by Edith Cody-Rice
Recipes tested by Judi Agnew and Melanie Jones
Rawlicious is a small chain of raw and vegan food restaurants in Barrie, Toronto, Guelph and Markham and New York . Rawlicious at Home, authored by Angus Crawford and Chelsea Clark, owners and founders of the Rawlicious restaurants, covers a broad spectrum of recipes and raw principles, from basics like stocking your raw kitchen, juicing, salad preparation, and making smoothies, to more advanced, gourmet dishes. Crawford and Clark offer over 100 raw recipes that are free of wheat (gluten free), meat, dairy or refined sugar.
As I am no great “cook” myself, I turned Rawlicious over to two people who know food to test the recipes. Melanie has a lot of food restrictions and was thrilled to find a recipe book that gave her different ideas and expanded the range of things that she was able to make. The rest of her family and friends also enjoyed everything that she made from the book.
Judi and Melanie’s overall assessment of Rawlicious was that it is a good recipe book with great illustrations. The recipes, however, are complicated and require a fair bit of prep time: you need to set aside a good 2-3 hours to make most of them. Some ingredients can be difficult to find but once ingredients/food prep items (spiralizer/dehydrator) are purchased they can be used for many of the recipes in the book.
The results are definitely worth the effort expended, and will appeal to those who don’t need special dietary considerations as well as to those who do. The book provides unique and delicious recipes for anyone requiring gluten/dairy Free diet and quantity can be modified with the same great results.
Judi and Melanie tested the following recipes:
Beet Ravioli
Included Cashew Cheese and Basil Sauce which can both be used in other recipes.
It was time consuming but the result was outstanding and enjoyed by all taste testers
Brownies with Vanilla Icing
Once again a time consuming effort but the outcome was worth it Melanie made this one and she certainly plans to make it again.
Pad Thai
Melanie finally found the ingredients and made it on the weekend.Once the sauce is prepared it can be used for other recipes (spring rolls–Melanie is going to make those next). There was some difficulty finding ingredients and it was time consuming but she and her husband enjoyed making it and they both were very happy with the result (her husband was pleasantly surprised as he was a little skeptical)
Strawberry Pecan Salad
This one was easy to make, unique and the dressing was outstanding and useful for other things as well. Melanie has made it 3 times to take when she has been invited out. Everyone enjoys it and she knows that it is safe for her dietary restrictions.
Next Up–Melanie and Judi are going to use the dehydrator.
Melanie is going to try the onion bread and Judi is going to turn some of that kale into kale chips!
Rawlicious is published by the Appetite imprint of Random House and is sold as both a trade paperback and e-book
