Raw food cream of mushroom soup

On Saturday I came in hungry and in need of a quick and satisfying lunch. I had a pack of organic mushrooms that I had bought heavily reduced on impulse from Waitrose the day before and did a little Google for ‘raw food mushroom soup’. This recipe from About.com, seemed simple enough and more importantly I had all of the ingredients to hand.

I started with whizzing up about a 1/4 cup of cashews with 1 cup of water which made a lovely nut ‘milk’ which I plan on making again (for the base of a milkshake) .. I then added my mushrooms, tamari, garlic, onion, lime juice and seasoning, and left the whole lot to blend in my trusty Vitamix until warm.

Despite being very simple, this was soup absolutely delicious and compares well (in my mind at least) to the far more time consuming cooked version. Accompanied with some gorgeous onion bread (recipe from the Rawtarian which is highly recommended) it was a lunch fit for a princess:

Gazpacho is a well known summer cold soup and this raw tomato soup is a nice alternative offering a good spicy kick but still retaining a summery smell and intense flavours. I have been having this for lunch nearly everyday as it provides a really satisfying savoury and filling meal. I supplement with a brown pitta, which although not raw is still pretty healthy.

So here are the ingredients:

• 6 ripe tomatos
• 1 red bell pepper
• 1 small clove of garlic (unless you really like garlic / have a cold and you can go for large)
• 2 sticks of celery
• a small handful of cashews (they add creaminess)
• sun dried tomatos – soaked in warm water
• 5 dates (for sweetness)
• sprinkle of spice – Hot Paprika or Smoked Paprika or Chili (vary depending on personal taste)
• 1 cup of water
• fresh basil leaves for garnish

Roughly chop the above veg and add everything accept the basil to a powerful blender:

And whiz on low and turn up to the highest setting for a good minute (longer if your blender isn’t so powerful):

Until very smooth and creamy:

And then serve with a very healthy portion of shredded basil leaves for a very fresh and summery smell and taste:

Bon Appetit 🙂

Avocados are one of my favourite foods, and I am encouraged to read that they are also good for me too. I am also a big fan of soups, and so was interested when I found several recipes for avocado soup.

The one that really took my fancy was this Raw’kin Spinach Avocado soup. Ingredients include:

• spinach
• ripe avocado
• tomatos
• apple
• onion
• rinsed capers
• fresh thyme
• cayenne pepper (I substituted hot paprika as it was all I had)
• olive oil
• lemon juice
• water to create desired consistency (can be hot to create a warm soup) – I used much less than suggested in the original recipe.

This raw food lark is proving simpler than I had initially anticipated. Once again, the only instruction is to whizz the whole lot up in a blender (although I used a food processor):

It took a good 4 -5 minutes:

for the soup to really become rich, smooth and creamy:

It really was a vibrant green in colour. I could feel the health benefits from just the look and smell, but to be fair it also tasted great. Having the onion, apple and thyme really helped to create something with lots of interesting flavours….