Tag: raw cacao

Raw Chocolate Truffles

by nondualmind, posted in Raw Foods

Here’s a great little chocolatey treat with no processed sugars or dairy fat added. These delectable tidbits contain antioxidants from the raw cacao, omega-3 fats from the walnuts, natural sugars and fiber from the dates. Try to use all organic ingredients for a truly decadent raw dessert.  This recipe will probably yield a couple dozen truffles – more or less depending on the size.

Ingredients

1 cup of walnuts, soaked

1 cup of dates

2 TBL raw cacao (more or less to taste)

½-1 tsp vanilla (you may taste the alcohol, so you might want to use non-alcoholic vanilla)

Directions:

Soak the walnuts for 4-6 hours or overnight, rinse and drain. In a food processor, add all the ingredients and process until a sticky “dough” forms. This may require stopping the machine a couple of times to scrape down the sides.

Roll into balls and dip into raw cacao, chopped nuts, or shredded coconut.

Chill. Serve with sweet, raw cashew cream (optional, but ohhh so good!).

These seem to get better after a day or two as they sit the fridge – if they last that long.

Some options and tips:

For the nuts – I would recommend walnuts, pecans or pine nuts

I like to process until the consistency is very smooth for truffles, but you could leave it a bit chunkier and press it into a pan to form it into raw brownies if you like.

You can use other flavored extracts instead of vanilla if you like to change it up.

You can add some other superfood powders like maca or goji to pump up the nutritional value. Start with small amounts until you can determine how they change the flavor.

Get creative and have fun. Raw desserts are a great and easy way to edge into eating more raw foods. Enjoy!

Super Raw Hot Chocolate

by nondualmind, posted in Raw Foods

This is a drink I make several times a week – usually for dinner. Yes, chocolate for dinner. And it’s fabulous!

The ‘Super’ in the title is not just an adjective. It refers to the superfoods that are included in this raw version of hot chocolate. Most of the ingredients are on David Wolfe’s list of superfoods – cacao, maca, goji, honey, all raw and organic of course. This version is one I’ve tweaked from his various smoothie recipes using raw cacao.

Raw cacao, how do I love thee – let me count the ways. I won’t go into the many benefits of this ‘wonder food,’ just know that when you combine cacao with maca something magical happens. In fact, I now see these two superfood giants packaged together.

This is how I make it – (and by the way, it does look like the picture):

In a blender:

8 oz water – you can add more if you like a thinner drink

2 TBL Raw Cacao

1 TBL Maca

1 TBL Goji powder

1 tsp raw honey

2 Medjool dates (pits removed)

about ¼ cup of cashews – makes it thick and creamy

dash or two cayenne pepper

Now, I have a Blendtec blender, which is super powerful. You could blend a 2×4 in this thing. You don’t need to have a blendtec, but I use the ‘soup’ setting, which runs for about 90 seconds on a high speed. This warms the drink slightly. Remember, to keep it raw, it needs to stay below 118 degrees (some say even lower than that). I try to keep the temperature around 110. If you don’t have a blender with this capability, you can warm the mug you’ll be using by filling it with water and popping it into the microwave for about a minute.

Other notes: I like the taste of the dates, but you can add more honey in place of the dates, or use raw agave if you prefer. I tried using stevia, but I didn’t like it as much.

In place of the cashews, you can use 2 TBL of coconut butter. However, I prefer the more neutral taste of the cashews. You could also use raw almond milk if you have that on hand. I’m basically making a nut milk by tossing in the cashews.

I suppose you could blend in soaked goji berries instead of using the powder. I’ve never tried it so I can’t tell you how it would taste.

The cayenne adds a bit of a kick, a little heat in the background (a little trick in the raw food genre), which I really like here and I don’t generally like hot foods.

You don’t need to feel guilty about this drink. This is real nourishment for your body.  Here’s to your health!

Superfood Protein Drink

by nondualmind, posted in Raw Foods
Hemp Protein Powder

Not exactly a title you would expect to find on this site, but as you know I like to share my thoughts and experiences regarding a variety of topics such as yoga and astrology.  Now I’d like to shift gears once again and talk a little about raw foods and superfoods.

For the past couple of years, I’ve been experimenting with a raw vegan diet. It started with drinking green smoothies and now I have a collection of raw food recipe books, which have been extremely helpful to me. And I might add, David Wolfe has become my hero, although there are several others whose websites, you-tube videos, and books have given me tremendous amounts of information. I’ve never gone totally 100% raw, but there have been periods that I have been I’d say roughly 90% raw. The difference in the way I feel during those times is, quite frankly, amazing. I’ll blog more about my experiences in the future, but today I wanted to share a recipe I concocted.

On reading David Wolfe’s book on Superfoods, I went out and bought several that he wrote about including Hemp protein powder, Maca Root powder, Gogi powder, raw honey and coconut butter. I was already familiar with and using Raw Cacao on a regular basis. I tweaked his recipe for “Oh Wow Cacao” by leaving out a few things like the green powders making it a bit more of a raw ‘hot’ chocolate. I really didn’t care so much for the taste of the greens in this one, so my bag of lovely green hemp protein powder just sat until this morning when I whipped up this drink (recipe is below).  I liked it so much I found myself scraping the sides of the blender in order to get it all out.  Feel free to make whatever substitutions you wish to suit your tastes and/or tweak the amounts of any ingredient…. All ingredients are raw and organic…

Superfood Protein Drink

In a blender I added:

8 ounces of water

2 TBL Hemp powder

1 TBL Maca

1 TBL Hempseed

2 Medjool dates (don’t forget to take out the pits)

1- 2 TBL Raw Tahini

Blend on high until creamy and the dates are fully blended. You can soften the dates by soaking them beforehand if you like – I didn’t bother. Drink up and enjoy!

Some variations to try:

Blend in a frozen banana for extra creaminess (you can subtract some of the tahini if you’re concerned about the fat)

Blend in some raw cacao for a chocolate treat