FEASTING ON RAW FOODS

Raw foods, the subject of several recent cookbooks, certainly do help preserve vitamins and save on energy bills--though considering the amount of blending and processing often involved in current raw-foods recipes, it is hard to call the results ""natural"" or low-tech. This new offering from the publishers of Prevention and Organic Gardening is of the school which never puts in one healthful-sounding ingredient when five or six are available. There are a lot of chilled loaves based on cottage cheese or vegetable-nut mixtures; fruit pies in a crust based on ground nuts, peanut butter, and honey; blended shakes; and ideas like sprout ""sandwiches"" between slices of cheese. There is also a sampling of meat and fish dishes (e.g., fresh tuna with crushed peppercorns, or a ""beef parchment"" somewhat like carpaccio). Most of the food is tailor-made for the palate of the present health-food contingent; other cooks in sympathy with the idea may be put off by the gunky dressings, indiscriminate combinations of ingredients, and constant over-sweetening of foods that cry out to be enjoyed on their own merits.