Choosing raw?

Choosing Raw’s Sprout Salad with Smoky Guacomole as prepared and munched by I Can Has Cook?

It’s been quiet around these here parts of late, the reasons for which there are two.

1) I had a little bit of a cold there over the weekend which Niall kindly brought home with him from Oxegen. So it seems one doesn’t even have to go to Oxegen to have a bad experience related to it, how jolly!

and, more importantly,

2) I’ve been re-evaluating my diet and coming to terms with perhaps maybe definitely becoming a vegetarian. At least, a part-time vegetarian. Like Monday to Friday. 9am to 5pm. I’m not sure yet. Clearly.

At any rate, a detox was needed. I’ve spent the summer, nay, the last year and a half, indulging myself in all manners of boldness, all of which I have thoroughly enjoyed. The downside of becoming a better cook is that I’ve been able to make myself more and more bold things.

The time has come to change things in order to give myself more energy as well as a bit of extra room in my jeans.

Inspired by @rctrcollective and @niamhconroy, I decided to go raw for a few days last week to kick-start a healthier eating regime for the coming months as a way to counteact the lethargy I’ve been feeling of late.

I ate entirely raw foods for three days and have found it very useful in helping me to get back on the healthy food wagon.

I must make it clear though that this detox diet was really easy for me. I genuinely love fruit and vegetables. Henceforth, it is really not a problem for me to eat raw food for a few days.

I’ve gone on detox diets in the past that left me miserable. Completely counter-productive.

If going on a raw food only diet sounds like a challenge, then it may not be for you. Eating is about pleasure, not just sustenance. So don’t ruin vegetables for yourself by forcing it down. If you like eating fruit and veg, try to eat nothing but that for a few days. You might feel lovely.

The raw diet is not one that I want to commit to full time. That would be very, very difficult. I like eating out too much.

Instead, I’m personally going to try to incorporate more raw meals into my diet, every other day, say, to ensure that I’m getting the full use (nutritionally) out of my veg, rather than boiled to bejaysus broccoli.

Cheat sheet: I did not give up coffee or hummus during my detox because that would have had unbearable consequences and possible insanity for myself and those around me for the period of the detox.

The lovely Aoife from My Adventures in Veg pointed us in the direction of a few very useful Raw Food blogs.

Choosing Raw was the site which appealed to me most, as I found the recipes were well tested and also I really like the author Gena’s philosophy and her almost understated advocacy of an all raw diet. As someone who upholds a semi-raaw vegan diet, she recognises that going totally raw doesn’t sit well with the majority of people, and instead she helps suggest ways of introducing more raw produce into your diet, which is certainly a very good thing.

Definitely check out her blog for loads of useful tips about what going raw actually means as well as loads of lovely recipes, including this brilliant recipe for Sprout Salad with Smoky Guacomole. Seriously, so, so, so good. Using Choosing Raw made this the only enjoyable detox diet I’ve ever been on.

Categories: Lunch

I Can Has Cook?

Tackling the culinary and grammatical arts in simultaneous mouthfuls.

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