Like It Raw
Lately I've been really interested in raw foods. The theory with raw foods (I think) is that you get more vitamins and minerals than if you cooked the foods. I don't know if I necessarily buy this (haven't they shown that cooked tomatoes have even more bioavailable nutrients?), but I figure it can't hurt to eat some raw vegetables now and then. Thus my dinner tonight: Raw Spaghetti Marinara and Kale Salad.
This "spaghetti" is just some shredded yellow zucchini squash. Most recipes I looked at call for green zucchini, but this was what I had. The hardest part of was figuring out how to make it look like spaghetti. I don't have a mandolin or spiral slicer, both of which would be perfect for this, and julienning by hand just wasn't going to happen. I ended up putting the shredding blade on my food processor and sticking the zucchini in there. 30 seconds later I had a bowl full of "spaghetti."
The sauce was just about as easy. Working from a couple of recipes, here's what I came up with:
Raw Marinara
1 large tomato
1 carrot
1 bell pepper (I used orange, red would be good too)
1 clove of garlic
1 shallot
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon oregano*
1/2 teaspoon rosemary*
1/4 teaspoon thyme*
A few leaves of fresh basil
About 12 sundried tomatoes, soaked in warm water for 20-30 minutes
Put everything except sundried tomatoes in a food processor and blend until smooth. Add in sundried tomatoes one by one making sure to completely blend them in.
*Double herbs if using fresh instead of dried.
This sauce turned out so good I may never cook spaghetti sauce again!
The kale salad is this recipe, except I didn't soak the pine nuts and I didn't let the salad sit overnight. If I had, I think it would have wilted a little, and the onions would have mellowed, but it was still good. You could probably leave the onions out and it'd still be tasty. Yay for raw food!
Comments
Glad to hear that you're getting in raw foods!
In regards to your questions about cooking..cooking food above 118 degrees kills most enzymes, nutrients, and minerals in juice.
Cooking tomatoes has been found to break down the cell walls, which is necessary for the body to absorb the antioxidant lycopene. The downside is that cooking also kills some of the enzymes, vitamins, and minerals found in the tomato.
Instead of cooking tomatoes, you can juice them. Juicing them will break down the cell walls with no loss in enzymes, vitamins, and minerals.
Hope this helps!
-Caroline
http://www.rawlifestyle.wordpress.com
Posted by: RawLifestyle-Caroline | July 6, 2007 05:10 PM