Here are our raw vegan recipes designed to give your body a break from traditional animal food favorites and cooked food in general.
Sometimes, it is good to eat a raw vegan diet for periods of time, eliminating the acidic nature of meat, dairy and lifeless cooked food. Depending on your own unique level of health, this could mean making it a regular dietary lifestyle or it could mean eating this way for days, weeks or months.
A raw food cookbook can be the way to get inspired for a raw vegan way of life. Juliano's RAW "Uncook" Book, is a classic and great one to start with for converting any "traditional" dish into its "raw" counterpart, with more flavor and WAY more living energy!
We have included a summary below of our typical raw food diet plan throughout the course of a day. Although, our raw vegan recipes change here and there, typically we adhere to some basic rules that seem to work well.
Raw Vegan Recipes
~~~~~~~~~~~~TO DRINK~~~~~~~~~~~
We believe in "liquid nutrition." It is important to begin the day with lots of liquids and blended foods that rehydrate the cells, providing immediate nutritive energy and bowel movement.
First thing, is to hydrate the body with spring water and lemon. Next, are any micro-nutrients. These are great to take when the stomach is empty. I usually take them straight mixed into a small glass of water. On any given day this might include, camu camu, msm, aloe vera, kelp, Vitamineral Green, chlorella or others.
After that, we often like to start our day off with juicing a nice glass of fresh juice. It is important to get greens and alkaline foods into your diet and this is an excellent way to do so. See our favorite juicing recipes that are also great for detoxing before any meals.
Next, by mid day or mid morning, a nice raw shake recipe or superfood smoothie recipe, depending on the energy we are expending during the earlier part of the day.
Our raw drink recipes usually always include herbal tea recipes as the base. This provides full on nutrition that is easily assimilated and blended within a yummy beverage. Though, not considered "raw vegan", herbal teas are an important source of liquid nutrients that are part of our superfood lifestyle. For those who are strict raw vegans, you can make sun tea without stove heating or many people use herbs in raw powdered form.
The Chinese tonics and Ayurvedic herbs are an essential part of a superhealthy diet plan. We incorporate these longevity teas whenever possible.
Our nut milk recipes and almond milk are great to add a little creaminess to your tonic teas. Nut milk is a great "cow's milk" replacement to blend into a shake.
As we mentioned, we promote eating less, but making what you do eat count as far as optimal nutrition and calories needed.
We usually tend to eat 1 or 2 main meals a day, depending on season or energy expended.
I find that eating a big heavy meal in the middle of the day weighs me down and is not really necessary when I can make a blended drink or raw soup recipe that digests faster and gives me the vitality required to accomplish amazing things in a relaxed, harmonious way.
On a hot summer day, as a refreshing afternoon drink, a nice glass of goji berry lemonade might hit the spot or a cold, sweet chickweed Orange Julius.
An enzyme rich drink of my homemade coconut kefir recipe is also an excellent way to get friendly flora.
My husband also loves to drink kombucha for a mid day energy beverage or pour it into a wine glass for an alcohol substitute. See his kombucha recipe for basics on how to make. I personally prefer rejuvelac instead of kombucha.
Raw Vegan Recipes
~~~~~~~~~~~~TO EAT~~~~~~~~~~~
When I do crave an early to mid morning meal, I make a chia porridge recipe that sustains me after a long run or yoga workout.... or I can make a superfood-protein packed protein bar recipe!
Later in the day, to start a main entree, I might decide to make a nice salad with some wild edible greens, like miners lettuce or salad burnet, whatever is conveniently located outside my door, in the garden or picked on a hike in the country.
Perhaps our raw kale salad recipe with some homemade croutons is just the thing before a main meal. It is great all by itself or aside heavier nut based raw foods. I also love to add home sprouted super sprouts that are fresh with life-force to my salad combo's.
We use nuts and seeds in pate's, burgers, taco's and our raw hummus recipe to add a little more fat and protein. My husbands raw sprouted buckwheat pizza crust recipe can provide a scrumptious, raw, power packed pizza when you get the pizza craving! He is also particularly talented at making raw gourmet macaroni and cheese recipe with raw cheddar cheese and raw pasta.
When I eat raw vegan recipes, I like to also eat them with some kind of fermented food, to increase digestion with even more enzymes.
(Also see our fermented food recipes for more info on a great new book for anyone new to the world of fermented and cultured foods.)
Although we promote a "high" raw food diet, we also on occasion eat some cooked foods, see our healthy cooking recipes. When we do eat cooked foods, we like to also eat a portion of raw or fermented foods with them to aid digestion.
Raw Vegan Recipes
~~~~~~~~~TO SNACK ON~~~~~~~~
I gave up eating bread along time ago, but sometimes I get cravings for it or something that is salty and crunchy.
Our onion bread recipe, sprouted grain bread and chips and cracker recipes hit the spot, yet still retain nutritive value without being overly processed.
I have also created one of the best raw granola recipes that we also like to eat as a cereal for breakfast or a mid day snack, especially helpful as a "comfort food" if you need it!
Raw Vegan Recipes
~~~~~~~~~~~~TO SAVOR~~~~~~~~~~~
Our raw vegan recipes, of course, include occasion indulgences. Sometimes I will actually eat a "dessert" as a mid day meal.
Most of our healthy dessert recipes are superfood fuel for the body, so you can savor their richness, yet use their ingredients to power your day, the superhero way!
We sometimes love to use raw cacao beans once in awhile, but tend to blend them into drinks and cacao recipes that we eat during the earlier part of the day.
Depending on the person, cacao can be somewhat stimulating and, therefore, should be honored and respectfully blended into raw vegan recipes with certain herbs and cushioned with fats, like coconut oil or nuts and seeds! Or try using carob instead! Visit our carob-coconut cream pie recipe for a delicious way to use carob powder.
Enjoy these raw vegan recipes with your family and friends. Have a raw vegan week and experiment with how this food makes you FEEL!!
