Kiwi sisters bring a raw revolution
Sharon Stephenson talks to the Raw sisters about eating healthy without being boring.
It’s Friday afternoon and things are chaotic at Margo and Rosa Flanagan’s Christchurch home. The siblings behind the Two Raw Sisters brand have just returned from a whirlwind week in Auckland promoting their new cookbook, and they’re running behind schedule.
They have to prepare for one of their popular plantbased workshops, talk to me, chop and roast a mountain of vegetables for their own dinner, and supervise the army of tradies renovating the house they rent from their parents.
``Luckily, we’ve got all that plant-based energy to keep us going,’’ says 23-year-old Rosa.
They’ll need it. Last month, Rosa and her 21-year-old sister Margo opened a plant-based culinary school in Christchurch, which runs scheduled workshops, as well as corporate and private events.
This month, they published their first cookbook – Two Raw Sisters: Changing perceptions of plant-based food, a 200-page love letter to all things green and leafy.
That’s not bad for two women who, not so long ago, were on completely different trajectories.
Rosa is a middle-distance runner who was eyeing up a spot at the Tokyo Olympics, completing a nutrition degree, and trying to manage an eating disorder (``I was over-training and under-eating’’).
Margo wasn’t quite sure what she wanted to do. ``My school counsellor suggested I go to culinary school, but those places often use too much butter and sugar.’’ She was also suffering from chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS).
When she stumbled across Plant Lab, a raw/plantbased culinary school in Los Angeles, it immediately appealed.
``But my parents weren’t too keen on their 18-yearold daughter going to LA on her own,’’ she says.
The planets aligned when Rosa happened to be training in LA at the same time, so the pair headed there in 2017. Both of them did the two-month course and noticed the positive impact a raw food diet had on their health and wellbeing. But it was a conversation about gut health that really changed their lives.
``We were chatting to a woman there and she asked if we’d ever focused on our gut health,’’ says Rosa.
``We looked at her blankly, and she said the gut is the basis of every process within the body. If you have anything wrong with you, whether a severe illness or you’re stressed and tired, start with the gut.’’
The sisters read as much as they could about the subject and eliminated as many processed foods as possible. Within three months, Margo said her CFS had improved, and Rosa’s health and depression were more under control. The pair had found their calling.
They held their first raw food workshop shortly after arriving home. Although it was well received, they realised ``people don’t have hours to cook a meal with expensive ingredients, which is what a strict raw diet can involve’’.
Instead, they turned their focus to seasonal produce, creating meals in under 30 minutes that suit people with minimal time who still want to eat well and sustainably, while also doing their bit for the planet.
``Our message is that you don’t have to go vegan or vegetarian to be healthy,’’ says Margo. ``We eat a bit of meat because our bodies need it. The key is to eat minimally processed food, as many veges as you can, and listen to your body.’’
The pair were busy spreading their message via workshops, when they got a call from an Auckland publisher.
They spent a year fine-tuning recipes, which are divided into breakfast, snacks, mains, and dessert, and include such offerings as coconut-spiced cauliflower rice; pea, mint and chickpea crepes; and a hazelnut mousse caramel torte you’d swear was packed with sugar and butter.
The sisters say one of Kiwis’ biggest roadblocks is accepting plant-based food can be interesting. ``People say to us, veges are boring,’’ says Margo. ``Of course they are, if all you do with them is stir fry them. So many of us get stuck in our ways, which is when you can lose the will to eat healthily.’’
Oat caramelised banana and honey pancakes
Serves 4 (makes 12 pancakes)
These pancakes are Rosa’s and Martha’s favourite for when we feel like something a little more indulgent. Cooking the banana caramelises the sugars and makes them taste like a banana milkshake from back in the day. They are so simple and literally take two minutes to whizz in the blender.
■ 2 cups oat flour ■ 1 cup nut milk