Recipe: Chocolate-Avocado Pudding

This week’s healthy recipe comes by way of Marni Wasserman, a Toronto-based Certified Nutritional Practitioner who we absolutely love. Her values align strongly with ours, and her cooking classes happen to be an amazing value – 8 recipes in 3 hours!

Here’s a recipe you’ll be able to use as a substitute for highly processed Hallowe’en treats this weekend.

Raw Chocolate Avocado Pudding

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe avocadoes
• 2 tbsp vanilla extract
• 2 tbsp maple syrup (raw purists can leave this one out)
• 4 medjool dates (soaked overnight)
• 1 tbsp pure unsweetened raw cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp raw almond butter or 1/2 cup raw almonds (soaked in water for 8 hours overnight)
• 1 tsp cinnamon

Instructions:

1. Combine the ingredients in a blender and whirl until well-blended into a thick, creamy pudding.
2. Divide the pudding into 2 servings.
3. Enjoy!

Health Benefits

• Avocadoes are a source of healthy fats, potassium, manganese, vitamin E, and folate. Folate has been shown to have positive effects towards heart disease, stroke, fertility, and depression.
• Almonds are a good source of healthy fats, calcium, protein, vitamin E, and riboflavin (vitamin B2). Riboflavin deficiencies have been linked to cracked lips, dry and scaling skin, and iron-deficiency anemia.

More of Marni’s recipes (including lovely cooked vegan ones) can be found on her blog. Thanks Marni!

Wrinkle-Fighting Recipe: Almond-Fennel Soup

This recipe comes to us from Chef Omid Jaffari, a renowned raw food chef based out of Japan and Australia. He features other outstanding recipes on his blog: Shiitake.

Yields 2 servings.

Ingredients

Soup

• 1 cup blanched almonds
• 2 cups of pure water
• 1 celery stick, chopped
• ½ cup fennel, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, grated
• 1 tsp ginger, grated
• 4 leaves basil
• A dash of TTS Nama Shoyu

Garnish

• Edible flowers
• 1 stalk spring onion, thinly sliced

Method

Soup

• Soak the almonds in 2 cups of pure water overnight or for 4-5 hours.
• Blend all the ingredients together until smooth and creamy. Transfer it to a bowl, cover and refrigerate it for 30 minutes to slightly chill and mature.

Garnish

Thinly slice the spring onion, cover with cold water and refrigerate for about 5 minutes.

Mounting Your Work

Pour the chilled almond-fennel soup into two soup glasses/bowls and garnish with sliced spring onion and edible flowers.

How will it help wrinkles?

This soup is an excellent source of vitamin E, a natural antioxidant that scavenges the free radicals that oxidize fats, preserves the integrity of cell membranes, and protects the body against connective tissue damage, which leads to wrinkles.

It’s also a good source of dietary fiber, which is important in expelling toxins from your body that would contribute to deterioration in the skin’s connective tissues.

Other Health Benefits

• Very good source of vitamin B2 and moderate source of other B-complex vitamins, which are necessary to maintain normal metabolic activities.
• Very good source of magnesium, which helps in relieving fatigue, relaxing the muscles, nerves and blood vessels, thus relieving the symptoms of asthma, migraine headaches, tension and soreness in muscles etc.
• Very good source of copper and manganese.  They function as cofactors in various metabolic reactions and enhance the activity of enzymes involved in the detoxification process.

Nutritional Information per Serving (% Daily Value)

Calories: 20% (411 Cal); Total Fats: 54%; Saturated Fats: 13%; Carbohydrates: 6%; Proteins: 31%; Fibre: 41%; Magnesium: 50%; Phosphorus: 36%; Copper: 36%; Manganese: 85%; Vitamin E: 93%; Vitamin B2: 42%.

Chef Omid Jaffari is stopping in Toronto from September 16th to 19th, 2009, during his North American Al-Fresco Tour (including Los Angeles, New York, and Montreal). He will be holding a gourmet raw food cooking class for foodies and those interested in advanced nutritional science. Email us or call 1.800.252.2826 if you’re interested in learning more about this class.

Wrinkle-Fighting Recipe: Raw 2-Bite Brownies

Refined sugar is a major cause of wrinkles, so here is a recipe that will give you your fix and actually help protect your skin’s cells from aging.

Time:

• 5 minutes.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup raw pumpkin seeds
• 1 cup raw dates
• 1 tbsp raw chocolate powder (this is expensive, so I will look the other way if you use regular cocoa powder)
• 2 tbsp cold-pressed coconut oil/butter
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tbsp bee pollen
• Pinch Celtic sea salt
• Couple squeezes of raw agave nectar or raw honey

Tools:

• Food processor

Directions:

• Pour the seeds, chocolate powder, and salt into the food processor. Blend until coarse.
• Keep blending and add the dates in one at a time, to avoid clumping.
• Add the agave nectar, coconut oil/butter, and vanilla last. Blend again.
• Form into small balls, or into bars to wrap up and keep in your car, purse, or desk.

Wrinkle-Fighting Details:

• Pumpkin seeds contain zinc, which promotes cell repair and growth, and is a key member of a group of enzymes that helps to maintain skin’s collagen supply. Without zinc, the enzymes that rebuild new collagen do not function properly. In addition to preventing wrinkles, Zinc also prevents and aids in the healing of stretch marks, cellulite, and other outward signs of aging.
• Bee pollen is a sulfur-residue food, which contains enzymes that keep the skin flexible and the collagen strong by rebuilding cells and protecting them from damage. It’s also nature’s natural multi-vitamin.
• Coconut oil contains tocotrienols, which are type of vitamin E that protects the skin from wrinkling caused by the sun.

Disclaimer:

Cocoa, even the raw kind, is not “healthy” for you. In fact, it can be toxic. Although there is only a small amount in this recipe, this doesn’t mean that you can eat as much as you want. With any dessert, moderation is important.

Sources:

• Paul Nison, 18-year raw vegan
  
• David Wolfe, Eating for Beauty