Pineapple and coconut cheezecake

I've been eating a lot more sweet things since coming back from Thailand, but most of my raw desserts tend to be quite chocolate heavy! As much as I LOVE chocolate I wanted to try to create something a bit different, with more of an exotic fruit vibe, so I invented this cheezecake- raw and vegan but I swear it's MUCH nicer than any dairy based, sugar-laden dessert. This made a really big cheezecake, it filled a 10 inch flan dish. You could double the amount of crust if you wanted a deeper base, but I wanted a deep filling with less crust. It turned out perfectly first time, much to my surprise, so I will make it exactly the same way next time!

Ingredients:

For the filling
3/4 of a ripe pineapple, cut into chunks
1 cup cashews, soaked about 4 hours
I pack pure creamed coconut (the hard block kind that's just coconut, no additives)
1 tablespoon coconut sugar
1 vanilla bean
1 1/2 tablespoons coconut oil

For the crust
1 cup walnuts (soaked overnight- about 8 hours)
1/2 cup dates

Topping
4 fresh passionfruits

Method:

1) Put the walnuts and dates in the food processor until it all comes together, almost into a ball. Press this down in a flan or pie dish, so it forms the crust, along the bottom and up the sides of the dish. Put it in the fridge to chill.

2) Mix the coconut with about 200 ml of warm water until it gets to a thick cream consistency. Then put it in the food processor with the pineapple, cashews, coconut sugar, scraped out vanilla seeds and coconut oil. N.B. Add the coconut sugar a bit at a time and taste as you go... you may want to add less or more than I did, dependent on how sweet your pineapple is and how much of a sweet tooth you have. Process it all until you get a smooth cream.

3) Pour the pineapple coconut cream on top of the base in the flan dish and smooth down the top. Put it in the fridge and leave it to chill and set for an hour.

4) Drizzle the passionfruit all over the top.

5) Slice, eat, enjoy! 

Courgette Hummus

Hello! I haven't written this blog in AGES but I'm on it again now. Just got back from an amazing three week trip to Thailand, and part of that was a 7 day detox in Chiang Mai. Since doing that I've been back on the raw, because it felt right and I didn't want to start putting crap in my body after cleaning it out! Before that I was still vegan but went back to eating a lot of cooked and processed foods. Being back on the raw I just feel SO much better, with tons of energy, so I'm sticking to eating raw for now.

Anyway, I just made this delicious raw version of hummus, based on a recipe from Jennifer Cornbleet's book, Raw Food Made Easy. It is so good, you don't miss the chickpeas at all and the courgette gives it a lovely texture. And it's dead easy, you just stick it all in the food processor for a couple of minutes and you're done. Here's the recipe:

I big courgette- peeled and chopped
2 tablespoons raw tahini
The juice of one lemon
1 clove of garlic, crushed
Big pinch of cumin
Big pinch of paprika
Sea salt to taste

Just blend it up until you get to a hummusy texture and that's it. Enjoy!

I had it with carrot sticks dipped in. I'm so broke right now after my holiday I am limited to what is in my fridge and I only had one carrot but I had all the other ingredients... just! So I ended up eating the rest of it with a spoon! And it was really good  :-)
Roll on Tuesday and payday!

Sushi! (not the fish and rice kind, this is much more gorgeous)

I absolutely adore these little maki rolls, I could happily eat them everyday. The 'rice' is made with parnsips and pine nuts (trust me, it works), and the nori is the raw untoasted kind. Really quick to make, healthy and delicious. Better than the 'real' alternative in my opinion. Seriously, you should try this.

Ingredients

For the rice:
2 big parsnips
Third of a cup of pine nuts
1 dessert spoon of apple cider vinegar

Filling:
Avocado or cucumber or whatever else takes your fancy really.

Raw untoasted nori sheets

Peel and chop the parsnips, then blitz them in a food processor, with the pine nuts, until they get to a rice like texture. 
Stir in the apple cider vinegar.
Finely slice the avocado and chop the cucumber into thin sticks.
Take a sheet of nori and spread the parsnip rice on it, about a third of the way up. 
Then put a row of avocado or cucumber or whatever filling you're using along this.
Roll it up, quite tightly, and moisten the edge with water to help it stick together. 
Then just slice the roll into little bite sized pieces.
This amount made enough to fill 3 nori sheets when I did it earlier. 

I made a really good dip to go with them, which was a combo of tamari (wheat free soy sauce), sesame oil and a bit of chilli powder. Just shook it all up together in a jar. Turned out extremely well :) Enjoy!

KB's Ultimate Power Green Juicy Breakfast Smoothie!

Hello! Hope everyone is feeling good and happy. I'm going to share with you my go-to breakfast of the moment. I've been experimenting with various different green juices and smoothies for a while now. I've made all kinds of concoctions with a wildly varying range of ingredients, but have ended up having this one just about every morning for the last few weeks. It's delicious, bursting with nutritional goodness and it really sets you up for the day. 

Although, the main component of this is freshly squeezed fruit and veg juice, this is a smoothie, not a juice, so won't work for you if you're on a juice cleanse. As soon as you blend it up with the other ingredients you're adding fibre back in, which is all good, but not if you're juicing. Perfect for a green smoothie detox though, or just as your everyday breakfast. Oh. And it is gorgeous. 

Ingredients

A) In the juicer:
Quarter of a pineapple
2 sticks celery
Big chunk of ginger
Big chunk of cucumber (about 4 inches)
2-3 apples
Half a lime (peeled, but pith kept on if you can, for added zing!)

B) In the blender:
1-2 handfuls of spinach
Half a ripe avocado
2 teaspoons raw hemp powder
2 teaspoons wheatgrass powder
The contents of one acidophilus capsule (or other kind of probiotic)

Method

1. Juice all the fruits and veggies from list A.
2. Pour the fresh juice into the blender, adding to the other ingredients (list B).
3. Blend it all up.
4. Drink it.
5. Lovely, innit. 

Hope that gives you a spring in your step :) Have a lovely day. 

Chocolate brownies and strawberry ice cream

So, I had a bit of a raw food prep day yesterday, filling up the dehydrator, fridge and freezer with staples and treats for the week. The things I made were: chocolate brownies; strawberry ice cream; buckwheat flax crackers; jalapeno burgers; carrot, raisin and cashew bread; marinated veggies; kale chips and the ultimate salad dressing! Some of the recipes I made up, others I got from books and other websites which I will post up here. I'll do some of the recipes today, and try to finish them off tomorrow :)

Chocolate brownies

First off, Chocolate Brownies. These have a more gooey texture than traditional brownies and are really rich and delicious. I made this as I wanted something chocolatey and had walnuts leftover from making the jalapeno burgers (the burger recipe is already on this blog- look in the index on the right of the home page if you're interested, they are really good).


Ingredients:
I cup walnuts, soaked 4-6 hours
1/2 cup dates
1/4 cup raw cacao powder
1/4 cup raisins
squirt of agave (optional- to taste, depending on how sweet you like them. and how well your mixture is holding together)

All you do is put everything in a food processor and mix it all up until it starts sticking together. It will probably all go into one ball if you leave it long enough!
Then spread the mixture in a baking tray or glass dish lined with greasproof paper, score it into squares, put another piece of greaseproof paper over the top and put it in the freezer to set for about half an hour. Keep in the fridge.


Next up, real Strawberry Ice Cream, YUM! This is amazing. You would never know this was not a dairy ice cream. Well, actually it's way better than that as it has no artificial sweeteners, colours, flavourings, sugar, dairy or any of that bad stuff AND tastes even more delicious. I adapted it from Ani Phyo's basic ice kream recipe which you can get from her book Ani's Raw Food Essentials.

Strawberry ice cream!

This picture does not do it justice at all, I can't tell you how delicious it is. Real fresh strawberries taste so delicious in ice cream. 

Ingredients:
1 cup cashews, soaked 2-3 hours
1/4 cup agave syrup
1/4 cup water
1 punnet strawberries (mine was 227g)

Again, it's really easy, just blend it all up together until smooth. Use as little water as you can get away with, as too much will make it harder and form ice crystals. Add more if you need to, to get the mix to the texture of thick cream, but 1/4 cup seems about right to get a lovely creamy, ice cream texture. Taste a bit of the mix (amazing  right?!) and adjust the sweetness if need be. Then put it in a tub in a freezer to set overnight. I recommend doing it overnight so you're not tempted to scoff it before it's done! I made mine in the afternoon and had "tested" it quite a lot before it was frozen! You don't need to churn it like dairy ice cream, it sets beautifully without forming ice to break up. I stirred mine up once, when it was just frozen, but you don't need to. Then, in the morning it's all ready to eat! 

Well, I've run out of time for today but will put more recipes up tomorrow. :-)

Chia pudding

Ok... so this looks pretty weird, I know, but go with it, trust me, it's delicious! I took this pic on my phone after letting it sit about 10 minutes, but it gets thicker and more gloopy the longer you leave it. Kind of frogspawny. Er, not really selling it here am I?! I guess it's sort of like tapioca pudding, if you can remember that? Look, all you need to know is it's really gorgeous and sweet and filling and absolutely amazing for you :)

Put 1/2 cup of cashews (soaked for 2 or 3 hrs then rinsed) in a blender with 3 cups water & 6 dates. Whizz it up until smooth. Put this cashew milk in a container, e.g. an old ice cream tub or similar (N.B. It tastes pretty delicious at this stage- you might want to try a glass!)

 Then mix 1/2 cup chia seeds into the cashew milk & leave it to sit for at least 10 minutes. Ideally leave it for longer- it softens up and gets thicker the longer you leave it. Stir it to break up any lumpy bits. This will keep for a few days in the fridge. It's a lovely breakfast or dessert & really good for you. This amount should make 2 or 3 big bowls or more, depending on how hungry you are.

Chocolate orange truffles!

Oh my, I have been slack with this blog, haven't I?! It's been over a year since I last wrote, oops. In part, that's because I have been eating lots of crap and not making any exciting  and new raw stuff. And also because I have been lazy :/ But no more! I made loads of tasty raw delights at the weekend and so I'm going to update you with some new recipes.

The most delicious thing I invented on Saturday were: raw chocolate orange truffles.

They are so quick and easy to make and one of the most delicious raw sweets I've made.

Put 1 cup of cashews, soaked for for 2-3 hours, in the food processor with 1/2 cup of dates. Process these until they start to stick together. Then add 1/4 cup of raw cacao powder and the zest and juice of half an orange. (This is the amount I used because I had half an orange leftover in the fridge! You could use more or less, experiment to taste.) Process it all some more- it will start sticking together and going into a ball. Taste the mixture- you might want to add a squirt of agave if you like them sweeter. 
Then just take out spoonfuls of the mixture and roll it gently into balls in your hand. Put them in a container and into the freezer to set. They'll be ready in about half an hour, if you can wait that long!

Then keep them in the freezer! You don't need to put them back into the fridge to keep, eat them straight from the freezer, the texture is amazing! They're still soft, not hard at all, and don't seem 'frozen' but it gives them a lovely creamy texture. And they have a very rich taste. Enjoy! More recipes to follow :)