Raw Food Staple Meals?

[Steve Pavlina]

For those of you who are raw foodists (or at least raw friendly), what are your favorite raw food staple meals -- the meals you make most often because they (1) are fast and easy to make, (2) use common ingredients you're likely to have on hand, (3) provide sufficient calories for a complete meal, and (4) are satisfying and enjoyable for you?

Right now I'm still having issues just figuring out what to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I have maybe 5 staple meals figured out, but I'd really like to get at least 15 of them.

The irony I'm experiencing is that it seems like eating raw should be the simplest diet of all, but in practice it can turn into the most complicated diet of all.

Being vegan since 1997, I'd already figured out my favorite vegan staple meals. Breakfast might be a bowl of oatmeal, cereal with rice milk, tofu scramble, etc. Lunch could be a sandwich and some carrot sticks. Dinner might be rice and steamed veggies, stir fry, or a veggie burger and salad. These were my staple meals because they're quick and easy to make, and they used common ingredients I'd usually have on hand.

On the vegan diet, my staple meals looked like their non-vegan counterparts. Tofu scramble looks like scrambled eggs. A bowl of cereal looks the same whether you use cow's milk or rice milk. A stack of vegan pancakes looks and tastes like regular pancakes. A veggie burger looks like a cow burger. A cheese-less pizza is still a pizza. It takes about the same amount of time to make the vegan versions as it does to make the non-vegan versions. So this is a fairly easy transition.

But when you go raw, the basic staple meals seem like they'd have to be very different. I can't use a raw burger for a staple meal because I have to dehydrate items 24 hours in advance and use 20 different ingredients to make it. It's too complicated to eat like that on a regular basis. It often seems that to make the raw equivalents of my old vegan staples, I'd have to spend 3-5x as much time in the kitchen. That isn't practical for me, so I'm not going to make those kinds of meals on a regular basis.

A lot of the info I've read on the raw diet is written from the perspective of being a raw gourmet chef. But just because I want to be a raw foodist doesn't mean I want to become a raw chef. I didn't have to become a vegan chef to feed myself as a vegan. I just needed to figure out how to make some simple meals that happened to be vegan. If I have to spend 60 minutes a day on food prep, that's nine 40-hour weeks per year -- no thanks! I don't want to major in the culinary arts just to eat raw. I'd sooner eat banana-spinach smoothies for every single meal.

I still haven't quite figured out what my raw staple meals should be. Maybe one of them is a green smoothie. Another might be a monomeal like a small watermelon or a bunch of bananas. Maybe a raw soup and a salad is another. I think I'd do much better on this diet if I could figure out more of these staple meals. Since I've only figured out about 5 of them so far, I keep eating those five meals over and over, and that isn't very balanced.

Since I don't want to turn my raw diet into a gourmet cooking operation, I often keep eating the same simple foods over and over, like having green smoothies 3x per day or eating watermelon for breakfast and dinner several days in a row. Otherwise it feels like too much work to figure out what to eat. I'm sure I've had a hundred banana-spinach smoothies already this year. They're easy to make, they taste good, and I always have bananas and spinach in my kitchen.

I want to get to the point where this diet is sustainable and practical -- in a way that doesn't create such a big cognitive burden figuring out what to eat. To me this is much more useful than learning about maca, spirulina, etc.

What are your favorite, simple raw meals that you keep coming back to again and again?

[Holistic Star]

Hi Steve,

I'm still figuring it out too but I make a lot of the following things:

I make large batches of flax crackers. It takes about 20 mins to chop the ingredients and yes it takes 12 hours to dry them (which I do overnight) However once made they are there to nibble on through the week. I keep them in airtight containers in what used to be our bread-bin.
I have tried several recipes and the best one I have found is by Karen Knowler on Youtube.

Kale and Avocado salad. Chop up some kale, then massage avocado in with your hands which wilts the kale. So delicous and good for the skin on your hands too! Add in a chopped tomato, some lemon juice and sea salt and you have a fabulous meal.

Kale with Tahini and Orange. This is lovely. Add a tablespoon or so of tahini to a cup, then stir in freshly squeezed orange juice. Pour over chopped kale and get chomping.

Courgette (zuchini) hummus
using zuchini instead of chickpeas, with tahini, garlic, lemon juice and olive oil, goes great on flax crackers or with salad

Guacomole - takes 5 mins to mash an avocado with some tomatoes, lime juice and chilli

Instead of bread you can use nori sheets, or collard green leaves, or lettuce leaves as the wrap. Inside you can put anything - mashed avocado, the dips I mentioned above. Grated veg with a splash of olive oil.


I don't make this often, but just playing in the kitchen one day I made up a chinese dish which involved spiralising some chinese vegetables (I think it was mooli) then mixing in oil and chinese 5 spice, miso, some chopped exotic mushrooms and chopped collard greens. Didn't take long, but satisfied my craving for chinese food.

I also play with the food processor, so I just chuck some random veg that is in the fridge into it with a bit of nut butter and some herbs, e.g. tomatoes, greens, courgette, almond butter and corriander (cilantro)

But mostly it is salads! I like them!

I agree it is hard at times. What I find especially difficult is always having to carry food with you if you are out and about a lot because there often isn't anything available in cafes or restaurants.

Steve, if you ever find your way to blogging about the social side of going raw (once you've finished figuring out the practical side), I would be very grateful


Also - have you looked at sites like http://goneraw.com - they have tonnes of recipes!

[Lauxa]

Posted my faves here.

I found a few simple things to prepare, but mostly was spending MUCH more time un-cooking food, one reason I quit. I hope you'll let us know when you find your 15 easy staples!

[Rose of Cairo]

What I'm currently doing is this: I make sure that I always have several sorts of greens at home. At least two or three sorts of lettuce, spinach and rocket. I wash them immediately when I buy them, and store them in the fridge. They are the base for all my meals.

I have two meals a day. Meal one is some fruit plus a salad with these greens. Which fruit that is varies depending on my mood, what my body craves and what I have at home. I just eat the fruit in its entire form in my hand. As for the salad, since the greens are already washed, I just grab a bunch of rocket, a bunch of mixed lettuce, a bunch of spinach, throw everything in a bowl and that's it. Preparation time: two minutes.

Meal 2 is either some veggies like a pound of peas or a carott salad, plus the same base greens salad, or it's only a big salad made of the base greens salad to which I just add whatever it is that I feel like eating or have in the fridge: fennel, nuts, seeds, an apple, sprouts, more greens like field salad or dandelions, bell pepper, tomato, cucumber, celery... Preparation time is a bit more when I have a big salad, but it's not much either.

This works fine for me. I don't get bored of these many salads and since they are very different every day I think it's fairly balanced. But that's just me. Maybe you'd need something completely different.

Steve, you need to let go of your need for controling this with your mind. Deciding what to eat by thinking about it is highly ineffective. You're not as smart as your body when it comes to that. Figuring out what to eat shouldn't be a cognitive burden, but rather a matter of listening to what your body wants. When you're hungry, or when you go shopping, just let go of all control and simply feel deep inside of you what foods you are attracted to in the present moment.

Who says you have to eat "balanced"? If you listen to your body, there's nothing wrong with repetitively eating the same foods. Maybe that's what your body needs now. The point is just that what you eat repetitively must be what your body really needs, not something that you chose out of intellectual reasons like productivity or some theory.

In the 12 steps to raw foods book, Victoria Boutenko writes that her son Sergei, shortly after going raw, was eating tons and tons of mangos and blueberries every day. Not very balanced that! Then a physician told her which nutrients Sergei needed in order to help him overcome his diabetes. Turns out that exactly these nutrients are found in mangos and blueberries...

[MasterD]

If you figure this out Steve, you have a goldmine.

I am having the same issues; right now I am very often drinking a 1-1.5 liter green banana smoothie in the morning; same in the afternoon and a salad in the evening. Pretty boring and not very balanced I guess; but I don't see very many options either, especially when I do not want to dehydrate and keep it low in fat.

[icanhaveablast]

A meal I really enjoy is just a big and simple fruit salad. Just take many different kinds of fruit and throw them together in a bowl. It never gets boring for me because there are always several delicious fruits to enjoy, and it's incredibly easy to make.

[MasterD]

I kind of forgot about the 80/10/10 book.

There are many extremely simple recipes that can be used as staple meals.

One thing I noticed again is the 3 meals a day with a relatively small meal in the morning and a big lunch and a big evening meal. Might want to tweak that to an even bigger lunch meal and a smaller evening meal (let's say on a 2000 calorie day, 600 in the morning, 1100 in the afternoon and 300 in the evening.

[carenkh]

I haven't gone raw, but I have struggled with meal prep. Probably the best thing I've done is set aside a block of time to prepare LOTS of food, that can then be frozen or otherwise preserved, so then when I am crunched for time I can just grab something. Doesn't vacuum-sealed dehydrated food last a long time? So rather than dehydrating food just for one meal, dehydrate a bunch, vacuum-seal it, then it'll be there, just waiting for you. I'm guessing the idea is as much *fresh* food as possible, but it might be a good idea to have some back-up stuff you can grab, or use to assemble the more complicated meals.

[Andrew Brunelle]

For breakfast, I would suggest a whole meal consisting of a variety of fruit. Just mix them all up, chopped, in a bowl and enjoy. I'm not a complete raw foodist, but I do feel the benefits of eating raw in the mornings. After that, you could make a banana-spinach smoothie. I make one of those every morning with a little twist. I put about ten or twelve mixed frozen berries into the smoothie to make it taste a little better. Not that it doesn't taste good to begin with.

I don't know what to eat for dinner. That is the biggest challenge and why I cannot fully transition to a raw foods diet. I don't want to spend hours making raw pasta or gourmet dishes. A salad is easy, especially blended. I remember listening to your raw coaching session, Steve, and it has a portion where Roger Haeske talks about the blended salad. But it may not be enough to satisfy your hunger. I don't know. Good luck.

[IFeelGood]

I am not 100% raw, nor am I 100% vegan. I am on many days 100% raw, and on some days 75% raw and vegan. Flexibility is extremely important to me so I try to eat the most raw/vegan possible and maintain my flexible lifestyle. I do want to point out that I feel my absolute best when 100% raw. I DO NOT spend a lot of time preparing food. I am very fortunate to belong to a great organic food coop where I have a great selection of produce and other raw friendly foods. Here is my main diet:
Breakfast
Raw granola from Good Stuff by mom and me (this is not inexpensive but I only need about a 2 oz serving which is the recommended serving and very filling to me)
Good Stuff by Mom and Me - All producs on one page - FORMED
with a sliced banana or another fruit like strawberries and raw almond milk ( I make my own, really simply and will add the recipe at the bottom for anyone interested)
Lunch
Raw Smoothie

• a handfull of either kale or spinach

• fruit ( I often buy bags of frozen organic fruits such as strawberries, cherries, blueberries, blackberries, peaches and I also freeze my own bananas, pineapples, papayas, etc...)

• water to make desired consistency

put all ingredients in blender and mix until smoooooth.... Yummy and energizing

Dinner
Dinner is usually a salad and I have my special salad that I love...

• spring mix

• grape tomatoes

• sunflower sprouts or another sprout such as broccoli, alfalfa

• 1/2 avocado diced

dressing
juice of 1 lemon
2 cloves of garlic minced
1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil
celtic salt to taste

Snacks - Throughout the day when hungry (not often for me)

• veggies - carrot sticks, celery, peppers, etc (perhaps with raw guacamole or salsa)

• goji berries, raisins, prunes

• raw, sprouted nuts/seeds

• lara or raw revolution bars (I love cherry lara and chocolate hazelnut or the rr)

• unlimited fruit ( I absolutely LOVE a granny smith apple with a spread of raw almond butter and sometimes a dab of raw honey)

• water

• fruit and/or veggie juice

Almond milk recipe

Soak 1/2 cup of Raw, unpasteurized almonds for 8 hours(I do this before I go to bed and when I wake up it is ready). After 8 hours rinse and drain the almonds and place them in the blender with 2 cups of purified water. Blend for 1 minute. Strain through cheesecloth. Refrigerate liquid almond milk. You can add agave or honey if you would like to sweeten it. Vanilla is nice to add variety to the flavor however I prefer mine plain.
I also use this in tea and I love the taste...

• Wish List

I do hope to someday buy an excalibur but have managed fine and probably doing less work without one.

I have 2 good raw vegan uncook books but rarely use them. There are some great recipes for nut cheeses, veggies lasagnes, pastas, etc but I don't always have the time but I have tried a few recipes and Carol Alts book Raw 50 is good, not necessary, but good...

Have been at this since October and it was an evolutionary thing, not a sudden dawning. I was eating good and wanted to eat better. It is a process and I try to be easy on myself, it flows much better that way.

[IFeelGood]

Also, I want to add that I try to include either a raw probiotic or raw fermented food in my diet every day. Examples include, kombucha tea or raw sauerkraut.

[oberlee]

I'm still adjusting as well. At first it was plain awesome, and recently I've felt crappy from either detox, allergies (which I've never had, but probably do now) and/or quitting smoking, which has its own lovely detox period. I mean, you'd think that on the third day of quitting you'd feel great, but it feels like I smoked a pack of Marlboro reds yesterday...sigh...

To the matter at hand...I find that the best breakfast is an avocado. They're delicious, creamy, and filling. I usually put salt and maybe pepper or red pepper on it. I usually have a banana and/or a smoothie first, before I leave for work, then have the avocado at work. Lunch is either my raw bread with raw hummus (which I eat in a clandestine manner at my desk so as to not incite questions) or just a bunch of snacky things: carrots, raw almonds or cashews, apples, maybe another avocado. Ladies, beware here (sorry, guys): I got a yeast infection, and looking it up online I found out that it's common among raw foodists if you're eating too much fat for calories and not enough sugar. Something about--nah, it's gross. Look it up. But be wary, and be sure to get a good amount of sugar--natural sugar--in your diet. For a few days I didn't have time to go to the grocery store and just filled my calories in with nuts, but it's not the best thing if it's too much.

Dinner: I love a salad, or recently I've been doing these fake pad thais which are interesting. Ideally, you get a young coconut and scrape out its meat, but it can't be any young coconut it has to be one with firm meat. Ugh. These things are $2 a pop, at least in Cally. If you do get this nice firm meat, cut it with a knife into thin pieces and it's like noodles. Kind of. And it tastes nice and is firm and substantial. If not, I'll use a vegetable peeler on zucchini and then make a simple dressing of almond butter--1 to 2 tablespoons--lime juice, salt, and ginger (not too much) and mix it with the 'noodles' and whatever else. Be careful, though--if you don't eat it right away the zucchini will release a lot of water. I've thought about dehydrating the zucchini, but haven't done it yet.

My day isn't really comprised of "meals." It's comprised of eating food, and lots of it. It's more of a snacky lifestyle. If all else fails, I just make sure I have a few apples on me and some nuts. Ideally, some dried fruit. I like to save money, so it's usually sun-dried raisins. Some days I get low blood sugar and I think it's so easy to because there's no starch in this diet--all the sugars need to be, well, sugar.

Oh, the hummus is on the goneraw website, and it's like 1/2 cup raw tahini, 2 zucchini, bunch of garlic, bunch of lime (I just blend the lime meat in there), and shama noyu. I must admit here that I'm not 100% raw OR vegan--I like the way raw food makes me feel, and I like the fact that a vegan diet keeps me healthy, but I see no purpose in depriving myself of pleasurable experiences, esp. food. I also see no problem in eating meat, though if I were to choose a non-vegetarian food off the bat it would be fish. I love fish, and feel good when I eat it, so therefore it's good for me. So basically, I totally cheat on my raw diet. But it's okay. part of why I stick to the diet is all the investment i've made so far--in ingredients and knowledge.

[IFeelGood]

seaweed wraps
I buy raw nori sheets and then use my imagination or whats in the fridge to fill it. I always enjoy adding things like sprouts, avocado, tomato. For a more asian flair I marinate mushrooms in nama shoyu and make matchstick sized carrots and celery and sprinkle some sesame seeds... yummy and the possibilities are endless

sprouted quinoa
this is great and can be combined with many raw fruit and veggie combinations for a nice meal. There are many recipes out on the internet... I always like green onion, tomatoes, red peppers, lemon juice, celtic salt and sometimes a handful of dried cranberries

[Roze]

Hi Steve,

Have you ever thought about growing your own garden with your favorite food? If you have your own garden, you can grow whatever you like best. Of course, only what the climate allows. I don't know about America, but here in Belgium it's really easy to grow all the green vegetables, and with a green house you can easily grow the cherry tomatoes. And if you plant an apple tree, or plant bushes for berries, or whatever you like, you can even grow your own fruit. It's really nice to walk in your own garden in summer for example and have a snack straight from the tree or bush. Another big advantage from gardening is that you go outside more often and can really enjoy nature. I've always felt that gardening makes me feel closer connected to nature and it takes away any stress I would feel.

I know keeping a garden asks some time investment, but the rewards are great. So if you grow your favorite foods in your own garden, you can base your staple meals on what is in your garden.

[ripcurly]

Depends on what is in season. In FL right now, there are mangoes, melons, bananas, peaches, lychees, and many more. I do mono-meals primarily. For lunch I am eating as much watermelon as I care for (1-3, depending on size). Dinner will be mangoes, fresh OJ, and romaine.

As far year-round staples go, bananas and plaintains are the clear-cut winners. Cheap already, by calories they are by far the cheapest food. Plaintains take a little time to understand when one is truly ripe, but you should be able to squeeze it all the way to the middle (really mushy), and the outside will be black long before. It should be soft all the way through. If the center is hard or cruncy-ish, you haven't waited long enough.

The way I eat my romaine, typically, is I cut the ends off of 2 heads (usually 2 or 3 pounds), and then make romaine wraps. I stack 8 or 10 leaves on top of each other, and then roll it together as tightly as I can. It tastes great, is nice and crunchy, and is the fastest way to eat them besides blending (though greens need lots of chewing). This will tire your jaw at first, but the jaw will get stronger. One should be capable of eating 2 heads in about 20 minutes once the jaw is strong.

Rose of Cairo, I agree with what you are saying about listening to your body, but after a lifetime of abuse, our body has no idea what it needs. All it takes is one time of weighing each food before one has an understanding of how many calories he/she needs to consume of that particular food. The eating part is the most foreign part of Natural Hygiene and 811, and requires the most conscious effort and reprogramming. Once a body is truly congruent with the mind, for instance to the point of knowing what a need for greens feels like, then everything's all good. If someone eating this way is craving salty food, or avocados, or pizza and meat even, that doesn't mean that it is what the body wants. It is the craving of the mind. Do you agree?