RAWWOMAN RECIPE FILE:

RED PEPPER HUMMUS PIZZA

Pizza Crust

2 1/2 cups of sprouted kamut

1 teaspoon sea salt

1/2 cup water

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 1/2 cups ground golden flax seeds (or flax meal)

1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper

Place sprouted grain in a food processor with salt and cayenne and blend till it breaks down, scraping the sides of processor.

Add water and oil while processing. Mixture will become doughy.

Transfer to a mixing bowl and put in the flax seeds. Blend well until thoroughly mixed.

Pour a small amount of oil onto teflex dehydrator sheet and spread it to cover entire sheet. Press dough into a circular Pizza shape. (You can use an oiled rolling pin as well. You can curl up edges to look like a more traditional pizza.

Dry for 2 hours at 110 degrees, then flip onto a mesh screen for at least 2 hours more.

Crusts keep, refrigerated, up to 5 days.

Red Pepper Hummus

!/2 cup sesame seeds, ground into a powder

2 teaspoons chopped garlic

1 teaspoon sea salt

2 cups seeded and diced red bell pepper

1/3 cup tahini

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

Process the sesame seeds, garlic and salt into small pieces; add remaining ingredients and process until smooth.

Keeps for two days in the fridge.

Horiatiki Salad

Yeilds 2 !/2 cups

2 Tablespoons Olive Oil

1 Tablespoon Lemon Juice

1 teaspoon whole dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon Himalayan or Celtic salt

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

1 /2 lb. tomatoes (approximately 2-3 romas) cut into 12 pieces each

1/2 cucumber, sliced, not seeded or peeled then slices cut into quarters

1/4 red pepper quartered and cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1/4 red onion sliced thinly into half moons

1/8 cup sun-dried olives, chopped

Put the the olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, salt and pepper in a large salad bowl. Add remaining ingredients and toss to evenly distribute.

Extra Garnish

Arugula Leaves or Spinach

‘Raw’mesan Cheese (recipe follows)

‘Raw'Mesan Cheese

1/2 cup of macadamia nuts, soaked for 2 hours

1/4 cup pine nuts, soaked for 2 hours

2 teaspoons lemon juice

2 teaspoons nutritional yeast

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

2 tablespoons water

Combine the nuts, lemon juice, nutritional yeast and salt in food processor, scraping down the sides until well mixed. Add water while processing to make it fluffy.

Spread the cheese mixture onto a teflex sheet and dry at 110 degrees for 6 to 8 hours. Do not over process or it will become sticky. Crumble and store up to 1 week in an airtight container.

ASSEMBLY: Spread Hummus in a thick layer over Kamut Crust. Spread some arugula leaves evenly over hummus. Scatter Horiatiki evenly over both. If using, sprinkle with ‘Raw’mesan cheese. EAT!

Note : This pizza sprouted from a combination of recipes from several different RawWoman classes; the crust and raw parmesan from our 'Breads and Pizza' Class, the ' Greek Horiatiki Salad' from our 'Super Salads' Class and the 'Red Pepper Hummus' from our 'Lunch in the Raw' Class. In a reverenced 'toot' of our own horn : this is truly delicious and since it also eliminates the more typical, nut cheese pizza topping it contains significantly less fat than a more traditional raw vegetable pizza. Eliminate the 'RawMesan' Cheese and you reduce the fat again!

RAWWOMAN RECIPE FILE:

HEMPED UP RED PEPPER DIP

2 red bell peppers, chopped

1 1/4 cup shelled hemp seeds

1/4 cup nutritional yeast

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 tablespoon Nama Shoyu

1/2 teaspoon mild curry powder

pinch salt

1/4 cup water ( or less, use to thin dip to taste)

Place all ingredients except water in food processor. Process till smooth. Use a little water to thin dip slightly, to taste.

Marie: ON THE ROAD TO RAW

Equipment

Alisa and I came together as partners in one of those fated ways; both of the women who normally assisted her in her classes were unavailable - due to 'personal emergencies - on the weekend of her first 'Equipment' class. I - by simply being the only one available - became the substitute. And the rest is history, so to speak. But on the subject of 'Equipment'... my whole kitchen had been transformed into what I then dubbed 'Alisa's Chamber of Torture'. Everything looked impressive and imposing but mostly it just looked like ALOT! There was not an open space on the kitchen counter; it looked like any moment all this stuff would revolt and take over the house .

Never one to acquire gadgets, I was astounded to find instruments for taking the hulls of strawberries, pitting cherries and zesting lemons. "What's wrong with a knife?", became the phrase of the day.Alisa had many, many knives and a very large and dangerous looking cleaver (for coconuts). "What do you need so many knives for?" I queried. There is no real answer. Some people just collect knives. Which brings me to the equipment. Juicers; all different kinds, some of which I couldn't for the life of me figure out where the fruit went in and the juice came out! Three different kinds of blenders. Some white gizmo with a guillotine blade and a crank handle that supposedly turns vegetables into noodles. A big black box with removable trays called a dehydrator - the closest thing to cooking in the raw world but kind of like the grown up version of an Easy Bake Oven (another contraption that takes a whole day to bake a cake).

I felt scared and deprived at the same time. Was I supposed to have all this stuff in my own kitchen? Why didn't I have all this stuff in my kitchen? I think I better learn how to use the strange little lemon rinder but, again, what's wrong with a knife?

Now the reality. The truth is: you don't need all that stuff. We conduct most of our classes with a blender (just one) and a food processor. Sometimes we throw in the dehydrator. We use measuring cups and spoons and knives. And that's pretty much it. More than a year has passed since that first class with Alisa and I, myself, verge on living a life on the edge of All Raw (although sometimes when you live life On The Edge, you're bound to fall off sometimes - but that's another story), I still don't have a VitaMix - considered to be the blender of choice for all raw food-ists. It's just me and my little Osterizer - and that works fine. Except that I must admit that there is nothing like the Vitamix for turning nuts into a smooth cream, something my own humble blender refuses to do, eventually shutting down completely like a petulant child until I let it sit for awhile and cool down. I didn't buy a juicer either. And I drink TONS of juice. I use my blender to beat things into a pulp instead, then pour the fibrous concoction through a nut milk bag and into a bowl. $9.50 for a nut milk bag. It's a bargain. You could use cheesecloth if you had a mind to, but the nut milk bag is better. It just goes to show that you don't need to break the bank to get the job done. I like juicing this way. It's kind of like milking a goat and I've always kind of gotten a kick out of that too. I did, however, invest in a fabulous Cuisinart food processor, cutting my processing time for almost anything in half. I also bought a dehydrator; even though I consistently prefer fruits and vegetables in their most natural states, every once in awhile I get a craving for one of those 'easy baked' items. Chips, stuffed mushrooms, pie crusts, pizza, breads. And, after all, I like it because it warms things up a little and me being - first and foremost - a cook, I like that sometimes... a warm blast from the past. I bought the best dehydrator there is. The 'Excaliber': Dehydrator Of Champions. Honestly most of us consider it the only dehydrator there is. And yes, I too began accumulating knives ( in particular the ceramic kind though right now I'm pining for two lovely Cutco knives that slice through anything - bone, rope, you name it -and that I'm threatening to use on the farm as well). Oh! And I bought a cleaver. Because you can never drink too much coconut water.

RAWWOMAN RECIPE FILE:

SOUTHERN GREENS SALAD

1 cup curly green kale, stems removed

1/2 bunch collard greens, stems removed

1/4 cup basil leaves

3/4 teaspoons sea salt

2 cloves garlic, crushed

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

1/8 teaspoon cayenne

Chop the kale medium fine. To chop the collard greens and basil, first stack several leaves, roll them and cut into thin strips. Then chop medium fine. Add the remaining ingredients and continue to massage the greens, working the dressing into them with your hands.

Indian Greens: Substitute mustard greens for the collards. Replace the olive oil with sesame oil and add 1/2 teaspoon curry powder and 1/4 teaspoon cumin

Asian Greens: Substitute spinach for the kale and bok choy for the collards. Replace the olive oil with sesame oil, replace the sea salt with 2 teaspoons tamari and add 1/2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger. Peeled orange sections would be great in this salad.

***This recipe comes to you as a direct request from one of our students! She is working in DeKalb and had a craving for this kale concoction that we featured in our recent salad class. We don't blame her; we are avid kale lovers and have this one a few times a week, ourselves. Here you go Cheryl...Enjoy!

Marie: ON THE ROAD TO RAW

Shopping

I kept thinking that I could go 100% raw. I seemed so close with more than half the day already taken care of. I was always trying to eat consciously. I had always looked at packaging, trying to avoid anything that contained ingredients that I couldn't pronounce. I had always carefully considered what I would feed my husband and children; even if they clamored for 'Lucky Charms', I would undoubtedly force muesli upon them. And it seemed like it would be simple for someone like myself to just go completely raw since I had - for the most part - always preferred fruits and vegetables anyway, albeit not exclusively. Yes, I've had my moments. But generally my cravings for junk food were minimal, standing up well to the onslaught of fast food establishments that beckoned with the welcoming arm of drive-through lane as I made my way down Cerillos Road and into the heart of Santa Fe every afternoon. Sometimes I've been really hungry, having somehow managed to inadvertently miss a meal somewhere in the web of my day while attending to some unexpected event; an animal birth, an overflowing toilet. My stomach would be growling past every bright sign and a burger might have seemed to represent a suitable , quick antidote - an instant gratification. Even then, I could usually resist. I always knew how bad that stuff could make me feel. And I could always remind myself of the time I found an actual rock in my Kentucky Fried Chicken (lucky me - there are a few of those urban legends that attest to people finding body parts in theirs). But resisting temptations such as these is one thing: 100% raw - going "all the way" - was a whole new ball game.

It is interesting when you first go to a grocery store with the idea of a raw diet in your mind. All of a sudden that whole, huge edifice is reduced to two aisles: the produce aisle and the bulk foods aisle where they keep the bird and squirrel food aka nuts and seeds and across from which they usually keep the agave nectar, honey and a smattering of raw nut butters. I could include the spice section but the whole spice thing is up for debate. A lot of the so-called experts will argue that commercially produced bottled spices are not raw. So, in a nutshell - if you can't see a cinnamon or nutmeg tree in your backyard or vanilla beans dangling in their pods you are either not getting those raw or else you are simply not getting those. These are the kind of things that pose as great raw quandaries.

One could argue that shopping becomes easier. There are not as many choices to be made. Naturally we should aim for organic. But Braeburn or Granny Smith? Anjou or Bartlett? It's all just apples and pears, after all. I should add that if you want to stick with organic produce and are shopping in a store like Smith's or Albertson's in lieu of an organic grocery store, the square footage of space representing the organic factor of what a raw foodist can eat is even smaller - some 6 foot section of refrigerated shelving in the produce department sporting no more than 6 bunches of anything the staff could steal from their neighbors gardens on the way to work in the morning on any given day. Or so it would seem. In the winter there is barely anything... probably because it's not as easy to forage for root vegetables in the snow. The first time I really noticed this was at the onset of my raw experimentations. "This is it?", I spurted aloud at a handful of carrots in the Albertson's organic section as some elderly woman in a kerchief rushed past me in a nervous attempt to escape an onslaught of Turrets.

Fortunately there is no dearth of natural grocery stores in Santa Fe. Whole Foods even has an actual Raw Food Section (albeit a small one) where you can find such tidbits as crackers and breads. I use the word bread in its loosest definition because it certainly doesn't look like any of the bread I grew up with in Europe, bearing a greater resemblance to WASA Thin Crisps than anything else. Anything else besides corrugated cardboard, that is. But if they want to call that bread, far be it from me to put up a stink. I put some Nori crackers in my basket and headed back to the produce aisle. That was what I had. Maybe it's not 14 aisles. But no matter what, everything there was vibrant and beautiful and exactly what it seemed to be.