Go Italian!

I started raw diet again after a quite a long time. I always used to have my green smoothies & salads but I was not on raw food completely. Now I went raw on my birthday and its been 6 days now. I've been asked by my friends to share the recipes. I love photography and would love to have a great blog but due to limited time, here is my humble post.

Raw pasta

Ingredients:

Zucchini(half) 

Half Tomato cut into pieces

Few pieces of capsicum

2 spoons of sweet corn (optional)

Marinated mushrooms (optional)

Italian dry herb mix

1 spoon Virgin olive oil

Salt 

Chilli flakes (optional)

4-5 Cashew powder/soaked cashew paste

Use spiralizer to make Zucchini pasta. Else slice them thinly. Mix all ingredients and leave it for an hour or more for it to soften up.

My friends smelled it and they thought it was real pasta. And the mushrooms taste great! I marinate the mushrooms in apple cider vinegar for a day or more in the refrigerator.

Carrot soup

Ingredients:

1 large or 2 small carrots

4-5 cashews

Two spoons of sweet corn (optional)

Marinated mushrooms (optional)

Italian dry herb mix

1 spoon Virgin olive oil

Salt & pepper

Grind the 2 carrots and cashews with a little water in Nutribullet or blender. You can add additional water later. Mix the rest and tada, done! warm it a little if you feel like.

My green smoothie

I try to have a green smoothie every morning.

Basic ingredients - Greens + fruit + vegetables(optional) + a little fat

Lettuce
Banana
half a beetroot
little seaweed
Dash of lemon and ginger
half a teaspoon of coconut oil


So whats on the right? They are 2 varieties of Purslane. They are good source of Omega-3 fatty acids. And the grass is Durva grass (what is kept for Ganesha). It is also known as Bermuda grass. Dogs/cats tend to eat this when they fall sick. So where did I get this? Oh just look around, these are weeds and you can find it in your garden or in your pots. I never knew about this and would de-weed my garden. Now these are wild foods, they are way more nutritious than the ones that are grown by humans.

In greens you can add anything available. Palak(Spinach), Moringa leaves (Drumstick leaves) , pudina(mint), coriander/ Dill leaves (sabaske soppu in Kannada). I tried moringa leaves raw recently, so I took them very little.This is what I was saying before. Don't think you cannot get raw foods locally. All these are easily available in India. Else where they use Kale, Celery, lettuce, mustard greens and many more. If you know any other greens that can be consumed raw, please let me know. India has huge variety of greens and I would love to learn about them.

Other ingredients that you can add
Flax seeds (Agasi in Kannada), carrots, apples, honey, and wild greens, chlorella, Spirulina , Ashwagandha, olive oil.

The easiest salad with sprouts

Green gram sprout salad

This is the simplest of all salads.

Sprouted green gram (whole moong)
Grated coconut
Salt/himalayan rock salt
Lemon

Mix everything together and tan-ta-da! Its very tasty. The lemon helps iron absorption.

The small hand in the photo is my new born :)

My daily salad

My usual salad. The ingredients vary according to season and what is available at home :)
The must items in a healthy salad are greens, fats and proteins (sprouts).

Ingredients
Lettuce
Tomato
Capsicum (more the colors the better green, yellow, red)
Cucumber/carrot/zuccini

Optional ingredients
baby corn/sweet corn/peas
Sprouts (green gram/alfa alfa )
Pudina

Dressing
Groundnut(peanut) powder (I started with roasted peanut but now moved to raw peanut powder)
Grated fresh coconut
Salt/himalayan rock salt
Lime juice
a bit of jaggery(optional)

Just mix everything together and eat!

Kohlrabi salad

• Select tender Kohlrabis. The bigger ones have rough fibers in them.
• Peel the Kohlrabis and slice them finely like matchsticks (half the height of matchsticks).
• Add grated coconut, finely chopped chilli and salt.
• If you are still not used to eating raw, heat a teaspoon of coconut oil, add some mustard, few chana dhal & urad dhal, some curry leaf and a bit of Asafoetida. Add this to Kohlrabi.
• If you want 100% raw, then add a teaspoon for coconut oil and a little lime.
• Mix well and serve!

Kohlrabi is know as Navil Koos in Kannada, Nool Kol in Tamil. It is also know as knol-khol.

Asparagus soup

Chop the Asparagus tips finely. I boil the remaining shoots so that is smooth. You could keep it raw. Make a smooth paste out of it by adding a little salt. Add freshly ground pepper. Add some lemon juice or a little curd. Add the finely chopped asparagus tips. It tastes yummy!

Raw carrot and asparagus soup

This is a simple and tasty soup.

Ingredients

• 2 carrots
• 5-6 asparagus
• 2 cloves of garlic and a small piece of giner
• sea salt
• pepper
• milk (optional)

I chop the tender tops of asparagus and keep them separate.Boil the harder shoots below separately (if you want you can use them raw too). Clean and chop the carrots.

Grind Carrots, asparagus, garlic, ginger and salt in a food processor by adding water as required.

Add freshly ground pepper and a little milk.  You can warm it a bit if required. Serve!

Vegetables,greens, seeds and nuts that can be eaten raw

Most of the raw foods mentioned on the Internet are not found easily in India. Even if they are found, the local names differ. Recently a lot of foods like Zucchini, lettuce is found in supermarkets. Below is the list I've compiled. I'm still investigating and trying out what veggies and greens available locally can be eaten raw. Thanks to my parents, we used to eat quite a few greens and veggies raw at home.

I'll give names in local languages and keep updating it as my knowledge increases.

Vegetables

Cucumber (sautekai, vellri kai)
Onion
Tomato
Carrot
Capsicum/Bell peppers
Chilli
Beetroot
Radish/Mool (Mulangi)
Kohlrabi (Navil koos)
Cabbage
Chinese cabbage

 Brocolli
Chayote (Seeme Badane kai, chow chow)
Turnips
Zucchini

Peas
Sweet corn
Baby corn
Ash gourd
Pumpkin (in small amounts)
French beans (very tender ones in small amounts)


Greens/Herbs
Methi greens (menthay soppu)
Lettuce
Spinach (Palak) (Cant eat too much because of the oxalic acid)
Dill (Sabaske soppu)
Coriander
Pudina/Mint
Celery
Tulsi/Holy Basil
Ajwaan leaves
Kale
Basil

Sprouts / Molake Kalu
Green gram
Mataki
Chana (in small amounts)


Seeds
Flax seed (Agasi)
Ground nut
pumpkin seeds
cucumber seeds
watermelon seeds
Sesame (yellu)
Poppy seeds (khas-khas,Khus Khus)
Ajwan seeds

Nuts and Dry fruits
Almond (Badam)
Pista
Cashew
Walnut
Dry grapes (Manuka)
Apricot
Dried fig (Anjeer)
Dates (fresh and dried) (Khajur)
Cacao beans (I'll keep the cacao story for another post)

Other foods
Ginger
Garlic
Honey
Rock Salt (Sede lon, pade lon)
Sea Salt (kal uppu)

Go to the market and discover the wide variety of raw foods that you can eat! I had read a lot about Flax seeds and I was wondering whether it would be available. I found it in the usual grocery shop and in all super markets!

I'll update on fruits in the next post.

Go raw.. my first post

This blog is about raw food. I'll share my insights, some recipes, where to find fresh veggies, fruits, organic food etc. I'll also write about my organic kitchen garden where we grow fruits, vegetables and greens. I'm not 100% raw yet, but I'm mostly 60% or more raw. I've shed almost 17 kgs of weight mainly due to my raw foods.

I've read David Wolfe's The Sunfood diet and Superfoods. Also "Healing the Gerson way" and "Why suffer - Ann Wigmore". All these are great books.

I haven't seen much of raw foodists in India. I know India has roots of raw food in Naturopathy etc. My mom did a three week raw diet and at that time I did not understand its true benefits. I was searching for some naturopathy course but did not find one. So my journey of raw food is my own and the Internet was/is a vast source of information and inspiration. Since there will be others in India who might be interested in raw foods, I'll share information on raw foods in India.

Lets go raw!