Tag Archives: vegetarian treats

Ginger & Cocoa Rawnie | Raw, Vegan

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5-ingredient, no bake brownies that are rich, chocolately, slightly nutty and more than moreish. The addition of fresh ginger creates an extra special combination of flavours.Ginger Cocoa Raw Brownie | The Tofu DiariesThese raw brownies or “rawnies” take the raw snacks I have talked about in the past to another level; this is perfectly acceptable dessert territory. You could serve them with whipped coconut cream, a scoop of vegan ice-cream or, failing that, still feel free to munch on them as an extra special indulgent mid-afternoon treat.Ginger Cocoa Raw Brownie | The Tofu Diaries Ginger Cocoa Raw Brownie | The Tofu Diaries Ginger Cocoa Raw Brownie | The Tofu DiariesIngredients:

200g dates, roughly chopped

2tbsp mixed seeds (I used milled seeds)

2tbsp tahini

4cm piece of ginger, finely chopped

2tbsp cocoa powder, plus extra to dust

Method:

1. Add all of the ingredients together into a high-powered food processor and blend until combined.

2. In a small baking tray, dust the bottom with a light layer of cocoa powder. Press the rawnie mix into the tray – you can level it out and get rid of your thumbprints by rolling a cup across the top.

3. Dust the top with another light coating of cocoa powder. Place in the fridge and when you are ready to eat it, slice into bars.Ginger Cocoa Raw Brownie | The Tofu DiariesI’m entering this into Simplyhealth‘s healthy smile recipe competition. Did you know that, as an anti-inflammatory, ginger can help you to keep your smile healthy by supporting healthy mouth tissue? I certainly didn’t but I’ll be taking any excuse to include it in my recipes along with some of these other smile-supporting healthy foods!

What sweet treats have you made recently?

Raw, Vegan Food on the Go – Creative Nature Bars

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Working full-time means it can be hard sometimes to find time to create my own healthy snacks on a regular basis. As a result there are few foodie discoveries right now that delight me more than finding more amazing companies who are filling this gap with raw, vegan, super food packed options.Creative Nature BarsCreative Nature are a UK company creating high quality nutrient-dense snack bars filled with cold-pressed oils, seeds and dried fruit that more than fit the bill. All of their products are vegan-registered and certified organic.Creative Nature BarsThe bars come in four flavours: Tropical Treat, Heavenly Cacao, Blissful Berry, and Sublime Seed. The cold-pressed oils in them give them a more moist texture than many raw food bars, whilst the added extras such as hemp powder in the Sublime Seed bar and pau d’arco in the Tropical Treat give the flavours an unexpected complexity. The Heavenly Cacao is perfect for satisfying a chocolate craving too with its raw cocao nibs, cocao powder and maca powder.Creative Nature BarsCreative Nature offers free UK mainland shipping for orders over 2kg so there’s no reason not to head over to their range of super food bars and stock up!

Have you ever tried Creative Nature Super Food Bars? Do you have a favourite healthy snack?

Peppermint & Goji Bliss Balls | Raw, Vegan

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Delicious bite-sized sweet treats, with a hint of peppermint, packed full of fibre, antioxidants, calcium, essential amino acids and a source of vitamins and minerals.Raw & Vegan Peppermint & Goji Bliss Balls | The Tofu DiariesThere are just so many good things to say about bliss balls. There is the endless possibility for creating different combinations and flavours. They don’t require any baking or lengthy prep and are ready to eat right away. They keep well in the fridge for around a week (if you can restrain yourself, that is). Most of all, they satisfy any sweet craving whilst being full of nutritious ingredients. They do contain naturally occurring sugars but as far as sweet treats go, I’d say they are pretty guilt-free.Raw & Vegan Peppermint & Goji Bliss Balls | The Tofu DiariesAm I bit late the party only just creating my first ‘bliss balls’ recipe? Well, maybe. They’ve been on my radar as something I wanted to try out and experiment with creating my own flavours but it’s only recently, after moving out of a shared house and into somewhere I can have nice kitchen things and have the space for them, that I’ve invested in a good blender/food processor.Raw & Vegan Peppermint & Goji Bliss Balls | The Tofu DiariesI’ve had some amazing similar treats in restaurants and in pre-made raw bars, but this was my first time of making raw bliss balls. To get started I actually made a few different varieties, including some delicious lemon-flavoured ones and a batch minus the coconut so Pete could get involved (since he isn’t a coconut fan). The peppermint ones however were the stand out of the bunch and the ones I wanted to share.

Most ingredients in the recipe can be mixed up and changed to your taste though – the tahini can be switched for a nut butter, nuts can be used in place of seeds, cocoa powder instead of coconut and so on.Raw & Vegan Peppermint & Goji Bliss Balls | The Tofu DiariesMakes around 6 balls

Ingredients:

20(ish) dates, roughly chopped

2tbsp mixed seeds

1tbsp dried goji berries

1tbsp tahini

1/4tsp natural peppermint flavouring/essence (I used flavoured stevia liquid)

Desiccated coconut, for coating

Method:

1. Add all of the ingredients (bar the coconut) to a food processor. Blend until it has broken down into a sticky, fine mixture. If your processor isn’t too powerful, give the seeds a quick whizz before adding the other ingredients.

2. Remove the blade from the food processor. Using your hands, bring the mixture together and roll into small palm-sized balls.

3. Cover the bottom of a plate or wide dish with the coconut and roll the balls in it until they are full coated. Enjoy!Raw & Vegan Peppermint & Goji Bliss Balls | The Tofu DiariesHave you made bliss balls before? What is your favourite flavour concoction?

Don’t forget to enter my Nibnibs giveaway!

Superfood Snacking – Punku Quinoa Cookies

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As far as superfoods go, quinoa seems to pretty much have it all: a complete protein full of minerals and amino acids. It is low in fat, cholesterol-free, high in fibre and a good source of iron. Not only that but it is also incredibly versatile. There are a lot of recipes out there that demonstrate the creative ways it is being used, such as in baking or pizza bases (that probably deserves a whole post of its own).

I love cooking with quinoa and have featured a few of recipes on this blog such as my Spiced  Quinoa Medallions and Curly Kale Quinoa. I’ve yet to try making anything more adventurous using quinoa though, so I was excited when I recently heard about Punku’s quinoa cookies and was offered the opportunity to try them out.Punku Cookies 01Punku Cookies 02

Punku offer two varieties of cookie, orange & mango and chocolate chips, with an orange & cranberry variety on its way. Made from organic Royal Quinoa, their vegan cookies are wheat, gluten, dairy and egg-free. Deliciously crunchy, I found the cookies to be that ideal balance between satisfying my sweet cravings whilst not actually being particularly sweet in taste.

The fruity flavours of the orange & mango variety hit you immediately with a mellow nuttiness that rounds it off beautifully. The chocolate chip ones are more subtle, with just a hint of cocoa, but have a moreish quality about them.Punku Cookies 03

Each cookie comes individually wrapped in a box of twelve. This makes them really convenient for popping your bag as a snack and removes some of the temptation to scoff a whole box (as I might have done had they not been individually wrapped). I’ve been taking one of each flavour to work everyday; one to accompany my morning coffee and one to go with my afternoon coffee. That’s the theory anyway, they haven’t always made it past lunchtime. The boxes clock in at £4.99 each. The packaging is very simple and clean-looking, although I would love to see them reflect their Bolivian roots a little more.Punku Cookies 04

Punku Cookies 05The word ‘Punku’ comes from Aymara, the language native to some parts of The Andes, meaning ‘door.’ A perfect metaphor since Patricia Estivariz, Punku’s founder who grew up in Bolivia, aims to open doors both here in the UK and in Bolivia; by bringing high quality, healthy, and natural foods from Bolivia to the UK and by creating education and health programmes for their employees in Bolivia.

The impact of quinoa’s rapidly growing popularity in Western countries has pushed prices up and made growing quinoa a more attractive trade. As more families in Bolivia become dependent upon quinoa crops, it is even more important that companies behave in socially responsible ways so it really is wonderful to hear about the positive impact Punku are striving to create.

To find out more about Punku, visit their website.

Have you ever tried any unusual quinoa foods or recipes? Share below!

Raw, Vegan Food on the Go – Nākd Bars

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Did you know that serendipity is one of the hardest words to translate into any other language? Well, a near-perfect example of such a happy coincidence happened to me recently. As I mentioned here I’ve been trying to get back into some healthier habits lately, but one of the hardest things has to be those moments when you need to pick up a quick snack on the go. My local supermarket has recently started colour-coding the nutritional information on the front of their packaging and trust me, the amount of glowing red labels is enough to make you run for cover (or leave empty-handed!)

It seemed therefore like a little ray of light when I spotted they had started selling Nākd Bars. Made up of less than a handful of natural, raw ingredients, they are wheat, dairy and gluten-free, with real nutritional value. I picked up a ‘Cashew Cookie’ bar to have at my desk as a mid-morning snack (OK, so it may not have made it past 9am) and spent a good five minutes raving to my colleague about how good it was.

So where is the coincidence? As luck would have it, a few hours later an email dropped into my inbox inviting me to try out and review a range of… Nākd Bars! You can probably tell from the above that I jumped for joy at the prospect of testing their other flavours.Nakd Bars Review

Natural Balance Foods, who make Nākd Bars and other equally yummy-looking wholefood snacks, are a British company that got started a decade ago exactly to provide unprocessed snacks that can be eaten on the go. The classic Nākd Bars come in nine different flavours, all with only a few ingredients and occasionally some natural flavourings. Upon trying them all, the thing that amazed me was how each of them is so true to their name despite so little having gone into it – it definitely shows how unnecessary a lot of sugars and flavourings are in most products like this!Nakd box review

Nakd Flavours ReviewThe nutty flavour of the ‘Cashew Cookie’ that I’d first tried was sweet but not sugary, with a rich lightly chewy texture. Of the other flavours, I was most curious to try the ‘Rhubarb & Custard’ as it was so hard to imagine quite how that would or could work. I tucked into one of these first and honestly, it tasted just like rhubarb and custard sweets! The real treat however, had to be the bars with cocoa in – ‘Caffé Mocha,’ ‘Cocoa Delight’ and ‘Cocoa Mint’ were all as good as any chocolate bar with an even richer texture and dark heavenly taste.Rhubarb & Custard Nakd Bar

I was already convinced after my first try that these were going to become my ‘go-to’ snack but I’m even more certain after trying the rest of their flavours. Their website offers free UK shipping and international shipping options so be sure to check out their full natural foods range.

What is your go-to snack when you’re out and about? Share your recommendations below!