At Kerstin Florian, we take pride in the quality ingredients we use in our products to achieve healthy skin. Equally important to maintaining healthy glowing skin is the food we eat to nourish our skin from the inside.
In recent years, I’ve become a huge fan of raw living cuisine – which preserves important enzymes and is never cooked over 118 degrees. There are all kinds of benefits to eating raw and living food. Living cuisine contributes to glowing skin that is less prone to hyperpigmentation, congestion, dullness and loss of elasticity. It also contributes to youthful abundant energy and a healthy body! Since my culinary course at the Matthew Kenney Institute in Santa Monica last December, I’ve been on the look out for creative, easy (and I stress easy), delicious raw-food recipes, and recently I found a book worth sharing: Matt Amsden’s “Rawvolution.”
The book appeals to everyone from vegetarians who want to take the next step in natural cuisine, to those who simply want to diversify and improve their daily diet. Included are recipes for appetizers, soups, entrees, delicious desserts and even healthy eating while traveling. What I love most is how simple and flavorful the recipes are, and most don’t require the use of a dehydrator. While I have personally invested in a dehydrator (the Sedona), I’ve found that using it requires advanced planning and patience I don’t’ always have – especially given my travel schedule.
Amsden has a restaurant in LA but I prefer Matthew Kenney’s MAKE in Santa Monica, or Café Gratitude in Venice or Hollywood. Amsden has also recently come out with “The Rawvolution Continues” which I will definitely get. One piece of equipment that comes in handy with living cuisine (and for the recipe below) is a spiralizer (you can get one on Amazon for about $50). This great kitchen tool makes raw noodles from zucchini, squash and other hard vegetables. Simply add organic tomato sauce or the pesto recipe below and you have a delicious summer meal or side dish for your summer BBQ.
Following is one of my favorites:
Spaghetti-Style Zucchini Noodles in a Creamy Pine Nut and Basil Pesto Sauce
Ingredients:
- 3/4 cup Thai coconut water
- 2 to 3 cloves garlic, peeled
- 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp. sea salt
- 1 cup raw pine nuts
- 1 cup fresh basil
- 2 Tbsp. olive oil
- 6 to 8 zucchini, peeled and cut like spaghetti noodles with a spiralizer according to manufacturer’s instructions.
In a high-speed blender, combine all of the ingredients (except the zucchini noodles) and blend until they are smooth. Put the zucchini noodles in a bowl, pour the sauce over them, mix well and serve. Note: The texture of the zucchini noodles improves when they are left to sit in the open air at room temperature for 6 to 8 hours.
Love,
Charlene
