Do you have any idea where much of the flavor of any of your favorite dishes can be found? Bingo! It’s in the sauce. If you think about it, isn’t Fettuccine Alfredo just a boring plate of pasty pasta before you spoon on the creamy Alfredo sauce? Another example are veggie summer rolls – can you imagine now good they would taste without dipping them in the Thai peanut sauce. Can you say “rabbit food”?
To get an awesome tasting dish, it’s plain to see you need to also incorporate a sauce that is as delicious – if not more delicious, than the meal itself. What’s less simple to understand is that most standard sauces are filled with toxic ingredients like hydrogenated oils, refined sugar, butter, cream and high fructose corn syrup.
I mean, come on, 850 calories are in a single serving of Alfredo sauce from the restaurant chain Olive Garden, and 432 of those calories originate from fat. Or how about the Big Mac, at about 560 calories – 100 of them from the sauce of salad dressing, pickles and brown sugar.
The sauce that is the biggest culprit for fat and calories is those of the sweet kind. As an example, Smuckers hot fudge syrup contains five grams of fat and 18 grams of sugar in one serving of two tablespoons. Now that may seem like not much, but who stops at two tablespoons? Not me! It’s not just the sugar and the fat that are the problems with traditional sauces on the market either. There is a long list of other highly processed ingredients used in their manufacture, which are also not very healthy. In contrast, you can make your own much more easily than you probably thought you could, simply by using ingredients from your garden or local market.
That is the whole concept of the raw food movement: working with fresh, local ingredients to create great tasting food and also snacks. Consequently I identified ways to make Alfredo devoid of the cream… peanut sauce with no processing… and scrumptious sweet sauces without having a sign of processed sugars.
Suggestions for Making Raw Sauces
I encourage you to sample my raw Fettuccine Alfredo recipe. The noodles are made of ribbons of green zucchini and the sauce is made from soaked cashews and delicious spices. You aren’t going to miss the cream and butter – no the calories or fat!
If your preference is for green sauces, rather than white, you can try my raw Pesto recipe instead. Almost identical to the one you are familiar with, my raw Pesto recipe includes fresh basil, olive oil (extra virgin and coldpressed preferred), cloves of garlic, and pine nuts. Here’s the big difference (that’s not so big, actually): the pine nuts are raw, not roasted.
All you peanut lovers – not to worry. I have a recipe for Mock-Thai Peanut sauce that is out of this world! I developed this recipe for the raw food cuisine book I published through Book Publishing Company. Normally, Thai peanut sauce uses roasted nuts for that warm, nutty flavor. However, I found an alternative in using raw almond butter instead that I personally believe also tastes much better in the recipe, not to mention the fact that it’s more nutritional. You’ll just have to go and see for yourself by visiting my web site, www.learnrawfood.com for tasty raw recipes and more.
Jenny Cornbleet is an expert in raw food recipes preparation. Get her eBooklet “How to Go Raw for A Day” free when you visit her web site about raw foods diet.