A couple of weeks ago I was offered to review a copy of  Becoming Raw: The Essential Guide to Raw Vegan Diets by Brenda Davis, Vesanto Melina, and Rynn Berry. Because it’s finally the season again for lots of fresh and local produce, I was very happy to do this review.

Brilliant Broccoli Salad

Becoming Raw is a wonderful book. It answers all questions you might have about raw foods and raw vegan diets. The composition of this book and the structure of the chapters are similar to  Becoming Vegan, another fantastic book by the registered dietitians Davis and Melina. (You’ll find a table of contents on the page of the Book Publishing Company, linked above.) Becoming Raw is full of nutritional information on how to get your protein, vitamins (especially B 12 and D), your minerals (especially calcium), and your essential fatty acids.The authors cite studies, include tables on nutritional information, and compare different raw food lifestyles. Among other things, there is a very interesting chapter on the history of raw food lifestyles, a chapter on enzymes,  and one on food safety. I spend a couple of days reading the book cover to cover. If you decide to go 100% raw, Becoming Raw will be a fantastic (and the first of its kind!) raw foods resource book for you. The authors include recipes and whole menu plans, give you tips on how to include healthy fats to meet your caloric needs, how to get your calcium by eating low-oxalate greens, and how to make your diet very varied by including sprouted seeds, grains, and vegetables.

Even if you want to stick to your cooked foods like me, this book can still be very useful for you. You will learn  how to enrich your plates with whole foods in their most natural form: You’ll learn how to prepare colourful and delicious raw smoothies, cereals, spreads, soups, salads, and even sweets and snacks. Every recipe comes with nutritional information about both macro- and micronutrients.

After I had read my copy, I started shopping, chopping, and sprouting, so I could try out some of the fantastic recipes. Most of them are very fast to prepare and most don’t even require special equipment like a dehydrator. I am a huge fan of sprouting grains and seeds, so I started my day with a bowl of Sprouted Grain Cereal.

Sprouted Grain Cereal from Becoming Raw

I made this recipe with bananas and kiwi pieces, sprouted rye and soaked hemp, sunflower and pumpkin seeds. Since it’s such a basic müesli recipe and can be made with different kinds of fruits, spouts, and seeds, this is a wonderful standby breakfast cereal.

For a snack, I had a glass of Pink Cadillac Smoothie:

Pink Cadillac Smoothie from Becoming Raw

Of course Becoming Raw wouldn’t be complete without some green smoothie recipes, but this beverage is only fruit based. It’s made with strawberries and I can’t wait for strawberry season when I’ll be able to make this again from sweet local fruits. This time I used frozen berries which made the smoothie very creamy.

I liked all recipes, but my absolute favourite was the Brilliant Broccoli Salad (pictured above) made with Lemon Tahini Dressing, also featured in the book. Since raw broccoli can be a bit hard on your digestive tract, the authors suggest to briefly soak the raw vegetable in hot water. I found this a very useful tip. The salad is made with an absolutely delicious dressing and the added carrots add a hint of sweetness.

Another great recipe is the Avocado Spread or Dip. It’s simple but very flavourful and combined with cut up vegetables makes for a really wonderful and delicious snack:

Avocado Dip from Becoming Raw

Becoming Raw provides all the information you need to plan a healthy raw vegan diet. Included recipes range from very simple and easy ones to almost gourmet-like, more time-consuming ones. The book is a great resource book for everyone who’d like to learn more about raw nutrition and include more uncooked whole foods in their diet. I did enjoy reading this book very much and I’ll alway have it on hand to include more raw foods into my diet.