Raw Curried Carrot Soup

Our second week of raw food proved to be a bit more pleasant (though incredibly humid) weather-wise, so why not bring in some exotic flavors? Carrot-Avocado soup is pretty much raw food staple- it is full of vitamins, protein, healthy fats, and leaves you feeling quite satisfied. Unfortunately, no matter how well you like carrots and avocados on their own, it's a somewhat bland pairing to me. The avocado is almost too rich to be mixed with the carrot without extra flavor being added in. So that's what I did. 

Craving something a bit different than our usual raw food flavors, I originally thought about an Indian curry spice blend to add in. Indian turned to Thai, and Thai turned into a fresh paste that I found the recipe for here. Before we get to the soup recipe, please note that I made the following raw substitutions with the curry recipe: lime peel for lemongrass; 

nama shoyu for soy sauce; no extra salt; agave for brown sugar; no coconut milk. Two hot peppers were used, with the seeds left in; this made quite a spicy mix. 

And now for the recipe...

Ingredients: 

4 cups carrot juice (from 15 or so large carrots)

1 large avocado

2 small ears corn

1 red bell pepper, chopped

1 recipe green curry paste

Directions: 

Prepare green curry paste as per directions in above link, and set aside. 

Trim corn from cob and combine in a large bowl with red bell pepper.

 Scoop avocado flesh out from skin and place in blender jar. Juice enough carrots to attain 4 cups of juice and place in blender jar as well. Add in 1/2 of curry recipe to carrot juice and avocado and blend on high 30 seconds, or until smooth and creamy. Pour carrot mix into bowl over chopped veggies and stir to combine. Taste for flavors, and set aside to chill until cold. We ended up using all of the curry recipe in our soup, but you may like less. Starting with half the recipe will allow you to add more curry without getting too crazy. If anything, a bit set aside for garnish is a nice touch. 

To serve, ladle soup into bowls and garnish with a little extra curry paste on top.

Recipe Review: Ani Phyo's Raw Chili

It's September and Frank andI have been eating raw food. "WHAT???" you say. 'Are you crazy?' The answer to that is... no. And yes. The raw stints we do for about 6 weeks during the warmer months had to be pushed back to September due to our busy schedule. In the summer, doing this is easy, and frankly, I welcome it. Cleaning out from the heavy cooked foods and moving into lighter, fresh tasting foods is like a resetting of the body. And eating a raw dinner when it's 100 degrees out doesn't hurt either. September has been a big tease so far, and we've pretty much run the temperature gamut. In my last post, I noted that it was quite cold, and all we wanted was warm comfort food. That cool weather cleared up for a bit, allowing the transition into raw quite easy. However, the cold soon rejoined us at the end of last week, which made for a chilly few days. What's a girl to do? Make chili. 


I know. 


It's not hot chili. It's chilly chili.


As much as I like creating my own recipes, I love buying/reading/cooking from other people's books. Cookbooks are wonderful reference and learning tools, and when you're stumped, they usually have the answer. Ani's raw chili recipe can be found in Ani's Raw Food Essentials, which was released last year.  The recipe appealed to me because it uses finely chopped walnuts seasoned with cumin in place of sprouted beans to add texture and heartiness. The chili itself consists of tomatoes, corn, bell pepper, and mushrooms, and spices, some blended, to created a chunky soup. I added in jalapeno, because really, what's chili if it doesn't have a kick to it? And since we were quite cold, the jalapeno acted as a wonderful warming agent in the body. Ani's chili did the trick for us both. It did not have agave in it, so there was no aim to recreate the cloyingly sweet taste that some chilis have. The dish itself was was filling, hearty, and had the right play of textures, much like a cooked veggie chili. The only complaint? The portion sizes, and ratio of nuts to veggies! Do not be fooled by the 'serves 4' listing with this recipe. I doubled the vegetable portion of the recipe because it was the only thing we were eating for dinner; we finished off all of the veggies, and there were still walnuts (which were made as written) left over.


Bottom line: if you're feeling adventurous... make some raw chili!