Couscous - Raw food newbie

[earthyeater]

I've been lurking through a friend's account for a while now and finally took the plunge to get on here and post.

I've been eating raw for 3 weeks. So far, I've dropped about 13 pounds! I'm excited, but cautiously optimistic. I've benefitted from reading posts about everything. Thank you.

My question is about couscous. I understand that couscous is not raw because it is really pasta.

Is there anything else out there that is like couscous when soaked? Meaning that it is soft. I've tried cauliflower, quinoa and millet. All of them have a bit of a crunch.

Also, if I can figure out how to heat water to 115 degrees and soak the millet/quinoa in warm water, do you think this might work?

Any information is helpful.

-EE

[Raw Angel Mom]

What are you trying to do? Are trying to imitate a rice texture or a couscous salad.

If you are craving for a starch, you can look into an Essene bread (raw of course).

Most the time, we can duplicate the cook food into raw version but depending what you are trying to do, you need to change the concept. Such if you want mash potato, you can use a pure of califlower with oil of oil, green onion, salt and lemon juice. Sometime adding tahini give a great taste.

Just post what you are trying to make

For a couscous salad, you will have to deal with the crunch but you can sprout quinoa, add hemp seed and the normal ingredient (raw for your salad), replace the vinegar with apple cider vinegar, i would add shopped parsley, a drop of raw agave, lemon juice and himalayan salt.

I made that salad and it was good.

Enjoy

[earthyeater]

Raw Angel Mom,

Hello and thanks for responding.

I guess I was looking for something more like a rice. A carb. Your suggestion that I find the underlying food that i want is a good one. I hadn't thought about going deeper than "I want couscous" to "what I really want is a carb."

I did a search for the Essene Bread recipes and found some. Do you have a favorite recipe?

Also, thanks for sharing about the mashed cauliflower. I'll file that recipe away to try.

[Ucat]

If you crave carbs the best way to stop that is by eating lots of fruit. Fruit is a good, healthy source of the best kind of carbohydrates. Carbohydrate really only means sugar. So the glucose from fruit is important to have to fuel our brain and keep our energy levels high. Processed carbs (pasta, rice, and hybrid (bred) potatoes) are very addictive and not very healthy. Raw sweet potatoes are heatlhy though, I guess.

This information is from Douglas Graham's 80/10/10 (diet and book), where he says that lots of raw foodists get massive cravings for carbs because they don't eat enough fruit. He thinks the ideal ratio is 80% carbs, 10% protein, 10% fat. He writes that many raw foodists never achieve the energy levels they want because they overeat fat to feel full and undereat carbs.

I was tired today from the freak late autumn heatwave in London, I ate a full pineapple for dinner and my tiredness went, and the cravings for pasta went too... Whoah!

[maggiesdaddy]

If you crave carbs the best way to stop that is by eating lots of fruit. Fruit is a good, healthy source of the best kind of carbohydrates. Carbohydrate really only means sugar. So the glucose from fruit is important to have to fuel our brain and keep our energy levels high. Processed carbs (pasta, rice, and hybrid (bred) potatoes) are very addictive and not very healthy. Raw sweet potatoes are heatlhy though, I guess.

This information is from Douglas Graham's 80/10/10 (diet and book), where he says that lots of raw foodists get massive cravings for carbs because they don't eat enough fruit. He thinks the ideal ratio is 80% carbs, 10% protein, 10% fat. He writes that many raw foodists never achieve the energy levels they want because they overeat fat to feel full and undereat carbs.

I was tired today from the freak late autumn heatwave in London, I ate a full pineapple for dinner and my tiredness went, and the cravings for pasta went too... Whoah!

Have you tried sprouting the millet or quinoa?

Personally I don't care for sprouted quinoa ... it tastes too ... planty :)

Sprouted millet though it okay. It is pretty firm, but it has a lot less crunch then if you just soak it and it only takes like 24-48 hours to sprout!