Customer Reviews

RAW in Ten Minutes

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(16)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Making the transition to raw foods is not always easy since most marketing of foods is geared to eating cooked, processed and packaged foods. Eating raw foods requires a whole new approach to eating and life. This book helps make the transition easier.

There are more good raw food books out there than ever before, but Raw in Ten Minutes is distinct in that the recipes truly are easy and quick to make, without the use of dehydrators. Many of the dishes taste and look as if they took a lot of time to make.

While there is some enthusiastic introductory information in this book, there is not a lot of technical explanation which is, however, available in other raw food books concerning the benefits of eating raw foods, nutritional values, combining flavors and categories of foods, etc. Bryan Au gets straight to recipes that are a sensual feast to see and taste.

One of the first recipes I tried was the Carrot Ginger Soup made with a light miso, which probably takes less than ten minutes to make. Even my children loved this and they are not quick to make the transition to raw food eating. The Spanish Lasagna tastes wonderful, and like all the other recipes is easy to make.

If you don't have too much time but appreciate gourmet meals this is a good book to have around along with the other wonderful raw food books out there.

I also recommend and have used extensively David Wolfe's Sunfood Diet (also with easy recipes); Kenney and Melngailis' Raw Food, Real World (beautiful presentation and perfected recipes); Underkoffler's Living Cuisine, (good information and delicious recipes) Juliano's Raw: The Uncook Book (fantastic, but more complicated recipes); and a wonderful book of mostly easy recipes which I still have from the 1970's by Marcia Madhuri Acciardo called Light Eating for Survival.

Bon Appetit!

I ordered several raw food books, Raw in Ten being one of them. I returned it today after looking through all the books and realizing this is the one I'd rarely use. I had only noticed 5 recipes I might prepare. First, I must say that many recipes sound delicious and different from usual recipes (such as Macaroni and Cheese). However, I was disappointed for a few reasons.

First, the recipes are heavy in nuts; I personally don't want most of my meals nut-laden. Second, the constant reference to specific brands of products. One suggestion or mention of a product is helpful, but constant endorsement is ridiculous. Finally, (and I was surprised at how much this bothered me,) the set-up and writing style of the book made me not want to read it. I am not someone who required glossy pictures and fancy binding, don't get me wrong.

Someone in another review mentioned typos, and I'd add that it seems like the author added to much commentary or ingredient description where a regular cookbook wouldn't. I realize it isn't as clear-cut as other cookbooks. I've already packaged it up to return, otherwise I'd give better examples, sorry. I wish I'd liked this cookbook more, as the author has very creative ideas but I think I'll just check his website for posted recipes instead, as this cookbook was unpleasant to read. To be fair, if you are someone who doesn't mind nuts and coconut in many recipes, nor hunting down specific brand products, you will probably like this book.

Raw chef to the stars Bryan Au has written a new cookbook, Raw in Ten Minutes. In it, he's designed recipes that will appeal to the whole family, from the "Raweo Cookie" to "Grilled Cheese."

The concept of this book is so appealing. I love raw cuisine - when someone else prepares it! All the great raw meals I've had have taken hours, sometimes days of preparation for all the soaking and sprouting and dehydrating that goes into them. I was very excited to see a book that gives recipes for preparing raw cuisine - fast. The recipes sound great, but the author does make a lot of assumptions about what the reader already knows how to do. For example, in a recipe for Curried Humus, it calls for "2 cups soaked chickpeas," I'd like to know, how long do I soak them (there is a sentence or two about soaking in the introduction), and what amount of dry chickpeas makes two cups soaked?

Not surprisingly, the raw recipes call for some unusual ingredients that may have to be mail-ordered (Azuki-bean miso, for instance). Also, many of the tools required may not be in a conventional kitchen, like a mandolin slicer and a professional blender.

The color pictures on the front and back cover look delicious. The "mashed potatoes & gravy" and the "nuggets with BBQ sauce" are two of the must-make recipes in the book. Although it is missing two features high on my list for good cookbooks: an index and nutritional information for the recipes, Raw in 10 Minutes does have a useful resources section with books and web sites to help people with raw cooking. Because the recipes seem accessible and tasty, it's a good introduction to vegetarians interested in branching out to raw cuisine.--Amy O'Neill Houck

Some of the challenge in being on a vegetarian raw diet is to have variety and creativity and not take hours or days to make. Before this book, my husband and I would have lots of smoothies for lunch and a huge salad for dinner, but it gets boring after a while. I couldn't get my husband to stay on a100% raw diet. We were thrilled to buy Bryan Au's Raw In Ten Minutes. The photos looked very appealing.

The first recipe we tried was Macaroni and Cheese. We both loved it. I didn't make it in under 10 minutes - most likely because it was the first time doing it and I didn't have the right tools - madolin slicer and Blend-Tec Blender. In any occupation, if you don't have the right tools, it just makes it that much harder. I can see, if we are in it for the long haul, both tools would be a good investment. I had made so much Macaroni and cheese that we had enough for 3 more meals - so the 2nd and 3rd meals definitely were less than 10 minutes in preparation.

The second recipe we tried was Pasta Alfredo - again delicious - and so different from the Macaroni and Cheese. If you are coming from a traditional cooked diet, don't get into "Oh, it doesn't taste like the real cooked Macaroni and Cheese or Pasta Alfredo." Be open to the new taste and excellent nutrition you get for being 100% raw. Some people get too attached to the names of a dish.

We tried the Orange Delight Dressing and Sweet Mustard Dressing - both great. If you triple the recipe, this will also reduce your time for future meals.

We tried the Chocolate Chip Cookies and Ginger Cookies. Again, I didn't have the right tools, but it all tasted great in the end. With the ginger cookies, I doubled the amount of ginger, because we really like a strong ginger taste and it proved right - gave us a real kick. Just from the few recipes we tried so far, my husband told me he could be on a 100% raw diet. When we finish all the recipes, I will come back to give more feedback.

By the way, we also have Bryan's DVD: Raw In 10 Minutes. That was really helpful - seeing how it's done. All the recipes he demonstrated on the DVD were less than 10 minutes, plus he gives you additional recipes: Raw Organic Brownies, Pate (or it could be Sate), and Strawberry Cream Pie.

A word on the negative reviews: I think it is healthy to have constructive criticism, but some of those reviews were down right nasty.

Bottom Line: We can't wait to try the other recipes. We gave 4 stars; we wanted to give 4.5 stars, but it wasn't available. We didn't give 5 stars, because there is always room for improvement. Thank you, Bryan for your fabulous contribution to the Raw Food community.

First of all, let me begin by saying this is the worst raw food book I have. I have about 15 or so and this one is just not that good.

While I commend Bryan's heart for doing this, the delivery of the book and recipes are extremely lackluster. The book comes across as unedited, and amateurish. Most of the recipes in Raw in Ten Minutes are bad. They just don't taste good. I'm the kind of guy who eats bitter greens all the time and likes greens with only lemon and olive oil, but the recipes in here lack flavor and are overly heavy.

Ok one thing I will give the book, is that the recipe ideas are creative. However, I had to change every single recipe I ever made from this book so that it was palatable. The nacho cheese is simply awful. The flax pizza is mediocre at best. I can't imagine serving any of these foods to people who come for dinner.

This was one of the first raw books I ever bought and the only thing I learned from it was about agave. I'd never heard of it before this book and now use it from time to time. Thanks Bryan!

I look at this book now every few months with the idea in mind that I'm going to look at Raw in 10 Minutes just for an idea and have to change the recipe to make it taste good.

With all this said, I'm glad Bryan made the book. I look forward to his next one and hope he gets it right and does a better job with the editing. I'm a personal chef. I'm extremely fast in the kitchen and most of the recipes in this book take 15-30 minutes for me to make. I think the average person would take around 30 minutes for each recipe.

Also I had to put a 1 star review on here because I question whether or not all these reviews are valid. [...]

I came back to Amazon to order this book for some friends and saw some negative reviews. So, I thought I would add my two cents. Basically, we live by this book fixing at least one recipe a week. The raw nachos are very ingenious and delicious. It is one of our favorite recipes of all time. I bring them to parties and everyone loves them. The purple cabbage leaves for "chips" and the the "ground beef" are simple and fun.

The frustrating part of the book is that it is riddled with typoes. For example, the "nacho cheese" should have much more water to get the consistency right. But if you know how to cook, these problems are easy to spot.

Brian Au is really doing something different with this book. It really saved us and our raw diet. It can get very tiring doing sprouting, dehydrating, and homogenizing every night. Brian's recipes are delicious and really can be accomplished in 10 minutes.

While the recipes might be fine (I've so far tried the macaroni and cheese, which was good but not great, and didn't taste much like M&C), this is a difficult book to read without being annoyed.

The writing is redundant in both ideas and use of vocabulary ("super" as an adjective, sometimes more than once in the same sentence--what is he, a 16-year-old valley girl?--many recipes described as "creamy and delicious", the repeated claim that people love X recipe---I've seen the DVD that has some of these recipes in, and the taste-testers don't seem that enthusiastic about his creations).

Many recipes use a lot of olive oil: not appealing to those of us who prefer WHOLE foods and limited added fats.

Ingredient lists for recipes are sometimes presented in a jumbled fashion, so you have to read through the recipe to find out which ingredients are for which element of the recipe. Instructions are also sometimes not clear (are quantities for soaked nuts before or after soaking?).

Many of the recipes would take quite a bit more than 10 minutes, as they require several elements (from other recipes) to create.

The only "downsides" to me of eating raw are the pre-planning, which I'm adapting to. I quickly discovered that you can't just find an interesting sounding recipe and run with it. I'd thought that since you aren't cooking the food it would be quick and easy. I quickly discovered that you have to get some supplies (and really hunt for some of them), soak nuts and seeds for hours and then maybe dehydrate for hours more. So, initially, the spur of the moment idea was out except for salads, lettuce wraps, and zucchini spaghetti (one of my favorites).

The idea of Raw in Ten Minutes was exciting to me. I figured I could use this book when I was in a hurry and my other un-cook books when I had more prep time.

Right off you'll discover that the book looks like it's a low quality self-published book with low resolution laser printer looking dark B&W photos. There's no index in the back and there really doesn't seem to have been a designer or even editor used in the making of this book -- typos, bad formatting, etc. take away from the recipes.

The title itself is misleading as while you can make the smoothies and some other things in close to 10-minutes -- provided you have the not so easy to find ingredients. The recipes with seeds and nuts require they have been soaked overnight before you use them, like most other raw food un-cook books. So, those will take at least 10-minutes plus 8-hours.

[....]

He recommends some places online to buy products which is nice but now add ordering and delivery time to the 10-minutes, too. Also, some recipes require ingredients that are part of other recipes, add that to the 10-minutes. Kills the spur of the moment concept the title suggests.

There's some personal commentary in some recipes that should have been asterisked and put elsewhere. Example, the Carrot Ginger Soup uses red hot chili peppers which sends him down memory lane about his favorite band, Red Hot Chili Peppers, with a shout out to Anthony and Flea -- in the recipe ingredients?!?

While this book is worth having for some of the comfort foods and creative junk food replacements. I wouldn't recommend it as a first raw food book. Maybe a second or third (I have seven so far, so it fits in).[...].

I've been a raw foodist for some time now and have read all the in depth analyses in other books relative to proving through science ...that eating organic raw food is the best way to live.
Organic raw food provides almost twice the vitamin content( wet measure) as non-organic. And raw food will give you energy that is indescribable. In two weeks the energy will certainly come... in three weeks people will ask you what are you doing. Your skin will glow and your eyes will shine.

This book gave me what I wanted. I want down to earth recipes with ingredients that are easily accessible and quick to prepare. "Raw in Ten Minutes" provides just that. If you havent boarded the Raw Organic Food train...like Woody Harrelson & Carol Alt give it 21 days and transform the way you look and feel. Sure some of the ingredients and methods might sound strange...but the life giving properties cannot just be talked about... they must be experienced. Start with "Raw in Ten Minutes"....and give it at least the 21 days...and you'll see. It's a sure guarantee! F Greg McGeary Mt Pleasant Pa

pros
definitely a worthwhile addition to the raw library. the recipes are easy to pull together, they don't seem to take longer then cooking (though i haven't managed them in 10 minutes), the ingredients with a few exceptions are easy to get and everything i've tried so far has been tasty. oh and it's written by someone who's clearly excited by the subject
cons
the recipes are very reliant on nuts as an ingredient and sometimes i find them on the heavy side as a steady diet. i sometimes have to fill in or guess what the author is up to ( he's probably not a professional cook book writer) and raw food doesn't seem to make great left-overs.