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 favourite 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 oil
• 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!

I made a simple paté for dinner tonight:

• 1 medium avocado
• about 5 cherry tomatoes
• 1 tablespoon kelp powder
• 1 tablespoon flax oil
• squeeze of lemon juice

Now I know most of my recipes start “place in blender”, well this time it’s different, I just used a fork to mash all the ingredients together, after first chopping up the tomatoes. And that’s it, I had it with spinach, rocket and watercress, delicious and simple.

I’m going to try and post a bit more regularly again… so lets start with what I ate today:

Late Morning: Chocolate Pudding (you all know the recipe by now, but today I added a honey mango, was delicious)

Early afternoon: A small piece of raw cake left over from what Jolita and me made yesterday with coconut, banana, almonds, dates pine nuts, lucuma and a topping (or preferably base) made from cacao nibs, almonds, dates, carob powder and a little agave nectar.

Late afternoon: Some strawberries and a little later a couple of honey mangos (my current favourite in-season fruit!)

Dinner: I started out with a couple of sheets of nori in which I rolled some avocado, yellow pepper, tomato, sun dried tomato and a bit of basil. Then I made the following sauce by put all this in my Vita-Mix:

• 1 yellow pepper
• 1 small tomato
• 2 sun dried tomato halves
• hanful of pine nuts
• a few leaves of basil (would have put more in but that was all I had)
• a small piece of red onion
• a very small piece of fresh ginger
• 3/4 avocado

I blended it up and served it with watercress, spinach and rocket (arugula for you Americans), unfortunately from the shop as it was raining and I was too busy to go and pick anything, and a small piece of this delicious cheese with wild garlic.

As I’m currently addicted to pine nuts, I finished off by blending a handful of pine nuts with a couple of fresh dates, made a nice little desert.

As it’s only 10:30 now, there is a small chance that I’ll eat something else before I go to bed, but I feel quite full so that’s unlikely.

Was experimenting in the kitchen as usual and made a very moist cake. I didn’t weigh anything, but as it turned out so well, I will try and make it again sometime with proper measurements.

• sesame seeds, maybe 60g
• almonds, about 40g
• cacao nibs, 20g
• small piece of vanilla bean

First I ground the above ingredients in my nut/seed mill, then I put into the food processor with the following:

• 2 tablespoons carob powder
• 1 tsp mesquite meal
• 3 dates (the fresh chewy kind, any other kind probably soak them first)

I processed this for a while and then added about 40g of cacao butter, which I melted first (so it was liquid) and processed until the mixture formed a cake like consistency.

There was a bit of cacao butter left over so I decided to make some chocolate to go on top, I added cacao powder, carob powder, lucuma, mesquite and agave. (See this post if you’ve not made chocolate before and need more instructions.)

Put in the fridge for a while to set and then devour!

So, I’ve recently being getting into young coconuts, they’re available in some local shops now and I worked out how to get into them! Today I made my morning hemp milk with young coconut water instead of water and it was delicious. This is what went in:

• 100g hemp seeds, soaked overnight, drained and rinsed
• soak water from dried goji berries, currants, bilberries and a fig
• 1/2 an orange
• young coconut water

Blend and strain (through a muslin bag or sprout/hemp milk bag). Simple as that and delicious. I then used this hemp milk to make chocolate pudding, I know I’ve given this recipe before, but it changes all the time so here’s my current version:

• 2 bananas
• some of the coconut meat
• large handful of cacao beans
• 1/2 tsp maca powder
• 1/2 tsp mesquite meal
• 1 tsp raw chocolate powder
• 1 tsp bee pollen
• sesame seeds, sunflower seeds and pumpkin seeds, all soaked overnight, drained and rinsed
• the dried fruit from above
• small amounts (1/4 tsp or less) of the following: purple corn, he shou wu, camu camu and suma

Put everything into the blender along with the hemp milk and blend until smooth! There is no correct way to make chocolate pudding, just experiment and see what you like. I make it different every day!