Hi,

I am a healthy omnivore looking to add more raw vegan (for me uncooked non-animal) food to my family's diet. I will never be exclusively raw vegan, though I commend those who do but I am just too much of a foodie. I am looking for recipes that take the ordinary (or not so ordinary) fruits and vegetables as the MAIN ingredients and create NEW and exciting dishes from them that are not necessarily imitations of cooked or meat dishes. I want to learn about unique salads, ways to spice up the vegetables and fruits using exotic spices or herbs. I am interested in recipes that use simple techniques like soaking seeds and nuts to add protein, texture, or flavor to dishes. I love global flavors, particularly Mediterranean south Asian twists.

However, I am NOT interested in vegan raw recipes that are so strict that something like a dash of Tabasco or something like soaking in broth would render the dish not raw or vegan enough. I am open to trying new vegetables, fruits, herbs, and spices but not so much open to strange natural additives. I guess what I am searching for is raw vegan food for "regular folks" LOL. Are there any such resources out there?

There are a lot of great raw vegan recipe books out there, but they mostly call for only raw vegan ingredients. If you're not looking to be very strict, you can sometimes make substitutions. For example, many raw recipes will call for nama shoyu, which is unpasteurized soy sauce. If you don't own any, you might use the soy sauce you do own instead.

If you're a real foodie, many of the recipes in Raw Food, Real World are complicated, but worth it. My favorite is the lasagna recipe, which you can try at the author's New York City restaurant near Union Square for $26 a serving... or make it yourself at home. (Tools required: food processor, mandoline slicer)

There are a bunch of threads on this site already where people have discussed their favorite raw food books. You could try this thread, or this one.

I concur with Frances. If you are a foodie here are some books to take a look at:

"Raw Food Real World" by Matthew Kenney and Salma Melngailis
"Everyday Raw" by Matthew Kenney
"Raw: the uncook book" by Juliano
"Raw" by Charlie Trotter and Roxanne Klein

The authors of all of these books are professional chefs with major restaurant experience and it shows in the recipes. The vast majority of the recipes are not for things you can throw together at the last minute, and many require hard-to-find ingredients, tons of prep work, etc. However, if you are looking for recipes that equal or surpass the recipes you find in 'regular' vegan/vegetarian cookbooks, give these a try. This is raw gourmet food, and it is complex and very interesting. I wouldn't prepare these recipes on a daily basis, but they can really expand your horizons as to what raw food can be.

If i were you id try making a lot of nut pates with walnuts and sesame seeds, you could make tuna flavor, pesto derivatives, etc , and put them on salads. I dont follow recipes, ( i dont like being put in a box) and ive come up with some !amazing! things. I blend walnuts with green onions, bell pepper, celery a few carrots, dill, this seaweed i buy at this asian store and some olive oil, maybe some ginger, BAM that is good stuff, tastes like salmon that have been swimming in an ocean of flavor, oh yeah and walnuts too in the recipe, anyway, yeah its good just have fun experimenting its grand! OH and lemon juice is in the mix too