Crispy Lemon Lime Chia Cookies

Crispy Lemon Lime Chia Cookies
If you have a dehydrator, I don't really know of an easier recipe to make cookies than this one. I love lemon and lime in this recipe, but you could use other flavours too; maybe your favorite natural cordial instead of the citrus juice? 🙂 Also, these cookies are gluten free, sugar free, oil free, pretty much everything free, but still not made of dust 🙂
Cuisine: vegan & raw
Recipe type: dehydrated
Serves: 20
Prep time: 
Cook/wait time: 
Total time: 
You need
  • ½ cup chia seeds
  • juice of 1 lemon
  • juice of 1 lime
  • zest of ½ lemon
  • zest of ½ lime
  • 2 pipettes (1/2 tsp) of liquid Vanilla Stevia (or plain Stevia)
  • top up water
  • optional: anything for decoration (I used pumpkin seeds, but red berries, like Goji berries, would look great!)
To do
  1. pour lemon and lime juice in a measuring cup. Top up with water to half a cup
  2. in a bowl, mix the juice/water with the zest, Stevia and seeds
  3. let sit for 20-30 minutes
  4. place about ½ to ¾ a table spoon of the mixture on your dehydrator sheet, that should make around 20 cookies (of course you can make them bigger or smaller)
  5. dehydrate till dry and crisp, about 4 hours (flip them over half way)

 

 

Crispy Lemon Lime Chia Cookies

Crispy Lemon Lime Chia Cookies

Power House Bites

Power House Bites
I hummed eating these, and so I know they're not only yum but my body knows they're nutritious too - and of course they are, being full of nuts and seeds 😉 If you don't mind getting your hands a little dirty, these are great for quick energy, and you can take them anywhere. If I make many, I keep them in a container in the fridge but they are fine in a small bag in a lunch box.
Prepared by:
Cuisine: vegan, raw
Recipe type: energy snack
Serves: 50
Prep time: 
Total time: 
You need
  • 5 dates
  • ½ cup of (activated) almonds
  • ½ cup of (activated) hazelnuts
  • ½ cup of flax seeds (I used golden seeds, they taste a tad milder)
  • ½ cup of pumpkin seeds
  • ½ cup of activated buckwheat (they are nice and crisp)
  • 2 tbsp molasses
  • 3 tbsp black tahini (brown will do fine too)
  • zest of ½ (large) lemon, or more to taste
To do
  1. In your food processor, roughly grind the hardest nuts first: almonds and hazelnuts
  2. when rather fine, add the flax seeds and pumpkin seeds, and run machine again
  3. when all is incorporated, add buckwheat, molasses and lemon zest, mix again
  4. the tahini is the glue, so add first 2 table spoons, and see if you need more; take a table spoon of the mixture and squeeze it into a ball. If it doesn't hold together well, add some more tahini.
  5. Do taste while you are mixing, you may want more lemon zest or not. You should be able to pick up a hint of lemony tartness 🙂
Nutritional Information
Serving size: 1 ball Calories: 55 Fat: 3.5gr Trans fat: 0 Carbohydrates: 5 Sugar: 1.75 Sodium: 1mg Protein: 2gr Cholesterol: 0

 

Gluten free Gnocchi w Peas, Basil & Lemon Sauce

Gluten free Gnocchi w Peas, Basil & Lemon Sauce
A quick dish to make, especially if you have Cashew Cream sitting in the fridge. I love the taste of lemon zest in dishes like this and pasta, it seems to lift all flavours 🙂
Prepared by:
Cuisine: vegan
Recipe type: main
Serves: 1
Prep time: 
Cook/wait time: 
Total time: 
You need
  • about ½ to ¾ cup of gluten free gnocchi
  • ½ to ¾ cup of peas
  • half a cup of Cashew Cream
  • a small hand of fresh basil leafs, or about 8, chopped or torn
  • 2 tbsp of lemon juice
  • zest of ½ lemon
  • ½ cup of almond milk (or similar non dairy milk)
  • 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • oil to cook
To do
  1. heat some oil in a small pan, add the peas and garlic and heat till peas are cooked
  2. add some salt & pepper
  3. in another pan, cook the gnocchi
  4. use a small pan for the sauce: heat the non dairy milk and lemon juice, when just coming to the boil, add cashew cream, zest, salt and pepper
  5. stir and add more milk if too thick
  6. place gnocchi & peas on plate, pour sauce on top and then the fresh basil

 

Sweet Citrus & Curry Macadamia Bites

Sweet Citrus & Curry Macadamia Bites
Hubbie loves to have a few of these if he doesn't have time to make breakfast before work. I love them the rest of the day 🙂
Prepared by:
Cuisine: vegan
Recipe type: snack
Cook/wait time: 
Total time: 
You need
  • ¾ cup of ground raw macadamia nuts (grind them in the coffee grinder to a thick paste)
  • zest of 1 lime
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • 2 tsp curry powder (hot if you like it)
  • ½ tbsp of raw agave nectar
  • pinch of Himalayan rock salt
To do
  1. I actually grind the macadamias in the coffee grinder, because of the small amount, but you can make it in any processor or blender.
  2. don't grind the nuts into a nut butter, it will be useless then (well, for balls), you want the paste to be thick like a thick dough
  3. then with a fork, mix the rest of the ingredients in and form balls
  4. you could roll them through sesame seeds, or dessicated coconut, but you can leave them naked too 🙂
Notes
Keep them in the fridge, but they should be fine in a lunch box if the weather is not too hot.

 

Lemon Coconut Yoghurt w Raw Buckwheat Granola

Lemon Coconut Yoghurt w Raw Buckwheat Granola
Uh ohhhh.... Just as well this is awfully healthy because it is tempting to have more 😉
Prepared by:
Cuisine: vegan
Recipe type: Breakfast
Serves: 1
Prep time: 
Total time: 
You need
  • ½ to ¾ cup of coconut yoghurt
  • 3 - 4 tbsp of CocoQuench (diluted coconut milk, 20% coconut)
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • ⅓ - ½ cup of raw buckwheat granola (how much is really up to you)
To do
  1. mix the yoghurt with the milk so that you have a nice creamy consistency
  2. stir in the lemon zest
  3. top with granola, or top the granola with the yoghurt
  4. munch!

 

Raw Beetroot, Ginger & Coconut Soup

 

Raw Beetroot, Ginger & Coconut Soup
This soup is absolutely lovely; if you get the balance right, it is just plain surprising. To be served cold or at room temperature. This is what I did, for 4 entrée size portions:
Prepared by:
Cuisine: raw vegan
Recipe type: soup
Serves: 4
Prep time: 
Total time: 
You need
  • 2 beetroots medium sized
  • 1 tbsp raw agave nectar
  • 1.5 cup of filtered water
  • ½ of spring onion
  • ½ medium red onion
  • 2 tbsp dried Dill
  • ¾ cup of Coconut Cream (fats scooped off in my recipe, but feel free to leave it in)
  • about 1.5cm of fresh ginger
  • juice of about ½ to 1 lemon
  • pepper
  • 1.5 tsp Himalayan Rock Salt
To do
  1. grate the beetroot
  2. then add everything to a blender and blend till smooth. Unless you have a high powered blender, this will keep some beetroot bits.
  3. serve!
Notes
I served this at room temperature, but would serve it cold in summer, even with a few ice cubes 🙂

 

Lemon ‘Butter Cake’

Lemon 'Butter Cake'

Lemon ‘Butter Cake’

 

This is based on a Dutch recipe (‘Boterkoek’), something I crave once in a while. The original cake is made with real butter, and although this version isn’t as rich, it still is very nice.

You need:

°    200gr of white flour (I use spelt, as always)
°    175gr of plant based butter
°    125gr organic brown sugar
°    a pinch of salt
°    1 heaped tsp of vanilla paste (or essence, but organic, for usually ‘natural’ vanilla comes from a beaver’s castor sacs, near his bum, and is called ‘castoreum’ but not labelled like that – just in case you didn’t know 😉 )
°    zest of 1.5 lemons
°    1 tbsp non dairy milk

You do:

– preheat oven to 200C
– mix everything and put in slightly oiled baking tray. I used a muffin tray to make small cakes.
– bake for max. 20min, check at 15min, they may be fine then

Cool for about 15 minutes, pop the cake(s) out and transfer to a rack to further cool down. Keep in a container.

Raw Cucumber & Avocado Soup w Capers

 

 

Raw Cucumber & Avocado Soup w Capers
This is a lovely, delicate soup, served cold. Although made with avocado, it is not heavy at all.
Prepared by:
Cuisine: raw & vegan
Recipe type: soup
You need
  • ½ tall cucumber, chopped
  • 1 avocado, peeled and roughly chopped
  • 1 cup of coconut water
  • 1 heaped tsp of fennel seed
  • 1 pinch of mild chilli powder
  • juice & zest of ½ lime
  • juice & zest of ½ lemon
  • 10 fresh basil leafs
  • pepper
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 tsp of capers (or more, but it shouldn't become a caper soup 🙂 )
  • optional: ½ tbsp of Smoky Toasted Coconut Flakes, or plain toasted coconut flakes.
To do
  1. put everything except for the last two items in the blender, and whizz until it is a nice fluffy soup
  2. taste and tweak
  3. cool in fridge
  4. when you serve, top with capers, an extra basil leaf and coconut flakes.
Notes
If you want to make toasted coconut flakes: just toss some flakes in a dry hot pan and stir, they will toast pretty quickly. Once off the heat they will continue to crisp.
Here's a recipe for baked smoky flakes, and here's one for raw smoky flakes.

Lemon & Garlic Tahini Dip

Lemon & Garlic Tahini Dip
A very simple but yummie dip, the zest gives it a beautiful flavour. It takes a lot of garlic, if you are afraid to use this much, try less and add to taste 🙂
Prepared by:
Cuisine: vegan, raw
Recipe type: sauce/dip
Prep time: 
Total time: 
You need
  • 4 tbsp of black Tahini (normal Tahini will do if you don’t have the black version)
  • 4 cloves of garlic
  • zest of 1 lemon
  • pinch of salt
To do
  1. mix and serve as dip. If you’d like it thinner, then dilute with a tad of lemon juice, non dairy milk or even water.

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