No Cook Marinara Sauce

With Taylor Wells

Eating so called raw food is an increasingly attractive option for some people such as Taylor Wells, owner of Prana Yoga Power Centers and Restaurant. This “raw” recipe uses most of the same ingredients that a cooked marinara will use, and is actually warm when it comes out of the blender, so uncooked food does not necessarily mean cold food.

What is the raw food diet and why do people do it?

First, A Raw food diet is based on eating whole, live, uncooked and un-processed foods as a large percentage of your diet. When 75-100% of your total food consumption is raw food, you are considered a raw foodist. At that rate it is believed by Taylor and others that your body's elimination system can eliminate all or most of the toxins in the cooked portion of your diet. They believe that heating food above 118 degrees F. is believed to destroy enzymes in food that can assist in digestion. Cooking is also thought to diminish the nutritional value of food.

Raw foodists are usually, but not always, vegan, meaning they do not eat animal-based products like dairy or meat. Mostly raw plant foods are eaten, including vegetables and fruits, plus soaked and sprouted grains, nuts and seeds.

Raw foodists in general all agree that consumption of uncooked foods encourages weight loss and prevents and/or can heal many forms of chronic disease. Taylor says that within days of eating food like this no-cook marinara that you will feel like you have more energy and will sleep less, all because you are not eating cooked food.

It is often thought that eating raw food takes a lot of time to prepare. Taylor claims that when you do it correctly, a raw food diet is actually one of the easiest and most convenient ways you can eat and feed your family. She has five kids and along with her husband Philippe Wells runs five yoga centers and a restaurant, and knows about being busy.

Taylor’s most emphatic plea is to try it, even one or two days a week and you will start to feel the difference almost immediately.

Taylor ends all of her contacts with people using a common yoga salutation. She brings her hands together in front of the heart, bows her head and says "Namaste." In the yoga classes the students bring their hands together and respond in kind. A good definition of Namaste would be "I bow to your true self". The true self might be seen as the deeper, more essential you, less connected to ego, social expectations and pretensions.

Ingredients

10 sun dried tomatoes, soaked
2 fresh tomatoes
2 tablespoons pine nuts
1 clove garlic
¼ cup olive oil
1 ¼ teaspoons salt
2 dried dates, soaked
1 tablespoon thyme
2 tablespoons basil
1 tablespoon oregano

Instructions

1. Blend all ingredients until smooth.

Notes:
This sauce is served with zucchini pasta, which is a zucchini that has been rotated through a spiraler machine that creates thin strips from the zucchini. You can also make thin strips using a mandolin or slicing the zucchini very thin.

Recipe courtesy of Taylor Wells, Prana Restaurant and Prana Power Yoga, 2011.

From Food for Thought by Heather Atwood:Taylor and Phillipe are earnest ambassadors for their lifestyle;  they’ve painted their house, had their kids driven to gymnastics, and received marketing help all in exchange for yoga classes.   

“We don’t want to ever deny anyone yoga,” Taylor explains, and will barter just about anything if it means someone can take a class.   Taylor is so enthusiastic about the personal transformation she’s felt with raw food and yoga that at first she was offering lifestyle consultations for free, but no one took her seriously, she said, until she started charging $150, a lesson in the power of words.

The Wells recognize that not everyone can commit to making one hundred percent of their meals raw, so they recommend introducing the principles in small packages.  For instance, one morning eat nothing but fresh fruit until lunch.  At lunch, before you eat the turkey sandwich or hamburger, have a salad with avocado, flax oil and lemon juice.  Or, try eating fresh fruit and salad all through the day until dinner, and then eat what works for you and your family.  

Taylor emphasizes that many of the foods her family eat look very much like foods anyone else is eating; Her children’s peanut butter and jelly sandwich is simply raw almond butter on Essene bread (dehydrated spelt bread.)  Taylor makes a raw zucchini “pasta” with a fresh marinara sauce that my kids and I have once a week, and get excited about it.  “Taylor’s pasta tonight, Mom?!  Great!” I usually hear as a daughter walks by the kitchen.  

I haven’t bought a dehydrator, and probably won’t.  Many of the raw foods and “superfoods” aren’t local, and they can be expensive, but good food of any sort just costs more.   Even in moderation, these are all good, healthy ideas to slip into one’s life.  Couldn’t we all use a little transformation?

Namaste. "The spirit in me respects the spirit in you."