I’m addicted to Instagram ever since I upgraded my cell to an iPhone 4. I know iPhone 5 is coming out soon, but hey, technology ain’t my strong suit. I like how the green in the photo pops…YUM…

Just wanted to feature my fave go-to weekday lunch: green soup. It makes me feel satiated without feeling too full and never ever pulls me down energy-wise.

Recipe (in a high-speed blender):
2 cups raw carrot juice (Juice of one carrot blended with 2 cups water; strained)
1 cucumber
Handful of cherry tomatoes
1 clove garlic
1/2 lemon
Large bunch of spinach
1 avocado
Pinch of sea salt

No herbs, no spices – just pure veggies and fruit…

With my new Blentec, raw soups are even more awesome!!!

So upon my return, I filled my grocery basket with tons of fresh produce. I didn’t have a lot of time to chomp my way through a salad, so I made some raw soup.

Recipe:
2 cups carrot juice (one carrot blended with two cups water and then strained)
1 zucchini
Handful of coriander
1 clove garlic
1 green chilli
Half an avocado
Juice of half a lemon
Dash of sea salt

The result was a bright and tasty raw soup with lots of vitamins that would benefit an under-the-weather bunny…

I also paired this raw soup with orange cashew cheese nori rolls that was inspired by Choosing Raw’s recipe here.

I added garlic to the recipe because I thought it was a bit sweet for something that was meant to be savoury.

Recipe (in a food processor):
1/2 cup cashews, soaked
Juice of half an orange
3-4 pieces of orange zest
Juice of half a lemon
1/2 teaspoon of white miso
Dash of sea salt and black pepper
1 clove garlic

You need to keep pulsing to get the smooth creamy consistency you see in the picture. Cashews tend to be a bit chunky if you don’t process them enough, so keep going till you get the smoothness you want.

My nori rolls had purple cabbage, broccoli sprouts, avocado, and dollops of this refreshing orange cashew cheese.

I loved the citrusy taste of it and more so because it was so simple. I’ve moved onto seasoning my raw food less in terms of herbs. It’s more from a flavour perspective (I like simpler food) and the convenience of not having the right ingredients — I prefer to use what I call “the basics”; ie. fruit and vegetables in my pantry. For example, I always have oranges, garlic, and cashews but I may not always have fresh rosemary, dill, mint, or basil which I have to make a mental note of if I want to consume them.

I know, you must be thinking, “Wow, she eats a lot of ice-cream and pasta.” On occasion, my dear friends, I’m a daredevil and throw all food combining rules outta the window, but on a daily basis, I eat more like this.

Pictured above is a yummy zucchini-based spinach soup. Very simple but savoury and satisfying. And I’m obsessed with Greek salads.

Recipe (in a high-speed blender):
1 zucchini
1 stalk of celery
2 cups spinach
1 tomato
1 clove garlic
Dash of cayenne
Dash of paprika
1 tbs dulse
1 avocado (you can use half if you like; I was super hungry when I made this)
2 cups water

You can use cucumber in place of zucchini but the latter just makes it creamier.

My Greek salad doesn’t really look very authentic, does it? I put a lot more parsley in than I intended but I’m a bit of a mad alchemist in the kitchen, especially if I’m hungry and in a hurry.

Greek salad recipe:
1 cucumber, chopped
Handful of baby tomatoes, halved
1/2 white onion, chopped
Handful parsley, finely chopped
2 tbs sliced black olives
1 tbs red wine vinegar
Dash of salt and black pepper
Drizzle of extra virgin olive oil

I usually put in capsicum too but I didn’t have any on hand and subbed it with loads of parsley. I adore black olives too so this is one of my favourite salads. It appears in my meals at least once or twice a week.

I received a Halloween email from the gals over at Raw Mom (I tuned into their Raw Mom Cooked Dad Summit – awesome) that showcased raw Halloween treats. I’m not that creative in my kitchen but when I made this raw soup, it reminded me of ogre goo or something.

This recipe was inspired by this old video on The Raw Food World TV Show that talked about Ann Wigmore’s energy soup. Sorry for the poor lighting but it’s been pouring in Tokes so no natural sunlight for now.

Recipe (in a high-speed blender):
1/2 apple
1 tomato
2 big handfuls of spinach
1 green onion
1 garlic clove
2 tbs dulse
1/2 avocado
Dash of cayenne
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 cups water

I put quite a bit of cayenne so this was a really spicy soup. I didn’t include pine nuts that was suggested in the video because I thought avocado was fatty enough for me. This monstrous goo came out a bit lumpy because of the apple but it was still smooth enough to drink. Can I say I’m a convert in putting apple in savoury soups now? It was so delish!! Sweet and spicy rock…

Happy Halloween, guys. I’m going as a bunny (just ears and may attach my fluffy tail if I’m brave enough) to a work-related Halloween bash tonight.

Wish me luck.

My friends think my green soups look scary, but I really love the vivid greenness of it all. Without a doubt, this is a staple in my hectic schedule. I can make a green raw soup in five minutes flat and drink it in two. I digest food pretty quickly so I make sure I get in a whole avocado into my system — half in the soup and half on the side, sprinkled with sea salt and black pepper.

This simple meal is like an oasis in any given midday rush.

Recipe (in a high-speed blender):
2 cups carrot juice (blend one carrot and 2 cups water; strain)
1 tomato
1 cucumber
Handful of coriander
2 cups spinach
1 green onion
1 clove garlic
1 tiny red chilli (or a dash of cayenne pepper will do)
1/2 avocado
1 tbs dulse
Dash of sea salt

I blend everything except the avocado and do that last. The reason for this is so that the avocado doesn’t oxidize so quickly and just give it a quick whirl in your blender and stop. You may still get small chunks of avo if you do it too quickly but I still think it’s just as yummy.

Carrot juice is key to making me feel more energized compared to green soups that don’t. Celery is a great way to add bulk to green soups, too, but I didn’t have any on hand.

This lunch is filling but will not make you feel like you are bursting with too much fluids. I sometimes may supplement this lunch with a few pieces of flax crackers and this would do me for a good four hours.

I was very pleased with today’s raw lunch — carrot avocado bisque and purple cabbage coleslaw.

As usual I was reading Gena’s blog and she had a link to her classic carrot avocado bisque recipe which I just had to try. It was super easy but super yummy. That woman is a genius.

Recipe:
2 cups fresh carrot juice
½ avocado
1 thinly sliced ginger
½ lemon, juiced
Dash of shoyu
Dash of sea salt
Dash of black pepper
Sprigs of coriander leaves for decoration

Since the soup was a bit skinny on ingredients, I made a side of purple cabbage slaw and shredded carrot with a drizzle of a raw creamy pine nut dressing which I will share with you in an upcoming post.

I don’t love food with a strong ginger flavour but this recipe works it in very subtly and I couldn’t get enough of it. I also checked the definition of “bisque” because I always understood it as a seafood-type of soup and this ain’t fishy in no way.

A “bisque” is just a pureed soup made of vegetables and/or seafood. The bright orange colour is reminiscent of typical non-vegan bisques, so I would say this is a very good raw spin on a bisque in terms of visual similarity.

This one is a keeper!

This soup and salad lunch with bread came about quite haphazardly. I was scrounging around for ingredients and this was the result: raw tomato soup with leftover marinated veggies and mushrooms, with a piece of Lydia’s Organics Sunflower Seed Bread.

Recipe for raw tomato soup (in a high-speed blender):
2 tomatoes
3-4 basil leaves
Dash of dried Italian herbs
1 garlic clove
1/2 avocado
1 cup water

For the marinated veggies recipe, click here. I think I put this together in less than 10 minutes and hoovered it in less than five. Busy days require quick, nourishing lunches.

Do you make it up as you go along on the raw path? I used to eyeball my recipe notebook to make dishes but now I just let my instincts take over and somehow it turns out at least edible, if not surprisingly delicious.

The one thing I’m craving now is raw savoury soup. They are an all-time fave but I love them more in summer. I have my ever reliable everything-but-the-kitchen-sink raw green soups almost on a daily basis but sometimes I think I need to pamper myself a little.

I saw some delicious corn on sale at my local supermarket so I nabbed a couple and turned one into raw corn chowder.

Recipe in a high-speed blender (adapted from The Sunny Raw Kitchen — don’t you just love Carmie and her adventures?):

2 cups pumpkin seed milk
4 pieces of sundried tomatoes
1 green chili
1 garlic clove
Dash of shoyu
Dash of toasted sesame oil
1/2 tsp cumin

Top soup with a handful of chopped cilantro/coriander, white mushrooms, white onion & avocado. You can put in capsicum or grated carrot or julienned cucumber, too.

This totally hit the spot and I’ll probably make some more as I’ve got one more corn to use up.

I was stuck in a raw soup rut — I kept whipping up my favourite cucumber curry dill soup and couldn’t be bothered to make different ones. But soon I found that I got tired of the same taste and consumed fewer greens because of this.

For me, two large green smoothies (be it in the form of a sweet fruit based one or a savoury one) and one green juice a day gives me a very energetic boost. Anything less than that, I tend to just feel “normal”.

So I went back to trying carrot-based raw soups and I was so glad for new exciting flavours.

Inspired by the Carrot Lime Tang Raw Food Soup on RHS, I made a scrummy citrusy soup fit for champions.

In a blender:
Whizz one large carrot with one cup of water; strain & pour it back
½ red bell pepper
¼ cup coriander
Juice of half a lemon
1 big sprig of fresh parsley
Sea salt & black pepper to taste
A handful of spinach
½ avocado

Okay I know a carrot soup is supposed to be orange but somehow the red bell pepper caused it look brown so I threw in more greens to make it look more appetizing.

Last year, I stumbled upon Jonsi & Alex’s website, a pair of raw foodies in Iceland (if they can do it in such a cold climate, so could we!) and I tried almost all their recipes. And the recipe for today was inspired by their little raw handbook online.

Perhaps being away from my trusty computer and recipe books because of the two long trips I took late last year, I have just been drawing on raw food ideas that are in my short memory bank.

But a search through my old photos turned this one up:

It’s a lovely lunch (or dinner) with Thai flavours and julienned veggies. But somehow I crave slippery textures more in winter, so I used kelp noodles instead of zucchini pasta for this version. Thai food translates very well into raw versions so I hope you’ll enjoy my take on a Thai curry noodle soup.

Soak raw kelp noodles in a bowl of water and lemon juice for at least 30 min.

In a blender:
1 cup water
2 cups coconut flakes (blend with water and then strain; return to blender)

Add the following ingredients:
A pinch of curry powder, tumeric, cumin, cayenne, black pepper, sea salt
1 tsp olive oil (or more if you want)
1 tsp shoyu
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger
¼ white onion
1 clove garlic
Juice of half a lemon

To make it more Thai, I chopped up fresh basil to top the noodles and soup. Add slices of red bell pepper, white mushrooms, a handful of coriander, green onion, and shredded cucumber.

This is indeed a time-consuming dish but if you have some time, it’s worth every once of effort.