salad

The choice to go raw and take control of your health is a big one! We get asked a lot what we keep on hand to make it a little bit easier. Now bear in mind, many raw foods recipes are frightening at first but you will get used to them. Also, grasping the concept of ‘not’ cooking our foods as simple as it sounds, is kinda weird at first, too!

To answer the question we get asked more than anything else on Twitter, what do you keep in the kitchen as ’staples’ for a raw food diet? This is an ever-changing list and we’d love to hear other people’s lists as everyone is different:

Avocados – We jokingly call this the ‘raw foodists egg’ and use it alone, in salads, also used for chocolate pudding and chocolate shakes to make them extra creamy and nutritional! Yum! Usually but not always organic.

Apples – These are easy. Great for snacking and juicing. We always buy organic apples so we can eat and juice the skins.

Arugula (known as Rocket in the UK) – A salad favorite!

Greens – Kale, Chard, Collard Greens, Parsley, Cilantro – used mainly for juicing and sometimes salads. Always organic.

Carrots – We get a 5 pound bag of these every time we shop. We juice them and use the pulp to make cookies! Always organic.

Ginger – This is a wonderful flavor for dressings and a nice touch in juices. Usually organic if we can find it.

Berries – Used for shakes and desserts and just general munching. Always organic but sometimes the fresh ones are not available in which case we settle for organic frozen.

Cacao Nibs or Powder – I have to have raw chocolate on hand for shakes and making ‘raw chocolate candy’. It is extremely high in anti-oxidants and magnesium. Superfood!

Raw Organic Almond Butter – This is a must have in our kitchen for whipping up a fast almond milk.

Raw Organic Tahini – This is another necessity for creating a speedy asian flavored dressing.

Big Bags of Organic Salad – If you’re gonna be raw, you gotta love salad. Of course, it’s nice to get inventive and add all sorts of crazy additions to your salads! (think raisins, soaked and dehydrated nuts and/or seeds, cabbage, fresh herbs…. )

Hot Peppers – Hot foods rule in our kitchen! We love spicy foods so we always have jalapenos, serranos and thai chiles on hand to chop up for salads or throw in the blender for spicy dressings.

Young Thai Coconuts – Once we discovered these we knew we were hooked. We just cut them open and stick a straw in there and voila. Then chop it in half and scoop out the meat for noodles. Marinate them in Nama Shoyu.

Sun Dried Tomatoes – These are great for making a fast italian style sauce. (after they’re soaked.)

Various raw nuts for soaking and dehydrating – Almonds, Hazelnuts, Braziles, Walnuts etc.

Seeds – Sunflower seeds and Pumpkin seeds are the best for soaking and sprouting. These make terrific nut cheese, toppings for salads, nut burgers etc. You can dehydrate them for extra yumminess.

Sea Salt – Pink Himalayan is our fave.

Lemons and Limes – These are great for dressings, adding a quick snap to salads and juicing, too.

*Nutritional Yeast – This is used with the soaked nuts or seeds to make nut cheese.

*Nama Shoyu – A fermented soy sauce that has pro-biotics in it. Used sparingly, this is a nice addition and makes a transition to raw foods easier.

*Optional and not really on our ‘must have’ list. Nevertheless, these items make raw foods a bit more exciting and easy at times.

The other crucial item for us is a Blendtec blender. Alternatively a Vitamix is terrific, too. However, we did manage just fine with a regular Osterizer blender with ‘ice blades’ that’s like a Timex watch. It’s still ticking after 16 years. The key aspect of the high powered blenders is that they really crush the foods so you end up with truly homogenized shakes and smoothies.

This is a bigger list than I anticipated! But the truth is surprising like that. I hope it helps some of you find your way into raw foods and on your path to health.

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