A Healthier Potato Salad and Cheesecake

Both recipes inspired by Petite Kitchen 

Potato Salad:
3 large potatoes of choice
1 small-medium cucumber
2-3 medium gherkins/pickles (chopped small)
A handful of dried blackcurrants
1/2 cup of raw pistachios (chopped small)
A large handful of fresh mint (roughly chopped)
Juice of one lemon
4 tbsp natural yoghurt
a good drizzle of extra virgin olive oil
Sea salt
Pepper

Scrub potatoes well then cut in to small cubes. Place in a large saucepan, cover with salted water and bring to the boil. Then simmer, uncovered until just cooked. Be careful not to overcook!

When ready, strain potatoes and set aside to cool.

Once cooled, combine and toss all ingredients in a large bowl.

Cheesecake: 
6 free-range eggs
1 cup natural yoghurt
1 cup of mascarpone cheese
1/4 cup of honey or maple syrup
1/4 cup of almond meal/almond powder
juice of half a lemon
1 tsp vanilla essence

Topping:
Note: alternatively, you can use 100% store-bought fruit jam. 
1 cup of fresh or frozen strawberries
2 tbsp honey
1/4 cup of water

Decoration:
Silvered almonds and flowers

Preheat oven to 180C

Grease a round cake tin then line with baking paper -grease that a little bit too.

Combine all cake ingredients in a food processor and blitz until combined. Since my blender couldn’t fit/handle all the ingredients at once, I managed this part by blending in batches at a time.

Pour batter into a cake tin and bake for about 45-50 min or until set. Note: batter will be very runny, this is normal.

Keep a good eye on the prize, if the top starts prematurely browning because your oven is shit like mine, use a sheet of tin foil to cover the top.

As your cake bakes, add all topping ingredients to a saucepan, bring to the boil then simmer until juicy and thick- set aside to cool.

Once both topping and cake have cooled, bring the two together in the most perfect union using the back of a tablespoon..

Decorate with silvered almonds and small flowers. Last but definitely not least, Instagram it.

A big shout out to Daniel and Mariko for having me over, listening to all my Japan problems and giving me kind brotherly and sisterly advice and my tummy, vegetarian gyoza and perfectly cooked brown rice!

Mini vegan cheesecakes

Spot the bear!


There she is!!!

Finally, I made my first vegan cheesecakes in Japan and since I don’t have a food processor here, I used my $20 blender (slowly/cautiously) and guess what? It worked…wonders!

crust:
1 cup of raisins (cos dates are expensive as shizz)
2 cups of raw walnuts

“cheese”:
1 1/2 cups of raw cashews (soaked for 4 hours)
1/2 cup full-fat coconut milk
1/3 cup coconut oil (melted)
1 tsp pure vanilla essence
1/2 cup pure maple syrup

topping:
Whatever your little (sorry, BIG) heart desires – I used homemade blueberry syrup

First, blitz crust ingredients together in a food processor or, if you’re feeling lucky, a shitty blender until mixture starts coming together.

Using your fingers, carefully smoosh crust mixture evenly into a greased silicon 6 slot muffin tray.

Wash your food processor then process all of the filling ingredients together for about 5ish minutes or until mixture becomes nice and creamy, then distribute evenly on top of crust mixture.

That’s it! Cooking time finished! Now all you have to do is pop em into a freezer.

For best results, freeze overnight or for those of you that just can’t wait, 4-5 hours should do the trick.

To finish, top with fresh fruit or something equally instagramable/delicious.

Allow 10-12 minutes of thawing time or eat frozen if you just can’t wait!

Social media isn’t real but these raw cheesecakes are!

Don’t allow the alluring charm of these cakes to fool you. I am not happy baking in the kitchen, I am in bed with a centipede bite. But, I am also surrounded by much love and support and I’m typing on a macbook etc etc so I’m not completely hopeless. Things could always be worse. I could have been bitten by a snake or a bear – not unlikely in my neck of the woods. Anyways, my condition shall deprive me of baking (in this case: not baking) for some time. So, since I’ve been lucky enough to gain a 100 or so new followers as of recently (yep, I’m bragging), I’d like to take this time to re-introduce my healthy, raw, vegan AND idiot-proof cheesecakes.
They’re absolutely delicious and super easy to make. Recipe: here.

Mini Guilt-Free Nutella Cheesecakes

Because anything “Nutella” is so damn necessary. And, because these are so freakin’ delicious.

I’m all about that base:
1 cup regular dates (cos medijool are expensive as f***)
1 cup raw hazelnuts
2 tbsp raw cacao powder
1 tbsp water

Filling:
2 cups raw cashews (soaked in water for 1-2 hours)
1/3 cup melted coconut oil
1/2 cup light unsweetened coconut milk
1/2 cup honey or maple syrup
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/4 cup cacao powder

Place base ingredients in a food processor and whizz away until mixture starts coming together.

Using your fingers, carefully smoosh base mixture into a greased silicon muffin tray then pop in freezer to set.

Wash your food processor then process all of the filling ingredients (EXCEPT THE CACAO POWDER) together for about 5 minutes or until nice and creamy.

Set half of this mixture aside.

Add the cacao powder and whizz until combined – you should now have one vanilla and one chocolate mixture.

First distribute the vanilla mixture evenly among the muffin tins and after, the chocolate mixture.

For best results, freeze overnight or for those of you that just can’t wait, 4-5 hours should do the trick.

To finish, top with a Ferrero Rocher. Because girl (and boy), you deserve it! Plus, what’s life without a little contradiction?

PS  just to give you a little idea of just how much betterforyou these little cakes are, allow me to compare them to Nigella Lawson’s nutella cheesecake recipe. The following ingredients are what Nigella’s cheesecake is made up of: digestive biscuits, salted butter, nutella, toasted hazelnuts, cream cheese and icing sugar and what did we just use? dates, raw nuts, light unsweetened coconut milk, coconut oil (probably the only remotely “unhealthy” ingredient) unprocessed cacao powder and pure honey! Hence why we all deserve a Ferrero Rocher, or ten!

Idiot-Proof Healthy Vegan Cheesecakes

Raw desserts are so hot right now. Yesterday I went raspberry picking and so it’s only natural that I whip the little red gems up into something delicious today. I’ve tried my best to make this recipe dim-wit proof. As indicated, most of the ingredients are adaptable so hopefully you won’t have to go through too much trouble to source out the ingredients. Also, once you master the basics of this recipe, I totes recommend you get your picasso on and add some extra bits and pieces; peanut butter, cacao, caramel, orange zest etc etc to name a few.

i’m all about that base:
1 cup medijool dates*
1 cup raw nuts (almonds, walnuts or macadamia)
1-2 tbsp water (only to be used if the mixture isn’t sticking together)

filling:
2 cups raw cashews (soaked in water for 2-4 hours then drained)
juice of 1 lemon
1/3 cup coconut oil (melted)
1/2 cup full fat coconut milk
1/2 cup sweetener (honey, maple syrup or agave syrup)
1 tsp pure vanilla extract

topping:
1 cup frozen fruit (i used raspberries)
4 medijool dates
2 tbsp coconut milk
fresh fruit to decorate

*if you don’t have medijool dates, use regular dates but make sure to soak them for a couple of hours to soften them up.

1. In a food processor, blend the nuts into a fine meal (my food processor is kinda shit so the nuts turned out quite chunky but that’s OK).

2. Add the dates and process until the mixture starts to come together. If the mixture isn’t sticking when you squeeze a bit between your fingers then add 1 or 2 tbsp of water.

3. Using your fingers, carefully smoosh the crust mixture into a greased muffin tray (a silicon tray is most ideal) then pop into the freezer to set.

4. Wash your food processor then process all of the filling ingredients together for about 5 minutes or until nice and creamy.

5. Divide creamy deliciousness evenly among the muffin tins and return tray to freezer.

6. Make yourself cuppa or alternatively, take a nana nap (for best results; 45-60 minutes).

7. Wash your food processor again (sorry, it takes endurance becoming a domestic goddess) then blend together the frozen fruit, dates and coconut milk until silky smooth.

8. Pour topping on top of the cheesecake layer (make sure the cheesecake layer is somewhat set and not still runny) then return to freezer for at least 4 hours.

9. To serve, place cheesecakes in the fridge for 10-15 minutes to thaw. Alternatively, keep at room temperature for 5 minutes or less.

10. To finish, make em instagram-worthy by topping with fresh berries.

Enjoy! X

PS just to give you a rough idea of how much healthier and more nutritious these babies really are compared to a typical cheesecake recipe,  the following ingredients are what Jaime Oliver’s classic New York cheese is made up of: digestive biscuits (processed, obviously), butter, caster sugar, cream cheese, cream and white sugar –  yeahnah.

*gluten-free
*dairy-free
*refined-sugar free
*egg-free
*vegan
*emerghardsoyum