Sweet Maca!

My friend Adam LOVES maca.  He likes it so much that he practically eats it by the spoonful.  What is maca?  Its an Incan cousin to the radish that is crazy rich in nutrients like B-vitamins, zinc, potassium, magnesium, sterols, amino acids, fatty acids, and more calcium than milk.  It was an important part of an Incan warrior's diet and is available in powdered form here in the US at health food stores and online.
Maca is known as a hormone balancing adaptogen that provides strength and endurance as well as mental clarity.  I know some people who like maca on their popcorn, mixed into (coconut) yogurt, and in their morning smoothies.  I like maca best when its paired with chocolate.  Adam was over tonight, and although I still think he'd prefer to have maca alone, together we made two maca based desserts/snacks that I'm really excited about!


Raw Cacao Maca "Butter Cups"

Chocolate coating:
Cacao butter
Coconut oil
Agave nectar
Vanilla
Cacao powder
Lucuma powder
Mesquite powder


Maca filling:
.5 cup soaked almonds
.5 cup soaked cashews
1 cup maca
sea salt
2 dates, pitted plus 1/8 cup raw local honey


In a double boiler, melt cacao butter and coconut oil down.  I don't have exact measurements for the chocolate- feel it out.  Sugar would work instead of agave nectar.  Lucuma and mesquite are raw sweeteners and flavor enhancers that give raw chocolate an almost caramel taste.  They are not necessary to have great chocolate.  If you want to simplify- melt any good quality chocolate bar in a double boiler.
Turn the heat off and after chocolate cools slightly spoon into muffin tins.


The maca filling was actually doubled for the maca bars listed below- and it was made in the food processor.  I use raw, local honey and dates to sweeten and bind most of my nut mixtures.  [[I know honey isn't vegan.  I'm vegan first for health reasons- and I can't find a better cure for allergies than raw, local honey.  Plus its delicious and binds well in raw sweets :) ]] If you'd like to use only dates- I've found that 2 dates is about the same as 1 tbs of honey.  After the food processor mixes the maca "dough" roll into balls and then smoosh into flat pancake-ish shapes and throw on top of your chocolate hanging out in the muffin tins.  Spoon more chocolate over maca pancake-ish discs and freeze for at least 15 minutes.  


Cinnamon Maca Bars

.5 cup soaked almonds

.5 cup soaked cashews

1 cup maca

sea salt

2 dates, pitted plus 1/8 cup raw local honey

1 cup coconut flakes

1/4 cup coconut oil

2 tbs cinnamon

1 tsp ginger

1 pinch cayenne

Process in food processor until a dough ball forms.  Flatten out into a small bar pan, freeze for at least 10 minutes and cut into squares.  Wrap in aluminum foil for easy transport.  

Better than Lara Bars!  Filled with Maca energy :)

Raw Raspberry Chezcake Bites

Valentines Day is this Sunday and I don't have a special Valentine lined up.  Most single girls can get pretty bummed about Valentines Day, but not me.  Valentines Day just gives me an opportunity to make goodies for people I care about.  No romance for me, just lots of sweet treats.  

Tonight I took a break from studying and made Raw Raspberry Chezcake Bites.  These red and white bites are super festive and tasty.  The crust is so good it could be eaten by itself, and actually its a similar recipe to my raw pecan snickerdoodles.  The filling was whipped together in my blender- just young coconut meat, soaked raw cashews, lemon, and vanilla.  Together the chezcake filling and the cookie-like crust would be enough to put a smile on anyone's face, but since its mid February I jazzed up these gems with a raspberry sauce- just raspberries and agave blended together.  You could make this into a full size chezcake, or if you have a mini muffin pan, use that!  I put the chezcake filling into a sandwich bag and cut a hole in one end and piped it into the mini crusts, and used the baggie trick for the raspberry topping too.  

Raw Raspberry Chezcake Bites

Crust:

1 cup almonds

.5 cup pecans

2 dates pitted

pinch salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tbs of coconut oil

Process in food processor until sticky, press into pan or muffin tin.

Filling:

1 cup soaked raw cashews

meat from 1 young thai coconut

zest from a full lemon

juice from half the lemon

1 tsp vanilla

2 tbs honey (or 6 dates or .3 cup agave)

Blend until smooth, scrape into pan or sandwich bag to pipe into mini muffin tin.

Raspberry Topping:

.5 cup of frozen raspberries

agave to taste

Swirl with chezcake filling.  Freeze chezcake bites or full chezcake until firm and enjoy!

Pumpkin Ginger Ice Cream and Raw Pecan Pie

This summer I couldn't stop making berry based ice creams with my ice cream maker.  Now that its colder, I still crave ice cream but since I like to stay seasonal I knew that a pumpkin ice cream was in the works.  I used (organic) canned pumpkin for the ice cream.  If you'd like to channel your inner Martha Stewart and dissect and roast your own pumpkin, I encourage you to do so!  Also, if you accidentally grabbed a can of pumpkin pie filling, it will work- just omit the sweetener and the other spices except ginger and cinnamon.  

This ice cream pairs well with nuts- specifically a raw pecan pie!  Why raw?  Why not?!  Cooked pecan pie recipes are filled with refined sugar, wheat flour, and eggs or tofu- this one is just filled with love!

Pumpkin Ginger Ice Cream

1.5 cups of raw cashew pieces

1 cup water

1 cup pumpkin

1 tsp cinnamon

1 quarter sized knob of peeled ginger

1/2 tsp each of cloves, allspice, and nutmeg

3/4 cup maple syrup (or 1/2 cup agave nectar)

Raw Pecan Pie

crust:

1.5 cups raw walnuts

1/2 cup raw almonds

1 tbs cinnamon

1 tsp salt

1 tbs agave nectar

filling:

30 pitted and soaked dates

3/4 cup chopped pecans

1/4 cup coconut oil

1/4 cup agave nectar or 1/2 cup maple syrup (not raw)

pinch salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon & nutmeg

1 tsp vanilla extract

Top with 25-35 pecans.

 To start I soaked raw cashew pieces in water.  Cashews, in my opinion make the best dairy free ice cream.  I find them in the bulk bins at the health food store or Whole Foods.  While the cashews are soaking, go ahead and pit some dates (about 30ish) and soak those too (in a separate container).  Fill your food processor with walnuts, almonds, salt, cinnamon, and agave nectar until a ball forms (if a ball doesn't form add more agave or maybe some water).  When the crust is in a ball, roll out flat and smush into a 9" pie pan and pop in the fridge.  Drain the cashews and add to the Vitamix with the rest of the ice cream ingredients and puree until smooth.  Scrape the ice cream ingredients into the ice cream maker and let the magic happen while you're making the filling for your pie.  In the food processor again (you kinda washed it out, right?) add the ingredients for the filling except the pecans.  Process until smooth then pulse in the chopped pecans.  Pour into the crust and top with the fancy pecan halves on top.  By this time the ice cream maker should have worked some magic...  Serve together or separate!  

If the ice cream, filling, or crust isnt the right consistency- don't be afraid to thin out with water or add more ingredients to make it thicker...  The beauty of vegan desserts is the flexibility!  These amounts are all approximations- change up the recipe if you'd like and let me know how it turned out :)

Thanksgiving 2009

I can't believe all of the positive press this year about alternative offerings at the Thanksgiving table!  US Weekly featured Kimberly Snyder and her Raw Pecan Love Pie in their recent issue, the local paper today had a cover story about gluten-free side dishes, and even Martha Stewart had an episode about having a vegetarian Thanksgiving!

When alternative eating goes mainstream I get super excited.  We all have our reasons for veering from the Standard American Diet- and the more veg press (or even GF press) there is, the better chance that us who choose alternative diets wont feel so ostracized or alone.  

This year my Thanksgivings were great! and I think everyone left the table full and happy.  I could have easily served this meal in courses, but I think everything served family style is essential for holiday dinners.  I had two Thanksgivings at my house this year, most dishes were overlapped, but some things were different.

For starters on Thanksgiving #1, I served olive hummus on sliced cucumbers out in the living room.  I had sparkling water, blackberry sage iced tea, and an iced yerba mate for drink options (as well as coffee just in case).  When we said our thanks at the dinner table we had creamy turnip soup, fennel salad, basil green beans and tomatoes, cranberry apple dressing, shitake and millet casserole, and curried sweet potato fries.  After dinner we got comfy back in the living room for pecan pie and pumpkin ginger ice cream.

Saturday morning I visited the farmers' market (for you Louisville locals- the Bardstown Road market is year round) and picked up some turnips, potatoes, baby tomatoes, apples, onions, and sweet potatoes.   The creamy turnip soup is actually a modified version of the potato and root vegetable soup I posted a few weeks ago- I just added more turnips and cashews and switched the yukons for russets- although I prefer the yukons for a soup potato- the russets made the soup very gelatinous.  

The fennel salad was inspired by my Aunt Lynn.  When I saw fennel bulbs at the market I knew I had to include them for Thanksgiving because she'd been raving about how wonderful fennel was for months.  I then found a recipe in my Raw Food Real World book that paired fennel with grapefruit and avocado- and knowing her signature Christmas salad includes citrus and avocado- I made the match and added some pomegranate seeds, coriander, lemon, mint, and black pepper.  

I couldn't believe that local fresh tomatoes would still be for sale in Kentucky in late November, but they were perfect to toss with some blanched green beans and a great pairing for the (super easy) shitake and millet casserole.  Thanksgiving wouldn't be thanksgiving without cranberries and sweet potatoes, so I jazzed up the cranberries with apples, walnuts, and an orange and tossed the sweet potato fries with some cayenne, cumin, maple syrup and garam masala. 

For Thanksgiving #2, I skipped the appetizer, but for drinks fixed a rooibos and fennel iced tea and popped opened a bottle of sparkling apple cider.  The meal included the same shitake and millet casserole, cranberry apple dressing, and sweet potato fries from the first meal, but I served the green beans with almonds, made some redskin and cauliflower mashed potatoes, and garlicky kale.  The pecan pie and pumpkin ginger ice cream were served again for dessert.

I hope everyone's holiday was wonderful.  I am so thankful for my family and friends and for my comfy home.  

If you'd like to get a recipe of something I mentioned above, please comment!