Recipe Rescue: Cooking in the Raw

There is nothing more sexy than raw cooking. It’s invigorating and explosive.

So if you thought I meant cooking in the raw or without clothes, sorry. Not to mention how dangerous would that be? Raw cooking is a unique way to enjoy some of your favorites both through taste and nutritionally. Okay, maybe calling it raw cooking isn’t 100% proper, but only recently have I learned that raw foodism, if you will, doesn’t always mean uncooked food.

I’ve been reading a lot lately about food preparation and how to get the most out of my food. I don’t plan on becoming one of those ‘food nuts’ (no disrespect intended), but I would like to experiment more with all the great flavors in the produce section. So naturally when I read that you can still get all you can out of your veggies with a quick steam or saute, I was all excited. I can’t bare the thought of grabbing a bunch of broccoli and calling that dinner. That might be Uber healthy, but not too exciting.

I think that all the science and hoopla behind raw eating is grand and has a place in my lifestyle, especially when I read that many of the tiny things I experience on any given day may go back to my dinner plate. Stuffy nose, upset stomach, what I think is the onset of a cold… to think that may be coming from an overloaded digestive system, well bring on the bell peppers.

Surely you have seen me post recipes with tons of veggies and a few stir fry(s), one of my favorite dishes by the way. Basically cooking in the raw is not much unlike that. Throw your favorite veggies, preferably things like cabbage, sprouts, celery,  peppers and the like in a hot skillet, toss around for no more than 3 or 4 minutes and serve with a hot steaming cup of brown rice or quinoa.

Another great dish is similar to what you see in the picture above… using a bot skillet through in some cabbage, onions, hot peppers, garlic, maybe some ginger, remove from heat and immediately mix with a diced avocado, a couple of diced tomatoes and chopped cucumbers, drizzle on a little olive oil, mix and eat and if you’d like to give it more ‘weight’ add some pinto or kidney beans. How yummy does that sound? I’ll take a plate right now!

It seems that going back to the root of the matter and eating a ‘raw’ meal twice a week can really improve how you feel. I don’t know about you, but I would love to feel better. This time of year it seems like I get more headaches than there are days and that my nose is clogged 2 out of 3 days. And we don’t even want to talk about the bloated feeling and discomfort that comes with eating a huge processed meal. (No, this does not mean that I will never eat a huge processed meal again, I will likely indulge and then moan and groan to whomever will listen)

Find the comment box below and tell me if you like raw cooking, if you’ve done it before and how you best like to prepare your veggies.