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Best healthy food in Cape Town – vegan & vegetarian

15. Februar 2020 Keine Kommentare

Are you looking for the best healthy food in Cape Town while visiting this beautiful city? I summarized my favorite healthy food options, including everything from raw vegan cafés to fitness food restaurants. Have fun with my selection of clean eating places in Cape Town!

So to start off, South Africa is not really known for it’s cuisine and after having lived here for a couple of months I still have troubles finding traditional restaurants and dishes because there is so much influence here from so many different countries. Healthy food in Cape Town is also still not as established as in other big cities around the world and there are only a handful of restaurants and cafés that I would recommend. One thing I noticed that is really big here are freshly pressed juices! You will find them in almost all restaurants and cafés and its just so healthy and wonderful!

As a full time fitness food blogger I sampled my way through the cities restaurant sphere and picked my favorite places to include them for you here in this blog post:

Poke Co.

A new healthy place that is getting more and more popular is Poke Co. They just opened their third location on Kloof Street and I had probably the best Poke Bowl of my life there! I actually built my own Poke bowl, but you can also choose some of the especially designed variations on the menu. You will find stylish interior and surfer vibes at every location. If you are looking for healthy food in Cape Town this is definitely a place you should visit. We spent quite some time talking to Andrew, the owner, who is a very friendly and welcoming guy. At Poke Co you can also get healthy smoothie bowls and delicious fresh pressed juice! They are also on Uber Eats – so if you are too lazy to go there yourself you can also order yourself a healthy poke bowl straight to your apartment.

Wildsprout

This concept store is located a bit outside the bustling city center. It is a gluten free, wholefoods Cafè situated in the heart of the suburbs! Wildsprout includes a healthy food store in their restaurant. All the ingredients are locally sourced and partially grown on their own farm outside of Cape Town. This is really a top foodie choice for healthy food in Cape Town. I had the quinoa bowl, which I probably would not order again since it was a bit too bland for my taste. We tried a variety of desserts when we were there and the carrot cake was so delicious!

If you are looking for a quiet café away from the noise that is really focused on whole ingredients and sustainable sourcing you should definitely go to Wildsprout. They are really focused on the health aspect and all the meals are wholesome and good for your body! However, solely judging by the taste of the food I would prefer the other places in this blog post. But this is definitely the healthiest one of all!

Nourish’d

If you are looking for Bali vibes go to Nourish’d. Walking in reminded me of sitting in my favorite beach Café in Canggu. There are a lot of tropical plants all around and the interior gives you so many good picture spots! It has such a nice, chilled atmosphere and you pretty much only see cool, hip and young people walking in and out of that place.

There are two different locations. The one at observatory is much bigger and has a bigger menu choice. I can really recommend you try the rainbow flapjacks. Its a super yummy and fudgy pancake tower. You can also buy raw, vegan Ferrero Rocher balls at Nourish’d, which are mind-blowingly awesome! I actually decided to go for the french toast filled with decadent homemade hazelnut spread. Also very delicious, but very calorie rich at the same time.

Raw and Roxy

This vegan healthy café is pretty new in the city of Cape Town. It offers delicious vegan food, tea creations, fresh juices and smoothies. I was there on a day where I didn’t feel very well I was unfortunately not able to try any of their food. But I enjoyed the warm matcha latte – which was a special creation with mint – and got a big beetroot kickass juice to go! The interior is really nice and I loved the flower arrangement everywhere. It’s quite big and a lovely spot to spend a couple hours chatting over coffee. Speaking of coffee – make sure to try their raw coffee. It’s a blend of different spices and superfoods and simply so dense and delicious.

I was actually positively surprised because I looked the place up on Instagram before and was a little underwhelmed by the pictures and account in general. So I actually wasn’t sure to expect of it, but was positively surprised when I got there. Its a really nice café and probably one of my favorite spots for healthy food in Cape Town.

Scheckters Raw

If you are looking for healthy food in Cape Town going to Scheckters Raw is a must. They are based in Seapoint and have a really nice, chill restaurant. You can choose from a lot of different things on the the menu. I for example ordered zucchini pasta! They are famous for their healthy, vegan pumpkin based donuts. I obviously had to try it and they are really a yummy. Scheckters also has a stand at the Oranjezecht Farmers market at the Waterfront. So you can try their food at the market on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday as well.

Just like the other superfood places in Cape Town, they have a big selection of freshly pressed juice!

The Strangers Club

The Strangers Club is probably my favorite healthy food place in Capetown. It is owned by a 23 year old entrepreneur called Adam, who started with his first business when he was 18. He opened Strangers Club giving local designers a voice and offering them to showcase their products at the restaurant. Its a very cool concept store and the setting is just lovely. It is so hidden I walked by 2 times when I went there the first time. The menu is short but sweet and everything is made fresh. The Nutty smoothie bowl is supposed to be the best in Cape Town!

Avocado Toast strangers club — Poached Egg on Avocado Toast with Cinnamon Chia Pudding in the background

This was the first café I noticed people coming in with their laptops doing some work from the café. The place was packed and it had a good mix of tourists and locals. Definitely check it out when you are in Capetown.

More food guides

I really hope you enjoyed this guide on best healthy food in Capetown. There are not as many healthy food places as in other cities, but you can tell they are up and coming. Clean food, vegan options and raw desserts definitely still seems to be quite new to Capetown, but the few places they have a really great!

Check out my other city food guides for more healthy eateries abroad:

I hope you enjoyed this guide for healthy food in Cape Town!

xoxo,

Dessert, English Recipes

Valentine’s day cookies – love letter recipe

10. Februar 2020 Ein Kommentar

Adorable Valentine’s day cookies for your sweetheart. These stunning little love letters are the perfect gift for your loved one! It’s a thoughtful token of appreciation on this special day.

Valentine’s day cookies made out of shortcrust pastry with a twist

If you are a regular visitor of my blog you surely know how much I love easy and fast recipes. This one is especially simple. I used my grandma’s Austrian „Mürbteig“ recipe, which is German for shortcrust pastry. Since I am a fitness food blogger I always try to substitute unhealthy ingredients in recipes with better options. This recipe made it a bit hard for me because the original literally consists of butter, flour and sugar. Basically my worst fitness food enemies all combined in one recipe 😀

However, I found a solution to substitute at least parts of this recipe with healthier options. Did you know that there is a calorie free sugar alternative to icing sugar? Have you ever worked with powdered Erythrit? It actually looks like sugar and you can use it exactly the same way without the calories though! Amazing right?! This is the brand I use. Erythrit does not affect your blood sugar levels and therefore is also suitable for diabetics.

You can substitute the white flour with wholemeal spelt flour or just use the regular one if you want bright cookies. There is unfortunately not really an alternative for the butter in the Valentine’s day cookies recipe. We need it for the consistency.

How to make love letter cookies

It is actually very simple once you have the dough. It’s best if you have a big square shaped cookie cutter or you make yourself a template out of paper. Cut a square (about 5cm each side) out of white paper and place it over the dough before cutting. Once you have your square shaped pieces of dough you can look for bottle cap to place in the middle of the dough. Fold the left edge of the square and the right side together over the cap in the middle then place the bottom edge on top of it. Now you should already see the letter shape. If you have a tiny heart cookie cutter you can now cut out a little heart at the top or where the edges in the middle come together.

Now you can bake them in the oven at 180 degrees for 10 minutes. When you take them out immediately remove the bottle cap from the cookie before it cools down.

How to fill the Valentine cookies

For the filling I recommend you use red berry jam. I love the color red for Valentines Day. Try to find a jam that has a really red/pinkish color. There are some strawberry jams that look quite brown, which is not the best option for this kind of cookie. You can also fill this cookie with protein cream, nutella or whatever else comes to your mind! Put some more of the powdered Erythrit over it before you serve it and enjoy!

If you are into cookies you might also want to check out my healthy protein cookie skillet recipe over here.

Full recipe recap

Here is the print out recipe for these lovely Valentine’s day cookies for you:

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Valentine's Day Cookies Love Letters

Cute tokens of appreciation for your loved ones!

Gericht Dessert

Keyword valentine cookies, valentine's day

Zubereitungszeit 30 Minuten

Resting Time 30 Minuten

Portionen 12 Love Letters

Zutaten

Dough

300 g flour plain
200 g butter
100 g powdered Erythrit or Icing Sugar
1 egg

Filling

Red berry jam

Anleitungen

Press a hole into the middle of the flour and add the egg and icing sugar/ powdered Erythrit.
Cut the cold butter into small pieces. Knead the cold butter into the mixture until you get a smooth dough.
Form a big ball of dough and wrap in saran wrap before you place it for 30 minutes in the fridge.
Roll the dough out till about 0.5cm thick.
Place a 5x5cm square template or square shaped cookie cutter over the dough and cut squares out of the mass.
Place them on a baking sheet with baking paper. Find a bottle cap to place in the middle of the cookie.
Fold the left and the right edge together in the middle over the bottle cap. (not plastic!! - glass, metal or aluminium)
Fold the bottom edge up over the middle.
If you have a little heart cookie cutter, cut a small heart out in the top edge.
Bake at 180 degrees for 10 minutes and immediate remove the cap.
Once cold fill with red berry jam and sprinkle with more powdered sugar.

I hope you enjoyed this recipe. Make sure to tag me in your IG stories if you end up making it!

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @carina_berry and use the Hashtag #carinaberry to get the possibility for a shoutout on my Instagram!

I always love to see your wonderful creations and it makes me so happy to see you guys actually making my recipes.

xoxo,

Make sure to save this recipe to your Pinterest board so you can find it again next year:

Dessert, English Recipes, Raw Food, Vegan Food

Cashew cheesecake with pink pitaya

16. Januar 2020 Ein Kommentar

Take a moment and think of biting into smooth and creamy cashew cream in the shades of baby pink with a crunchy crust. Wouldn’t that be lovely? Yes? Well then, I recommend you go and make this raw vegan cashew cheesecake to experience the deliciousness of this plant-based dessert yourself!

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Natural food coloring – pink pitaya

I think by now we all know how amazing pink pitaya or the “dragon fruit” is. It is such a powerful natural food coloring and is filled with vitamin C and antioxidants. It is the only thing I use now to color my food and tint it into the most wonderful shades of pink.

The first time I discovered dragon fruit was actually on my travels through Indonesia 12 years ago with my family. We took a boat trip with a local guide and for lunch on the water he brought some of these vibrant pink fruits, cut them open for us and I remember just being so amazed and astonished by the vivid color of the flesh of the fruit. That was in 2008 when the term “superfood” was still unheard of and a lot of tropical fruit not yet sold in Austrian supermarkets.

Last year I came back to Indonesia and spent 2 months working and living in Bali, where I got to explore the local food scene in much greater detail this time. Pink Pitaya was still used in almost every restaurant and sold on every market. So I started to make a lot of recipes with it myself, like this raw vegan cheesecake that I am sharing with you now!

By itself pink pitaya is actually very neutral tasting. Don’t try making pink pitaya shakes just out of the dragon fruit itself – it won’t taste great. It doesn’t have a lot of flavor on its own, which is also awesome as it simply lends its color to the meals you add it to. The more you use of it the deeper pink to almost purple it will get. If you only use a bit you will get soft shades of baby pink! Be careful not to get it into your clothes though. The color is quite hard to get out.

There is also a white dragon fruit. It obviously has less qualities as food coloring and tastes very neutral as well. However, it looks great if you use it for decoration. I love to cut little stars or hearts out and put them as a topping on my nicecream bowls. A guaranteed wow effect!

Healthy raw vegan cashew cheesecake

The pink cashew cheesecake is probably one of the easiest recipes you will ever make. It is raw – which means you don’t even have to bake this cake, so no need for an oven.

This recipe requires only a handful of ingredients, but a little waiting time. Dates and cashews need to soak and the finished cake needs to set in the freezer. This raw vegan cheesecake with pink pitaya is made up of two layer. The date and almond crust and the pink cashew cream filling.

I like to substitute sugar for Erythrit as it is a natural sugar alternative without calories. If you don’t have this at home feel free to use whatever sweetener you prefer or fits your dietary needs.

So lets have a more detailed look at the recipe and what you need for this raw vegan cheesecake:

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