Fiery Raw Foods to Help Ward Off the Cold Fingers of Winter!

It’s easy to follow a Raw Diet in the summertime, when there’s an abundance of fresh fruits and veggies, and plenty of sun. It can be a different story, though, when the cold, dark days start gaining on us. Psychological as it may be, the draw towards warmer, comforting foods in the winter can be a powerful one. And so, in the past, we’ve found ourselves including a few alkaline cooked foods to our diet, such as quinoa and lightly steamed veggies.

After being mostly Raw since 2001, following a simple diet of fruit smoothies, raw soups and salads, Don and I started experimenting with more complex, dehydrated recipes last fall. We had a hunch that these would greatly help us in staying Raw this winter; and we were right.

We played with our neighbors’ old handmade dehydrator for a while and quickly determined that it would be worthwhile investing in an Excalibur 9 tray. And wow! What a difference! It has made “uncooking” so much easier and fun! Dehydrating has opened up a world of possibilities to explore: live breads, crackers, cookies, pizzas, burgers, stir-dries... Things we never thought were possible to eat while following a Raw Vegan Diet. We find that the dehydrated recipes have come to replace the cooked stuff we used to crave, and therefore haven't felt drawn towards cooked foods at all. At least so far...

Starting the New Year with a Bang!
Canadian well-known raw foodist Frederic Patenaude, played Santa Claus this Holiday Season by treating his readers with 2 free ebooks. Even though Fred himself promotes a simple Raw Vegan Diet based on the principles of natural hygiene, as outlined in his best-selling ebook "The Raw Secrets", he hired a talented Calgary-based raw chef, Diana Stoevelaar, to come up with two beautiful and delicious festive menus for the Holidays.

After making her Celebration loaf from the 'Christmas Day Menu' (the best turkey/stuffing type recipe I've eaten so far!), I just had to try a few recipes from the 'Mexican New Year's Day Dinner Menu.' Wow! Quite the fiesta we had... I can think of no better way to begin 2007 with a bang!

Here's what we had: Guacamole Supreme, Where's the Beef?, Sour 'Cream' and 'Refried Beans'.


Recipes posted, courtesy of Fred! The entire Mexican Menu is available for free download here.

Guacamole Supreme
2 ripe avocados
1⁄2 cup diced tomatoes
2 Tbsp. lime or lemon juice
1⁄4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 Tbsp. finely chopped green onion, rinsed
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp. cumin
1⁄4 tsp. cayenne (or mince in fresh, hot chilies with seeds removed)
1⁄2 tsp. celtic salt

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and mash with a fork or a potato masher.

Where is the Beef?
4 cups carrot, grated finely
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked one hour or more, drained and
pureed in a blender (reserve water for drinking, soup, or salad dressings)
1/3-1/2 red onion, finely minced
2. garlic cloves, crushed
1 Tbsp. chili powder
2 tsp. cumin powder
1⁄4 tsp. cayenne
1 tsp. celtic sea salt

Using the food processor, finely chop the grated carrots in 2 separate batches, if necessary. Mix and puree the drained sun dried and the rest of the ingredients.

Using your hands, mix all ingredients together well in a large bowl. For best flavors, let the mixture sit for an hour or more.

Best served just after warming in the dehydrator at 105 degrees. Use as a topping for Tostadas or as a filling for Burritos or Tacos.

“Refried Beans”
4 cups soaked sunflower seeds (2 1⁄2 cups before soaking)
1⁄4 white or yellow onion, chopped
2 tsp. chili powder
21⁄2 tsp. cumin powder
1 tsp. Celtic Sea Salt
2 Tbsp. raw almond butter
3⁄4 cup pure water

In a food processor, puree all the ingredients until smooth. Pour into a serving dish and place it on a wire cooling rack set inside the bottom of the dehydrator.Warm at 105F for 20-30 minutes.

Carmella's notes: I found I had to tweak this recipe a little. I added a little oil, tahini, apple cider vinegar and amped up the spices to my taste.

Sour “Cream”
11⁄2 cup Cashews or macadamia or pine nuts, soaked
1⁄2 cup water
1⁄2 tsp. Celtic sea salt
1 Tbsp. Lemon juice

Blend all the ingredients in a blender until smooth and creamy.


We served this delicious meal with Corn Tortillraws that I made into chips.

Corn Tortillraws
Posted by Alex (aka as RawGuru) on Sunfood Nutrition Raw Food Lifestyle Forum

2 1/2 cups golden flax seeds (soaked for 12 hrs)
1 cup fresh or frozen corn kernels
1/4 ripe avocado
1/2 cup sunflower seeds (soaked for 12 hrs)
2 tsp. black or white sesame seeds
2 tbs. minced spanish or red onion
2 tsp. fresh garlic minced or 1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. cayenne powder
1-2 pinches celtic sea salt or to taste
1 pinch of white pepper
celery juice or water

In an blender or a heavy duty food processor combine everything together till smooth. Add a little celery juice if mixture is dry. Check for seasonings. Add more salt and pepper if necessary. Set aside in the fridge for at least 2 hrs.

Preheat the dehydrator for 110 degrees. Using a spatula or a large spoon, spread the mixture on a teflex sheet. Make it into thin round circles, (it's ok, if they are not perfect, it looks more home made and rustic.)

Dehydrate for about 4 hrs. or until you can pick them up and fold em. That's it!

Or you can cover a whole teflex sheet with the batter, dehydrate it for about 3 hrs. Get a large round cookie cutter, and cut out the tortillraw shapes, place them on the dehydrator tray and dehydrate for 1 more hour or until pliable.

Once you make a lot of them, you can stack them on top of each other, and keep them warm (in the dehydrator) until ready to eat.

If you want a taco shell effect, wrap them around a tube or fold them a little, keep them in the dehydrator for about 10 more hrs or until crisp.

You can also cut them into chip shapes and serve them with dip. Like a nice creamy guac, made out of avocado, some onion, lotta cilantro, some fresh lime juice, and salt, or a mango tomato salsa... Anyway you eat them, tortillraws are delish!

Carmella’s Notes:
I added a little lime juice, some cumin and fresh cilantro. Also ground ½ cup of the flax. I actually enjoyed this recipe more as dry chips than soft tortillas.

Mmmmmmmmm...

How do you say "Rawsome!" in Spanish?