Carrot Lime Salad & a Cookbook Review

I’m venturing out into new salad territory … thanks to a new cookbook I received in the mail to review. My friend Sonali at The Foodie Physician asked if I’d be willing to do a review for The Complete Book of Raw Food cookbook. I thought about it for a moment and then I said, “sure, why not?”

Now, first of all, I feel like I have to warn you: I’m not a “raw food” eater. Not that I have anything against raw foods, but I do quite enjoy a hot cooked meal as well, and, living up North-ish where it gets seriously COLD sometimes, we need some hot food to help our bodies warm up! I also know that some foods (for example: tomatoes) actually GAIN nutritional value from cooking, but I’m not here to knock the raw food mission. If you find benefits in eating raw foods, then by all means, do it.

But just because I’m not a Raw Food fanatic doesn’t mean I can’t learn something from a Raw Food cookbook. For me, I found some new salad directions, some very fun soup ideas and some other creative ways of combining ingredients that I hadn’t ever thought of before. I have found it’s really valuable to pay attention to a cookbook like this because it introduces you to a different approach, a different way of thinking about food. I’ve got LOTS of recipes bookmarked that I’ve decided I want to try.

I decided to start with this Carrot Lime Salad. I don’t think I would have ever envisioned this combination of ingredients on my own, and yet, when I saw them, I recognized the genius right away. I wanted to try this salad. I also wanted to text the writer of the book and ask “the recipe says: 1/2 lime juice, what do you mean? Juice of half a lime? 1/2 cup of lime juice?” … I think I picked the one recipe in the book with a typo. Just my luck. So I took a guess that they meant the juice of half a lime, but then I had an overly dry lime and not much juice came out when I attempted to juice it. I even called my son (the giant one with the huge strong hands) to give it a try and he only got a few drops more out of this pathetic lime.  Well, obviously, half a lime WASN’T going to be enough in this case. So I squeezed the juice of another lime to get a total of 2 Tablespoons of juice for my half batch of carrot salad. At first, when I tossed the carrots with the lime, I thought “oh it’s going to be too much” … but after it sat overnight, the juice soaked into the carrot and the dried apricot and the fresh herbs joined in so the salad tasted completely sublime the next day.

So my first recipe from my new “Raw” cookbook was a resounding success (and it made my body feel all energized too) … and I have about 7 more salad recipes and a few soup recipes marked to try as well. I also have to tell you, the cookbook has quite a bit of information on how to go about switching to a raw foods diet and what that means, so I think it’s a great resource for anyone who wants to switch to a raw food diet. And even though I’m not on, nor would I consider, going to a raw foods diet, I would recommend the book to everyone who loves real food. Eating raw foods “part time” is certainly beneficial and this book contains loads of good food inspiration for real uncooked, unprocessed foods. After all, some foods are best eaten fresh from the garden, with no stove or fire.

Carrot Lime Salad with Cilantro, Basil, Apricots & Pine Nuts

• Prep Time: 20 minutes
• Total Time: 20 minutes
• Yield: 2+ cups of salad 1x

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 2 cups shredded carrot
• 2 Tablespoons fresh-squeezed lime juice
• About 2 Tablespoons fresh cilantro leaves, chopped
• About 2 Tablespoons fresh basil leaves, chopped
• 1/4 cup dried apricots, chopped
• 2 Tablespoons pine nuts, toasted (or raw)

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Instructions

1. In a medium mixing bowl, toss the shredded carrot with the lime juice, cilantro, basil and apricots. Let sit for at least an hour (or put in an airtight container and let it “marinade” for several hours or overnight).
2. At serving time, top with the pine nuts and enjoy!

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Notes

RECIPE SOURCE: http://www.sumptuousspoonfuls.com/

© Copyright 2014, Sumptuous Spoonfuls. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use my images without prior permission. If you want to publish any of my images, please ask first. If you want to republish this recipe as your own, please re-write the recipe in your own words or link back to this post for the recipe.

This recipe was shared at Recipe Sharing Monday, Treasure Box Tuesday, Simple Supper Tuesday, Wine’d Down Wednesday, The Wednesday Roundup, Gluten Free Friday, Friday Frenzy, Let’s Get Real and Moonlight & Mason Jars.