Lemon Mango Pie

Cooking:

if your dates are really dry, soak them in lukewarm water an hour before starting this.

Add all the nuts but only half of the cashews into the food processor, add a pinch of salt and ground them up to small pieces.
Add the dates, one by one until the mixture starts to clump together.
Line the spring form with some anti-stick paper, scoop the mixture in, press down firmly and evenly.

Squeeze the lemons to get about a cup of lemon juice.
Put the lemon juice in the blender together with the avocado, the coconut oil/milk, the agave syrup, the cashews and the vanilla extract. Blend until it is a smooth creamy paste that has a nice consistency (at the start it will look a bit like it has shifted).
Poor this cream over the base in a thickness you like, the left over cream you can put in the freezer to eat later as a very yummy lemon ice-cream! ;)

For the third layer dice up the mango and put in the blender with the banana and a 1/3 cup of the coconut oil.
Blend until it becomes a smooth paste and poor over the previous layer.
Put the whole pie in the Fridge for at least 30 minutes to an hour to let the ingredients set so it can be cut in slices.

About the variable ingredients:

Sometimes for this recipe you will have to find your own quantities for the ingredients:
You can use all kinds of nuts for the base, just experiment what you like best as a flavour composition.

for the filling I used three main ingredients besides the lemon juice (which decides the flavour of the pie):
Virgin Coconut Oil, Cashews and Avocado.
the Coconut oil is what holds it all together, the avocado makes it creamy and the cashews make it more solid, sometimes you have to experiment which quantities you like best: the avocado is somewhat sweeter and fits better with the pie, but sometimes it can make it too creamy and it won’t stay firm. The cashews make it firmer, but it makes the pie lose a little bit of it’s freshness, which is the part I like best.

The third mango layer was more of a bonus because it makes it look more interesting as a layer cake, but the pie really doesn’t need it, it is really yummy and super refreshing without it!
What I like about the extra layer is that it takes over the flavour on first bite, making it creamy sweet with the banana/mango mixture, and then the after taste of the tangy lemon coconut mixture hits you a second later.

Ingredients:
- 1 cup Almonds
- 1 cup Pecans
- 1 cup Macademias
- 1 cup Dates

- 2 Lemons
- 1-2 Avocados (variable)
- 1/2 cup Cashews (variable)
- 1 cup Virgin Coconut Oil
- 1 cup Agave Syrup
- 1/3 cup Coconut Milk (optional)

1 Mango
1 Banana
1/3 cup Virgin Coconut Oil

Herbs & Spices:
- 2/3 tspVanilla Extract
- pinch of Salt

Tools:
- Food Processor
- Blender
- Spring Form (around 6 inch diameter)
- Anti-Stick Paper
- Fridge

Sweet Pumpkin Soup

 

Cooking:

Start by dicing up the ingredients and squeezing your orange juice.
Heat the pan on a moderate flame and add the cumin seeds. Stir until they start to pop.
Add the orange juice, then all the other ingredients.
Add water until most of the ingredients are submerged and bring to a boil.
Set to simmer for about 30 minutes.
Remove a handful of dices from the pan to add as garnish later, then use the mixer to mash everything into a soup.

Serve into a bowl, sprinkle some of the dices on top, ground some black pepper over it and finish with a leaf or two of mint.
Add some slices of your favourite bread to the side.

About the variable ingredients:

You can make this soup as sweet or as savoury as you want; the orange juice makes it sweet, the chestnuts make it savoury. So if you like sweet, add more orange juice and less chestnuts, if you like savoury do the reverse (I like the soup to be sweeter in summer, more savoury in winter).
Apart from the Cumin seeds and the Salt & Pepper, the herbs and spices add to the same equation: the Cayenne pepper will add a little kick, while all the root powders will add sweetness.

Ingredients: (variable)
- 1 cup Diced Pumpkin
- 1 cup Diced Sweet Potato
- 3/4 cup Diced Carrots
- 1/2 cup Orange Juice
- 3/4 cup Pre-cooked Chestnuts

Herbs & Spices: (variable)
- 1/2 tsp Cumin Seeds
- 1/2 tsp Coriander Root Powder
- 1/2 tsp Ginger Root Powder
- 1/2 tsp Galanga Root Powder
- 1/2 tsp Cardamom Seeds
- 1/2 tsp Cayenne Pepper
- Salt & Pepper

Tools:
- Cutting Knife
- Stove
- Medium Pan
- Electric Hand Mixer

Nuts & Spice, and Everything Nice

Cooking:

Add all the different nuts into the food processor, and ground them up to small pieces.
Add the dates, and and bits of water until the blending starts to get easier and it turns into a dough-like substance.
Remove the mixture from the food processor and clean the processor.

Put the coconut in the food processor in little pieces one by one to grind it up to a pulp, or use a hand grinder.
Let the coconut dry up a little after grinding and before using it.
Mix roughly 3 parts of nut-mixture with 2 parts of coconut and kneed together.

For this batch I made three different flavours:
- Chocolate Mint: chop up fresh mint until you have about a table spoon of it, mix it together with the cacao powder and about a cup of the nut/coconut mixture.
Roll into little balls in your hands and garnish with a little mint twig.
- Walnut: this is basically just the plain nut/coconut mixture.
Roll into little balls in your hands and garnish with a piece of walnut on top.
- Vanilla Cinnamon: add the cinnamon and the vanilla extract to about a cup of the nut/coconut mixture. Mix it up really good.
Roll into little balls in your hands and garnish with a sprinkle of cinnamon powder.

About the variable ingredients:

You don’t have to use the same nut-mixtures as I did here, just use what your own preference is. Sometimes it might be nice to use Pecans or Macadamias. Just use your imagination!

and as I’m typing up this recipe as it is now, I’m thinking about making a Red Pepper Chocolate version with the left over mixture :)

*edit: wow! that last one I made was amazing! quick recipe: 1 tblsp Cacao, 1 tsp “Mexican Herbs (sieved), 1 cup Nuts/Coconut mixture

Ingredients: (variable)
- 1/2 cup Almonds
- 1/2 cup Walnuts
- 1/2 cup Cashews
- 1 cup Dates
- 1 Coconut
- Some Water

Herbs & Spices:
- 1 tblsp Cacao Powder
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- 2/3 tspVanilla Extract
- Fresh Mint

Tools:
- Cutting Knife
- Food Processor