Easy and elegant no-bake appetizers (that are also very healthy)

The World Health Organization recommends eating five raw foods a day. Incorporating them into menus is easy, since they are the basis of many original, tasty and nutritious recipes. In this article we propose easy appetizers to include in your menus that are eaten raw and are delicious.

Why have easy raw snacks

Cooking destroys vitamins (vitamin C, provitamin A, folic acid…) and important ferments digestive present in raw foods; evaporates trace elements like iodine, essential for many organic functions, among which the development of the fetus and the growth of the child stand out; and according Bircher-Bennerfollowing the work of the Nobel laureate Dr. Erwin Schrödingeralters the “ordinal quality” or “vitality of food”.

Raw vegetables, including seaweed, are at the bottom of the food pyramid., are the producers, the transformers of solar energy into necessary nutrients for our organism; and in them that energy is maintained with the maximum possible order (ordinal quality), which reaches our interior transmitting that same message of vitality, balance and healing.

For all these reasons naturopaths recommend raw diets to cleanse and regenerate the body, and they also advise that more than half of the usual diet (ideally two thirds) is made up of raw food: fresh fruits and nuts, vegetable salads, sprouted foods (such as seeds, cereals and legumes) and natural fruit and vegetable juices.

Discover in this video the benefits of including seasonal fruits and vegetables in your diet on a daily basis:

Easy no-cook appetizer recipes

Easy Appetizer: Bread Bathed with Mediterranean Salad

Ingredients for 4 people):

For the quince aioli:

1 small quince roasted in the oven 1 small apple, peeled and seeded 2 cloves of garlic 1 egg 100 ml of virgin olive oil vinegar and salt

Preparation (35′):

Cut the upper part of the bread, as if it were a lid, and empty the crumb, trying to make it whole so that it can be cut into cubes. She lightly toasts these cubes in the oven. On the other hand, roast the quince and remove the skin and seeds. Blend in a blender with the oil, garlic, apple, salt, egg and a slice of bread dipped in vinegar. It should be like a mayonnaise. Store in the fridge. Cut the cheese into cubes or into small triangles. Wash the tomatoes and, if they are a bit large, cut them in half. Also wash the zucchini and cut them into thick slices. Reserve the flowers. Mix all the salad ingredients, adding the olives and onions, and dress with salt, fresh thyme and a little oil. Spread the inside of the bread with a little aioli sauce or with a little oil and fill with the salad. Garnish with thyme and zucchini flowers, and serve with the quince.

Variants:

Instead of zucchini flowers you can use fresh rosemary or rose petals. The salad can also include peppers or celery. Individual small rolls can be chosen.

Nutritional information:

Proteins: 11 g Carbohydrates: 25 g Fats: 47 g Cholesterol: 96 mg Calories: 572.

Easy Appetizer: Seasonal Vegetable Gargouillou

Ingredients for 4 people):

Preparation (30′):

Before you start handling the vegetables, prepare the dressing. Lightly toast the wakame seaweed in a pan over high heat and without oil for a few seconds, taking care not to burn it. Once the seaweed has been removed, toast the pumpkin seeds, in the same way and without stopping stirring until they swell a little. When the seaweed cools down, grind it in a coffee grinder and place it in a bowl. Also crush the seeds, once cold, and mix with the seaweed. Next, prepare another dressing by crushing the clean basil leaves with a little salt and olive oil. Wash the escarole and the rest of the vegetables and peel those that require it. , such as carrots and onions. To start, cut the spring onion into slices, obliquely. Finely julienne the celery, reserving its most tender leaves whole. Cut the carrot into long strips, which can be rolled up in an attractive way. The peppers, julienned. The radishes, thinly sliced. Chop the escarole, discarding the thickest parts. Mix all the vegetables with the broad beans, broccoli and baby spinach, or arrange them decoratively on a flat plate, and dress with the seasoning for pipes and seaweed and the basil oil.

Nutritional information:

Protein: 9 gCarbohydrates: 18 gFat: 12 gCholesterol: 0 mgCalories: 214

Easy Appetizer: Tartar of Tomatoes with Garlic and Mushrooms

Ingredients for 4 people):

500 g of fleshy red tomatoes 8 pickled gherkins 2 medium leeks (200 g) 400 g of fresh oregano mushrooms 2 garlic cloves 1 tablespoon of sugar half a lemon (its juice) 100 ml of soy sauce 40 ml of olive oil salt, pepper

Preparation (20′):

Finely chop the gherkins and place them in a deep dish, covered with a little olive oil. Crush the garlic in a mortar and mix with oil, as if it were a mayonnaise. Emulsify the mixture without making it mount. Peel the tomatoes with a fine knife or by blanching them lightly in boiling water. Cut into cubes, season with salt and pepper and place on a drainer so that they lose all the natural liquid (you can recover this liquid to dress pasta or salads). Once drained, mix with the gherkin, add the fresh oregano and the garlic emulsion. Wash the leeks and mushrooms carefully to remove any traces of earth. Discard the green part of the leeks and cut the white part into very thin slices, or if you prefer, into very small squares. Once cleaned, separate the mushrooms from the earthy stem and cut them into slices. Mix with the leek, season with salt, sugar, lemon juice, a little soy sauce and olive oil. Serve the tartare on a plate with the help of a ring that serves as a mold. Top with the sweet and sour mushrooms and garnish with fresh oregano. Finally, bathe with the garlic emulsion.

Nutritional information:

Proteins: 7 gCarbohydrates: 14 gFats: 11 gCholesterol: 0 mgCalories: 179.

Easy Appetizer: Beet Sashimi

Ingredients for 4 people):

2 beets 1 lettuce 100 ml soy sauce 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger 1 garlic clove 200 g tofu 4 spring garlic 100 g alfalfa sprouts 1 tablespoon tahini 20 g lightly toasted sesame seeds 1 tablespoon mild mustard 50 ml olive oil

Preparation (15′ + 1h rest): Variant:

Blanch the beets, peel and cut into cubes. Cover with soy sauce, minced garlic and ginger and marinate for at least an hour in the fridge. Cut the tofu into cubes and marinate in the same mixture for about 20 minutes. Drain and recover the liquid. Wash the lettuce. Separate its large leaves and spread them whole on a flat surface. Spread with tahini (sesame butter), roll in on themselves and wrap in plastic wrap. Reserve in the fridge.Next, wash the spring garlic and cut into diagonal slices.Emulsify the maceration sauce with olive oil and mild mustard.Combine the beetroot and tofu cubes. Finely cut the lettuce roll and accompany with germinated alfalfa, sesame, soy sauce and oil.

Nutritional information:

Proteins: 13 gCarbohydrates: 20 gFats: 20 gCholesterol: 0 mgCalories: 310.

Easy appetizer: Fruit salad with melon cream

Ingredients for 4 people):

1 small cantaloupe melon 1 golden apple 1 red apple 1 kiwi 1 pomegranate 4 dried plums 20 g of pitted raisins 4 apricot dried apricots 8 walnuts 2 tangerines 1 natural yogurt 60 ml of muscatel 1 tablespoon of honey

Preparation (20′):

Cut the plums and dried apricots into strips and mix in a bowl with the raisins and walnuts, peeled and cut into four pieces. Sprinkle everything with a splash of muscatel and set aside. Add the pomegranate berries to the bowl. Peel the melon and cut half into cubes. Crush the other half mixed with a tablespoon of honey and natural yogurt. Cut the apples cut into quarters without peeling. Peel the kiwi and cut it into cubes. Peel and slice the tangerines. Mix all the fruits with the preparation in the bowl, distribute in wide glasses or in transparent bowls and cover with the melon cream. You can decorate the salpicón with fresh mint.

Nutritional information:

Proteins: 4 gCarbohydrates: 25 gFats: 9 gCholesterol: 0 mgCalories: 203.

The most natural diet: food in its purest form

Raw, crunchy and very fresh, is there a more natural and healthy way to eat?

Raw foods keep their nutritional value intact and they are an indispensable source of minerals and vitamins that the body needs to regulate its functions, obtain vitality and enjoy an optimal state of health.

With the current lifestyle, marked by stress, fast food and highly manipulated foods, it is not easy keep our body in shape. That’s why it’s essential to incorporate raw foods to the diet

Nature provides us with foods loaded with vitamins, minerals and natural enzymes that promote digestion. By subjecting them to a cooking processand especially if it is at temperatures above 54 ºC and for a long time, many times these enzymes and most water-soluble vitamins are lost.

Minerals can be preserved if little water is used or if cooking is steamedlike most fat-soluble vitamins, more sensitive to oxidation.

Cooking makes animal proteins more digestible, but when it exceeds 85 ºC or is too long it can also make essential amino acids disappear. In addition, animal fats do not deteriorate raw, which is important in the case of fish.

It is also true, however, that without being transformed by fire certain foods cannot be digested nor can its nutrients be synthesized. This is the case of legumes and some tubers.

But you have to keep in mind that raw foods are the most active enzymes responsible for the body digesting and those that provide a rich and effective intestinal flora.

It seems indisputable that the primordial diet of the human being consisted of raw foods.specifically vegetables, since fire, hunting tools and kitchen utensils were not yet part of man’s life.

That man was originally raw food would explain the phenomenon of “digestive leukocytosis” when cooked food is consumed. The increase in white blood cells in the digestive mucosa for a couple of hours it would be, then, a defensive response of the organism.

Raw foods retain all their aroma and flavor, increase vital energy because they keep their own intact, eliminate bacteria that cause putrefactionregenerate the flora and enzymatic activity, do not irritate the mucous membranes internal, they are purifying and do not cause heavy digestions. The advantages are many.

You don’t have to be a “raw foodie” to enjoy all the goodness of raw food.

Enough with Regularly include foods not subjected to high temperatures in the diet to provide the body with doses of regulatory nutrients, antioxidants and enzymes you need for your correct…