A Raw Curry Soup Disaster

By: Matt Frazier

I love the idea of eating raw, and the increased energy that comes along with it. And I do eat a lot of raw food, in the form of raw smoothies, salads, and fruits— my guess is that about a third to one-half of my calories come from raw sources. But I haven’t really had much success in incorporating raw lunches and dinners into my diet. Part of the problem is that I love cooking, but I think the bigger issue is that given a choice between a hot, comforting dinner and a room-temperature or cold one, I’ll take the hot one every time. They’re always healthy and vegetarian, but not often raw.

Anyway, as part of my hangover-induced burst of inspiration last weekend, I picked up some raw food books from the library. And since Erin is away this weekend, I was saddled with the meal-planning duties and grocery shopping. So I chose a few raw-food dinners to try this week, the first of which I screwed up made tonight.

The recipe was for curried soup, from the book RAWvolution. (And it had a beautiful orange color that’s unfortunately obscured by foam in the photo.) I made a few adjustments, including using regular soy sauce since I didn’t have raw. Here’s the version I made:

Raw Curry Soup

Ingredients (for 2 large servings):

2 15-oz cans coconut milk (lite, optionally)

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4 cup soy sauce

1 Tbsp Tandoori curry powder

2-inch piece of ginger, peeled

3 cloves of garlic, peeled

salt to taste

For garnish:

6 cherry tomatoes, sliced

6 shiitake mushrooms, sliced

2 Tbsp chopped fresh mint

Combine all the non-garnish ingredients except coconut milk in a blender and blend on high until well-combined. Add coconut milk, blend again. Pour into bowls, scoop off foam with a ladel, and garnish.

Well, that’s almost the version I made. This soup smelled so good that I couldn’t resist dipping my finger in to taste it while it was in the blender. When I did, I was shocked at how sweet it was, and my first thought was “Does coconut milk have sugar in it?” Immediately I knew what went wrong. I checked out the ingredients on the can of Goya Cream of Coconut that I had just bought at the store to use in the soup, and realized that this was not simply a matter of those crazy foreigners mistranslating “coconut milk” as “cream of coconut.” No no, it was more a matter of me inadvertently adding 240 grams of sugar to my curried soup! I think cream of coconut is the stuff they put in pina coladas. Mierda!

I choked down a bowl of this stuff, trying to cover up the sweetness with loads of salt. It didn’t work (of course), and here I sit with a nice stomach ache by which to remember my rawful dinner for one. At least Erin wasn’t here to eat it.

It’s a damn shame, because I think it would have been delicious, and a great example of a comforting, satisfying raw dinner. Maybe I’ll try it again later this week, without the cup and a half of sugar.