Raw Family Signature Dishes: A Step-by-Step Guide to Essential Live-Food Recipes [Paperback]

Victoria Boutenko (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 21, 2009

While the raw food diet is the fastest growing alternative approach to eating because of its health benefits, preparing raw food dishes is so new that many people don’t know where to start. With 500 color photos, this friendly, step-by-step guide gently walks readers through recipes to create amazingly delicious and nutritious meals. Victoria Boutenko and her family are known worldwide as the Raw Family, living on a raw diet and teaching classes since 1994. Throughout the years they have perfected scores of scrumptious recipes with the idea of not only spreading the gospel of the diet’s health benefits, but also making the raw foods lifestyle realistically possible and enjoyable.

Mouth-watering rather than medicinal, simple rather than complicated, the recipes presented here include jams, scones, soup, crackers, nut milk, truffles, chocolate cake, mousse cake, and more. Complete, illustrated directions make it simple for both avid raw foodists and novice cooks alike to embrace the diet favored by Woody Harrelson, Demi Moore, Donna Karan, and other celebrities.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Boutenkos have done it again. This excellent visual step-by-step guide makes raw food easy and approachable for anyone. A valuable kitchen resource."
—Ani Phyo, author of Ani’s Raw Food Desserts and host of Ani’s Raw Food Kitchen Show

"One of the most helpful resources one could ask for in raw food preparation, whether you are a beginner or skilled raw food chef."
—Alyssa Cohen, author of Living on Live Foods

"I love the delicious, creative food of the Boutenko Family. In fact, their journey into eating raw was a key inspiration for me to start my own company. . . . Raw Family Signature Dishes will be front and center in my library."
—Lara Merriken, founder of LÄRABAR

"Only someone with the vast teaching experience that Victoria has could understand so deeply what it is that people want and need in order to succeed at a raw food lifestyle. Absolutely brilliant."
—Nomi Shannon, author of The Raw Gourmet and Raw Food Celebrations

"Tried-and-true recipes that are delicious enough to eat week after week without having a lot of fancy equipment, expensive ingredients, or culinary expertise."
—Cherie Soria, Living Light Culinary Arts Institute

"Another cool book from the Boutenkos. Rawsome!"
—Chef Juliano, author of Raw: The Uncook Book and owner of Juliano’s Raw restaurant

“Have you ever made a recipe and found that it just didn’t turn out nearly as nice as the stunning color photo in the book? One thing that makes this uncook-book unique is its step-by-step guide with photos of each step in the process. With this book, no one can use the excuse that the learning curve for making raw is too hard…I have dozens of raw food recipe books, but this one is destined to become a classic—removing the mystique and fear of creating raw gourmet food once and for all!”
—Basil & Spice

“A unique and different un-cook book than any I've received so far.”
—Weekly Revvellations

“[Raw Family Signature Dishes is] an innovative recipe book that is perfect for raw food beginners.”
—Raw Food Right Now

“[This book’s] simplicity is very comforting and almost like having an experienced friend in the kitchen with you.”
—Eco Mama’s Guide to Living Green

“[Raw Family Signature Dishes] has a lot of pictures showing each step… making it fabulous for beginners and those of us who like to oogle over food photos!”
—Crunchy Bits

“I absolutely love this book! The pictures are awesome. I love the step by step instructions. This is a must have for someone just getting into the raw food diet!”
—Debra Garner, Vegan Family Style

“Any interested in the blossoming raw food revolution will find this primer, Raw Family Signature Dishes: A Step-by-Step Guide to Essential Live-Food Recipes, provides an outstanding selection of dishes.”
—Midwest Book Review

About the Author

Victoria Boutenko teaches classes on raw food all over the world, and is an adjunct professor at Southern Oregon University. Her (and her family’s) teachings have inspired raw food communities everywhere. A regular contributor to such publications as Get Fresh, Just Eat an Apple, Alive, and Natuurstemmingen, she lives in Ashland, OR.

Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: North Atlantic Books; 1 edition (July 21, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1556437978
• ISBN-13: 978-1556437977
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 0.4 x 10 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #73,171 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Victoria Boutenko is an author, teacher, inventor, researcher, artist and mother of three. In 1994, The Boutenko family, also known as The Raw Family, became seriously ill. Victoria sought out alternative health paths and discovered the raw food lifestyle which enabled the family to gain vibrant health.

Now Victoria Boutenko travels all over the world sharing her inspiring story and teaching classes on the raw-food diet. Based on the latest scientific research, Victoria explains the numerous benefits of choosing a diet of fresh rather than cooked foods and the importance of consuming large amounts of leafy greens. Victoria's most recent and powerful contribution is her research into the nutritional value of greens and the development of green smoothies, which have revolutionized the way people access health, no matter what their dietary or lifestyle choice.

To learn more about Victoria and her family visit www.greensmoothiesblog.com and www.rawfamily.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

82 of 83 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Worth the price just for the bread recipe! User-friendly photos for each step!, August 18, 2009

By 

Susan Schenck "award-winng author of two books" (Cuenca, Ecuador) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Raw Family Signature Dishes: A Step-by-Step Guide to Essential Live-Food Recipes (Paperback)

This book is filled with recipes that the Boutenkos would present during their workshops. "Core recipes," they have been retested and refined over many years.
Have you ever made a recipe and found that it just didn't turn out nearly as nice as the stunning color photo in the book? One thing that makes this uncook book unique is its step -by-step guide with photos of each step in the process.

Arguably, even an illiterate or non English reader could prepare these recipes! It makes you feel almost as though you are at a raw food demo workshop. (Incidentally, this was done because of complaints from readers that their recipes didn't turn out as good as the Boutenkos'.)

Years ago I paid $15 for a recipe booklet with photos of each step for Igor's bread--and it was worth it for just that one recipe! Now you can get ALL their core recipes in a sturdy book for nearly the same price! These mouthwatering recipes are sure to become staples in your diet, demanded routinely by family members, regardless of whether you "go raw" or not. Healthy alternatives to chocolate cake, bread, chocolate truffles, etc! Guilt free desserts, such as scones like they serve at Starbuck's, but without the constipating, mind-fogging wheat! Some of the recipes are simple, some more complex, yet the photos make even the complex ones seem easy. We learn that raw jams have half the calories as their cooked counterparts, and the sensational mousse cake recipe has only 1/6 as many calories as the traditional one! Yet, no taste is compromised, and in fact, the raw stuff actually leaves the cooked way behind in flavor.

There is even a guide (complete with daily photos) on how to make sprouts. With this book, no one can use the excuse that the learning curve for making raw is too hard; indeed, Victoria may put many of us that give raw food workshops out of business!

Sprinkled throughout the book are some essays, including a list of the benefits of green smoothies, and a story about how Victoria's husband got involved in the food prep. The back of the book has a complete listing and description of the kitchen tools and where to get them, as well as how much to expect to pay.

I have dozens of raw food recipe books, but this one is destined to become a classic---removing the mystique and fear of creating raw gourmet food once and for all!

56 of 60 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best Little Raw Book Yet!!!!, October 4, 2009

By 

Wendy C. (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Raw Family Signature Dishes: A Step-by-Step Guide to Essential Live-Food Recipes (Paperback)

HOLLY WOW!!!!! This book is AWESOME!!!! Sure not many recipes but I have no less then 20 raw books on my shelves and I am OVERWHELMED with recipes. However I go on a roll and make a tonne and only 60% of them are awesome, the rest are yuk and that gets discouraging AND expensive! I agree, the extreme detail is wonderful even after doing this for 3+ years because I am SO tired of tweaking and crossing my fingers. I just want 'out of the box' great tasting stuff so to speak! LOL I have to say I have most of the raw food books of all the top authors, 1/2 dozen ebooks and all of the Boutenkos. I've hardly read half of them- I would get them and be so disappointed with the book layout or the recipes were too intense, called for stuff I hadn't heard of or didn't have or in one there are no pics at all- yuk! So many sit on my shelf unread. We are not 100% raw but we are trying. It's challenging with homeschooling, 2 little ones and a baby! LOL I do the best I can. ANYHOW...I haven't tried them all yet, but 3 recipes that were totally worth the price of this book were the Cranberry Scones (I used blueberries) , the Garden Live Burger MIx and Igors Live Flat Bread. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE the idiot proof pictures. I guess I am a visual learner because I whipped alll of these up in the kitchen in record time (ok dh helped) AND for a change I had ALL of the ingredients. (SO many raw food books always call for ingredients I don't have on hand). TOTALLY worth noting is that not only did my steak loving husband enjoy all of these, my 5 yr old and 8 yr old are currently chowing down on Igor's flat bread with the garden burger mix in the middle- although they did add that it's a bit hot (too much onion!). 2 thumbs up from both of them. They will try all of my recipes but if they don't like them, they are not required to eat them. My son likes Alyssa's stuffed portabello mushrooms, but my daughter does not....my daughter likes Matt Amsdens cucumber salad but not my son- to have them both like this gets a 2 thumbs up from ME! lol Weird combination I know but I didn't have any other 'dip' so I went with what I had. I have found with many raw books like Amsden's- his book is one of my favorites BUT that most of his recipes all have namu shoyu- tonnes of garlic and lemon- wayyyy too much for my kids to handle and I have to make notes to adjust taste for next time. I've been experimenting for about 3+ yrs now with the raw recipes and all of these by far would be the closest to 'SAD' food (in taste!). I don't eat anything SAD but my friends would totally love these. I'm going back for more! I LOVE the layout of this book, the pictures are beyond superb- crystal clear etc. Even if I didn't know what I was doing these would be uber easy to follow for the first timer and yet.... the recipes are so incredibly superb- well no wonder they call them their signature dishes. Way to go...you all inspire us! Keep making books like this that have awesome pics and I don't have to adjust the recipes or cross my fingers that I didn't just waste all those ingredients, this is a perfect 'out of the box' perfected recipes book- I would buy another in a heartbeat!

37 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book for the person who is new to raw foods!, July 22, 2009

By 

C. McClellan (Tidewater Area, VA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Raw Family Signature Dishes: A Step-by-Step Guide to Essential Live-Food Recipes (Paperback)

This book is unique among raw food books because of the amazing step-by-step photos and simple instructions. It makes a great addition to my library (currently over 40 books) and is the first one I will recommend to others exploring raw foods.