Living on the Raw Edge

A dozen people are gathered in an office building in central Los Angeles for a weekly cooking class. Tonight they will learn to make carrot soup and crisp crackers, followed by burgers. For dessert there are rich little balls that look exactly like fudge.

But this is not an ordinary cooking class. The carrot soup is cold. The crackers are made of a dried-sprout slurry flavored with a pinch of curry powder. The burgers consist of ground sunflower seeds, carrot pulp and chopped onions. And those little balls of fudge are made of carob. There’s no meat in any of this food--and no heat. This is a cooking class for people who don’t believe in cooking.

Converts to what is known as the “living food movement” believe that heat destroys nutrients and the enzymes needed for easy digestion. They have replaced the traditional American diet with an entirely raw regime consisting of sprouts, nuts, seeds, and fruits and vegetables that are shredded or juiced. Followed strictly, this regimen excludes meat, fish, dairy products, rice, bread and pasta.

Teacher Sylvia Green, who could be described as the Julia Child of living food, has followed a raw food regimen for the past dozen years. She says her students come to her sessions for many reasons. Many of them already live on 100% raw vegetarian diets and are looking for exciting new recipes. Others are seriously investigating the regimen. Some are merely curious.

Green is the first to admit that while the recipes may be easy, the lifestyle isn’t. “People may make fun of you, and you have to be strong in your convictions,” she says. Her own mother did not approve. “She saw the diet as a criticism of her own lifestyle,” says Green. Couples, she adds, have been known to divorce over the issue.

Marlene Shelton, a Los Angeles court reporter, knows all about that. Her husband thinks she is “stark, raving mad.” Her grown children chide her. The judge she works for says, “Oh, Marlene just eats roots and grasses. She has a weird diet.”

For breakfast, Shelton, 60, has several pieces of fruit. At lunch she eats sprouts and dressing. At dinner she cooks meat and potatoes for her husband (“He’s not big on vegetables,” she says) and then settles down to her usual half avocado, two tablespoons of sesame seeds and more sprouts.

When she is invited to a restaurant, she brings her own food. “My friends say, ‘A real test of friendship with Marlene is if you can tolerate her diet.’ ”

Shelton, who comes from a large Italian family where pasta was the center of every gathering, occasionally feels deprived on this regimen, but she knows what happens when she strays from it: Little aches and pains creep into her body, she has swelling in her legs, she does not sleep well and she loses energy. “Ordinary food is like poison wrapped in a very attractive package,” she says.

The social isolation sometimes bothers her. She says, “When we go out to a nice restaurant and people are drinking Champagne and eating crispy bread and butter--which I love end don’t eat--I feel left out sometimes . . . It’s just something I face up to--it’s better that way--and I live with it.”

This is where a support group comes in. “It’s vital to be with a group of people with whom you’re not looked upon as strange or unusual,” says Rhio Coerli, a professional singer from New York who is visiting Los Angeles, “at least for that little bit of time. Out there you are sort of abnormal.”

The regimen presents challenges to the pop singer, who spent years on the road performing in small lounges. “In Elko, Nev., they don’t have a health food store. They don’t have sprouts. They don’t have wheatgrass. They don’t have anything,” she says. “In a situation like that, if you haven’t brought your own seeds to sprout, you just do the best you can.”

Coerli has had fewer troubles since she landed a contract with a major Latin recording label and started traveling less. Still, she admits that she slips from time to time: Last month she had popcorn twice.

“We have to think three days in advance, and we have to grow our greens,” says Mike Perkins, a 41-year-old plumber and marathon runner from Garden Grove. The standard American diet, he notes, provides instant gratification: “All a hungry person has to do is open a jar of tomato sauce and splash it on a mound of spaghetti.” He heads up a support group because “food is so social and it’s hard to sit down to have dinner with people who are staring at the strange things you are eating.”

“I thought I felt good on a ‘normal’ diet,” says David Sales, an actor. “But now I know what great feels like. I have much more energy. I don’t need much sleep and I don’t get sick.” He says he can’t remember when he last had a cold.

But there’s a down side. “This ruins my social life,” says Sales. “I have to meet someone like me and there aren’t many people like me. And if I eat out I eat at health food restaurants. I eat home a lot. You end up being alone.”

Green says she doesn’t miss the taste of warm food and never feels deprived, but she is familiar with the lonely feelings of her students. She tries to make her recipes as exciting as possible. “Just because something is good for you,” she says, “doesn’t mean it has to taste bad.”

Green has developed more than 500 dishes that she says duplicate items in the standard American diet. “My challenge is to try to copy the junk food and come up with a healthy version,” she says. Pizza, cookies, pies, even ice cream and wedding cakes can be recreated out of raw vegetable materials for the former junk food junkie.

Even so, the 52-year-old living foods maven has been known to slip off her diet. She is engaged to a man who sometimes likes to have cooked vegetables. “I would rather have a wonderful relationship with him and eat some cooked foods once in a while,” says Green, “than be by myself, be 100% on raw foods and be miserable. You have to learn to compromise.”

The three recipes that follow all come from Sylvia Green. Although we were skeptical, when we made the recipes in the Times test kitchen, we found them to be better than we’d expected. Still, eating raw spaghetti squash did take some getting used to. (If you’re surprised by the amount of fat in the recipe, so were we; we’ve rechecked them, and the figures are correct.)

CREAMY CARROT SOUP

1 ripe avocado, peeled and seeded

2 teaspoons ground cumin

3 cups fresh carrot juice

Parsley or sunflower greens, optional

Blend together avocado, cumin and carrot juice in blender until creamy. Pour into soup bowls and garnish with parsley. Serve with crisp whole-grain crackers. Makes 4 servings.

Each serving, without garnish, contains about:

154 calories; 60 mg sodium; 0 mg cholesterol; 8 grams fat; 21 grams carbohydrates; 3 grams protein; 2.77 grams fiber; 47% calories from fat.

SPAGHETTI WITH TOMATO SAUCE AND VEGETABLE BURGER MEATBALLS

1 spaghetti squash

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon dried oregano

3 teaspoons dried basil

4 teaspoons Braggs liquid or Tamari sauce

5 tomatoes

Handful alfalfa sprouts

Vegetable Burger Meatballs

1/2 cup chopped green onions

Cut spaghetti squash in half. Scoop out seeds. For thin spaghetti strands, scrape out pulp with fork. For thicker strands, peel off outer shell and put in food processor with shredding blade. Place in serving bowl.

Blend garlic powder, oregano, basil, Braggs, tomatoes and alfalfa sprouts in blender. Spoon over spaghetti squash. Top with Vegetable Burger Meatballs and green onions. Makes 4 servings.

Each serving contains about:

782 calories; 549 mg sodium; 0 mg cholesterol; 55 grams fat; 53 grams carbohydrates; 39 grams protein; 8.54 grams fiber; 63% calories from fat.

Vegetable Burger Meatballs

4 cups carrot pulp left over from juicing

3 cups sunflower seeds, ground

1 cup chopped onion

2 teaspoons soy sauce

5 tablespoons Dr. Bronner’s bouillon

1 cup finely chopped zucchini

2 teaspoons curry powder

3 shallots, finely chopped

Mix carrot pulp and ground sunflower seeds together. Add soy sauce, bouillon, zucchini, curry powder and shallots. Mix and knead well. Form into meatballs approximately 1 inch in diameter. Makes 4 servings.

Note: Braggs and Dr. Bronner’s bouillon are available at health foods stores.

APPLE PIE

1 cup pitted dates

2 cups whole blanched almonds

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 teaspoons water

Apple Pie Filling

To make pie crust, place dates, almonds, vanilla and water in food processor and process until medium chunky consistency. Knead all ingredients together by hand. Form into 9-inch pie plate. Do not bake. Add Apple Pie Filling. Makes 6 servings.

Note: Almonds and dates can be processed in blender.

Each serving contains about:

614 calories; 10 mg sodium; 0 mg cholesterol; 26 grams fat; 97 grams carbohydrates; 12 grams protein; 3.57 grams fiber; 38% calories from fat.

Apple Pie Filling

1 cup dates

1 cup water

6 cups sliced apples

1 cup raisins

1 pear or apple, chopped

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Soak dates in water 3 hours. Remove pits out of dates. Blend dates and soaking-water in blender until thick and creamy.

Layer sliced apples in pie plate over prepared pie crust. Add raisins. Blend chopped pear with date puree and cinnamon. Pour over sliced apples and raisins. Refrigerate several hours before serving.

Drinking this cold, refreshing beverage is a lot like drinking a salad that picks up the tang of lime and the sweetness of apples. For a brighter green color and tangier taste, use Granny Smiths.

ALFALFA SALAD JUICE

1 small lime

3 medium Golden Delicious apples

1 pint carton alfalfa sprouts

4 lettuce leaves

Crushed ice

Peel lime, removing white pith. Cut unpeeled apples in wedges. Process lime in juice machine, then add apples and process. Add alfalfa sprouts and lettuce leaves and process. Pour over crushed ice and stir. Makes about 1 3/4 cups, 2 servings.

Each serving contains about:

128 calories; 4 mg sodium; 0 mg cholesterol; 1 gram fat; 32 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams protein; 6% calories from fat.

This recipe comes from Times photographer Larry Bessel. His juice machine is still fairly new, but he says he already feels better now that he is drinking fresh juice regularly. He’s experimented with a number of fruit and vegetable combinations, but this is his favorite: a pink-hued tomato-radish drink that he pours over crushed ice and sprinkles with salt and pepper. He sometimes modifies the drink by adding carrots and red cabbage.

LARRY BESSEL’S TOMATO JUICE MIX

4 medium tomatoes

2 large stalks celery

2 red radishes

2 to 3 inches green onion (white part only)

Cut up tomatoes and celery in shorter pieces for juice machine. Process both in juice machine, followed by radishes and green onion. Serve over crushed ice. Stir before serving. Makes 24 to 26 ounces, 3 to 4 servings.

Each serving contains about:

41 calories; 39 mg sodium; 0 mg cholesterol; 1 gram fat; 9 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams protein; 13% calories from fat.

These next three recipes come from Jay Kordich’s “The Juiceman’s Power of Juicing” (William Morrow & Co.: $15), which should hit the stores in mid-April or early May.

JICAMA JIG

1 (1-inch) thick slice jicama

4 small carrots

1 apple

1 stalk celery

Slice jicama into strips, if necessary. Trim carrots and cut into 2- to 3-inch pieces. Cut apple into narrow wedges. Cut celery into 2- to 3-inch pieces. Process vegetables and apple wedges in juice machine. Makes 1 to 1 1/2 cups, 1 serving.

Each serving contains about:

45 calories; 45 mg sodium; 0 mg cholesterol; 0 grams fat; 11 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram protein; 4% calories from fat.

DIGESTIVE COCKTAIL

1 orange

1/4 grapefruit

1/4 lemon

Peel orange and grapefruit, leaving on as much white peel as possible. Cut or break fruit into segments. Slice unpeeled lemon. Process fruit in juice machine. Makes 7 to 8 ounces, 1 serving.

Each serving contains about:

93 calories; 3 mg sodium; 0 mg cholesterol; 0 grams fat; 25 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams protein; 3% calories from fat.

KIWI KICK

3 kiwis

1 Valencia orange

1/4 pound green grapes

Cut kiwis into narrow wedges. Peel orange, leaving on as much white pith as possible. Cut or break into segments. Process kiwis, grapes and orange in juice machine. Makes about 1 1/4 cups, 1 serving.

Each serving contains about:

270 calories; 14 mg sodium; 0 mg cholesterol; 2 grams fat; 68 grams carbohydrates; 4 grams protein; 6% calories from fat.

This is one of the first dishes JoJo chef Jean-Georges Vongerichten developed after a carrot-juice epiphany. It’s definitely not raw food, but the recipe--from Vongerichten’s “Simple Cuisine” (Prentice Hall; $29.95)--relies on two cups of raw carrot juice. “The seasoning has the same subtle piquancy of a spiced carrot cake,” he says. You may steam the shrimp instead of sauteing, and, Vongerichten says, the sauce works well with a teaspoon of good-quality curry powder. If the sauce begins to separate, whisk it over a low flame until it comes together again.

SHRIMP IN SPICY CARROT JUICE

10 medium carrots, peeled

32 large shrimp, about 2 pounds

1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/8 teaspoon ground cloves

1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Salt

Cayenne pepper

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

6 tablespoons sweet butter

2 tablespoons chopped chervil

Put carrots through juice extractor to make 2 cups juice. Peel and devein shrimp, leaving tails intact.

In saucepan, combine carrot juice, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and salt and cayenne pepper to taste. Add lemon juice. Whisk in 4 tablespoons butter. Bring to boil and remove from heat. Keep warm.

In large saute pan, melt remaining 2 tablespoons butter over medium-high heat. Add shrimp and saute 1 1/2 minutes per side, until pink. Season to taste with salt and cayenne pepper.

Arrange 8 shrimp in each of 4 soup plates. Pour sauce over shrimp. Garnish with little chopped chervil. Makes 4 servings.