Raw Truth: The Art of Preparing Living Foods

Rating:
Summary: Raw Beginners Book: Simple Recipes and Some Exotic Flavours
Review: Jeremy Saffron has done a good job compiling information on some of the more obscure fruits and veggies for the beginner to identify for further inquiry. Soak and sprouting times are nice and handy for the most used seeds, legumes, nuts and beans.

Some of the Recipes call for exotic ingredients such as amasake, durian, sapote, nigari and carambola. I do think that this is a good thing because for the motivated beginner, it will instigate the reader into searching out and becoming familiar with the asian, indonesian and filipino markets that many of these ingredients are from.

I do think that a bit more on the side of specifics of preperation could have been written. Fermentation, dehydrating and description of the exotic ingredients would have really helped out a few of the recipes. However, I really do like the descriptions of how he has used some of the recipes and what they might best be accompanied with. I have made entire delicious dinners to serve 6 people with his recommendations and very high appeasment from my guests.

I do have to say a few things about the rawness of this book however. Braggs Liquid Aminos is NOT raw, and he uses it frequently in his book, as does Rita Romano in her book "Dining in the Raw". There is a LIVING (the difference between Living and Raw is that Raw is nothing more than a living specimine from the vegetable kingdom, while LIVING reffers to a particularly enzymatically active cultured food, such as Nama Shoyu (( which is what I suggest instead of Braggs Liquid Aminos)), Kimchee, Sauerkraut or unpasturized Pickles. These all contain beneficial bacteria which has not been heated and is considered living) form of soy sauce called Nama Shoyu and it is a great alternative, although it is not Raw either. Himalayan Salt is the best alternative and is full of trace minerals.

All together this is a great start for delicious recipes with a distinctly exotic flare from specific areas of the globe, particularly Asia. I recommend this book to vets and newcommers alike who want a different look on the raw foods movement that is happening right now.

One last thing, this book lacks pictures with the exception of the 2 pages in the middle with 8 pictures total of some of the more pretty recipes. Do your best in making these recipes look great for any guests you might have as it will increase their acceptance of anything without meat. I find that other books with an abundance of pictures are more easy to follow in how the recipe should look.