Karen Knowler * The Raw Food Coach

Booja-Booja! Raw(ish) Ice-Cream

I've been wanting to blog about this for AGES.

As a life-long ice-cream lover how happy am I that there is a RAW one on the market that is completely delicious and tastes better than any other ice-cream you can buy?

Booja-Booja is the make and "Stuff In A Tub" is the name and there are five flavours:

1) Smiling Vanilla M'Gorilla (Plain vanilla) "Since launch, Keep Smiling Vanilla M'Gorilla has always been made with raw cashews and we have no intention of changing that at this time."

2) Pompompous Maple Pecan (Pecan and Maple Syrup) "The maple is not raw but the pecans are, and we use 70% raw cashews at present"

3) Hunky Punky Chocolate (Cacao) "Our chocolate powder is not raw but we use 33% raw cashew"

4) Coconut Hullabaloo (Real coconut) "The Coconut is not raw but uses 66% raw cashew"

5) Feisty Winjin Ginger (Ginger) "Our Ginger root is raw and juiced by here by hand and we use 25% raw cashews"

NB: Only the vanilla one is 100% raw, but the others are pretty close - the cashews are steam extracted so not classed as strictly raw, but personally I don't let that concern me. Booja-Booja do say: "These levels may well fluctuate as recipes change but our aim is to increase the raw ingredients not reduce them. One day we hope to make all of them completely raw."

As far as taste goes I have to say, they are all wonderful, although the ginger one is just too gingery for me! My favourite is the Maple Pecan.

Stuff In A Tub is available from good health food shops, by mail order from www.goodnessdirect.co.uk and other fine food outlets. Booja Booja have a "no supermarket" policy so don't be looking out for it in Tesco or Sainsburys!

Truly Raw Nori Sheets?

Uh-oh, so the "raw" nori that many of us have been eating and recommending for YEARS is not truly raw.

Thanks to Debbie who attended the Raw Inspiration Day who notified the eGroup that the Clearspring untoasted nori - the most popular and easy to get hold of brand in the UK - may not be toasted but it IS cooked.

Eeek!

Here's what Debbie shared with us:

"...this is what I've found on another website:

'Please note that this nori is not 100% raw. We thought it was because it's not toasted until someone alerted us! This nori is hot air dried at 80 degrees C and then roasted for about 7 seconds at 230 degrees C.'

This refers to the Clearspring nori."

*   *   *   *   *

So, does anyone out there know of a truly raw brand (ideally in the UK, but anywhere is good to know about.)

Thanks!

A Very Groovy Company...

So it all began the day I saw agave nectar for sale in Tesco of all places ; )

(And not just one, but BOTH varieties!) I could hardly believe my eyes!

At The Fresh Network we had been selling it for well over a year, maybe even two, but we still didn't expect it to hit supermarket shelves before the year 2010 or thereabouts!

But there it was. Truly wow!

Next question: Ah, but is it RAW?

I decided to go straight the "horses mouth" - and that meant to email The Groovy Food Company, the importers and suppliers of this product.

And here's what they said...

About the Durian

In last Friday's eZine one of my "Karen Recommends" was the Durian fruit.

Native to Asia but available in the UK, this prickly fruit is the one that's best described as "smells like hell, tastes like heaven"... Well, while it doesn't smell great, I wouldn't say it was hell - or maybe I'm just biased!

Anyway... I was recounting how much I have come to love the durian even though my first taste of it was less than spectacular. It was 1999 at our first ever David Wolfe event in London and a few of us huddled around a table out the back as John C. generously opened one up for some of us to try. I say generously because one of these beauties costs upwards of £12 in London, with a decent sized one retailing at around £15/£16 - so no small deal!

I thought it had the texture of cooked chicken, and the taste didn't do a lot for me. I didn't like it or dislike it especially - it's very hard to describe - but thank goodness I gave it a second go as it has become one of my favourite foods of all time.

Maca a.k.a "Nature's Viagra"

Maca is a potent superfood with a 5,000+ year history yet has only been recently introduced to the Western world. Hailed as “Nature’s Viagra” and “Peruvian Ginseng” maca has a lot to offer both genders of all ages, as well as boasting a wide and impressive range of nutritional properties. Read on for more information about this wonder food and how you can bring its potency and multi-faceted health benefits into your diet.

What is maca?
Maca (Lepidium Meyenii) is a tuberous perennial plant that grows high in the Andean Mountains at altitudes of between 11,000 and 14,000 feet. Colour-wise it looks like a potato, but it is shaped like a large radish. It grows as a mat-like stem system. Its roots are the parts that are dried and stored and made into powder, which is how we buy it today.

Maca facts

• The maca plant is related to the radish.
• Maca is the only plant that can survive at this altitude because of the extreme weather conditions there – i.e. brutally hot temperatures by day and freezing cold temperatures by night.
• Maca is technically an herb but is eaten as a food.
• The root is approximately 8cm in diameter and of a pale white colour.
• Although it is perennial it is reproduced by seeds which require around 7-9 months for harvesting.

Your Questions Answered: Where Can I Get Young Coconuts?

Jo wrote: Karen, where can I find young coconuts in my local area (Wiltshire) or on the internet? I have been searching for days with no luck - hope you can help!

Karen's reply: Good timing Jo, as it just so happens that a few weeks ago The Fresh Network began stocking a product new to the UK - young coconut water in a carton. What makes this product special (and unique) is the fact that despite being in a pack, it's unpasteurised and raw, and very lovely it is too! Pete wrote an excellent piece about it on The Fresh Network blog, which you can read here. We have all been drinking them by the case load!

Cacao, Raw Chocolate, Food of the Gods or What You Will

Cacao is still relatively new to the raw food scene and a very welcome addition it is too! If carob hasn’t quite hit the choc-spot for you, then cacao, or its brother cacao powder (raw chocolate powder) very likely will – especially considering that cacao is what commercial chocolate is made from.

And while there may be a lot of people in the raw food world thinking/ feeling that raw cacao is just as addictive as the cooked stuff (they may be right.. I have my own suspicions!), for those that want to find a great way to satisfy the chocoholic in them, then this is where it's at - minus the milk, sugar and all the other nasties that most believe is chocolate...

What is Cacao?

Cacao, also known as “cacao pod”, is the fruit of the cacao tree, a small and handsome evergreen tree growing in South America and the West Indies which grows 12 to 25 feet high (less than 25 feet if being cultivated). In 1753 it was named Theobroma meaning “food of the gods” by Carl von Linnaeus, the 18th-century Swedish scientist who developed the plant and animal Latin categorization system.

Finding Comfort in Raw Food

If you haven't already discovered the Daily Raw Inspiration emails sent out by Jinjee of The Garden Diet, then I highly recommend them. Every day Jinjee sends out a short email discussing an aspect of eating raw. They vary from recipes to insights to raw-related subjects such as emotional and spiritual development, and I for one am a big fan.

Very often when I receive one of Jinjee's daily mailings I want to share it with you here, but today one came through that was especially endearing and useful about how to find comfort from eating raw...

The Raw Food Groups

There are a surprising number of different food groups open to us when we go raw. When I first began exploring raw foods aged 20, I was shocked at how many foods and groups of foods I had not touched before I came across the concept of raw food.

Below is a list of all these groups. I advise people to make sure that they are eating a wide range of foods from this list, not least because variety = optimum nutrition, and don't forget quality too, of course.

1. Fresh fruits
2. Vegetables
3. Salad vegetables
4. Leafy green vegetables
5. Herbs
6. Wild greens
7. Nuts
8. Dried fruits
9. Beans, pulses and legumes (sprouted)
10. Grains (sprouted)
11. Seeds
12. Sprouting seeds
13. Indoor greens
14. Vegetable seeds (brocolli, mustard, cress etc.)
15. Edible flowers
16. Mushrooms
17. Sea vegetables
18. Algaes
19. Oils
20. Stimulants (onion, garlic, cayenne pepper etc.)
21. Spices
22. Flavourings and sweeteners (cacao, agave nectar, mesquite meal etc.)
23. Superfoods
24. Other handy additions (nut butters, seed butters, flax crackers etc.)

And then there’s the all-important vital ingredient – water! But more about that in another post.

Raw Foods to Avoid

Surprisingly many foods, that people think are inedible raw (vegetables especially), are actually very edible in their raw state and often taste better raw than cooked. These include broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, courgette (zucchini), peas and beans straight from the pod, yams, sweet potatoes and many more.

Foods that are best avoided being eaten in their raw state are:

• Potatoes - hard to digest, not especially palatable but wouldn’t harm you; potato juice is actually great for healing digestive upsets.
• Unsprouted or uncooked pulses such as lentils, mung beans, aduki beans etc. These contain toxins that can only be removed by sprouting or cooking – so sprout away!
• Kidney beans - you need to cook these if you want to eat them safely. Never eat raw.
• Horse chestnuts - these must be boiled or roasted before eating due to the high levels of tannic acid
• Grasses – we are not designed to eat grass : ) Small amounts can just about be tolerated but grass is best taken in the form of juice (such as wheatgrass juice).
• Mushrooms – if you are picking your own, always make sure you have a good guidebook with you to avoid picking the poisonous varieties.