Vegan Twix Bars

The other day I had an exiting event with YinYoga and vegan/raw dessert tasting afterwords, where we talked about sugar, healthy food and how you can eat tasty desserts which are also healthy. It was very good and interesting discussions and questions. 

The attenders tasted raw bounty, raw nut free-balls and vegan Twix bars 😉 

Please find recipe below:

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  For the bread base:
• 1 ½ cups almond flour
• 3 tablespoons melted and cooled coconut oil
• 2 tablespoons pure maple syrup
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ¼ teaspoon salt

• For the peanut butter layer:
• ⅔ cup natural peanut butter (crunchy or creamy works)
• 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/4 cup coconut oil
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
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• For the chocolate layer:
• 3/4 cup chocolate chips, dairy free if desired
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil

- Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Line an 8x8 inch square pan with parchment paper. It’s important to use an 20x20 cm pan.

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  - In a medium bowl add the almond flour, coconut oil, maple syrup, vanilla extract and salt. Mix together with a fork until it forms a nice thick crumb texture. Add to pan and use your fingers to evenly press down into the pan. Bake for 10 minutes. Allow crust to cool for 10 minutes before adding caramel.
  
  
  • - Next make the peanut butter caramel layer: Add the peanut butter, maple syrup, coconut oil, vanilla extract and sea salt to a medium pot and place over medium-low heat for approximately  2 minutes until caramel starts to slightly bubble, stirring frequently. Pour over slightly cooled crust. 
    
    
    - Place in fridge for at least 30 minutes-1 hour to completely harden the peanut butter. It shouldn't take longer than this, but if you are impatient, just place in freezer for 15-20 minutes, this should speed up the process.
    
    
    • - After 30 minutes or so, make the chocolate layer: Add chocolate chips and coconut oil in to a microwave safe bowl and microwave on high in 30 second increments, stirring in between until chocolate is completely melted. If you prefer, you can also melt the chocolate and coconut oil in small saucepan over low heat.
      - Pour over the caramel layer and tilt pan side-to-side to evenly distribute the melted chocolate. Place in fridge for at least 20 minutes until chocolate is completely hardened and bars are cooled.
      

      • - Remove bars from pan and cut into 16 bars (that resemble twix bars). To do this, cut entire pan of bars in half, and then cut each half into 8 (2.5 cm) bars (not squares!), so you’ll end up with 16 bars. Bars should be kept covered in the fridge until ready to serve.
        
        

        Enjoy!! 💜

        P.S.If you have any left you can keep them covered in the fridge they will stay good in your fridge for about 1 week, but you can also keep them in a freezer-safe container in your freezer for up to 1 month.

        
        

RAW OAT YOGURT

I really love yoghurt & especially natural, plain unseated yoghurt. As a raw vegan you you can´t eat that stuff any more so this is definitely as close as you can come to the yoghurt! Try it it is very easy to prepare and varies in flavor and texture every time you make it, depending on fermentation time and the room temperature. You don´t need any starter (like in dairy yoghurt) but I use probiotics powder from the capsules to get all the good and healthy staff into this yoghurt and it creates naturally Lactobacillus microorganisms. Make sure the you buy a good quality of probiotics and ask for vegan one as well.
If you prefer your yoghurt sweet or fruity just add it to the blender with your favorit fruits, frozen berries or sweeter of your choise like honey, agave etc.

You will need:

1 dl rolled oats
1 dl raw oat groats
1-2 capsules of probiotics (depending on how big they are)

Preparation:
1. Rins and drain the raw oat groats well. In a medium glass jar combine the oat groats & rolled oats and cover with purified water making sure that the water level is above a bit, (for example 1cm).
Soak over night or for 8h.

2. In a high speed blender, blend the soaked oats with the soaking water and open the capsule and att the powder which is inside. You may need to add more water, do that 2 tablespoons at the time to get the consistency you want on your yoghurt. (The fermentation does not thicken the yoghurt). Pour the mixture into the clean glass jar.

3. Cover the jar with the cheese cloth or similar and let te mixture sit in the room temperature in the dirk place for 1-3 days, depending oh how warm it is. Stir the yoghurt with the wooden spoon every 8h or as I sometimes do in the morning and in the night. Taste the yoghurt every time you mix it to the taste you like. I like it very sour so I wait one extra day to achieve that. In the winter if your house is chill you can wrap it in the kitchen towels or put it on some place where its worm. Sometimes I can even put it in my dehydrated on the 30 C temperature and it is ready much faster.
So once the yoghurt is sour enough to your liking it should be kept in refrigerator up to 1 week.

Please always use very clean jar and wooden spoon since metal can interfere with the fermentation process.

GOLDEN MIXTURE

Yesterday I made so called, natural remedy, - "golden mixture". The name probably comes from its golden color and it is known for the strongest antibiotic certified by Ayurveda. This mixture is good for strengthening the immune system and for preventing cancerous diseases with other words it has very powerful healing potential. There are also no side effects as you would have from using artificially synthesized drugs it insted improves digestion and benefits gut flora. (Though, turmeric is not recommended for those who have gallbladder problems)

INGREDIENTS:

100 gr raw honey
1 Tbsp turmeric
Pinch of black peppar
1 tsp lemon zest
2 Tbsp Raw Apple Cider Vineger

PREPARATION:

Mix everything together by hand, it should have a nice and smooth consistency. Store it in the glas jar and keep it in the fridge up to 2 weeks. If it should develope a metallic taste, after a while, throw it away and make a new bunch.

HOW TO USE IT:

- For immune support and general allergies use 1 Tbsp a day, preferly in the morning
- If you are getting a cold or flue than you should take half a teaspoon every hour on the first day of your treatment. Redound day take a half teaspoon every 2 hours. The third day half a teaspoon three times a day.
- You can also use it in the tea or have it in your green smoothie.

RAW & DELICIOUS BELLPEPPER SAUCE (spread)

This bell pepper spred have amazing taste! It remained me and my husbund of a Serbian dish called "urnebes salata" made with feta cheese but mine was totally raw and off course no feta!

One tip from me is that I always activate my seeds and nuts - which means that I soak them for a few hours in the purified water, than after rinsing I dehydrate them until they are totally dry and store them in the glass jar. In this way, when nuts or seeds are already activated, the preparation of raw food goes so much faster and easier! :-)  Try it!

So, here are the ingredients:

1 red bell pepper 

0,5 dl cold pressed olive oil

0,5 sunflower seeds (activated)

1 big clove of garlic

juice of the half lemon

one pinch of chili powder

1 date (the seed removed)

2 pinch of black pepper

2 pinch of Himalaya salt

2 tsp of Baobab powder (optional)

Blend all together until smooth consistency. Use it on your raw crackers or as a dip sauce or on your favorite raw pasta! Feel free to use your imagination and enjoy!!!! (It will keep refridirated ut to 3 days)

    

     

RAW CHICKPEA HUMMUS

I need to admit that I have´t until now tried to sprout chickpeas (or Garbanzo Beans). I was reading on different sites on web that you need to cook them even when you have sprout them. I started to read on raw food sites and realized that people are using it raw without cooking, so I gave it a try. I sprouted my chickpeas and made hummus and falafel and I am still alive!!! :-)
Though, if you want you can after sprouting cook them as you would cook dried beans.

Below I will give you the recepies on both sprouting and preparing hummus.
While you are making hummus please taste it during the preparation and adjust it to your taste. I like it where its a lot of garlic and lemon juice.

Here is how I sprouted my chickpeas and made a delicious raw hummus:

- Cover dry organic chickpeas in purified water and soak them for 12 hours.

- Rinse throughly and drain twice a day for next 2-5 days until they have tiny sprouted tails (like on the picture) but make sure that they are not too long or they will taste bad. (The tame depends on how worm it is in the room where you sprout your beans and that is why it is difficult to tell exactly how long time it will take for your beans to sprout).

- Discard any beans that turn to mush or rot instead of sprout. Now they are ready to use them in the hummus recipe below.




RAW HUMMUS

Ingredients:

- 2 cups sprouted chickpeas
- 1-2 Tbsp lemon juice (or more)
- 4 Tbsp raw tahini
- 3-5 tsp ground cumin (or more)
- 3 Tbsp olive oil
- 4-8 cloves of garlic, minced
- 1 tsp himalaya salt (or more)
- 1-2 tsp smoked paprika
- 1/4 - 1/2 cup pure water

- Add all ingredietns into blender or food processor.

- Add the water, little at time, start to mix and add more water if needed or until you start to reach a smooth and thick paste (as hummus should have). But make sure that your hummus is not too runny.

- Garnish with paprika and extra olive oil.

- Eat is as it is or use it in on crackers, vegetable sticks or make a zucchini "sandwiches". Use your imagination! Enjoy!!!

Raw Borsch (version nr 2)

Since, I am into my Russian nostalgia this couple of days, I made another version of raw Borsch soup. It is with less ingredients, than previous recipe & guess what - it tastes as it is the real one!!!!!

Raw Borsch

Juice:

- 2 small red beets
- 3 middle carrots
- 2 stalk of celery
- 1/2 lemon

Make a juice out of the above ingredients in your juicer.

The soup (the "broth"):

- 1 tsp minced garlic
- 1tsp minced ginger
- 1 Tbsp dill (I use a bit more since I love dill)
- 1 Tbsp spring onions
- 1 tsp olive oil
- 1/4 himalaya salt

Put all the ingredients in your blender & add the juice which you have prepared earlier.
Mix all together in the blender until all is well combined.

Soup ingredients:

- 1/2 cup grated white cabbage
- 1/4 cup grated carrot
- 1/2 avocado cut into big chunks

Put all the veggies in the soup bowl. Add the mixture the "broth" and stir carefully because we wouldn't  like to mash the avocado.
Sit down and enjoy your raw Borsch!!!

RAW VERSION OF "OLIVIE" or "RUSSIAN SALAD"

Since I am half Russian, I do really sometimes miss all this traditional Russian dishes. Then I found in a one raw-recipe-book, which I bought couple years ago, Borsch (this recipe I have posted earlier) and now I found a recipe of this salad on the blog of one Russian raw food girl.  I adapted few more things to this recipe and it turned out to be grate!!!
One ingredient which I added was Indian black salt, which smells a lot like eggs. Can you imagine that!!! I was amazed!
It is called Kala Namak and the smell is due to its sulphur content. It really smells do not be surprised when you open it for the first time! :-)

So, that is why my Russian salad tastes exactly as "Olivie" since the original salad contains eggs. Now, I have the smell and taste of the eggs.

Raw Olivie Salad

Salad ingredients:

- 1/2 Green apple almost minced
- 1/8 cup Pickled cucumbers (see my previous recipe) into small peaces (almost minced)
- 1 small zucchini cut into medium cubes
- 1 cup green peas
- 1/8 cup spring onions (I use the white part)

Mayonaise:

- 1 cup macadamia nuts (or cashews) soaked for at least 2 h
- 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/2 to 1 tsp indian black salt
- 1 tsp raw mustard (see my previous recipe)
- 1 Tbsp called pressed olive oil
- 3/4 cup water
- pinch of turmeric powder

Preparation:

1. Cut all the salad ingredients and put it into medium bowl.
2. Put all the mayonnaise ingredients into blender and blend until it is smooth in consistence.
3. Pour the mixture "mayonnaise" over the veggies and mix by hand until it is all well combined.
ENJOY!!!