Orange mousse tart

The mousse in this tart is made with cashews. There's lots of these in raw vegan cooking. It's amazing how creamy the cashews become.

You can experiment with flavours depending on what's in season or what you feel like.

Berries look amazing as does mango. Passionfruit, cherries or even banana would be fun to try!

The crust can also be varied. I included raw cacao in this one, but you can omit it. This one has dates and goji berries which help it to 'stick' but coconut oil will do the job too if you want to have it less sweet. Of course you can vary the nuts you use too.

Cacao crust

2 cups of almonds (preferably activated)

1/4 of a cup of raw cacao powder

A pinch of sea salt

2 tablespoons of goji berries

About 8 pitted medjool dates

1 teaspoon of cinnamon (it brings out the chocolate taste)

1 tablespoon of extra virgin coconut oil

Line a round spring form baking tin with plastic wrap. Overlap a few sheets for strength, and make sure there's plenty over the edge.

Place the almonds in a food processor and blend until they have broken up. Next add the remaining ingredients and pulse to combine well. Mix with your fingers and if it sticks together it's ready.

Tip the mixture into the tin and press down so it's evenly spread and compacted down.

Orange mousse

3 cups of raw cashews soaked in water overnight

2 cups of coconut cream

1/2 a cup of extra virgin coconut oil (warmed a little so it is liquid)

1/2 cup of raw honey, maple syrup or use brown rice syrup for a more neutral sweetness

The juice of one lemon

The juice and zest of one orange, and just the zest of another

A pinch of vanilla powder

A small pinch of sea salt

To serve

Slices of orange (use the one you zested)

Raw cacao nibs

The cashews cream up best with a high speed blender but I just used my regular one.

Place everything in the blender and process until its creamy (it may be a little grainy if you're using a regular blender). 

Pour the mixture over the crust and place it in the freezer for a couple of hours to allow it to set.

After two or so hours (it's fine to leave it longer if you need to prepare it in advance), take it from the freezer and place the orange slices on top of the cake. Scatter some raw cacao nibs over the top and you're ready to serve.

Purple Sauerkraut

This is delicious! Here is an earlier post on some of the health benefits.

Purple Sauerkraut

1 purple cabbage, cored and shredded
1 tablespoon of sea salt
4 tablespoons of whey (or just use another tablespoon of salt)

To make whey, pour a tub of organic natural yoghurt into a muslin cloth and hang over a bowl to drain. The whey is the liquid in the bowl. Keep the curds in the muslin cloth to use as cream cheese.

Rub the salt into the cabbage, squeezing with your hands to release liquid. Add the whey and continue to massage well until there’s plenty of liquid.

Transfer the mixture to a mason jar. Use your fist or a meat pounder to compress the mixture and release any air. The liquid needs to cover the vegetables.

Leave a couple of centimetres from the top of the cabbage as it will expand a little.
Seal the jar and leave it on the counter for about three days to ferment. The process will be a little faster in warmer weather. After three days check for taste, you want it to be tart but still crunchy. Move to cold storage to slow the fermentation process down.

Quinoa felafel with kale salad, tahini dressing and purple sauerkraut

This a variation of one of our dinners at my recent Easter Yoga Retreat.
The quinoa in the felafels makes them lighter, but can also make them a bit crumbly and a little on the dry side. The creamy tahini dressing seems to balance this nicely though so have plenty to serve!

Sauerkraut goes really well with this salad too. Not only does it taste great, but it also helps you digest the chickpeas which can sometimes be tough on the belly! Sauerkraut contains lactic-acid which helps break down proteins and aids the assimilation by the body. Here is another post on fermented vegetables.

For the retreat I served the felafel as a stack with warm roast sweet potato as the weather was a little cooler than planned! They are also great served with red cabbage or lettuce cups to act as a wrap. Pile everything in the leaf and wrap it all up.

Or you can just pile them over a salad as I've done here.

Quinoa felafel with kale salad, tahini dressing and purple saurkraut

Felafel
2 cups of cooked chickpeas
1 small onion, chopped
About 4 shallots, chopped
2 teaspoons of ground cumin
Juice of one lemon
2 tablespoons of ghee (or coconut or olive oil)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon of almond meal (or use flour)
1 teaspoon of bicarbonate soda
1 cup of cooked quinoa
1 tablespoon of sesame seeds

Place the chickpeas, onion, shallots, cumin, lemon juice, ghee and salt and pepper in your blender. Process until it still has some chunks to it, but resembles a paste. Add the bicarbonate soda and pulse again. Pour into a bowl and stir in the quinoa and sesame seeds.
Shape into small balls and place on a baking tray. Drizzle with extra ghee and bake for around 20 minutes.

Kale salad (add any extras here! Herbs, rocket or any other green leaves you have)
A bunch of kale finely chopped
A quarter of a green green cabbage finely chopped (or use a red one if you're not serving saurkraut)
1 cup of activated or toasted sunflower seeds.

Simply toss everything together and stir through generous amounts of tahini dressing.

I had some avocado and tomatoes so I put then in too.

Tahini dressing
1/2 cup of tahini
1/4 cup of maple syrup
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of lemon juice
1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon of poppy seeds or nigella seeds
salt and pepper to taste
A dash of smoked paprika is also an option.

Place everything in a jar and shake well. If it's too thick then just add some water and shake again.
Serve it through the salad and dollop over the felafels as you serve.

The purple sauerkraut recipe is here.