Trying raw food.

There is a whole lifestyle dedicated to raw foodism, and I have been curious for a while to test it out and see what it's all about.  It started with the arrival of our friend Beth-Ann, who lives in Virginia. She started living "raw" a couple of months ago and suggested we'd make a raw lasagne. It is simple: You can not cook anything above 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit). Depending on the type of lifestyle raw foodies often use raw fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, eggs, fish and non-pasteurized dairy products, such as raw milk. There are suppose to be a lot of health benefits to a strict raw diet, such as better digestion, a stronger immune system and a higher nutrient value.

Back to the lasagne: the preparation itself was quite time consuming, we spent about 4 hours in the kitchen. The "pasta" was made of thinly sliced zucchini, the "cheese" is made of almonds, which had to be soaked and then peeled one by one.(An almost meditative task which I was responsible for!) The almonds, together with yeast flakes were simply thrown into a blender to create a cheese-like paste. Instead of a a layer of meat, we used walnuts. Walnuts and tomato paste create a beautiful paste, which looks a little bit like meat and tastes surprisingly good. We had a raw beet salad with it, which was mixed with raw carrots and dried cranberries. Heavenly! The other side salad and the dessert were "cheat meals" - A Caprice salad with fresh tomatoes, basil and mozzarella and vegan cupcakes with strawberries, not so much raw but nonetheless delicious. 

The dinner was absolutely divine - and even though going completely raw might not be for me, it was nice to get a taste of it and I can not wait to try more raw dishes. 

                                          Preparing the almonds for the "cheese"..

               

                                         The "cheese" paste

                                       
                                          The end result

                                                        Hibiscus ice tea with cloves and oranges