If you're considering a raw food lifestyle, you'll want to equip yourself with the right kitchen tools to make your food preparation easier and faster and more fun.
With these tools, you'll be able to maximize your creativity in the kitchen, not the amount of time you spend there preparing your raw food dishes!
1. Turbo Boost Your Nutrition With a Juicer
Juicing is an efficient and easily digestible way to boost your daily dose of vitamins, minerals and phytonutrients. Juicing involves the extraction of the juice of fruits, herbs, greens and vegetables by squeezing or spinning the produce (which then also separates the pulp or insoluble fiber from the juice). Blending, on the other hand, does not separate the pulp from the juice, so smoothies tend to be much more filling.
Juicing offers many health benefits, namely the soluble fiber contained in fresh juice helps balance blood glucose levels by slowing down the digestion of carbs. It also helps lower cholesterol levels by binding with the cholesterol and fat in your foods that is purged through your digestive system.
Juicing can be used to supplement your meals, treated as a snack or replace a meal entirely. It is hands-down the most efficient means of consuming a large quantity of fruits and vegetables.
Joe Cross was made world-famous when he documented his astonishing 100-pound weight loss in Fat, Sick and Nearly Dead by embarking on a 60-day juice fast to cure his auto-immune disease. Clearly, Joe's story is demonstrative of the power of raw food to heal the body.
2. Food Prep Made Easy With a Blender
A blender is an invaluable raw kitchen tool due to its versatility. You will likely be using your blender multiple times a day for a wide range of raw food recipes as they are great for pulverizing, grinding, chopping, crushing, and whipping and it can handle large volumes of produce. Pro-tip: Save yourself time by purchasing a tamper to go along with your blender. You won't have to make a point of stopping the blender to scrape, push down, stir its contents because a tamper is designed to push down denser ingredients into the cutting path of the blade while it is still operating. It also helps to remove any air pockets that form while blending.
3. A Dehydrator Adds Fun & Versatility
Dehydration is a form of food preservation. It removes the water from food and adds shelf life to your food without the heat used to "cook" food. Most dehydrators will have temperature settings, and to be considered raw, foods should not be heated above 47C (118F). With a dehydrator, you can make raw versions of cooked foods and add some crispy crunchy goodness to your plate, such as crackers, cereals, cookies, or veggie burgers. Need some inspiration in the kitchen? Visit Raw Food Recipes to find a wide range of mouth-watering raw vegan recipes.
4. Grow Your Own Greens With a Sprouter
"Sprouting" refers to the process of soaking seeds until they sprout. Sprouted raw nuts, seeds, beans and grains offer dense nutrition and easy energy. An easy way to ensure you always have some hand to throw into your salads, smoothies or juice is to sprout them yourself.
Sprouting makes grains, nuts and legumes easier to digest. The amount of time required for sprouting depends on what you are sprouting (grains, beans, nuts or seeds), but sprouting generally takes anywhere from 1 to 5 days from start to finish, and your sprouts will keep up to 7 days in the fridge.
5. Can't Live Without My Mandoline
With all of the fresh produce that will be crossing your cutting board, you'll want to have a good quality mandoline in your kitchen arsenal. A mandoline will enable you to slice larger quantities of food quickly and slice consistently, anything from papery thin slices of radish to julienned carrots to shredded brussel sprouts.
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