Spinach Colada

 

This simple smoothie is not only delicious, but it combines a perfect balance of nutrition and detox benefits. If you search about the benefits of coconut you’ll be probably amazed of the density of nutrients that are found in this miracle fruit. Living in Asia makes it quite easy to have access to fresh Thai coconuts, that are the best for making this recipe. As for spinach, or any other green leave that you want to add to your smoothie, it will make it even more refreshing and nutritious too!.

 

 

 

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Ingredients:
1 cup Spinach
1/2 cup coconut pulp
1 cup coconut water
1/8 tablespoon sea salt

Place all ingredients on a high speed blender and mix until smooth.

 

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Coconut Congee

 

This one of my favorites soups, easy, fast and delicious! It has a cooling effect on the body, ideal to take it after a workout. Coconut pulp is rich on minerals, protein and healthy fat; and also the water is excellent for re hydrating the body.

 

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Ingredients:
1.5 cups coconut water
190 grams coconut pulp (about 1 cup)
1 teaspoon sea salt

This recipe works best using Thai young coconuts.

Place all ingredients on blender. Press the pulse button until the coconut pulp converts into small shreds. For a thicker texture add more coconut pulp or reduce the water.
Enjoy!

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Warm Butternut Squash Soup

In a raw vegan diet you can also eat warm food too! For the past few days, it’s been getting cold in Hong Kong and I wanted to share a recipe that a friend ask me to do for a detox workshop.

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Ingredients:
1/2 cup butternut squash
2 cups water, hot
1/3 cup macadamia nuts
1 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon Irish moss, (paste)
1 pinch ginger ground
1 pinch cayenne
1 teaspoon parsley

Place water, squash and Irish moss paste and blend until smooth.

Add the rest of the ingredients.

Use a drainer to serve and remove the foam and some nut meal.

Decorate with dry parsley.

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Mango Parfait

 

I learned that “Parfait” meas “Perfect” in French. This dessert was traditionally made using sugar, eggs and cream perfect ingredients to become totally overweight and sick! Inspired from Cafe Gratitude I share this recipe that is closer to perfection regarding health and taste too!

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Ingredients:
1 ounce irish moss, (soaked for 1 hr)
250 ml almond milk
2 cups mango
1/3 cup agave syrup
2 tablespoons vanilla
2 tablespoons lemon jucie
1/12 teaspoon turmeric
2 tablespoons lecitin
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 tsp cinnamon

Blend Irish Moss and almond milk until smooth. No chunks left behind!

Add the mango, agave, vanilla, lemon juice, salt and turmeric powder, and blend again until smooth.

Then add the lecithin and coconut oil, blend again until emulsifies.

Set on fridge for about half an hour and garnish cinnamon powder using a paper fan, so spreads on the edges to make a smoke effect.

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Mango and Goji berries Mousse

Orange colors are bright in November to celebrate not only Halloween but also “Dia de los Muertos”, a Mexican festivity that honors the “Day of the Death”. In this festivity food offerings are made to the deceased family members and friends, so the Death take the “essence” of the food with them.

This dessert is fast an easy to make and is a nice dessert offer for the living too!

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1/3 cup goji berries, soaked in water (for at least 1 hour)
1/2 cup mango, fresh
1 tsp Irish moss paste
2 tablespoons coconut flower nectar
1/2 cup water

Place water, goji berries, and Irish moss paste and blend until smooth, then add the rest of the ingredients.
Decorate with chunks of mango on top.

Place on fridge to set for 15 minutes.

Enjoy!

Keeps for 5 days in fridge


Source: USDA

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Irish Moss a gift from the Sea

 

Sea vegetables are an excellent source of minerals, such as iron, magnesium and calcium, and B-vitamins like folate,? riboflavin and pantothenic acid. They are also rich in lignans, a plant compounds that recent research have showed to protect our body against cancer growth. Irish moss in particular, has showed some benefits for treatment of damaged lungs from pneumonia, smoking, emphysema, chronic bronchitis and possibly Mycoplasma and Chlamydia.

Back to the kitchen!

Irish moss is usually sold in a dry form, preserved with salt. This way it can last for many months, if we want to use it for raw food dishes, first we need to take the portion we are going to use, I suggest to start with 1/2 cup.

We wash the dry Irish Moss at least 5 times, until all the salt is removed. Sometimes you will some cotton strings from nets, also try to remove, until its pretty clean. Then we need to soak it for at least 3 hours, I like to leave it over night to allow it to rehydrate fully.

We will notice that the Irish Moss will expand in size, from this point we prepare IMOP (Irish Moss Paste).

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Ingredients:

1 Cup of soaked and cleaned Irish Moss
2 Cups of water

Place ingredients on high speed blender (highly recommended) and blend until smooth (until the blades make no more sounds with the paste). Remove the paste, if you see any small chunks blend again or remove them.Place paste in a glass container and keep on fridge.

Keeps for 1 month on fridge.

Irish Moss Nutrition Facts

Source: USDA

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First way to use Irish Moss:

Make your usual nut milk and add 1 tsp of Irish Moss paste, blend again until smooth, notice difference? More thickness with less nuts and fat!
[stextbox id=”alert” caption=”Warning”]Do not over use Irish Moss! Go with small amounts otherwise it will taste like seaweed![/stextbox]

In Hong Kong it’s called “Sam Wu Choi”, it’s sold in many organic health food stores.

Keep in touch for further tips and secrets!

A Picture is worth a thounsand words, this one has three: Hazle nut milk, Cacao, Vanilla and Palm Sugar

Gianduja Dream

We have to thank Caffarel for the invention of Gianduja , a mixture of hazel nuts and cacao, from this blend many creations of chocolates and spreads like Nutela have come to existence. This recipe resembles a raw version of amazing ingredients in their natural form, creating delicious and healthy drink.
Hazle nuts or filbert nut are rich in oleic acid, vitamin E and antioxidants.

 

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Ingredients:

2 Cups of hazel nut milk*
2 Tbs raw cacao nibs
1 Tsp vanilla extract
3 Tbs of palm sugar
1 pinch of sea salt

Blend hazel nut milk with all ingredients on a high speed blender until smooth, for a thicker consistence use 1 tsp of Irish Moss Paste
*Blend 1 cup of raw hazel nuts with 2 cups of water for 20 seconds, drain using a milk bag or fine mesh drainer, dehydrate pulp and keep on freezer for further recipes.

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Coconut Noodles with Aloe Vera

It’s been more than a year since I started this blog, and I wanted to thank all of us for dropping by and sharing your thoughts about this amazing food. I’m moving on with a new name that resonates to my believes and lifestyle. So moving on with something easy to prepare at home and I consider as a detox soup, due to the healing ingredients and simplicity.

I love Aloe Vera not only for being a beautiful plant, but it’s the best gel not only for sunburns and shaving, but also for having strong anti-inflammatory benefits and improving conditions of blood sugar and hepatitis.

We can enjoy it by eating it raw and fresh with a Thai coconut noodles (made by cutting the pulp like chiffonade, after being carefully extracted) and coconut water; making it’s a simple and refreshing dish.

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Ingredients

1 Thai Coconut
1/2 Cup of chiffonade coconut pulp
1/3 Cup of fresh aloe vera cubes
1/3 Cup of raw cucumber cubes
1 Cup of coconut water

*With a sharp knife remove skin and cut into 5mm cubes.

Mix all ingredients, and enjoy!

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Raw Vegan Cheese cake & Brownie

I have no words to describe it, just look at the picture and you’ll understand:

I’ll be making this desserts till the end of Cacao… Will need to change from a text to a picture only blog.
to make fudge crust:
1/2 C of raw cacao butter
3 tsp of vanilla extract
1/2 C + 2 Tbs Agave syrup (or yacon)
1/4 C cacao nibs (finely grounded)
1 1/3 C cacao powder
1 Tbs coconut oil
1/2 C of cashew butter*
1/8 tsb salt

to make cake filling:

3 Cups of soaked cashews
1 1/2 Cups of coconut milk
1 Cup of lime juice
3/4 Cup agave syrup 2 tsp liquid vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
3 tbs lecithin (sunflower seed if possible)
3/4 Cup extra virgin coconut oil
1/3 cup sliced hazel nuts

*Blend cashews on high speed blender until smooth

*For cacao butter dehydrate at 115F until melting or place into a double bowl container with warm water.

Brownie crust
Place all ingredients and mix into a large bowl, add in the salt, agave and cashew butter. Add in the cacao powder and ground cacao nibs, hazel nuts and mix until there are no dry crumbs of cacao. Wax mold with coconut oil and firmly press evenly the crust. Do not over-press, so it can be easily removed and do not press it to soft, to prevent it to break a party easily. For individual cakes: Place the on a 8×23 cm cutting board (aprox) Glade Wrap paper and place the mixture on top. Spread it and wrap it and with your hand shape an even square shape. Freeze for at least 30 minutes, then? score crust into desired squares.

filling
Make the coconut milk first: using 2 Thai coconuts, open and use the water of one and the pulp of both coconuts (if the pulp is too thick, use only one ) blend until smooth, add the coconut oil, blend again until the blender starts getting slightly warm, pause and check the consistency, then add the lecithin, blend again, then add half of the cashews and the lime juice, continue adding the agave nectar, the rest of cashews, vanilla and salt. Mix until smooth. On your cheesecake pan or silicon cupcakes with the almond crust in the bottom, pour in the coconut mixture, allow it to sit and shake it sideways to make it even. If you see any bubbles on top,? shave them with a spatula to erase them.
Place on freezer for about 4-5 hrs. Use a toothpick to check it?s firm all the way down.

To remove pie from case: keep in hand a small board to place the pie. With a metallic long spatula or a flat table knife, score around the edges of the pie, then open the case. To remove the bottom part, use a table knife or spatula, scraping from the bottom up around the edges, finally finding the center. Carefully slide it into the board. With a long knife cut into slices, stating by splitting in half, then into quarters.

Raw Vegan Fudge Brownies

Many raw foodist agree that cacao and vanilla are to beings that become in harmony when they join each other creating amazing flavor and aroma. As a tribute to the Itzas Mayans and Aztecs who took cacao as a drink of the “Gods”, I offer to them this Fudge Brownies:

The ingredients blend organic almond butter, organic hemp seeds, organic vanilla beans,?? organic apricots, organic agave and of course organic cacao. I’ll be making this amazing treat upon request.

The experience: The flavor is present on each bite, and softly melts on your mouth, bursting a sweet and bitter taste of the cacao that harmonies with the apricots and shines with the vanilla flavor. The chewiness of each piece is carefully balanced with the almond and hemp seeds, bringing not only your EFA’s of Omega-3,6 and 9 and a complete protein source, but also a delightful and joyful way of practicing mindfulness of eating and living.