Autumn is well and truly here in Perth. Seemingly overnight we’ve had crisp mornings and lots of rain. It’s been too rainy/dark to go for my runs, so to keep warm I’ve been going to Piloxing classes a few times a week. My cravings for comfort food go through the roof when it’s cold and if I were to act on them, they could wreck all my efforts of exercise.
So whenever I feel like a bowl of pasta, I make this Zucchini Spaghetti instead. There’s a gazillion zucchini spaghetti raw recipes around with tomato based sauces, but I prefer it with a fresh basil and mint pesto. If you don’t mind heating your food, this dish tastes pretty amazing lightly warmed through, too.
RAW VEGAN ZUCCHINI PESTO SPAGHETTI
1.5 ZUCCHINIS 3 CUPS FRESH BASIL 1 CLOVE OF GARLIC 1 TABLESPOON LEMON JUICE 3/4 CUP PINENUTS 1 TEASPOON SEA SALT
1/3 CUP EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL
FRESH LEMON, LIME & MINT & EXTRA PINENUTS FOR GARNISH
Spiralise the zucchini with a Spiraliser (I recommend this one and this one). If you don’t have a spiraliser, make fettucine style zucchini instead by peeling long strips with a regular vegetable peeler. Place them in a colander and after five minutes gently squeeze the excess water from them and place aside in a bowl. Don’t skip this step, or your zucchini spaghetti will be watery and that will ruin your day. In a food processor, pulse the remaining ingredients until combined (leave a little texture in there) and stir through the zucchini. Garnish with a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime, pinenuts and fresh mint leaves.
Here is my obligatory raw chocolate post, because Easter. Cacao butter works better than just using coconut oil for these recipes because it has a higher melting point and the texture is more like regular chocolate. I usually melt mine by chopping or shaving it into a bowl I place over saucepan of water on very, very low heat and stirring until it’s liquid.
There were plans in my head to make a raw version of Top Deck for this post, but then I found some old IKEA ice cube trays in the shape of bottles that seemed kind of perfect for little white chocolate milk bottles. Cute, yes? So the chocolates remained separate and more of each kind of chocolate was made than originally intended, which is just fine by me.
RAW, VEGAN WHITE CHOCOLATE
1 CUP MELTED CACAO BUTTER 1/2 CUP MACADAMIA NUTS (or CASHEW NUTS) 1 DESSERTSPOON COCONUT OIL 2 TEASPOONS VANILLA EXTRACT 1/2 CUP LIGHT AGAVE NECTAR
PINCH OF SEA SALT FLAKES
Blend everything in a high speed blender or food processor until very smooth. Pour into chocolate molds and store in the freezer to keep their setting.
RAW, VEGAN DARK CHOCOLATE
1/2 CUP MELTED CACAO BUTTER 1/2 CUP COCONUT OIL 2/3 CUP RAW CACAO POWDER (or DUTCH PROCESS COCOA) 4 TABLESPOONS MAPLE SYRUP
PINCH OF SEA SALT FLAKES
Blend everything in a high speed blender or food processor until very smooth. Pour into chocolate molds and store in the freezer to keep their setting.
I’ve never tried broccoli in a smoothie before. It’s never occurred to me to put it into my drinks as I thought the texture might be a little odd. So when my friend Andrea from Zen Pilates sent me this recipe for a guest post, I was intrigued how it would both look and taste. I called this post The Green Smoothie in Disguise as the berries make it a pretty purple and the blended raw broccoli is cleverly hidden within their seedy texture.
Andrea is not only an awesome Pilates and Piloxing instructor at her Mt Lawley studio, but also a qualified Dietitian and one of the kindest people you’ll ever meet. She walks her talk more than anyone I know. I mean, look!
(photo by the amazing Alana Blowfield)
Hope you enjoy Andrea’s green smoothie recipe.
I was recently eating salad and my friend commented that I didn’t have any protein in my snack! Did you know Green Vegetables are rich in PROTEIN and jam packed high in micro-nutrients? My favourite Green Smoothie this summer is simple: a nutritious post-cardio exercise snack that will boost your protein intake and help to refuel glycogen levels in your muscles and liver. Or, simply enjoy as a way to boost the greens and micronutrient level in your diet.
SIMPLE GREEN SMOOTHIE
1 FROZEN BANANA 1/2 CUP FROZEN BERRIES 1/2 CUP SPINACH, (or kale or any green leafy vegetable) 1 CUP BROCCOLI FLORETS, CHOPPED 1 CUP COCONUT WATER
A FEW ICE CUBES
Mix in a blender and off you go!
Remember to NOURISH yourself every day. You can never eat too many greens!
Have a fabulous weekend everyone. Do something you enjoy!
x Andrea – Zen Pilates Perth
Mint Choc-Chip is my favourite ice cream flavour, ever, and I’ve been experimenting lately to make a worthy raw version that meets my high expectations (in case you’re wondering: the mint should sing as a clear flavour but not be toothpaste-like; the chocolate should be dark and bitter). The addition of kale or spinach juice to this ice cream makes me feel oh-so-vindicated of my ice cream obsession and as the ice cream is sandwiched between two delicious, raw, vegan brownie slices, this dessert is a super pretty one to serve to skeptics of healthy food.
The trick to getting these to look neat is to freeze everything in rectangular slabs and to make a template to cut them out with before assembling. It’s worth this extra fiddling about; freezing them together in layers won’t come out as good, (trust me).
RAW CHOCOLATE BROWNIE
1 CUP DRIED DATES, SEEDS REMOVED + CHOPPED 1/2 CUP ALMONDS 1/2 CUP PECANS 3/4 CUP RAW CACAO (or DUTCH PROCESSED COCOA, not raw)
1/4 CUP WATER (IF NEEDED)
Whizz all the ingredients in your food processor until combined. You may need to add a little water to make the mixture turn around but make sure it’s not too wet. Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to firm up a little. Then divide the mixture into two and roll each out separately with a rolling pin between two pieces of greaseproof paper to about 1cm (1/3 inch) thick. Leave them in between the papers and place on a flat tray in the freezer for a few hours to set.
RAW MINT CHOC-CHIP ICE CREAM
5 RIPE BANANAS, PEELED AND CHOPPED 2 DROPS EDIBLE SPEARMINT (OR MINT) ESSENTIAL OIL 1/3 CUP LIGHT AGAVE NECTAR 1/3 CUP FRESH SPINACH AND/OR KALE JUICE
1/3 CUP RAW CACAO NIBS
Whizz all the ingredients except the cacao nibs in your blender or food processor until really smooth. Place in a container into the freezer for an hour until the ice cream begins to thicken and set. Remove it before it hardens completely and stir through the cacao nibs (this way they won’t sink to the bottom as the ice cream is partially set). Now pour the ice cream mixture into a plastic-wrap lined rectangular tray or dish and freeze for at least 4 hours.
ASSEMBLY
Decide what shape you’d like to make your ice cream sandwiches (I did think about a hexagon, but then I couldn’t be bothered. There was ice cream: I wanted to eat it). Use a piece of paper as a template to cut your brownie slices out with a sharp knife and group into twos. Use the same process for cutting the ice cream, cutting one ice cream slab for every two brownie slices. Sandwich the ice cream between two brownies and you’re done! Store any extras in the freezer wrapped in greaseproof paper inside an airtight container.
The tropical smoothie; summer in a glass (or jar). It’s creamy, yummy, dairy-free and full of sunshine.
The mango delivers potassium, Vitamin C and calcium, banana gives you potassium and magnesium, lemon has lots of vitamin C and the coconut oil makes this taste like Hawaii plus has a heap of benefits. I love this for breakfast in summer.
TROPICAL SMOOTHIE
1 RIPE + JUICY MANGO, PEELED + CHOPPED JUICE OF 1/2 A LEMON 1 FROZEN BANANA, CHOPPED 1 DESSERTSPOON COCONUT OIL
1 CUP OF WATER (OR YOUNG COCONUT WATER)
Whizz all ingredients in a blender until smooth.
You need a dehydrator for this recipe, which is not my usual modus operandi, but I promise it’s worth it. These cookies taste incredible – they remind me of a more chocolate-y Kingston biscuit. Because these are raw, they’re loaded with healthy nuts, coconut oil, dates, flax and cacao instead of not-so-healthy sugar, cream, butter and flour. Good, right?
CHOCOLATE COOKIES
1 CUP ALMONDS, SOAKED FOR A FEW HOURS 1/2 CUP CASHEWS, SOAKED FOR A FEW HOURS 1/4 CUP FLAX SEEDS, GROUND TO A POWDER IN A COFFEE GRINDER 3/4 CUP DATES 1 TABLESPOON AGAVE NECTAR PINCH OF SEA SALT
1/2 CUP CACAO POWDER
Drain the almonds and cashews and whizz them in a food processor with the ground flax seeds until they break down and combine. Add the dates, agave nectar, salt and cacao powder and process until a dough forms – you might need to add a tiny bit of water to make this happen. Roll the dough between two sheets of baking paper until an even 1cm thick. Cut out cookie shapes and place on dehydrator trays. Dehydrate overnight or 8 – 9 hours until dry. They won’t be rock hard, but that’s a good thing.
CHOCOLATE CREME FILLING
1/3 CUP COCONUT OIL 1/2 CUP CACAO POWDER 1/3 CUP AGAVE NECTAR
PINCH OF SEA SALT
Whizz all ingredients in a food processor until smooth. Place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours to firm up before sandwiching in between two cookies. You can keep the sandwiched cookies in the fridge for about three days.
This is the juice I make again and again and again. Most mornings, in fact. I grab the ingredients on autopilot out of the fridge, stick them through Oscar The Juicer, pour it into a jar and head off to work.
Good stuff in this juice:
Apples hit you up with potassium, phosphorus, calcium, manganese, magnesium, iron and zinc (and makes all the green stuff in the juice more palatable).
Celery is alkalizing and provides vitamins A and K. It also contains a heap of sodium which is what makes it taste kind of salty. The good news is that natural plant sodium is soluble and organic and is essential for your body. Organic, or live salt lets your body use the other nutrients you’re consuming. It works like this: all the cells in our body are constantly bathed in a salt solution. If this gets out of balance, we get dehydrated. So celery juice is a winner in summer for staying hydrated. Nature’s sports drink, minus the bright blue colouring.
Lemon juice is full of vitamin C and boosts your immunity.
Kale looks after your blood and bones – it delivers masses of vitamins K, A and C.
Mint is sweet and cooling and provides a little vitamin A and manganese.
DAILY GREEN JUICE
2 GREEN APPLES 1/2 LEMON, PEELED 2 LEAVES KALE, WITH STALKS 2 STALKS CELERY, WITH LEAVES
2-3 SPRINGS OF FRESH MINT
Run all ingredients through a juicer, stir or shake before drinking. It’s good on ice, too.
Make it into something else: If you blend this juice with 1/2 an avocado, it makes a yummy raw soup for a light summer meal or snack.
Fresh fennel is a veggie that you can eat from base to leaves, or perhaps I should say: from bulb to fronds. In this salad, I’ve used the bulb very thinly sliced with crisp green apple and celery and then the fronds combined with mint to intensify the licorice-ish flavour. Raw fennel has hardly any calories (hooray) and delivers you a large hit of potassium (more than milk or broccoli) and also calcium. This salad is best made just before you’re wanting to eat it, and the ingredients should be refrigerated first, if possible, so that it is crisp and crunchy.
APPLE, FENNEL & WALNUT SALAD
2 CUPS VERY THINLY SLICED FENNEL (USE A MANDOLIN OR A FOOD PROCESSOR) 2 STALKS CELERY, VERY THINLY SLICED (USE A MANDOLIN OR A FOOD PROCESSOR) 1 CRISP GREEN APPLE, VERY THINLY SLICED (USE A MANDOLIN OR A FOOD PROCESSOR) 1/2 CUP WALNUTS 1 TABLESPOON FRESH MINT LEAVES
1 TABLESPOON FRESH FENNEL FRONTS
DRESSING
1 TABLESPOON EXTRA VIRGIN OLIVE OIL 2 TEASPOONS FRESH LEMON JUICE
SMALL PINCH OF FLAKED SEA SALT
Place all ingredients into a bowl and mix gently to combine. To make the dressing, shake or stir ingredients together and pour over the salad just before serving.