Filling raw salad

by Andrew Gubb
(Barcelona, Spain)

It's something of a coincidence because we didn't know each other at the time, but me and Christian, my friend, ex-colleague at Dhamma restaurant, and current partner in writing recipes at the spiritualvegan, have both been raw fooders in the past. For those of you who aren't acquainted with the raw food diet, it's basically the healthiest thing around – not so much by the estimate of stuffy textbook-loving doctors as by what hundreds of thousands of happy adherents to the diet have to say. This is why, though we're not ready to be 100% raw fooders at this point in time, we both try to eat as much raw stuff as possible.

The raw diet has a few problems, one of which is that you need to eat masses of food to get enough calories; too much fatty food like nuts and avocado is not optimum, which basically leaves fruit – and another of which is that all that fruit costs a lot. That's basically the reason me and Christian are not raw fooders right now. We're broke.

I eventually managed to find one solution to that, though: SPROUTED WHEAT.

If you're interested to know why we can't eat raw grains, it's this: grains have special anti-enzymes in them that make them indigestible. Cooking destroys these agents. The good news for raw fooders, though, is that sprouting has the same effect, and also causes masses of nutrients to be released, making sprouts one of the most healthful foods for anyone. You can really notice it – a few sprouts with a meal picks you up and makes you feel a lot less weighed down by your digestion.

Of all the grains, wheat is the best sprouter. Soak it for a night, drain and rinse the grains, place them in a sieve, and wash once a day to keep them damp. Within 1-3 days, you'll have beautiful edible living sprouts. You know they're good when the roots are about a centimetre long.

So this recipe is meant to be a easy and filling way of getting a delicious raw meal. Also, as you can get wheat for about 50 Euro cents a kilo in wholesalers, home-sprouted wheat is calorie-for-calorie one of the cheapest foods around. Students, please don't eat ramen all the time. Your body deserves better.

TO MAKE 1 SERVING AS A MEAL OR 2 AS A SIDE DISH

2 generous fistfuls of sprouted wheat

1 tomato

½ an avocado

About an eighth of a lettuce – do this by eye

Tahini, salt, oregano and olive oil to garnish


The wheat sprouts are quite small, so to prevent them falling to the bottom and getting lost chop the lettuce, avocado and tomato quite fine: check the photo for inspiration. Mix it all up and garnish to taste with whatever you feel like.

This is the most basic recipe but limitless variations exist. Garlic, onion, black olives, celery, carrots, cabbage... work it out for yourself :)