Raw Food Roundup; Snacks and Desserts

I’ve been experimenting a lot with raw foodism of late, though I’ve been rather slack in regards to taking photographs. Blame the consistently poor lighting in my kitchen/flat! So here’s a brief overview of some of my experiments.

1. Raw Cacao Crunch Cookies

These were an original recipe; I basically mixed puffed buckwheat (soak raw buckwheat then dehydrate until crispy), hazelnut and almond meals, cacao powder, and agave nectar. Then shaped into balls and dehydrated for about 12-24 hours, depending on how dry you want your cookies.

2. Dehydrator load ready to go

Back two mats; raw cacao crunch cookies. Middle row; cacao crunch cookies on left, and lemon/almond/coconut cookies (just mix almond meal, shredded coconut, and fresh squeezed lemon juice and zest) on the right. Front row; kale chips (basically capsicum, cashews, nutritional/savoury yeast).

3. Cashew ice-cream bars

The easy and delicious way to make ice cream! These bars are cashew/date/banana on the left, and cashew/date/banana on the bottom with chocolate banana on top. Chop dates and soak overnight. Put cashews in the blender and reduce to a meal; add a very ripe banana (chopped), the drained dates, vanilla essence/bean, a little agave nectar, and blend. Use the date soaking water as needed to make a thick cream. Pour into moulds or a freezer-safe container and freeze. For chocolate, just add cacao powder; mint chocolate and orange chocolate are also excellent flavours.

Blenders, Dehydrators and Raw Foodism – Oh My!

While I will never be 100% raw vegan, I often look for ways to incorporate more whole plant foods into my diet, and in interesting forms; enter raw food. However, my lack of equipment prevented me from ever delving into the world of “gourmet” raw food (i.e. not just plain whole fruits and veggies).

Buuuuut… I got my tax back, and am now the very proud owner of a dehydrator, courtesy of eBay (and yes, I am always this awkward in photographs);

And, because I am apparently several years slow on the uptake, I worked out that the bottom of my blender IS removable, it’s just difficult to do so. So now I know how to easily access and clean it, I’ve been using it far more often. By the combined powers of blender + dehydrator, I’ve been having a great time experimenting in raw foods;

1. Kale chips (recipe from Ani Phyo’s ‘Raw Food Basics’), which are now my favourite food;

2. Flax crackers, from the same book;

3. Raw chocolate mousse (from an Internet recipe);

I’ve also created my own recipe for some AMAZING raw cookies, so stay tuned for pictures and the recipe!