Spiced Cashew Mylk Hot Chocolate

Tis the season. The season of rain. The season of cravings and the season of laziness. Not the best of combinations!

I woke up this Monday (boo) morning to beautifully slothful weather. Sighhhh. All I wanted to do was get under a blankie and soak up my Game of Thrones book. And that's exactly what I did. Except, at mid morning, a strong craving for something steamy hot hit me like a ton of bricks. Hot chocolate would be perfect! So would masala chai (especially since poor hubby had a sore throat and wanted something to soothe it).

Ideally we'd get everything. But considering *I* was the one who had to drag my butt to the kitchen and make something, the quickest, easiest thing would be the most ideal. I've said this before and I'll say it again... laziness is the mother of invention. The speed at which I concocted this Masala Hot Chocolate was incredible. Blend, heat, serve. Gotta love nut mylks. :D

Within 10 minutes (including the time taken to shoot pics), I was back in bed sipping on my awesome fusion drink with a ridiculously contented smile on my face.



1/2 C Cashews
1 inch Fresh Ginger
2 T Cocoa Powder
4 tsp Organic Jaggery
1/4 tsp Cinnamon Powder
1 Clove
4 Black Peppercorns
1/2 Cardamom (just use the seeds and not the pod skin)

Grind everything together into a fine powder.
Add a little water at a time and grind into a smooth paste.
Add about 3 cups of water and blend well.
Pour into microwavable mugs and nuke for 2 minutes (or more).
Keep a close watch while microwaving to ensure the mylk desn't overflow.
Alternately, it can also be heated in a pan on a stove and then served once it's steaming hot.
Dust with cocoa powder.
Slurp.

Enjoy the monsoons! :)

Pale Green Smoothie

Green smoothies are an amazingly nutritious and energy boosting breakfast option. All it takes is greens and fruit to make a basic smoothie. Wash, blend, drink. But sometimes I like to make my breakfast drink a bit special with additional ingredients for extra nutrients and taste. This one that I made today turned out super delicious (so much so that the empty mug got invaded by ants a few minutes after it was put down)! And the pale green colour was so pretty that I just had to grab some pics.

Dates are very rich in iron so I like using them to sweeten foods which are healthy to begin with. Sesame seeds are an excellent source of calcium. Lemon juice helps the nutrients get absorbed better. Turmeric has anti bacterial properties so a small pinch helps to make the raw food more safe.



1 Handful Spinach
1 Large Banana
8-10 Cashews
5 Pitted Dates
1 tsp Sesame Seeds
Pinch Turmeric
Pinch Salt
Pinch Pepper
Large Splash Lemon Juice

Blend everything together with as much or little water as you like.
Pour into a pretty mug.
Slurp away!

Enjoy. :)



What kind of stuff do you like adding into your green smoothie?

Healthy Date Almond Bakery Style Biscuits

Quick to make and just as quick to be polished off, these cookies are a hundred percent healthy. That means no cane sugar, no processed oil, no white flour.

They taste a lot like the salt benne biscuits we get at small, local bakeries here. You could add pepper and spices to turn them into masala biscuits or more dry fruits to make them sweeter. They are really versatile.



1 C Almonds
1 T Sesame Seeds
1 T Flax Seed Powder
8 Pitted Dates
1/8 tsp Salt
1 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
1/2 C Bajra Flour
1 T Water

Preheat oven to 250 C
Grind the almonds, sesame seeds, flax seed powder and salt together to a fine meal.
Add the pitted dates and grind again until it turns into a slightly sticky mixture.
Mix with the rest of the ingredients to form a slightly crumbly dough.
Shape into cookies by making balls and flattening between your palms.
Line on cookie sheet and bake for about 5 minutes, until browned.
Transfer to cooling rack and allow to cool completely.
Enjoy guilt free goodness! :)

Ooey Gooey Chocolate Chunk Walnut Cookies

My baby sis, who is not a vegan *yet*, loooooves my chocolate chip walnut cookies. It's one of her favourite desserts ever and if she had her way, I'd be making it every week! A few weeks ago, she went out with our dad to shop for nuts at this speciality store called Manak Mewa which stocks a huge variety of high quality dry fruits and nuts and sells them at reasonable prices. Ever since my parents attended the Reversing Diabetes seminar by Dr. Nandita Shah last November and turned vegan, my dad started to munch on a few nuts and raisins with salad for his mid morning snack instead of the crappy processed biscuits and stuff that he used to eat before. It's turning out to be healthier and cheaper but it calls for a regular visit to Chickpet to shop at Manak Mewa.

But I digress. I was telling you about my sis at the store. She called me with great excitement in her voice and said in one breath, "Akka, you said your stock of walnuts was over no? There's plenty here. I'll bring some, you make me choco chip cookies." She wanted a whole batch to herself this time, as opposed to the one batch I make and share with her, so she asked me to make two batches, "one for you, one for me". I agreed to spoil the brat this time.



The vegan chocolate chips I'd brought back from the US was long over so I told her to pick up some vegan chocolate bars on her way here. Since chocolate bars are a tad overly sweet in my opinion, I halved the quantity of sugar and the cookies were perfect!

I also wanted to make the cookies slightly healthier so I tweaked the recipe around a bit. So these turned out quite different and much much more scrumptious than the already delicious basic chocolate chip cookies I have been making all these years. These have a softer crumb and a texture that's in between a chewy cookie and a cake. It's just amazing what flax seed powder and Bajra can do to baked goods!!

Ooey Gooey Chocolate Chunk Walnut Cookies

Dry ingredients:
2 C All Purpose Flour (Maida)
2 C Pearl Millet Flour (Bajra)
1 1/2 T Baking Powder
2 T Cocoa Powder
Pinch of Salt

Wet ingredients:
1 C Sugar
1/2 C Olive Oil
2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract
3 T Flax Seed Powder
2 1/4 C Water

Additions:
1 C Broken Walnuts
4 Bars Dark Chocolate Cut into Chunks

Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
Line a baking sheet with aluminium foil.
Sieve together dry ingredients.
Whisk together wet ingredients for a few minutes.
Mix the wet and dry ingredients together.
Stir in the walnuts and chocolate chunks.
Drop onto cookie sheets by spoonfuls.
Bake for 20-25 minutes.
Let cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes.
Transfer to wire rack and cool some more.
Serve warm.
Bite into the soft, gooeyness and be transformed into a state of bliss.



While the cookies were baking, a strange phenomenon occurred. I had negligently left one unbroken walnut half lying around on my kitchen counter (apparently on white paper to get the perfect lighting :oP). I heard a soft shuffling sound and when I looked, I beheld three little zombie veganosaurus monsters walking towards the walnut half with a greedy gleam in their eyes. "Brains, brains, brains", they said. But suddenly...

Mango Ginger Ice Cream - vegan, almost raw

This gingerlicious mango ice cream is not for the faint of heart. Last year, when I made mango ice cream, I thought I'd add a small piece of ginger into the concoction while grinding and loved how the flavors melded. But once I froze it, the ginger got overpowered by the mango.

So ever since this year's mango season started, I'd been really wanting to make a mango ice cream with a super strong ginger kick. When the time came to add ginger into the mixie jar, I did not hold myself back. And boy oh boy did it turn out amazing!!



I ran out of raw agave nectar so I used sugar. If it hadn't been for the sugar, this ice cream would've been categorized under "raw food".

I was feeling lazy and didn't want to wash the ice cream maker, so I decided to use the freeze/whip/freeze method to make this ice cream. I wanted it to have a slightly icy texture for an added crunch, so I didn't let it get too creamy during the freezing process.

Almost Raw, Vegan Mango Ginger Ice Cream

3 Ripe Mangoes - peeled and diced
2 inches Ginger - sliced
1 T Sesame Seeds
1/2 C Cashews
1/2 C Sugar
1 T Flax Seed Powder
A pinch of Salt
2 C Filtered Water

Grind the cashews and sesame seeds together in a dry jar until they start to release oil and begin to turn slightly buttery.

Add the ginger, sugar, salt and flax seed powder and process.

Add the mango and process till smooth and creamy.

Add the water and blend well.

Let this mixture sit in the fridge (not freezer) for a day to chill thoroughly.

Transfer to an airtight container and whip well with a whisk.

Pop in the freezer for half an hour.

Whip again.

Freeze again for an hour.

Whip again.

Let the mixture freeze for 6-8 hours.

Transfer this icy mixture into a blender jar in batches and process for a few minutes.

Transfer back into the airtight container and freeze for two hours.

To get beautiful scoops, let the container thaw inside the fridge for five minutes before you serve each time.

Scoop and serve.

Enjoy! :)