Ramses Bravo - Bravo Express!

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request. Front cover: Coconut Bites, Back cover: Pan-Roasted Zucchini and Carrot Balls,

We chose to print this title on responsibly harvested paper stock certified by the Forest Stewardship Council, an independent auditor of responsible forestry practices. For more information, visit us.fsc.org.

2019 Ramses Bravo All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced by any means whatsoever, except for brief quotations in reviews, without written permission from the publisher. Food photography: Ramses Bravo Cover photo: Alan Roettinger Stock photography: 123 RF Cover and interior design: John Wincek Printed in Canada Book Publishing Company PO Box 99 Summertown, TN 38483 888-260-8458 bookpubco.com ISBN: 978-1-57067-362-7 24 23 22 21 20 191 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Disclaimer: The information in this book is presented for educational purposes only.

It isnt intended to be a substitute for the medical advice of a physician, dietitian, or other health-care professional. Nutritional Analyses: The nutrient values provided for the recipes in this book are estimates only, calculated from the individual ingredients used in each recipe based on the nutritional data found for those ingredients. Optional items are not included. Nutrient content may vary based on methods of preparation, origin, and freshness of ingredients, product brands, and other factors. CONTENTS To my past, present, and perhaps future children.
And to Mother Earth as well! Welcome to
BRAVO EXPRESS! The concept behind this cookbook is very simple: healthy, delicious food made possible by using only a few ingredients and a few steps. Thats it.

Who are these recipes ideal for? If you like simple-to-follow recipes, dont want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen, love delicious meals, want ideas for quickly transforming leftovers into great dishes, need a yummy dish to take to a party that no one would single out as healthy, or just enjoy good food, then this is the cookbook for you. If you suffer from diabetes or high blood pressure, have a heart condition, are struggling with your weight, or simply want to improve your quality of life, then this is the book for you as well. May these recipes bring you joy and health!

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS A big thanks to Bob and Cynthia Holzapfel at Book Publishing Company for giving me the opportunity to make this book a reality and to Jo Stepaniak for being my editor a second time. I want to express my gratitude to the many people at TrueNorth who have helped me in my journey. Thank you to my boss, Dr. Alan Goldhamer, for employing and putting up with me for as long as he has.

To the amazing Dr. Csilla Veress, Im so grateful for your contribution of the High-Immunity Broth for this book. You are a wonderful woman. To my staff, in particular my sous chef Mauricio, thank you so much for working so hard and taking care of all the little things that allowed me the time to sit down and write. To all the patients who inspired me to come up with this project, thank you so much. I hope this book is useful to you.

Last but not least, thank you to my family and close friends, who are always rooting for me. My Story I never grew up wanting to be a vegan chef. Hell, I didnt even know what vegan meant until I was in high school. At that age, I didnt understand why anyone wouldnt want to enjoy the flavor of perfectly crisp bacon or garlic-buttered shrimp. Growing up in my grandmothers kitchen and indulging in these and similar fine flavors is why I grew up wanting to be a chefa real chef. My mind was made up from an early age.

In the fall of 1996, I headed to San Francisco to complete two years of cooking school. Right after that, I moved to the East Coast to do a chefs training program for four years. Essentially, if it moved, I learned how to cut it, cook it, and eat it. This process always involved plenty of salt, oil, butter, cream, and cheese. I had a great time, and I was doing what I loved. After completing my training, I returned to California and became the chef for a high-end hotel for four years.

Pizza, veal, lobster, fancy cheeses, and certainly lots of wine flowed freely. I put on ten pounds per year, and at the end of my stay there, I was tipping the scale at over two hundred pounds. Thats when the universe began to rattle me. After the hotel was sold, I decided to move on and start my own catering business. During a class to get my certification in safe food handling, I got a phone call from one of my mothers friends who told me about a guy who was looking for a chef to run his vegan kitchen. Up to that point, dealing with any vegan customers meant serving them a plate of rice with steamed vegetables on top and hoping theyd never come back.

But as I wanted to have a successful business, and I figured vegan might be something some of my clients might ask for, I thought, Im certainly not going vegan, but I could further my education. I took the bait, and I set up a time to meet my future boss. He was so enthusiastic, so passionate and dedicated, and he truly believed that a vegan diet would be good for anyone. I thought, What a nutcase! Why would anyone want to eat vegan the rest of their life? To top it off, he told me that not only was the cuisine vegan, but I also couldnt use sugar. I was slightly shocked, but Ive never been a big fan of candy. To be courteous, I agreed to meet him once more.

In our next meeting, we started talking numbers, staff, equipment, and whatnot. He also mentioned that I couldnt use oil, either. What? No oil? At this point I felt like I was in a Bugs Bunny cartoon. Out of sheer curiosity and amusement, I agreed to meet him one more time just to see how wacky this whole thing could be. During our last meeting, we went over more details about the job and the potential growth of the business. It was then that he dropped the roof on me.

By the way, he said, you cant use salt, either. What ran through my mind sounded something like this: No salt? No salt? No salt? Did this guy seriously just say no salt? Doesnt he know that the first and most important aspect of cooking is to season food properly? Did he really just say no salt? This guy is definitely cuckoo. Maybe hes also about to tell me that Ill be cooking blindfolded or that Ill be cooking with one hand tied behind my back. But my boss is a very smart guy. His thought process probably sounded something like this: This guy seems like a capable enough chef. I want to hire him, but I dont want to scare him off too quickly.

I wont drop the bomb on him all at once. Ill just feed it to him bit by bit. Otherwise, hes going to think that he has to cook blindfolded or with one hand tied behind his back. Whatever his thought process was, he was a fish out of water. No way was I going to take a vegan job, and most certainly not a salt-free, oil-free, and sugar-free vegan job. Under normal circumstances, I would have told him, Thanks for the offer.

Im going to think about it, and maybe Ill get back to you. But this crazy vegan guy had two things going for him, and he didnt even know about them. One, Im a sucker for start-up projects. He was moving his business into a newer and bigger facility, and I would be opening the kitchen from the ground up. Two, I was scared that I might not generate enough income with my catering business to support my family, so a steady paycheck with a bump in pay compared to my previous job was certainly enticing. But the man had just said, No salt.

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