MANGO-LEMON VEGAN NO-BAKE CHEESECAKE

Lets start the week with some cake!

The other day I was a guest at a radio show where we talked about the usual things that I tend to visit various shows for, but also had some chit chat on different things, one of them being food.
But I can't really asnwer the question of weather I cook or not correctly. Perhaps a boring  'sometimes' is the right answer. Most of the time I just make what I can get away with quickly (and, as you may recall, due to how I work I most often buy something fast that I have in my car...sniff). But sometimes I do cook properly, and mainly tend to bake things. And I have a habit of not really following recipes, but rather get inspired by them, and often coming up with things myself.

So - here is a semi-raw, no-bake, vegan and  gluten free cheesecake without white sugar that I put together for Easter.

Ok, I know the above categories will make some go "blah" but for me the thing with making these "free of"-cakes is that they should be as yummy and sweet-tooth soothing as any so called conventional cake, and not a substitute. Plus, if it's breakfast worthy it's a bonus because, reaaaally, who would not want to have cake for breakfast?
(Ok, I actually know several weirdos who would answer with a 'not me' to that one but in my universe cake for breakfast equals awesomeness, mmmkay?)

The crust on this one is made with less nuts than usual for some variation, by using roasted buckwheat instead. I am normally not too fond of the taste of buckwheat, but when roasted it has pleasant taste and makes the crust more piquant.
The cake has a lemond curd-y layer in the middle, and a fruity cheese layer on top made with fabulous oat-based PåMackan cream cheese. (It's a great product; tastes just like the real thing!) If nuts are an issue you could try leave them out and use only sunflower seeds for the crust instead (in which case you might have to leave out the mid layer which is made mainly from cashews, or then make a lemon paste of something else). If this does not have to be vegan you can of course make the cheese out of regular Philadelpia or similar.  If the mango is very sweet itself you might not need any extra sweetener, depending on your preferences. I used some agave syrup. Coconut oil is used to firm the cheese filling, but sometimes I have made fillings using cocoa butter instead (but that is way more expensive and not something I have at home regularly).
The cake mold I use is 22cm, alas, if you want a higher creation then use a smaller mold.

Alright! As this is no-bake you'll manage without an oven. Apart from a kitchen mixer, here's what you will need:

For the crust -
1,5 dl  raw buckwheat
2,5 dl walnuts
1,5 dl sunflower seeds
175g dates (approx.), soaked for a while if dried and pressed
lemon zest
1 tbs oil

For the faux lemon curd paste-
4dl cashews
juice of 2 lemons
vanilla
sweetener of your choice

For the cheese filling -
1 mango
1 pack (150g) of På Mackan vegan cream cheese
a little lemon zest
sweetener of your choice
a dash of vanilla
2 tbs melted coconut oil

Dry-roast the buckwheat in a pan on mid-to high heat. Be careful not to burn them; move them around.

Put the buckwheat (I keep writing buckwhat. Like buck-WHAT? Haha) in the kitchen mixer and mix, adding first walnuts about a dl at a time and then the seeds, until you have a semi smooth texture. It's okay to leave a bit of crunch.

Add the dates (squeeze out excess water if you had them soaked) and mix, then the lemon zest and the oil. Press into a cake mold and put in the fridge while doing the rest.

Next step! Mix the cashews smooth, add the lemon juice, the vanilla, and a bit of sweetener. You will get a rather firm paste. Spread/press it out on the crust and put back into the fridge.

Time for the cheese filling! Mash the mango and mix it smooth with the cream cheese. Add the rest.
(At this point of the preparation I thought that my mind had fucked this up, because the luke warm mango-cheese mix did not taste good right our of the mixer. But fear not! It will be nice once it has cooled down!)

Pour the filling on the cake and put in the fridge for an hour or two (or freezer, if you want it quicker. Also, some decoration would porpably be nice, but I never got that far. Berries would be a good suggestion!). Then serve and enjoy!

Store in a sealed box if you don't eat all at once.

FLUFFY GREEN SPRING SMOOTHIE

(because at this time of year, you can just name everything starting with "spring"-)

Apparently there's some gene that determines weather you like celery or not. Same goes for cilantro. (The source being solely "what people way" and the internet so I have no idea how much truth there is in that, but it sure makes a great excuse for people to use.) Good for me I seem to have neither of those genes, because I love celery - and cilantro as well, altough I did not put it in this smoothie, even though one surely could; it'd fit great.

Pineapple makes smoothies wonderfully fluffy. You can add one or two drops of apple cider vinegar as well if you want your smoothie a bit more edgy.

So, here we go:
Cloudy apple juice
Celery
Wheat grass
The juice of one lime
About a coffe cup of frozen small pineapple chunks

Woom! in the blender and there you have it!

LONG TIME NO SMOOTIE

I haven't made a morning smoothies in ages due to many reasone (or actually two; time and money) but today one of pinapple, banana, coconut milk and frozen wineberries and cherries from last summer came togehter. Pinkacolada!

Long time no rawbars too! But here they are again. These ones with cashews, hazelnuts, sunflower seeds, dates, blueberry powder, cocoa, vanilla extract, coconut oil, coconut flakes and dried berries. All just woom-woomed mashed together in the mixer and then refrigerated.
Raw food stuff always sound rather pretentious but these are actually made of basic supermarket stuff and it's like having cake for breakfast! Woop woop.

5 x BREAKFAST

For me breakfast is the best meal of the day; my schedule is such that I usually have the most time in the morning.

Apple-banana porridge on oats from our farm with raisins and black currants plus a little bit of almond butter on top. I cook the apple with the oats and put the banana in about half way trough, but the berries and raisins after. A basic porridge becomes more fancy that way, almost like a dessert. A small spoon of peanut butter, instead of almond such, is also good.

But here we have it on bread instead; peanut butter banana sandwhich, an apple and a hot cocoa drink with almond milk, vanilla, charadmom, coconut sugar and some cinnamon.

And peanut butter with citrus! Who would have known those two tastes would blend together so well! Peanut butter banana-.sandwhich with cumqats - I have a little tiny tree in the house and Dag kept picking the fruits off. So they ended up on my breakfast sandwhich.
Also, avocado sandwich with sundried tomato paste and chive, lemon water and some strawberry-rhubarb compote.

First outdoors breakfast of this year! Black coffee and raw bars with berries and cocoa.

(And wowza, now I am totally going to renew myself and add a fifth thing instead of my normal four):
Brekkie no5 is a smoothie made of mango-orange oat milk (oat milk with mango pulp and orange juice in it. Nice in drinks but terrible on müsli. Just sayin'), banana and frozen strawberries, together with some dates with almond butter.

PUDDING

Chia chocolate pudding. The kind of dish (or even, perhaps, treat?) that I am not really sure if it's just kind of edible or actually good.

I've made a few sets of chia pudding, or porridge (or slime) and they have never been much to cheer about. Very 'meh'. So why would I still keep making it? A) Because I still have a lot of chia seeds left over to be used up and B) you know when you sort of get this feeling you should like something (happensa lot with so called "superfoods") because you would like to like it and everyone says it's really good and also good for you? I kind of got that going on with that pudding now.

God damn it a (very) long time ago I used to make a small cup of linseed slime that I tried to get down every morning because it's really good for the stomach. The first mornings it was rather OK but after a while it just got unbearable. I mixed it with porridge but I could still feel the slimyness trough. During the same time I was also drinking apple cider vinegar in the morning (yeah those were the gourmand-mornings of 2001); a couple of spoons in a big glass of water. Cleansing and good for metabolism and all that. So they say. But it was the same with the vinegar, after a while I had to start pinching my nose and thing happy thoughts to get it down. Yuck. But that was then and now is now -I eventually (quite fast actually) gave up on the linseed slime. And vinegar. So one'd think that I now at this age would just forget about any self torment when it comes to what I ingest and move on with my life without any more superfood slime or chia seeds.
But then we get back to point A and the fact that those small little f**ckers don't come cheap.

What I had been missing all the time was of course cocoa.  Because anything related to chocolate makes most things better. And  ta-da, that chia jar of mine is started emptying up and, like I said, it might even be that it does so in a very tasty way.

The chocolate chia pudding (< bolded for those who think there is way much text here by now and just want to know what's in the cup in the picture without having to read it all):
So my chocolate chia pudding consists of chia seeds (surprise!) and vegetable milk. I use almond, but hazel or maybe coconut milk (not the canned one but the runny milky one that for example Go Green sells) is next on the list to try.  Then in with some vanilla powder, cocoa powder (quite a lot) and coconut sugar. I make it semi firm, with the milk covering the seeds well before I leave it to set over night or at least for some hours. I have a jar of lingonberry powder that I also add a little bit of. That gives a some extra sting. You can also add a tiny little pinch of salt.

When the pudding is ready I whip it a bit and mix in black currants and sprinkle coconut flakes on top. This goes well with  banana too, and with some raisins or finely chopped dried apricots mixed in. I am thinking of perhaps running the pudding in the blender when done though, to get it smooth.

Also, I've noticed a lot of small things taste better when served out of a coffee up. How is that one may wonder? The reason is probably the same that makes any beverage taste better when had out of a mason jar (according to the young and hip at least).

Do you have any food or dishes that you can't really decide on, yuck or yum?

RAW MANGO CHEESECAKE

Spring is here, Easter around the corner, pretty much all food featured anywhere is yellow.

So I am not going to be any worse - here's a yellow cake suitable for the season! (Or at any other time of the year, of course.)

You will need:


A couple of mangoes, cashews, pecan nuts and almonds, lemon juice, dried dates, dried pricots and cocoa butter.

This recipe makes for a rather small cake, 20-25cm in diameter.

Let the apricots and dates soak for about 10-15minutes in water so that they soften up.
I used six (small) apricots and 2 dates.

Make the crust first. Mix almonds and pecans in a mixer; I used 1,5dl of both. You can use just pecans too if you so like (and perhaps live somewhere where pecans are not ridiculously expensive). You don't need to mix them all smooth, leave a little crunch. Add the apricots and dates plus a pinch of salt and mix.


Press the crust out in a baking mold. Add a baking paper or plastic film if the mold does not have detachable edges. I usually put a bit of baking paper in the bottom anyway.

Put the crust the fridge while you make the filling.


First start by puttig the cocoa butter, 1-2 tbs, to melt in a cup or glass placed in a bowl with hot water.

Mix 200g cashews along with some squeezed lemon juice in the mixer (about half a lemon). You can add a few drops of lemon more after a while to make the mixing easier. Use a spatula to push down any cashew crumbs that rise along the edges of the mixing bowl. The mixture has to be very, very smooth. It has to be all smooth before you add anything else; you can not "go back a step with this one".  The mix will start forming a ball when it is ready.


Slice one mango and add it in pieces. Mix smooth.
If you want you can add in a spoon of honey or agave (or some sweetener of your choice), but it will be fine without.


When the cocoa butter has become liquid (add some more hot water to the bowl if it has not yet melted), pour it in a thin string while mixing. Mix for a while so the cocoa butter blends in well.
The cocoa butter is used for firming the filling. You could also do this with coconut oil.

Take a couple of slices of the other mango and put it in the mixer with the filling. Mix for a while so the mango gets a bit chopped up and mixed in, but it does not need to dissolve completely.
(Use the rest of the mango for decoration on the cake or just go ahead and eat it while you wait for the cake to be ready.)


Take out the crust and pour the fill on. Put in the fridge for a couple of hours or in the freezer for about half an hour before serving.

Then enjoy!



Next time I think I will take some bits of dried mango and grate in on top of the cake for some extra mango-ness!

The cake will stay fresh some 3-4 days when kept cool.

FRESH APPLE CAKE WITH CINNAMON

Then apple season came and went by. We picked apples and I made apple mash and apple marmalade and apple cakes... and then decided I wanted to try out something different and new - which turned into a raw food apple cake!

I used almonds and sunflower seeds for the crust but you can make this with just either one, or hazelnuts and walnuts for example. I used one of this dried pressed packs of dates (250g) that I soaked in water; 2/3 for the crust and 1/3 for the filling.


For the curst:
4dl almonds
2 dl sunflower seeds
200g  dates
a handful (about 0,5dl) dried apple bits, soaked

Filling:
2 dl cahsews
3-4tsp cinnamon
1tbs melted cocoa butter or 2-3tbs coconut oil
100g dates
7 small apples

The apples on our trees over here are rather small so 2-3 equals one store bought regular sized one.


Mix the nuts and add the dates and the apple bits. Press the curst out in a cake mold (I put baking paper underneath to get it out easily), then proceed to make the filling.


Mix the cashews smooth. You can add a few drops of the water you soaked the dates or dried apple in, (or some apple juice) after a while for easier mixing. Then, add the cinnamon and the dates in small portions. Pour in the cocoa butter (or coconut oil; you won't taste the coconut); this will firm the filling once you let it cool afterwards. Chop the apples (peeled or unpeeled, your choice) and add the bits to the mixer. Pour the filling in the crust, smooth out and let the cake cool for an hour or two before serving.

Enjoy with a cup of fruity tea or coffee. Or some apple lemonade!

RAW CHOCOLATE MOUSSE CAKE

I had the idea to use the "magic chocolate mousse" for a cake for a long time, and this summer I got around making one first version of it!

The cake did not turn out super-perfect,  but it was one step int he right direction, and was highly approved by the ones sharing it. A bunch of kids also had this and they were totally fooled, thinking they were eating “conventional” chocolate cake. Ta-da!

I make a lot of raw food cakes and bars and goodies. I do bake a lot of sweets in the oven too, somewhat healthy and then not so healthy, vegan and non-vegan as well. With raw food I like the fact that you can make something taste totally chunkadelic while it is still basically full of only healthy ingredients. (Raw food cakes are of course not light in calories, with lots of nuts and seeds and dried fruit, but you also tend to eat less of those as they are rather heavy. And, for most people they still don’t make you feel as stuffed as after having ‘normal’ cake). Sometimes healthier versions of the "real thing" mostly taste good only because you tell yourself it does, but with raw sweets I don't think that is the case; they taste just as good, sometimes in their own way, sometimes in the same way as with butter and sugar.

Most of the time when I cook and bake I add things a little so-so, making it up as I go along or working from memory. I think it works well especially for raw food sweets, as it is the texture that counts, and dried fruit may vary in consistence. But lately I’ve been trying to write down amounts as many don’t like to play around with measurements the way I do. Here’s how this version turned out and what it consumed:

I made a crust using nuts, seeds and dried prunes(plums).

3 dl of sunflower seeds and 70g of nuts (I had walnuts) and 12 plums.

I like walnuts in the crust for raw food pies, they make a good base.)

Sunflower seeds give a full, kind of butter-like feel to the dough. I have made raw brownies using only sunflower seeds as I was serving it to a person with nut-allergies. it works very well.

Most raw food sweets contains dates in different form. If you grow tired of them you can try using other dried fruit instead, plums, figs or apricots etc. I love dates, but sometimes change them, mostly just for variation in recipes. These plumes were not very sweet so I added a spoon of coconut sugar.

Then in with 1,5dl of coconut oil and 2dl of cocoa powder. -personally I think regular powder works as well as raw - and a little hint of good salt.

I personally think this recipe will work better with cashews tor almonds han walnuts, as cashews are more mild. So I will opt for such in the version to come. The cocoa together with the walnuts made it rather bitter;  I came to the conclusion that  walnuts works better in a crust without cocoa. I will also try to make the next version with dates anyway, or a mix of dates and plums for more sweetness. But many will prefer a less sweet version, so stick with the plums and walnuts then. 

Press out the crust in a non-stick cake mold (or place a baking paper underneath).

Put it in the fridge to firm up while you make the fillings.

The first filling will be the instant marmalade. I made mine of raspberries, red wineberries and dates. About 1,5 dl of berries and 3 dates.

Mash and mix it together and spread it over the cake.

The second fill/ topping is a variation on the magic chocolate mousse, the whole idea of the cake. I have started to add half a banana to it, as sometimes the avocado tastes trough and makes the mousse taste too “green”. For an even smoother mousse I also add creamed coconut.

Here’s what goes in it:

1 ripe avocado

1 ripe banana

20 dates

8 tbs cocoa

1-1,5dl creamed coconut

Creamed coconut is not the same as coconut cream; it is firm as a paste.

Spread the topping out on the cake and put the cake in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Raw cakes are said to not, like many other cakes, not get ay better by waiting over night or so, but in this case I still felt the cake tasted better the second day!

I might try this with a pale crust (dates and walnuts), no berry filling and fresh fruit on top instead the next time. And then I am sort of dreaming of making a triple chocolate version with a dark crust, this chocolate mousse filling but sans the coconut cream, saving that for the third topping; he coconut-chocolate one I used for my raw muffins.  But we’ll get back to those once the experiments have been conducted!

INSTANT STRAWBERRY MARMALADE

Here's a very quick and easy sort-of-marmalade /jam/fruit mash that works with most berries (frozen or fresh; raspberries works especially well for example).

 Take some berries - I hade a some bstrawerries over from a bunch of fresh organic ones which I refrigerated and cooked jam on.

 
And some dates, the more the sweeter (of course). Here I am using fresh dates but I actually think that those drier stickier ones work best for this - if they are very dry they need to soak in some water first though. (If you are tired of dates in everything you can try it with other dry, very sweet fruit, like I did with the raw apricot-coconut cookies, using apricots for the marmalade.)

Mash them together with a mixer or a hand mixer.
And that's it!

Serve on pancakes, scones, your peanut butter sandwich or as cake filling (like here with the raw chocolate pastries filling) or anything else you want to jam up.

RAW CREAMY BERRY YOGHURT

Here's an easy recipe that once started out as a thick smoothie that I then later started making thicker into a sort-of-yoghurt - not really an actual yoghurt at all, but with a texture and taste that kind of reminds one of it. Maybe one could call it rawgurt.
(Not sure how inviting that sounds though.)

You will need an avocado, (preferably) frozen berries of your choice - I have red wineberries from our garden- , soaked cashews and some fruit juice (I like apple best) or water. I also added a few strawberries that are missing form the pic.

I have a little less tha half a coffee cup of cashews and one coffee cup of berries.

The cashews should soak for a few hours or over night. Rinse them and put everything in a blender with a little liquid to start with and add some more as you mix, a little at a time so that the texture stays fir enogh.
(Almost impossible to get a nice picture of this stage)

Mix until rather smooth.

If the yoghurt feels too sour you can add something to sweeten it up - I added a soft date but a little bit of honey, if it does not have to be vegan, or coconut sugar etc will also do, or some sweet enough fruit.

Enjoy as it is or with seeds or granola on top, or served with fruits.

Next I think I'm going to start trying out chia seeds in puddings and fresh porridges! I've only had them in snack bars so far.

***
Edit: all berries we have here are rather sour. Well I suppose most berries in general are sour with a high acidity (or so). If you however use very sweet stuff you might wang to add a little dash of lemon or lime to get they "youghurty" sour feel to it!

THE BEST BITES

If you never got around making your own raw goodies or if you have not tasted a lot of them, you may find the ingredient list somewhat monotonous: dates and nuts, nuts and dates. You might think there can only be so many combos of said main ingredients. But the thing is you can create an endless amount of different tastes, depending on what you choose to add along. If you think about it, a regular cake also (mainly) has the same base; eggs and flour and sugar and it's the rest that then defines it.

These yummy snack-cubes turned into my favourite for the moment! Inspired by a bar at the health store with vanilla and berries, mine also has cocoa and hemp seeds in them. The berries give a nice sour taste  and hemp seeds of course contains lots of nice fatty acids and proteins and what nots, you name it.

You will need:
Sunflower seeds, cashews and hazelnuts. About the same amount of each.
Real vanilla
Coconut oil (can be left out, or changed to a small amount of cocoa butter)
Raw cocoa powder, regular works just as well (this is also optional if you make a non-choco version)
Dried soft dates
Dried berries of your choice
Hemp seeds

As usual the amounts are a little so-so. Some people like their bars sweeter and stickier, some more dry and some more oily. I like mine perfect. Hehe. This is mostly for an idea of what to blend in that you can then use to make your own version of. As my usual way of doing thins, I just pour in and measure with the eye. I will however try and mention how much I used of everything for those of you less adventurous out there.

I mixed about 100grams of sunflower seeds and hazelnuts and a little more cashews in a mixer to a semi smooth texture. Add ground vanilla according to your own taste preferences along, same goes for  the cocoa powder. I put in some 3 tbs.

I scoop in about a tablespoon of room temperatured (=soft) coconut oil. Someone will always complain about the use of coconut oil in everything, and you can leave it out if you want to, although this is a good way to incorporate this healthy oil in your diet, plus it gives a nice add to the consistence of the mix. You may change it to a little but of melted cocoa butter or melted raw chocolate instead.

Then add the dates one by one until the texture feels nice and firm. I used about half of those cardboard boxes of dates. (Btw If you make a big batch like I did of 300grams of nuts you might have to divide the batch in two at this point so that your mixer won't overheat).

Finally add some dried berries and a handful or two of hemp seeds to the mix - you can work the in by hand. I had a mix of dried cranberries, cherries, blueberries and goji berries  (put in about 100g), but pretty much anything will do. Put the dough on a working surface, flatten it out and cut into cubes (or bars).



Yum yum, enjoy!
Store them refrigerated and well sealed.

LIME-COCONUT BREAKFAST ENERGY BALLS

Inspired by one of my favourite ready made raw snack-bars these energy balls are a little less sweet and with an edgy hint of lime.

Made of
Sunflower seeds & Almonds (50/50)
Soft or soaked dried dates & apricots (about 2/3 dates & 1/3 apricots)
Lime peel & lime juice
Coconut oil & Coconut flakes

Mix the almonds and sunflower seeds in a mixer, about the same amount of both. You don't have to mix them flour-or butter smooth; leave some texture. Add a little bit of cold pressed coconut oil and the peel of one lime.

Put in the fruit bit by bit until the crumble somewhat sticks together when you form a ball. In other words you don't want it to be too compact and chunky.

Squeeze some lime juice in so that the crumble easily can be rolled into balls. (If you feel the mixture got too wet you can add some coconut flakes to suck up the extra moisture).

Roll the balls in coconut flakes -or cut into squares/bars and sprinkle coconut on top.
Store cool in an air-tight jar.

 Dag likes his. Well actually he snatched one while I was still taking pictures.  ("Cake" he says.)

 Or two actually, one for each hand, so that he would not miss out.

And there's just enough left for me still.