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Superfoods for Super Humans

December 26, 2009 //
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The Beginnings of Green, by Alan Jaras

You and I are beams of light, shooting stars, balls of glowing vibrational energy.

And to burn our very brightest, let’s add some super fuel to that internal fire, and see what kind of creativity comes glistening, gleaming, shining through!

We can eat anything to get “full” – to satisfy that pure animal appetite that is a grumbly tummy. But what are we getting full of? I want to be full of the materials that make me my best light-self; full of joy, full of love, full of boundless energy and creative impulse. Those materials come to me through plants, which have kindly synthesized nutrients from the earth, the sky and the water in delectably digestible morsels. Their life-force, ingested, adding to my own – imagine the possibilities!

Beyond the beautiful plant foods, there is another class of foods that are exceptionally high in essential nutrients. These are the superfoods, which nutritional visionary David Wolfe describes as straddling the categories of both food and medicine. These foods are among the most nutritionally dense and healing substances on the planet. When we eat them, we not only boost our bodies with vitamins and minerals, we also take on an extremely high level of vibrational energy. You only have to eat a little bit of these foods to feel the spirit of these plants awaken within you.

If you’re among the superfood skeptics, bear with me a moment. I’m not talking fads here, I’m talking about foods that have been used medicinally for hundreds (if not thousands) of years. Our contemporary knowledge of the superfoods often comes out of ancient traditions who recognized their power. Take the goji berry, for instance. Chances are if you’re reading this, you’ve not living under a rock and you’ve seen the ubiquitous goji berry, or its concentrated powder or juice, at your local health food shop. This tart little ruddy guy is so much more than the latest thing in health foods – it has been celebrated within Traditional Chinese Medicine for centuries as a powerful longevity-booster, a claim which contemporary scientific study corroborates. It belongs to a class of foods known as adaptogens – substances that, by working on the body in several therapeutic ways, increase overall health. Gojis support the adrenal glands, helping the body deal with stress, while also strengthening the immune system, creating alkalinity, and directly supporting the liver, eyes and blood. On a nutritional level, gojis are a complete protein source, chock full of all the essential amino acids, as well as a range of trace minerals and a host of vitamins. They are also rich in anti-oxidants.

Other superfoods that I know (intimately) and love (deeply) include cacao, spirulina, maca, honey, bee pollen, hemp seeds, coconut, acai berries, sea vegetables, chia seeds and aloe vera, among others. I find these foods so much fun to incorporate into my recipes, and they make me feel AMAZING. Keep an eye out for my superfoods series, in which I discuss different superfoods in depth and explore their potential culinary uses.

The one caveat I would add about superfoods is that while they may be helpful in treating illness, and there are certainly cases where they have contributed to profound healing, they are at their most effective when consumed regularly in order to support ongoing health, longevity and vibrancy. This doesn’t mean swallowing tablets or capsules! Superfood ingredients are more and more readily available in health and natural food stores or through the internet, and they are incredibly fun to play with across a range of recipes.

You might just find that the more superfoods you get into your body, the more inspired you feel to create new recipes with them. Go with it!

What are your favorite superfood recipes – what do you eat that really gets you glowing?

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Categories Superfoods

Coconut Lucuma Cake with Mango and Coconut Vanilla Creme Swirl

December 13, 2009 //
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I’ve been having fun creating superfood recipes lately, and this one was inspired by a box of ripe mangoes and a dinner party invite. Almonds, coconut, lucuma, honey, mango, banana, macadamias, vanilla – this cake is more chock-full of nutrients than most people’s meals. Protein and mineral rich almonds, immune-system and weight-balancing coconut, vitamin-C packed lucuma and mango, enzyme-rich raw honey, and much more.

All that goodness and three delicious, complex textures and flavors to tantalize the taste buds to boot! The bottom layer is a dense, cakey coconut lucuma extravaganza, topped with smooth mango puree swirled with a beautiful coconut macadamia vanilla creme. This is why raw desserts are amazing. Every bite is packed with yumminess and vitality.

Coconut Lucuma Cake with Mango and Coconut Vanilla Crème Swirl

Cake Layer:
1 cup almonds, ground to powder
1 cup dried coconut, ground to powder
½ cup lucuma powder
6 dried apricots
2 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp coconut oil
2 Tbsp water

Mango Puree:
4 cups fresh diced mango (2 large)
2 dried bananas
1 Tbsp coconut oil

Coconut Vanilla Crème:
1 cup macadamia nuts
1 cup Thai young coconut meat (1 large)
½-1 cup young coconut water or plain water
1 vanilla bean
2 Tbsp honey
1 Tbsp coconut oil

Method:

Grind the almonds to a powder in a coffee grinder or high powered blender. Set aside. Grind dried coconut to a powder using the same method. Combine the almond, coconut and lucuma powders in a food processor and add apricots, honey, coconut oil and water as needed. Whir until combined. Press into a springform cake pan and place in the refrigerator.

Combine mango, dried bananas and coconut oil in food processor or high powered blender and whir until completely smooth. Place in a bowl and set aside.

Rinse your food processor or blender, then combine coconut vanilla creme ingredients and whir until smooth. Add more coconut water or water as needed to achieve a very smooth, creamy consistency.

Spread the mango puree over the cake layer. Then make little wells and add the creme a little bit at a time until it is well distributed. Using a chopstick, swirl the mango and creme together. Place the entire cake in the freezer to set for about an hour, then remove to the refrigerator. Serve chilled and eat within 4 days.

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Categories Recipes, Superfoods

FUNctional Food

November 25, 2009 //
3

Check out this cake!

I’ve been thinking for a while about what I’d like to call the Fun Principle. So often this whole raw-health-nutrition scene gets so serious. And yeah, on one level it IS incredibly serious. We’ve talking about our health here, and as the old saying goes, what have we got if we haven’t got our health? So eating the optimal diet is most definitely a worthy goal that ought to be among our highest priorities.

But at the same time, we have to lighten up. I don’t necessarily mean by compromising and eating less healthy foods, though there are times when that might be a worthy decision if it supports your social life and lessens stress – but that’s not what I’m talking about right now. What I’m talking about is looking at food from the pleasure angle. The Yum Factor. The joyful, blissful, pure enjoyment of really amazing food that makes us feel great and buzz with happiness. The kind of food that makes us want to shout because it tastes so good and is so freakin’ full of nutrition you can feel your cells dancing. This is happy food! And it ought to be celebrated.

Hence the celebratory cake above. This is Hi-Cake: full of raw cacao, lucuma and nuts, and topped with a rich raw chocolaty icing made of avocado! I made this cake in honor of my brother, Alex, traveling almost as far as one can possibly go around this little earth of ours to visit me in Australia. After spending 30 hours in transit, doesn’t he deserve a joyful cake? I thought so. And what is more joyful than chocolate cake – what, that is, other than raw chocolate cake full of bliss chemicals and heaps of vitamins and minerals.

The recipe comes from one of my heroes: Kate Magic Wood. Her middle name is Magic! How cool is that? Kate is a super raw foods educator, writer and entrepreneur who lives in the UK and operates the funky website Raw Living. But it’s not just her passion for raw and superfoods that I dig about Kate. It’s her holistic view of things. The way she really gets that the whole point behind this whole nutrition thing is to allow people to fully realize themselves and reach their highest potential, and to provide a basis for the flowering of humanity – the real revolution. And her website is pink and purple – I dig that too. Her superfood recipes are so innovative and have such a sense of FUN flowing right off the page. If only I were in the UK to try some of her food. For now I will have to settle for deriving creative inspiration – like this amazing cake. I added the goji berry spirals because they just seemed to be in the spirit of Kate! I also subbed cashews for brazil nuts and used honey instead of agave – about half as much as called for. Divine.

Look, nutrition is a serious matter. But at the same time it’s a laughing matter! Because joy is the true path to vibrant physical, mental and emotional health. So here’s to utmost nutrition, unspeakable pleasure, and true creativity, which ultimately are all one and the same. Talk about having our cake and eating it too!

Hi-Cake

by Kate Wood

(published at Raw Living)

Time needed: 30 mins, 3 hours setting time
Equipment needed: blender
Makes 8 large slices

By popular demand, here is a raw chocolate cake recipe for you, so you can see what all the fuss is about. These cakes are so nutrient-dense, one slice is a meal in itself, packed with vitamins, minerals, proteins and healthy fats. Easy to make, and even easier to eat! Remember the Hi-bar? The first raw chocolate bar to be sold in the UK (and beyond!), made with cacao nibs and brazil nuts, this is the Hi-bar in a Cake.

Cake:

  • 250 g cacao nibs
  • 250 g brazil nuts
  • 250 g lucuma
  • 6 tbsp agave nectar
  • 150 ml water

      Icing:

      • 2 avocadoes
      • 30 g raw chocolate powder
      • 2 tbsp agave nectar
      • 60 ml water

        Decoration:

        • 2 tbsp goji berries
        • 2 tbsp dried cranberries

          Grind up the nibs and nuts separately in a high power blender or coffee grinder. Transfer to a mixing bowl with the lucuma and agave. With your hands, mix the all the ingredients so you have an even powder. Add the water gradually, kneading the mixture into a ball with your hands. It should end up as a fairly thick dough-like consistency. Press into a springform cake tin, and leave in the fridge to set for a few hours.

          To make the icing, put the avocado flesh in the blender along with the chocolate powder, agave and water. If you haven’t got chocolate powder, you can substitute carob or mesquite. Blend until you have a thick cream. Once your cake is set, you can remove it from the cake tin, and spoon the icing evenly over the top and the sides. Decorate with dried goji berries and cranberries sprinkled over the top. Uneaten cake can be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to two weeks

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          Categories Gastrosophy, Recipes, Superfoods

          Cosmic Carrot Lemon Cheesecake with Red Raspberry Sauce

          October 6, 2009 //
          2

          I’ve got a bit of a bakery habit. While I rarely feel any pull to actually buy one of the gorgeous cakes – I know that despite their lovely appearances, they’re made of low-energy, dead food products like white flour, sugar and butter – I really love to ogle them. I admire the artistry that is patisserie. In fact I know that many of the master bakers out there, while they may differ with me on matters of diet, hold the same core philosophy close to their hearts: namely, using the best quality ingredients and preparing their little delicacies with the utmost attention to detail. Ultimately, it comes back to that old hang-up of mine: integrity.

          Look, I’m not trying to argue the merits of pastry. No matter if your baker is using the finest flour and organic butter imported from France. That croissant is still nutritionally dead. Despite its beauty, it’s not doing anything to make you a glowing diva radiating an aura of earthly energy. I’m just giving credit where credit is due: to the creativity and artistry of the patissiere.

          My latest addiction is a little cake shop on Little Collins Street in Melbourne. They make the most delicate, gorgeously petit cakes – miniature versions of French classics with contemporary twists. One that I’ve really admired lately is the “cosmopolitan:” a layer of carrot cake, a layer of cheesecake, and a topping of raspberry jam. I just had to have a go at rawifying it.
          I’ll be the first to admit that mine didn’t come out nearly as pretty as the delicacies on display at Le Petit Gateaux. Then again, I haven’t been disciplined under the exacting eye of a French patissiere! So I’ll give myself a break in terms of design, and suffice it to say that the flavors are HOT. Sweet, spicy carrot cake, given a depth of flavour with the additional superfood boost of mesquite meal, layered with lemony cashew cheesecake and tied together with the sweet-tart, lip smacking sensuality of raspberry-honey sauce. This is a super-powered cake. Carrots, coconut, mesquite, cashews, lemons (from my lemon tree!), dates, berries, honey – this cake is seriously nutritious. Yup, my cake packs more vitamins than most people’s so called “healthy” meals, but don’t eat it for that reason. Eat it because it’s delicious, it makes you feel great, and because there’s absolutely no reason that every single bite you put into your mouth shouldn’t satisfy on every level.

          Cosmic Carrot Lemon Cheesecake with Red Raspberry Sauce

          Crust

          1 cup dried coconut
          1/2 cup macadamia nuts
          1/2 cup dates
          pinch himalayan salt

          Carrot Cake Layer

          3 1/3 cups finely grated carrot
          1 cup sunflower seeds
          1 1/2 cups medjoool dates (pitted)
          1 1/3 cups shredded coconut
          2/3 cup mesquite meal
          1 tsp grated nutmeg
          2 tsp ground cinnamon
          Cheesecake Layer

          2 cups cashews
          1/3 cup lemon juice
          1/2 cup honey
          1/2 cup coconut oil
          1 small vanilla bean
          water, as needed

          Raspberry Sauce

          2 cups raspberries, fresh or frozen and defrosted
          2 Tbsp honey, softened

          For the crust: Grind macadamias and coconut in food processor. Add dates. Press into the bottom of a cake pan.

          For the carrot cake layer: Squeeze as much moisture as possible out of the shredded carrots. Grind the sunflower seeds to a powder in the food processor. Add dates and process to combine. Add shredded coconut, mesquite meal, nutmeg and cinnamon, and pulse a few times. Add carrots and process until combined, leaving some texture.

          Press half (or all, of you prefer 2 layers) of the carrot cake mixture on top of the crust, and place the cake in the freezer to set a bit while preparing the next layer.

          For the lemon cheesecake layer: If honey and coconut oil are firm, melt over a double boiler. Combine cashews, lemon juice, melted honey and coconut oil and vanilla bean in food processor or high powered blender and whir until smooth, adding water slowly as needed (up to 1/2 cup).

          Smooth half of the cheesecake mixture over the carrot cake layer. Place in freezer for 10 minutes to solidify, then top with the remaining carrot cake mixture. Again, freeze to solidify, then top with remaining cheesecake mixture.

          Will keep frozen for a few weeks, about 1 week in the refrigerator.

          Make sauce just before serving: Soften honey over a double boiler, then combine with raspberries and mash with a fork. Drizzle over each serving of cake.

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          Categories Recipes

          Oreo Milkshake

          June 24, 2008 //
          1

          Just in case my oreo pie recipe didn’t clue you in, I’ll let you in on a dirty little secret. I love oreos. In my pre-raw days, I used to indulge in a box of these seemingly innocent little biscuits more often than I’d like to admit. I say seemingly innocent because in advertisements, they are always being eaten by sweet little children, joyfully dunking their sandwich cookies in tall glasses of creamy milk.

          Now I know that the biscuits are made of white flour and a dozen other nasty ingredients that I’m not keen to ingest, and I don’t even want to contemplate how they make that cream. But the flavor and texture combination is just so good! Hence, my desire to recreate the oreo experience in a healthy, natural form. Or shall I say forms. Because an oreo pie is great for a special occasion, but it’s not something I’m going to whip up for my inner child for an after school (or work) snack.

          And so, the oreo milkshake was born. It can be made in under 15 minutes – perfect for an indulgent afternoon snack. The hardest part is opening the young coconut, but once you’ve done it a few times it will only take you a few minutes. If you want to try this recipe and it’s your first coconut, I suggest reading up on how to open a young coconut.

          Furthermore, this delicious milkshake is full of nutritional goodness and will leave you positively bursting with energy. Coconut water is among the most hydrating substances on earth, so it will really give your body a boost that you will feel instantly. Raw cacao is full of antioxidants, magnesium, and natural mood elevators (think dopamine, seratonin, anandamine, phenylethylamine, and MAO inhibitors). Yes, there’s a reason human beings love eating chocolate: it makes us feel bliss and well-being. I eat it at least once a day, but in its natural, more potent and less adulterated form. The milkshake also contains vanilla bean, which is also associated with feelings of well-being, gogi berries which are high in antioxidants, agave nectar which contains many trace minerals and is a low-GI sweetener, and coconut oil, a great healing oil that is good for the skin and associated with weight loss. Talk about a super snack!

          Oreo cookies and a glass of milk have nothing on this milkshake.

          Oreo Milkshake
          (serves 2)
          1 young coconut
          1/2 vanilla bean
          2 Tbsp raw cacao powder
          2 Tbsp gogi berries
          1 Tbsp coconut oil
          1 1/2 Tbsp agave nectar, or to taste

          Open the coconut and pour the liquid into a powerful blender. Scrape the soft coconut flesh out with a spoon and add to the blender. Add the 1/2 vanilla bean, cacao powder, gogi berries, coconut oil and agave nectar. Blend on high until all the ingredients are fully combined.

          Garnish with dried shredded coconut and cacao nibs, if desired. Drink, enjoy, and feel the energy!

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          Categories Recipes, Superfoods
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