Many people say to me that they don’t know how to open coconuts. Well, I found this video which includes a part about how to open a young coconut. Note that this coconut has been “shaved”, ie it’s green outer shell has been removed, if the coconut you buy still has it’s green shell, the shop might shave it for you if you ask (depends on what kind of shop it is).

Edit: Video has been removed

This video is from Audry’s Filling Up on Life blog which is great, lots of raw food and gardening/permaculture info.

This was a first attempt at this kind of recipe and I was pleased with the results. The consistency was great, although I will definately experiment a bit more with the spices:

• water from a young coconut (a bit more than half)
• flesh from young coconut (maybe a quarter of the coconut)
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1 small avocado
• 1 stick of lemon grass
• fresh chili
• fresh ginger
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 1 tsp cumin powder
• dried basil (maybe 1 tsp, I didn’t measure it)

Everything except the avocado went into the blender and was blended up, then I added the avocado and blended a bit more. Depending on what your blender is like, you might want to grind the coriander seeds first (or use ground coriander which I would have done if I’d had any).

Another milkshake recipe, I just made this and it was delicious!

First, I gound up 4 tablespoons of cacao nibs, about half a teaspoon of bee pollen and a bit of vanilla pod and set aside.

Then I made milk by blending the meat from about 1/3 of a mature coconut, 4 tablespoons of sesame seeds and half a blood orange with some water and then straining in a hemp milk bag.

Then I put the milk, the ground ingredients from before, 3 fresh dates (use soaked dates if you don’t have fresh ones), the other half of the orange, 1 banana and a little of the pulp from the milk into the blender and gave it a whizz.

If I’d have had any aloe vera, I would have put that in too, I’ve been craving it a bit and need to get some more.

Hope you enjoy it as much as me!

Freshly inspired by the David Wolfe video to try using aloe vera again, I made a coco-choco-carob-aloe-vanilla milkshake.

Ingredients (as always, very approximate!):

Coconut milk

• about half a brown coconut
• water

Blend and strain to make the coconut milk.

• 3 tablespoons of cacao nibs
• 1/3 vanilla pod (could maybe have done with a bit more)
• 2 tablespoons carob powder
• 3 dates
• gel from one small aloe vera leaf

Put the cacao and vanilla in the blender on their own first to grind them to a powder then put everything else in with the milk and blend. It’s not very smooth as the cacao nibs don’t grind very finely but it is delicious… enjoy… love Rob

I bought a bag of peanuts yesterday and have been experimenting, here’s a nice cake recipe I came up with:

• 40g peanuts
• 4 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 2 tablespoons cacao nibs
• a small piece of vanilla pod
• 5 dates, soaked

I ground up everything except the dates in my seed mill. I then added the dates and ground some more (maybe do this bit in a food processor depending on what equipment you are using).

Roll into balls to serve.

Tonights salad sauce, similar but different:

• 2 tomatoes
• 4 sundried tomatoe halves, soaked
• a small amount of sea spaghetti, soaked, with soak water (I didn’t weigh it, but maybe only 5 grams)
• 1 date, soaked
• 1/2 yellow pepper
• 1/2 carrot
• 1 avocado
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• a few pieces of fresh chili
• a sprinkling of herbs de Provence
• a small piece of fresh ginger

I blended it all together and it was delicious, I put a good amount of chili in it. I had it with a bowl full of baby spinach and some wild hedge garlic.

I made a delicious sauce to go on my greens today, but I didn’t weigh or measure everything, I was just adding stuff and playing around, but I think I can remember everything that went in:

• 35g peanuts
• 20g coconut
• 1 tsp coriander seeds

I ground these up in my seed grinder first and then put in the blender with the following

• 5 cherry tomatoes
• 1 avocado
• a couple of handfuls of wild garlic leaves
• some wild chives
• date soak water
• lemon juice (a bit less than half a lemon)
• fresh chili
• turmeric
• garam masala
• cumin powder
• water

Blend until smooth and creamy, adding water as necessary.

I attempted to make a sweet chili sauce and what I ended up with was the best raw curry I’ve ever made!

This is what I put in the blender:

• 3 dates, soaked for about 4 hours, plus the soak water
• 3 sundried tomato halves, soaked for about 4 hours
• 1/2 red pepper
• 1/2 carrot
• 2 tomatoes
• 1 tsp coriander seeds
• 1/4 tsp ground cumin
• about 1/2 tsp of chili powder (I’m a bit unsure of the exact amount as I added it in a bit at a time)
• 1 avocado
• 1/4 tsp agave nectar
• a couple of handfuls of wild greens including some chives, wild garlic, sorrel and dandelion
• 3 tablespoons of soak water from sea spaghetti (just the soak water, I ate the sea spaghetti yesterday) – I guess if you don’t have this then some seaweed flakes or a small amount of salt would create a similar flavour

I think that was everything! I blended it all up and poured it over a large dish of wild greens, and it reminded me so much of eating [cooked] curry!

It’s the old favourite in one of it’s infinite variations – banana and sesame:

I ground up maybe 80g of sesame seeds with 1 tablespoon of cacao nibs and a bit of vanilla pod. I mashed this up with a banana and and a teaspoon of mesquite and a teaspoon of hemp leaf green superfood.

The basics of the recipe are the ground sesame seeds (or tahini) and the banana. Any number of other things can be added, I often use spirulina but I fancied a changed today. If I want something really sweet I’ll mix in a bit of agave or carob powder.

I just made Golden Cream Pie, one of Holly‘s recipes. It was great, although not quite as good as when Holly makes it!

(Also, I didn’t have dried cherries, so I used fresh ones, which made the base not very base like!)

Pastry:
100g or ½ cup almonds, soaked
100g or ½ cup hazelnuts/ filberts, soaked and dehydrated if possible
5 dates, fresh if possible
5 prunes
1 banana
30g pitted dried cherries (if available)
handful cacao nibs

Filling:
hemp milk made with 200ml or 2/3 cup hemp seeds and juice of 2 oranges and water as necessary (click for hemp milk recipe)
a few pieces orange peel/zest
2 dried figs
½ banana
50g or ¼ cup macadamia nuts
30g or a handful goji berries

Decoration:
handful fresh cherries
sprinkling chocolate powder

Process all the pastry ingredients except the cacao nibs together until smooth, mix in the nibs and form the pastry base on a plate.

Blend the topping ingredients until smooth and fill the pie.  It will set in a few minutes
Sprinkle raw chocolate powder on the top and decorate with halved cherries.