To all those who bought and love Matt Amsden's RAWVOLUTION un-cookbook, can you tell me how many recipes you made and loved from the book? I have been
eye-balling it forever, but I own so many raw cook-books I want to make sure it's worth the hardcover sticker price.
Let me know how many recipe you make regularly and if the spices and ingredient measurements work as they are listed or if you have to adjust a lot.

Thanks!

peace
love
joy
i breathe in
i breathe out
Bikini

ohhhh man i almost live out of this book. i first bought it because it was so pretty but i have made about 13 recipes from it. i don't have a dehydrator or a food processor so i can't make a lot of things (i really want to try the onion bread!) but some recipes that are my abosolute favorite first of all is the pasta alfredo sauce. i use it on pasta, salad, dipping sauce. its SOOOO good and it tastes like ceasar dressing or ranch. scarborough fair vegetable soup is my favorite soup. i love the coconut carob haystacks and the thai coleslaw too. i thought the book was totally worth the price personally !!

I just got this book. I've only tried a couple of recipes, but his "Famous Onion Bread" (dehydrator required) is awesome. There are several other recipes I'm really looking forward to trying. As soon as the apple harvest really gets going here in New York I'm going to make a batch of the "Come Bite Me Apple Cookies". I haven't tried any of the soups yet, but I'm particularly looking forward to trying the "Sprouted Lentil Chili".

He has gorgeous glamor shots of the food, and the recipes are all clearly coded for difficulty and required hardware. He has icons for high-speed blender, dehydrator, juicer, and food processor. He also has a separate icon marking his favorite recipe in each chapter. He doesn't have an icon for a Mandolin, so if you don't have one you'll still have to be careful not to pick a recipe which requires one. His zucchini pasta recipes call for a Spirooli slicer for the zucchini, but I plan to see how well the Mandolin works instead. Some of his recipes that call for a high-speed blender don't really require one (which is good, because I'm still working with a regular blender).

Overall I think the book is a good balance of between too bland and too challenging. I suspect this will stay one of my favorite books.

Thanks guys for your input. I'm surprised there are not more people on this list who have used this book and liked it since the recipes and photos definately look very tempting and not particularly complicated to make. I love getting recipe feedback and reading other people's intellegent book reviews so if there are more of you out there who have used this cookbook and want to report back, please do.

I am now in the final decision making stages of buying RawVolution or Ani Phyto's new uncookbook. We'll see who wins. Off to Barnes and Noble I go....



peace
love
joy
i breathe in
i breathe out
Bikini

Just got the RAWVOLUTION and the first recipe I tried was the Lasagna. Actually you have to make 3 recipes alltogether because first you make the seed cheese and the marinara sauce and then put it together with the rest. The result was awesome, however I could only eat a small piece because it is sooo filling.

Hi - I am returning to this board after a long absence... getting back on the raw wagon, as they say. I just got this book and I think it shows promise. I've only tried the Thai slaw so far but really love it. I added juliened snow peas and red pepper to the mix. If you plan on storing it for a day or two I would not dress it. Just store the dressing and the slaw separately. One thing I love to do is use a recipe for more than one dish. So I ate the slaw as slaw, but also used this on top of Ani Phyo's ginger almond pate on raw nori. SO GOOD! Makes a GREAT sushi - with your ingredients all chopped and ready to go!

I do wish the recipe books would say how long a dish can be stored, for single folks who may not be able to eat the whole thing at once, it would help. Ani does this.

Cheers all!~

I just got this book a few days ago, but alas, I have been taveling and haven't been able to try any recipes yet. I am finally home and looking forward to trying out one of the zucchini pasta recipes tonight!

The book is absolutely beautiful, I drooled over it all weekend. There doesn't seem to be a single recipe I don't want to try and that is rare, cause I can be picky. Although I have found that the healthier my eating habits become, I am more willing to try new things : )


-Ashley

Bikini - Since you asked...(LOL!) I made Matt's Caulifower couscouse tonight. Two enthusiastic thumbs up! Solo folks might want to halve the recipe. Oh, it's really quite good. And very quick to make! :-)

i saw the book
but didn't get it

it looked pretty neat though

can't be bothered to do something that takes up more than 45 joules of energy

but 40 joules of energy is just fine

Just made the pineapple heart pie last night. Oooh it was sooooo good! Dangerously good! I've also had his cheese sticks, onion bread and a couple of other recipes that a friend made for me but I haven't actually tried myself. Everything I've had from his book has been good except when I tried the cole slaw. I don't know what I did wrong there.

I just picked up the book.
classy. elegant. colorful. not the type of cookbook you leave in the kitchen. this one goes on the bookshelf next to Fight Club!

i loved it.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/20/2008 05:19PM by eco-median.

I am a huge fan of rawvolution... in fact my copy is falling apart I've used it so much! I have ani's book as well, I haven't really got into it yet, although I have enjoyed what I've tried from her's as well. I find colored pictures really gets me excited enough to make the recipe.

Sunflower
Raw Food Chef and Writer
Comfortably Raw
[www.comfortablyraw.com]

oh man, I almost bought this book yesterday but got gabriel cousins book instead.. I will get it the next time I go out..

I'd recommend Ani's book over RAWvolution because the former is simpler, ingredient- and prep-wise. Both use a lot of oil in their recipes, but Matt's is worse, plus he uses entirely too much nama shoyu (expensive and salty) and coconut water (again, expensive, not to mention fussy) for my taste. Also, a couple of the desserts call for 1/3 OF A CUP of cinnamon. 1/3 cup?!?! I used a tablespoon in the apple cookies and that was plenty.

Just my opinion! It all depends on your personal tastes. Enjoy whichever one you end up getting!

The Thai Coleslaw, Mock Tuna, and condiments recipes are all good and I've used them more than once. I was very disappointed with the onion bread, and that the only bread recipe in the entire book was for onion bread. If I could do it over, I'd buy "Rawsome!" (half the price, more than double the amount of recipes).

~CJJ

One of the most comprehensive book for a beginner and a great resource to asssit you with your journey to raw is Alissa Cohen - Living on Live Food, next would be The Raw transformation by Wendy Rudell an introduction to raw foods. It's based on the principle of weaning off of cooked food and it lends itself to recipes that you can make without a dehydrator.

I'm making Matt Amsden's "cheese" sticks as I write, and, boy, do they smell good! I think that, as with all cookbooks, a little intuition about preparing food goes a long way. He does seem to use too much soy sauce, where plain sea salt would be OK, and waaayyyy too much fresh coconut water, true! Also, some esoteric ingredients that aren't easy to come by if you aren't in California or Hawaii. But his book is a good combination of familiar-seeming dehydrated foods; for people who are still transitional, and of true raw recipes. Also, if you follow his instructions, the recipes do turn out and taste pretty good. I have heard a lot of, "is this how it was SUPPOSED to turn out?" about Gabriel Cousens's recipes. Hmmm . . . . whom to believe . . . .

I loooooooove the hummus, chili, apple cookies, nut bars, ahhhhhhhhh!!!! So many!!!!!

I am a big Matt Amsden fan I substitute Bragg's liquid aminos for the Nama Shoyu using less than is suggested in the recipes. One of my favorites is the Mediterranean Tabouli. I used Kale the other day because I couldn't find fresh parsley, and it was delicious! I also really like the mock chicken or tuna salad,the soft taco with fresh tomato salsa, the eggless salad, and the seaweed salad that is offered in his "box". I know I will like the broccolini salad and look forward to treating myself to his desserts! The filling for the nice apple tart is yummy as he names it his apple crumble Enjoooooy!

I found a link to a preview of the book that has many recipes and some pictures on it. The recipes sound really good....especially the onion bread.

It would have been more helpful to post the link...sorry...too tired.

[books.google.com]