Here is the recipe for our special Valentine's day item we had at the cafes on Wednesday! If you missed it's one night only appearance at Cafe Gratitude, then try making a special meal with this rawesome recipe here!
Ingredients:
This recipe is brought to you by Robin Mast, five star chef turned IT director (ours, in fact!). She delighted us by bringing some into the office the other day, and I must say, it is an absolute show-stopper.
Remember that game "telephone" that you'd play as a kid? One person whispers something into the next person's ear, and that person would whisper what they heard to the next person and after 10 kids, you'd have a totally different phrase? I love how recipes work kind of like that. Each person translates some version of a dish that they've learned in the past, and then the next person creates their own rendition... over time we've got a beautifully diverse spread of dishes representing various locales, cultural specialties, dietary needs and creative explosions.
I have the awesome luck of living next to Chandra Gilbert, one of my favorite chefs of all time, and our Director of Operations at Cafe Gratitude. Chandra is one of those people who appreciates every vegetable that comes into season and knows how to rock simple ingredients into a knock-your-socks-off kind of dish that keeps the flavors of the original ingredients roaring. In Chandra's neverending generosity, she spent an evening showing me this heart-warming and tantilizing soup recipe and introduced me into making the holy trinity of mirepoix- the base for any soup or sauce from scratch. I share this recipe with you as a sort of rendition of what she showed me that evening.
I so highly recommend the wondrous book by David Wolfe: The Sunfood Diet Success System. This book is an awesome resource for the science behind, the power behind and the results from living foods. David has a great way of bridging together the hard science and the easy-to-digest explanation of raw foods.
In The Sunfood Diet Success System, David Wolfe puts together a masterpiece of introductory lessons in raw foods and their impact, on the importance of healthy enzymes and the impact of eating mutated foods (allergies, chronic pain and even terminal illnesses). Not only does he have the know-how in the impactful way that raw foods impact the body, but David also lays out plans for how to transition successfully or experiment with raw foods, how to plan cleanses for yourself, weekly menus and full recipes. Below I bring you a few of his recipes for rapid results. These work sort of like teasers to introduce impactful eating for some of our everyday health challenges. Try some of these out the next time you might otherwise reach for an over the counter drug.
Ever since I learned cooking from my mom Lalit-Amma when I was 9 or 10, I have secretly wished to break the rules and guidelines to come up with my own "specials." They included mixing and matching fruits and vegetables, various grains instead of one, and of course, raw foods.
When I came to work for Cafe Gratitude in December of 2006 as the payroll and accounts payable manager, my adventurous self ( inspired by my mom and the great American spirit of freedom and independence) was energized to recreate some of my mother's recipes with a touch of "BAM!"
Now that the holidays are almost over, my attention has shifted from sharing warm, hearty cooked meals with family to preparing light, cleansing foods by myself in my sacred space. My partner and I, both members of the Cafe Gratitude community, are preparing to do a juice fast together to ring in the new year and to help prepare our bodies for a whole new season of growth, release, and lessons. Amanda and I are both thrilled that Terces, co-founder and community leader of Cafe Gratitude , will be joining us as she begins a second year of the Juice Club. In 2010, she committed to a full year of juicing for the first week of each month. This year, she has decided to renew her commitment and continue to juice (and to invite her community to juice) into the new year. It is amazing how wonderful it can feel to drink juice and feel your body go through the experience of cleansing and renewing.
Terces has blogged to the community throughout her journey, recounting her daily experiences of juicing to encourage and inspire those who have joined her in the Juice Club:
"I shared with one of our managers today that one of the things I notice when juicing is that whenever I pass by a mirror or window and see my reflection I am surprised that I look "better" than I think I am going to.... and when I am not juicing I often experience myself as not looking better than I think I will. I am not sure what it is, I just notice that I have that experience."
Recipe by Chaya-Ryvka
Starting ingredients: