Alissa Cohen

Pleasantly surprised... I'm still searching for the perfect whole food, plant based cookbook that doesn't rely on nuts or over uses any of my many allergies (melons, corn, legumes, avocado, raw squash...) But there were more than a handful of recipes my family could eat. I'm actually tempted to buy this- I don't think anyone with a family could eat this way daily unless you spend all your time preparing these meals but they would be fun for a treat. Almost everything meal-like besides salads relies on a dehydrator. I wonder how much electricity it takes to run a dehydrator day and night. But I think the point of this book was to show some of the fun stuff you can do with raw foods. In fact a practical raw food book would be kind of boring- "Slice up a bunch of fruits and veggies. Serve and enjoy." (That, by the way, is one of my kids' favorite meals along with some fresh baked bread or rolls- we aren't raw foodists. They call it snacky dinner.)

Here are my thoughts as I read this cookbook from start to finish:

Just read the introduction and so far, not so good... I don't like her attitude that this is the only way for everyone. What about people like my son who would die if he ate nuts or me with oral allergy syndrome, which is an allergic reaction to many raw fruits and veggies and an intolerance to nuts. I picked this up hoping that it would give some interesting things to try but we will see if anything is possible for us to try.

Continuing to read... Okay the section on sprouting is interesting and useful, something I've been wanting to try. I wish there was more information on why, like why soak chia seeds but not sprout them.

Continuing to read... The section on fruits and vegetables is interesting. I kind of want to make a list of all the different kinds she talks about so when I feel like there's nothing to eat, I can be inspired. But... Are you sure you can eat rhubarb without cooking it?

I really want to try the chocolate hemp seed milk- cacao powder, hemp seeds, and dates. Another one to try- eggplant bacon- strips marinated in soysauce and dehydrated until crisp.

Cheese section- useless to me but I would have been surprised had it been otherwise.

Lots of interesting ideas in the pickle section. Ditto for the smoothies, though some ingredients are questionable, like maca powder, which I read was mutagenic unless boiled and possibly addictive.

The meal section- Lots of recipes we can't eat in my family but surprisingly there are quite a few that we can eat! 😃 Wow, I've been searching for a while for a vegan or vegetarian cookbook that doesn't rely primarily on nuts or dairy because of our allergies. The raw pizzas are veggies and seeds, not nuts! Veggie burgers without nuts, beans or grain! Very cool!

Desserts- eh, not too impressed. Lots of nuts and too much agave syrup. Probably could do the ice cream without the nuts. But I already have a wide repertoire of desserts, plus the easiest dessert in the world is the most fresh and in season fruit served and eaten as is.… (més)