When I bought the first edition of Jennifer Cornbleet's, "Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 People," it quickly became one of the most utilized cookbooks in my kitchen. Prior to buying Jennifer's book, I was skeptical that raw food really could be made quick and easy. (My experience had been that you had to plan a meal up to 3 days in advance so you could soak nuts overnight, mix up a messy concoction, divide it up into portions, and dehydrate it a good 24 hours or so.) Jen's book showed me that raw foods really can be quick and easy, and don't need a dehydrator. I had a few minor quibbles with the first edition of book, and ranked it 4 stars. Every issue I had with it has been corrected, for example, easy food prep such as chopping onions and parsley are no longer on recipe pages and are consolidated into the food prep section. Now I have the new edition and again it has become one of the cookbooks I use most. Despite already being a very good cookbook, it is an even better cookbook. I recommend it highly and without hesitation to beginners and advanced raw foods "cooks" alike!
Other improvements over the old edition include:
* More recipes
* Nutritional info. now given. (Note the portion size, as higher calorie salad dressings, for example, give smaller portions.)
* More pleasing layout--a feast for the eyes.
* New chapters such as a smoothie, and travel chapter.
Here are some of my favorite recipes that I make over and over. I use ** when a recipe is new to this edition.
** Chia-blueberry breakfast pudding - I had never heard of breakfast pudding before, so I made this recipe first. I love this stuff--sweet, but not too sweet, and good for you! I quickly whip this up the night before, refrigerate it, and it's ready to eat in the morning. I either make it as Jennifer suggested using half an orange, or with a whole orange, or skipping the orange and substituting a banana. It's delicious either way. I've also substituted strawberries and banana for the blueberry and orange, and that works too.
* Cream of zucchini soup - The name doesn't sound great IMO, but this soup is delicious! One of my favorite summer soups.
* Mediterranean kale - Marinating kale in lemon juice and a small amount of salt really softens it up and IMO is better than cooking it. You can omit the oil entirely if you like. I omit the olives but find the pinenuts add great flavor, interest and crunch. This is a dish best made an hour or more ahead of when you need it.
* Walnut pate - If you think raw foods can't possibly fill you up or satisfy you in cold weather, try this! Delicious!
* Carrots with parsley and walnuts - I have made both versions of this quick and easy to make carrot salad, the parsley and walnut version, and the golden raisin and fresh mint version. I've also combined both versions, adding parsley, mint, golden raisin and fresh mint to the same carrot salad. That was delicious too! This is a great recipe when you want something quick, easy, and nutritious to bring to a potluck. Easily expanded to make as many servings as you need.
* BTW, I found the Sweet Mustard dressing on page 121 too "mustardy" as Jennifer had it. As a salad dressing, I would cut the mustard down from 1 tablespoon to 2 teaspoons. To use it up, I used it for the liquid for Jennifer's carrot salad, and omitted the olive oil and lemon as they were already in the dressing. I found this dressing perfect for the carrot salad. The combination of the tart dressing with sweetness of the carrots and raisins provided perfect flavor balance. If making her carrot salad for a crowd, I would take the time to make the dressing as the liquid.
* Brownies - Do not skip the optional dried cherries and cherry extract in this recipe. That takes an excellent recipe and elevates it to out of this world! I'm not sure I'm content to eat only 1/8 of this recipe @ 154 calories!
* Banana Shake - I always make the strawberry or chocolate versions of this shake, double or triple the recipe, and give half to my husband who loves this recipe. Curiously, the chocolate version is not given in the new edition, but there's a chocolate malt recipe on the facing page that looks quite good. As I said when I reviewed the earlier edition of this book, the strawberry and banana shakes alone are worth the price of the book. The chocolate version is to add 2 Tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder and increase the maple syrup to 2 teaspoons. Agave nectar is provided as an alternative to maple syrup in this recipe, in case you want a recipe with only raw ingredients.
* Banana ice cream - This is an old standby in the raw foods community--just ripe frozen bananas in a food processor, processed until smooth. No need to slice the bananas prior to freezing. Just break them in half and toss them in the food processor. Jennifer doesn't mention this, probably because they're not raw, but this recipe is delicious with chocolate chips on top! I find this recipe takes about 5 minutes in the food processor.
Other good recipes that I plan to make again:
** Curried cream of carrot soup - A tasty soup made with just 5 ingredients. The avocado provides a bit of creamy thickness as well as flavor. My husband is not typically a fan of raw soups, but he loves this one. I add ˝ teaspoon Spike seasoning (original flavor) which gives the flavor a finishing touch.
** Pineapple green smoothie - Just 3 ingredients: pineapple, kale (or other greens) and water. Jennifer is right, "Pineapple lets you increase the amount of bitter greens (which are the most nutritious ones) without compromising sweet flavor." If you want to use some of the nutritious wild dandelion greens on your lawn without gagging on the bitterness, this is the recipe to try them in!
* Not Tuna Pate - As Jennifer says, this one turns a salad into a main dish. If you want it to taste more fishy, add a small amount of kelp powder. Dulse powder is also good on this one.
I highly recommend this book for anyone, vegan or not, raw foodist or not, looking for healthy easy (and fairly easy) recipes. I agree with Dr. Joel Fuhrman that we would all benefit from eating a diet high in raw foods. Jennifer's helpful food prep techniques and delicious recipes are a great way to make this happen.
