Coconut-Almond Crunch Balls

Ever since I was introduced to the concept of "low carbohydrate density" nutrition I've been on a mission. The goal: to create a low-carb, low-sugar, grain-free and, most importantly, delicious dessert.

The low-carbohydrate density diet aligns beautifully with the evolution-based diet that I recommend. It eliminates flour and sugar, includes but minimizes whole grains and fruits, and emphasizes vegetables, seeds, animal protein (not necessarily meat—think pastured eggs and raw goat cheese) and healthy fats like coconut oil. The benefits of avoiding refined grains and sugars include improved blood sugar balance, yeast control and intestinal comfort (i.e. reduced gas and bloating, a big bonus for IBS people like me). However, there isn't much to offer the sweet tooth contingent. Hence my mission.

I started off very simply: grated carrots (carrots are sweet, right?) mashed with nut butter and cinnamon. (I told you it was simple.) I know: not exactly blog-worthy—but it's darn good, trust me!

Anyway, in terms of a real recipe worth sharing, I am proud to present these adorable Coconut-Almond Crunch Balls. 

They're made with naturally sweet raw coconut butter, and naturally sweet raw almond butter, with only a hint of concentrated natural sweetener added. (I used agave, but maple syrup would be scrumptious, too.) The crunch comes from homemade Buckwheat Crunchies (soaked, sprouted dehydrated buckwheat groats), which I had on hand from a previous dehydrating day.

Buckwheat Crunchies are REALLY easy to make (instructions below). But if you don't have a dehydrator or the time, consider substituting finely chopped almonds. (Alternatively, forget the crunch aspect altogether and use this recipe, sans crunchies, to make creamy Coconut-Almond Truffles instead! Guaranteed they would be totally yummy, too.)

P.S. This dessert is gluten-free. I know buckwheat sounds like it must be related to wheat, the mother of all gluten-containing grains, but it isn't. In fact, buckwheat isn't even technically a grain. It's a fruit! Read more here.

Coconut-Almond Crunch Balls

1 cup raw coconut butter
1 Tablespoon raw coconut oil
1/4 cup raw almond butter
4 Tablespoons agave or maple syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon Himalayan pink salt or fine sea salt
1 cup buckwheat crunchies
shredded coconut for coating - about half a cup

In a food processor fitted with the S-blade, process coconut butter, coconut oil, almond butter, agave or maple syrup, vanilla and salt until a smooth dough is formed. Transfer to a medium bowl and use a soft spatula to gently mix in buckwheat crunchies.




Use a teaspoon or the spatula, and very clean fingers and hands, to separate out small chunks of dough. Roll and press them into little bite-sized balls, or medium-sized balls if you like more of a mouthful.

Roll each ball in shredded coconut and set aside until all the dough is used up. You'll get about two dozen balls or more, depending on their size.

If you prefer a flatter profile, that works, too.

I recommend eating Coconut-Almond Crunch Balls at room temperature for best flavor, but do store them in the refrigerator to keep firm and fresh. Miraculously, these balls hold their crunch for at least two weeks! (It wasn't easy to keep them around that long—hence the miracle—but I wanted to be sure my Crunch Balls lived up to their name over time, before going public with this recipe.) Enjoy!


Buckwheat Crunchies
To make these, you will need a dehydrator and a supply of raw buckwheat groats, which can be hard to find. I ordered a five-pound box directly from my local food coop.

To begin, soak two cups of buckwheat groats in four cups of water for eight hours or overnight.



Drain and rinse very well, several times, to thoroughly remove slippery foam. Allow soaked buckwheat to sprout in a strainer for 12-24 hours (as pictured below), rinsing at approximately six-hour intervals so that the soaked buckwheat doesn't dry out prematurely. (If sprouting overnight, you don't need to wake up to rinse your groats; just loosely cover strainer with a clean damp towel at bedtime.)

Spread sprouted buckwheat in a single layer on mesh dehydrator sheets and dehydrate at 110 degrees for 12 hours, or until very crisp.

Store crunchies in an airtight glass jar. Use in place of dry cereal (delicious with coconut milk!) or in recipes that call for crunch, such as my delectable Coconut-Almond Crunch Balls. ♥

Raw Butternut Fettucini with Creamy Cilantro Nutfredo

I was born exactly 9 years to the day before the first moon walk, on which date the lunar surface was discovered to be covered with...rocks. Before that, people really had no idea what the moon was made of. Really. I remember one theory, quite popular when I was a child, that the moon was made of green cheese. Yes, people used to actually say this; I have no idea why. Not that I ever believed it, but in honor of tonight's new moon and annular eclipse of the sun, I felt inspired to make some Green Cheese of my own.

I had organic cilantro in the fridge, and a loose recipe for Cashew-Cilantro Paté swiped from an old vegan boyfriend of mine, but only a handful of raw cashews remaining in the nut jar. So, I improvised on the cheese, as I am wont to do. And then, inspiration struck! I remembered that I had a nice, big, smooth butternut squash in the pantry...and Raw Butternut Fettucini with Creamy Cilantro Nutfredo was born.

To create this dish, start by making a batch of Vegan Green Cheese as a base for the Creamy Cilantro Nutfredo. Measure out 1 1/2 cups of any combination of the following raw nuts and seeds: cashews, macadamia nuts, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts or brazil nuts. You can see I used about 2/3 raw pumpkin seeds, and 1/3 mixed cashews and macadamias.

Put your nut/seed combination in a bowl, cover by about an inch or two of fresh water, and soak for one hour. When time's up, drain soaked nuts/seeds and place in a food processor fitted with the S-blade. Add 2 Tbs virgin raw coconut oil and 1/4 tsp sea salt (I love the Himalayan pink salt, as you know, but any good quality sea salt will do).

Then pulse and process until contents attain the consistency of a coarse meal.

To this coarse meal, add the juice of 2 or 3 lemons; 1 tsp your choice coconut aminos, Bragg's liquid aminos or tamari; 2 Tbs nutritional yeast; 4 Tbs of water; and 2 large cloves garlic, minced. Process this all together for a while, until things start to get creamy (it may be necessary to add a bit more water to facilitate creaming). When the cheese has balled up and come together nicely, add 1/2 cup (packed) chopped cilantro,

and pulse that in. This is your Vegan Green Cheese.

Put Green Cheese into an airtight container and refrigerate while you make your noodles.

Butternut fettucini noodles are ridiculously easy to make. Start by cutting off the long neck of a good-sized butternut squash, and set the seed-filled bulbous portion aside. Use a vegetable peeler to remove the outer skin from the neck of the squash,

and then continue peeling off long, orange strips until you have enough for your dinner (and/or you get tired of peeling).

Your squash neck will turn into a beautiful sculpture, by the way,

which can be refrigerated and used another day in, for instance, a tasty squash curry, a creamy butternut soup, or even Raw Pumpkin Pie (butternut squash stands in beautifully for pumpkin in this recipe).

To "cook" the fettucini, it is necessary to marinate the butternut strips in a little oil to which has been added salt and an acid, just like we do for Massaged Kale. For today's marinade, I used 2 Tbs olive oil, 2 Tbs white balsamic vinegar, 1/4 tsp each of Himalayan pink salt and ground black pepper, and the last of some dried Thai basil I had kicking around, just to add a little extra flavor. I also added a teaspoon of Mirin (Japanese white cooking wine), just because I could, but that's totally optional. If you don't have white balsamic, use lemon juice and a splash of agave instead.

Stir marinade ingredients together in a large mixing bowl, then add the raw butternut noodles, and toss. Allow noodles to sit for at least half an hour in order to soften up, tossing from time to time to keep them all evenly coated.

When the noodles are done (al dente, naturally), it's time to assemble the Fettucini Nutfredo. Measure out about 3 Tbs of Vegan Green Cheese per serving, and place this in a medium sized bowl. Heat up some water on the stove; then little by little, use a fork to blend warm water into the cheese, gradually thinning and transforming it into a thick, creamy sauce of your preferred consistency. Voila! Creamy Cilantro Nutfredo!

Spoon Nutfredo sauce onto the marinated butternut fettucini. Toss gently and thoroughly until all your noodles are well coated with delectabe, saucy goodness.

Transfer to plate(s), and garnish with a sprinkle of any chopped green herb you prefer (I used fresh chives from my garden, along with their pretty purple flowers, but more cilantro would be lovely, too, as would parsley).

This meal takes far less time to prepare than the finished masterpiece would suggest, with plenty of leftover Vegan Green Cheese as a bonus. This will last for up to one week in the fridge, and can be used as a spread, a dip, a filling (for celery ribs, nori rolls, romaine wraps) - sky's the limit. Which reminds me. There's a Ring of Fire annular eclipse happening tonight. The oracle says this brings great opportunity for self-knowing and transformation. May it be so with you, and all your relations.

Banana-Sunflower Buckwheat Cakes

I've been concocting this recipe in my mind for a while now and am so happy to share it with you today, because it really came out a winner!

My primary goal, truth be told, was to find the perfect vehicle for the fresh, local maple syrup I bought at the coop in May. This vehicle had to be spongy for good sopping-up effect, and whole grain-oriented without being too heavy or floury. The challenge was on!

My secondary goal was to create a new recipe using the raw buckwheat groats of which I had purchased so many pounds in a bulk buy, several months back. "So many groats, so little tummy..." I originally got those groats to make my scrumptious Rainy Day Crackers, and I still do -- don't get me wrong...but a girl likes to mix things up a little sometimes. Am I right, girls?

The name "buckwheat" is somewhat misleading because buckwheat is not a relative of wheat of all. This means that buckwheat is 100% gluten free -- great news for people with celiac disease and gluten sensitivity.

And although generally considered a grain due to its high starch content and culinary uses, buckwheat is really a kind of fruit seed! The buckwheat fruit, which looks a bit like a Japanese lantern, grows on a vine-like plant that is related to rhubarb and sorrel. So buckwheat is very unlike all the common cereal grains -- think millet, quinoa, wheat and rice -- which are the seeds of various grasses.

More good news is that buckwheat is generally considered alkaline in the body, usually ranked on par with quinoa and amaranth. And because of its dual grain-seed nature, buckwheat combines as either a starch or as a nut/seed in any give meal, making it quite versatile. You can read more about buckwheat here, in the online version of Mrs. Grieve's Modern Herbal (a wonderful resource for herbalists and the herb-curious).

If you've never tried buckwheat, you're in for a surprise, as it offers a distinctly chewy yet slippery texture, due to a high content of soluble fiber. This makes buckwheat terrific for supporting healthy bowels, detox and cholesterol balance.

Many traditional buckwheat dishes, such as kasha varniskes, make use of roasted buckwheat. Roasting brings out a rich nutty flavor, but it is not a required step. Raw, hulled buckwheat groats, pictured here, can be prepared quite simply by soaking for fifteen to thirty minutes in fresh water. After such a soak, followed by a thorough rinse to remove sticky saponins, the groats may be sprouted for a day or two OR eaten immediately!

What could be easier?

For this recipe, I used a cup of soaked groats as the foundation of a pancake batter, which I made in the food processor simply by adding in one whole banana (for texture and sweetness) and some boxed rice milk (I used the Rice Dream brand, original flavor). Of course I used a little salt, coconut oil and vanilla to round out the batter. And I threw in some whole raw sunflower seeds at the end, for a nice crunchy touch. The batter was ladled onto a hot skillet coated with melted coconut oil, and all proceeded in the same manner as when making typical flour-based griddle cakes, right up to serving them with real maple syrup, naturally.

Of course, if I had wanted to make 100% raw pancakes, I easily could have done so by ladling the batter onto Teflex sheets and dehydrating the cakes for four to six hours per side. In other words, advance planning and patience would have been required. I'll save that good idea for another day! Today, tradition and eagerness won out, while happy taste buds rejoiced. Happy Independence Day, everyone!

Banana-Sunflower Sprouted Buckwheat Cakes

Makes about nine cakes, enough to satisfy two people, namely me and my son, Zack, who gave two syrupy thumbs up to this recipe ♥

1 cup raw buckwheat groats
1 ripe organic banana
1/2 cup rice milk (could use almond, coconut or oat milk)
1 teaspoon coconut oil
nice pinch of Himalayan pink salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds

Place buckwheat in a large bowl and cover with fresh water. Stir and allow to soak for at least fifteen minutes or up to one hour. (Do this while talking on the phone with your friend Catherine, if desired.) Drain and rinse well. Add soaked groats to the food processor and process with the S-blade until fairly smooth. Add all remaining ingredients except sunflower seeds and process just enough to have a nice, smooth batter. When done, pulse in the sunflower seeds or stir in by hand so they remain largely intact.

Use a 1/4 cup measure to drop batter a hot skillet, preferably cast iron, that has been greased with coconut oil. When bubbles form around the upper edges and cakes are brown on the bottom, flip and cook side two, as you do with regular pancakes. Add more coconut oil as you make more cakes, to keep them from sticking. Divide griddle cakes between two plates and eat with maple syrup, or raw honey or jam if you prefer.

Community Superfoods Open Thursday This Week!

For all my dear local readers, please note there is a change to Community Superfoods' store hours for this week only. Store night this week will be on Thursday, February 25, from 5-7 PM, not Wednesday. I will not be at the store this Wednesday! I will be there Thursday! And next week, we'll be back to Wednesday nights as usual.

Now for the good news...


This week on store night (Thursday, as you may recall!), for the very first time ever, I will be taking pre-orders for an incredible new product that has just launched: organic, raw Stone Ground Coconut Butter from Sacred Foods. Many of you are familiar with Sacred Foods as the makers of the amazing Sacred Chocolate bars (now back in stock in many flavors at Community Superfoods - yay!)...

Well, Sacred Foods has done it again! Their new Stone Ground Coconut Butter is simply divine! Made from hunks of dried, mature coconut and stone ground over many days at low temperatures to produce a silky smooth, totally raw product, Stone Ground Coconut Butter is packed with flavor and nutrition.

In case you were wondering, coconut butter is very different than coconut oil. Coconut oil, which I also sell at the store, is pure fat, extracted from the coconut fruit. It's a wonderful fat, suitable for many uses, but it is not a whole food.

Stone Ground Coconut Butter is a whole food, made from whole dried coconut. It hence contains healthy coconut oil fats PLUS healthy coconut proteins, carbohydrates and fiber, along with an array of micronutrients (vitamins and minerals). Its nutritional profile compares to whole, dried (dessicated), unsweetened coconut as follows:

MACRONUTRIENTS in Stone Ground Coconut Butter are distributed as approximately 65% fats, 24% carbohydrates,16% fiber and 7% amino acid proteins. Most of the fats occur as healthy, cholesterol-free medium chain fatty acids - lauric, capric and caprylic acid - suggested to offer antibacterial and antiviral benefits. Coconut Butter's delightful, delicately sweet taste is provided by less than 8% total naturally-occurring sugars.

MICRONUTRIENTS in Stone Ground Coconut Butter are distributed primarily as minerals (notably calcium, potassium, iron and selenium). Traces of vitamins C, E and B-complex, notably folate and pantothenic acid, are also present.

Best of all, Stone Ground Coconut Butter tastes amazing!
It adds depth to smoothies, curries and soups, is the ultimate spread on warm toast or crackers, and of course, is great plain, right off the spoon! Or use Stone Ground Coconut Butter as a confectionery ingredient (to make candy, chocolate or icing), in dessert recipes (cookies, bars) and in grain or cereal dishes. For example, mash a spoonful of Stone Ground Coconut Butter together with cinnamon and raw honey or your favorite non-glycemic sweetener (stevia, mesquite or lucuma powder) to make a paste. Then add some raw sprouted buckwheat groats or warm steamed millet or quinoa and stir till all the grain is coated. Yummy!

If you are interested in trying Sacred Foods Stone Ground Coconut Butter, stop by Community Superfoods this Thursday, February 25, where my personal jar will be on hand for sampling! I will be taking pre-orders at that time - no product is currently stocked. CSF cost per 16-ounce jar is $10.99.

I am also taking preorders for the NEW! 50-pack of Raw Nori Sheets from Ultimate Superfoods. Raw, untoasted nori is very hard to find. I do have a few packages in stock, with a one-pack limit for store night customers. There is no limit on pre-orders, however, so do take advantage of the opportunity to stock up! CSF cost per 50-pack of Raw Nori Sheets is just $15.95. Great for making raw sushi, wrapping a hummus and sprouts sandwich (skip the bread!), creating a sliced avocado salad roll, tearing into miso soup, boosting flavor & nutrition of any chili, soup or stew or simply as a tasty snack food!

Yours in radiance, diana ♥