Hello! When the weather outside is frightful, nourishing raw food is delightful. In this issue we talk about ways to take the chill out of winter with nourishing soups you can prepare in no time.
And for those of you who live in the Bay Area, I'll be doing a Raw Food Made Easy lecture, demo, and booksigning in Oakland on January 7. Click here for all the details.
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| Raw Food For Raw Weather |  Cold weather is stressful on your body, but nutritional raw food can help you beat the stress by providing extra vitamins, minerals, and nutrients to your system. That will give you the fuel you need for holiday shopping, holiday entertaining, sleigh rides, and snow ball fights.
'Raw food' does not necessarily mean 'cold food.' You don't have to eat veggies and fruits straight from the refrigerator. Put them on the counter and allow them to come to room temperature before you eat them or use them in a recipe.
Another way to turn up the heat in raw food is with spice. Warm spices like cinnamon, clove, ginger, cardamom, and cayenne aid digestion and warm your body by increasing circulation.
Of course food isn't the only way to warm up in the winter. Exercise keeps blood flowing to your extremities, making them feel toasty. Hot baths and saunas will raise your core temperature, too, as well as soothe aching muscles and relieve stress.
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Heat 'N' Eat
|  You can warm raw food ingredients AND preserve their naturally good flavor and nutrition in a nice blended soup that has been gently warmed on the stovetop for a few minutes, taking care not to overheat it.
At higher temperatures, the nutrients in food begin to change. But you can warm food up to 115 degrees F without fear of destroying the vital enzymes that make food nutritious. A simple food thermometer will help you keep track of this.
One soup you'll definitely enjoy -- warm or cold -- is my Cream of Tomato soup. Like all my recipes it's super easy and really delicious. Just place tomatoes, water, garlic, and seasonings in a blender and process until smooth. Add a little avocado and olive oil for creaminess and blend again until smooth. A bit of dill weed added at the end completes the dish.
Click here for the recipe.
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Blended Soups, A Different Kind of Smoothie
| A hearty bowl of soup filled with vegetables is a satisfying meal. But sometimes you want something that goes down easy. When that happens, I recommend a velvety smooth blended soup.
A good blended soup starts with the following components: water, vegetables, fat, citrus juice, seasonings, and salt. The vegetables should be soft, such as zucchini, cucumber, tomato, red bell pepper, or greens. I avoid root and cruciferous vegetables in these soup recipes. Roots, such as carrots and beets, become grainy when blended; and cruciferous vegetables, such as cabbage, broccoli, and collard greens, are too strongly flavored for raw soups.
The best fat to use is avocado-it gets creamy when blended and adds richness without heaviness. Good citrus juices are lemon, lime, and orange; seasonings can include garlic, onion, cayenne, and fresh or dried herbs. To season the soup, use salt or miso. Miso adds a deep flavor similar to meat stock.
Begin making your raw soup by blending the water and the softest vegetables. If you like your soup thick, use less water. Don't add too much lemon, salt, cayenne, or garlic; you can always spice it up later. Add the greens, avocado, and fresh herbs last, to avoid over-blending them.
For the best flavor, serve immediately. A chilled soup should be refrigerated for 2 hours before serving. If you want to take the soup with you, transfer it to a glass mason jar. It will keep for six hours at room temperature.
Garnish your raw soup with a drizzle of Ranch Dressing (you can see this garnish in the picture of the Cream of Tomato Soup above) or a sprinkle of minced fresh herbs.
Get the Ranch Dressing recipe here.
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That's it for now. But you don't have to wait until your next newsletter to satisfy your appetite for raw food information. The 'door' to my website is always open, so I hope you'll drop in to feed your need for cooking tips, follow-along video demonstrations, news about my classes and speaking engagements...and of course a recipe box full of raw food dishes you can create in minutes. Just head over to www.learnrawfood.com to join in the fun. Best wishes until we meet again.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Cornbleet
Learn Raw Food |
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Top of the Chops: Blenders
| |  Pictured Above: Kitchenaid KSB560 Blender.
A blender can be one of the most versatile kitchen appliances you own. It can quickly and easily make your favorite smoothie or puree vegetables to make healthy blended soups. But with so many to choose from, it can bet mighty confusing.
For most raw food cooks, an inexpensive blender should do nicely. In fact, all the recipes in my original version of Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 People and Raw for Dessert can be prepared with a basic blender.
Here are three brands that I consider 'top of the chops' and the features I like best about each one.
* Oster Classic Beehive - At just under $60, Oster's 500-watt, 5-cup capacity blender is surprisingly powerful--and the price is right! It has two blending speeds and comes with a nice-sized glass container that's easy to clean.
* Vitamix TurboBlend - This is the 'gold standard' in blenders. You can chop, cream, blend, grind, churn, and more with this one machine. One of the nice things about it is the spill-proof vented lid with plug that allows you to add ingredients safely while the appliance is running
* Kitchenaid KSB560 Blender (pictured above) - This mid-priced blender ($150) features a polycarbonate pitcher that resists scratches and stains and the base has four non-slip rubber feet to ensure stability during operation. It has five blending speeds which gives you a lot of flexibility.
And if you travel the way I do, a small, take-along model like the Tribest Personal Blender is a great addition to your culinary 'wardrobe.'
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Best of the Blog
| Best of the Blog
In November, the blog at LearnRawFood was an electic mix of stories and tips about a variety of subjects. If you haven't already read them, click on any of the titles below to catch up.
* Entertaining with Raw Food Recipes
* Fresh Breath with Raw Food Recipes
* Relax with A Raw Food 'Chocolate' Malt
* Raw Cacao to Calm You and Your Cravings
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