general

The colorful photos and imagination of ingredient components that put together this wonderful work of food art called an uncook book is worth 4 stars. RAW is indeed worthy of coffee table status. Each recipe appears to be indescribably delicious and full of adventure to the chef looking for a challenge.

One such recipe, Hummus a L'orange was gold. I've prepared raw sprouted hummus before and the taste was never very desireable, yet Juliano's version with the addition of cashews, miso, amongst other obscure ingredients and exotic spices has turned this ordinary dish into a festival for the tastebuds.

The falafel patties were more of a dissapoinment to me. Since this recipe also required sprouted chickpeas, I made it alongside the hummus recipe. The high percentage of salt called for in this recipe was overkill, leaving the main ingredients without a note of possibility in taste. Suggestion: if you must use salt, add at the end and a little bit at a time. Juliano's intentions for the high amounts of sodium chloride (present in both sea and table salt) is understandably to impress upon the palate of a cooked food eater.

Since many of the recipes within this book are multi-stepped, and some requiring other recipes within his book, they appear to be meant for company or pot luck type functions, rather than simple meals a raw eater could throw together to enjoy by his raw self. In other words, if you are a begninner in the kitchen, RAW will prove quite a challenge for you.

Yet many recipes DO seem easy to put together, like the soups, salads, and some of the drinks, and as long as you have all the ingredients or good substitutions on hand, you are good to go. Good-quality blenders and knives are a necessity for most of these.

There are many more complicated recipes that appear sublimely delicious which I do desire to try, and with some careful planning for several days of soaking and sprouting; and ensuring other recipes are prepared before-hand to be ready to add with the list of ingredients to the one I eventually DO prepare; and perhaps adding in the necessary dehydrating time involved - I am quite certain that I may win over the approval of many family and friends to the raw eating way of life. Timing may be everything so my suggestion to you is to whip out your calendars and make sure those soaking, sprouting, other recipe-making and dehydrating works with your own schedule.

Whether the recipes are actually accomplished by the reader, or the photos and recipes are merely visually enjoyed, any raw fooder would undoubtedly glean good ideas and insight from the wonderful work of RAW.

I can't recommend this book highly enough. I was on the way to raw food when I bought this book, so I was sprouting and already had the dehydrator. However although I was preparing raw meals using recipes I got off the web, they weren't always the most tasty and they seemed to be settling into a pattern of boring repetition. I was feeling doubtful about maintaining this approach although I felt the health benefits of it.

Juliano's cookbook has opened my eyes to the potential of raw food. This book is full of delicious recipes that are easy to make. Raw soups take seconds to blend up. Having raw condiments on hand for new flavours. Yes the dehydrating takes up to 24 hours, however unlike ordinary cooking where you have to watch the food and check it all the time, dehydrating just goes on in the background while I get on with my life - and because I can cook in bulk, the breads stay fresh and tasty for weeks. The detail and the photos in the book are great, and so is the flexible approach where if one ingredient or three are not available then we are encouraged to improvise.

This book is the most innovative, practical and delicious cook book I have ever used - and I use this all the time now. Highly recomended.

The person who wrote about the "Meat loaf" recipe must not have read the recipe: it calls for a total of only 1/2 cup olive oil. There are also a lot of nuts in it but 1. nuts are healthy and 2. you're not supposed to eat the meat loaf everyday! There are plenty of light recipes here as well. It's like taking ANY cookbook and pointing to the dessert section and saying "Ah ha! look at all this fatty food! What a bad cookbook." Give me a break. I like this cookbook. It's gorgoeus, inspiring and the recipes are good.