help my Mum is to provide some meals and fortunately I have the Thermomix to help me. So I trolled through my recipe books and some blogs that I often visit and found the perfect comfort food – Chicken and Sweetcorn Soup a la Thermomixer.

This time around I have been very obedient and made it according to the recipe, well, with just one variation. I’ve made a note to self to not add any additional salt as I have used Thermomix Stock Concentrate with its strong salt content in lieu of the chicken stock. This soup tasted delicious, in fact enough for me to chow down a second small helping, and I’m sure my Mum will like it as well.

But I had a remaining dilemma. Last week I made some soup which Mum really enjoyed. I modified the pumpkin soup recipe from the everyday cookbook by replacing carrot with potato.

When she heard that I had some cabbage she decided that next she’d like some cabbage soup. So again I trolled through the books and blogs and found a recipe in the "Taste of Life" book by Julie Stafford for a cabbage casserole. Since I still wanted to make a soup, I borrowed the main ingredients of cabbage, onion, apples and potatoes and used them in a simplified version of the pumpkin soup recipe.

Simplified Soup Recipe Ingredients:
700g preferred vegies/fruit peeled and chopped ie cabbage, potatoes, apples
1 onion peeled and chopped
1 tbsp oil
1/2 tbsp stock concentrate (full tbsp of concentrate makes the soup too salty for me)
500g water
pinch of sugar

Instructions:
Add onion and vegies/fruit into Thermomix and chop for 15 seconds on speed 7.
Add oil, stock concentrate, water and sugar and cook for 20 minutes at 100 degrees C on speed 1.
Blend the mix for 15 to 20 seconds by increasing slowly from speed 1 to 9.

The resulting soup was an unusual consistency and equally unusual but very appealing taste. My Mum says she has made cabbage soup in the past so it will be interesting to hear her comments after she has tried it.

I’m going to keep trying different ingredients using this simple soup recipe. I have a feeling that when the different vegetables or fruits complement each other then the soup will work, which is why I borrowed this cabbage combination from an existing recipe.

I also use a similarly simplified jam recipe which has produced tomato, apple and now peach jam. To be honest, what I make is probably more like a sauce than a jam as I’m not concerned about whether the jam has set. I tend to put it onto my salads or waffles when I make them, so the consistency isn’t a major issue.

Simplified Jam Recipe Ingredients:
Equal quantities peeled/deseeded fruit and sugar

Instructions:
Weigh the fruit as it is placed into the Thermomix.
Puree the fruit for 30 seconds on speed 7.
After scraping down the sides, add an equal weight of sugar and then blend the mix for 10 seconds on speed 7.
Cook the mix for 40 minutes at 100 degrees C on speed soft.

After it has cooled, the jam goes into the freezer. Because I have used equal quantities of fruit and sugar I can take spoonfuls out of the container straight out of the freezer. So I never have any concerns about the jam going mouldy.

Making jam like this might not be to everyone’s liking, but it certainly works for me.

Red Lentil Soup

I did an Indian cooking class at Tafe back in 2004 and picked up a few recipes that I have continued to use over the past 5 years. Tonight I’ve made a modified version of red lentil soup. 

Recipe Ingredients:
Cup of red lentils
20g olive oil
1 onion chopped
2cm piece ginger
2cm piece turmeric (or dried turmeric powder added at same time as chilli powder)
½ tsp cumin seeds
Large tomato chopped
½ tsp salt
½ tsp chilli powder
 

Instructions:

Wash the red lentils and set aside. 

Add olive oil, onion, ginger and turmeric into the Thermomix. Process for 5 seconds on speed 7.

Cook the mix for 3 minutes at 100 degrees C on speed 1, and use the same temperature and speed for the following steps.

Add cumin seeds and cook for 1 minute.

Add chopped tomato, salt and chilli powder and cook for 1 minute.

Add washed lentils with 800g water and cook for 15 minutes.

At the end of each step I noticed an inviting smell wafting from the Thermomix and enjoyed taking the lid off to add the next items. And the ultimate taste test was a resounding "yes" with some homemade spelt bread contributing very nicely to the meal.

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.

Raw Chocolate Mousse and Coconut Laksa

Ah, it’s dessert time again. I would say about time too except that I just made a repeat performance of the Beetroot and Chocolate Pudding a few days ago and my Mum was as much in raptures with the end result as I was even after eating it cold the next morning.

I’m normally not a lover of mousse but this rendition of it hit the spot. It had a rich decadent taste that was perfect for a Saturday afternoon. The recipe includes vanilla bean and the mousse had a familiar taste so I googled Kahlua and Tia Maria and found that they both contain vanilla bean. These liqueurs are favourites of mine so no wonder the mousse was so easy on my palate.

And then the pièce de résistance for the day, also a recipe from the Rawlicious booklet, was surprisingly not a dessert. The Coconut Laksa needed a baby coconut. I couldn’t find a baby one, well, to be really honest I didn’t realize how helpful it would be if I could find one so I found a coconut and I could hear the milk inside. By the time I pierced one of the holes there was precious little milk left. So my first lesson with coconuts is that the milk can dry up quickly.

I found lots of advice about how to open a coconut. Using the pointy end of a hammer (my words) hit the coconut in a circle around the top end of the coconut until the top separates. Well, the top never separated. Plan B. Hit the coconut along the raised seam that runs around the flat sides of the coconut (again my words). Suspect I didn’t have enough power in my hammer technique. Plan E or F was to take coconut next door to builder neighbour and his partner who would probably help me. But I was still in that stubborn stage believing that I could fix this. However the doubting Thomas part of me was amazed that I thought I could open up a coconut!

One of the first web sites I found on “opening coconuts” had tongue-in-cheek suggested flinging it against a wall or dropping it on a concrete floor with the added thought that this might end up breaking one or the other and only maybe the coconut. Fortunately for me, I didn’t read this web page too carefully. I found another web site that mentioned dropping the coconut on a marble kitchen floor a few times and thought the concrete floor in my garage would do the trick. I decided to drop it onto a brick sitting on the concrete to avoid creating fracture lines in the concrete and after dropping the coconut I can’t remember how many times – I was really getting into this new game - the coconut started to crack. And et viola, I had fresh coconut …

The “fun” bit was removing the white coconut flesh – sometimes I needed to trim off some coconut skin residue which didn’t worry me. I tasted a little bit and there were no surprises – it tasted exactly as it should – just like the shredded coconut we buy so easily except that it was fresh. I also noticed the oil left on my hands after handling it.

So once I had solved how to open the coconut I then became concerned that I had moved past the most exciting part of the coconut laksa recipe – until I tasted it! The photo I have taken of the coconut laksa over some capsicum, tomato and raw asparagus doesn’t do it justice.

Oh hang on… Have I mentioned that asparagus can be eaten raw? That’s what I’ve just found out on the Thermomix Forum so I tried cutting off the bottom third which is the woody end and all of the rest of the asparagus is really lovely just as it is. It’s not crunchy like cabbage or broccoli with a consistency more like capsicum and zucchini. This reminds me of the revelation I had when I ate corn niblets raw and found them to be nice just as they are. We do what we have always done because it’s been handed down to us or has worked for us for so many years. And then one day we find there is a different way that for some of us becomes a better way.

Eating this became an unreal taste sensation and it was gooooood… And after I finished the laksa over the chopped vegetables, I went back for the last of the laksa just on its own and it was still gooood….

Crab and Asparagus Soup

The weather had turned cooler and I had a yen for some hot soup. I found just the thing at Thermomixer’s blog – a lovely Crab and Asparagus Soup recipe that I decided to try. And trust me, this is worth trying.

Do you think I could find any decent crab? Nothing at the local fish shops but fortunately Google helped me find Gambaro’s Seafood Market at South Bank. I bought a crab just to see how easy this would be. I thought about taking the easy option of buying crab meat which they had in a neat little pack but the idea of spending $30 on roughly 250gm didn’t thrill me.

I have cracked crabs in the past at restaurants and remembered it as a difficult exercise but I rolled up my sleeves and dove right into it. Gambaro’s had very kindly “opened” the crab for me which was appreciated and made things a lot easier.

I don’t know how people end up with anything to share. I was really good but only got half of what I wanted from the main body of the crab. By the time I had sampled, well, all of it, there was none left for the soup.

So the next day, I visited Gambaro’s again and bought two crabs which was enough to make half the quantity of soup. I used the crab meat from the bodies of the crab in the soup and later cracked the claws as best I could and enjoyed.

Making this soup was really interesting. I’ve always been impressed when other people have made a lovely delicate soup and this had the same feeling for me.

As nice as even the aroma of cooked asparagus was, it was easily surpassed by the final soup. I enjoyed eating this soup so much that I finished off a second bowl.

Watermelon Tomato Gazpacho

Here is a lovely cool finish to a warm spring day. This Watermelon Tomato Gazpacho had such a delightful invigorating taste to it that I didn’t want it to end.

You won’t believe – or perhaps by now it won’t be a stretch at all – that I hadn’t ever bought a watermelon. Naturally I’ve eaten it as a popular addition on the fruit platter at functions. But I hadn’t ever bought a whole watermelon. And I still haven’t. Earlier today my fruit man had what looked like a sixth of a watermelon – all 1.4kg of it – which was more than enough for me.

Half of it has gone towards this delish dinner and the other half will disappear tomorrow morning. I shouldn’t really call this “dinner” as it feels and tastes more like a dessert, which suits me just fine. But the addition of tomato and other salad vegetables means that I can’t really call it that.

Never mind. The next time I have a sweets craving I know what I can do – this recipe from the Rawlicious booklet makes the perfect guilt free “Clayton’s meal”.

Sweet Potato Soup

I’ve just been to see the movie “Julie and Julia” and I really enjoyed it. I could relate to Julie wondering whether anyone was reading the blog and also her excitement at her first comment. While I recognize that working through 32 recipes in the Rawlicious booklet is nowhere near what Julie did by working through Julia’s book, the movie was certainly an inspiration.

So I arrive back home and realize that I have the appropriate ingredients in my refrigerator and the fruit and vege bowl to make the “Sweet Potato Soup” recipe in the book “Rawsome” by Brigitte Mars.

I have a real difficulty. I keep making soups from red or orange coloured vegetables and then feel like it would be really boring if I were to post about it because the photo looks exactly like what I made last week or earlier.

But since last week has been mentioned, can I just show what I made a week ago… I had trolled through my palm computer trying to work out what I could make. Then I found ingredients for a savoury lentil recipe from the book “Recipes to the Rescue” by Joan Bonner, Lindy Kingsmill and Suzanne Morrow. Admittedly, the recipe was for a cooked meal but that didn’t stop me trying to create a raw equivalent.

I just happened to have started sprouting some lentils the previous night. So I decided to be a bit different from the recipe and picked up celery and pumpkin, and processed these for 1 minute on speed 8 with onion and the sprouted lentils along with some stock made according to Thermomix’s Everyday Cookbook (which has been cooked) and a dash of tamari. Then I warmed the soup for 5 minutes at 37 degrees Celsius on speed 2. At the time, I felt that it wouldn’t be the same as the cooked variety of savoury lentils from the original recipe but it still tasted pretty good.

So as I was mentioning before I rudely interrupted myself, earlier tonight I made soup based on Rawsome’s “Sweet Potato Soup” recipe. I peeled and chopped a small sweet potato, a green apple, half a carrot and a cup of water along with a dessert spoon of Thermomix stock. I processed the mix in the Thermomix for 1 minute on speed 8 and then warmed it for 5 minutes on 37 degrees Celsius on speed 2.

And it was gooood… I think my sweet tooth might be showing through again. Thank goodness raw food recipes allow fruit!

I can see that these two soups look very similar but at least I know that different vegetables have gone into each of these.

What I'm realising is that I can combine any fruit and vegetables that appeal to me into a soup if I wish to eat out of a bowl - or into a juice if I'm happy to drink out of a glass. This feels so liberating!

But what is even better is that when I'm focusing on raw food, I generally don't start feeling light-headed from insufficient food. But when I'm looking for my more traditional meals from earlier this year or before, then I really notice how easily I run out of steam.

Hope nobody runs out of steam this week...

Cream of Cauliflower Soup

Sometimes I need to try a recipe twice … I made the Cream of Cauliflower Soup from a Rawlicious recipe a little while back and was undecided about it even after adding some alfalfa sprouts on top. I felt it hadn’t really worked for me as I hadn’t added enough water while processing it. So I sat on it – well, not the soup but the idea of including it in a post.

And then I tried it again, adding more water, some shoyu sauce and a dribble of honey along with some chopped shallots on top, and I really enjoyed it.

The soup was really easy to make and blends in well with any other variations I might think of or find, which is great because I’ve found a couple of other cauliflower soup recipes that I might decide to try in the future.

Yummy Live Tomato Soup

This is something different and lives up to its name of Yummy Live Tomato Soup. It is another of the recipes of the Rawlicious booklet and is indeed scrumptious. I think the fresh salsa base makes it work along with the condiments and herbs added to the tomato soup.

I don’t normally like tomato soup but have now become a convert. The crispness of the salsa works well with the tomato flavour.

I had some of the soup left over and finished it off, which turned out to be nice on its own as well. Now I can’t remember what I didn’t like about tomato soup. Or perhaps I just didn’t like canned tomato soup as this has a very pleasant taste.

Carrot Ginger Soup and Apricot Butter

I think I’m a sucker for a sweet taste. Perhaps every meal I eat should have some fruit in it – which would be bliss! Hang on, I think I’m doing that right now. Piece of fruit with a cooked grain for breakfast. Some mandarin or strawberry jam with my salad at lunch. And in the past month as I’ve played with raw food, a piece of fruit merged in with dinner.

And this Carrot Ginger Soup made from a Rawlicious recipe certainly fits the bill with the inclusion of a green apple to the obvious ingredients from its title. I added some water to give it a more familiar consistency and heated it to 37 degrees Celsius and my palate enjoyed it immensely.

Then it was dessert time the next day with Apricot Butter again from the Rawlicious recipe booklet, which went very well with both my breakfast and salad at lunch time.

Comfort Food

I need comfort food – familiar meals – so I’ve just made some pumpkin soup in exactly the same way that I’ve made it in the past while leaving out the step of cooking it for 20 minutes. I had intended to warm the soup at 37 degrees Celsius – which the Thermomix very conveniently has as its first temperature setting – but I forgot to do that which is okay as my taste test has given it the thumbs up.

I was with my Mum over the weekend and she cooked pumpkin soup in her new Thermomix. So the taste and texture of the cooked soup is still relatively familiar. The Thermomix has done a good job of pureeing the raw soup and while raw soup will always have a different texture to the cooked equivalent, it tastes great.

I’m finding that I tend to focus on subtle flavours much more when I eat raw food compared to cooked food. I’m not into rich foods so I’m cautious with how much I add of any herbs, spices or root vegetables such as garlic and ginger.

It’s really helpful that I have 4 books about raw food on my coffee table right now. I’ve bought “12 Steps to Raw Foods” by Victoria Boutenko and “Rawsome” by Brigitte Mars, and I’ve borrowed “The Raw Food Gourmet” by Gabrielle Chavez and “The Power House Diet” by Leslie Kenton from the library, and of course have the Rawlicious recipe booklet. It’s a great opportunity to look at different suggestions for similar meals. One book suggests using orange juice instead of water while my sister sometimes adds a tomato to the pumpkin soup and I’ll try both of these options and even combine them to see how each turns out.