Raw vs. Cooked: Eat Both, and Have Some Fries with That

My recent post about cauliflower and an article I just read in VegNews on the "raw vs. cooked" debate reminded me of a recipe I've been meaning to share with you all. I'm constantly in pursuit of understanding the raw vs. cooked thing, but for a while now I've realized that sometimes you have to take a step back and just eat what makes you feel good. (So in the end, I'm almost exclusively raw anyway, but that might not float your boat as much as mine.)

While I wrote about the gointrogens in cauliflower and how they may affect your thyroid function, the VegNews article said eating raw cauliflower actually conserves its folate and potassium that would otherwise get denatured if cooked. Same thing goes for pumpkins/squash/tubers: some say you can't eat them raw because they're very starchy, indigestible, and may even have small levels of toxicity in their raw state. Others say people have been happily eating raw pumpkins for decades, and in this specific case, most of these veggies' nutrients are contained in their cellular walls, which cooking helps break down to make absorption easier. My thought? Why takes sides in a seemingly insurmountable scientific debate? Eat both, maybe not in the same sitting, but at least that way you know you're getting enough of every good thing! As I usually say when it comes to food, do go with how it makes your body feel.

When it comes to tubers and squashes, I've usually just stuck with lightly steaming them, so I can puree them into mostly-raw goodies or sauces. Alternatives I've dehydrated them into fantastical chips. I have also tried the raw sweet potato thing before, and its worked great too. I in fact remember going through a period where I was eating raw japanese sweet pudding puree every night for a while... Yum.

Ever since I gave up on buying sweet potatoes, once I got too caught up in the science of it all, Andrew had been missing them. So, I decided to give them another shot. He's always been a huge fan of sweet potato fries and chipotle mayonnaise (a particular overdose incident at Pan Chancho in Kingston comes to mind). Conveniently, I found a delicious looking recipe for dehydrated sweet potato fries and raw chipotle mayo over at Rawmazing that I knew I would be dying to tweak.

The outcome was amazing. I think I used about half the oil and Nama Shoyu recommended for the sweet potato marinade. For the mayo, I used cashews as the nuts, halfed the olive oil, went easier on the garlic, upped the water a bit, skipped the coconut, and used chipotle in adobo (if you haven't ever used that, DO! They're also fabulous in spicy chocolate cookies) for the kick. So yeah, pretty different. It was fantastic though! Conveniently, I think I preferred the fries and Andrew preferred the mayo, which then became his default wrap sauce over the next week. So all in all, a very tweak-able and multi-purpose recipe that I recommend to all!