Budget Friendly Raw Recipes

The summer heat has been brutal this week, 110 degrees was the high while we were running errands at 4 PM today according to hubby’s car and it felt like it.

I’ve been lugging lots of bottles of ice water with me and spent most of today inside catching up on housework while getting the stink eye from unhappy chihuahuas wanting to go for a walk.

I tried to explain these temps aren’t safe for them, but that went over like a lead balloon.

Eating a high-raw diet is a snap in this heat, the last thing I’m craving are hot foods. Last night I cracked open a new book I got for a birthday gift – Raw Foods on a Budget by Brandi Rollins.

I was wiped after a long work week and drawing blanks on what to make for dinner with limited ingredients in the kitchen. So I flipped through this book looking for quick recipes I actually had the ingredients for and found a brilliant recipe for a lemony kale salad that came together in minutes and gave me a great excuse to use some kale from our garden.

It called for the kale to be rolled and sliced into thin strips which was fast and simple.

And made a fun, noodle-like shape and texture of the kale once it was massaged in a bowl with vinegar and salt. The recipe also added hemp seeds, nutritional yeast, cumin, garlic powder, and coriander for a simple, but flavorful blend.

I served it with simple edamame for a fast, but hearty dinner.

What really impressed me about this salad was hubby liked it as much as I did, it had a tangy, savory, and rich flavor with wonderful textures from the kale and hemp seeds. Massaging the kale in a bowl before adding the rest of the ingredients removed the bitterness raw kale can sometimes have while softening the tough texture and keeping it raw at the same time. And I adored that this salad had such a simple ingredient list while being very nutrient dense.

I liked the seasonings so much, I remixed them a bit for another cool, loaded dinner salad tonight.

My impressions on Raw Foods on a Budget so far are great, there’s a lot of great information on a raw diet with simple and fast recipes containing more everyday ingredients that many vegans already have in their kitchen. I’ve already flagged many more recipes in the book I can’t wait to try and love the author’s passion for a raw vegan diet after going through a health low in her college years while and living on a lot of fast food. It’s a great read for those dabbling with raw vegan recipes to veteran high raw vegans.