Raw Chilli Recipe

This is a quick and easy recipe for a gleaming, ruby-red chilli containing protein packed quinoa sprouts, warming ginger and chilli powder and beetroot for fibre. The sweetness of sultanas is a great contrast to the heat from the ginger and chilli.

Raw Chilli Recipe
1 large beetroot (peeled and chopped)
1/4 onion
1/4 inch piece of root ginger
1 red pepper (de-seeded and chopped)
1/2 tsp chilli powder
pinch of salt
3 tomatoes (chopped)
6 sun-dried tomatoes (soaked overnight, rinsed and drained)
1/3 cup sultanas
1/4 cup of basil leaves
1 cup quinoa (soaked overnight, rinsed and sprouted for 12 hours)

Put the beetroot, onion and ginger into a food processor with an s blade and process until coarsely chopped. Add the red pepper, chilli powder, salt, tomatoes and sun-dried tomatoes and process again until well mixed. Add the remaining ingredients and process briefly until combined. Serve with a green salad.

Beetroot, carot, apple and ginger juice recipe

A lovely, zingy juice for a kickstart to the day. I have been having this for breakfast of late, as I have been harvesting fresh beetroots from the garden.

Beetroot, carrot, apple and ginger juice recipe
2 apples
3 carrots
a handful of beetroot leaves
small piece of root ginger (approx 1/2 inch long)
1/4 lemon (unpeeled)
1 small beetroot (scrubbed well)

Juice all of the ingredients. Mix well and serve immediately.
Makes one large glass

Raw Mango Crumble Recipe

We had a gloriously ripe organic mango in the fruit bowl, and as good as it would have been to eat it as it was, I thought that, for a change, I would add a crumble-type topping. The contrast between the soft, sweet ripeness of the mango and the crunchy, nuttiness of the topping works really well. Plus the pumpkin seeds are not only full of iron, zinc, calcium and magnesium, they are also a great source of protein and the essential fatty acid omega-3.

Raw Mango Crumble Recipe (serves 2)
One ripe mango
1/4 cup of almonds or mixed nuts (such as brazil nuts, cashews, walnuts, almonds and hazelnuts)
1/4 cup of pumpkin seeds
1 tbsp of coconut oil (gently melted in a bain marie of hot water)
a pinch of sea salt
approx 6 dates

Peel the mango and remove the flesh from the stone. Chop the flesh into cubes and divide between two individual serving bowls.
For the crumble topping, in a mini chopper/food processor chop the nuts and seeds until coarsely ground. Then add in the oil and salt and mix well. Finally add enough dates to bring the mixture together into a moist, crumble-type topping. Sprinkle over the mango and serve at once.

Raw Spicy Quinoa Curry Recipe

I didn't plan today's evening meal and so it was very much a case of making do with whatever I could find in the fridge. The result was actually very good :)

Raw Spicy Quinoa Curry Recipe
1 cup of quinoa (soaked overnight and then sprouted for 24 hours)
1 red pepper
2 carrots
4 leaves of spring greens
1 small beetroot
6 runner beans
(alternatively use similar quantities of whatever veg you have available)

4 small tomatoes
1/2 onion
1/2 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp ground coriander
A small piece of red chilli (finely chopped) or to taste
1 tbsp tahini
1/2 tbsp brown rice miso
1 tbsp tamari


Finely slice the red pepper, greens and beans, and grate the carrots and beetroot (or use a food processor with a slicing and grating disc for ease). Add to a bowl with the quinoa sprouts.
Put all of the other ingredients into a blender and blend until smooth. Add to the vegetables and quinoa, mix well and serve immediately.

I think it would also be good with some chickpea sprouts added to the vegetables, for added texture.

Raw Carob 'ice cream' recipe

Another adaptation from a recipe in Kate Wood's Eat Smart, Eat Raw is a delicious carob ice-cream recipe. I used my Matstone 6 in 1 juicer for this recipe, but it could be adapted and made in a food processor.

Raw Carob Ice Cream Recipe
Serves 2
2 tbsp almonds (soaked overnight)
2 tbsp carob powder
4 bananas (peeled, chopped into small pieces and frozen, ideally overnight)

Start this recipe the night before by peeling, chopping and open freezing your bananas and putting your almonds in water to soak. The next day, drain and rinse your almonds and then chop finely (either by hand or in a mini-chopper device). Then with the mincing cone on your Matstone juicer, start putting the almonds through the juicer, about 1/2 tsp at a time. Repeat several times until the almonds are paste like. Alternatively either grind the almonds well in a small mini chopper until they start to come together in a 'paste/butter' or use 1 1/2 tbsp almond butter or tahni instead of the almonds.
Transfer the almond paste to a food processor, along with the carob powder.
Then gradually add the frozen chopped banana into the Matsone juicer (again with the mincing cone). (Alternatively, chop until blended in a food processor). Once the juicer has finished processing all of the banana pieces, add the banana to the food processor and blitz until well mixed. Either eat straight away or transfer into a freezable container and freeze until needed. Perfect on its own or served with fresh raspberries.

Raw Carob Mousse Recipe

For those days when I am finding it tougher than normal to stick to my high raw diet and crave something a bit more 'naughty', it is great to find inspiration for healthy, raw desserts in books and on the web. This recipe is adapted from the carob pudding recipe in Eat Smart, Eat Raw by the fabulous Kate Wood, and really hits the spot:

Raw Carob Mousse Recipe (serves 2)
1 x Avocado (nicely ripe)
2 x bananas (ditto!)
1 tbsp carob powder
2 dsp raw honey.

Simply blend all of the ingredients together in a blender, spoon into serving dishes and chill for a couple of hours. Serve as it is or with some fresh berries on the side. Enjoy :)

Sooo cold...

Today is the first day since adopting my high raw diet that I have felt any negativity towards it. In general I am feeling much more energised than I had done, refreshed and I feel somehow 'light'; all very positive sensations. However, today, the sun has disappeared, the rain clouds fill the sky, and I am very, very cold! I started the day with my normal green juice (apples, spring greens, cucumber and lemon) and had a fruit salad for lunch (bananas, strawberries, honey mango and blueberries). And now I sit here shivering. I feel that another rebounding session might be in order to warm me up!

Maybe the whole green juice for breakfast and green smoothie or fruit salad for lunch isn't working for me on some level? Maybe I need to incorporate some sprouts, seeds or nuts into the morning/lunchtime menu (normally I am eating these in the evening with my main meal - Natalia Rose seems to suggest that the ideal daily plan is to start the day with 'light' meals and end the day with 'heavier' meals)? I must admit that during the day I feel fine and not lacking in energy, although by dinner time I do feel that I am missing something and have taken to making Ani Phyo's Coconut Breakfast pancakes some evenings, which I have with a banana. This tends to curb the hunger pangs, but I don't think its ideal to be eating late in the evening, or to be reliant on essential flax seeds, coconut oil, honey and bananas!

I am currently reading Detox your World by Shazzie, and Feel-good Food: A Guide to Intuitive Eating by Susie Miller and Karen Knowler, so maybe I will glean some ideas from these knowledgeable authors.

As an aside, in Shazzie's book she mentions the Five Tibetan Rites, which have intrigued me enough to start incorporating them into my daily routine. Basically the rites are a set of five simple exercises, based on an ancient technique, which are said to help to rejuvenate and energise, as well as calming the mind and strengthening the body. Although there are lots of references on the net to the basic exercises, I am going to order a copy of The 10-Minute Rejuvenation Plan: T5t by Carolinda Witt, as this book is said to offer modifications and adaptations to the exercises, which I feel I need (especially for number two, which I feel puts a strain on my lower lumbar region, so I am obviously not strong enough yet to do the exercise as is or doing something wrong). I have found Carolinda's blog and website extremely informative, and hope that with the help of the book, these exercises will help with my energy levels, as well as the change in diet.

Well, off for a spot of rebounding on my Bellicon to warm me up :)