Simple, but oh so effective! The good old trusted Israeli salad. Full of yummy fresh veggies, colourful and delicious…
Ingredients
2 tomatoes
Half a large cucumber
1 yellow pepper
2 spring onions
Extra virgin olive oil
White vinegar
Himalayan salt & black pepper
Method
Chop all your veggies up into really small pieces and put them all in a bowl. Drizzle a little olive oil, a little vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Mix, and serve! Voila!
Enjoy
Love,
Lauren
For those of you who have been saying that some of our recipes are a bit intimidating, here’s the perfect place to start. These energy bars are so simple to make, all you need is a food processor, no other techniques required!
Ingredients
1 cup goji berries
1/2 cup raw brazil nuts
6 – 8 fresh medjool dates (about 125g)
2 tbsp baobab powder
1/2 tsp Oryx Desert Salt
4 tbsp ground flax
1/3 cup organic virgin coconut oil
2 tbsp raw honey
Method
Place the goji berries and brazil nuts in a food processor and process into a rough crumb. Add the dates, making sure to remove the pips and process again. Add the baobab powder, salt, and ground flax and process to combine. Finally add the coconut oil and honey and process until everything is well combined and sticky but with a rough texture.
Spread evenly in a loaf tin lined with clingfilm (for easy removal) and refrigerate until set. Cut into bars and keep refrigerated.
Health & happiness!
Love,
Raine
This is a favourite with my family and friends, and no one can ever believe what the main ingredient is… avocado! Don’t let that put you off – it is rich, creamy and delicious; everything you want from a chocolate tart. And it’s so simple and easy to make.
This year I made it for Pesach dinner (we don’t eat wheat during Pesach and our desserts always have to be dairy-free as we don’t mix meat and milk.)
Word of advice: don’t tell people that there’s avo in it until they’ve tried it!
Ingredients
Crust:
2 cups whole raw almonds
60ml raw cacao powder
1/4 tsp himalayan salt
150g fresh medjool dates
2 tbsp organic virgin coconut oil
Filling:
500g ripe avo flesh (about 4 or 5 avos)
180ml raw cacao powder
60ml organic virgin coconut oil
40g raw cacao butter, gently melted
180ml organic maple syrup
1/4 tsp himalayan salt
1/4 tsp organic stevia leaf powder
1 tsp organic vanilla extract or 1/2 tsp vanilla powder
Method
Remove the pits from the dates and chop them up. Place all the ingredients for the crust in a food processor and blend until you have a fine crumb that sticks together when pressed. If the mixture seems dry just keep processing until it’s sticky. Turn it out into a 23cm loose-bottom flan tin or glass serving dish. Press the crumb evenly across the bottom and up the sides of the tin, making sure that the top edges are straight and even. Refrigerate.
Place all the ingredients for the filling in a high-speed blender and blend until completely smooth, but be careful not to blend for so long that the mixture heats up.
Pour into the set crust and use a spatula to make swirly patterns on top or just smooth it out, as you prefer. Refrigerate overnight or minimum 4 hours.
Health & happiness!
Love,
Raine
I fancied having something in my fridge that is sweet but refreshing at the same time, and healthy of course, and I haven’t made any form of bliss balls for a while so I just made these. All the ingredients are natural, organic and raw and the Baobab adds extra superfood goodness for added energy and an immune boost.
Ingredients
1 cup organic medjool dates
Half cup hazelnuts
Half cup almonds
Juice of 2 lemons (I like it quite lemony but you can reduce if you like)
1 tsp baobab
About half a cup desiccated coconut, give or take
Method
First soak the nuts for at least 4 hours (you can soak them together in a bowl with purified water)
Add all the ingredients, including 4 tbsp of the coconut to the food processor and process until the nuts are totally ground into a butter and everything is well incorporated and soft.
Take about a spoonful out with your hands and roll into a ball and place on a large plate. Continue this until you have finished the mixture, leaving a gap in the middle of the plate. You may need to add a tiny bit of water to your hands to help roll the balls if they are too sticky.
Once they are all on the plate, sprinkle the rest of the coconut in a heap onto the middle of the plate and coat each one individually with the coconut.
Once they are ready you can store them in an airtight container in the fridge for about a week or in the freezer for about a month.
Enjoy!
Love,
Lauren
I love to use savoury flavours in desserts, and in these truffles the basil compliments the lemon really well. They are perfect to finish off a dinner or to give as a gift. Put them in a pretty glass jar and tie a ribbon around the neck… people always appreciate something that you have made yourself!
Ingredients
200g creamed coconut (or coconut butter, not coconut oil)
zest of 3 lemons
30ml lemon juice
1 tbsp honey
1/2 tsp organic stevia leaf powder
pinch of organic vanilla powder or 2 drops vanilla extract
1 tbsp baobab powder
pinch of himalayan salt
2 tbsp chopped fresh basil
about 40g cacao butter
an empty egg carton and toothpicks
Method
Place all the ingredients except the basil and cacao butter into a food processor. Process until well combined. Then add the chopped basil and pulse to combine. If the mixture is very soft you can refrigerate it until it firms up. Take about a heaped teaspoon of mixture at a time and use your palms to roll it into a neat ball. Place on a plate as you go. You should get about 21 truffles. Place them in the freezer to harden.
In a small saucepan, gently melt the cacao butter (don’t be alarmed that it turns brown as it melts, this is normal.) You will need to melt more cacao butter than what you actually end up using – simply allow the remainder to set again and return to the packet. Spear a truffle onto a toothpick and then dip it into the melted cacao butter, swirling to remove any excess and ensure an even coating.
Then stick the other end of the toothpick into an empty egg carton, allowing the cacao butter to set.
Repeat with all the truffles. Once they have set you can give them a second coating if you like, and then keep them refrigerated. This is actually the first time I’ve made truffles in years and I really enjoyed the process, but if this seems like too much hard work for you, you can omit the last step of coating them in cacao butter!
Health & happiness 🙂
Love,
Raine
The last few mornings in Joburg have been quite chilly and I’m not at all happy to admit that autumn is definitely on its way. Use the last of our beautiful tropical summer fruit to make this quick and easy ice cream – no dairy or sugar! I’ve frozen it in lolly molds to make it fun for my son, but you could also freeze it as regular ice cream to be scooped on its own or to accompany a dessert.
Ingredients:
650g fresh mango flesh (about 2 mangoes)
1 tin (400ml) organic coconut milk
60ml organic virgin coconut oil
30ml raw honey
1/4 tsp himalayan salt
1/4 tsp organic vanilla powder or 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp organic stevia leaf powder
Method:
Blend all the ingredients until smooth. Pour into lolly moulds and freeze, or process in an ice cream machine. If you don’t have an ice cream machine, freeze until almost set, then blend again to break up the crystals and return to the freezer.
Health & happiness!
Love,
Raine
I recently bought a spiralizer and have been excited to start playing with it. I would definitely recommend getting one if you want to eat more healthy food… it was super easy to use and this dish was just as satisfying as a regular pasta. Maybe even more so because I felt so good after eating it!
Roasting the fennel gives it a beautiful caramelized liquorice flavour, which pairs so well with the sage, lemon & salmon. If you don’t eat fish you can simply omit that, and you’ll still have a gorgeous, fresh and healthy supper.
Ingredients (serves 2)
1 large bulb of fennel
12 cloves of garlic
juice of 1 lemon
60ml olive oil
a handful of fresh sage
380g zucchini
another 2 tbsp olive oil
200g hot-smoked salmon
Method
Preheat the oven to 200 C.
Use a mandolin to finely slice the fennel. You could just use a sharp knife, but using a mandolin is quicker and easier. Peel the garlic and just use the heel of your chef’s knife to smash them up a bit – you still want biggish pieces. Place the fennel, garlic, lemon, olive oil and sage in an ovenproof dish. Season with himalayan salt and black pepper. Roast for about 30 minutes, until the fennel has caramelized and has a sweet aroma.
Meanwhile, spiralize the zucchini into noodles and flake the salmon. When the fennel comes out the oven, add the zoodles, additional olive oil and salmon. Toss together in the hot dish to warm everything through. Check the seasoning and adjust if necessary with more himalayan salt, black pepper or lemon juice. Serve immediately.
Health & happiness!
Love,
Raine
I felt like I needed to be super-duper healthy today, so I picked up the greenest vegetables I could find in my fridge and stuck them in the juicer. Once I was done juicing them, I added them to the blender with a spoonful of spirulina and voila! Spirulina is so thick and icky if you don’t blend it – it can really put you off so make sure you blend it!
Read these amazing facts on spirulina, provided by the amazing Organic Burst where I buy all my superfoods:
Ingredients
Big handful kale
Big handful spring greens
2 celery sticks
Half a cucumber
1 inch fresh ginger
1 lime
1 tsp spirulina
Method
Put all ingredients apart from spirulina and lime in the juicer. Once juiced, add to blender with the juice of one lime and the spirulina and blend on high for a minute with 4 ice cubes,
You are now positively buzzing and vibrating with healthy, clean cells!
Lauren 🙂
You all know how much I love a smoothie bowl, but up until now I hadn’t posted a chocolate one and let’s face it, everyone loves chocolate for breakfast! This way you don’t even have to feel guilty. The raw cacao is a sensational way of getting plant-based protein. I wanted to add some chai flavouring as I just love the taste and thought it would go well with this and it really did… The best ingredient in here is the Baobab. I’m a big fan of superfoods and have a cupboard where I keep spirulina, acai berries, maca, lucuma, cacao and now baobab. Read up on Raine’s explanation of Baobab here…
Ingredients
1 frozen banana
Quarter cup boiling water
1 chai tea bag
Quarter cup almond milk
1 tbsp almond butter
2 dates
1 tbsp raw cacao
1 tsp baobab
Method
Before starting, boil the kettle and pour a quarter cup boiling water into a mug and let the chai tea bag steep in it for ten minutes. Put it next to a window so it cools down.
In the meantime, put the rest of the ingredients into a blender. Once the tea is cool, add this to the mix and blend well.
Pour into a bowl and add toppings of choice.
Enjoy!
Love,
Lauren
I’m a bit obsessed with my dehydrator… It’s just the best way to make tasty but healthy snacks. By dehydrating instead of baking, you keep all the nutrients in the snacks as they stay raw and you can increase your fruit and veg intake but they taste naughty!
Here I made kale chips, banana chips, dried mango and apple chips.
For kale:
Cut up small and cut off hard stalks and mix in a bowl with a little olive oil and a little Himalayan salt – not too much salt as the kale will shrink but the salt won’t so they’ll be really salty if you use too much. Also try Raine’s chocolate kale chips!
For banana chips:
Slice the banana (don’t use any brown bits) and coat with a little lemon juice to preserve
For the mango:
Cut up the pieces quite small and lay on the dehydrating tray – no preservative needed
For the apple:
Core the apple then slice it so you get nice round shapes. Only leave the skin on if they are organic and unwaxed. You can add a little cinnamon also.
Put in the dehydrator on 50-55 degrees and leave for 12 hours. The softer the food the longer it will take so you may need to take the apples and kale out before the mango and banana. Rotate the trays so they all get the hottest part when you can. Remember not to overlap any of the foods as they won’t go as crispy.
Easy yummy snacks for you and the kids!
Love
Lauren
ORGANIC SPOON 