Raw Summer
Raw foods have become really popular in the last few years, and as a group have elevated themselves from a fruit salad and carrot stick bunch to haute cuisine at it’s best. The sheer level of creativity of raw foods these days is enough to inspire even the hardest of traditional chefs and encourage first timers to become far more adventurous.
For some, raw foods is a passing fad, and a quirky “look honey, I’m eating “raw” lasagna!!!” pit stop along the culinary highway. But for others, it’s a way of life. My mother, for one, has been eating and all raw, or mostly raw diet for 7 or 8 years now, and feels best when she’s eating totally raw foods. Out of necessity, and boredom from living off of salads and nut pates, she’s learned to create some pretty intricate, stunning, and most importantly, delicious dishes that have won rave reviews from her clients. Taking a look at some of the high-end raw food restaurants like Pure Food & Wine here in NY may leave you rubbing your eyes in disbelief that their food is totally vegan and raw.
Raw foodists believe that cooking food above 118 degrees kills off the live enzymes in our food, necessary for proper digestion and assimilation. Cooked food equals dead food in terms of vitamins too, so raw foodists make sure to consume all their foods in either whole, or very lightly processed forms (by processed I mean ground, chopped, dehydrated, etc.).
While there are plenty of people who pooh-pooh this diet and the “crazies” that eat this way, I do think this way of eating has many wonderful benefits, whether you eat 100% raw, or just partially raw, and is something we should all do more of. But here’s the rub - this diet may be perfect, but only for a few months out of the year! As the seasons change around us, we should take care to change our diets too, and focus on those foods that are in season in our area. In the summertime when temperatures soar, as they have been lately, eating more raw fruits and vegetables is exactly what our bodies want us to do! These foods are water heavy and cooling, helping to combat the rising thermometer. Deep in the middle of January’s bitter cold weather, not many of us would take kindly to a dinner of salad greens, heirloom tomatoes, and zucchini ribbons (although give me a hot summer day and I’m ALL OVER that!). We want soups and stews and things that not only require cooking, but lots and lots of it. Not fruit smoothies.
So while it’s still hot out - looks like it’s going to be hot and then even hotter as we move through summer this year - following a raw, or even mostly raw diet is a pretty good thing. If you’re in NYC, check out some of the best raw food restaurants around (and in the case of Pure Food & Wine, best restaurants period!). Here’s a short list of some of NY’s most popular raw restaurants (I’ve not been to all of these, but have heard great things):
Pure Food & Wine
Caravan of Dreams (both raw & cooked options - all vegan)
Raw Soul
Bonobos
Quintessence
Candle 79 (raw options)
Rockin Raw
If you can’t make it to any of these, you can always seek out the raw food community and their passion for food on the good ole internet. Here are some great website that focus on raw food recipes:
Ani Phyo
Gone Raw
Rawmazing
Eat Dance Live
In the Raw
We Like it Raw
With salad recipes from Pure Food & Wine like this one:
Spring Salad of Mache, Shaved Fennel, Raspberries, and Toasted Almonds - dill and fennel pollen cashew cheese, white truffle framboise vinaigrette
entrees like this:
Drunken Salsify Noodles in Spicy Almond Butter Sake Sauce - chili marinated king oyster mushroom scallops, baby bok choi, almond crumble
and most importantly, desserts:
Trio of Dark Chocolate Coated Indian Spiced Ice Cream Treats - chocolate cardamom coconut ice cream cone, pistachio gelato ice cream sandwich, and chai tea creamsicle
you absolutely cannot avoid this restaurant for fear of raw foods being boring! (ok, writing all that out just made me reaaaaly hungry!). While the weather is hot, make sure you stock up on fresh greens, fruits and veggies, and if you can, incorporate as many uncooked, or lightly cooked meals as possible.
Tags: raw food, seasonal, summer
