Raw

"Gourmet raw cuisine"--if that sounds like an oxymoron, you'll be amazed by the creativity of the recipes in this book. Every food is "live" (uncooked) in these vegetarian recipes from Juliano, the raw food guru of Los Angeles. Juliano believes that fruits, vegetables, nuts, grains, beans and seeds in their rawest and purest form are the most nourishing foods. If your imagination stops at alfalfa sprouts and grated carrots, hold onto your cutting board. Juliano's recipes include Butternut Squash Soup, New Moon Fruit Stew, Thai Green Papaya Salad, Living Buckwheat Pizza Crust, Mango Essene Bread, Mock Salmon Sushi, Raw Spring Rolls, seven varieties of burritos, nine varieties of pizza and nine unusual smoothies. Desserts? Try EZ Pudding (made with maple syrup, avocados and carob powder) or Cashew Gelato (cashew butter, maple syrup and almonds, served frozen). There are also condiments, dressings and sauces, and plenty of information about preparing raw foods, including how to soak and sprout beans, grains, seeds and nuts.

It may seem like cheating, but a food dehydrator is permitted to "bake" pizza, cookies and breads. It blows hot air, but never heats foods hotter than 120 degrees F, which, claims Juliano, "allows all the delicate nutrients that are usually burned out of cooked foods to remain intact." Raw is filled with gorgeous colour photos of the foods in all their vibrant colours and a number of photos of the vibrant Juliano (not in the raw). "Before you know it," says Juliano, "you'll be Raw and loving it." --Joan Price, Amazon.com

View other editions of Raw.
View books by Juliano, Erika Lenkert.

It's great if you like salt... - Rated
First of all, this is a good book with plenty of great recipes and inspirations etc etc etc. However, I find Juliano's technique is best suited to someone who owns a restaurant or at least has nothing else to do all day except prepare food. For someone like me with a full time job, a wife and a child the recipes are completely impractical since a lot of the recipes need to be dehydrated for up to 13 hours and most of them refer to other recipes in the book. You think you're going to spend half an hour making something only to find that the recipe requires a condiment detailed on another page that takes half a day to make.

For example, I decided to make the raw carrot cake. It said "this is the tastiest *20 minute* carrot cake you'll ever blah blah blah...". The first line of the recipe says "Soak the dates for 2 hours". The making of the carrot cake may take 20 minutes but the preparation of the ingredients could take up the best part of your evening.

I use it as a source of inspiration rather than a recipe book simply because I don't have a dehydrator and if I did I certainly wouldn't use it for the huge lengths of time that Juliano recommends - life's just too darned short. He owns a restaurant so his job involves making food all day long and he is required to have the well-stocked kitchen that he describes but unfortunately I don't. In short, it's a hugely impractical but wonderfully inspiring book that I can recommend if you can spare the money.

Also he uses way too much salt. But that's just my opinion.

Inspirational - Rated
This beautiful book may not be geared toward 'raw novices' like myself, but I encourage anyone who is even playing with the idea of going raw to buy it. Juliano's bottomless enthusiasm for clean cuisine is infectious, his creativity exceptional. This is not 'functional food', it is designed for the pleasure of all senses, from nature's finest possible ingredients. I am reminded every time I look at it that to go raw is to give up absolutely nothing of value; the gains are immeasurable. 'Raw' is a beautiful example of what can be done with a bit of creativity - and, to be honest, quite a lot of money. It's a worthwhile investment - the bounty inside this book will feed me well for a long time. I could never, ever, ever have come up with these recipes myself!

Great! But complicated - Rated
I love this food and the recipes are great but beware that this type of cuisine requires a lot of expensive equipment purchases, such as a juicer and dehydrator. Also, some of the dishes have over a dozen "ingredients", many of which, are full-page recipes themselves. I have more than once found myself lost in the complications especially when there are 7 or more "recipes" for one dish -- and I am an advanced cook with chef training.

Another thing to be aware of is the time and planning. You can't just say "hmmm I would really like falafel burritos today" totally out of the blue, and then make it. The prep time for sprouting and soaking starts 3 or 4 days ahead of time. But this is really a critique of the cuisine and not of the book itself.

One more caveat is that you may have trouble finding some of the ingredients, especially if you don't live near a city that supports many varieties of ethnic groceries. I have been completely unable to find kaffir lime leaves, black cumin or sun dried lime and have had to order these online.

If you are a raw-foody convert and willing to spend the time, money and planning involved in this "lifestyle". I say lifestyle because that is what this food discipline requires. If that is the case, you will enjoy countless hours of bliss preparing and enjoying these wonderful recipes.

If you are new to the kitchen, I would recommend some food preparation training before attempting it, especially before making the investment in the books and equipment.

Have you got all day? - Rated
I bought this book on recommendation from the Amazon readers but found that the recipes took huge amounts of time to prepare and often needed a stack of ingredients you can't buy in UK (one called for something like 3 different types of beet; I can't even find *raw* beet here!). While I accept that raw recipes often allow (or force) you to be creative, I decided it wasn't the book for me. Pity, because I'm sure the recipes are great, when you finally sit down to eat them!

The best food you'll eat. - Rated
Having gone on a 7 day detox fast with two colemas a day in Thailand, followed by a week of raw food from a world renowned vegetarian restaurant, I was happy to find this book sitting on my doormat when I returned.
Really amazing...quite incredible, just THE best food i've ever eaten , oh and it just happens to all be food that will substantially change the way you feel for the better.
A real gourmet raw food book, where to fulfill the recipes you'll need to find such ingredients as 'sun dried lime' or 'sprouted kamut',
A lot of recipes have ten or more ingredients, but once you jump in and begin to have a store of most of them and are building up jars of the 'sub' ingredients, such as Mexican Chutney (sun dried lime and black cumin), you'll be well away.
Perhaps not the best starter raw food book, particularly if you live no where near a really well stocked health store, but for the more initiated or adventurous, THE best.