Healthy Meal Plans: The Raw Circus Delivers Organic Raw Vegan Meals To Your Door (in Reusable Containers)
6 Mins Read
Hong Kong’s healthy dining scene just got another bountiful boost of gourmet green goodness. Driven by a rapidly growing group of health conscious eaters looking for conveniently catered wholesome and balanced meals, The Raw Circus is the newest meal delivery service to hit the scene. An entirely unique proposition: the Raw Circus is a 100% plant-based raw and vegan meal service. Founder duo Daniele,a certified Raw Food Chef, and staunch raw movement advocate Jenny focus on flavour and clean foods to energise and rejuvenate, and their menu is packed with delicious and drool-worthy ingredients and pairings to prove raw vegan isn’t just cold carrot sticks and tiny nuts and seeds.
What is the Raw Vegan Diet?
A plant-based belief that eating foods in its natural state will retain their maximum nutrients and living enzymes for proper nutrition, a raw vegan diet entails that nothing be heated or cooked above 40 degrees Celsius (115 degrees Fahrenheit). Foods are eaten fresh, dehydrated with low heat and fermented to reap the benefits to consuming living plants. Benefits touted by proponents include improved overall health and digestion, clear skin, increased energy, or weight loss. Many proponents of raw foodists, including celebrities like Madonna, Scarlet Johansson, Sting, and Demi Moore, have touted this trend has made them healthier and given them more vitality.
Read about Green Queen’s raw vegan private dining experience here.
With a full range of gluten- and lactose- free breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, cold-press juices and infused waters, the boutique vegan delivery service offers three different meal plans in a 3-day, 5-day, or 7-day format. Ingredients are sourced almost entirely organically and Raw Circus uses only the highest grade oils (think organic cold-press extra virgin olive oil, coconut and avocado oil). Packaged in 100% plant-based fully compostable disposable food containers delivered straight to your door each morning, no eco-friendly details are spared in the process. Another big bonus? The Raw Circus also offers a #ZeroWaste delivery option, upon request! For HKD50 per day – which is a refundable deposit – they’ll deliver your meals in reusable containers. At the end of your plan, the company will pick up the containers for HKD150. As concerns about the environment and sustainability continue to build momentum around the world, understanding the connection between actively reducing your waste (i.e, reusable containers) and creating a circular economy (i.e., having Raw Circus pick up said reusable containers for the next use) has never been more important.
Tried & Tested: Green Queen’s Raw Circus Experience
We sunk our teeth into the Raw Circus’s 3-Day Raw Gourmet Plan. Every morning, we got a delivery containing breakfast, a mid morning snack, lunch, mid afternoon juice and dinner with dessert. The first to know is you get plenty of food and it’s very filling. A lot of people may misconstrue raw food as being just a load of salads but it’s actually a very dense form of cooking. Most days we could not finish everything and were very full by dinner time. Secondly, if you love green juices, you are in luck! You get two juices every day, one for breakfast and one as an afternoon snack- the juices were quite unique too for example The Tiger with Red Cabbage, Carrot, Lemon, Ginger & Almonds.
If you have a sweet tooth, breakfast and evening dessert will more than satisfy you with dishes like Pumpkin Pie Chia Pudding and breakfast like Almond Walnut Chocolate Doughnut with Ganache Frosting (so so yum but so rich we had to save some for later in the day!) Thanks to our savoury tooth, we loved the morning snacks like the Cheeze Kale Chips and the Smoky Jerky Sticks. The Raw Circus definitely busts the myth that raw vegan food is boring: dishes were creative, full of flavor and non-repetitive- our favorites: Spinach Mushroom & Pepper Lasagna with Marinara Sauce and Rainbow Vushi with Tamari & Spicy Mustard.
Overall, it was a delicious three days and ideal for anyone looking to 1) add more veggies to their life 2) explore the variety of vegan food, 3) embark on a healthier eating plan.Raw vegan food is time-consuming to prepare at home: it involves a great deal of chopping, prepping, blending, dehydrating, juicing…If you hate veggies, you may struggle but if you love plant-based eating and are looking for a convenient meal plan solution, the Raw Circus is worth it (prices start at HKD 360 per day). Our biggest issue with delivery food is the packaging and while Raw Circus works hard to offer recyclable paper and compostable plasticcontainers and bags, it’s still a LOT of packaging. Definitely go for their reusable container option.
Below, we give you the lowdown of each Raw Circus program:
Raw Gourmet Vegan Meal Plan
For those keen to jump in on the full raw food experience, the Raw Gourmet Plan (the one we tested) is the way to go. Complete with three full meals, snacks, cold-press juices, infused water, and raw specialities like cashew cream cheeses and mouthwatering desserts, The Raw Circus offers some amazing raw vegan dishes that even a hardcore carnivore would enjoy! Pricing plans begin at HKD 470 a day.
Sample Menu: Blueberry banana granola with coconut yogurt with cucumber, kale, apple and lime cold-press juice for breakfast; Mixed herb cashew cream cheese with sun-dried tomato crackers for late morning snack; Young coconut soup with marinated bok choi and mushrooms appetizer with squashetti with hemp avocado sauce and arugula for lunch; Carrot, beetroot, lime, ginger and almond cold-press juice for afternoon snack; Beet and spinach cannelloni with fennel seeds for dinner with an app pie with cinnamon vanilla whipped cream for dessert.
Detox/Weight Control Raw Vegan Meal Plan
For folks looking to hit the health reset button can find solace in the Detox/Weight Control Plan. Quite possibly the first of its kind in Hong Kong, this program is a vegan AND ketogenic (!) meal plan meant to kickstart energy levels and detoxify the body. All snacks and juices are low in GI to stimulate your metabolism while plenty of sprouts are featured in the plan to keep you fuller longer. Lots of greens are mixed in to cold-pressed juices for maximum nutrient variation. Pricing plans begin at HKD 399 a day.
Sample Menu: Cucumber, celery, spinach and lemon cold-press juice with lemongrass green tea and coconut butter for breakfast; Detox juice with grapefruit and ginger infused water and mixed sprouts with spiced and herbal dressing for late morning snack; Savory coconut oil with tomato cashew ricotta and marinated onion pizza for lunch; basil and lime infused water and sprouts for afternoon snack; Celery, broccoli and kale cold-press juice for dinner.
Stay Fit Raw Vegan Meal Plan
For conscious eaters who have a grasp on healthy eating but want to incorporate the benefits of raw foods, the Stay Fit Plan might be ideal. Three meals are delivered with infused waters each day, leaving snacks and drinks at your discretion. Pricing plans begin at HKD 360 a day.
Sample Menu: Raspberry chia pudding with orange bits for breakfast; Cucumber and mint infused water for late morning snack; Corn mango salad with avocado and chipotle dressing appetizer with zucchini corn cakes with coriander dip for lunch; infused water for afternoon snack; Kelp and veggie noodles in a coconut butter curry sauce for dinner.
To sign up for a meal subscription from The Raw Circus, click here; Call +852 5265 1381 or email hi@therawcircus.com for more information. USE PROMO CODE GREENQUEEN10 for 10% off your order!
For more raw vegan resources in Hong Kong, click here.
All images courtesy of The Raw Circus