I had a great weekend in London 12-13 January teaching the raw food half of a Yoga & Raw Food Urban Retreat in the very colourful Neal’s Yard in Covent Garden. I must say, I’m feeling much better after a raw food reboot. It was invigorating to meet people at the start of their raw food journey, to inspire them with flavours, and answer their many questions.

It was great to do so much yoga too, thanks to kundalini yoga teacher and singer/performer Kate McKenzie – a good boost for me now that I’ve started teaching a regular Friday lunchtime class and about to take my final exam. The retreat venue was right next door to the Wild Food Cafe which serves raw as well as cooked fare. You’ll be able to read about the weekend shortly on my blog. 

3 new events in Bath, Bristol & Stroud around Valentine’s Day

… to which Everyone is welcome! Read on for more info. 

The Magic of Raw Chocolate workshop

Tues 12 Feb, 7-9.30pm
Bradford on Avon, near Bath

Everyone deserves a gift at this time of year and YOU are a very valid choice of loved one to receive a gift as delicious as this. I know I shall be making chocolate for myself as well as for sharing! 

If you fancy making a chocolate gift for your loved one on Valentine’s Day - and YOU are a very valid choice of loved one to receive a gift as delicious as this - I’m offering a Raw Chocolate workshop two days before so you can learn the Magic and prepare a special gift.

You’ll take home a box of 12 chocolates that we make on the night. 

To book visit the event page on the website and click on the Paypal button. 

Girish’s Thali Night ~ an Indian vegetarian meal with Raw sweets & chocolate available

14 February from 7.30pm ~ Star Anise, Stroud

On a very cooked note (!), I’ve teamed up with my partner Girish of Girish’s Thali Nights and we’re hosting a special Thali Night celebrating One Love on Thursday 14 February. 

We know how gloomy it can be seeing all the restaurants full of couples on Valentine’s Day if you’re single – and that’s why we’re making this a special evening for Everyone ~ singles, friends, couples, groups. 

A Thali is an Indian meal served on a stainless steel platter with separate dishes – fabulously offered in India as ‘veg or non-veg’ options – we’re doing Veggie.

Girish brings his traditional family cuisine from Gujurat to offer you a feast of delicately spiced vegetarian food ~ light aromatic basmati rice, seasonal vegetable curry, selected dhal, raita (yogurt dish), samosa, onion bhajis, chapati, popadum, salad, pickle, dessert and lassi (yoghurt drink).

We are taking bookings from 7.30pm, and it’s £10.95 per person.  Drinks are extra, as are the delicious RAW SWEETS!  

Call Aradhana to book your table
07989 416959

Girish’s Thali Nights site
See our Facebook page
See the Facebook eventand invite your friends 

Indian sweets made to our Raw Food recipe

We’ve created a raw recipe of the traditional Indian sweet Burfi, so gone is the pain of condensed milk and refined sugar.  This is vegan, contains nuts.  We have 2 flavours so far:
~ Pistachio Cardamom
~ Almond Rose

We will also be servingLove Hearts raw chocolate hearts with superfoods to nourish your heart.

Available individually or in gift boxes at the Thali Night on 14 February, or at Girish’s Indian Food stall in Stroud Farmer’s Market on Saturdays. 

Love Dance ~ dance and chillout evening (crystal clear energy, no alcohol)

Saturday 16 February 2013 ~ Love Dance III – The Urban Festival: Beauty 
8pm – midnight, Bristol

Love Dance invites you to join the positive dance community, bringing the joy of festival spirit to the heart of the city.

Dancing, music, chill-out room and Raw Food cafe brought to you by Anna Middleton of Rawsome - famous for her amazing cakes - and Aradhana Kaur of Beautiful Heart Raw Kitchen. 

We will bring you beautiful food: cacao elixirs with happy superfoods, amazing cakes and something savoury to keep the balance.

Love Dance Facebook page
Love Dance Valentine’s event on Facebook  

And a Raw Food Potluck Fri 25 Jan 

A reminder of the Raw Food Potluck on Friday 25 January, 6.30 – 8.30pm in Bradford on Avon. Please RSVP if you’d like to come, so I can keep an eye on numbers. 

Here are some photos of the potluck.  

Many of you met Carl at the Christmas potluck here when he brought some yummy dishes and did an amazing job entertaining the children. Unfortunately the date I picked for the potluck clashes with Carl’s Biozest raw food DVD & talk in Bristol (more details below), so please revel in a choice of 2 raw food events on 25 January.

Biozest raw food fim & talk

Friday 25 January 2013
6 – 9pm, Bristol

Biozest is a raw food educational Meetup group set up by Carl.  Meetups focus on video presentations, discussion, resource materials, and recipe practicals.

On Friday 25 Jan, Carl is showing a documentary on the raw vegan lifestyle followed by a talk on health, 6-9pm.  

See Meetup.com for details.

Keep cosy, keep in touch, and I look forward to seeing you soon.

with love

 Aradhana x

Caroline Jones, formerly of Bradford’s excellent deli Maples, has launched a new online magazine Local Morsels with a focus on local food producers in the Bath and Bradford on Avon area.

Missing the contact with people from the food industry when she sold the deli, Caroline set up the website to keep a finger in the pie and support local food producers by spreading the word of their fruits – and coffee and wine….and raw food workshops.

I have been invited to contribute articles on Raw Food in the new year, so watch this space! 

Local Morsels launch party

I attended the launch party for the website on 2 November, bearing raw food treats for the guests to taste – raw vegan sushi, chocolate brownie, and peppermint chunk chocolate in tiny bars – all very well received. I love surprising people with the delicious possibilities of raw food!

Representatives of other local food-related businesses were also at the launch:

Jose Melim of Easy Jose Coffee was cooking up coffee and had two novelties on offer – the coffee ‘berry’ (the dried casing of the bean which is usually discarded as waste) served as an intriguing sweet and astringent snack, and a tea brewed from these coffee berries.

Cally Smart of Country Gate Gardens brought a selection of jams and preserves made from her crops, as well as offering a service in creating herb gardens

Jams and preserves made in Winsley by Richard Young, served on his home-made scones (yes I did try them!).

The local mayor, John Potter, cut a ribbon on a laptop to officially launch the website to everyone’s cheers.

Good luck to Caroline in her new venture, and gratitude for supporting us local foodies!

www.LocalMorsels.co.uk

My favourite yoga teacher, Nicole Aarons, is running a 4 day Soma Yoga retreat in Devon and I will be catering with delicious raw food. There will also be warm, cooked food.  

Nicole’s style of yoga is truly transformational and often moves me to tears. Her training includes kundalini, iyengar, ashtanga and shadow yoga and she weaves in her shamanic work to create a powerful formula for your spiritual growth. 

The Art of Reciprocity, a retreat at Wild Pear Centre
Combe Martin, Devon 

• Morning Munay-Ki Meditation
• Understanding the Times
• 5 Morning Workshops
• 5 Afternoon sessions
• Ayurvedic Assessment & Massage available
• Experience Ayurvedic Living Nutrition

The purpose of reciprocity is the maintenance of life

The art of reciprocity is right balance with nature – yours, that of Mother Nature and the nature of the Cosmos. As you come into balance with Nature what emerges is wisdom and abundance. Come into balance with your soul nature, open your energetic eyes and see clearly. Awaken your capacities – your intuition, creativity and intention and step into your power. Meet the challenges and changes that lie ahead of us and this planet from 2012 and beyond. Clear your energy, heal old wounds, expand your perceptions and connect with nature and the cosmos.

Hosted at the Wild Pear Centre in Devon, you will experience community, Soma practices and energy techniques in this unique retreat centre.

This is the time of birthing, of taking a quantum leap into your becoming. The work to do is to remove the blocks or veils that prevent us from knowing our luminous or true nature.

Where – Wild Pear Centre, Devon, UK

What – 3 days of Soma Yoga

Accomodation – shared rooms and dorm at Wild Pear Centre

Dates -

arrive – Thurs 15 November 2012, arrive after 3pm

depart – Sunday 18 November 2012, finish around 3pm

Cost - £225 incl accommodation and meals

To book, please email Nicole satsoma@gmail.com

Nicole’s website is www.satsoma.org

I’ve borrowed a Vitamix for a week for a test drive. Fingers crossed I’m getting closer to buying a super-charged blender. But before I take the plunge, I want to try out both the Vitamix and the Blendtec.

>> Read more about the “Vitamix vs Blendtec” in this post written by my friend Bo Novak, the PMS Warrior.

Today I decided to make my green juice in the Vitamix, following Kate Magic’s advice. She says that it’s quicker, easier and less to wash up than making juice for a family of 4 in a juicer (“which was obviously designed by a man with all those fiddly parts”).

I used:

• nearly ½ cucumber
• 1 apple
• ¼ inch ginger
• 3 big leaves savoy cabbage
• handful baby spinach
• 1 tablespoon of lemon juice (left over from yesterday’s tahini recipe)

Remembering Kate’s advice, I put the wettest ingredients around the blades – which in this case, relatively speaking, is the cucumber. Then I stacked apple cut into quarters with the core left in, torn up cabbage leaves and topped with spinach, and then threw in the ginger slices and lemon juice.

How is this going to work? I asked myself. I’m new to the Vitamix so it’s an act of faith. Insert plunger, switch on, boost power, and start mashing energetically with the plunger. It’s a lot of work actually. “A lot” – that’s all relative, I’m used to using a blender that does all the work for me, no need to mash, mix, stir – not while the motor is running. It’s noisy and a bit frantic. My preference is definitely for meditation in food prep, but I suppose if you can meditate in a busy shopping mall you can meditate over a noisy blender (“if” being the operative word here…).

After a while longer than I expected, I have a green mush. Looks just like a green smoothie – it IS a green smoothie. At this stage I’m finding it hard to believe this mush is going to yield much juice. I’m wondering whether I should have used the whole cucumber to make it more liquid. But I persevere with my challenge to make juice so I prepare the nut milk bag over a jug and scrape the green pulp into the bag.

Lifting up the bag there’s a trickle of juice coming out. Kate’s advice was to hang the nut milk bag from the knob of a kitchen wall cupboard with a jug below, but I haven’t got all morning (nor does she, and that’s her point). I opt for the ‘milking’ method and squeeze the bag until the pulp is close to dry and I have – to my great surpirse – half a jug of green juice. 300ml or half a pint to be precise.

And the result? The Vitamix juice is delicious! Much smoother than juice made in my trusted Oscar 900 masticating juicer. As it’s been strained, there’s no sediment so it doesn’t need stirring. It’s the same green through and through and is almost creamy on my tongue. Yum! Thumbs up to Kate Magic for this top tip!

I’m thinking this is much more juice yield than if I’d put the same ingredients through my Oscar 900 juicer. So I decide to repeat the experiment to compare the results. So, in the name of science, I’ll be back in a moment….

Well this has been a very useful experiment. I am now aware of how much noise and pushing I have to do to make a green juice in the Oscar 900, to get the rolled up cabbage leaves and spinach down the chute. Apples have to be chopped smaller so they will fit too.

When I measure the juice I’m surprised to see it’s almost the same volume and the Vitamix juice (just under 300ml), but it’s quite a bit more frothy. The Oscar juice is almost chewy, I can feel bits of cucumber and apple pulp when I drink it and there’s a trail of sediment on the glass. I’ve drunk all the Vitamix juice so I can’t show you a picture of the two together.

There are about as many pieces of washing up for the Vitamix method as for the juicer, including the nut milk bag which is now stained green instead of brown from almond milk. It’s all draining on my oven top. It’s hard to tell how long the Vitamix juice method it took as I was pausing to take photos at different stages.  I would guess it took a little longer to make 1 glass of juice in the Vitamix, but I defer to Kate Magic’s opinion on making larger quantities.

How very interesting, I prefer the Vitamix juice! That’s the joy of experiments, when you’re being truly scientific and open to what the results show. I am genuinely surprised.

And now I’ve had double green juice for breakfast so I’m literally zinging with health!

Cheers!  Have a beautiful day with sunshine inside and out

Aradhana x

PS Kate Magic is bringing her “Raw Magic” talk to Bath on Tuesday 26 June 2012 >>

PPS if you missed the link above, read about a comparison on the Vitamix and Blendtec here >> 

18 May 2012 – this retreat has been cancelled by the organiser

A Retreat in the Brecon Beacons with Yoga, Dance and Raw Food

featuring Kate Magic, Nicole Aarons, Mark Keane, Clare Batchelor, and Aradhana Kaur

Thursday 21 – Sunday 24 June 2012, just after the Summer Solstice
in The Brecon Beacons, South Wales
 

We invite you to join us in a solstice celebration of vitality, health, cutting edge longevity and superfood nutrition,techniques for tapping into your divine self, inspiration and joy.

Spend 3 whole days focusing on nutrition, kundalini yoga, kundalini dance, exercise, vedic fires and much more, set in beautiful grounds with a heated swimming pool and tennis court

The Coach House is set within the grounds of Moor Park, a large Country House dating from 1760 with beautiful well cared for grounds with a lake, stream running through the gardens, kitchen garden and spring and acres of beautiful grounds. There are lovely views all around with walks straight from the house up onto the Black Mountains with Table Mountain behind the village of Llanbedr and Sugar Loaf Mountain down the Valley.

Highlights of the weekend retreat

• Kate Magic will be giving a talk about raw foods and some of the most incredible food on the planet.  Kate is an inspirational speaker who frequently travels the globe spreading her magic  www.rawliving.eu
• Kundalini Yoga by Nicole Aarons  www.somalotus.com
• Kundalini dance by Mark Keane including a fire dance
• Agni hotra sunrise and sunset fires performed by Clare Batchelor
• Organic Raw/Living gourmet food prepared with love by Clare Batchelor & Aradhana Kaur of Beautiful Heart Raw Kitchen

 Also 

•  Conscious dance party with raw chocolate elixirs
•  Complimentary therapies for each person
•  Foraging in the kitchen garden
•  Access to our own spring
•  Heated swimming pool
• A group walk up Table top mountain
• Soulpad tents
• Raw food demos
• Raw chocolate
• Accomodated in the 18th Century Country house
• And much more………

Cost

Early bird price £290 until June 1st

Full price £350 

Booking

18 May 2012 – this retreat has been cancelled by the organiser

Organiser

The Mid-Summer Retreat is organised by Clare Batchelor.

April 2012 sees me being my training as a Kundalini Yoga teacher so I will be visiting Brighton a lot over the next 9 months.  Which is great news as I love Brighton!  It has a wonderful vibe and the best health food shop – the vast Infinity Foods – possibly beating my other favourite, Earthfare in Glastonbury.

Lunch on Day 1 saw me heading the beach with my new friends and a takeaway curry (very cooked).  After a rather sleepy afternoon (no surprise there after a carb-laden meal), and in anticipation of a 4am start tomorrow for sadhana, I was in need of a light and nourishing green dinner.

So after a too short recce to the Steamer Trading Cook Shop, a real chef aladdin’s cave over 3 floors (prompting distant memories of a smaller version of the same treasure trove in Alfriston some years ago, they have a branch there too), I headed for Aloka in East St, which is conveniently close to the training venue.

Aloka promotes itself as a Quality of Life Centre – and rather fabulously the food menu includes many raw dishes, yippee!  It’s so refreshing – and so rare in this country or any other – to be able to walk in to a restaurant and order proper raw food as opposed to a ‘salad’ composed of cooked veggies served cold.

Aloka has a lovely chilled ambiance, clean and calm. It is staffed by a team of vegans so there’s no danger of any ham or anchovies being slipped into the food.  I had a bad experience in France years ago where I ordered veggie pizza which arrived sprinkled with ham, and then it returned rather too quickly when I sent it back so I knew they had simply picked off the offending animal parts.

So what did I eat? As I was dining early the dinner menu was not yet available and I was really ready to eat so I ordered two ‘bigger bites’ (at £4.50) from the early evening nibbles menu.

Chips and Dips was a celeriac, herb and cashew dip served with 2 types of cracker – one intensely flavoured with orange zest and strips of arame seaweed – and richly seasoned kale chips on the side.

Fresh Dulse and Capers Tartare were artfully served in quenelles on a sliver of daikon and glued on with miso cashew cream, and garnished with a coriander leaf. Beautiful presentation, and even more importantly utterly delicious! And filling too.

Other raw options today included cultured cashed cheese and a raw bruschetta. And of course the full dinner menu (that I was too tired/impatient to wait for) had a raw starter (£6.50) and main (£13.90). I have to say it was a tough decision. I’m not used to getting a choice in restaurants in terms on even one veggie dish, so to have an array of raw dishes was truly spectacular.

And then the desserts…. ALL raw and vegan. A kumquat cheesecake, Millionaire’s Shortbread (which intrigued me as I have recently been re-creating a recipe after being bowled over by the one Jenny brought to the raw potluck), ice creams, truffles and chocolates – and 3 flavours of macaroons which is what won my vote. Only one mind, I’m not that greedy! So I enjoyed an elegant vanilla and maca macaroon dome with the last of my mineral water.

Great music ( it suited the place perfectly, reminiscent of Jose Gonzalez but don’t ask me what) was punctuated by the sound of smoothies being prepared in the Vitamix and the happy conversation of waitresses sharing tips on where to get the best ripe avocados and exchanging food experiences in between serving more delicious dishes. That makes them real foodies, which gets a big tick from me. It makes all the difference to have the food prepared and served by people who are passionate about it. Which is why my Beautiful Heart Raw Kitchen dishes have that extra special vibration. I received very attentive and genuine, heart felt service in just the right measure. 

Even the washroom was a good experience: the basin had a splashback made from 2 huge slices of rose quartz. And one of the marvellous Dyson Airblade hand dryers.

I felt very nurtured and nourished by my experience at Aloka, which was just what I needed after my first day immersion into the journey of training to be a yoga teacher. The day has not been demanding on the outside but the responsibility of the job and implications and stuff had started to hit home. And the terror of leading mantra singing … But that’s another story that will unfold over the next months.

As for Aloka, well the next training weekend is in Brighton in June so I’ll be back!

Aloka is at 14 East Street, Brighton BN1 1HP

www.aloka.aura-soma.net

Aloka’s blog www.alokabrighton.com

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IO778tBv7Jc

Beautiful Heart Raw Kitchen will be hosting the inimitable UK raw food expert Kate Magic for an evening talk on Raw Food.  

Kate is an absolute goldmine of information from her nearly two decades’ experience of eating raw and raising her sons on the raw way of life.  She shares this in her engaging, light-hearted and information-rich talk.

Kate is the author of four raw lifestyle books, and tours internationally giving talks and workshops on raw foods.

Tuesday 26 June 2012, 7 – 9pm

In this two-hour class, Kate will be cramming in as much as she can of the Raw Magic philosophy. What are the best raw foods to include and which are the best to avoid. How to transition easily and achieve your goals effortlessly, without stress and yo-yo-ing. Some of the common bad habits people slip into and ways to avoid them. How to avoid deficiencies on a raw diet.

And then, what happens when we start getting it right. The natural highs that come from eating the best foods on the planet. The transformations that start to occur in our lives. And why these personal changes are so important to the wider culture and our global environment.

We will have limited time for questions, but Kate will try and answer as many as she can. Don’t forget to bring pen and paper!

There will be Kate’s books and other Raw Living products, including chocolate bars and cake, available to buy. We are unable to take cards or cheques so please bring cash with you.

This is cutting edge nutritional teaching, combined with empowering inspiration and wisdom – for your mind, your heart and your body, it’s all in Raw Magic.

All attendees receive 10% discount on their Raw Living shopping for a month following the event.

“Thank you so much, your approach to raw food is so liberating and you are so at ease with it all. I think you are fantastic, you far exceed David Wolfe and other people out there with the way you deliver the work. ” Emma Jones, Cardiff

Time

7 – 9 pm

Venue

The Love Lounge (aka the Back Bar), behind The Bell Inn, 103 Walcot Street, Bath BA1 5BW

Price

£12 in advance for 1, or £20 for 2 tickets
£15 on the door for 1, or £25 for 2 – CASH ONLY

Advance tickets are available until the day before –  Monday 25 June.
To book your tickets now please click on the button below – or you can pay in cash on the evening. 

Cancellation Policy

Please read the Raw Living cancellation policy before booking. When booking any event, you accept the terms of the cancellation policy.

If you need to cancel after you’ve booked, here are the refund details:

1. Cancellation up to two weeks before the event = 90% of your monies paid refunded (the rest goes towards admin and card charges)
2.Cancellation two weeks before the event = 50% of your monies paid refunded (the rest goes towards admin and card charges)
3. Cancellation on or after the Monday before the event = 0% of your monies paid refunded (due to hire of equipment, room bookings and purchasing of food as well as the charges above)

Sorry we are unable to offer concessionary places. 

Any queries, please call me on 07989 416959.

“Out of all the Raw Foodists I have listened and watched over the past two years, Kate feels to me, the most grounded, centred & knowledgeable. There is a quite confidence, which is what I look for.” Jacqui, Cornwall

I look forward to seeing you on the 26th.  Be prepared to be dazzled!

Aradhana x

At my workshop today, I was asked a few times if I had a good recipe for raw hummus. The answer was yes. I’d found one recently online on seriouseats.com so my thanks go to Kumiko Mitarai for the recipe.

It’s quick easy to make – once you’ve got organised to sprout the chick peas, so you do need to plan ahead.

Sprouting

Soak the chick peas overnight, then rinse and start sprouting. Tend to your baby chick peas until the sprout is the same length as the pea.  This takes about 3 days.  All you need to do is rinse the sprouts morning and evening. I store my jar by the kitchen sink so it’s easy to remember. 

My favourite sprouting jar is tall and has a wire mesh screen on the lid so it’s really easy to drain the sprouts as the water flows out easily. I‘ve had my jar for a few years and no longer remember the make, but I’ve found this sprouting jar as a current item on Amazon [update: it's now been marked as not current. You can try this one from Living Foods instead]. It has the same stainless mesh screen and it’s big – which is very useful with chick peas as they do swell up a lot.

I find the more commonly available sprouter by BioSnacky to be less user friendly. It’s smaller for a start, and the plastic mesh lid is slow to drain. Its advantage is the plastic stand integrated in the lid so you can leave the jar tilted on your draining board (but if the water poured out more quickly you wouldn’t need this!).

Another way to make a sprouter is to cover a jar with a piece of muslin and secure it with a rubber band. This is where I started out – so my preferred jar is simply a more robust and easier to use version of this.

Or you can use a nut milk bag (a nylon mesh bag – so a jelly straining bag from the jam-making section in your hardware store will also do), which makes the draining operation very easy. I like easy.

If you can’t use the sprouts right away when the reach the right length, you can rinse and drain the sprouts and store them in the fridge for a day. Then re-rinse them before you start creating your recipe.

I have found that 1 cup of dry chick peas yields 3 cups volume when they’re sprouted, so they’re a cost effective ingredient. This raw hummus recipe uses 2 cups. You can use the remaining 1 cup in raw falafel or simply as sprouts sprinkled on your salad.

Raw Hummus recipe

So here’s the great recipe for raw hummus:

• 2 cups sprouted chick peas
• 2 tablespoons raw tahini
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1 clove garlic
• ½ cup olive oil – choose a mild flavoured oil
• 1 – 1 ½ teaspoons salt

Put everything except the oil and salt in the food processor and blitz

Drizzle the oil through the feed tube while the food processor is running*

Add salt to taste

*I failed to follow the recipe instructions and threw everything into the blender jug before whizzing and it came out just fine. Except that I had forgotten to add the garlic!  It’s a vital ingredient so I quickly noticed and mashed some in.

If you don’t have a food processor or blender, I reckon a stick blender will do the job.

Serve the hummus on the side of your salad with raw crackers. Or with raw falafel – check out my ‘middle eastern lunch’ in the photo. How about spreading your cracker with tapenade before you add the hummus? Extra yumminess where the salty black olives balance the mild creamy hummus.

My personal favourite with hummus is to sprinkle on smoked paprika or chipotle chilli for a tasty little kick and a visual treat (for we eat with our eyes before the food reaches our tongue). Alternatively you could drizzle with olive oil or chilli oil.

The hummus will keep in the fridge in a Tupperware box for a few days. I found that the exposed edges discoloured very slightly but this didn’t affect the taste and disappeared easily when I mixed it in.

Enjoy!

We’ve only just had our first snow of the year and mild as it is in the UK now, it’s still chilly and February so eating raw food may be the last thing on your mind.

But take heart, raw food doesn’t have to mean cold food. Raw simply means it has been prepared below 118 degrees F – so that includes warm temperatures.

You can boost the warm sensations in your raw food by choosing naturally warming ingredients such as carrot, parsnip, squash, beetroot, red pepper – the clue is in the colours. Spices will warm your food too, the most obvious being chilli but also ginger, pepper, cinnamon, garlic, turmeric and coriander.

You can also use warm water in your dishes such as soup – my favourite winter warmer is made from miso, brazil nuts, seaweed and coconut oil – and raw porridge – I blend creamed coconut with warm water, ground almonds, apple, vanilla and cinnamon.

It may be February but the days are getting longer and before we know it the clocks will change and we’ll be greeting the Spring. Then our thoughts will turn to tending the summer veg crops on the allotment and delicious juicy salads will be at the forefront of our minds.

So now is the perfect time to start getting mentally prepared for a new season of raw food. I have three workshops coming up to equip you with the mindset and skills for a raw food lifestyle:

Introduction to Raw Food

Here you will learn a whole day’s raw menu without the need for any special equipment

Saturday 25 Februrary in Nailsworth, 10am – 2.30pm

Sunday 11 March in Bath at the Vegetarian Cookery School, 10am – 2pm

The Magic of Raw Chocolate

Learn the alchemy and make your own chocolate at home

Thursday 29 March in Bradford on Avon, 7 – 9.30pm

You can find full details on the above links.

I wish you a cosy week and look forward to seeing you

Chilli chocolate hugs

Aradhana

Thanks to a stroke of wisdom, I’m not involved. Audible sigh of relief from me and my friends. However, the story nearly had a different ending.

The premise of Come Dine With Me, if you’re not familiar with the show, is over five days five strangers from all walks of life take turns to host the perfect dinner party for each other. At the end of the week, one of the hosts wins a thousand pounds.

Before Christmas my partner picked up a flyer inviting applications from people with a passion for cooking who want to demonstrate their skills. I had watched the show years before and found it entertaining and thought, as my partner had, this sounded just like me. Great chef, tick. Good hostess tick.  Great opportunity to wow the watching public with raw food, double tick! So I applied.

My initial email application (“raw foodie, aged 42″) prompted a speedy response with a phone interview that same day. I was asked how I would rate my ‘cooking’ out of 10 – well, truthfully, 10. I live alone, I have my own home, I have a big kitchen dining room, I’m slightly unusual.  All seemed to line up for me being an ideal candidate for the show. And indeed, after a further phone interview they called back to short-list me for informal filming at my home in the first week of January.  How exciting, I thought!

What I didn’t yet realise was an ideal candidate for what. As a non-watcher of TV, non-drinker, eater of raw food, and yogini, I was really going to be a curious creature. What was I letting myself in for? Being somewhat naïve, I thought this would be a fabulous opportunity to spread the word about raw food by introducing 4 people to the delights on daytime TV. As well as me being a charming and charismatic hostess, of course.  Alarm bells should have sounded when they kept asking “who would be your nightmare dinner guest?” 

Reality dawned as I spoke to a few friends who, it turns out, are avid fans of the show. They also know me and my sensitive nature. The intial “yes go for it, what a great opportunity to get raw food out there” evolved into strong warnings to be cautious: “Have you actually watched the show?” So I watched some more episodes on 4OD to find out what I was opening myself up for. I imagined myself in the hot seat and found myself squirming. My friends warned me that I’d be set against a full-blooded meat eater, and, I suspected, the hunting-fishing-boozing type.

What did I plan to offer for entertainment, they asked? Eek, I didn’t even know this was part of the show’s recipe, there was no entertainment laid on when I had last seen the programme. How about showing my guests some yoga? came the suggestion. No, totally inappropriate: yoga and dinner do not mix. All I could come up with was a demo on making chocolates to go with after-dinner coffee.

Ah coffee, yet another thing I don’t have in the house. Nor wine. I wasn’t even sure I had 5 dinner plates. Only 4 wine glasses. And definitely not 5 chairs. This was going to be quite some undertaking to prepare my menu and my home so I’d feel comfortable inviting round 4 strangers for dinner and a TV crew, and then however many viewers.

In the end I decided to withdraw my application on the grounds that I didn’t have the time to invest and I wasn’t sure I was thick-skinned enough for either the guests or the acerbic voiceover. The £1,000 prize didn’t even enter into the equation. Apologies to the TV industry if I’ve misjudged your motives.

So instead of full time practising my raw dishes, decluttering my home (at least the shed had a ‘colonic’ to make some space) and finishing off the decorating (usual story, I’ve ‘only’ lived here for 4 years)… I’ve been full time working on my web design business, relaunching my raw food website with a fresh new look and setting up a few workshops. A better investment of time, I feel, in my own future rather than my “15 minutes of fame” on daytime TV. That may come one day, but I’d prefer to choose a more sympathetic environment.

Instead of appearing on Come Dine With Me, I’ve been entertaining the idea of having a gourmet raw dinner party at home with friends. 100% reality, but not on TV. I wish all the very best to the 5 who are dining in Bath homes this week. 

And tonight, instead of Dining with You (whoever you were going to be), I will be enjoying a celebration dinner at Bath’s most excellent vegetarian restaurant Demuth’s – not raw, not yet. However, I’m teaching an Introduction to Raw Food workshop at Demuth’s Vegetarian (un)Cookery School on Sunday 11 March so who knows what will be on the menu in a few months?