Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Energy Soup and My First 21 Days

Raw Family’s All New:Stupendously Magnificent, Outstandingly Exceptional,Green Spinach Soup

When I was going through my slog of raw food material a few weeks ago, I found some stuff I printed out from Creative Health Institute in 2005. It was about Energy Soup. I decided to start making some soups for myself. Energy Soup was made famous by Dr. Ann Wigmore.

Energy Soup recipes usually consist of:

-Rejuvelac, or lemon and water, and sea vegetables

-un-sweet fruit (tomatoes, cucumbers, sweet pepper or squash)

-sweet fruit-celery for salt and potassium

-greens

-avocado (or banana, sesame seeds, or sunflower seeds) to thicken-shredded fruit, veggies, or dehydrated soup chunks (to chew)

(from 2005 issue of Creative Health Institute Newsletter)

Life is weird because over at The Daily Raw Cafe, Terilynn is doing the same thing. I had a Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure Moment. I was like, "Woah, dude. That is weird." But we are both busy moms, so it's no surprise we both gravitated toward Energy Soup. I've said many times that I'd been good at avoiding green juices, smoothies, and soups. My first soup was from the February 2005 Raw Family newsletter. I had printed it out on 11/7/06, so that means I'd always known this is what I needed. Here is the recipe:
Raw Family’s All New:Stupendously Magnificent, Outstandingly Exceptional,Green Spinach Soup
3 Small avocados (or one extra large)
2 Red bell peppers
½ Bunch cilantro
½ Bunch Organic Spinach
2 Small lemons (without seeds)
3 Cups pure water
1 Small jalapeno pepper
½ Teaspoon celtic sea salt (optional)
Put all the ingredients in a Vita-Mix blender and blend well using the tamper.Once the ingredients are well blended, pour the soup into a large bowl.Add thinly sliced napa cabbage or red cabbage and dulse leaves or flakes. Serves 6

I cut the recipe in half and used my $20 Osterizer blender from Target. It worked just fine. And how did the soup taste? GREAT! I was shocked. This isn't haute cuisine, but it was tastier than it looked. And I sprinkled dulse flakes on top. Dulse is a seaweed that tastes salty. So would I make it again? Yes. Probably today :-) I will be making other versions of Energy Soup and will keep you all posted.


Corn Salad
This salad is one of those things made when you go, "I have nothing to eat and I'm hungry." I threw it together. Shuck the corn, toss it with lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and salad dressing of your choice. Eat well :-).

Meatballs

This was NOT a success story. I won't even tell you all which book this came from. My husband tasted one and said, "I have to be honest. That wasn't good." I think I didn't add enough sun dried tomatoes and I also had the dehydrator up too high. Mine is a round one, and the temperatures are set every ten degrees. I think I had it on 125 degrees, which is too high for raw food.

But even before any pate is dehydrated, my experience is if it doesn't taste good before it's dehydrated, it's not going to taste good after. And that is what happened here. Edible, but I would not make them again.

A FAR superior nutmeat is by Jeremy Safron in The Complete Book of Raw Food.
-2 cups of dry walnuts (not soaked)
-1 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked
-1 clove garlic
-1/4 cup olive oil
-2 tablespoons Braggs Liquid Aminos or nama shoyu
In a food processor, grind the walnuts in to a powder. Blend the other ingredients separately.
Stir the wet mixture into the dry nuts. Use as a filling for raw burritos, tacos, lasagna, or stuffed porcini mushrooms. This is very rich. It's not something you eat everyday. But if you want to impress someone, try this recipe.

About the first 21 days of my 336 days of wellness: It showed me how important it is for me to be raw. I was not 100% raw the entire time. More like 75%. Even that pulled down my energy. I had a lot of rice, which apparently zaps the life out of me. Now I am cramping even though I'm not on my cycle yet. It should be rolling around tomorrow or the next day. But cramps BEFORE my period remind me of my meat-eating days. So this 21-day cycle, I'm committing to 100% raw, to prepare for the cleanse in September, and to compare how I feel versus last month.

I'm also sprouting lentils and taking pictures to show you all how to sprout. That's coming in a few days.
Love,
Althea

Share/Bookmark

2 comments:

AJOWA NZINGA IFATEYO said...

Hmmm. That's an awesome looking creamy soup! Can't wait to make it. You do peel the lemons first, correct?

I love that you talk about your mistakes too.

Keep up the excellent work! (It took that soup to encourage me to comment.)

Unknown said...

oooohh... that looks great. i was on a corn salad kick last summer...just couldn't get enough.

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails