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Raw sesame, balsamic vegetable sauce

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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Chocolate Bark

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.
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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.
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10. Pour the melted chocolate mixture into the seeds and nuts.
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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.
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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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Raw Cashew Blackberry Vanilla Dreamcake

This Dreamcake is so delicious. Very easy to make and you will pretty much always make it to perfection. I often use double the recipe, this way it makes a nice thick cake. On the picture above the recipe was made as described below.

This recipe is made with cashews. I love making recipes with them because they can make a really creamy mixture and you can add any flavors to it and it will taste great. Initially, I did not soak my cashews when I was making recipes, whether I was making “cream cheese” like mixtures or cake and I thought they were hard to digest. Since then, I make sure that I soak them overnight for at least 12 hours and it changed everything. My recipes are now so much creamier and I don’t have any problems with the digestion anymore.

Do you know where cashews come from?  Read this post to find out.

Ingredients:
Crust:
1/2 cup raw almonds (pecan or walnuts will also work)
1/2 cup soft Medjool dates
¼ tsp. sea salt

Filling:
1 ½ cups raw cashews, soaked for at least 5 hours, overnight is preferred
juice of 2 lemons
the seeds of 1 whole vanilla bean (or 1 tsp. alcohol-free vanilla extract)
1/3 cup raw coconut oil, melted
1/3 cup raw honey (solid or liquid.)(Vegans use agave nectar.)
1 cup blackberries or any berries (thaw completely if using frozen)

Directions:

  1. Place nuts and dates in a food processor with sea salt and pulse to chop until they are to your desired fineness (process longer for a finer crust than vs. chunky crust). Test the crust by spooning out a small amount of mixture and rolling it in your hands. If the ingredients hold together, your crust is perfect. Scoop out crust mixture into a 7” spring-form pan (if you don’t have a spring-form pan, use a pie plate lined with saran wrap), and press firmly, making sure that the edges are well packed and that the base is relatively even throughout. Rinse food processor well.
  2. Warm coconut oil and honey in a double boiler on low heat until liquid. Whisk to combine.
  3. In the most powerful food processor/blender you own (you decide which one has the most torque) place all filling ingredients (except raspberries) and blend on high until very smooth (this make take a couple minutes so be patient). If you have a Vita-Mix, absolutely use it.
  4. Pour about 2/3 (just eyeball it, you can’t make a mistake!) of the mixture out onto the crust and smooth with a spatula. Add the raspberries to the remaining filling and blend on high until smooth. Pour onto the first layer of filling. Place in freezer until solid.
  5. To serve, remove from freezer 30 minutes prior to eating. Run a smooth, sharp knife under hot water and cut into slices. Serve on its own or with fresh fruit. Store leftovers in the freezer (what leftovers?).

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