Tag: gf

Salted Raw Chocolate with Cacao Nibs

Ingredients

  • 70g Raw Cacao Paste (wafer form is the easiest)
  • 30g Raw Cacao Butter (preferably wafers)
  • 40g Creamed Coconut (cut into smallish pieces)
  • 70g Coconut Palm Sugar
  • Vanilla Essence, Paste or Powder (optional)
  • Sea Salt or Himalayan Salt to taste
  • Cacao Nibs to taste (around 20g)

Method

Weigh out the cacao paste, cacao butter and creamed coconut and put them all in a small glass bowl

Place the bowl over saucepan full of hot water (creating a Bain Marie) and keep stirring until all of the ingredients have melted. This will probably take less than 5 minutes.

When the mixture is liquid stir in the sugar and vanilla essence. The sugar may not all dissolve completely in the mix but stir for a few minutes to dissolve it as much as possible.

Add salt to taste – I use a salt grinder and do three or four twists

Add in the cacao nibs, if you like your chocolate crunchy put in more, if you prefer it smooth add less.

Either pour into a specially made chocolate mould or, like me, use a saucer lined with greaseproof paper.

You can set the chocolate quickly by placing it in the freezer, but the fridge works just as well.

It is best to keep the chocolate in the fridge as it has quite a low melting point. It is quite rich, so you won’t need much to satisfy your chocolate craving.

At a glance conversion

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Spinach Pesto

I came up with this recipe when I was trying to think of what to do with spinach from my veg box. It would works just as well with other leafy greens such as chard or even spring greens. This makes enough sauce for about 4 people.

Ingredients

Making the pesto with rainbow chard and red onions
  • Medium sized onion
  • A whole small courgette or half a large courgette, diced into small chunks
  • Spinach – about 200g cut into small strips
  • Garlic to taste (a couple of cloves)
  • A handful of Pine nuts
  • Nutritional yeast flakes about a tablespoon full
  • A little vegan butter or olive oil
  • Seasoning (I just use pepper)

Method

1. Saute the onion and garlic gently in the butter

2. Add in the courgette diced into small pieces and cook for a few minutes

3. Add the spinach and cook till well wilted

4. Add the pine nuts and for a minute or two

5. Add the nutritional yeast flakes and seasoning as required

6. Blend the mix until it is a smooth, green, paste. if the mix is too thick add a little water or vegetable stock but this will probably not be necessary as spinach releases a lot of water when cooking.

7. Serve with gnocchi or pasta. Any left over sauce can be put into a jar and kept in the fridge for a few days.

At a glance conversion

To help those working in pounds, ounces or cups

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