Raw Energy in a Glass: 126 Nutrition-Packed Smoothies, Green Drinks, and Other Satisfying Raw Beverages to Boost Your Well-Being

Here is a small but mighty trade paperback that will be a welcome addition to many cookbook collections. Raw Energy in a Glass is specialized, and conventional cooks are not likely to benefit from it. Author Stephanie Tourles insists on organic, unprocessed, raw and vegan ingredients for all of her large number of blended recipes. No doubt such starting material will benefit your health provided you can find those ingredients, and can afford the substantial extra costs. Tourles devotes over a hundred pages to basics, including the difference between juicing and blending, the five categories of food from homegrown to processed commercial. Then she lists individual ingredients, giving plenty of detail separately for fruits, vegetables, nuts/seeds, herbs/spices, oils, sweeteners, plus equipment. You must have a well-stocked health food store available to find many of these, some of which conventional cooks may not have heard of (astragalus, fo-ti, chlorella algae powder, maca root powder). The recipes are very good and mostly easy to make but for many you must plan ahead, e.g. soaking almond overnight or finding a super-ripe mango. Each recipe gives a ”A Good Source of…” sidebar. The many sidebars are useful, illustrations are nice, and so is the cross-referenced index.