I saw a version of this in a shop and got inspired to make a raw version. It’s fairly simple, just blend the following ingredients:

• 4 soaked sun dried tomato halves
• flesh of 1 mango
• about 10 cherry tomatoes
• 1/2 a red pepper
• small piece of fresh ginger
• small amount of cayenne pepper

I made this for my dinner last night and it was delicious so I thought I’d share. The tomatoes I used are a rare type, called “Black Cherry” they’re well worth trying if you spot them, they are less acidic and slightly sweeter than regular cherry tomatoes.

• 1/2 sweet yellow pepper
• 2 “black cherry” cherry tomatoes
• a small piece of courgette
• 3 sun dried tomato halves (soaked for 10 minutes)
• about 5cm of the green leaf part of a leek
• a small piece of fresh ginger
• a small piece of a fresh hot Thai chilli
• a good handful of fresh basil

This all went into the blender. I served it on a load of wild greens, with an avocado and a bit of unpasteurised goats cheese.

I moved house last week, and this new place has a freezer, so I can make ice-cream. I’ve been wanting to start experimenting with raw ice-cream for a while… Here’s my first attempt at chocolate ice-cream, as always, all quantities are very approximate:

Hemp Milk

• 150g hemp seeds, soaked
• soak water from figs (see below)
• water from young coconut

The rest

• handful figs, soaked (I used about 10 baby figs)
• 4 bananas
• young coconut flesh (maybe 1/4 of a coconut)
• 1/2 tsp vanilla powder
• 1 heaped tablespoon cacao powder
• 3-4 tablespoons cacao nibs
• 1 tsp mesquite meal

First make hemp milk: drain and rinse the hemp seeds, then blend with the fig soak water and some young coconut water. Try not to use too much liquid, but this will depend on your blender. Squeeze through a nut milk bag (or muslin bag / cheesecloth) to make the milk.

Then put the rest of the ingredients into your blender along with the hemp milk and blend until smooth. Place in a container and freeze. With my freezer, it was ready after about 8 hours.

I’m sure there are many variations – if you find something that works well, leave a comment and let everyone know…

Enjoy, love Rob

I went to a potluck yesterday and I made my own version of the Super Duper Raw Chocolate Fudge recipe. First I made coconut cream from one mature coconut – blend the meat dry in the Vitamix and then squeeze through a nut milk bag. I then mixed the cream with the following:

• 4 tablespoons lucuma powder
• 4 tablespoons raw cacao powder
• 1/4 tsp vanilla powder
• lemon juice
• grated lemon peel
• a little grated ginger
• a squirt of agave

Just keep mixing until you have a thick chocolate pie filling.

I made my own base, I soaked lots of sunflower seeds and a small amount of pumpkin seeds for a few hours, rinsed and dried then and put them in the food processor with some nice fresh dates. Processed until a pie base consistency – for me it was not thick enough so I added a tablespoon of lucuma to thicken.

I also made a raspberry sauce to serve it with – I blended two punnets of raspberries from the farmers market with a handful of fresh dates and a squirt or two of agave (more dates and less agave and this could have been raspberry jam!)

And of course it was delicious and everyone wanted the recipe – so here you are!

I spotted this video posted on We Like It Raw and I just had to make it (or my version of it, I used agave instead of honey) and it was so delicious that I need to share with you all:

This video shows how to make the coconut cream. If you don’t have a juicer, I made it in my Vitamix by grinding the coconut up (dry) and squeezing through a hemp milk bag.

Mmm, my favorite honey mangos are back in season, I usually like to eat them just as they are, but I did try a recipe and it was amazing:

• 2 honey mangos
• flesh of 2 young coconuts
• squirt of agave nectar
• 2 tablespoons mango powder
• small amount of the young coconut water

Take the flesh of the mangos and blend with the young coconut flesh, and a little of the coconut water (the amount you use will depend on your blender, but you only need a little). Once it’s smooth, add a squirt of agave and the mango powder and blend a little to mix that in.

It does work fine without the agave and mango powder, the agave adds a little sweetness and the mango powder thickens it and gives it a stronger mango flavour.

I’m sure this mango custard has many uses, I’d suggest pouring it over a bowl of freshly chopped local strawberries would work well…

Enjoy, love Rob

A quick recipe, I’m sure it’s got many uses as a kind of icing, maybe to go on cakes or maybe inside chocolate, I’ve not tried that yet…

• 1 tablespoon agave
• 2 tablespoons lucuma powder
• 1 teaspoon coconut butter
• a few drops of peppermint oil

Mix all ingredients well (it takes quite a bit of mixing) until smooth. It works without the peppermint oil as a plain icing and I’m sure other essential oils could be used, I think orange would work well. Let me know in the comments below how you use it…

I also made a marinated mushroom dish. I got some reshi mushroom powder from Holly’s shop ages ago and didn’t really use it much, and then last week I had some and have probably eaten it every day since!

• lemon juice
• flax oil
• 1/2 tsp reshi mushroom powder
• soak water from wakame seaweed

I mixed the above ingredients and then added sliced shiitake and chestnut mushrooms. I also soaked some dried porcini mushrooms and added them to the mix. Leave to marinate for a little while and then you have delicious mushrooms.

Over on the Sunfood discussion forum, Kyle posted a photo of Tom Yum soup which made me want to eat it, so I decided to try and make a raw version.

First I made coconut milk by blending about a third of the flesh of a mature coconut with the coconut water and some more water and then squeezed it through a nut milk bag.

Then I got the following ingredients:

• 1 clove garlic
• 3 stalks of lemon grass
• 2 birds eye chillies (the small hot ones)
• small piece of fresh ginger
• 25g fresh coriander
• 1 red pepper
• 2 cherry tomatoes
• lime juice
• coconut milk (as made above)

I chopped the lemon grass quite finely, then chopped the rest of the ingredients and put everything except the coriander in the Vitamix along with the coconut milk and the juice of about a quarter of a lime and blended. I then added the coriander and blended again (so that there were still bits of coriander visible). I was very pleased with it for a first attempt!