Product Description

Cookbooks need not—indeed, should not—involve cooking, say the authors of this authoritative, beautifully illustrated book. And they should know. Sergei and Vayla Boutenko bring fifteen years’ experience to this collection of scrumptious, sophisticated recipes and comprehensive guide to the raw life.

Fresh covers the whole range of recipes, including savory dishes, desserts, fermented foods, drinks, and wild foods. Techniques common to the recipes are introduced and clearly explained, including an inventory of uncommon fruits and how to handle and prepare them, as well as an immersion into the five basic flavors and the herbs, fruits, vegetables, and grains that help chefs bring out each flavor best. The authors introduce the three stages of adaptation to this lifestyle and provide a concise review of minimal equipment requirements and ideal appliance additions for the well-stocked raw kitchen.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #18462 in Books
• Published on: 2008-04-22
• Released on: 2008-04-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 232 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9781556437083
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
“Raw food makes us healthy, reverses aging, and improves our appearance, and now you are holding in your hands the proof of raw food's value in rearing exemplary youth. On every page of this book, the authors will surprise and delight you with fresh insights and deep understanding into the child-parent relationship. Their intelligence is vivid, their wisdom is astute, and their love for others is stupendous. Whether you are a parent or child, you will gain insight from this book.”
—Tonya Zavasta, author of Your Right to Be Beautiful and Quantum Eating

“Sergei and Valya share much wisdom and wit with sound nutritional guidance. They have been well taught and have a unique ability to share with others their perspective on the path to ultimate health.”
—Brigitte Mars, author of Rawsome!, Beauty by Nature, The Desktop Guide to Herbal Medicine, and Addiction Free—Naturally

“Valya's and Sergei's new book inspires and encourages people to explore, persevere, and also to be courageous and imaginative with their new way of eating. They offer helpful and practical guidance and recipes that provide a foundation for success and enjoyment on a raw vegan diet.”
—Vance M. Logan, MD

“Not only do Sergei and Valya prepare the most delicious raw foods, which is talent enough, but the clarity, wisdom, and insights they share about food and health are breathtaking. This book is a must-read for any aspiring health seeker-no question. What they teach now is unbelievably cutting-edge, and everyone should know it.”
—Karen Knowler, the Raw Food Coach

About the Author
Sergei Boutenko and Vayla Boutenko are second-generation members of the Raw Family, among the foremost authorities on raw foods. With their father Igor and mother Victoria, the award-winning author of Green for Life, they have inspired raw food communities to form worldwide. They live in Ashland, OR.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
From: Dare to Prepare!

SERGEI: Often, when teaching food preparation classes, I notice that most of my students cling to recipes and request exact proportions of ingredients. Even though raw-food recipes are particularly flexible and experimentation can even improve the recipe, students still hesitate to take a playful approach with food preparation. For example, when I demonstrate how to make a green smoothie, I often use a combination of spinach, mango, and water, because these ingredients are readily available and excitingly delicious. However, in one workshop I was unable to find these ingredients and had to substitute with bananas and kale. My students loved the smoothie and requested the recipe. I made a point to mention that there are tastier recipes for a green smoothie; however, it seems my words fell on deaf ears, because months later I still received e-mails from people who, in fear of trying anything new, exclusively drank the banana/kale smoothie. To my surprise, most of my students did not stray from that recipe. While I can understand the fear behind attempting something new (there’s the chance of wasting time and ingredients, and getting unsatisfying results), raw recipes allow much room to experiment, often improving the dish.

Every individual—whether man, woman, or child—is an amazingly powerful being, capable of happiness and health. We were built with a brain, a fabulous body, and an intuition to use as tools that aid us in our growth. When properly used, these tools have the power to enhance an individual’s existence in the best, most productive way. We are not taught early enough how to use what we were given, which is why we cling to rules, regulations, and expert opinions. As with any tangible, physical tool that can be held in our hands, our intangible, invisible instruments cannot help us unless we begin to use them. I propose that, together, we begin activating these powers; for they are our maps to life.

There are certain laws that we need to follow to maintain order in our lives. Likewise, there are many that can be disregarded. Changing a recipe a bit doesn’t hurt anyone. By adding one extra pinch of cumin to make a better-tasting cracker, we can practice conversing with our inner selves, thereby expanding our comfort zones. I have found that the more I experiment, the more comfortable I become with using my invisible tools, and thus the more empowered I become.

We live in a society that has either forgotten the value of empowered people or simply strives to suppress individuals from manifesting their strength. Today’s society is so destructive that people no longer feel strong or comfortable enough to rely on themselves. Our educational system has us convinced that we cannot function successfully without help from authority figures. The current educational system grabs children at an early age and begins educating them to properly conform and comply with orders from people who are older, smarter, and more experienced than they. Instead of helping our children develop a sense of independence, we hand them off to their first kindergarten teachers and instruct them to listen to the educator because he or she has many years of training and therefore knows best. Thus, we come to learn that our bones cannot be strong without milk or healthy without meat, and that chemical fertilizers enrich food quality, as well as countless other myths that we cling to until our dying days.

If we live our lives believing that we are incapable of creating even a simple raw recipe on our own, then how can we do anything that requires more responsibility? I remember one instance when I was scheduled to demonstrate how to make carob truffles but was notified moments before class that none of my recipe ingredients had been delivered. I quickly ran to the kitchen, grabbed whatever I could find, and proceeded to demonstrate making truffles with ingredients I had never used before. My heart pounded anxiously as I passed out samples to a crowd of fifty, hoping my concoction didn’t taste horribly bad. To my surprise, the room resonated with audible yum’s and wow’s. Everyone was ecstatic. The “Sweet and Sour Coconut Truffles” recipe I invented that day is in the dessert section of this book (page 111). However, don’t let this recipe limit your imagination.

Relying on yourself is fun and refreshing! The more I rely on myself, the more surprised I am at not only how easy it is but also how quickly I master things I never suspected I could. I encourage you to use the recipes in this book merely as a guide to creating your own cuisine.

Customer Reviews

Fabulous book
I have at least four other raw food cookbooks. The recipes in them always have a thousand ingredients and take forever to produce. I wind up not using them because of the exotic ingredients or the time it takes to make the food. Soaking, cutting, blending, juicing, dehydrating, all in one recipe usually!

This book uses simple, available ingredients and a minimum of time to prepare. I can usually prepare a dish from what's already in my house, which if you've used any other book, is usually impossible. Yes you might need to blend something and then dehydrate it, but you probably didn't have to soak it and juice it and hang it somewhere first.

The other thing I really like about the book is that if you use their recipes for salad dressings, for example, you are not just adding flavor, but you are also adding nutritional content. It's all very well thought-out. It's a lovely little book that I recommend to anyone who is interested in making simple, elegant raw food dishes that taste great.

Tasty & Easy
I purchased this book after trying 2 raw food cookbooks. They were very time consuming and needed expensive ingredients. This book is a breath of fresh air. The recipes are easy & tasty. I like that the ingredients are not expensive. These are recipes I can use daily.

Wisdom Beyond their Years
The precocious Boutenko duo is all grown up! Having co-authored Eating Without Heating: Favorite Recipes from Teens Who Love Raw Food during their teenage years, Sergei and Valya of the famous "Raw Family" now present wisdom from fifteen years of raw foodism.

Fresh includes "over 250 recipes from the Raw Family test-kitchen," both favorites from earlier Boutenko books, as well as new recipes using raw cacao, goji berries and wild edibles. They offer full color photographs of common "wild foods" like nettles, sheep sorrel, chickweed and purslane often belittled as "weeds" and show how such no-cost foods can supercharge salads and smoothies without breaking the bank. Readers who recall stories of the Boutenkos foraging for wild lettuce and berries on their Pacific Coast Trail hiking journey can now harvest some of nature's best superfoods at home. The book lists the twenty-three most toxic plants (excluding mushrooms) and encourages readers to be safe and learn how to identify them. Despite this warning, Fresh focuses on the abundance of nutritionally dense and beneficial plants available sometimes, quite literally, in our own backyard!

All recipes exclude meat, fish, eggs, and dairy, but some do contain honey. Vegans can easily substitute raw agave nectar or dates for the honey, though. In fact, Sergei writes an entire section on the importance of improvisation and customization. For those with gluten allergies, this book offers an almost gluten-free experience. A few recipes call for sprouted barley or rolled oats, but the vast majority are completely gluten-free, vegan and tasty!

Besides recipes, Fresh offers some of the best advice on how to thrive in mixed-diet relationships. Whether vegan, raw, vegetarian, carnivore or omnivore, you will find valuable tips on how to maintain your dietary preferences in a non-judging and non-threatening way. Valya, in particular, offers valuable insight into helping children choose and enjoy healthier foods. Given the epidemics of childhood obesity and childhood diabetes from which Sergei healed naturally this information provides hope and instruction to well-meaning parents dealing with "rebellious" eaters.

Because Sergei and Valya spent much of their childhood as raw foodists, they can offer insider advice from both angles that of instructors and that of children forced to embrace a new and unusual dietary regime. From them, we learn how they dealt with teasing, peer pressure and social services. With humor, gratitude, and wisdom beyond their years, they reveal a perspective that few, if any, others can share yet.

Chef Cherie Soria, founder and director of the Living Light Culinary Institute, where both Sergei and Valya have trained, provides a heartfelt forward. In Cherie's words,"Sergei and Valya shine as living examples of what is possible when we resolve to squeeze every drop of juice out of life." On a recent visit to Living Light, I repeatedly heard this idea validated by students, visitors and employees. The compassion, presence and creativity one finds in Fresh will touch the lives of anyone who reads it, just as Sergei and Valya's love, clarity and maturity continue to impress and inspire in person.


[This review, written by author Laura Bruno (If I Only Had a Brain Injury),first appeared on VegFamily's June 2008 Online Magazine.]