Posted Jan 21, 2011
Raw food. To many, the term conjures salad and fresh fruit. Certainly not spaghetti or pizza.
Yet that doesn’t mean raw foodies have to make crudites a food group. Margabandhu Martarano has been eating raw for 25 years without confining himself to a diet of fruit salad and celery sticks.
“This is meatloaf,” he said to a group of 10 women at a demonstration in Fair Lawn, holding one dish containing a beige cake. “I made it out of sunflower seeds.”
Martarano owns Integral Yoga Institute in Fair Lawn but says that yoga is more than working muscles and bones. “You’re working on organs and glands,” which means paying attention to digestion. “Every time you cook something, it destroys the enzymatic content,” he said.
It’s the breakdown of enzymes, which occurs when food has reached around 120 degrees, that has led people to adopt raw diets, turning to unusual ingredients and techniques.
Martarano passed the group some kale coated in sesame oil and a light, tangy mix of the calcium-rich Japanese sea vegetable hijiki. “It’s seaweed, can you believe it?” said Gina Fournier of Secaucus, wide-eyed after the tasting, which earned raves along with requests for second helpings.
Fournier consistently tries to incorporate raw foods into her children’s diets to ensure good digestive health. Yet the mother of three acknowledges it’s hard to be 90 percent raw, let alone completely faithful to a non-cooked lifestyle. A night out eating cheeseburgers just means more raw food the next day.
Even Martarano, who first sought a more healthful way of living at Boston’s Hippocrates Health Institute and spent several years living at an ashram in Connecticut eating a spare diet, still enjoys the occasional baked tofu and cooked parsnips. However, most of his diet remains uncooked, including mock tuna fish and raw fruit pies.
When Damiano DeMonte wanted a detox, he decided to make eating raw his goal for Lent, giving up most cooked food.
“It was difficult because I’m Italian, so things that I normally eat like pasta and bread are cooked,” says DeMonte, of Tappan in Rockland County. He researched raw recipes prior to starting his mission, one that he wasn’t sure he could sustain at all. Five weeks later, DeMonte felt, and certainly ate, like a different person. He had discovered kumquats. Sweets and bread no longer seemed like necessities.
To make a mock spaghetti, DeMonte pairs strings of spaghetti squash with tomato sauce made by reconstituting sundried tomatoes in warm water. He prepares raw pizza by piling a bevy of fresh veggies atop a portobello mushroom “crust.” DeMonte buys raw cheeses, which use non-pasteurized milk, at Whole Foods.
“It’s just as good as regular cheese,” he says, adding that Parmigiano-Reggiano is traditionally raw anyway. He also shops at Trader Joe’s, which stocks raw nuts, and Northvale’s Organica Natural Foods store, picking up raw sunflower seeds and barley.
“The raw food diet has become very popular,” said Organica co- owner Mark Marrone. “It’s good for a lot of people with food allergies and digestive issues. You cook all the enzymes out of foods. It’s much harder for your body to digest.”
The market, in the natural foods business for 30 years, has a raw organic juice bar with flavors like carrot apple ginger. The store also stocks raw honey, agave — a natural sweetener derived from cactus — and raw chocolates.
“They’re popular and delicious and high in antioxidants and energy,” says Marrone.
Still, despite its healthful purpose, raw eating is often seen as radical by those who would much rather sink their teeth into a sizzling steak, steamy dish of pasta or juicy burger. Yet some will never look back, like several of Martarano’s clients who have sought his guidance on raw eating and have seen a total reversal of headaches and sinus pain. Janet Amato, 49, of Montvale has enjoyed improved health of her skin, hair and eyes.
“It made a million percent difference,” said her sister, Karen Amato, 50, of Montclair, who also incorporates raw meals into her diet. Her dentist was shocked at the positive impact on her teeth. “He said, ‘What’s going on with you?’ ” she said.
Maria Rojas of Fair Lawn once suffered from lymphoma and sees the raw lifestyle as one way to boost her immunity and circumvent a relapse, especially by avoiding hormones and chemicals added to homogenized and packaged foods.
Knowing sunflower “meatloaf” can be certifiably healthy makes it much easier, she says.
DeMonte says some may mistake the practice for a weight-loss method.
“It’s not a diet,” he says. “It’s a whole lifestyle change. It started out with a smoothie in the morning with fresh fruit. I noticed my energy levels were up. Now, getting up in the morning is not as hard as it used to be. I look forward to going for walks before work.”
It’s true that weight loss may be a side effect of raw eating, says Martarano.
“If you’re nutritionally satisfied, you won’t overeat.”
(SIDEBAR)
* Cashew pudding
In place of conventional thickeners, which are activated by heat, this basic pudding is thickened and sweetened by dates.
1 cup raw cashews
1 1/2 cups water
4 small dates
1/2 cup fresh berries
Combine cashews, water and dates in a blender. Blend until smooth. Garnish with berries before serving.
Servings: 4.
Per serving: 211 calories, 14 grams fat, 3 grams saturated fat, no cholesterol, 18 grams carbohydrates, 6 grams protein, 4 milligrams sodium, 3 grams fiber.
Adapted from: Margabandhu Martarano, Integral Yoga Institute, Fair Lawn.
* Golden and green cannelloni
For the cannelloni:
1 golden zucchini
2 green zucchini
Olive oil
Salt
2 tomatoes, sliced
For the filling
2 cups pine nuts, soaked 1 to 2 hours
2 tablespoons nutritional yeast
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons black truffle oil
1/4 cup water
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme
2 tablespoons chopped scallions
For the pesto:
1/2 cup packed fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup packed fresh mint leaves
1/4 cup pistachios
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pinch black pepper
For the marinara:
1 1/2 cups sun-dried tomatoes, soaked 1 hour
1/2 Roma tomato, roughly chopped
1/4 shallot, chopped
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons agave
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup ginger juice
Pinch dried chili flakes
For assembly:
Olive oil
Fresh basil or lavender sprigs
To make the cannelloni: Using a mandoline, cut the zucchini lengthwise into very thin slices. Brush slices with olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt.
To make the filling: Pulse pine nuts in a food processor. Add yeast, lemon juice, oil and water and blend until smooth. Add salt, thyme and scallions and pulse until well-combined. Store in the refrigerator and return to room temperature before serving.
To make the pesto: Place all ingredients in a food processor and process until chunky. Store in the refrigerator and return to room temperature before serving.
To make the marinara: Squeeze water from sundried tomatoes and place all ingredients in a food processor. Process until smooth. Store in the refrigerator and return to room temperature before serving.
To assemble: Overlap two green zucchini slices flat on a work surface with ends facing you. Place 2 tablespoons of the filling close to the near end and top with 2 tablespoons of the marinara, 1 tablespoon of the pesto and the tomatoes.
Roll carefully three times, gently forming a rectangle, and place it on a plate. Repeat the same steps with the golden zucchini. Serve 2 green cannelloni and 1 yellow cannelloni on a plate. Drizzle with olive oil and garnish with basil or lavender.
Servings: 4 to 6.
Per serving: 644 calories, 62 grams fat, 6 grams saturated fat, no cholesterol, 22 grams carbohydrates, 11 grams protein, 1,075 milligrams sodium, 6 grams fiber.
From: “Entertaining in the Raw” by Matthew Kenney (Gibbs Smith, 2009).