Lately I’ve been exploring the surprising versatility of raw zucchini. When I discovered that it is neutral-tasting and rather creamifying in raw smoothies, I thought it might make a very nice salad dressing. And I was right! You could even use this as you would mayonnaise, in a salad sandwich.

Here is an excellent base or template recipe you can use to make a dressing or dip using fresh zucchini as the base. To this basic recipe, you could add so many variants the possibilities are staggering… fresh tomato and a bit of raw sugar or honey to make a kind of “French” dressing… or ginger and Thai seasonings… or jalapeño, red onion, and tomato for a Mexican flair. You could dress it up with a bit of miso and seaweed for a Japanese flair, or cumin, coriander, and turmeric for a curried effect, or… well, you get the idea.

But just stick with the basics of this simple slightly garlicky recipe.

I took it and paired it with a bit of chopped portabella mushroom and fresh cilantro, creating an earthy, comforting effect not unlike potato salad… just more refreshing, and certainly far more healthful and enlivening!

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Zucchini contributes a respectable bit of protein to this Live Green Smoothie, accounting for its its creamy texture (high-protein foods like goji berries, hemp seeds, and broccoli are well-known for contributing creaminess to smoothies).

In addition, if you peel your Zucchini, it adds no taste to your LGS (and for you weight-conscious folk, hardly any calories!) so the fruit you use to sweeten it (and the greens you pick — in this case, I’ve used parsley) can really shine through.

Zucchini has some decent health benefits as well. And it’s cheap. So… keep some baby zucchinis your fridge and start tossing them into your smoothies now & then!

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I must confess, I haven’t read a single article or watched even the shortest expose about Tiger Woods’s romantic escapades. Gossip about the man’s indiscretions is everywhere — on the covers of gossip rags at the grocery checkout, on the tongues of lips at the holiday party I attended over the weekend, on late-night comic standup routines. People just love to fan the flames of the heat bearing down on him.

I figure, this mass enchantment with one man’s love life comes down to one thing:

Alas, I could hardly get a taste of this yummy smoothie, as the Marginally Raw Twenty-Somethings in my home absconded with the majority of it. I always take that as a very good sign.

Luscious, creamy, and a bit tart… and would do well with the addition of some fresh parsley or spinach to make a Live Green Smoothie! Definitely give this one a try.

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Thinly sliced, crisp slices of pear tossed with succulent, lusciously juicy red papaya… tossed with the exotic nuance of rose water, with a bit of raw sugar for slight crunch… what a great starter course for any meal, and a lovely one for Valentine’s!

Pair with this Pink Pussycat Martini and you’ve got a great beginning to any romantic evening!

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What a lovely way to wake up!

This beautifully sunny glass is full of Vitamin C, whole-food fiber, and the alkalizing, energizing, soothing power of fresh aloe vera gel! Add a bit of rose water (or orange blossom water… your pick), and you’ve got a light, refreshing day-starter with a wee bit of exotic appeal.

And for those of you watching your sugar intake, this smoothie is not as sweet as straight orange juice, so you can drink more without getting a sugar rush.

I’m in love with the color of this one. The smoothie has that lovely froth typical to all fresh-aloe smoothies, but in the cheeriest of sunshine yellows. How can this not make you smile…

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Who said salsas have to have tomato in them? Certainly not me… Papaya makes a great substitute for tomato in a salsa! This fresh, all-raw recipe would make for an interesting change of pace the next time you entertain.

For my part… I ate it all up just as you see, and it made quite a filling dinner as a savory fruit salad with not a thing on the side. The papaya is ridiculously luscious, and the salad just explodes with flavor, even though it is very simple.

For variety and additional color (as if it need more color…), add some fresh cilantro. But simply as-is, it makes for a tasty dish that’s also, happily enough, wonderful for the digestion and the skin.

And so festive!

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What a wonderfully luscious breakfast smoothie! Ridiculously creamy, extremely mild, low in sugar (you might want to add some additional sweet fruit or raw honey if you’re craving some sweet)… and slightly exotic due to the bit of Orange Blossom Water that finishes it off.

What, you say… you still haven’t picked yourself up a bottle of Orange Blossom Water? Get thee to a Greek or Middle Eastern market pronto! Orange Blossom Water and Rose Water are two just wonderful additions to so many raw smoothie and Live Green Smoothie recipes, it’s not even funny.

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You can use this one recipe to make any kind of fruited “soda” out of Kombucha. Use mango, berries, pear, persimmon… anything you can think of, to flavor either your homemade or store-bought kombucha.

You can learn more about Kombucha (a low-sugar sparkling beverage made from sweetened sweet tea) and how to make it here. You can also pick up Kombucha in bottles in the refrigerated section of your local health food store. It comes in all sorts of flavors.

Kombucha makes a great soda-like beverage when blended with fresh fruit, and you can also make tasty raw cocktails if you blend in your favorite alcoholic libation.

Makes a great nightcap even without the alcohol!

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This recipe is very much like Live Green Soda Pop. Only waaaay more refreshing and infinitely more healthifying!

A friend mentioned making “live green Coke” earlier today, and it got me thinking… “Gee, I’ve got this giant vat of homemade Kombucha in my fridge right now. And I haven’t used it for an LGS because…?????”

What is Kombucha?

Kombucha is made from sweetened, fresh-brewed tea that is allowed to ferment into a sparkling health-tonic  beverage. It has a kind of hard-cider or refreshing light wine quality to its flavor, and develops a fine fizzy quality much closer to champagne than to soda.

(It actually tastes mildly vinegary to me, but don’t let that put you off… I actually loathe the taste of vinegar, but there’s just something oddly, magically appealing about Kombucha).

Kombucha is considered detoxifying and immune-enhancing, and has a long history in Asia as being “the elixir of long life”. It’s rich in enzymes, probiotics, and other beneficial nutrients, and has many devoted daily-drinking fans.

It’s also easy to make at home. Here’s a great resource page with instructions, a video, and an audio call with David Wolfe talking about Kombucha (and many other healthy foods and herbs).

Super-Refreshing Soda Substitute…With a Natural Buzz

Owing to its fermented quality, Kombucha has an extremely low alcoholic content, something around 0.05%. But I always get a nice relaxed “chill” when I drink it, which cracks me up because the alcohol in it is negligible, and any buzz one gets is probably homeopathic in effect.

But it’s refreshing, delicious in Live Green Smoothies, and can even be used to make very tasty Raw Cocktails. Certainly, it’s a vast improvement over packaged, sugary sodas. What an improvement to our culture, have relaxed, Kombuchified tonic-drinkers instead of soda drinkers hopped up on sugar and aspartame.

Pass the word on to your friends and family. This is a trend that would be just wonderful to see hit the mainstream. And it’s so economical, as you can make it so easily at home!

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