RAWvolution: Gourmet Living Cuisine
by Matt Amsden
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Book Reviews of RAWvolution: Gourmet Living Cuisine
Book Review: 4.5 stars but more recipes could be included
Summary: 5 Stars
First off I would like to say that I dont live in California so I havent been able to go to RAWvolution and try the food there, I cant compare my home 'cooking' to his.I have 5 other raw cookbooks and was awaiting this release to add to my collection.
This book is definately not for someone new to a raw food diet, as it doesnt contain much informatoin about they why's and how's of what you are eating. It does however include a small chapter on what ingredients you should keep in your pantry.
With less than 200 pages from cover to cover it is on the small side for a cookbook. The recipe chapters include breakfast, soups, sides and starters, sauces and dips, entrees and desserts. The breakfast section is quite small with about 10 recipes. Although I usually have a green drink or juice I do like breakfast recipes to eat throughout the day, they're nice to have. Most of the recipes are pretty nut/seed patty heavy (using one nut loaf for 4 different entrees and a seasoned walnut meat for 3 others) but Matt does use more sunflower seeds than nuts which for me is refreshing. He also uses his onion bread recipe in anything that requires a crust such as pizza or sandwiches and for tostadas, no other bread, cracker or tortilla recipe is included.
The book is also light on dessert recipes. Whole fruit pies in a 5inch pan make up most of them. You will either need to purchase a 5 inch pie pan or make 1 1/2 the recipe to fit a standard 9 inch.
Some recipes that stand out are the mock tuna and mock chicken salad (my new favorite!), cheese pierogis, the big Matt with cheese (his raw version of a big mac), cheese sticks, cucumber dill salad, hummus, mashed potatoes and a fantastic chili.
Dehydration, soaking, the use of a high speed blender (VitaMix or Ktec) and juicing are used so these machines will be needed to complete the recipes.
What isnt included a lot is sprouting. Which is refreshing after so many authors being "sprout" happy which adds days to your preperation. There is only one recipe which requires soaking.
The pictures of the food are appetizing and clear which make trying the recipes tempting. The photographs of Matt and his staff are a little California 'hippy' which is fine but I didnt buy the book to look at the author. The recipes are clear and easy to understand, they indicate at the top of the page how many servings each recipe yields and icons are used to denote what type of machines are used.
This is a good book that makes a great ADDITION to your collection, I would not start with this book though. My favorite raw food book to date is still "Raw food, real world" by Matthew Kenney and Sarma Mengalis, which does have some lengthy recipes but the flavors are amazing.
UPDATE: So Ive had this book an extra week since I wrote the original review. I have had issues with 3 of his recipes so far. The "Famous Onion Bread" which serves as every bread, cracker or crust is completely wrong. I ended up having to blend all ingredients in a Vitamix, add water so it would blend and then it took 4 days to dehydrate. I will NOT make that again. The cheese sauce which is also what is used in the cheese sticks is either missing an ingredient or it is enhanced for the photos in the book. In the picture of the "Big Matt with Cheese" it is yellow, while in reality it is brown. It has no nutritional yeast in it and has no flavor of any cheese, although it is a nice spread it wont help with any cheese cravings you might be having. Also the nut loaf which is used in several recipes is way under seasoned and makes an enormous ammount, much more than what he states it does.
If I could change my vote I would give it 3 stars. Some recipes DO work and they are delicous. But it seems that this book was perhaps put together in a rush to capitalize on the raw movement. There are many typo's that I have come accross and now half of the recipes I make I have to adjust them to make them work. Im finidng I am more dissapointed than delighted in this book.
If anyone else buys this and gets that onion bread to work the way that it is written than please let me know what special thing you did, because for me it was a huge pile of onions with a small ammount of sauce. It stayed in my dehydrator for 2 days turning into caramelized onions, not bread.
I guesse I would say buy at your own risk and know you will have to manipulate the recipes. Such a shame that this happened.
Book Review: Good explanations for a new way of eating
Summary: 5 Stars
I started eating many raw foods in 2006, made sprouts from green lentils and finally found some whole masoor lentils to sprout. I have been to two raw food restaurants and was impressed by the very green soup. The easy things in RAWvolution Gourmet Living Cuisine by Matt Amsden are soups that go into a blender. One ingredient that is extremely common in RAWvolution is Nama Shoyu, "the champagne of soy sauces," (p. 200), a Japanese organic soy sauce aged in wooden kegs. Looking for easy recipés, I found many that also included lemon juice, olive oil, and garlic. If you want to keep track of how much raw garlic it is possible to eat with those other three basic ingredients, take your pick of soups: 2 cloves garlic (p. 41); 5 cloves of garlic (p. 52); 3 cloves garlic (p. 56); 3 cloves garlic (p. 59); and in dressings: 2 to 3 cloves garlic (p. 68 top and bottom); 8 cloves garlic (p. 70); 3 cloves garlic (p. 75 top); 2 to 3 cloves garlic (p. 75 bottom); 3 to 4 cloves garlic (p. 96); 2 cloves garlic (p. 111); Marinara or pizza sauce: 3 cloves garlic (p. 73); Mint-Tahini sauce: 2 to 3 cloves garlic (p. 74); Zucchini pasta marinara: 3 cloves garli (p. 132); Falafel: 3 cloves garlic (p. 140); veggie cakes: 1 to 2 cloves garlic (p. 154)
Many of the salad dressings had vinegar instead of lemon juice. I don't use much vinegar now, getting plenty with pickled ginger and pickled herring (the label says in wine sauce on the front, but the onion slices taste like vinegar, which the label admits on the back). It is bad manners for me to mention herring in a review for this book, because raw food often retains the character of live food, but I am sure the herring were dead before they were bottled. The author only eats "uncooked vegetables, fruit, nuts, and seeds." (p. 9). The herring that I consider brain food tend to be "dull, gray, heavy, and lifeless, like the standard American fare." (p. 13).
The first recipé I tried was Siamese Dream Thai Curry Soup because I have not been eating curry with raw food. I live near Oriental stores, so I was able to find a can of young coconut meat in coconut juice from Thailand. The whole can is only 90 Calories with 2 grams of fat and 48 grams of sugar and 1 gram of protein. It tasted sweet even after putting in a tablespoon of curry powder, but I did not put a quarter cup of lemon juice in it, which should make it better and not as sweet. I have been trying not to mix acid fruits with other food so I'm more likely to get live enzymes without toxic side effects, but an ideal meal for me is supposed to be one food, or one food group. I like to eat so soon after I start thinking about food, I am not likely to buy a dehydrator for making a quiche crust out of sliced yellow onions and ground seeds (which aren't ready until 36 hours after making 4 inch circles with a one inch lip), but I know how great such an appliance would be for people who want to put things on a cracker. I found a store where I can buy things that have been made that way from sprouted grain, but it is not something I do. I don't have a juicer, which is needed for the soups on pages 39, 42, 47, 60, and a dressing on page 68. Seeds are homogenized with almonds and walnuts in a Green Star juicer for Nut Loaf on page 155.
Mock tuna salad or mock chicken salad can be made with spices, celery, scallions, and soaked raw sunflower seeds. The dressing uses Thai coconut water, garlic, lemon juice, mustard and plenty of nuts mixed together in a high-speed blender. (p. 126). This does not explain how many servings it would be, but I should stop thinking about eating everything on the page right away.
Book Review: You will love it over time!
Summary: 5 Stars
When I initially got Rawvolution, I was pretty hard on it. I think I was spoiled by the simpler recipes in Natalia Rose's "Raw Food Life Force Energy" and Jennifer Cornbleet's "Raw Food Made Easy for 1 or 2 People" (both highly recommended).
In the last year or so, I have mostly moved away from nuts and seeds. I don't feel like I get as much energy from nuts as I do from fruits, veggies, and raw cheese. Since a lot of the recipes in Rawvolution are nut based, I was a little nervous. But, in the long run, I have found that these recipes provide some good variety to my diet. For you vegans out there, the nuts replace all dairy! For non-vegans, the nut-based cheese recipes are a nice substitute when you run out of raw cheese.
Some of the recipes in this book are a little complicated, involving a juicer, food processor, and dehydrator. But the good news is that Matt Amsden is very up-front about that. He rates each recipe by level of difficulty, and has icons on each recipe showing what equipment you will need. If you are feeling like something quick, don't select something that requires dehydrating, since it won't be ready until tomorrow. I find dehydrating projects are best for the weekend.
While I will admit I don't make the full "Big Matt with Cheese" on a regular basis, it is great to have recipes like that when you are having a big barbecue and want to initiate some folks into the world of raw.
Also good for entertaining: there are recipes that convert classic holiday foods into raw, like mashed potatoes (actually delicious pureed cauliflower), and a very rich and savory walnut-based stuffing.
I would agree with previous reviews that some of the recipes are too salty. I pretty much assume "salt to taste" with everything now! That's part of the fun with raw - adjusting the recipes to meet your tastes.
Another tip: keep an eye on the portions some of these recipes produce. Some of the recipes make enough to feed a family of 10 for a week, while others are a single serving. If it calls for 5 cups of sunflower seeds, that's probably a tip that it might be a bit much for just a couple people.
Some of my favorite raw recipes in Rawvolution are also the easiest (did I mention I'm lazy?). I love the Rawvolution Famous Onion Bread (yes, it requires dehydrating, but it is so easy - and everyone loves it); the bok choy salad (which I make with regular, not baby, bok choy, since it's half the price and just as tasty); and the Egg-less Egg salad (which I have made with all kinds of substitutions and it is still delicious); and a yummy apple pie (which I prefer as a cobbler).
I also love Matt Amsden's story. Based on some of his creations, I assumed he started out as a cooked food chef - but it turns out he heard about raw food on a late night radio show on his way home from a night shift at a factory!
For originality and variety alone, I would really recommend this book. It has become one of my most used recipe books.
Book Review: Wonderful looking food, but time consuming
Summary: 3 Stars
I'm going to greatly simplify the "healthy eating continuum" and say that we start from "straight up" ovo-lacto vegetarians, move onto vegans and then get to raw foodists. I know, there are tons of variants in between, but I'm just trying to keep it simple. I would say that since vegetarianism has been around as long as it has been they/we realize how many delicious options we have that just don't require a slab of meat. Vegans, in the meantime, seem to be getting "comfort foods" marked to them/us, which is maybe a result of 1) people finally coming out of the woodwork with authentically delicious baked goods and 2) viable cheese substitutes. Oddly enough, it seems that the direction raw foods is going is gourmet- at least, the releases that have been coming out over the last few years. To some extent, that's a viable approach- its hard to reject raw foods as salad and smoothies when you see how the movement can also produce stuffed mushrooms, soup, cookies and even bread. Certainly, the food Amsden offers here is among the most beautiful I've ever looked at in any cookbook, and even if you can't follow all of Amsden's directions perfectly, they're inspiration for what you can accomplish with raw foods.
That's the good part. What I can't get past with this approach, however, outweighs that. First, you're going to need a dehydrator for about a third of the recipes. That's kind of a bummer, and you're dehydrating your foods for up to 24 hours. Wow- that's pretty close to cooking your food, although I agree that longer exposure to lower heat produces a different product than a blast of higher heat. Second, a lot of the recipes are complicated. That's one thing when you're making, say, bread, but it's another thing when you're talking about your morning smoothie. A lot of us want to go raw because we sincerely believe it's healthier. Does it really have to be such a production?
Third, I have to agree with a previous reviewer that some of the recipes are too salty or too sweet as written- some of which may have to do with being concentrated so much by dehydration. However, that's not such a big problem if you're experienced with raw food or food for that matter.
Finally, I didn't feel like this was provided me with enough of a roadmap of how to "do" raw food. Yes, there were options for every meal, but I didn't feel like it had enough for me to give myself variety for each of them for a month or even a week. Which is fine, but if I have to choose between buying this and buying something more comprehensive, this isn't going to win.
I think this provides great inspiration, but this shouldn't be your only guide. I'd totally pick up Ani Phyo's raw book for the flip side and then use this to expand on those options.
Book Review: Great recipes- especially if you are
Summary: 4 Stars
I love everything I've made from this book except items requiring garlic or 1.5c+ of Nama Shoyu (unpasteurized soy sauce). Amsden only specifies the number of cloves of garlic instead of the size of clove or volume in teaspoons. He's also a little heavy handed with Nama Shoyu. These issues are easily solved if you are willing to experiment by adding a little of these ingredients at a time. My biggest issue with this purportedly "easy" book is that he lists one or more young Thai coconuts as an ingredient in MANY of his recipes. I'm assuming that not everyone even knows where to get young Thai cocos in quantity at an affordable rate. I do, but then there's the issue of refrigerating them and opening them. They take up a LOT of space and can be labor intensive to open until you get really good at it. Speaking of time and expense, I take particular issue with Amsden's superfood breakfast smoothie. It requires more than ten hard-to-find and harder-to-afford superfoods plus two thai cocos. It's delicious, but a little ridiculous to make a habit of.
All that aside, there are some outstanding recipes in there. This book is really great for someone who already has at least a Vita-Mix and food processor. Those are the minimum appliances you must have to be able to use this book. A dehydrator is nice, but the majority of the recipes don't require it. I would also suggest this book to people who have the time and money to hunt down what some people call "elitist" superfoods. Goji berries, lucuma, mesquite powder, maca, raw cacao, raw cacao butter, coconut oil, unpasteurized almonds, etc... because that breakfast shake really does taste freaking good.
I don't mean to poo-poo this book too much. I use it twice a day everyday and we live on a tight budget with our money and time, but I have all the appliances he suggests plus enough experience living raw to be patient and creative with tweaking recipes. I love this book. I'm just being realistic for the average person. For the average person, I recommend books by the Boutenkos. The only superfoods they use are the greens growing in your front yard (if you let weeds grow like I do). Good luck in raw, all.