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If you know me you know that I love bananas. I also love coconut cream. I always have a stash of Trader Joe’s coconut cream in the cupboard. I little while ago Trader Joe’s was out-of-stock and I almost went crazy! Well, not quite but close.
I would like to share one of my favorite recipe that is really easy to make and is guaranteed to please your guests for any occasion. If you are not vegan, you can use real whipped cream too. This will save you a trip to Trader Joe’s.
I have been eating and making raw vegan desserts for about 5 years. After making many recipes and experimenting with my own creation, I have to say that I now have more successes than failures. Yeah!
One of my successes was last night. I invited my neighbor for dinner and I know that she loves Orange-Chocolate treats. Therefore in her honor, I created this amazing and light dessert.
I say light because instead of using nuts for the filling I used frozen bananas. It worked out really nicely and no added sugar necessary. Try this one out during the holiday and you will amaze your friends.
Crust
1 cup of almonds
16 Medjool dates
2 tbs cacao powder
Zest of an orange
Filling
¼ cup coconut oil melted
¼ cup cacao powder
½ cup orange juice
3-4 large frozen bananas
Topping
¼ cup cocoa powder
¼ cup maple syrup
2 tbs coconut oil melted
Crust directions:
1. Place the almonds and Medjool dates in a food processor and mix well until the mixture sticks together.
2. Mix in the cacao powder.
3. Press the crust in the bottom of a 9 in x 9 in or equivalent glass pan.
4. Sprinkle the orange zest onto the lightly press crust.
Filling directions:
1. Place the bananas in a Vitamix mixer (if you don’t have a Vitamix, let the bananas melt to soften them) and mix them until they are all crumbled.
2. Pour in the orange juice, coconut oil, and mix until you get a uniform mixture.
3. Mix in the cacao powder
4. Pour the banana mixture on top of the crust and place in the freezer.
Topping directions:
1. Mix the coconut oil, maple syrup and cacao powder until uniformly mixed.
2. Once the filling is frozen, drip the chocolate mixture on top of it my making criss-cross or zig-zag patterns
3. Put back in the freezer.
Pull out of the freezer 15 minutes before serving.
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This fudge is ridiculously easy to make and delicious (addictive really, I had to stop making it because I couldn’t help myself). It has a melt-in-your-mouth texture thanks to the coconut oil and can be eaten directly out of the fridge or freezer (which means that even keeping it in the freezer didn’t slow me down!). Enjoy these amazing little bites of creamy chocolate.
Ingredients:
Serve here with Coconut whipped cream.
NOTE: Because the coconut hardens in the refrigerator, it can be a little tricky to cut nice squares when it hard (it becomes quite brittle), it will help to pre-cut the squares in the pan before they are completely set (say after about 20 minutes in the fridge).
Enjoy
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I discovered this sauce a little while ago and I love it. It is very smooth and sweet with a little tanginess to it. I use it on many different types of vegetables. I have had great comments from my guests with that sauce. Now it is your turn to impress your friends.
Ingredients:
2 tablespoons sesame tahini
2 tablespoons maple syrup
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil
Sea salt to taste
Asparagus (or any vegetable)
Pine nuts for garnish
Directions:
Place all the ingredients (except the asparagus and pine nuts) in a blender and mix well.
Blanched the asparagus very lightly.
Here’s the way I do them: I use a deep pan and I boil about one inch of water. Once it is boiling I place the asparagus into the boiling water for a very short time. No more than 30 seconds. If you want to stop the cooking process, rinse them in cold water and they will stop cooking. You don’t want them soft, just a little softer than raw.
Place the asparagus on a serving plate and pour the sauce on top and garnish with pine nuts.
Note: You can use that sauce for salad dressing or on everything you like. It is very tasty.
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Once you eat this chocolate bark you will not be able to buy a chocolate bar from the store anymore. This is so easy to make and you can’t really go wrong. You taste it as you go and you can make it exactly the way you want.
Basic ingredients:
½ cup cacao butter
½ cup cacao powder
Maple syrup to taste
Salt to taste
Optional ingredients: (one or a combination of)
Dry raisins
Dry cranberries
Pumpkin seeds
Sunflower seeds
Hemp seeds
Crushed nuts (almonds or walnuts or pecan)
Chili pepper (for a nice spicy chocolate)
Directions:
1. Place the cacao butter in a double boiler.
2. Once the cacao butter starts to melt, reduce the heat or even turn it off. You don’t want it to become hot, just melted. If it stops melting, raise the heat a little.
3. With the help of a sifter, slowly sprinkle the cacao powder on the melted cacao butter.
4. Mix the cacao butter and cacao powder together as you are sifting.
5. Add the maple syrup to the chocolate liquid and keep mixing.
6. Add salt.
7. Taste and adjust to the darkness, sweetness or salt amount to your liking.
8. Place a parchment paper with the side raised in the bottom pan or Pyrex.
9. Uniformly sprinkle the dry fruits, nuts, and seeds in the bottom of the pan.
10. Pour the melted chocolate mixture into the seeds and nuts.
11. Place it in the refrigerator or freezer for 20 minutes or so. You can also sprinkle coarse salt, hemp seeds or sesame seeds on top for garnish.
12. Before it gets completely hard, you can cut into the preferred pieces sizes and place back in the refrigerator.
Or once ready you can just break it by hand into pieces and enjoy.
The nice thing about using cacao butter is that your chocolate will not soften or melt when outside refrigerator, unlike coconut butter that melts with the temperature of your fingers and is very soft at room temperature.
Have fun and be creative.
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It was with a great pleasure that I welcomed 17 people in my home on February 21st.
I wanted to thank those who came and brought some amazing foods.
We had a great variety of food from salads, spicy rolls, sushi, crackers with olive paste, onion rings and of course succulent desserts like chia pudding, energy balls, coconut squares, chocolate mousse and also my blackberry vanilla non-cheesecake. I will share the blackberry cake recipe with you in another post.
I also presented the movie “Truly Heal”. This movie is loaded with information about how we can heal our body from degenerative diseases. I will talk to you more in one of my post coming up. The producer from that movie is coming to Vancouver and will give a 2 day workshop to promote the Truly Heal protocol. Stay tune for more details about his visit to Vancouver.
Mark your calendar for the next one on March 28th.