Find out how raw food – that’s right, raw! – can have magical properties.

At this year’s Living Green Festival at Canberra’s Albert Hall, Karen and Stella from Organic Energy demonstrated raw cuisine recipes. Simple and utterly filled with nutrients, ‘raw eating’ can involve a simple snack, a delicious dinner, or delightful dessert.

Among the recipes demonstrated included a garden soup, a Fettuccine Alfredo, and a berry fruit flan.

“I’ve been a severe asthmatic all my life and somebody mentioned that diet could help,” said Karen Medbury, founder of Organic Energy. “At age twenty-five, I had no idea that what you ate had anything to do with how you felt.”

“It was a really scary thing at first. Then one day I just finally made a chocolate raw ball, and it was so lovely that that was the thing that got me started with it.”

Since then, Karen has become the first person to make certified organic fruit and vegetables accessible to Canberrans. The shop in Griffith also offers cooking demonstrations and has recently incorporated a ‘raw cuisine’ aspect to their shop.

Karen and Stella stress that having at least 50% raw organic food on your plate is vital to capturing the full benefits.

“When you eat 50-80% living on your one plate, and 20-50% cooked, you switch on your anti-ageing genes.”

But what else do Organic Energy recommend? The answer might surprise you.

“We have a bit of a different take on salt. We use Himalayan crystal salt!” said Karen. “Table salt only has one mineral while the earth’s salts contain at least 84. We need salt but we don’t need sodium chloride.” Stella explained. “People often have low iodine in Australia.

“If you eat Himalayan salt or pink salt, you will have the full quota of minerals in there, including iodine.”

Salty or sweet, raw cooking is easy. Check out this delicious raw vegan recipe for Berry Fruit Flan over on our Recipes page here.