Raw Vegan Chocolate Mousse & Banana Ice-cream Sundae

I've been waiting till the weather was just right to share a banana ice-cream recipe. And hooray this week it is!
 When ever we have over ripe bananas and I'm not making banana loaf I peal them, slice them and put them in a container in the freezer for smoothies or ice-cream. The only problem with this ice-cream is that you have to eat it fast as it melts fast but trust me, it's not too hard to do. You can use the recipe below or you can make it with just frozen bananas and frozen strawberries. Or as a friend told me, with bananas and a tbsp each of tahini and honey. Whatever way you do it you've got guilt free delicious ice-cream in less than a minute.

I was also putting off posting my raw chocolate mousse as there are a million versions of this on the net right now. However my 15 year old son convinced me to share mine as it is a very good version. It is extremely heavy on the vanilla which is it's trick and rather light on the cacao with makes it very light and creamy in consistency.

These two recipes together make the best and quickest desert. Seriously, the most time spent will be cleaning the blender in between. And with the lovely crushed macadamias on top, heaven!

RAW VEGAN CHOCOLATE MOUSSE

INGREDIENTS

3 Small-medium avocados

3 Tbsp of raw honey (or agave or maple syrup0

3 Tbsp of vanilla extract

3 Tbsp of cacao

DIRECTIONS

Place it all in the blender and blend until smooth, about a minute or so.

RAW BANANA ICE-CREAM

INGREDIENTS

3 Frozen bananas

1 Tsp of ground cinnamon

2 Tsp of peanut butter

1 Tsp of raw honey

DIRECTIONS

Place it all in the blender and blend until smooth, about a minute or so.

Serve immediately with the chocolate mousse and some macadamia nuts that have been crushed with a mortar and pestle.

Enjoy!

Carrot Cake with Cashew "Cream Cheese" Icing

I had my Mum stay with us for a few days last week. It was my brothers birthday and she decided to make him a carrot cake. Mostly it's the small things that make you smile. Watching my kids help my Mum make this simple cake warmed my heart. You miss these moments when it's not something that you get to see often. This is basically the same cake my Mum made just a tiny bit healthier. My Mum decorated her cake with lovely fresh strawberries which was delicious. Anyone who has ever eaten a desert or cake made by me would have most likely had it adorned with flowers. Flowers and food are up there for favourite things of mine so when I have an abundance of edible spring flowers blooming in my garden, well I can't help myself.
The cashew icing is a new and welcomed invention, it makes an excellent substitute to a cream cheese icing.

INGREDIENTS
serves 12 generous slices

Carrot Cake

2 cups of spelt flour
2 1/2 cups of grated carrot ( about three medium-large carrots)
1 cup of walnuts
4  organic, biodynamic or home laid eggs
1 1/2 cups of muscovado sugar (unrefined brown sugar)
1 cup of grapeseed oil
2 tsp of baking soda

1/2 tsp of good quality sea salt

2 /12 tsp of cinnamon

3 tsp of vanilla essence

 Cashew "Cream Cheese" Icing

100g cashews soaked for 4 hrs, rinsed and drained

1/2 cup of organic icing sugar
zest of half a lemon
juice of one large lemon
2 tsp vanilla essence
2 tbsp of maple syrup
2 tbsp coconut butter

DIRECTIONS

Set the oven at 180 degrees celsius. In an electric mixer beat the eggs and the sugar for about 3 minutes, the mixture will  have thickened and will be lighter in colour. Slowly add the oil and the vanilla. then add the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon and beat until well combined. Fold the carrots and the walnuts in with a wooden spoon. Pour the mixture into a oiled and floured cake tin, I used a 22cm spring form cake tin. Bake for an hour and test with a skewer to make sure it's cooked. Let cool in the tin for fifteen minutes then turn out on to a cake rack to cool completely. Carefully cut in half when cooled and ice with the icing
Store the cake in a cake tin in the fridge for up to a week

For the icing put all the ingredients into the blender and blend for a few minutes or until smooth

Enjoy!

Super Fast Kale Rice

This is a super fast, nutrition packed meal that I like to enjoy anytime of the day especially breakfast. It's so easy that it hardly needs a recipe. Keeping all the ingredients organic for this meal will ensure that its super charged. Cook a cup of brown rice. When it's cooked fry up a diced onion in olive oil. Chuck in the rice, 3 or 4 tbsp of soy sauce, tamari or brag (non GMO and not from japan due to the radiation) cook for a minute or so then add the Kale, washed, stems removed and sliced into thin ribbons. I use Cavolo Nero Kale as we grow it at home but you could use any kind. Cook for less than a minute until the kale has just wilted. Makes enough for about four people.

Enjoy!

Potato Dosa

This is not a very traditional dosa. It's my version of the Sri Lankan Farmers breakfast that they serve at Lentil as Anything  which is essentially a dosa. The pancake (dosa) is made out of buckwheat flour and chickpea flour, it's gluten free and vegan. Buckwheat is technically a fruit not a grain. Both the buckwheat flour and chickpea flour are high in protein which is not the case with other flours. Lots of people have jumped on the gluten free band wagon who are not gluten intolerant, which is great... a lot of us could stand to cut down on our gluten intake. However the gluten free pastas and and flours that you can buy are often very refind and can spike your blood sugar levels even higher than wheat can. You don't have that problem with these to flours I've used here and better still chickpea flour  can be whipped up yourself in the blender from dried chickpeas in minutes.

With the left over dosas, my children ate them with jam after dinner. Which sounds strange but Chickpeas surprisingly make the jump over to sweet-land quite nicely. I once made a cake out of chickpeas and no other grain, it was quite good. So if you are gluten intolerant this dosa recipe could be a good one for you with many a topping.

The filling has cauliflower in it. If you don't have any or it's not in season replace it with a medium sweet potato. It's equally as good.

And for the final part of my rant. I have specified to use organic potatoes. Even if you don't buy much organic food, potatoes are one thing that you should consider buying. As they are a root vegetable they absorb all the chemical used on them. And there is a lot. No amount of washing can get rid of them. Also the price difference is very marginal depending where you go. And they taste very, very different (BETTER).

If you are vegan I've added a little idea at the end to replace the yogurt sauce.

INGREDIENTS

Dosa

130g Chickpea flour (1 cup of dried chickpeas)

130g Buckwheat flour

1 tsp of baking soda

a pinch of salt

500 ml of luke warm water
2 tbsp of coconut butter melted + extra for frying

Filling

4 medium organic potatoes (I used nicola) peeled and diced

half a cauliflower roughly chopped

1 large onion diced

150g of podded peas fresh or frozen organic

2 tsp nigella seeds

2 tsp ground coriander

3 tsp of turmeric

1 tsp cumin powder

1/2 tsp of curry powder

about half a bunch of fresh coriander

1 tsp of good quality sea salt

coconut butter or olive oil

Tomato Sauce

1 large onion

1 jar of tomato pasata

1 tsp of nigella seeds

1 tsp salt

Turmeric Yogurt

1 cup or so of organic or biodynamic yogurt

1 tsp of turmeric

a pinch of salt

1 garlic clove

DIRECTIONS

For the dosa place a cup of dried chickpeas in the blender and blend on high speed for a few minutes. This will yield about 130g of flour. Place all the dry ingredients in a bowel and the melted coconut butter and then the warm water a bit at a time whisking the whole time until you have a smooth batter the consistancy of runny cream. Put a plate over your bowel and set aside while you make the filling.

For the filling bring a pot of salted water to boil and cook the potatoes and cauliflower until tender.

Meanwhile start the tomato sauce. Peel the onion and slice it in half, lengthways and then thinly slice it widthways so you have half circles. Fry them in olive oil until soft but not brown. Add the nigella seeds, the pasata and a pinch of salt and cook on medium to high heat for about ten minutes.

Now back to the filling. Drain the potato and cauliflower when they are tender reserving a teacup of cooking liquid. Fry the onions until they are soft, add the spices and cook for a minute longer. Now add the potato and cauliflower and the cooking liquid, stirring every now and then to prevent the bottom from sticking. After a few minutes add the peas. Cook for a few minutes longer then turn off the heat and add the fresh coriander.

Now get a heavy pan (I used a cast iron pan you may need to test out what temperature works best for your pan) And set it on high heat add a little coconut butter and put in 3/4 of a ladle full into you pan, moving the pan around so you have a thin layer. when the dosa is full of holes and dry on top gently flip over and cook the other side until golden. Repeat method until all the dosa are cooked. Keeping the cooked dosa inside two plates in a warm oven until your ready to go.

To fill the dosa. put one on a plate and put the filling over half of it. Fold the dosa in half and top with the tomato sauce, turmeric sauce (directions below) and fresh coriander.

Turmeric Yogurt

Place the all ingredients except for the garlic in a bowel and stir with a fork. Smash the garlic, skin on with a heavy knife and sit the garlic in the sauce for ten minutes, Remove it before serving.

Vegan Turmeric Sauce.

Soak a cup of cashews in filtered water for four hours, drain and rinse. Put the cashews, a 1/4 of a clove of garlic, juice of half a lemon, 1 tsp of turmeric and a pinch of salt. Slowly add water with the blender on until you have the desired consistency.

Enjoy!

Almond milk and an Almond & Buckwheat Chocolate Cake

I have only been making my own nut milk for the last couple of months even though I have known about the recipe for some time. I truly had no idea how easy it would be and how amazing it would taste. If you have ever bought commercial almond milk before you, like me might have been put off. But the real deal is a beautiful thing. Both my children ask me to make it all the time. My daughter loves helping me squeeze the almond milk in the morning, it's become a bit of a regular morning ritual.  You can use any nut or seed following the same process. So far almond is my favourite.

The one thing i can't bare to do is throw away the nut pulp. I've made raw almond humus, put the pulp in home made bread, had it on my quinoa for breakfast and now...... this cake.
I was inspired to make this cake after flicking through Tessa Kiros' book Food from many greek kitchens.
The cake was called Fanouropita "Cake for lost things". It can be made any time something is lost like a dear possession, a dear one or when your mind is after an answer.
The cake that served as the inspiration wasn't chocolate and was made with orange juice, olive oil and wheat.
So I guess I can't really call it a cake for lost things. Perhaps rather a chocolate cake for contemplation.
The cake is very quick and easy to whip up. It's also wonderfully rich, you'd never know that it is vegan and gluten free.

NUT MILK

INGREDIENTS

makes about 800ml

1 cup of Almonds

4 cups of  filtered water 

1 teaspoon of raw honey ( if you a strict vegan use maple or agave or leave it out)

a pinch of good quality sea salt

DIRECTIONS

Soak the almonds in a cup of filtered water for 8 hrs. Drain and rinse. Place in the blender with the four cups of water, honey and salt. Blend on high speed for about a minute. Strain the milk using a muslin cloth or a nut milk bag squeezing and excess liquid as you go. Store in a glass jar in the fridge for up to three days. Use the pulp in the following recipe or anything you like.

ALMOND, BUCKWHEAT AND CHOCOLATE CAKE

(Chocolate cake for contemplation)

INGREDIENTS

1 cup of Buckwheat flour

1 & 1/3 cup of almond pulp (pressed down)

1 cup of cacao powder

1 & 1/3 cup raw organic sugar

200ml of grape seed oil

1/2 cup almond milk

seeds of 1/2 vanilla pod

1 tsp of baking soda

Gluten free organic icing sugar to dust

DIRECTIONS

Grease and flour (with the grape seed oil and buckwheat flour) a 22cm springform cake tin. Turn the oven on to 180 degrees celsius.

Put all the ingredients into a mixing bowel and beat with an electric beater on high for about a minute.

the cake will be a little thicker in consistency to other cakes. You will have to press it down with your hands to flatten it into the cake tin. Bake for about forty minutes. The cake should be firm to touch all over .

Leave it to cool in the tin for five minutes before turning out onto a cake rack to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar.

ENJOY!