Raw Food

Purple Sprouting Broccoli & Broad Bean Salad with Hazelnut Pesto

Posted on June 21, 2012 by leroy watson

Local veggies

We live on Bryn Teg which translates to English as ‘Fair Hill’. I call it tiger mountain because of the stripes, but it doesn’t seem to be catching on in these parts.

So Fair Hill it is and this salad reflects what is growing near our little home. Things are beginning to come into season and our local farm shop’s shelves are beginning to fill (thankfully). We bought what they had and this delicious salad was born. The combination of flavours worked surprisingly well with the pesto and it was even better the day later after having a good marinate in the fridge.

Broad beans (Fava beans) are special in any salad, they add a unique, nutty texture. Texture is one of the key ingredients to a brilliant salad and ingredients should be selected accordingly. Limp leaves are not the way forward! Fresh and crunchy is the key, something that is exciting to in the mouth and on the taste buds.

We have been discovering the art of salad making this raw month. Ingredients and dressings take on a completely different flavour when combined and subtle changes in flavouring can make all the difference.

Making a vegan pesto is tricky, without the pungent cheese, you just cannot recreate that unmistakable flavour. I think this is a decent attempt, matured cheese is something that vegans just have to give up on. You can buy those yeast cheese flake things.

You do end up using quite a bit of herb in the pesto, but it is well worth it.

The Bits

Salad

1 cup shelled broad beans

3 handfuls chopped sprouting purple brocolli (leaves as well)

1 sweet potato (peeled and grated)

1 courgette (1/2 grated, 1/2 cubed)

Hazelnut Pesto

4 cups basil leaves, loosely packed

1 cup fresh parsley

1 – 2 tsp sweetener of your choice

2 Tbsp fresh lemon juice

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/3 tsp fresh ground pepper

1/2 tsp sea salt

1/2 cup hazelnuts (soaked overnight, drained and rinsed)

1 – 2 cloves fresh garlic, crushed

3 tbs nutritional yeast flakes (optional)

Do It

Salad – Separate your broccoli florets from the stems and leaves, chop up. Mix all ingredients in a bowl.

Pesto – Chop the basil and parsley until reduced to 1 cup basil and 1/4 cup parsley, blend all ingredients except hazelnuts until smooth. Add hazelnuts gradually and continue blending, adding more olive oil as needed for desired consistency. Check seasoning.

Thin down the pesto a little, a thick dressing and mix into the salad.

Serve

Dress with a few of the broccoli leaves and a few more spoonfuls of the thick pesto. Maybe a few leaves of parsley or basil if you are feeling extravagant!

Raw pesto salad

We Love It!

The glory of pesto! Mix it in yoghurt for a tasty side dish, thin with oil for a dressing, mix with hummus to make the finest hummus ever! It really is one of the finest things you can have lurking around the fridge.

Foodie Fact

Sometimes referred to as the horse bean (!), broad beans like all legumes are a high in protein and low in fat. A really meaty legume! They are packed with vitamins, fibre and have a high iron content.

Categories: Dinner, Dressings, gluten-free, Healthy Eating, Local food, Low G.I. (glycemic index), Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Side Dish, Vegan, Welsh produce | Tags: broad beans, cooking, courgette, delicious, dinner, fair hill, fava beans, food, hazelnut pesto, health, health food, healthy eating, herbs, local produce, pesto, pungent cheese, raw, raw food, raw pesto, raw vegan, recipes, salads, summer salad, sweet potato, taste buds, tiger mountian, vegan, vegan pesto, vegetables, vegetarian, veggie, wales | 6 Comments

Rich & Raw Chocolate Brownie with Chocolate Icing

Posted on June 16, 2012 by leroy watson

Raw Chocolate Brownie with Chocolate Sauce

This rich slice of brownie goodness just made my DAY!! Thank you to The Rawtarian for the idea! After seemingly forever without any chocolate (it feels like a very long time ago since we did the Willies Cacao and Chocolate tastings – our favourite chocolate in the world!) Lee treated me to this yummy dessert. After all we couldn’t go on a raw diet without experimenting with a broad range of food including LUXURY puddings could we? J Hehehe!

Whilst munching our way through half a slab last night we concluded the only possible drawback is the amount of sugar it contains (from the dates) and fats (from the coconut oil and the nuts…) But then you’re not supposed to eat 1/2 slabs at one sitting!! It is unbelievable to think there is no butter, cream or chocolate in this recipe; it tastes just so rich.

But because it’s all healthy ingredients; it is still no major crime to while the evening away with a delicious huge slab and a tasty cup of sweet vanilla rooibush tea to accompany it! And that’s exactly why I love this recipe – it’s naughty tasting healthy food!! Woo-hoo!

In the bits, we used soaked almonds instead of pecans and it worked out very nicely. We were lucky to have a few coconuts hanging around, so we were privileged to used fresh coconut and shredded it in our coffee grinder. The star of this recipe though is the salt (it is not often you say that!), Halen Mon Tahitian Sea Salt. We’ve been waiting to use this since we tried it in a ‘Dark Chocolate Ricotta’ recipe a few months ago. It really brings out the flavour of the chocolate and adds subtle hint of vanilla.

This recipe makes a great base for other desserts and can also be easily rolled up into dark chocolate truffles.

This is so packed full of energy, with the dates and nuts alone, if you planing on running any marathons in the near future, we highly recommend this for dessert the night before. You will break records!

The Bits

Brownie

1 cup pecans (you can use walnuts/ almonds in a pinch, but pecans are much better)

1 cup dates (stoned)

5 tablespoons raw cacao (cocoa) powder

4 tablespoons shredded unsweetened coconut (dessicated will do)

2 tablespoons maple syrup

1/2 teas Halen Mon Tahitian vanilla sea salt (normal sea salt is of course cool too)

Chocolate Icing

1 cup dates (soften in water for 1 hour)

1/4 cup raw cacao (cocoa) powder

1/4 cup cold-pressed coconut oil

3/4 cup water (or a tiny bit more if needed)

Do It

Brownie

Add the nuts to your blender and whizz until broken down, then add dates and blend for a minute, add all other ingredients and continue to whizz away until the mixture turns a lovely shiny dark brown, not too buttery (you should still be able to see bits of nuts). You may need scrape the mixture from the side of the blender to ensure that all is blended nicely.

Press down into a suitably rectangular container (cake tin will do) and press down evenly so the mixture evenly covers the base.

Cover and refrigerate, this mix keeps its shape well and even looks like a brownie!

Chocolate Icing

Could not be easier, soften your dates in the water for an hour before blending. This makes them softer and easier going. Then add all ingredients to the blender and whizz up. Start slowly and build up the speed, blend for a while, until the icing begins the shine and no dates can be seen (roughly 5 minutes). If needed, turn off the blender and scrape the icing down from the sides.

Voila!! A rich icing that would grace any dessert!

Raw Chocolate Brownie

Serve

We keep the chocolate sauce separate, in a sealed container, and spread onto the chunks of brownie when cut. Both the brownie and the sauce keep well in the fridge for a while. Otherwise, this needs no additions, just a few sweet teeth and a nice cuppa!

We Love It!

Deep, rich and velvety. This is a stunning recipe that keeps well and gets better with age (i.e. a couple of days). It is incredibly dense and a little goes a long way, meaning more days of decadent brownie time, which is never a bad thing. The icing is also very versatile and has an almost mousse-like texture that melts in the mouth.

Foodie Fact

To the Aztecs, the cacao bean was the food of the Gods. Raw cacao is bitter ad is normally sweetened, it is the main ingredient of chocolate and boasts many health benefits.

Cacao produces much the same effect as caffeine, yet milder and non-addictive. It stimulates the brain to produce a gentle euphoria via a release of endorphins. It also contains very high levels of antioxidants.

Like much of the research on foods, the science is ever changing and the cacao bean seems to be a contentious topic. The general opinion though is that it’s a superfood and dark chocolate, even when processed, contains many health benefits.

Categories: Desserts, Raw Food, Recipes, Vegan | Tags: brownies, chocolate, dessert, healthy, icing, raw, raw food, recipe, sea salt, vanilla salt, vegan | 21 Comments

Raw Asian Buckwheat Stew

Posted on June 16, 2012 by leroy watson

Sprouting Buckwheat

This is not exactly Asian, not your average back street Shanghai fare; we lack some ingredients but do our best in the hills of Wales! This recipe boasts all the flavours you would expect from a classic Asian dish, with the raw touch of sprouting buckwheat and the richness of cashews. It really is a revelation that this food tastes so good cold and is so satisfying. Who knew?

We live quite remote, the nearest decent shop being 30 mins drive. For a cramped island like ours, 30 mins is quite a distance. If you can believe it, there are no fresh fruit and veg markets in the entire area. It is strange, we are quite unique. We therefore use what we have locally, there is a shed over the hill that sells the occasional organic vegetable, at this time of year, local produce for sale is quite sparse. Hence we make do and blend!

We have been missing our Thai curries, stir fries etc, so this was my attempt at adding a new set of flavours to this Beach House raw June. I like adding cucumber to dishes, it freshens and lifts things.

These recipes are known as ‘living food’ due to the sprouting going on. Anything sprouting is full of life and nutrients and is serious super fuel for your body (and mind/well-being…..).

Sprouting buckwheat has a lovely bite to it and reminds me of a fuller quinoa in flavour. It tastes and looks like a grain, but is gluten and wheat free. It can also be blended up into a lovely porridge (more of this to come). Buckwheat sprouts well and only takes a couple of days. The technique is simple enough, soak for 24 hours in fresh water, drain and wash, leave for 24 hours, drain and wash etc. Until sprouts begin to appear. It is then ready to eat.

This stew has a lovely rich feel and is very satisfying, which you need on the grey island (Britain) were it is currently summer/winter in just one day. The storms may rage outside, yet we are warm inside and dreaming of the East….

The Bits

Veg – 1 large tomato, 1 small onion, 1/3 cucumber, 1 carrot, 1/2 red chilli (check for heat)

Sauce – 2 cloves garlic, 2 inch cube of ginger, juice of 1 lime (finely chopped zest if you like a real tang), 2 teas honey, 3 tsp sesame oil, 2 tbs tamari (or light soya sauce)

Stew – 2 cups sprouting buckwheat, 1/2 cup whole cashews,

Topping – 1 1/2 cups chopped green beans, 2 teas sesame seeds, handful of broken cashews

Mid blitz aka carnage

Do It

Add all veg and sauce bits to the blender blend to a fine salsa like mix, taste check for balance of flavours, then add your stew bits and pulse a few times to break up the buckwheat and cashews slightly. Not too much, you need a little bite there. Chop up your greenbeans and scatter on top in any fashion that takes your fancy (we normally mix half into the stew).

Serve

Finish with a few sprinkles of sesame seeds (we were out of stock here) and some broken cashews.

Raw Asian Buckwheat Stew

We Love It!

This beats a sloppy Chinese takeaway any day of the week! Bursting with vitality and nutrients, this is one of our favourite raw recipes thus far.

Foodie Fact

Buckwheat is one of the most complete grains globally and contains all eight essential amino acids (meaning you can basically live on it!). It is great for diabetics as an alternative to sugary wheat and also alkalizes the blood. Buckwheat even boosts the brain, it contains high levels of lecthin and 28% of the brain is made of lecthin which also purifies the blood and actually soaks up bad cholesterol. Wonder food!

Categories: Detox, gluten-free, Healthy Eating, Healthy Living, Low G.I. (glycemic index), Lunch, Nutrition, Raw Food, Recipes, Superfoods, Vegan, Welsh produce | Tags: amino acids, asian dressing, asian food, blender, blending, blood purifier, brain boosting food, buckwheat, cashew nuts, chinese food, essential, food, food photography, living food, nutrients, organic vegetable, quinoa, raw, raw food, raw stew, raw vegan, recipes, shanghai, sprouting buckwheat, stew, superfood, superfoods, vegan, vegetables, vegetarian | 4 Comments

Sunflower and Beetroot Pate (Raw)

Posted on June 15, 2012 by leroy watson

Raw Sunflower and Beetroot Pate

A pinky purple veggie/ raw pate that will get your taste buds zinging and brighten up any happy plate.

The wind is howling outside, probably smashing our poor little runner beans and sunflowers. I can’t bring myself to go out and check them. Its the worst possible weather for our newly planted veggies and flowers. We are hoping they’ll tough it out. We need cheering up with some vibrant food and colours. Thankfully we got out hands on some delicious organic beetroots and already had a batch of sunflower seeds sprouting, so the combination seemed logical (and tasty).

We are eating alot of salad, as you would imagine being raw this month (rabbit food we are regularly told. Lucky rabbits!) but like to have something a little different on the side. Another texture to compliment the crunch of the salad, this pate is perfect for that.

It has a light texture, but is full of flavour and I imagine would be great spread on toast (like the other livery stuff). We have added hazelnuts to the recipe in the past, which gives it a fuller texture and richness.

We use Blodyn Aur rapeseed oil here because it is delicious and from Wales. It has a lovely nutty and buttery flavour that is totally unique. It also contains 11 times the amount of omega oils compared to olive oil. If you are in the U.K., keep your eyes peeled for it. It’s a star. You could however use a good quality olive oil or flax seed oil.

We seem to be using alot of jars with this new diet change. Having been saving them for so long, I’m glad to get some use out of them. They are ideal for shaking up and storing dressings and this pate will keep for a couple of days refrigerated in a jar. They also happen to look much cooler than a clunky tupperware! That rustic look that is very fashionable in our hamlet.

The Bits
Makes one large jar
3 small beetroots, 2 carrots, 1 stick of celery, 2 handfuls of spinach, 1 courgette, handful of parsley, 1 small red onion, 1 cup sprouted sunflower seeds, 2 tbsp rapeseed oil (olive oil is fine), 1 big handful of black olives (de-stoned), juice and zest (finely chopped) of 1 lemon, 2 tbsp tamari, 2 tsp cumin, 1 red chilli, 3 cloves garlic.

Raw Sunflower and Beetroot in the mix

Do It

Add all ingredients to a blender and blitz until a smooth paste is formed. You may need to stop and scrape down the sides a few times, to ensure that all is blended nicely.

Serve

Finish with another glug of oil and some chopped parsley and sunflower seeds. Great as a side dish, or as a dip. You may also like to spread it thickly on things that you like.

We Love It!

It packs so many nutrients and flavours into one little paste.

Foodie Fact

Sunflower seeds are a great source of nutrition, a really concentrated food. It is an excellent source of vitamin E, which is a powerful anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant.

Sprouted sunflower seeds are full of iron and chlorophyll which helps to detoxify the liver and blood. They also contain the wonderfully named, phytosterols, which act like a superhero all over the body, battling all sorts of nasties.

PS – Here’s a gratuitous shot of our morning bowl of happiness bathed in a few rare and cherished rays of sunshine:

Today’s fruity cereal

Categories: Raw Food, Recipes, Side Dish, Vegan, Welsh produce | Tags: beetroot, food, healthy eating, pate, rapeseed oil, raw, recipes, sunflower seeds, vegan, welsh produce | 6 Comments

Beach House Dressing

Posted on June 14, 2012 by leroy watson

Beach House Dressing

We are in love with this. It is going on or in most things that we are munching on at the moment. Like most Beach House recipes, its super easy and quick.

Jane and I are both missing big flavours, I normally use a lot of spice in my cooking and they are lacking in our current diet. Jane, of course, adores chocolate. The sensual experience of raw eating is totally different, but this is a very creamy and more-ish dressing to go with the crunch of our salads.

The quantity of each flavour depends on your palate, maybe you like it sweet, maybe you like slightly sour. Have a play here. The flax seeds add a nice crunch and the garlic a little heat. If you are not a huge fan of raw garlic (its fiery) omit the garlic. It will make a great dressing.

We make alot of this, it keeps well in the fridge and I’m sure will soon become on of your ‘house’ favourites.

The Bits

Makes a decent bowlful

3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (evoo)

2 tbs tahini

2 cloves garlic (crushed, optional)

1 tbs apple cider vinegar

2 teas brown rice syrup (or other sweetener)

1 tbs flax seeds

1 teas braggs liquid amino acid (or a pinch of sea salt).

Do It

Add all the ingredients to a bowl and bled together with a fork. Taste, adjust flavour according to taste. We like ours quite tangy, so we add a little more vinegar, but there should be a good balance of sweet and sour over the creamy tahini.

Serve

You can douse it on vegetables, salads, it would be amazing on new or roasted potatoes (leave overnight in a fridge and let the flavours mingle and soak).

We Love It!

We can’t stop making this and devouring it, smothered on whatever it takes!

Foodies Fact

Apparently cider vinegar increases memory and concentration, which we need quite desperately. Cider vinegar contains over 90 substances and is actually less acidic than coca cola.

The glorious colours of raw food

We thought you might like to see what we actually put this dressing on.

Above is a picture of last nights dinner, served with the ‘Beach House Dressing’. Jane’s ‘Traffic Light Salad’ with a delicious ‘Butternut Squash and Seaweed Salad’:

Diced butternut squash and courgette, grated carrot and red onion, topped with diced cauliflower and nori (soaked overnight).

Happy crunching!

lee and janeX

Categories: Dressings, Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Summer, Vegan | Tags: dinner, gluten-free, nutrition, raw vegan, salad, tahini, vegan | 13 Comments

Raw Fruity Cereal

Posted on June 12, 2012 by leroy watson

Sprouting Breakfast Salad

This mornings breakfast was very good looking (and tasting), I felt it deserved to be shared with the world.

Adding wheat sprouts to meals is great for us as it gives that sugary wheaty boast that we normally get from our muesli. The wheat sprouts are very easy to grow and have a nice soft, chewy texture.

Wheat has addictive qualities and the bread at work last night smelled amazing. This is probably why I opted for a sprouting breakfast.

I dislike using out of season produce, but it seems unavoidable at the moment. Jane and I are always up for a bargain and visiting the shops, found some amazing berries from Spain on sale. We love Spain, so we snaffled them up. They were .30p a punnet! Of course, they lack flavour and the magic of a seasonal berry (preferably ate straight off the bush), but we are not an island blessed with abundant fruit reserves. I also thought that somewhere in the world, you may live in a land where the sun shines and fruit is always on the menu. You may have a mango tree in your back garden! (We have a hawthorn and a couple of gnarled crab apple trees).

Raisins add a lovely sweet surprise to this awesome morning bowlful of happiness, you could used diced dates or figs. Try soaking your raisins overnight, they become nice and plump and give off a nice raisin drink for slurping or using in cooking.

Wheat sprouts

The Bits

Enough for two decent sized bowls.

1 apple, 1 pear, 1 carrot, 1 kiwi, 1 large handful of wheat sprouts, 1 handful of blueberries, 1 handful of blackberries, 1 handful of raisins, soya milk.

Do It

Slice apple, pear, carrot and kiwi, we don’t peel anything (except kiwi). Just wash or scrub them. Use your creative flair and mix all nicely in your fanciest bowl. Mix some sprouts and raisins into the salad.

Serve

Use the rest of the sprouts for topping with the berries and some nice chilled soya milk (add as much as you would with your favourite cereal). If I was having this for lunch and not watching my food combinations, I’d have some seeds with this. Pumpkin and sunflower would be my choice.

Buster and I busy gardening

We Love It!

Its fruity cereal! It is bursting with vitality and crunch and not as stodgy as our average muesli counterpart. It also contains no fats, so the good nutrients can get straight into your system and get some morning work done.

Foodie Fact

Don’t throw the water away when you sprout wheat, it has many restorative powers. You can even mix it with ground seeds and leave it for a day to make a sort of cheese. It can also be used to make the drink Rejuvelac, which was created by Anne Wigmore of the Hippocrates Health Institute.

This mornings Beach House tune is by Panda Bear ‘Alsatian Darn’:

Categories: Breakfast, Healthy Eating, Music, Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Snacks and Inbetweens, Vegan | Tags: anne wigmore, blackberries, blueberries, breakfast, cats, cereal, chewy texture, crab apple trees, food, food combinations, fruit, healthy breakfast, healthy eating, hippocrates health institute, low carb, low fat, music, no fat, panda bear, photo, photography, raw breakfast, raw food, raw recipes, raw vegan, recipes, rejuvelac, spain, sprouting, sprouting wheat, vegan, vegetarian, wheat, wheat sprouts | Leave a comment

Raw Green Thai Soup

Posted on June 10, 2012 by leroy watson

Thai soup – in the mix

Here is a classic Thai soup, only this time served cold. This is without doubt the finest chilled soup I have ever tasted. You just have to look at what goes into it to realise that it is going to be a taste sensation! Coconut, lemon grass, chilli, lime and ginger. That’s the taste of food heaven.

If there is any food which mirrors a country, it is Thai. Vibrant, colourful and unique. The combination of ingredients and fresh, fresh flavours make my mouth water.

Jane and I met not far from Thailand (well the Philippines, but close enough!) We both love Asia for many reasons, but the people and food really stand out. Thailand cannot be beaten for food. A bold statement, but anyone who has visited and trawled the street food and markets will agree. Great food made simply but with super fresh ingredients. The soups alone are almost alchemical, their vapours can revive the soul and the flavours dance in your mouth like a dragon.

Thai’s love food. In a way that us Europeans cannot comprehend. For example, my friend Toum took me to a local market in a suburb of north Bangkok and I have never seen such care taken in the selection of produce. I was reprimanded for holding some green leaves the wrong way round, and soon realised that I had much to learn in the respect and handling of food… we carried our vegetables home as if they were newly born babies.

You can see the real identity of countries and cultures coming through in what they eat. Most Thais eat very well, regardless of social standing. In fact, they seem to eat the same things, in the same places. Namely the street. There is a movement towards a more westernised capitalist culture in the upper and middle classes, but it’s all done in a very Thai way. I can never see the big mac taking over from the pad thai.

This will be very refreshing come summer (it is coming I hope), the flavours are as intense and fragrant as you would expect from things Thai.

Bangkok Street Food

The Bits

There’s lots of bits in this one, but that’s what makes it so very tasty!

6 mushrooms, 6 tomatoes, 2 cloves garlic, 1 cm fresh ginger (or 1cm galangal if you can), 1 lemon grass stick, 1 red chilli, 4 dates, 6 lime leaves, juice of 2 limes, bunch of coriander, 120g fresh coconut chopped, 125g spinach, 1 apple, 2 tbsp tamari

Do It

Blend all of the ingredients together in a blender and keep your finger on the button until all the herbs have been blitzed.

Serve

In a big bowl with a few sprouts and coriander leaves on top, a whole heap of love, and the biggest spoons you have!

We Love It!

It is such a taste explosion and takes us back to happy memories of a wonderful land (just one spoonful of this and we now want to go back!). This is authentic thai, without the jars of paste.

Thai Lotus Flower

Foodie Fact

So essential to Thai cookery, coriander (celantro to some) is actually native to the Mediterranean and is rich in anti-oxidants that help against heart conditions. It also contains high levels of vitamin C and many different minerals. It is one of the richest sources of vitamin K and has a very high vitamin A content. Quite a herb!

Categories: Healthy Eating, Raw Food, Recipes, Soups, Vegan | Tags: asia, bangkok, celantro, celiac, cold soup, coriander, countries and cultures, culture, dairy dree, food, fragrant, fresh, gluten-free, healthy living, lemon grass, low carb, low fat diet, market, photo, photography, raw, raw vegan, recipes, restaurants, soup, street food, summer soup, taste sensation, thai food, thai soup, thailand, travel, vegan, vegetables, vegetarian recipes | 10 Comments

Berry Cheesecake with Avocado and Banana Cream (raw)

Posted on June 9, 2012 by leroy watson

Berries

This sweet tasty little dessert only took about 20mins to make; a wonder! Any fruit combination is good; summer fruits, tropical, and I’m imagining it tastes just as lovely with the good old British apple or pear come autumn.
We used a tasty selection of mixed berry fruits; strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and cherries for this special weekend treat. I decided to make it to surprise Lee because he deserves a treat!

We have really splashed out on fruit and veg at this time of rawness and our nut reserves are well topped up and we’re brimming over with seeds. We have invested in a diverse range of ingredients in order to treat ourselves (primarily our bodies). Some of these treats are not seasonal or local, which is a shame. Next time we may try 100% raw in August/ September when the berries more abundant. We hope that wherever you are in the world, your berries are ripe for the picking!

If you are a raw one, this is the rich, sumptuous dessert that you have been dreaming of. It will also impress any guest, at any dinner party in the world!

You may like to half the filling, this will make more of a tart to a full on cheesecake.

The Bits

For crust
185g almonds (soaked 12-14 hours), 185g dried dates, 1 tsp ground cinnamon
a few drops of vanilla extract

For filling
2 avocado, 2 large banana, 8 dates, 4 tbsp tahini (light), juice of a lemon, berries (enough to cover, we used cherries, strawberries, blueberries and raspberries).

Do It

Whizz up your almonds in a food processor until they are as small as they will go, and until they are starting to stick together. Add the dates and blend again so that the crust mixture goes all sticky. Add the vanilla essence. If you think it needs to be even stickier add a couple of drops of water. But not too much in case of sogginess.

Put it in a cake tin or bowl; something flat-bottomed and press it down lightly round the edges. Looking like a cheesecake base? Mmmmmm!!

Then it’s time to make the filling. (It’s best made fresh because of the banana).
Blend the banana, avocado, dates, tahini and lemon together until you have a smooth non-lumpy sauce. Should be nice a thick. Spread onto base.

Chop up your fresh fruit and scatter it on, giving a good even covering.

Cover and leave in the fridge for an hour to set. Then serve with big smiles and spoons.

Raw Berry Cheesecake – deconstructed and good to go….

Serve

You can deconstruct the cheesecake if you want to keep it over night, it saves the crust getting too moist. Then you just tip the filling onto your own portion like a hearty custard.
I’m quite keen on the custardy option, especially since the sauce is much better eaten fresh and the crust looks like it will keep over night. If there’s any left…

We Love It!

It’s a fruity sweet treat, a healthy equivalent of feasting on a massive bar of chocolate!!!

Foodie Fact

Fruit (and lots of it) is bursting with goodness! Less is known about the almond – think of them like protector nuts – giving you supplies of all the protective minerals like calcium and magnesium for strong bones. They have vitamin E and many phytochemicals in them, which can protect our bodies from the big C. Dates have all kinds of minerals in them – quite unbelievable. They are not just sugary, they also have a lot of fibre in them too and make for healthy bowels 🙂

This was the soundtrack to raw berry cheesecake times in the BHK, ‘Man on Fire’ by Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros:

Categories: Desserts, Raw Food, Recipes | Tags: cheesecake, dessert, healthy, raspberry, raw, recipes, strawberry, summer, tahini, vegan, vegetarian | 2 Comments

Raw Carrot Dip

Posted on June 8, 2012 by leroy watson

Raw Carrot Dip

It was time to wish Savannah goodbye and good luck for her trip to Spain, so we made her a beach house special raw lunch. Over the last few days I have come to realise I LOVE preparing food raw. It is a new found passion for me! It’s so quick, easy, the washing up takes two minutes, and I am learning about some amazing ingredients that make everything SO tasty. Plus the herb garden herbs are becoming so bushy of late they are just perfect.

This makes a jam jar full 🙂

The Bits

3 large carrots, half an onion, chopped parsley, 2 tbsp lemon juice, 2 tbsp tamari, 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, 4 tbsp tahini, 2 tbsp water

Do It

Chop the carrot and onion (we used the grater blade in our blender which grated everything perfectly), put everything into the blender and blend for a couple of minutes and then have a little taste – YUM!

We Love It!

This adds a nice bit of richness to our salads and can be used for dipping or spreading on your favourite things.

Foodie Fact

Tahini has an incredibly high nutritional content, full of most of the vitamin B’s and calcium. In most diets, calcium is taken in via cows milk which is not great for the digestive system, potentially leading to irritation and other difficulties. Many people believe that tahini has the highest calcium content of any food.

Fresh coco and nut yogurt

We thought we’d add this little snack on, we made it as a fatty number to be eaten 3 hours after our sugary morning fruit salad and before dinner (see our Raw Food No No’s for why?) We chopped up fresh coconut, a handful of mixed nuts (unroasted) and a good blob of soya yogurt.

Happy dippingX

Love, JaneXXXX

Sunshine lettuce

Categories: gluten-free, Healthy Eating, Raw Food, Recipes, Sauces, Side Dish, Snacks and Inbetweens, Superfoods, Vegan | Tags: calcium, carrot, carrot dip, celiac, coconut, cows milk, dairy free, dip, food, garden herbs, healthy eating, herb garden, lunch, raw, raw carrot, raw food, raw recipes, raw vegan, recipes, snack, soya yogurt, tahini, vegan, vegetarian, vegetarian recipes, vitamin B, wheat free | 1 Comment

Sava’s Elephant Garlic Flower Salad

Posted on June 7, 2012 by leroy watson

Sava’s last lunch at the BHK

Here was this lunch offering, made by Jane and Sava. A crunchy wonder, with bucket loads of veggies, topped with the ever intriguing, elephant garlic flowers.

This was Savannah’s last meal with us and we wanted it to be special. We rustled up a few different salads, dips and even a piquant beige guacamole.

Sava is originally from South London, but is currently masterminding world domination (Sava style) which means spreading love, happiness and vibrant energy to all corners of the world. Sava is also an ace vegan chef and was the perfect house guest during this raw time at the Beach House. We have spent most of our time sitting around talking about food and travel, two of our most favourite chat topics. Its been a gas….

Sava has an brilliant travel website, all about travelling the world and living your wildest dreams. Its called travel butterfly. Sava has just returned from travelling around Central and Southern America and there are loads of wonderful tales, images and tips to be found there.

These garlic flowers have thick stems with a potent garlic punch (the whole house stank of garlic after chopping a few up). The flowers seem edible, with small yellow petals. One bunch has lasted us quite a few days as its best used sparingly. Warning, if you are worried about garlic breath, do not approach these flowers (and stop worrying).

You may like to add some spirulina, wheat grass or barley grass powder to the topping if you are raw, or even if you aren’t, this would give you a serious boost. These are three heavyweight contenders of the superfood world. It is said that you can live on these green powders (the barley grass actually tastes of dried fish) but not even I will venture this far down the road of cleaning my internals up. The barley powder we have is labelled as a ‘powerful’ food and should be eased into, you wouldn’t want to over do it (this all seems very tame compared to my tequila slammer days, but unimaginably healthier!).

These salads are always super easy to get together, we’ve made them per person so you can just have it yourself, or share with the people you really, really like. This is a big salad and designed to be a main meal so there is a lot of ingredients in it. We realise this goes against some of our ‘The Big Four Raw Food No No’s’ but we are trying to be good! We topped it with the elephant garlic flowers so we could measure the amount we ate with eat spoonful, it also looked great.

Elephant garlic flowers

The Bits

Per person – Handful of baby corn, 1 carrot (chopped), handful of mangetout, 1 ripe tomato, 1/2 courgette (chopped), 1/2 apple (green and sour is best, chopped), 1 stick of celery, handful of cucumber (chopped), handful of cos lettuce (chopped), 2 teas linseeds, 1 handful of mung bean sprouts, 2 teas alfalfa sprouts.

Topping – Handful of elephant garlic flower (chopped), handful of sunflower seeds, splash of olive oil.

Elephant Garlic Flower Salad

Serve

Layered with a creamy Miso, Tamari and Tahini Dressing, topped with the chopped elephant garlic flowers.

We Love It!

Mainly because Sava made it and she is very lovely indeed. The elephant garlic is amazing and well worth seeking out, it explodes in your mouth and adds a spot of romance to the plate.

Foodie Fact

Native Americans believe wild garlic to help against ailments such as high blood pressure, asthma and scurvy.

Our Morning Juice Routine

Is stuttering along. We are still getting into the routine of a mid-morning juice. I used to have a nice jug of coffee, now its a yogurt pot full of fresh juice. I know which one my body prefers (bit sometimes I miss that aroma).

Jane made a magic juice this morning with the trusty Magimix. Simple and not really worth a separate post, its similar to a couple we have done before. It was a zesty Apple, Carrot and Ginger. The perfect balance of sweetness with a kick of ginger. Here is Jane mid juice:

Jane making morning juice

We aim to be drinking at least one juice per day and are finding that we are not hungry in the mornings. This would make sense, all of our nutritional requirements are being met, so the absorption cycle of the body doesn’t really kick in until 12pm. That’s when we whip out the salads.

We plan on getting a 25 kilo bag of carrots from a farm down the road and really getting juicy next week. Apparently, if you drink too much carrot juice, you actually turn orange. Watch this space, will make for interesting pictures I’m sure.

Happy days aheadX

Categories: Breakfast, Friends of B.H.K, Healthy Eating, Nutrition, Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Sauces, Side Dish, Superfoods, Vegan | Tags: ailments, apple, asthma, barley grass powder, barley powder, carrot, cook, corn, elephant garlic, flax seeds, flowers, food, garlic breath, ginger, global, guest, happiness, healthy eating, healthy living, heart disease, high energy, juicer, juicing, linseeds, low fat, magimix, miso, native american, potent garlic, raw, raw food, raw vegan, recipes, remedy, salad, spirulina, sprouts, sunflower, superfood, superfoods, tahini, tamari, travel, travel butterfly, vega chef, vegan, vegetarian, wheat grass | 1 Comment

Pear, Swede & Tahini Salad

Posted on June 6, 2012 by leroy watson

Image from ‘How stuff works’ via the brilliant ‘Affairs of Living’ blog

A quick and easy salad using the humble swede and giving it quite a special dress.

Now I call a swede, a turnip, turns out I’m confused (and wrong). Some people call it rutabaga (which is the best name by a mile) or Swedish turnip, apparently it goes by many names. In the North East of England, a swede was a turnip. At least in the 80’s it was!

Swede is one of my favourite roasted vegetables, so sweet. I always remember it being mashed with potato for Sunday dinner and this is still my favourite mash.

This is a very different recipe from that of my childhood mash up days, but I have changed quite a bit in the last 25 years!

This salad is crunchy and the addition of pumpkin seeds means extra crunch. This crunch says to me that the food is fresh and alive. I just felt like giving the humble swede a little light for a while. It’s so often overlooked.

ELEPHANT GARLIC

Now I understand Elephant garlic flowers are hard to come by. I did not know they existed. Hooton’s (our local farm shop) have a selection for the time being and it is a fascinating thing. The stems (or trunks) have a hot, intensely garlic flavour. Like wild garlic, but elephant-like. (They may actually be called Elephant Ear Garlic.)

We sliced all of the veg/pear in a food processor, something I don’t normally use, I was surprised how easy it was.

The Bits

1 medium swede (peeled)

2 ripe pears (cored)

2 celery sticks (chopped)

Handful mangetout (hand chopped into chunks)

1 handful of elephant garlic flowers and stems (chopped – our ingredient of the moment) or wild garlic

1 handful raisins

1 handful pumpkin seeds

1 handful sprouted mung beans

Black pepper

Dressing

Juice and zest of 1 lemon

2 tbs light tahini

1 tbs light molasses

Pinch nutmeg

Pinch sea salt

Splash of water (to thin)

Do It

Put the swede, pear and celery into the food processor, roughly chop up your mangetout and garlic flowers. Arrange in your finest salad bowl, stir in pumpkin seeds, raisins and sprouts.

For the dressing add all bits to a deep bowl and blend together with a hand blender. The molasses will take a while to get involved, you may need blend for a while. If the sauce is too thick, water down a little.

Serve

When you’re ready to serve, pour over the dressing and sprinkle a few more sprouts and seeds. Remember that with salads, height is good. A stacked up salad looks very cool indeed.

We Love It!

I love combining fruit and veg in salads and this salad pays homage to the humble swede. It is a delicious veg raw and I am surprised that people don’t use it more often.

Foodie Fact

Swede is full of vitamin C and dietary fibre.and dietary fibre. One cup of swede gives you 50% of your vitamin C requirements.

Because we like to share at the Beach House, here is ‘Youth Lagoon – 17’. We listen to this when making salads:

Categories: Healthy Eating, Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Vegan | Tags: elephant garlic, food, mung beans, music, raw, recipe, salad, swede, vegetarian | 4 Comments

The Big Four Raw No-no’s

Posted on June 5, 2012 by leroy watson

On a rope bridge in Panama

For me an introduction to raw food came quite unexpectedly while I was working and staying with a friend out in Panama; home of some fantastic and enormous fruit and veg. Kami prepared delicious salad after salad; we ate little and often, with the right combinations of foods and two weeks later I was veritably zinging.

We thought it would be a good idea to share Kami’s words of wisdom; after all one of the biggest reasons for going raw is to help the body with its mineral and vitamin absorption and efficient digestion. After some extra research I realised it is easy to get bogged down in this subject. So I squeezed it down into a few main points.

The Big Four Raw no-no’s

1. Fat and carbohydrate: Avoid having sweet fruit like bananas, nuts, seeds, avocados etc together in the same meal. If you do eat them together the fats and proteins (which are slower-digesting foods) will cause the sugary fruit to ferment in your stomach. This cannot be good. You can eat the fats or proteins four hours before, or a couple of hours after the sweet fruit instead – because the sweet nutrients will have had time to dance through your digestive system by then.

2. Carbohydrate food and acid food: Like with fats, acid foods need longer to digest. If they are eaten with sweet fruits they can also cause fermentation in the stomach.

3. Acid food and proteins/fats: Citrus fruit, pineapple, strawberries and other acid fruits should not be eaten with nuts or avocados; otherwise the protein will not digest properly. Acid fruits inhibit the flow of gastric juice whereas digestion of protein requires an unhampered flow of juice.

4. Keep the amount of fat to a minimum: Fat has an inhibiting influence on digestive secretion and also slows down digestion of other foods. It is generally a good idea to reduce fat intake; it is surprising how little of it we need. Delicious but notoriously fatty avocados are best eaten with a green salad but never with nuts sweet fruit, especially melons.

We feel the trick to this diet is to keep it simple. After all we just want to help our bodies digest this lovely fresh food. Tips like sticking to one type of protein in meals (some raw foodies even stick to just one type of nut or seed). By not eating a huge variety of food types in one meal will help to stop our bodies having to work too hard and will avoid most of the no-no’s too.

We’re just looking forward to getting sensitive with our own bodies; listening to how it feels after eating different combinations of food, and how we feel after these small easy to digest portions.

We want to live in the best possible way for our whole lives so that we can be the healthiest and best we can be for ourselves and for other people! Apart from the eating (which has a huge impact) we also want to focus more on sleeping, exercising, relaxing, being creative, being in nature, having fun so we can shine together brighter from the inside out – yay!!

Have fun trying out our recipes and join us in Raw June!

Love Jane xxxxx

Categories: Healthy Eating, Healthy Living, Nutrition, Raw Food | Tags: acid, article, carbohydrate, citrus, digestion, digestive system, enzymes, fat, fermentation, food, food combinations, good life, health, healthy living, healthy-living, love, nutrition, panama, photo, protein, raw food, raw vegan, salad, sensitive, travel | 11 Comments

Raw Emerald Soup

Posted on June 5, 2012 by leroy watson

Raw Emerald Soup

A creamy raw soup that is deep green and delicious. This is raw food at its finest, a lovely texture and flavour and also packed full of nutrients. It is thick and filling. This is the perfect soup for a nice lunch in the summer garden. No emeralds are used in this recipe! This soup is so vividly green it must be good for you.

Savannah and Jane made this one last night and they both commented on how easy it is to prepare. It’s funny in raw food that the ingredients list normally outweighs the preparation list. It’s quick. There is also less washing up to do!

Raw food is dense in nutrients and I am eating less for meals. One bowl of this and I was well sated.

The inspiration for this soup came from the brilliant raw food book ‘Eat Smart, Eat Raw’ by Kate Wood. It is written specifically for raw fooders in the UK. It is fast becoming our raw food recipe bible.

All vegetables here are grated beforehand to make it easier to blend.

The Bits

These bits are per person:
4/5 carrots, two large handful of spinach, 1/2 onion, 2 cloves of garlic, 1/2 apple, 1/2 avocado, 1/2 tbs miso paste, 1 tbs flax seed oil (we used rapeseed oil), 1 teas dried seaweed, 300ml water.

Do It

All goes into the blender and puree until smooth.

Serve

Mix mung bean sprouts in and scatter on top with some freshly chopped parsley and I added a scattering of sunflower seeds.

Foodie Fact

Spinach is full of iron: two out of every three women in the UK are iron deficient.

Categories: Healthy Eating, Lunch, Raw Food, Recipes, Soups, Vegan | Tags: avocado, bean sprouts, book, carrot, chopped parsley, delicious, eat raw, eat smart, emerald, flax seed oil, food, garlic, iron, Low carbs, low fat, miso, miso paste, nutrients, rape seed oil, rapeseed oil, raw, raw food, raw food recipe, raw vegan, recipes, soup, spinach, vegan, vegetarian | Leave a comment

Raw Honey and Almond Porridge

Posted on June 4, 2012 by leroy watson

Jane making porridge (with pink dressing gown)

Sweet and comforting and slightly warm (and still technically raw). Jane whipped this porridge up and it proved a real treat.

Raw foods are normally vegan organic wholefoods that haven’t been heated above 46oC. This porridge is heated with warm water or milk, just enough to give the groats a nice creamy texture. I love this, as I quite like cold porridge anyway, it sits in the fridge until you need it and comes back to life with a little glug of liquid and a stir. I’d eat this even if I wasn’t a raw-er.

Just because we are raw doesn’t mean we’ve got rid of our need for sweetness. Jane has been craving oats cakes and chocolate (always), I have been eyeing the crispy golden chips at work. But we are both dedicated to this months rawness, we love the idea of this experiment and challenge.

We will be eating this porridge for breakfast and for dessert and, as I mentioned, it will sit happily in the fridge until you have the need for a bowl of goodness. In fact this is sweet two times, with the raisins and honey. Jane has that wicked sweet tooth!

Oat groats are the raw version of rolled oats, which are heated during the process and have had some of the goodness removed. Oat groats are simply the hulled grain.

Next time we makes this we will be using agave syrup as a sweetener and then raw molasses, maybe add some coconut (Jane and her friend shiny Sava have scoffed it all today!) or other nuts. Its a method that demands experimentation.

I realise that some of this raw food has alot in it! Its quite specialised stuff and you cannot avoid a trip to the health store if you would like to go raw. It would be very limiting and as we all know, health stores equal tasty prices. It’s well worth the investment in quality though, we have an apple cider vinegar which is almost my new favourite thing (its contains the mother!) coming just behind the dried seaweed. This diet is opening us up to so many new and interesting food stuffs and already completely changing the way we eat and approach food.

Cinnamon is not necessarily raw, but…c’est la vie!

Raw Honey and Almond Porridge

The Bits
2 cups soaked oat groats, 1 tbsp brown linseeds, 2 cups raw almond milk (or water), 2 teas flaxseed oil (we used local Welsh rape seed oil Blodyn Au, which is delicious), handful of raisins, handful of chopped almonds (soaked overnight, they will swell to twice there size), 1 tbsp really good honey, 1 tsp cinnamon,

Do It
Soak your groats for around 12 hours, they wont sprout. Put into a blender and blitz until smooth, like a thick mash. Add the raisins, honey, oil, seeds and cinnamon and blend again. Then add the heated almond milk (heat just until steam begins to rise) and blend to a smooth puree. Stir in the raisins and nuts and serve as soon as you can. Slightly warm.

Serve

Topped with a couple of nuts and another sprinkle of cinnamon. If you have some soya yoghurt, you may like to spoon a little on top (if its a special occasion).

We Love It!

Soaked nuts are brilliant! We recommend it highly, the have great flavlour, double in size and are healthier.

Foodie Fact

Oat groats are one of the least processed grains, they are rough and take a long time to digest, keeping you nice and full. They are also full of protein.

Categories: Breakfast, Raw Food, Vegan | Tags: almond, breakfast, food, honey, oat groats, organic wholefoods, porridge, raw, recipes, vegan, vegetarian | 6 Comments

Ang’s Avocado and Mango Salad

Posted on June 3, 2012 by leroy watson

Lovely Ang with cake and coffee

This one has floated all the way over from New Zealand. That’s a long way for a recipe to float.

Big hugs and thanks to my ace mate Ang for this one. Ang was a resident of Barcelona, but has recently left Catalonia for her native island, New Zealand. In our topsy-turvy world of hopping around the place, I haven’t seen Ang in way to long, this salad reminds me of the amazing healthy food (and warm cookies) that she used to whip up in Spain when I visited.

This is exactly what we are looking forward to eating this month of raw-ness.

Ang is one of the most thoughtful and loving people I’ve met (not to mention rather amusing). So here is ‘Ang’s Avocado and Mango Salad’ in all its glory, just like Ang, it’s fruity and sweet:

Try this one on for size –

2 avocados
1 mango
1/2 cup corn kernels
1 small onion
1/2 red capsicum/pepper

Dice all of the above into tiny cubes and mix with a dressing made of the following:

1/4 cup oil
2 tbsp lime juice
Clove of garlic, crushed
Fresh red chilli, finely chopped
S&P

Enjoy!
I make this to take to parties or picnics but always leave a portion at home because it’s even better the next day.

This is adapted from a recipe in my beloved ‘The Essential

Vegetarian Cookbook’ by Murdoch books ISBN 0-86411-510-5 in which you also use chopped roma tomatoes, black beans, corriander and rocket.

Do you have a raw recipe we could try?

Ang’s Avocado and Mango Salad

Categories: Friends of B.H.K, gluten-free, Healthy Eating, Healthy Living, Lunch, Raw Food, Recipes, Salads, Vegan | Tags: ang, avocado, capsicum pepper, clove of garlic, cookies, food, healthy eating, healthy food, healthy-living, mango, raw, raw salad, raw vegan, recipe, recipes, red chilli, salad, spain, tiny cubes, vegan, vegetarian | Leave a comment

Raw Hazelnut, Rosemary and Lentil Hummus

Posted on June 2, 2012 by leroy watson

Day two of raw June and I’m feeling good. We have been eating quite a bit of raw food recently, so I wasn’t expecting wonders. Later in the month, who knows, maybe I’ll be sprouting!

I am working in a kitchen at the minute and its the middle of ‘silly season’, so its hard graft. I am finding no problems with the energy and when I eat healthy I find I need less sleep (which is a real help in the catering industry). It does have its advantages, I wont be missing cooking this month that’s for sure! I am also surrounded by temptation, nice looking chips and slabs of cheesecake. It’s a good test. Most of my colleagues think I’m mad, but I’m used to this (for one reason or another). I am definitely eating less and not feeling hungry, I don’t even fancy a coffee anymore, which is rare behavior.

Many people comment that raw food sounds ‘boring’. This recipe is anything but and I find most raw food to be fascinating in its complexity and creativity alone; never mind the health benefits.

This is a real gourmet raw hummus. I thought I’d start as we mean to go on. It contains a lot of ingredients, but it is much more than a dip. This will be the main part of dinner tonight, with an orange, sweet potato and red cabbage salad.

It is rich with the nuts and oil, but does not have the smooth texture of a normal hummus. The flavour is a knockout though and like with alot of health foods, you have the piece of mind that it is doing your body good and providing you with some super nutrients.

We used sprouts here due to the fact that our sprout corner is going mad. At the minute we have a variety of receptacles holding all sorts of seeds and beans. We’ve mung bean, sunflower seed, buckwheat, wheat grains, quinoa and green lentil all in various states of soak and sprout. The mung beans are a staple here, but most of the other ones we’ve either tried and failed with or are completely new to. It’s a great little experiment and the right weather for sprouts. We found it difficult in the winter to get them going and our airing cupboard seemed too warm. Now we have the happy medium of summer (ish) temperatures in Wales.

Sprout Central

We have been soaking our nuts overnight, this helps to release the enzymes and nutrients. They are also softer, better for blending. Hazelnuts are one of the good nuts, peanuts, pistachios and brazil nuts are not goodies. We will still be eating them though, just a little less than before.

It’s worth spending a little more on a good almond milk, the cheaper varieties are thinner and not as creamy.

So here’s our first attempt at a raw hummus:

The Bits
1 cup of hazelnuts, 1 cup sprouting green lentils, 1 cup sprouting chickpeas, 1 handful of dried rosemary, 1/2 cup almond milk, 1/2 cup of extra virgin olive oil (evoo), juice and zest of 1 lemon, 1 tbs raw tahini, 1 tbs flax seeds, 2 cloves of garlic chopped, salt and pepper if you like (I used a dash of Braggs Liquid Aminos instead, it contains naturally occurring sodium and loads of good amino acids).

Do It

This is the easy part, put it all into a blender and blitz until smooth, roughly five minutes should do. If it is sticking or dry, add water as you are blending. This should loosen things up.

Serve

Great as a dip of course, or with a salad. We will be mixing it into chunky chopped vegetables tomorrow.

We Love It!

We Love sprouts! So anything they are in, we are happy about. This recipe is bursting with flavour, the hazelnuts and rosemary work together so well. It has a nice creamy, richness to it, but is low if fat. Hoorah!

Foodie Fact

Sprouting Chickpeas (Garbanzos/ Giggle beans to some) are packed full of protein. They contain more protein than milk! Many vegans and raw food types are asked about how they add protein to their diets, the truth is protein is available in many plant based foods. Nuts and seeds mainly, but sprouts are also a good source.

Chickpeas are full of carbs, but low in fat. A small serving of chickpeas contains around 50% of your daily Vitamin C requirement.

Raw Hazelnut, Rosemary and Lentil Hummus

Categories: Dinner, Healthy Eating, Healthy Living, Low G.I. (glycemic index), Nutrition, Raw Food, Recipes, Snacks and Inbetweens, Vegan | Tags: buckwheat, catering, chickpeas, dips, food, garbanzos, hazelnuts, healthy eating, healthy living, hummus, mung beans, nuts, raw, raw food, raw hummus, recipes, rosemary, sprouting, sprouts, vegetarian | 2 Comments

Why are we raw this June!

Posted on May 31, 2012 by leroy watson

Raw June is here for the Beach House. Jane and I are going cold veggie (and fruit) for the entire month and we both cannot wait to get going.

It really has come around quickly this 100% raw/vegan June adventure. We have both been working quite a bit lately and have had less time to plan for the big plunge than we would have liked, hence the lack of any ‘build-up’ posts. As with most things, we’re going straight in there!

I have a strange excitement in the pit of my stomach and I don’t know why. I know that I will feel alot better and have bags more energy, focus and vitality, but there is the feeling that this could be something very big in my life. It could be a huge lifestyle change for the better, no matter how unconventional it is and no matter how many people call me a ‘weirdo’ (there have been quite a few already) I going for this new diet and looking forward to experimenting with my body and mind in a good way. We are what we eat, well, we shall see.

The main reason for eating raw is that cooking kills nutrients in food. Vitamin C and B are heat sensitive, enzymes are also destroyed when food is cooked, which are essential to the function of the body. If enzymes are not replenished in the body, we can age quickly and loss health. Raw foods have been used for years to treat ailments and illness, most famously by Dr Ann Wigmore,who set up the Hippocrates Health Institute. The truth is that we are exposed to more pollutants than previous generations and our food has less nutrients, even organic food is grown on soil that is less rich than is was in previous times (normally due to bad farming techniques).

Ecologically, if we all ate more raw foods there would be a relief on the planets resources. No cooking conserves energy, there is less packaging (hopefully non) with raw foods, there are no emissions created no processing, the waste is compostable and biodegradable, meaning no rubbish.

Below is the Raw Food Pyramid (thanks to the Almost Raw Vegan for this), this replaces the average diet with meat, dairy etc and will give you an idea of what we will be munching on in June. We are eating no dairy, refined foods, wheat etc and no alcohol or caffeine. Our diet will consist of many different types of salads, smoothies and juices and another host of interesting raw foods that you will seldom find, especially in the UK where raw food is still a relatively new thing. In the States and Australia for example, raw food seems to be very popular. Many people say that raw food will become the new vegetarianism for this generation, I have already seen restaurants with raw options on the menu.

We have always eaten alot of raw food, we just didn’t necessarily call it ‘raw’, just a salad or a smoothie. We will try and be as close to 100% raw as possible, but aren’t really too fussy about things. We’ll still be drinking herbal teas and if our new lovely looking olive oil is not certified raw, we’ll still use it. The same goes for nuts, seeds, dried fruits, pastes etc which are all borderline raw foods. We love these items too much and deem their nutritional values to be too important to eliminate from our diet.

We hope to open a few people’s eyes, minds and palates to the joys of raw food. Raw food is nutrient rich, meaning you don’t need to eat or digest as much. When you are eating a bag of crisps, or packet of biscuits, the reason you are not getting full is because they are devoid of nutrients. Your body needs the right fuel! A raw diet puts that fuel in and makes it readily available. We have had a few days almost raw already and the we have been buzzing! I went for my normal jog and needed to extend it a little, up the mountain. I couldn’t stop! With raw food, your body needs less energy for digestion, which can be utilised in other beneficial ways.

The body has clearly define cycles or natural rhythms:

12pm-8pm Digestion cycle

8pm-4am Absorption cycle

4am – 12pm Elimination cycle

The raw diet will help to cleanse our system of toxins and bring us into balance. After gradually eating healthier for a number of years (we are not just diving in here, we have been eating well for a while now) my body is quite sensitive to toxins and rich foods. I sometimes get what is called a food ‘hangover’ after a cheese or chocolate binge, I will be glad to be free of them. Raw food is devoid of toxins and packed with nutrients. There is a popular raw slogan, ‘stop counting calories and start counting nutrients’. It makes perfect sense to me that what we eat has a profound effect on our bodies and minds. What we consume affects us on ways that we cannot see or know. Raw food seems like a stepping stone for me to a greater understanding of my body and what makes me tick, what makes me truly happy.

Raw food will also free up so much time, as I mentioned we are both busy this summer with work, so not cooking will allow us to do other things. The garden is definitely looking like it needs some TLC.

We will be taking alot of inspiration from our fellow bloggers of the cyber world and also have some good books. ‘Eat Smart, Eat Raw’ by Kate Wood being one of the main ones. Written by a Brit for British folk, mainly important because we don’t have the plethora of fruits and veggies that many countries enjoy. We also have the long cold, dark winters, where soup is our best friend and a chilled smoothie seems like a difficult proposition.

We will be supplementing our diets with a few superfood-type bits. Jane picked up some Barley Grass at the health food shop and that is supposed to be super charged stuff. We will also be drinking propolis daily, which is a bee resin with amazing properties. We’ll be writing about it soon. We will also be sure to drink plenty of water, as this seems to be important no matter what foods you are eating. Become more fluid! It is worth noting that many mineral waters are not organic and the best water you can drink is water that has been treated by reverse osmosis, this is pure H2O. You should also not drink water, or any liquid with meals, as it affects digestion and absorption (diluting stomach acids).

So we are going out in a blaze of intoxication tonight. We said we wouldn’t, but we are. It is a relatively decadent evening with some smoked stilton with sparkling wine planned, followed by some of the finest chocolate I have ever tasted (post coming soon..).

Raw June, a time when we in the Beach House gain a greater awareness and respect for the foods we eat and the bodies we inhabit; a time when we gain a new insight into the world of nutrition and the impact it has on us.

Jane and I are both very positive about all of this, which we feel is crucial, as our mental state has a more profound effect on our health than anything else.

Happy Days!

Categories: Blogs, Healthy Eating, Healthy Living, Organic, Raw Food, Vegan | Tags: alcohol, ann wigmore, body, caffiene, chocolate, cycles, diet, digestive system, dr ann wigmore, ecology, fluid, food, health, healthy eating, healthy living, healthy-living, herbal Tea, hippocrates health institute, lifestyle, mineral water, natural rhythms, nutrients, nutrients in food, nutrition, nuts, raw, raw food, raw vegan, seeds, superfood, tea, vegan, vegetarian, worlds healthiest diet | 8 Comments

Apricot, Avocado and Kiwi Smoothie

Posted on May 26, 2012 by leroy watson

Apricots

Today’s smooth one came out rather nice. The richness of avocado and the zing of kiwi, with the touch of sweetness from the apricot. A well-balanced cup of goodness.

Jane and I had just taken a long walk down to Trigonos Organic Farm in the nearby Nantlle valley. It has been an absolutely stunning day in the hills. We popped down to see Pete and the gang and also managed to pick up some delicious little onions, carrots and potatoes. Pete grows some really interesting, rare varieties.

Down on the farm, Trigonos (taken in April with snow on the hills)

It is all go down there at this time of year, as it is in our own garden and we are picking up many tips from the wise bunch at Trigonos. Today we learnt to always water your seedlings at night, especially when sunny. There seems so many do’s and dont’s when it comes to gardening, I have just been sticking seeds in pots and the earth and hope for a bloom. We shall see…

Nantlle Valley and a black pony

So smoothies. We needed something filling, I was shooting off to work , so this is a nice thick one, reminiscent of a milkshake with its creaminess, but without all that fat. Avocados are excellent for this, creaminess without the cow. I’m sure all vegans will agree!

Happy blending!

The Bits

Makes enough for two cups:

1 avocado (seeded and scooped out), 4 apricots (de-stoned), 2 kiwis (peeled and quartered), 1 cup of soya milk (or milk of your choice)

Do It

In the blender, blitz for a short time until smooth.

Serve

In the nicest glasses available, will also make a delicious smooth topping for a fruit salad or dessert (ie CAKE!), you may need to add a little something sweet to the mix, maybe honey or dates would be nice.

Foodie Fact

Avocados are technically berries and are sometimes called alligator pears. They contain a wide range of vitamins and fat (good fats, they’re full of fibre), which is actually a good thing for raw foodist. We will be needing alot of avocados in a few days (see raw June)! Avocados actually help your nutrition absorption by up to 300-400%.

Apricot, Avocado and Kiwi Smoothie

Categories: Desserts, Garden, gluten-free, Healthy Eating, Local food, Raw Food, Recipes, Smoothies | Tags: apricot, avocado, black pony, blender, energy, fat, food, garden, gardening, good fats, hiking, kiwi, nantlle valley, nature, north wales area, photography, photos, pony, rare varieties, smooth one, smoothie, soya milk, sweet, trigonos nantlle, wales, walking, work | Leave a comment

Pineapple and Blueberry Juice

Posted on May 25, 2012 by leroy watson

Pineapple and Blueberries make happy

This mornings juice worked out a treat. The sun is out again, which is a rarity and always cherished. All the windows and doors are open as the Beach House breathes in the warm air. It has been a long cold winter, we need all the sun we can get!

There has been a pineapple ripening on the window ledge for weeks now, getting nice and sweet, waiting for just such a day; when we can close our eyes and outside, drift off with the birdsong. Maybe imagine that there are palm trees swaying above us and pineapples grow freely in the next field. Instead its a fuchsia bush and potatoes that grow, but I wouldn’t change it.

I had the good fortune to stumbled across some luscious looking organic blueberries (unfortunately not from this island) which will complement our lovely tropical friend, adding their vivid dark colour and nutrients to proceedings.

I started the Magimix up and here the rest is here:

The Bits

Half a pineapple chopped into chunks, two good handfuls of blueberries.

Do It

Stick it in the Magimix, blueberries first, followed by the pineapple. We always juice like this, always dense and concentrated first, followed by something juicy/ watery. You will get better extraction of juices.

Pineapple and Blueberry Juice

Serve

Your favourite wine glasses!

Foodie Fact

To grow pineapples all you need to do is chop off the top and plant it! It does take years to grow (which heightens my respect for the fruit) and very tropical conditions. Our pineapple tops add a tropical flavour to our compost bin!

Buster takes in some sun

Categories: Breakfast, Garden, Healthy Eating, Juices, Organic, Raw Food, Recipes, Relax, Vegan, Wales | Tags: blueberry, breakfast, britain, cats, compost bin, food, fruit, garden, grow, health, healthy living, juice, juicing, long cold winter, magimix, organic, pineapple, recipes, summer, sun, tropical flavour, vegan, vegetarian, wales, weather | 2 Comments

Pear and Peanut Smoothie

Posted on May 22, 2012 by leroy watson

Rampant Azaleas

This one was made to top the Sunbeam Fruit Salad but is delicious served straight up.

We needed something creamy, so I was dragged away from the juicer for a day. It was time for a smoothie.

The peanut butter adds a lovely creaminess and bags of energy and the kiwi has a nice sharpness to it. Pears are always buttery and bitty.

It is vegan and supercharged to get you buzzing come the morn.

This is enough for 2 glasses (and one left for later). Just peel the kiwi, the rest is best with skins and seeds in we think.

The Bits

2 pears (chopped), 1 large apple (chopped), 1 handful of spinach leaves, 2 kiwi fruits, 1 large tbs of chunky peanut butter (organic, with not too much salt), 2 cups of soya milk (or the milk of something that you prefer).

Do It

Pop all in a blender and blitz up until smooth.