vegan seder

[Guest guest]

A Vegan, Organic, Uncooked Seder

 

The Bergen (N.J.) Record

 

Passover, one of the most continually celebrated

festivals known to mankind, takes on many guises

in our multicultural society. On Monday evening,

Jews and many non-Jews all over the world will

sit down to the Seder table.

 

They will all relate the same story: the Exodus

of the Jews from Egypt to the promised land. But

each gathering will have its own props and its

own menu in keeping with Passover prohibitions

and varying lifestyles.

 

In an almost biblical setting in the

cactus-filled Sonora Valley of southern Arizona,

Dr. Gabriel Cousens, director of the Tree of Life

Rejuvenation Center in Patagonia and author of

" Spiritual Nutrition and the Rainbow Diet, " lives

with his wife Shanti. Both are vegans and

to a diet of strictly organic raw

foods, high in minerals and fiber, low in sugar.

 

The non-denominational center acts as a respite

for some and a health-food and spiritual

consciousness-raising facility for others. The

meals, which contain neither eggs nor milk, are

surprisingly tasty and include vegetables

straight from their own organic garden. The cooks

rely on a powerful blender and a dehydrator

instead of a stove.

 

The Cousenses, who are Jewish, conduct a communal

Seder for neighbors and those staying at the

center in casitas that can house up to 18 guests.

Raw-food chefs and apprentices have no problem

making haroset with seven different fruits,

including coconuts, apples, walnuts, almonds,

raisins, prunes, and pears. (The fruit- and-nut

paste symbolizes the mortar with which the Jewish

slaves in Egypt built buildings.)

 

But the cooks must be ingenious with the rest of

the meals they prepare in this age where food has

to appeal to the eye as well as the stomach. The

Seder plate, with symbolic foods representing the

Passover story, will include a round stone

instead of the roasted egg to symbolize renewal

in the spring and eternal life. A beet will

replace the roasted shank bone to symbolize the

paschal lamb.

 

The Cousenses' grape juice Passover will be made

from fresh grapes or raisins, as is traditionally

done in many parts of the world. And because they

never eat flour, their matzo is blended from

soaked flax seeds and carrots and then

dehydrated. " Milk " comes from soaked almonds, a

drink that Jews from countries like Syria and

Iraq use to break the fast of Yom Kippur, a

tradition that got its start more than 2,000

years ago.

 

Recently I ate several delicious meals with other

guests who raved about the food. The Sabbath

braided challah was made of almond flour, flax

seeds, coconut water, and three grains of

buckwheat in order to conform to the tradition of

baking challah, which must contain some kind of

wheat grain.

 

The " pasta " was prepared from raw julienned

butternut squash topped with a sun-dried tomato

marinara sauce and " cheese " made from almonds.

 

Now 61, Cousens, who took his medical training at

Columbia University, feels closest to the

biblical Essenes, who conformed to the most rigid

rules of Levitical purity while aspiring to the

highest degrees of holiness. He came to

" conscious eating " from his journey to

spirituality: from the Bible, as well as stints

with Muktananda, an Indian guru. His wife,

Shanti, lived in India for many years and leads

yoga at the center. She is the innovator of many

of the raw-food recipes.

 

" We see live foods as a connection with nature.

This is not just a Jewish thing, " Cousens said,

as he sipped herb juice on a sunny terrace

outside his cooking center. " We see ourselves as

a community holding the light of well-being as a

model of how people can live their lives. "

 

When I told Cousens how impressed I was with the

aesthetic approach to what could seem an ascetic

cuisine, he smiled and said that he prefers an

even simpler diet.

 

As we held hands in prayer for the food we would

eat, he said, " For me vegetarianism is the best

diet for a spiritual life. "

 

© 2004 The Record, Bergen County, NJ. via

ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All

Rights Reserved

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Thank you for sharing that. I am actually reading " Conscious Eating " right now,

and am doing a more raw diet than before. I'd like to do 80-90 percent everyday

and sometimes I do succeed at that. Thanks, Jennifer