Raw Juices

The Fruitarian Restaurant: A Decadent Fantasy on Rarotonga, The Cook Islands

June 17, 2013 by Veronica Grace 10 Comments

A friend of mine just came back from a trip to an exotic island in the Pacific called Rarotonga in the Cook Islands and was raving about this “amazing” restaurant he had discovered there.

It’s called “The Frutarian”, and truly, it’s the most amazing place I have ever heard of. Apparently the owners have been raw for over 20 years, and have decided to open this place in this remote island, and in spite of all expectations, it’s doing great!

Beach on Rarotonga - by Veronica Grace

I was a little curious because I have yet to find a restaurant that truly blew me away with the type of cuisine I enjoy on a regular basis: low fat raw vegan. Every vegetarian restaurant, let alone raw food restaurant I’ve been to featured the same staples of fatty salads and or nuts as the base of every dish.

So my friend went on describing this place as the new “it” restaurant in the Pacific, it was drawing in lots of tourists among vegetarians, raw foodists and other various health seekers.

It had a breathtaking view of the ocean and an open air sitting room for about 25 people, they were open from 8-5pm and always had a steady flow of satiated patrons. “What did you order there that was so amazing?” I asked my friend. “Fruit and salad!” He exclaimed. I raised my eyebrow in curiosity and he went to elaborate.

Sunset on Rarotonga - by Veronica Grace

Apparently this place had combined all the great things about a juice bar, a smoothie bar, a salad bar and a sit down restaurant and rolled it all into one. He pulled out a To Go menu from his pocket to satisfy my skepticism. I transcribed it for you below:

Breakfast:

All-You-Can-Eat Mono Fruit Plate (banana, mango, papaya, pineapple or watermelon) $10.99
Sunrise Pudding (blend of sweet papaya and bananas garnished with chopped fruit) $7.99
Green Goddess Smoothie (bananas, fresh lettuce) Regular $5.99 Large $7.99
Wake Me Up Mango Smoothie (fresh orange juice, mangos) $5.99 Large $7.99
Going Bananas Smoothie (3 kinds of bananas) $5.99 Large $7.99
Vitality Vegetable Juice (tomato, cucumber, celery, lettuce, carrot, beet) $6.99 Large $8.99

Lunch/Dinner:

All-You-Can-Eat Mono Meal Fruit Plate (banana, mango, papaya, pineapple or watermelon) $10.99
Banana Sandwiches (bunch of bananas served with fresh lettuce) $6.99
Guacamole Wrap (avocado, cherry tomatoes, and lime served with fresh lettuce) $8.99
Veggie Wraps (shredded carrot, cucumber, beet, zuchinni served with avocado and lettuce) $7.99
Island Tacos (guacamole and salsa served with lettuce and cabbage leaves) $9.99
Going Greek Salad (cucumber, tomatoes, fresh herbs, and Greek dressing) $7.99
Mango Love Salad (mangos and sweet oranges on spinach leaves) 8.99
Super Size Me Salad Style (build your own: lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, carrot, green onions, red onions, sprouts, snap peas, celery, heart of palm, fresh herbs, apple, raisins, mango) Reg. $10.99 Sumo Size $15.99
Fresh dressings: light guac, sundried tomato, Greek, summer dill, mangolicious, Reg. $1.99 Large $2.99

Appetizers:

Gigantic Fruit Plate *serves 3-4 (banana, mango, papaya, pineapple, apple, kiwi) $15.99
Skewer Me Fruity (pineapple, mango, papaya fruit skewers) $9.99
Mini Pizzas (zuchinini rounds topped with sundried tomato sauce and cherry tomatoes) $8.99
Little Dippers (celery, cucumber and zucchini dippers served with guacamole and salsa) $9.99

Juices:

Fresh Green Coconut $3.99
Pressed Cane Juice $4.99
Orange Juice $4.99 Lg. $6.99
Apple Juice $4.99 Lg. $6.99
Watermelon Juice $3.99 Lg. $5.99
Vitality Vegetable Juice $6.99 Lg. $8.99
Build Your Own Juice $6.99 Lg. $8.99

Smoothies:
Reg. $5.99 Lg. $7.99

Going Bananas Smoothie (3 kinds of bananas)
Wake Me Up Mango Smoothie (mango, orange juice)
Green Goddess Smoothie (banana, lettuce)
Banana Loves Papaya (banana, papaya)
Island Love (coconut water, pineapple, passionfruit)
Workout Buster (coconut water, banana, celery, lettuce)
Green and Lovin’ It (Coconut water, kiwi, dates)
Build Your Own Smoothie

Desserts:

Coconut Cream (Coconut water, jelly and dates) $5.99
Banana Icecream (frozen bananas and vanilla made into softserve) $4.99
Glazed Fruit (fruit plate glazed with date sauce) $6.99
Fresh Dates (seasonal) $6.99

Rocks on Rarotonga by Veronica Grace

This menu looks amazing, I thought. It has everything that a raw food restaurant is missing, fruit and healthy low fat recipes. I couldn’t wait to check out this place and try it for myself. I asked my friend, do you know who owns this place? He flipped over the back of the menu and showed it to me. It read, “Owned and Operated by Veronica Grace”.

Sadly, I woke up at just that moment and realized that this amazing place was purely a figment of my imagination. Yet it had seemed so real. I could actually picture this place existing from the description I was given and this menu flowed out of me with some items I’ve never even made before! It got me thinking though, wouldn’t it be nice if someone somewhere had the same dream as me and was looking for a fresh new edge on the raw restaurant scene?

Muri Lagoon, Rarotonga by Veronica Grace

Maybe one day… but hey until then feel free to reference this imaginary menu to get creative in your kitchen and try some amazingly tasty low fat raw vegan cuisine! You’d be surprised how great your food can taste with only a few ingredients and some simple tools like a mandolin and blender.

This is the menu I dream of and have yet to see anywhere in the Raw Food World!

I actually have visited Rarotonga and Aitutaki in the Cook Islands and unfortunately it was not the fruit paradise I dreamed of, but it was still gorgeous nonetheless so I’ve included some beautiful photos I took on my travels there in 2011. Hope you enjoy my menu suggestions and my island shots!

Muri Lagoon, Rarotonga by Veronica Grace

Fruit and Veggie Smoothie Recipe with Beet Juice

September 10, 2012 by Veronica Grace 14 Comments

Sometimes people ask me, “Can I put vegetables into my fruit smoothies?”. And I say “Well that depends”. I wouldn’t necessarily tell a novice that they should try broccoli or carrots in a smoothie, because those vegetables are pretty hard to blend and you may not like it. Same goes for beets. Don’t just toss them into your blender (unless you have a really high powered one and like a gritty chewy smoothie). So instead I recommend for those wanting to up the nutrition of their fruit smoothies that you juice some veggies like carrots or beets and use that as a base for blending. That way you can get the added nutrition of veggies in your fruit smoothies just like a V8 juice, but a much much healthier version.

Normally I only use water to blend my smoothies (because I use sweet fruit like ripe bananas I can get away without using packaged fruit juice), but using a fresh pressed veggie juice is an idea you can try as well. We all know you can certainly drink more beets or carrots than you can chew, so once in a while this may be a good option for you to sneak in some more veggies to your diet. (Or the diets of your loved ones!)

I decided to try it out, and it’s a very interesting taste, you get the earthiness from the beets, without the smoothie being too overly sweet and it’s a cross between a smoothie and plain veggie juice. It’s nice actually. So this way you are still keeping a lot of the fiber intact and this helps create bulk and fullness so your smoothie is much more satisfying as a meal than just a plain old juice.

Here is my beet juice smoothie creation:

Beet Banana Mango Strawberry Smoothie

Serves 1-2

Ingredients:

1/4 cup fresh beet juice (about a bunch of small beets juiced, tops optional)
2 ripe bananas
1/2 cup fresh or frozen mango
1/2 cup strawberries

Directions:

Pour beet juice into blender and add remaining ingredients. Blend on high until smooth. You can either juice the beet tops or you can chop them up and blend them in.

Additional Tips:

Remember beet greens are a little stronger tasting than lettuce so start out with a little at first and taste test and see what you think. To make this even sweeter add another banana.

Other veggies you can consider juicing to add to your fruit smoothies:

carrots
golden beets
cucumbers
celery
greens (but you can always blend them in too)
other mild veggies

I don’t recommend strong vegetables from the brassica family such as broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts, cauliflower etc. You CAN however make a savory blended salad or savory veggie stew if you use things like tomatoes for the base and skip the fruit. I just don’t find strong sulphur containing vegetables go well with fruit.

Have you ever had beet juice or beet greens in a smoothie before? What did you think?

Raw Vegan Antioxidant Rich Apple Celery Carrot Beet Juice

April 26, 2012 by Veronica Grace 11 Comments

Happy Friday everyone! I hope you’ve enjoyed your week so far. I know I have. I’m still in Kauai for a few more days and have been doing some kayaking, hiking, and snorkelling and taking lots of photos. If you’re curious to see what it’s like on Kauai (the oldest Hawaiian island) check out my Kauai Travel Pics post. It’s the end of their rainy season here so we’ve been getting a little bit of rain but nothing like what they get in the winter time. It’s about 82-84 F (27-29 C) a day here so it’s quite nice!

We’ve been eating a TON of Maui Gold pineapple here along with Hawaiian papayas, bananas, watermelon, cantaloupe, salads and veggies. Just keeping things pretty simple as I’m not really making specific recipes while I’m here. The Maui Gold pineapple is really out of this world, it’s so sweet and not acidic at all. I get the mini ones and I eat a whole one for breakfast and it doesn’t bother my tongue. Some of the larger pineapples we’ve got were pale yellow inside and not ripe enough and too acidic to eat, ripe dark yellow (inside) pineapples are really the best. We always smell the bottoms of our pineapples to see if they seem sweet or ripe. If your fresh pineapple smells like nothing chances are it’s been picked too early and isn’t ripe enough and will burn your tongue and taste tart.

Today I wanted to share with you one of my favourite veggie juice recipes. I don’t generally buy juices from juice and smoothie bars because #1 they are far to expensive and small for the price and #2 they are usually super foamy on top, and I can make them better at home. The juicer I have is a Breville and has this nice jug that has a foam blocker in it so when you pour the juice it skims off the top portion of foam before it goes into your glass. So this is nice. Especially for people new to drinking fresh juices (vs. something lie V8) who might be turned off by the natural occurring foam when you juice with a centrifugal juicer.

I love putting apples and beets together in juice the flavour is really rich and energizing. Apple and beets, carrots and beets, carrots and celery, and celery and apples all go great together flavor-wise, so when you combine them all you get a really tasty vitamin and mineral rich juice!

Raw Vegan Apple Celery Carrot Beet Juice

Serves 2

Ingredients:

3 medium apples, peeled (unless organic)
1 large beet, peeled and cut if necessary
8 large stalks of celery (leaves removed)
3 medium carrots, peeled (unless organic)

Directions:

Prepare vegetables, peel apples if desired. Cut veggies into chunks if required for your type of juicer. Run everything through a juicer and serve immediately.

Additional Tips:

Feel free to 1/2 the recipe if you’d only like a small juice. I usually make a big one after a work out.

You may enjoy serving this juice over ice. Depending on your tastes you can add more or less apple, carrot or beets. People new to drinking fresh juices may enjoy more of an apple flavour for the base. If you are trying to juice all at once and want to save some juice for later, it should only be stored in a glass airtight mason jar. Fresh juice spoils quite quickly because it is raw and uncooked. It will not keep in the fridge unless it’s completely sealed and airtight. So make sure to use a jar of the appropriate size to ensure it’s filled to the top and sealed.

What do you think of this juice? What’s your favourite fruit+veggie juice recipe?

Also check out my photos of Kauai if you missed them.

Mobic

80/10/10 Recipe: Morning Sunrise (Pineapple Grapefruit Ginger) Juice

April 4, 2012 by Veronica Grace 9 Comments

This is a really delicious juice recipe that combines red grapefruits with fresh pineapple that I wanted to try. I really love Texas Star grapefruits as they are sweeter and even nice to eat on their own.

Did you know that the reason people used to put sugar on their grapefruit halves is because grapefruits used less sweet? Even sour compared to today? The scary thing is I still notice people putting sugar on their grapefruit halves thinking they are “sour” and that’s what you’re supposed to do. They have no idea how sweet and delicious grapefruits are now and they don’t need any additional sugar. Generally people who eat a lot of processed foods, don’t enjoy raw fruits and vegetables because they aren’t sweet or salty enough compared to their favourite packaged foods.

The key to enjoying grapefruit is to eat it before you eat anything else. When you eat grapefruit or grapefruit juice on it’s own it will taste more naturally sweet than if you ate it with sugary coffee, cereal, muffins, pastries, sweet fruits like mango and other sugary foods.

For instance if you ate a bite of mango and then went to eat some grapefruit it would taste very sour in comparison because your tastebuds had to adjust to the sweet taste of mango. A tip I have for you is to eat mangoes last if you’re having a few fruits for breakfast, as everything will taste less appetizing in comparison. Similarly eat your grapefruit first, and then everything you eat later will taste it’s best. I don’t recommend putting grapefruits in fruit salad either, as they will taste sour in comparison.

Now I don’t drink a lot of juice myself, I only drink homemade juice and never store bought bottled juice. But it is nice to have fresh pressed juice before or after a workout or on days that you will be traveling or being inside an air conditioned building for long periods of time. I like to drink fresh fruit and vegetable juice before traveling on a plane as it’s a good way to get some extra hydration and use up whatever’s left in the fridge before we leave!

Having a small glass of this juice for breakfast will brighten your day and the little bit of ginger adds another layer of flavour to it. I don’t like really gingery juices, but this is just right. You can also leave it out, or add more ginger depending on how much you like the flavour.

It’s best to use fresh sweet pineapple for this recipe. See my video on How To Select And Cut a Ripe Pineapple. If you’re buying pre-cut pineapple from the store, look for one that was packed recently, and has the darkest yellow colour you can find. If it is really pale and mostly white with only a little tinge of yellow it isn’t a ripe pineapple and won’t be sweet enough. You can also use defrosted frozen pineapple if you let it sit overnight in the fridge or out on the counter for a half hour on a tray, but generally frozen pineapple is not as sweet as fresh ripe pineapple.

Also did you know you can peel ginger very easily with a spoon? Check out my post How To Peel Ginger With A Spoon.

Morning Sunrise (Pineapple Grapefruit Ginger) Juice

Serves 1-2

Ingredients:

2 large Ruby Red or Texas Star grapefruits (or use a sweeter less tart variety available in your country)
4 cups pineapple chunks (fresh is best)
1 knob of ginger the size of your thumb, peeled (use more or less to your tastes)

Directions:

Juice the grapefruit in a citrus juicer or handheld citrus juicer. (This way you get more juice than putting it through a centrifugal juicer).
Run the pineapple chunks and ginger through a centrifugal or Green Star style juicer.
Combine juices and pour into glasses.
Garnish with pineapple chunk if desired.
Serve.

What do you think of this breakfast juice? Do you enjoy the taste of fresh red grapefruits?

80/10/10 Recipe: Kale Apple Celery Green Juice Recipe

March 10, 2012 by Veronica Grace 28 Comments

Mmm… kale apple celery juice with ginger and Meyer lemon. This is a delicious fat free kale juice with a hint of apple and the tang of lemon and a bite of ginger.

You can easily throw in a handful of greens into your morning veggie juice and a little apple to take out the bitterness.

I like to use celery as the base of my juice and then add whatever else I’d like such as carrots, apples, beets, lemon, lime, ginger, greens etc. There are so many different combinations for fresh juice. The juicer I use is a Breville. I like that it comes with this nice large juicing jug that keeps the foam out of my juice when it pours and it’s much easier to clean than my old Jack Lalane power juicer.

We picked up this bag of Meyer lemons and I thought I’d try them out in this juice. They have a much thinner skin, almost like mandarins and are very fragrant. They’re a nice treat over the regular lemons.

Kale Apple Celery Juice With Ginger and Lemon

Serves 2

Ingredients:

3 apples
16-20 stalks of celery
2 handfuls of kale
1 chunk of ginger
1 lemon

Directions:

1. Wash and/or peel all of your ingredients.

2. Pass all of the ingredients through a juicer.

3. Serve immediately and enjoy!

What’s your favourite juice to make?

80/10/10 Recipe: Raw Vegan Pomegranate Apple Grape Juice

October 19, 2011 by Veronica Grace 4 Comments

FTC Notice: This blog post contains affiliate links which go towards supporting the blog. We got some delicious pomegranates from Costco this week, so I’ve been eating them different ways, snacking on the seeds, straight juice and mixed juice. Today I’m having an (80/10/10 diet approved) antioxidant rich breakfast: a bowl of raspberries and a pomegranate, red grape, apple juice. Pomegranite juice on it’s own isn’t so bad, it just has a really bitter aftertaste. If you find it too strong and want to enjoy some nutritious juice this season, mix it with other sweet juices. Apple, grape, or pear works best. Maybe even an apple celery pomegranate concoction would be nice as well. To juice a pomegranate you’re going to want to use a citrus juicer. The kind you press the handle down onto it. I have a Breville 800CPXL that works great You can try a hand held citrus juicer, but they’re not easy to juice like oranges, and you will find you get whole pieces stuck in crevasses near the peel. For the rest of my raw vegan juice I used my regular Breville centrifugal juicer , which I enjoy as it’s much easier to use and clean than my previous Jack Lalane juicer. I tried that one and actually returned it, it was too messy to use and clean.

Raw Vegan Pomegranate Apple Grape Juice

Ingredients: 1 pomegranate 2-3 peeled apples 2 cups of red grapes (sweet) Directions: Cut the pomegranate in half and using a citrus juicer, juice half of the pomegranate at a time. Really press down with the juicer until the pomegranate seeds all come out. Repeat with the other half. For any seeds you missed in the strainer, use a spoon and push down on them to pop out the last bits of juice. Take your apples and grapes and run them through a centrifugal juicer. Pour into a tall glass, ensuring the extra foam stays in the container and doesn’t go into the glass. Now pour your pomegranate juice into the glass with the other juice and mix. Serve with ice cubes if desired. Enjoy your delicious juice without the bitter aftertaste of pomegranate!

How To Make Homemade Low Fat Raw Vegan Almond Milk In A Blender

October 7, 2011 by Veronica Grace 16 Comments

FTC Notice: This blog post contains affiliate links that go towards supporting the blog.

Almond milk is something that many people use nowadays, whether they are vegan or have dairy allergies. Sure you can buy some (non raw) almond milk at the store for your smoothies or cooking, but there’s likely going to be sugar, preservatives and other additives and synthetic stuff in it as well. While it is convenient to use pre made almond milk, it’s not a good idea to base your whole diet on processed packaged foods.

It’s very easy to make at home, and most cost effective if you enjoy using almond pulp in recipes like raw bars, cookies, crackers, or drying it out to use for almond flour. This raw almond milk is great for using in raw smoothies, raw banana ice-cream and raw dressings.

This low fat almond milk is also a nice pretty white colour and not browny tinged from additives like processed almond milk! Beautiful.

How To Make Your Own Homemade Raw Vegan Almond Milk

Ingredients:

1 cup of whole raw shelled almonds
Enough water to cover almonds if soaking overnight
4 cups filtered water (for making milk) If you want it even thinner use 5 cups of water.

Required tools:

Container to soak almonds
Metal mesh strainer/nut milk bag
Vitamix, Blendtec or other blender

Directions:

1. Soak almonds in a bowl or container with enough water to cover and let sit overnight, around 8 hours. (You can skip this step if you have a Vitamix or Blendtec)

2. Drain and rinse the almonds. Place into Vitamix or other blender with 4 cups of filtered water. Blend for about 45 sec to a minute on high. Just until all the almonds are in tiny pieces and it’s frothy.

3a. If using a nut milk bag hold the bag open over a large bowl and gently pour the blended almond milk into the middle of the open bag. Be careful not to spill pulp over the sides. Pour a little at a time and put the blender container down and close the bag at the top and squeeze the bag into the bowl to separate the almond pulp from the almond milk. You can either save the squeezed almond pulp to dry into almond flour or use to make cookies or nut balls or compost it. Continue this process until you have separate all the milk from the almond pulp. If you can’t stand and squeeze you can hang the bag filled with pulp and almond milk up above the bowl and let it drain for a while or in between breaks. Using a good quality nut milk bag you should only have to strain the milk one time if you didn’t spill any pulp over the edge.

3b. If using metal mesh strainers: get out 3 medium bowls or containers. Hold your small metal mesh strainer over one of the bowls and pour the almond mixture slowly into it. Fill up the strainer and then use a spoon to push the liquid down from the pulp. Place the extra pulp in one of the bowls if you want to save it for later. This will take a while. If using a metal strainer, keep filling it up with almond mixture and filtering the pulp from the milk with your spoon and set the pulp aside. Rinsing your strainer in between each filter will make it easier to strain and get rid of the little pieces stuck to it. After you have filtered your almond milk once, you may want to filter the whole thing a few more times for a smooth milk. Place your filter over the last clean bowl and pour your filtered almond milk over it. You should see some froth and a little pulp being filtered out the second time. Rinse your other bowl and strainer and filter back and forth until your almond milk is smooth to your liking. I do this 6-8 times with a metal strainer for the smoothest milk.

5. Once you’re done you can store the almond milk in the fridge. Depending what you want to do with it you can leave it plain, or blend in a date and some vanilla for sweet almond milk.

I leave mine plain so I can use it for things like banana ice-cream, chia “tapioca” pudding, smoothie base, dressing base etc. I just add pitted dates or vanilla extract or fresh vanilla bean to the recipe if I need a sweet milk.

Best used within 3 days. Store in a tightly sealed container in the refrigerator.

Have you ever made your own plant based milk at home? What’s your favourite?