What is eating raw?

By Grace Lee

The first time when I first heard the term eating raw; all I could think of were salads and fruits. It was not until when I stumbled upon Wild Food Café at Covent Garden in London did I know there is a whole new way of nourishing oneself.  There was not only a complete variety of appetizers to mains that were flavorful and colorful, but there also desserts including cakes and cookies!   

I got hooked on eating raw for a while and took a couple certificate courses in order to understand more about this topic.  My first finding was that raw food can actually come in warm!  That was a surprise to me.  The definition of raw food is that as long as the food has not been heated above 116 degrees, it is considered raw.  Which means a zucchini pasta can actually be dressed in a warm tomato sauce.  Or I can enjoy a bowl of warm vegetable soup during the winter. 

So what’s the reason for keeping everything heated under 116 degrees? It is because of this, the nutrients and enzymes are kept. There are a lot of naturally occurring nutrients and enzymes in raw foods, they are considered to be the food’s most nourishing parts.  When foods are exposed to above 116 degrees, these nutrients and enzymes are damaged.  Also, raw foods stay in the stomach for far less time than cooked foods.  Which means your digestive system has less to do; thus feeling lighter, more energetic.

I remember after a few weeks into eating raw, I was really missing eating something sweet.    Today I am sharing with you a recipe I developed that incorporates a few super foods as ingredients.  They’re handy and super delicious.  I might not be eating raw everyday but raw cookies remain as one of my favorite raw recipes.  I make them in my dehydrator, but if you set your oven to the lowest possible temperature, it’ll work too.

Super Sesame Raw Cookies

Ingredients:

Raw Cashew Flour 2 1/4 cup (or 2 cups of cashew and 1/4 cup of pecan or pistachio flour)

Oat Flour 1 1/3 cup

Black Sesame powder 4 tbsp

White Sesame seeds1-2 tbsp

Maple Syrup 1/3 cup

Wolfberries ¼ cup

Vanilla extract 1 tbsp

Sea Salt ½ tsp

Method:

1. If you are using raw cashews, blitz the cashews in a high-speed blender. You want to blend the cashew until it turns into flour form, and take care not to over blend it or it will turn into butter.  You can also use store bought cashew flour. 
2. For the oat flour, you can also blitz rolled oats in the same way. Alternatively you can also use store bought oat flour.
3. In a large bowl, mix together the cashew flour, oat flour, black sesame powder, white sesame seeds and salt.
4. Stir the maple syrup and vanilla extract into the flour mixture until it resembles a crumbly texture.
5. Finally add in the wolfberries.
6. Form the mixture into balls in your palms. They should be about 1.5” in diameter.  Slightly flatten the balls to form cookies.
7. Dehydrate them in your dehydrator at 110 degrees for 6 hours; or place them in the oven at the lowest possible setting.