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Live & Uncooked: Raw foodists stay on the edge of freshness
• by April Seager • Photos by Jonathan S. Pollack
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Terry Stiers is a certified food instructor, but she never cooks at a stove. On YouTube, the St. Charles resident whips up a cottage pie using a high-speed blender, a food processor … and that’s it. No browning anything in a skillet, no boiling anything in a pot, no baking everything in an oven.
In 2004, Stiers switched to a raw food diet. Raw, pure, living – there’s more than one way to say something hasn’t been warmed over 118 degrees. Why not turn up the heat? Raw foodists say it depletes food’s vitamins, minerals and digestive enzymes. Plus, fresh foods make great meals.
Hot and cold
“I’ve never been a fan of gazpacho,” said Karrie Johnson of Rock Hill, who has raw meals twice daily. Now she eats all kinds of soups after warming them to the touch in a blender. “Raw doesn’t always mean it’s cold,” she said.
Johnson uses raw ingredients to make everything from chile-hot tacos to brownies crowned with ice cream. Sitting on a plate, these dishes look all but identical to their cooked counterparts.
“You tend to make recipes that remind you of the foods you used to eat,” Stiers said. “I was a big potato chips freak. That’s why I figured out how to make chips in my dehydrator.”
Spaghetti look-alike
You know you’re a raw foodist when you own at least one food processor, a Vita-Mix blender and an Excalibur dehydrator. Food can be eaten as-is, of course – although most recipes call for puréeing, chopping, blending and/or dehydrating. Removing the moisture from vegetables changes their texture – creates the “crispies” Stiers craves – while increasing their shelf life. The same goes for fruits. Dehydrating seeds allows raw foodists to make comfort foods such as bagels, biscotti, pizza crusts and crackers.
Johnson turns flax seeds into Asian-flavored crackers by combining shiitake mushrooms, carrots, green onions and nama shoyu (unpasteurized soy sauce) instead of salt. Crackers flavored with tomato, cilantro and corn say, “¡Viva México!”
Getting a taste of Italy just takes a few zucchinis. Another ubiquitous gadget in the raw food kitchen, the spiralizer, creates long, coiling ribbons that stand in well for spaghetti noodles. To make the illusion of pasta more complete, Stiers said to peel off the zucchini’s green skin before spiralizing. Fixing marinara sauce is easy: Mix chopped tomatoes with, say, olives, garlic, red onion, parsley and a dollop of extra-virgin olive oil. When the summer ends, Johnson likes to make pumpkin “pasta” and starts playing around with ingredients such as sage, corn, cranberries and currants.
The other raw diet
Jeff Slay of Chesterfield typically sticks to much simpler fare, though his diet definitely has a twist: fermented meat.
“I wouldn’t say it tastes good; I would say it’s very tender,” said Slay, who eats a few marble-sized bites of up to 10-days-old raw meat – aka high meat – throughout the week.
Slay adopted a 100 percent raw omnivorous, or primal, diet after battling chronic fatigue and extreme weight loss for three years. (Five feet 9 inches tall, Slay had dropped from 170 to 78 pounds.) A doctor in Chicago recommended the primal diet more or less as a last resort. “After looking for an answer for three years, he knew I was willing to try anything,” Slay said. “‘This won’t seem too weird to you,’ he told me.”
In the nearly five years since Slay went raw, he has strayed from his diet rarely. The only so-called temptress he could remember was a little rice casserole – hardly worth mentioning, really. Having reached a normal weight and regained his energy, Slay is as committed as it gets. Still, he isn’t evangelistic. “I don’t want to get preachy with anybody,” he said.
Healthy, wealthy and raw
Dr. Luigi Fontana is a research instructor in medicine at the Division of Geriatrics and Nutritional Science at Washington University. Three years ago, he conducted a study of the raw food diet. Fontana said that eating uncooked foods for a limited time can help people decrease their blood cholesterol level, lower their blood pressure and lose weight.
Stiers, a pentagenarian, said she weighs as much as she did in her early 20s – though she initially went raw in order to bounce back from radiation therapy. A lot of raw foodists talk about having big energy boosts. “Before, I always had the highs and the lows of the day. I didn’t have that steady energy distribution,” said Tim Williamson of St. Louis, a raw vegan since 2000.
Five years ago, Williamson set up Raw Living Nutrition, a Yahoo group that lets raw foodists swap tips. Where can you buy raw cacao powder? How do you go about sprouting microgreens? What comestibles should you pack along for a road trip? At some point, there’s also bound to be a question or two about using an Excalibur.
The art of not cooking
“When you really get into it with the dehydrating, the hard thing is figuring out the timing,” said Johnson, adding that some dishes have to be planned 12 to 24 hours in advance. Earlier in the year, Johnson learned some new dehydration techniques (including a few for making thicker breads) at a raw food workshop in southern Arizona. She also discovered marinades that can perk up leafy greens like bok choy and kale. “They’re hard to incorporate into a salad. You can juice them, but when you marinate the salads, you do a vinaigrette and spices and let that sit overnight,” she said.
When it comes to seasoning vegetables, Johnson gravitates toward a combination of ginger and garlic. She makes fruits’ flavors burst with star anise powder and vanilla bean. And in her book, all fresh produce shines with lemon and lime.
Like Stiers, Johnson frequents the Raw Living Nutrition group’s monthly “rawluck” get-together. Dishes on a recent spread included Pink Lady applesauce seasoned with raw honey, lemon juice, ginger and cinnamon; sunflower seed pâté served with thick carrot sticks; broccoli slaw accented by mango, banana and coconut milk; cucumber and avocado soup flavored with dill; and for dessert, an apple pie sporting a date-nut crust.
“There are more raw recipes out there than you could eat in a lifetime,” Stiers said.
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At left: A recent Raw Living Nutrition potluck ended with apple pie.
Raw Diner Diaries
Mallarie N. Zimmer of Webster Groves generally eats food that’s cooked, but she once lived a raw foodist’s dream: a multiple-course raw meal at Cardwell’s at the Plaza in Frontenac. The überfresh feast (which still gets mentioned on local food blogs) celebrated the visit of Julia Butterfly Hill, the iconic environmental activist who is also Zimmer’s high school friend. It’s been years now, but Zimmer remembers the elaborate raw dinner well. “You should try it once in your life. It will blow your mind what can be accomplished,” she said.
Really, you could start your raw diner diary anytime. Plenty of chefs have more than a salad up their sleeves – you just have to put in a request.
Executive chef Kevin Willmann makes a mean kona kampachi crudo, building its flavor with fennel, lemon balm and preserved lemon. Another raw option at Erato on Main in Edwardsville is bigeye tuna tartare with grapefruit and spring Oregon truffles. Pretty much any fish in the house would taste good uncooked. “It’s literally out of the water one day and in my kitchen the next,” Willmann said. A favorite of his is nairagi. “It’s got this beautiful orange hue and a natural sweetness,” he said of the striped marlin, which he wraps around a ball of peach crème fraîche sorbet and then drizzles with balsamic vinegar.
Marie-Anne Perez, chef de cuisine at Eau Bistro in the Central West End, can offer raw diners something really crunchy like cabbage in coconut vinegar, something partly crunchy like a spring roll with truc lam sauce, or something very tender like tartare. “You don’t want just crunch, crunch, crunch,” Perez said. Can she interest you in a tartare trio? She flavors raw chopped salmon with lemon, lime and chives. Her tuna tartare comes with truffle oil, shallots and sesame seeds. Sometimes Perez has bison and venison on hand – if you’re game. If not, Perez also makes beef tartare complete with capers, shallots, cornichons, Dijon mustard and a raw egg yolk.
No meat, no eggs, no dairy? No problem. Brian Hale, executive chef of Monarch Restaurant and Wine Bar in Maplewood, can handle it. Recently, Hale and line cook Jaime Stieber put together a four-course meal for three raw vegans. Bib lettuce tacos were stuffed with vegetables dressed in a chile-lime vinaigrette, and a mango-jalapeño chutney topped it all off. For another course, Stieber used a mandoline to slice zucchini, yellow squash and eggplant that she’d soaked in salt. Then she added in fresh tomatoes and sprouted lentils. A red-wine vinaigrette drenched the whole dish in flavor. “They were so happy,” said Hale of the raw diners. “They don’t go out to eat much.”
Hale and Stieber planned this all – plus made a run for those sprouted lentils – in less than an hour. Given more notice, there’s no telling what they could do.
– A.S.
Raw Tostadas
Courtesy of Karrie Johnson
4 to 6 servings
The walnut taco meat and the tostada shells take a day to prepare, so plan accordingly.
Walnut Taco Meat*
1½ cups walnuts, soaked overnight and drained
2 Tbsp. nama shoyu (unpasteurized soy sauce)
1½ tsp. cumin
½ tsp. coriander
½ to 1 tsp. chile powder (depending on taste and heat desired)
1 small garlic clove, minced
1 green onion, chopped
1 large handful cilantro
• Pulse the walnuts in the food processor until the desired consistency is almost reached. Ultimately, the walnuts should be crumbly, so make sure not to leave the processor running, and create a paste.
• Add the remaining ingredients and pulse again until the final consistency is reached.
*If you can, wait a day before eating to let the flavors blend.
Tostada Shells
3 ears corn, shaved (about 3 cups)
1 yellow pepper, chopped
1 tsp. salt
¾ cup golden flaxseed, ground
• Blend corn, yellow pepper and salt together in a food processor. When thoroughly mixed, add flaxseed and blend until the mixture reaches the consistency of a spreadable dough.
• Spread dough thinly (1∕8-inch thick ) onto a dehydrator Teflex sheet, making the tostada rounds.
• Dehydrate for 2 hours at 145 degrees. Flip and dehydrate at 115 degrees for 6 to 8 hours until crisp.
Salsa
1 avocado, finely chopped
1 tomato, seeded and finely chopped
1 ear corn, shaved
½ inch jalapeño, finely chopped
1 slice red onion, finely chopped
Juice from 1 lime
Salt to taste
• Delicately mix all the ingredients together.
Sour Cream
1 cup macadamia nuts or cashews
Juice from ½ lemon
½ tsp. salt
• Blend all the ingredients together in a food processor or blender until smooth.
Assembly
Spread the sour cream on a tostada,then pile on some walnut taco meat. Top with salsa and garnish with sprouts or shredded lettuce.
Raw Brownie With Banana Ice Cream and Fudge sauce
Courtesy of Karrie Johnson
6 servings
1½ cups walnuts, soaked overnight and drained
1½ cups dates (or a mixture of half dates and half raisins)
½ cup plus 1 heaping tsp. raw cacao
2 or 3 frozen bananas
3 Tbsp. coconut oil
1½ Tbsp. agave nectar
• Grind the walnuts in a food processor.
• Add the dates and ½ cup cacao and blend until a homogenous dough forms.
• Press the dough into an 8-inch by 8-inch pan or shape it into individual brownies.
• Blend the bananas in a food processor, blender or Champion Juicer with a blank plate. Place the ice cream in the freezer. It can be eaten as soft serve or frozen longer and served in scoops.
• Blend the coconut oil, agave nectar and a heaping teaspoon of cacao and serve immediately. When poured over ice cream, the sauce hardens and naturally forms a magic shell.
Veggie Flax Crackers
Courtesy of Terry Stiers
1 cup flaxseed (light, dark or a mixture of both)
1 cup purified water
½ tomato
1 small chunk of red pepper
1 small cucumber
1 small yellow squash
1 carrot
1 stalk celery
1 scallion
½ tsp. Celtic salt
1 clove garlic
Dribble of lime or lemon juice
½ tsp. cumin
½ tsp. chile powder
Salt (optional)
Cayenne pepper (optional)
• Soak the flaxseed in 1 cup purified water for 4 hours or overnight.
• Combine the rest of the ingredients in a food processor.
• Run the processor until all the items are chopped and well-combined. Then add the soaked flaxseed to the mixture. Run the food processor briefly to mix everything together.
• Spread the mixture thinly (1/8 inch or less) on Teflex sheets for a dehydrator. The goop from the flaxseed holds the cracker together.
• Dry at 100 degrees for 4 to 6 hours or overnight. Flip and continue drying until crisp. (I score the crackers with a spatula prior to drying, so they break apart more easily.)
• You may wish to add a bit more salt to bring out the flavors. You can increase the cumin and chile powder for a spicier taste. You may also add a sprinkle of cayenne pepper if you like “hot” crackers.
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