Raspberry Pecan Balls

There is a nut and berry breakfast bar recipe in the Rawvolution book (posted to my Facebook page before my blog was created) that I have used to make berry balls. I like this format instead of bars because they dehydrate faster, you can make different kinds at the same time and they can be dehydrated alongside crackers or cookies by filling empty spots on trays. Plus, they're more fun to eat and are child portion friendly!

I've made some with blueberries, strawberries, coconut, hemp, almonds, and even babnana but my favourite is the berry ball I crafted for Fathers's Day:

Raspberry Pecan.

"Pecans rank highest among all nuts and are among the top category of foods to contain the highest antioxidant capacity, meaning pecans may decrease the risk of cancer, coronary heart disease, and neurological diseases such as Alzheimer’s."
Find out more about the healthful benefits of pecans here.
Like me, you'll love this recipe because the ingredient list is simple:

• 4 soaked dates, approx 1/3 cup water (use more dates for more sweetness)
• 2 cups ground pecans
• 2 cups frozen raspberies
• 1 cup whole chia seeds (more or less, to absorb liquid)

I recommend using frozen raspberries and placing them in the freezer once processed into bits so they remain "hard" instead of becoming mushy. This makes it easier to form balls.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together ground pecans and raspberry bits then place in the freezer.

Blend (or process) the dates with their soaking water. Mix in the chia seeds, they will absorb all liquid.

Add the chia and date mixture to the large bowl. Mix thoroughly and form balls with your hands.

Place in the freezer when the phone rings... or to hide if it's a surprise!

Dehydrate for 24 hours, producing slightly soft and chewy Raspberry Pecan Balls!

Maybe I should have called these: Raspberry Pecan Power Packed Antioxidant Balls.

Fun to note: this recipe was inspired by a salad we had for supper alongside smoked trout a few days earlier in June: we had spinach, parsley, raspberries, red onion slices and pecan pieces with a simple vinaigrette made of olive oil, maple syrup and raw apple cider.

Together, raspberries and pecans do make a lovely duo!

...Leave a comment...

What raw pairings do you enjoy most?

Citrus Cookies by Eric (raw gourmet)

How proud I felt when Eric, my spouse, said: "I want to make raw cookies too."

To appreciate this fully, you must know that Eric is a trained chef. He no longer works in that industry but my oh my, he's got the goods! This recipe is top notch.

This cookie is not sweet, it is more like a dry gourmet biscuit, nice for breakfast with fruit salad, yogurt or cottage cheese.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups of pulp from juicing: 6 oranges, 2 grapefruits, 2 lemons and 6 large carrots.
• 2 cups almonds (finely processed)
• 1 cup walnuts, processed until they reach a buttery consistency
• 1/4 cup hemp seeds
• 2 tbsp. coconut oil (can be blended with the nuts)
• 2 tbsp. bee pollen
• 2 tbsp. lemon rind and 2 tbsp. orange rind, finely chopped
• 4tbsp agave nectar

Begin with juicing the peeled citrus fruits and carrots. Drink up!

Place the pulp in a large bowl, remove bigger fibrous pieces and any lemon seeds, etc. Mash and mix.

Add all other ingredients and mix thoroughly.

Firmly roll the mixture in plastic wrap, forming rolls of same size. Pleace in the fridge or freezer for them to harden and carefully slice. You will need to reshape some cookies with your fingers so they are uniformly shaped, as shown in our video:

 

Dehydrate at 105F for 24-26 hours, until they are completely crisp. As with all dehydrated foods, it is best to keep refrigerated in an airtight container and eat within 10 days. If you leave them in the cupboard, they will go sour within a week.

We thoroughly enjoyed topped with thin slices of orange and granny smith apple.

Benjamin said these taste like banana bread.... Success!

I posted a raw dehydrated banana pattie type recipe before, it was ok. It was very healthy with bee pollen and maca but not like good old fashioned baked banana bread!

These banana carob soft cookies are getting closer to the real thing.

I'm limiting my sugar intake, I'll describe what I did but feel free to add a touch of agave, honey or a couple more dates. If my 11 year old step son Benjamin likes them, to me, it's a winner recipe since he hasn't enjoyed my other dehydrated deserts. these cookies don't contain nuts so they are safe for the school lunchbox.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup carob powder
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp maca powder (optional)
• 1/2 tsp cayenne spice (optional)
• 2/3 cup shredded coconut
• 2/3 cup hemp seeds
• 1 cup milled flax seed
• 1/2 cup water
• 6 lage bananas (frozen or not)
• 3 pitted dates, soaked in just enough water to cover
• 2 to 3 tbsp coconut butter (also called coconut oil)
• 1/4 cup or more, chia seeds

Begin with stirring the water into the milled flax. Set that aside.

Mix together the dry ingredients, except the chia seeds.

I had purchased this bag of bananas for $1 at the grocery store. As soon as I arrived home, they went in the freezer. that was a couple of weeks ago.

Blend together banana pieces, dates and soaking water.

Blend the rest of the banana pieces with a chunk of coconut butter/oil.

The blended frozen banana is nice alternative to ice cream. My toddlers loved it!

I liked it more with dates in it!

Once the banana mixture is incorporated to the dry ingredients, add the flax. The dough will be quite soft/liquid. Add chia seeds, fold them in and let stand about 5 minutes. Mix thoroughly and determine if this is a texture you can spoon drop onto your lined dehydrator trays, if it is too liquid, add more chia seeds and repeat the waiting and mixing steps.

While you wait, check out the site linked below!

I just learned that Chia is being studied as a potential natural treatment for type-2 diabetes because of its ability to slow down digestion. The gelatinous coating chia seeds develops when exposed to liquids-can also prevent blood sugar spikes. 9 more beautiful benefits of chia seeds are listed here.  

My dehydrator tray is lined with cling wrap. I don't use this material often because of it's short life cycle but this was my remedy to only having one silicone tray.

Dehydrate for 20 to 24 hours, turning them over and removing the plastic liner once they have become hard enough. Store in an airtight container in the fridge.

I made berry balls at the same time.

This was a batch of 60 cookies. Less are photographed because... well, I'm sure you can guess why!

Raw Banana Bread

Right from the start, I want to write that when I make this again, I won't use as much milled flax seed. I think I used enough flax for making it with a dozen bananas! This batch is good, the bee pollen adds a nice touch. I had the intention of putting coconut oil too but I forgot!

Dehydrated so they are still soft, these do resemble bread in texture. When I make this again, I will also add dates or raisins because it is not as sweet as I had expected. Perhaps more nutmeg too.

This raw banana bread will taste amazing with a cup of mocha healthy coffee!

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 cup milled flax seed
• 1/3 cup whole chia seed
• 2 to 3 Tbsp agave nectar (can also use maple syrup or honey although not raw)
• 1/3 cup shredded coconut
• 1/4 cup hemp hearts
• 6 ripe bananas, fresh or frozen 
• 2 Tbsp lemon juice
• vanilla bean (or vanilla extract)
• 2 Tbsp water
• a handful of pine nuts
• 1Tbsp nutmeg and/or cinnamon
• 1 Tbsp bee pollen (optional)
• sprinkle of maca (optional)

In a bowl which you can later cover with a lid, stir together the flax, chia, agave, nutmeg and vanilla puree. If you don't have dry vanilla bean, use some liquid extract.

I had never used vanilla beans or pods before, this was given to me by my sister Melissa (as well as the lovely flowering plant) I used the whole thing.

  

With a touch of water, blend the vanilla bean, scraping the edges down, repeat and add a handful of pine nuts to weigh down the liquid.

Blend until it looks like this:

Peel the bananas, I used frozen, and process (My food processor was a better tool than my blender for this step) with a touch of lemon juice.

Mix the banana cream in with the seed mixture and let sit in the fridge, covered, for at least an hour for the seeds to absorb any available moisture from the sweet fruit.

In a large bowl, place the coconut, hemp, bee pollen and maca (if using). Throw in your big banana ball and mix. You will easily form coconut coated balls or patties with your hands. Dehydrate at 105F for 5 to 6 hours. The look of this food will not change much from before to after the dehydrating.

Loaf Crackers (raw)

The recipe here is sensibly the same as my previous cracker recipes. Pick one of these two as your base (ingredients AND mixing instructions):
Raw Vegetable Crackers - Yes! There is a use for juice pulp
Rooster's pizza crust

I used less walnuts than in the recipes above because I ran out but substituted with more pine nuts as well as more milled flax. I also used some raw veg juice pulp which had been frozen for a couple of days so I was able to make a bigger batch of crackers.

As you can see, I made two loaves. One is seasoned with Italian spices and the other with a curry spice mix. My curry loaf was dehydrated separately because my trays were full with the first loaf slices. The juice pulp contains carrots, celery, cabbage, broccoli stem, apple, lemon and grapefruit. No beets this time! To the nut and seed mixture, I added chopped onion and radicchio (looks like a small red and white cabbage) as well as some agave nectar.

The difference for THIS recipe is that it saves time. The process of forming loaves is quicker than flattening the dough and cutting out shapes.

I'm glad I tried this because it is definitely quicker!

Slice the loaves as thinly as possible, using a wide blade knife or a straight spatula like the one pictured. I found that having both tools was very useful. Pull out any chunky pulp pieces that were not removed during mixing. I discarded apple peel and fibrous grapefruit pieces.

The curry loaf was in the fridge overnight in a covered container. I woke up with the idea that it would be cool to add a spot of colour in the center.

Here's how to do it:

• mix together milled flax, carrot juice and carrot pulp 
• add chopped red pepper
• slice loaf lengthwise and remove some dough from sides, inside, to create a cavity
• spoon in the new mixture, even it out
• close the loaf with the dough which was removed

Slice and transfer to trays. These slices will be chunkier because it is challenge to keep it all pretty if you flatten them. If you have some of the second mixture left, you can spoon it onto the middle of each cracker and press it lightly so the contrast is more evident. Dehydrate for 20 to 24 hours at 105F, until crispy.

After one to two hours that they have been in the dehydrator, turn the crackers over, their own weight will help them achieve a flatter shape and you can also flatten them gently between your hands.

Keep in a covered container in the fridge, if after a couple of days the crackers become softer, you can dehydrate again. I haven't kept them longer than one week because they are consumed in less time than that here.

We had Italian herb crackers for lunch today with a bean salad (the curry crackers are still in the machine and smelling divine). Eric said that he would like to build a big dehydrator so I can make bigger batches. Stay tuned for news on that!

Rooster's Raw Pizza Crusts

The difference between this raw "pizza" crust recipe and my raw cracker recipe is that this is sweetened with agave, there are pine nuts and chunkier vegetables are added to the pulp. I'm still juicing beets and cabbage so this is why my crusts are purple. The rest of my leftover juicing pulp used in this crust contains lemon, broccoli stems and apple. I'm having lots of cabbage lately and you can read more about that in yesterday's blog post.

Don't expect a doughy experience. This is going to be a hard crust with a Italian onion flavor.

Vegetable and seed mixture

 

Mix together in a large bowl:

• 3 to 4 cups leftover juice pulp
• chopped chives or other herb
• chopped onion; you can keep pieces thin and long
• 2 to 3 Tbsp agave nertar
• dried Italian herbs
• 1/2 Tbsp of sea salt
• dash of cayenne
• the equicalent of 1/2 cup of:
• --whole or milled chia seed
• --hemp seed
• --milled flax seed

Nut mixture
Process together in a food Processor until soft, smooth texture is obtained.:

• 1 cup walnuts
• 1/4 cup pine nuts
• a huge chunk of coconut oil (about 2 Tbsp)
• 2 cloves garlic

Fold the nut mixture into the vegetable and seed mixture. Form cracker shapes on your work surface such as a smooth cutting board.

 

You might need to grease up your tools with olive oil. I actually experimented with a cookie cutter here.

  If you're not sure how to shape your dough, go biscotti style. Where you shape the dough into a loaf and slice it, flattening each piece with your fingers and then transferring it onto the tray.

 

Depending on the thickness, dehydrate for 24 hours at 105F.

Enjoy with hummus and friends!

Cabbage = detox (Simple Sesame Slaw)

Raw green cabbage is inexpensive and healthy. Here is a nutrition chart for you to consult. I recently decided to either juice or eat raw cabbage daily as I continue serious detoxification efforts.

This cruciferous vegetable contains fiber, sulphur and vitamin C which are antioxidants. It also holds considerable amounts of minerals. various vitamins and electrolytes. Although it doesn't seem to contain sugar, it gives me energy. It can cause gas and uncomfortable bloating for some people. I have been told that it is beneficial for celiacs and people with skin conditions as it helps to rebuild our damaged intestinal tracts. Read about other benefits of cabbage on this page. Since then, I've been mixing it in with my spinach salads, juicing and dehydrating it (see my vegetable pulp cracker recipe). The time has come for some serious cabbage PAZZAZ!

So here is my Seriously Simple Sesame Slaw recipe. It's lemony, with a curry twist.

Mix together:

• 1/4 head of cabbage, chopped
• Chopped chives
• 2 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 1Tbsp soy sauce (Nama Shoyu is raw but expensive and hard to find)
• 4 to 6 Tbsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil
• 1Tbsp curry powder
• pinch sea salt

Recommended method:

Place all ingredients in a large container, cover, shake and refrigerate, allowing flavours cohabitate and mingle for an hour or so before serving.

Optional toppings:

• sesame seeds
• hemp hearts
• Vietnamese coriander or other fine herb

Meal idea: serve with a bunch of red grapes and beet cracker bakes or with your favorite rice paper or nori julienne vegetable wrap.

For this photographed meal, the crackers are topped with raw onion, raw sweet yellow bell pepper, sliced cooked chicken breast, leftover stir fry (fiddle heads, red bell pepper, garlic, onion, portobello mushroom and balsamic vinegar) and finely grated old cheddar cheese before being baked in the oven just long enough for the cheese to melt.