Cashew cheesecake with pink pitaya

16. Januar 2020 Keine Kommentare

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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Cashew Cream Cheesecake

Smooth pink cashew cream with a crunchy crust!

Gericht Dessert

Keyword pink pitaya cheesecake, raw vegan cheesecake

Zubereitungszeit 45 Minuten

Resting time 7 Stunden

Portionen 8

Zutaten

Filling

200 g cashews
1 / 2 tbsp pink pitaya alternatively powder is also possible
3 tbsp coconut milk
3 tbsp xylitol

Crust

100 g dates
2 tbsp peanut butter
80 g oatmeal
1 tbsp xylitol

Anleitungen

Cover the dates and the cashews in two different bowls with water overnight and let them soak.
Strain the next day and drain.
Mix all ingredients well for the crust and press on the bottom of a small round silicone mold.
The crust should be about 1/2 cm thick and can go a bit further up at the edge.
Puree the cashews with the pink pitaya, coconut milk and sweetener for the filling.
The mass should be as fine as possible. If you use pink pitaya powder you will probably need a little more coconut milk.
Put the filling on the crust and then best freeze the silicone mold.
Before slicing, flip the cake out of the mold and wait 10 minutes until you can cut it perfectly into pieces.
It should then be eaten relatively quickly because it collapses when exposed to room temperature for a long time.

Rezept-Anmerkungen

Once you take it out of the freezer and let it thaw you should serve it quite quickly.

More recipes for the raw, vegan fans out there

I really hope you enjoyed this recipe. Feel free to check some of my other raw, vegan desserts:

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

xoxo,

Dessert, Protein Food

Healthy avocado brownies – sugar-free, no flour or butter

12. Januar 2020 2 Kommentare

Healthy chocolate brownies made out of avocado! Who would have thought to put avocado in brownies? Well, if you haven’t tried it yet you should give this avocado brownies a go. Each bite is super fudgy, comforting and yummy. This recipe doesn’t use any sugar, flour or butter, which makes it a true fitness recipe!

Avocado is a true superfood

With avocados you would probably not immediately think of brownies, but whoever will try this brilliant combination is guaranteed to become a fan of it. Avocado is usually known for its savory dishes such as salad bowls, spreads or guacamole. However, avocado is actually very neutral regarding its taste and therefore can be also used for desserts. Avocado mousse is particularly popular, but it can also be used for decadent chocolate avocado brownies, like in my recipe. The avocado is a true super fruit and contains a lot of healthy, unsaturated fatty acids and delivers the body a good amount of energy.

Fun fact: Did you know that the perennial avocado tree belongs to the laurel family and thus its fruits are assigned to the berries? So basically it means that the avocado is not a vegetable, as many might thing, but rather a fruit! So why not make a yummy dessert with it?

According to my research scientific research even proves the health effects of avocados. They are known to very nutritious and have a crazy amount of nutrients like vitamins, potassium and folate. Avocados are high in fiber which can help with weight loss and metabolic health. Their antioxidants are said to be able to support eye protection and last but not least I have found out that avocados can lower cholesterol and triglyceride levels in the body, which your blood levels can benefit from. If all of this is 100% true I am not an expert enough to say, but I believe that incorporating fresh fruit and veggies into your daily diet is definitely a good thing! 🙂

The inspiration for this recipe

Last year I traveled through Panama for a whole month. A country full of avocados and cocoa plantations. I wanted to implement this recipe for a long time because it simply combines both ingredients perfectly into chocolatey fitness brownies. I actually get a lot of inspiration for my healthy fitness recipes while traveling. Exploring new cultures and different cuisines always sparks my interest in new foods and I like to try new innovative recipes with local ingredients.

Check out these unique recipes I created due to my travels abroad:

Pulled Jackfruit Burritos (Bali)
Avocado Cheesecake (Panama & Costa Rica)
Tom Kha Gai Soup (Thailand)

Avocado brownies recipe

Now let’s jump into the recipe. It is actually fairly easy. You simply mix all the wet ingredients together first and then add the dry ingredients. Regarding equipment you will need a blender and baking mold.

I always try to keep my recipes as simply as possible and this one will only take you a couple of minutes to prepare and 25 minutes in the oven. I try to make my recipes as healthy as possible and didn’t use any regular flour, butter or sugar for this one. If you like you can add an extra scoop of protein to make the macros of this recipe even better!

The recipe is leaning towards a low carb and keto brownie recipe since we are not using traditional flour and sugar. You can make it even more low carb/keto, by exchanging the honey with Erythrit.

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