Tag: healthy dessert

Baobab & Melon Nice Cream (African Superfoods Part 1)

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Baobab & Melon Ice Cream

There’s a lot of hype about Central and South American superfoods, but here in Africa we have some amazing plants too! I think it’s important to both be proud of your country & heritage, as well as to support locally grown and manufactured products. Over the next few weeks I want to do a series of posts on various African superfoods. For those of you in other parts of the world, I hope it will be interesting and informative (most of them are becoming more well known and popular in health circles so you should be able to get hold of them.) For fellow South Africans, I hope this will encourage you to make use of our beautiful continent’s bounty 🙂

baobab tree copy

According to African legend, long, long ago the first baobab tree sprouted beside a lake. As it grew, it surveyed the other trees and admired their colourful flowers, their tall, straight trunks and their beautiful green foliage. One day the little tree was tall enough to see its own reflection in the lake. It was dismayed at the sight! Its trunk was short and fat, its leaves were sparse and dull and its bark looked like the wrinkled hide of an elephant. The tree implored the Creator to change its appearance, but its request was ignored. Day after day, it watched the beautiful trees, compared them to its own reflection, and cried to the heavens. One day the Creator had had enough, reached down and unearthed the tree. Turning it upside down, the Creator replanted the tree with its branches in the earth, and its roots in the sky. From that day on the baobab tree was silenced, and as penance has served animals and humans with good deeds ever since.
Source: http://www.ecoproducts.co.za

These beautiful trees are grown in 32 African countries, and are revered by many tribes, even worshipped by some. The fruit is a highly nutritious food source, the seeds provide oil (I used baobab oil during and after my pregnancy to prevent stretch marks) and the fibre in the bark is used to make fishnets, cord and clothing. The trunks are a good source of timber and are often hollowed out and used for shelter, grain storage or as water reservoirs.

Baobab powder has recently become a very popular superfood, and for good reason. The powdered fruit contains 3 times more calcium than milk, 4 times more vitamin C then oranges, 6 times more potassium then bananas, 5 times more anti-oxidants than blueberries, a whopping 16 times more fibre than pears, and 5 times more magnesium than avocados. Its sweet-tart flavour makes the perfect addition to this quick and easy vegan “nice cream.”

Ingredients

350g melon, weighed without skin or seeds
2 bananas
3 tbsp baobab powder (I use EcoProducts)
1 – 2 tbsp raw honey
1/2 cup almond milk

Method

This requires some forethought, in that you have to freeze the melon and banana overnight (or you could freeze when you have it and use whenever!) I used canary melon, but you could also use spanspek (aka cantaloupe) or honeydew (aka musk melon.)

Place all the ingredients in your blender and blend until smooth and creamy, using your tamper to mix as you blend. The amount of honey required depends on the sweetness of the melon. I had a melon that was not very sweet, which is why I decided to freeze it and turn it into ice cream. You may have a melon so sweet that you won’t need any honey at all, so sweeten to taste.

This will serve 2 people as breakfast or 4 people as dessert. If you have any left over you can freeze it again. It won’t be quite as smooth and creamy, more like a sorbet, but still delicious.

Health & happiness!

Love,
Raine

Chai Coconut Milk Chia Pudding

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chai chia pudding2

That might sound like a mouthful, and it is… a mouthful of deliciousness and health! “Chia” is the ancient Mayan word for “strength” and these little seeds were prized for their ability to provide long-lasting energy. They provide high nutrition for low calories (almost all of their carbohydrates are in the form of fibre) so this is a great food if you’re trying to lose weight. They are high in protein, fibre, Omega 3 fatty acids, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and antioxidants.

You can sprinkle chia seeds over your breakfast or add them to smoothies, but my favourite way to eat them is by making chia pudding. When you soak these little nutritional powerhouses in liquid, they swell and absorb the liquid. The result is a creamy and delicious pudding. Great for breakfast or dessert… and who doesn’t love dessert for breakfast?!

I prefer to grind my spices fresh in a coffee grinder as the flavour is much more intense, but you could use pre-ground spices if you don’t have whole spices or a coffee grinder.


Ingredients

1 stick of cinnamon (3/4 tsp ground)
1 star anise (1/4 tsp ground)
the seeds of 8 green cardamom pods (1/2 tsp ground)
about 1/5 of a whole nutmeg (1/4 tsp ground)
1/4 tsp Himalayan salt
1 – 2 tbsp raw honey or organic maple syrup
2 cups coconut milk (I make my own but you can use an organic tinned one which contains only coconut and water)
90ml chia seeds
60ml hemp seeds

Method

Firstly, grind the spices until you have a fine powder. Place them in a bowl with the honey and salt and a few drops of the coconut milk. Use a whisk to dissolve the honey, and then add the rest of the coconut milk. Add the chia and hemp seeds and whisk well so that the seeds are well distributed through the liquid.
I normally leave it overnight in the fridge, stirring once before I go to bed. If you’re in a hurry, you could stir every hour or so and it should be ready in about 4 hours.

I layered mine with fresh mango, banana, brazil nuts and goji berries for a delicious and energising breakfast.

Health and happiness!

Love,
Raine

Rhubarb & Raspberry Crumble

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rhubarb crumble

Magical food
Wonderful food
Heavenly food
Beautiful food
Food, Glooorrriiiooouuusss Fooooood!

That Oliver Twist sure knew what he was talking about didn’t he! We just love food! And we especially love desserts. And we especially ESPECIALLY love desserts that are guilt free! All of our desserts here at Two Kitchens will be gluten free, refined sugar free and dairy free. Look at this picture, could you tell the difference?! This is heavenly!! Nutritious also as the nuts supply our bodies with essential fatty acids and protein, and believe it or not, rhubarb has huge amounts of health benefits. It aids weight loss, improves digestion, is great for the skin, has cancer preventing properties, improves circulation, and, can you believe, helps prevents Alzheimer’s Disease! What’s not to love??

Ingredients

For the rhubarb:

475g rhubarb, cut into 5cm pieces
the juice of 1 1/2 oranges (reserve the zest for the crumble)
125ml raw honey
1/3 cup dates, chopped
pinch of himalayan salt
100g raspberries (fresh or frozen)

For the crumble:

1 cup rolled oats
1/3 cup ground flaxseed
1/2 tsp himalayan salt
1/2 tsp vanilla powder or 1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
the zest of 1 lemon (plus the orange zest you’ve reserved)
½ cup almonds, soaked for 6 hours
60ml coconut oil
40ml raw honey

Method

Firstly, remember to pre-soak the almonds. Drain, rinse & pat them dry.

Preheat the oven to 180 C.

In a saucepan combine all the rhubarb ingredients, except for the raspberries. Simmer for 5-10 minutes until tender. Stir in the raspberries, and pour into an oven-proof dish.

For the crumble, put the oats, ground flaxseed, salt, vanilla, cinnamon, orange and lemon zest and almonds into a food processor. Process until a crumb-like texture forms. Add the coconut oil and honey and combine well. Spread over the rhubarb mixture.

Bake for 20 – 30 minutes until the crumble is golden and the sauce is bubbling up around the edges. Best served warm, but also delicious served at room temperature for breakfast the next day, with some coconut yoghurt!

Health & happiness!

Love,
Lauren & Raine