Category Archives: Dessert

Who doesn’t like chocolate? When I have a piece of chocolate or chocolate bar from the packet, it tastes sickly sweet, full of sugar and preservatives. You can make a guilt free treat at home with all healthy ingredients and it is actually good for you. Cacao (not cocoa >.<) is raw with all enzymes and powerful antioxidants. Had a bad day? Grab this bar and enjoy a big mouthful! Cacao contains the amino acid and tryptophan which leads to the production of serotonin, a happy hormone. The super bean contains oleic acid which is linked to lower bad cholesterol and a great source of magnesium, iron, copper, calcium, potassium and zinc.

I always keep a bag of raw cacao powder in my pantry and use for baking muffins and cakes, making little truffles, chocolate mousse, chocolate milk, and chocolate bars. Don’t limit yourself using cacao! You can even add to your salad and salad dressing. Sprinkle cacao nibs over salads for extra crunchy and bitter sweet flavour. You will be surprised 🙂

Ingredients (10 mini bars)

100g almonds and hazelnuts
1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
2 teaspoons of cacao powder
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
1 table spoon of coconut oil
1 table spoon of coconut butter
5 Medijool dates
1 medium sized banana

Put all ingredients in a food processor and blend until it comes together. If it is too crumbly, add a squeeze of lemon or a teaspoon of water. Pour the mixture into a tin or container and press firmly. Set in the freezer for an hour and then cut into pieces.

An apple a day keeps the doctor away! As well as being crunchy and tasty, apples are packed with vitamin C great for your immune system and prevent you from heart disease, cancers, bad cholesterol and tooth decay. The quercetin content in the apple skin helps to reduce inflammation. Cinnamon also reduces inflammation and balances blood sugar. Apple and cinnamon is a match made in heaven! It sounds like a yummy dessert, right? But it is more like breakfast or morning snack. I will explain why…

Have you had a hotel buffet breakfast before? Yes.
Did you go for bacon, eggs, bread, etc before fruits? Did you feel tired after eating? Maybe yes.  Oh no. I bet your stomach was not that happy 🙁
If you’ve had no problems before, then lucky you! you have super strong stomach.

You need to have fruit only in the morning, not after midday. The reason being is your liver that works hard to eliminate all waste from your body is most active between midnight and midday. Fresh fruits don’t require the liver function that much and get digested pretty quickly within 30 minutes. So ideally you have fruits until midday to let your liver work. I don’t follow this rule to be honest, but I do eat fruits alone before having other foods because if you have starches and protein with or before fruits, the fruits get caught in the stomach and start fermenting, which makes acid and indigestion. I hope it makes sense. So big No No to fruit dessert! If you want fruits for dessert, have desserts before main! better for your stomach. Digestion requires quite a bit of energy. So if you stuff up, there is no wonder why you feel more tired after eating.

My first attempt to make raw apple tart. Simple ingredients, no oven required, real quick, fool-proof and delicious!

For the base
I used 150g of blanched raw almonds, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder, 1 teaspoon of tahini and a pinch of Himalayan sea salt. Put all ingredients in a food processor and whiz up until it gets paste consistency (it might take a while, be patient!). Spread well with back of the spoon or your fingers at the bottom of baking tin. Keep in the fridge while you are making fillings.

For the filling
Thinly slice 6 small granny smith apples. Mix with maple syrup, coconut vinegar, cinnamon powder, ground nutmeg in a big bowl and sit aside for 30minutes. Then put the mixture in a food processor. I like to have still big chunks in mine, but you can blend really fine if you like. Spread mixture on top of the base. Put it in the freezer for 30 mins to 1 hour until the tart feels firm to touch. Slice them up squares or triangles (sharp knife in hot runny water should help if you struggle to cut). Serve cold with thick Greek yogurt and a drizzle of honey on the side.

Variations: you can add pitted dates in the base to make it sweeter and easily bind together. You can also add apple puree in the tart filling between the layers of apples. Top with granola, coconut chips, raisins, etc to decorate.