• 1 head romaine, finely chopped
• 2 plum tomatoes, small diced
• 1 green bell pepper, small diced
• ½ red onion, small diced
• ½ cup kalamata olives, chopped
• 1 handful parsley, chopped
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 tsp dried oregano or zaatar

Optional: goat feta, cubed

Toss all ingredients together.

• 2 medium zucchini, peeled
• ¼ cup raw tahini
• 2/3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 lemon, juiced (or more)
• 1 dash cumin or zaatar*
• s/p to taste

Put all ingredients through a high speed blender, sprinkle paprika on top if desired or extra cumin or zaatar. Serve with zucchini rounds on the side.

*Zaatar is a blend of spices, available in specialty markets.

• 1 lg seedless cucumber (or use several kirbys, Persians, etc…if using waxy cucumbers, peel the skin)
• ½ medium red onion, small diced
• 1 tsp dill, chopped
• 1 lemon, juice
• s/p to taste

Toss all ingredients together.

• 4 medium roasted beets, cubed**
• ½ medium red onion, small diced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp thyme, picked off sprigs
• ½ grapefruit, juice and zest
• s/p to taste

Toss all ingredients together.

*Want this recipe raw? Substitute roasted beets for raw shredded or julienned beets for easier absorption of marinade.

** Wrap whole beets, skin on with tinfoil, in preheated 400 degree oven for 45 min to 1 hour or till soft when pierced with knife. To remove skins easily, throw the warm beets in paper bag and rub the bag till skin slides off.

• 4 carrots, sliced (1/8 inch on a diagonal works best)
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp parsley, chopped
• 1/8 tsp smoked paprika or regular paprika
• 1 lemon, juice and zest
• s/p to taste

Salt the carrots and let sit for half an hour or more. Rinse off salt and add rest of ingredients.

• 3 oz raw semi soft goat or sheep cheese at room temperature
• 1 zucchini, peeled and chopped
• 1 garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp parsley, chopped
• 1 tbsp of chives, tarragon, oregano or thyme
• 1 lemon, zest & juice
• s/p to taste

Combine all ingredients in a food processor. Thin out with water or more lemon to make it zestier. You can use raw goat milk or a yogurt if you have on hand. Go for a rustic but still easy to flow kind of sauce. Just like a Caesar Salad, eat it with romaine, cherry tomatoes, add more grated raw goat if you like or more lemon, be generous with the cracked black pepper; it stands up to it! 

Alternatively, you can keep the sauce thick and use it as a sauce for crudite; carrots, cucumber, zucchini, celery, etc. Or roast vegetables; asparagus, cauliflower, red bell peppers, radicchio and serve the sauce on the side.

Seriously, I’ve witnessed as a whole room when silent when I severed this creamy herby sauce drizzled on top of a whole branzino or a filet of cod that had been roasted with lemon and sliced red onions. I love it when I get comments like, “I’m allowed to eat that?” OH YEAH YOU CAN!

• 3 tbsp Shoyu with equal parts water
• 1 lemon, juiced
• 1 lime, juiced
• 1 garlic, minced
• 1 knob ginger, in matchsticks
• 1 scallion or chives, chopped
• 1 dash of cayenne
• A couple of drops of sesame oil (optional)
• Stevia to taste
• Sesame seeds to garnish (optional)

Combine all ingredients, let flavors steep. Thin out with more water to taste if shoyu is too salty. This is particular good not just for salads like arugula, watercress, red leaf lettuce, cabbage, etc. but as a sauce for steamed vegetables especially zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower and carrots. It is a great marinade for mushrooms like shitake and cremini which can later be sliced and added to salads. If you eat raw goat cheese, have the marinated mushrooms over spinach, add sun dried tomatoes with chopped parsley and it is heart warming. (You can bake this in the oven till the cheese melts for yourself or a loved one)

• 1 avocado pitted and chopped
• 1 handful basil
• 1 or 2 cloves garlic
• 1 med zucchini, peeled and chopped
• 1 lemon, zest and juice
• s/p to taste

Blend all ingredients, adding water to facilitate blending.

This is my version of a nut free pesto. Sometimes I will put it through a food processor to make the zucchini chunky, like pine nuts in pesto. But more often than not, I like it smooth and creamy. It’s so good over zucchini or yellow squash pasta, raw spinach, or massaged into kale. Add lots of cherry tomatoes, sliced red onions, red bell peppers, sun dried tomato slices and top with fresh parsley. 

Thin it out by adding more zucchini and water and you have soup. Add diced red, orange or yellow bell peppers as garnish and its lovely. 

I add a teaspoon of wasabi powder and substitute the lemon for yuzu (Japanese lime, sold in specialty Asian markets) and serve with nori hand rolls mentioned in the recipe above.

• 4 med roasted beets, roughly cubed
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 knob ginger (1 inch)
• 1 lemon, zest and juice
• 1 citrus fruit zest (orange, tangerine, Clementine, etc)
• s/p to taste
• 1 tbsp tahini or sesame oil to taste

Blend all ingredients, adding water to facilitate blending.

This dressing stands up to robust or peppery greens like arugula, dandelion, kale, collard greens, mizuna, watercress, etc. It’s great over spiralized carrots, zucchini and daikon. Add fresh torn basil and parsley and it makes great raw pasta. Last time I gave it to Natalia she ate it with a spoon before it even made it onto the salad!

I use it as a sauce for hand nori rolls that are rolled with slivers of raw beets, carrots, jicama or daikon, avocado, scallions and shredded red cabbage. I also pickle ginger in the roasted beet sauce overnight with more lemon. It turns the ginger pink and I put it in the nori rolls!

• 1 pt cherry tomatoes or 4 plum tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 knob ginger (1 inch)
• ¼ jalapeno, seeded (take a nibble, use more or less)
• 1 lime, zest & juice
• s/p to taste

Blend all ingredients. 

This seemingly delicate sauce packs a punch. It’s best with light, mild salad greens like romaine hearts, bibb lettuce, green leaf, butter lettuce, etc… with radish, cucumbers, daikon or jicama. Add mint and/or cilantro and the salad becomes Southeast Asian in flavor.

I use this sauce for daikon rolls; mandolin thin sheets of daikon, julienne cucumber, carrots, yellow or orange bell pepper, add a sprig of cilantro and mint. Roll and serve with sauce on the side.

One of the biggest paradoxes I have come across in raw food circles is that dining in most Raw Food/ Vegan restaurants is not unlike mainstream dining. Eating a more raw-vegan diet is supposed to be about eating more simple, lighter fare. However, this is not what I see in the raw/vegan restaurants at all. I see the same concept of going overboard on quantities of dense foods in overfilling quantities. Raw nuts and seeds are great but in moderation (like a serving that fits in one child-sized hand — not two, cupped like Oliver Twist’s asking, “Please sir, can I have some more?”! That’s nuts gone nuts! Hey McD’s, here’s one for your menu, the “McSoy Quarter Pounder with Seeds!” 

Dense, poorly food combined is the hallmark of these raw and vegan restaurants because people seem to be missing the point. We eat too much and for the wrong reasons in our culture. Embracing the raw food lifestyle is not just about switching ingredients it’s about evolving our approach to food. What we have in the trend raw/vegan circles is raw/vegan food that simply mimics “real foods” but with raw/vegan ingredients so people will feel they are making meaningful change without changing anything at all. They think they are not eating the SAD diet but in many ways they still are. Sure, I can make you a Mock Bolognese Pasta that will have your Grandma going raw if you give me a brick of cashew nuts to work with. But it really is a mockery. 

The good news is that dining out in great restaurants at large is fun and easy, armed with what you’re learning here about how food should be consumed and the importance of ease of digestion. In the spirit of this, I would like to offer you a few of my favorite picks and what I enjoy eating when I go out for some fun in my favorite neighborhoods. I hope it inspires you as you consider your options which may be more extensive than you realize in light of this! Have a grand dining experience! 

Pylos, East Village, NYC 
Horiatiki: romaine, tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, capers, kalamata olives, feta and a simple dressing of extra-virgin greek olive oil and red wine vinegar 
At home: nix the olive oil, add a pinch of dried oregano and substitute red wine vinegar for lemon 
Maroulosalata: tender lettuces, dill, scallions and feta served with extra-virgin olive oil and fresh lemon dressing 
At home: use baby bibb lettuce or finely chopped romaine hearts, use raw sheep or goat cheese (or do without), nix the olive oil, add juice of a whole lemon and add julienned radishes. I’ve been eating this salad all week! 

Gemma at the Bowery Hotel, East Village, NYC 
Mizuna Salad: beets, mizuna, goat cheese, pistachios (ask for no dressing, no pistachios, halved lemons on the side)
At home: substitute with arugula if you cannot find mizuna, opt for goat cheese or pistachios, not both 
Arugula Salad: arugula, fresh goat cheese, cherry tomatoes (ask for no dressing, halved lemons on the side) 
At home: add sun dried tomato slivers, thinly sliced red onions and fresh basil for a main course salad 
Mixed Olives Plate: (ask for the Cerignola olives without olive oil and the parmesan cubes) 

Joseph Leonard, West Village, NYC 
They have complimentary pickled cornichons in mason jars that are crunchy and delicious! 
Salad: baby lettuces, radishes, celery, fennel and red wine vinaigrette 
At home: use baby bibb lettuce or finely chopped romaine hearts, nix the olive oil, substitute vinaigrette for lemon, use the fronds from the fennel to garnish 

Café Mogador, East Village, NYC 
Avocado Salad: mesclun, cucumber, endive, tomato, beets & olives 
Mezze Appetizers: spicy carrots, marinated beets, tabouleh, olives & pickles 
At home: their appetizers were the inspiration for my earlier post on mezze platters! Follow my tweaked recipes! 

Lil’ Frankies, NYC (various locations) 
Lil’ Frankies Salad: arugula, roasted beets, tomatoes, green beans, new potatoes, broccoli, red onions, zucchini and fresh fennel 
At home: this salad is reminiscent of a Salad Nicoise without the tuna. Use any seasonal greens and vegetables, omit new potatoes but add more roasted vegetables like bell peppers, asparagus and of course, nicoise olives! 

Blue Ribbon Sushi, Soho, NYC 
Yasai Tanzaku: Vegetable sticks with miso dressing 
At home: this raw salad is great with my roasted beet dressing recipe for those who don’t use miso

Okay, this is a bit out there but the beet and cinnamon is a really awesome combination! I made this with goat milk but raw goat kefir is probably ideal. I like the goaty taste to it since beets and chevre is such a classic combo. The cinnamon just slams that beet taste home! This is a bit of a experiment so the measurements are to taste. Just remember as you\’re making it, it should taste a bit too sweet, almost cloying since it will be less so when cold. But I took 2 cups of roasted beets, pureed it with 3 cups of goat milk, tablespoon of cinnamon, ½ cup agave nectar and stevia for extra boost. I did run in through and ice cream maker this time….

Puree frozen ripe bananas in food processor, add chopped up 70 % dark chocolate of choice, and raw walnut pieces. Make chocolate sauce by mixing with unsweetened cocoa powder and agave nectar and drizzle on top.

Okay, another holiday idea that might be good for those willing to bend a bit… the crime this time is date sugar which is made out of just dates! It has the same coarse granular texture as brown sugar which made me think of crème brulee! But no hand held blow torch needed…. Just take sweet potatoes, split in half lengthwise, roast in a preheated 400 degree oven with some pumpkin spice till soft, then remove from oven, sprinkle date sugar on top and stick under a broiler for a minute or two…. But keep your eye on it! The smell is divine!

This recipe is decadent especially if you are following the Detox 4 Women diet since it uses maple syrup and coconut milk but here it goes anyway! (I did try a friendlier version but without it but tasted like really cold mashed sweet potatoes) 

• 1 lb roasted sweet potato, mashed
• 2 cups coconut milk
• ¼ maple syrup
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1tbsp pumpkin spice

If you don’t have an ice cream maker, you can freeze your mashed sweet potato. Use an ice cube tray so its not one big frozen lug that you have to stab with a knife to break up (I learned my lesson, ouch!) Add all ingredients in a blender. I like to add chopped up pieces of the unsulphured ginger in cane sugar that they sell in the health food stores for an extra kick! Mix it in manually at the end. More liquid and it’s more of a pudding.