Acai smoothie find

At the time of writing there is only one raw vegan cafe in Sydney, run by Maya Melamed on the first Saturday of every month at Taste Organic at Crows Nest. So when I am in Sydney I do my best but if I am hungry I just eat something vegan or vegetarian. But I thought I would try and post anytime I find anything raw vegan.

Yesterday we were out with friends in Manly I was searching for a decent salad or fruit salad for lunch when it really felt like my intuition found this place. I walked into a Ground Zero cafe and found Acai smoothies !!! Dairy Free. It is so hard to find a dairy free smoothie.

Natural food colouring and flavouring

This is going to be a regularly edited post as I find more information. I'm looking at years of birthday cakes and party foods for my daughter but I don't want to use artificial food colouring. Here are some natural food sources for colour and flavour that may interest my fellow raw and natural food epicureans.

Beetroot powder

Beetroot powder has a slightly sweet taste that does not clash with other foods. It is an ideal substitute for artificial red colours.

Lavender flowers

Flavour ice-kream, syrup, chocolate, sun tea

Rosewater and orange water

Middle Eastern flavours

Turmeric

For yellow colour

Spirulina

Blue green colour

Acai berry powder or purple corn

Purple colour

Goji berries

Terracotta colour

Orange juice

Orange colour and flavour

Rock blissies

While working out another recipe this came out. It feature three of my daughters favourite foods, tahini, raw honey and raw cashews.

I can't post a recipe as I didn't measure the ingredients. Feel free to post one here as they are so easy to make. You just throw black tahini, raw honey or dates and raw cashews in the food processor. Process to all are smooth and share with everyone. I only managed to get one ad DH and DD scoffed the rest.

Kiwi Banana Chia Pudding

I don't often do recipes for one but I thought I would do one today. We are currently preparing to store our house, travel long and am also preparing a Raw Food course so I need energy and sustainability. So why not make it pleasurable with a chia pudding. Chia pudding is also one of the dishes we are featuring in our course so I am happy to practice making chia puddings, they are not difficult.

KiNana Chia

Recipe

Serves: 1

Equipment: Food processor or blender


Ingredients

1 kiwi fruit
1 banana
1 tsp raw honey or other sweetener of your choice
2 tbsp chia seeds

Place kiwi, banana and sweetener in blender. Process or blend till smooth. Pour into glass or mould that you would like to serve pudding in. Mix in the chia seeds and leave to set, 1/2 hour is a good time. Here in Australia it is getting warmer so I placed my chia pudding in the fridge but it's not completely necessary. So this is a great recipe to do before you jump in the shower.



Serve with strawberry sauce, strawberry or other pretty fruit.

Garnish with fine dessicated (dry) coconut and mint leaf

Strawberry Sauce

The strawberry sauce for this recipe came about as I had some strawberries that were softening so I basically had to consume them before it was too late. The softness was perfects and it fact I could probably have mashed them by hand but this is how I did it. It was used for a parfait I made for dessert last night so I didn't measure the yield.

Yield: approx. 1/2 cup sauce

10 strawberries
1 tsp agave syrup or sweetener of your choice

Blend till smooth.