Cashew Cream

I like to mix up a batch of this and keep it in a box in the fridge.

I use it in smoothies, sweet recipes and as a creamy side dish with fruit and sweet treats.

Ingredients:

1 Cup Cashew nuts, soaked and rinsed

1 Banana

1 dsp/tbs Baobab Powder (this is optional – I use a lot of baobab!)

1 dsp/tbs Honey or Agave syrup (again optional, but gives a lovey taste)

Fruit juice/ Water or Fruit-Soak Water as required.

A pinch of Vanilla Powder or a bit of chopped Vanilla Bean

Method

Blend or process everything until really smooth. Use  little liquid if required.

The consistency should be that of a thick cream, but make it thinner if you want to pour it.

Keeps for about a week in the fridge.

Related articles

• sweet cashew cream: a basic recipe of amazingness (veggienook.wordpress.com)
• Smooth(ie) Talk: Cashew Cream (the-tasty-truth.com)
• “Fresh” cashews (onlinecookingadventures.wordpress.com)
• Yesterday’s Smoothie. (simplylearningtolive.wordpress.com)

Nuts About Chocolate

Remember that chocolate nut spread we had as kids? I expect they still make it, but here’s my healthy raw chocolate version:

Chocolate Nut Spread

Equipment: Blender

Ingredients

1 cup almond pulp (from making nut milk)

2 dessertspoons raw cacao powder

3-4 dessertspoons agave, maple or stevia syrup or 1 banana

1cm vanilla pod, very finely chopped, or 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch sea salt

Water to blend (about 1/2 – 1 cup)

Method

Mix everything thoroughly in a blender. If you use a high speed blender, your mixture will be very smooth and creamy; if you use a regular blender, your mixture will be more grainy. It will still taste good!)

This is great as a chocolate spread – on breads, crackers, other people… oh sorry, I got carried away there!

Just enjoy all the chocolaty goodness, eh?

 

Related articles

• Raw White Hot Chocolate (thevegetablecentrickitchen.com)

Raw Fridge Staples

Here are a couple of useful sauces to make and keep in the fridge.
I had to dash out this afternoon, so I whipped them up quickly before I caught my train.
They are both good for making salad dressings, spreading on crackers, dipping vegetables in… etc, etc…

Raw Tahini
Soak 1 cup sesame seeds for a couple of hours. (Be careful not to soak the seeds too long or you will waterlog them and the tahini won’t last as long.)
Drain and blend with 1/2 cup water and some salt & pepper
It’s that easy! It will last about 4 days in the fridge.
This Raw Tahini comes out really pure and white and is perfect for making Raw Hummus! go on, soak some chick peas now…

Green Cashew Cream
This uses the pulp from making Cashew milk.
1 cup cashew pulp
1 tomato, chopped
1 tsp maca powder
1 tsp spirulina
1 tsp agave syrup
1/2 cup water
Blend everything together. The Spirulina gives it a bright green colour which makes it look like it’s doing you a lot of good, which it is!

A great base for salad dressings or dips. Again, keep in the fridge and use within a week.

Related articles

• Tahini Recipe (mademan.com)
• What Is Tahini (mademan.com)

 

Originally published on www.pollyskitchen.blogspot.com

Houmous Gets the Raw Treatment

Houmous is lovely. Well, I think so, anyway! It’s been a mainstay of my diet for many years. Mr H and I get through loads of the stuff and I started making our own a couple of years ago, so it was obvious that I needed to figure out a raw version.
The only real change I have made to my original recipe is to use sprouted chick peas, instead of boiled. The preparation takes a little longer, but the results are even more yummy.
Oh, and I use a bit less garlic now since our raw tastes are stronger!

1 cup chick peas, soaked overnight and sprouted until tiny shoots appear (1-2 days, depending on how hot the weather is)
2 dessertspoons raw tahini
1 dessertspoon lemon juice
1 dessertspoon olive or hemp oil
Garlic to taste (I usually use 1 small clove for this amount.)
A drop of water if needed to facilitate blending

Simply blend everything until smooth. This makes quite a lot and you can freeze some if necessary and thaw it later.

I sometimes add one or some of the following for added flavour:

Sea salt, black pepper, soy sauce, chopped olives, chopped tomatoes, chilli, paprika, cayenne pepper, chopped peppers, mustard… but you might think of others!

PS. The other day we were in Infinity Foods in Brighton and bought some raw houmous which had various spices in, including coriander and turmeric. It was to-die-for! =)

 

 

Originally published on http://www.pollyskitchen.blogspot.com

 

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You Get Me Through

A very busy and rather stressful couple of days for me, finishing off a sculpture for an exhibition which opens on Monday and getting all the loose ends tied up for the end of my course.
As is often the case when I’m really busy, I forget to eat! However, my body is getting better at telling me it’s hungry, so I have made a few quick, tasty and healthy snacks this week, some of which I will share with you here:

Mango Power Juice
Peel and de-pip one small melon
Peel an de-stone one mango
Place in a blender with a bit of apple juice
Blend until smooth and drink
Makes a couple of pints (ish)

Quick Chocolate Fix (for those times when…  well, you know!)
In a tea cup, mix the following:
1 tsp tahini
1 tsp agave nectar (or other liquid sweetener if you prefer)
1 tsp cocoa powder.
Eat it straight out of the cup or spread onto a cracker.

Cocoa Comfort
Blend the following:
1 banana
about half a litre nut milk (I used pistachio milk and it was lovely, but almond, cashew or any other will do)
1 dsp cocoa powder
Drink it out of a mug and pretend it’s cocoa like Granny made (it’s better!)
Use warm milk if you want extra comfort.

Avocado Dip (spread, mayonaise substitute, whatever…)
Blend the following:
1 avocado
1 banana (Use one that is not too ripe – learn from my mistake!)
a few flakes of dehydrated garlic
a splash of soy sauce or similar seasoning
juice of half a lemon.
Spread onto slices of cucumber for a delicious quick snack

And finally…
Multi-Berry Orgy Snack
1 punnet blueberrues
1 punnet raspberries
1 packet dried goji berries (you won’t need all of them)

Stuff a dried goji berry inside a blueberry
Stuff the blueberry inside a raspberry
Do this to the entire punnet
And eat!

Now that School’s Out and I can relax, I’m going to get back in the kitchen and start creating again… watch this space. =)

I Don’t Need a Dehydrator – I Just Want One!

For my lunch today I fancied making a Mushroom Dip, so here it is:

Mushroom Dip

Ingredients:

6 mushrooms

2 tomatoes

2 handfuls spinach

I slice lemon – pith & flesh

1 red pepper

1 pear

1 small onion

olive oil and hemp seed oil to enable blending

Method

Blend everything together until smooth.

Makes a good dip or spread. Looks a bit like guacamole but has no avocado in (although it could have!)

I craved something starchy to go with these and set myself the challenge of creating a “cracker”-type thing without a dehydrator (because I don’t have one – yet!)

This is what I came up with:

Tomato Almond and Flax Crackers

Ingredients

leftover pulp from almond goji mylk (dried out a bit in oven (fan only – no heat) or dehydrator)

2 dsp milled flax seed (linseed)

2 tomatoes

mixed seeds

herbs and spices to taste

Chop tomatoes then blend with hand-held blender

Add flax seed and almond pulp.

Mix thoroughly and spread onto a baking tray (or dehydrator sheet)

Press mixed seeds onto the top and dry out in oven on fan only for 4-5 hours (check regularly to see if they are dry, cut into squares before turning over half way through.) Times for dehydrator will vary.

Can make batches and keep in fridge, each time you make almond goji mylk.

As these took so long to “bake” they weren’t ready for lunch, but I put them in the fridge ready for the future and had the Dip with crudites.

I usually like to get two smoothies in each day – a fruit one in the morning and a vegetable “green” smoothie in the afternoon. Today I have been really busy because I have an exhibition coming up and I have work to finish. When I get very focussed on something, my hunger button switches off. Unfortunately, so does my energy button, so to keep myself going, mid afternoon, I made this:

Polly’s Perfect Power Punch

Ingredients

1 pear

1 nectarine

1carrot

½ cucumber

handful leaves (spinach, etc.)

Method

Juice everything except the spinach.

Transfer juice to a blender, add spinach and whizz until smooth.

Makes a large tumbler full.

Originally published on http://www.pollyskitchen.blogspot.com