Customer Reviews: Read 1 more reviews...
 Great - but still a bit weird... April 15, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'm quite into raw food and generally trying to live a healthy life so I have enjoyed this book - it has given me some good ideas on how to incorporate more raw food into my diet. However...quite a few recipes are way different to the food I am used to! Raw ketchup was amazingly good and the spring roll style wraps are worth making but combinations of sprouts, seaweed and bombay mix found in other recipes are rather new tastes for me!
All in all worth getting, but as someone who is 'quite' interested in raw food I need more recipes that are closer to my taste. Maybe I'll try Kate's next book....
 A classic December 6, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
The best raw food book that I have come across so far with lots of accessible recipes. Some require complicated implements but it is usually possible to improvise. Try the pasta sauce, chocolate torte and banana ice cream.
 No temperature indication for dehydrator January 24, 2007
15 out of 25 found this review helpful
I began reading through the book and was rather excited until I reached page 37. This is where the main substance of the book begins with recipes for snacks, main courses, breads, cookies and the like. While the recipes look very good, there is no indication whatsover as to which temperature the ingredients ought to be dehydrated. This is very crutial and cannot be done via guess work. A real dissapointment I must say! Kate Wood...what were you thinking?
Highly recommended to anyone wanting to get more raw goodness in their diet! November 28, 2006
40 out of 41 found this review helpful
This book arrived last Saturday morning. After getting breakfast and the housework out of the way I had a lovely cosy morning (still in my PJs!) reading this book from cover to cover! I didn't necessarily read every single recipe in depth, but enough to get inspiration from all the different categories (and I've been referring back to them daily).
This book is great because it is very accessible (although I've been a vegan for several years so a lot of the ingredients are things I have around anyway). Kate does a wonderful job of making this lifestyle more accessible to those of us who aren't lucky enough to live in sunny California and have the best organic markets and health shops nearby.
The recipes strike a perfect balance between being exiting and being practical for those of us with busy lives, office jobs and a realistic food budget. They also use ingredients that can easily be found in your local Tesco with the more unusual bits available from a good health food shop, or via online shopping (just Google anything you're missing and see what comes up!). Also, the recipes provide enough flexibility to substitute or improvise with whatever you have around.
Probably my favourite thing about the book is Kate's friendly writing stile. She comes across as down to earth, genuine and open minded, leaving you feeling that it a raw food diet isn't an "all or nothing" lifestyle, making the point that everyone can benefit from increasing the amount of raw food they eat in a way that suits them. She also provides tips for those of us without a Champion juicer and dehydrator, so there really is no excuse not to get started!
I've found this book very useful even though I'm not ready to make the commitment to going totally raw (my system doesn't tolerate fresh fruit very well, which limits my choices somewhat). But this book has given me enough ideas to ensure that about 50% or so of what I'm eating falls into the raw category, and if I have days where that percentage isn't as high as I'd like, I won't feel like it's the end of the world.
Personally, I'm not sure I agree with some proponents of a raw food lifestyle who say that *all* cooked food is bad for you (though there is much scientific data on the subject which merits investigation). Saying that though I don't deny the obvious logic that if you can eat something raw (e.g. fruits, carrots, cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, beetroot and many more of nature's goodies) you probably should!
I highly recommend this book, not just to those thinking about switching to a raw diet, but to those like me who generally aspire to lead a healthy, holistic lifestyle in this crazy modern world!
 Reliable recipes, no-nonsense approach, great for beginners. February 22, 2006
95 out of 96 found this review helpful
If you are looking for a picture with every recipe and a forward 50 pages long about the benefits of sprouting and the technicalities of a diet to enhance you spiritually, then look away. There are other books for that. But this is a book that you will come back to again and again for straight-forward, reliable recipes, easy to find british ingredients and Kate adds a note to every recipe giving tips/her findings having successfully used the recipes for many years on her young family. you don't have to go 100% raw, there's a recipe for healthy chips too. The recipes all work and raw food is fresh, tasty and colourful; includes soups, breads, biscuits, smoothies, ice creams, puddings, sweeties, breakfasts, stews, burgers, curry, salads, sprout and noodles dishes, wraps, pizza, crackers, sauces, dips, mayo, nut butters : see what I mean? You could pick up this book knowing nothing about raw foods and be off and running within a couple of days - understanding why you're doing it and feeling all the better for it. If you are on a budget, I would say this is the only book you would need to buy for quite some time. There is a comprehensive section on what foods to include, AND WHY, and until you become a purist who can only drink star water and nibble angels hair, this is a book that will cover all aspects of getting going; including a useful contacts page, her own story, further reading recommendations and easy to digest nutrients info. Well done Kate for keeping it simple. By the way, there are a few photos. And so far, my 4 yr old is lovin' it. Going raw is the best decision I have made in years, I feel great and havve lost 14lbs of useless flab. I shall climb the dizzy heights to purism and be supping solely on butterfly nectar in no time. Can't seem to give up the fags, though. And is wine raw? ;-D
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