Bo's Kitchen

Plant based recipes made with love

Sweets

Raw kiwi cheesecakes

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raw kiwi matcha slice

I have to admit, I’ve never been a cheesecake fan. Too rich and creamy for me. But raw cheesecakes? Yes please. They are filling, nutritious, delicious and require minimal effort to make! The best thing is they stay fresh for up to a month in your freezer, so anytime you get a sweet craving, you can satisfy all your sugary needs with a healthy alternative. These slices are raw, refined sugar free and vegan of course! If you don’t have any almonds, feel free to sub in more buckwheat groats. I used Zespri Golden Kiwis for this recipe, which you can find in all major UK retailers until October. If you haven’t tried them before, definitely keep an eye out for some, they taste like a cross between a regular kiwi and bananas! I’m sure you already know by now how I feel about bananas. So these sunny little fellas were right up my street.

Raw kiwi cheesecakes

Base

  • 1/2 cup buckwheat groats
  • 1 1/2 cups pitted dried dates
  • 1/2 cup almonds
  • 3 tbsp coconut oil, melted

Filling

  • 3 cups raw cashew nuts, soaked overnight in water and drained
  • 1/2 cup coconut oil, melted
  • Juice of one lemon or lime
  • 1/2 cup agave or maple syrup
  • 1/2 tsp matcha powder
  • 1/3 cup coconut milk
  • 2 green kiwi fruit (1 peeled, 1 unpeeled)
  • 1 golden kiwi fruit (unpeeled)
  1. Prepare your slice tin (I used an 8 inch square tin), line with baking paper, ensuring the paper goes up over the sides.
  2. Blend buckwheat groats briefly on their own in your blender or food processor, until crumbly, but not quite flour. Now add in the dates, almonds and coconut oil and blend until mixture starts to stick together. Press into your lined tin. I put another layer of baking paper on my base at this stage, followed by a book on top, to make sure it’s evenly flattened. Set aside in the fridge. Rinse out your blender.
  3. Now the filling. Pop drained cashews, coconut oil, lemon/lime juice and agave syrup into blender and blend on high until really smooth. Keep going until there are no lumps remaining.
  4. Add half of the filling mix to your chilled base and pop in the freezer briefly. To the remaining mix, add matcha powder, coconut milk and one green peeled kiwi fruit. Blend again until smooth. Add a little more matcha if you’d like it greener.
  5. Now add your final layer- pour on the green coloured filling on to your cheesecake. Slice up your remaining two kiwi fruit and arrange on top, alternating between green and yellow kiwi slices. Pop in the freezer to set overnight.
  6. Let sit out of the freezer for 30 minutes before slicing. Stores in the freezer for up to a month.

Cherry chia jam parfait

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The cherry obsession continues! This time in the form of a gloriously rich and creamy parfait layered with a berrylicious jam. Chia jam is a great way to try chia if you haven’t given it a go before. The lumpy texture can take a little getting used to, but if you like jam, you’ll dig chia jam. This is full of healthy proteins and fats and the jam is sugar free and brimming with berries. I also put a little carob sauce at the bottom of the jar as a little treat. If you don’t have all the berries listed below, feel free to just sub with whatever you have enough of. As long as you use 2 cups of fruit in total it will still turn into jam. Making almond butter can take a while even in a high speed blender, but boy is it worth it. The flavour of freshly roasted almonds with this cherry chia jam is something else. The recipe makes enough for about two of these jars, or if you’re making one jar just enjoy the leftovers on top of your smoothie bowls for the rest of the week! The jam is great on toast too.

Cherry chia jam

  • 1 cup cherries, pitted
  • 1/2 cup blueberries
  • 1/2 cup strawberries
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/4 cup chia seeds
  • 3 tbsp maple syrup

Coconut chia pudding

  • 1/2 cup coconut milk
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 4 tbsp chia seeds

Almond butter

  • 2 cups whole, unroasted almonds
  • 1/2 tsp sea salt

Carob sauce

  • 2 tbsp carob powder
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  1. Make your chia pudding at least 4 hours in advance. Add all coconut chia pudding ingredients to a jar and mix well. Cover and leave in the fridge until the chia seeds have plumped up.
  2. If you’re making the almond butter, heat oven to 170°c. Add almonds to baking tray and pop in the oven for 30 minutes.
  3. Take almonds out the oven and process in a blender with the sea salt until smooth and runny- this takes about 10 minutes in my Vitamix, just keep scraping the sides down, mashing and pulsing and eventually it will turn to butter!
  4. To make your cherry chia jam, add cherries, blueberries and strawberries to a small pan and heat gently with 1/2 cup of cold water, chia seeds and maple syrup. After about 20-30 minutes it should reach a jam like consistency. Set aside to cool.
  5. Make your carob sauce by mixing carob and maple syrup together.
  6. Layer your jar with carob sauce at the bottom, then your coconut chia pudding, cherry chia jam and almond butter. Garnish with fresh berries and buckwheat for crunch.

*Leftovers of the chia jam and pudding will keep well in a sealed jar in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Strawberry cookies and cream cheesecake

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strawberry cookies and cream cheesecake

Strawberry cookies and cream cheesecake is here! There seems to be so many cookies and cream recipes about lately, I couldn’t resist making my contribution with this delicious slice. It took a few attempts and several bags of cashews, but I’ve finally mastered it. The base is sweet and chewy like every good cookie should be and the filling is creamy and light with hints of vanilla. It’s refined sugar free, gluten free, raw and vegan.  If you don’t have carob, by all means sub with cacao or cocoa, but carob really does give the best dark chocolate cookie flavour. This cheesecake is light and creamy and makes for a crowd pleasing dessert at a dinner party. My friends have enjoyed testing this one out for me! I’d love to see if you try it!

Recipe (Makes 12-14 slices)

Base

  • 1 cup unroasted buckwheat groats (or sub with more pecans)
  • 1 cup whole raw pecans
  • 1 1/2 cups pitted dried dates, roughly chopped
  • 3 tbsp coconut oil, melted
  • 3 tbsp carob powder

Filling 

  • 3 cups raw cashews, soaked overnight in cold water and drained
  • 3/4 cup coconut oil
  • 1/2  cup coconut milk
  • Juice of one lemon
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup or rice malt syrup
  • 1/4 tsp himalayan pink salt
  • 1/2 cup cacao nibs
  • 1 cup strawberries, hulled and quartered

Carob cookie crumb topping 

  • 1/2 cup dates
  • 1/2 cup pecans
  • 1 tbsp carob
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup or rice malt syrup
  1. If you’re using buckwheat groats in your base, blend them for a few minutes in your blender until ‘sandy’, you want them to be finely ground, but not so much that it turns to flour.
  2. Add pecans, dates, coconut oil and carob to the ground buckwheat and pulse and blend until the mixture starts to stick together.
  3. Press mixture down firmly into a lined tin. I used a 28×18 cm slice tin. Pop in the fridge while you make the filling. If you’d like to make the crumb topping, add the dates, pecans, carob and maple syrup to your blender and pulse until crumbly. Set aside.
  4. Rinse out your blender and add cashews, coconut oil, coconut milk, lemon juice, maple syrup and salt. Process until smooth and creamy, stopping to scrape down the sides half way through. Fold through the strawberries and cacao nibs.
  5. Pour the filling on top of the base and pop in the freezer to set for at least 4 hours.
  6. Remove from the freezer and leave for 20-30 mins before slicing. Top with fresh strawberries and your carob cookie crumb.

 

 

 

 

Cherry coconut nice cream

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cherry coconut nice cream with carob sauce toasted coconut and cherries

Cherry season is here! They taste so delicious right now. I love everything cherry flavour (including lip balms and fizzy cola bottles). Enter the perfect healthy treat to showcase this ruby red summer fruit, cherry coconut nice cream. The carob sauce is a firm staple in my kitchen, it’s luscious and gooey and a doddle to make. If you love dark chocolate, give carob a go. It’s more nutritionally dense than cacao and doesn’t contain caffeine which means it’s perfect to eat any time of the day! The toasted coconut chips on top of this take it to ice cream sundae level, so I’d really recommend making them. Cherry, carob and coconut may just be my new favourite thing.

Recipe (Makes enough for two, as pictured)

  • 4 frozen bananas, chopped
  • 1/4 cup coconut milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tbsp cashew butter
  • 2 medjool dates, pitted
  • 1 tbsp Organic Burst maca (optional)
  • 1 cup fresh cherries, pitted
  • 1/4 cup toasted coconut chips
  • 2 tbsp carob powder
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  1. If you haven’t toasted your coconut chips, chuck the chips onto a small baking tray. Bake in the oven at 140°c and keep an eye on them. After about 10 minutes they should be starting to turn golden around the edges. Take out and leave to cool.
  2. Make your coconut nice cream by adding frozen bananas, coconut milk, vanilla extract, cashew butter, dates and maca powder (if using) to your blender or food processor. Pulse and mash every so often, adding a little coconut milk at a time until smooth. Add water bit by bit if you need to soften it.
  3. Smooth your first layer down in your jar(s). Split the remaining mix in half, adding the cherries to the half left in the blender. Mix well until smooth. Now scoop out the cherry nice cream and pop in the freezer with the coconut nice cream and your jar(s). Leave to set for at least 30 minutes.
  4. Make the carob sauce by mixing carob powder and maple syrup until smooth and glossy.
  5. Grab everything from the freezer and layer up! Top with your toasted coconut chips, carob sauce and fresh cherries on top!

 

 

Caramel nice cream

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For me, nice cream is just about the best thing ever. I spent years as a vegan thinking I had to buy the overpriced, tasteless soya ice cream in tiny pots from health shops, until I discovered the humble frozen banana. Something magical happens to bananas when you freeze them. They blend up into the most rich, creamy tropical deliciousness that you could only compare to a really thick milkshake. Even the really mushy ones can be frozen and blended up into smoothies. As with all fruit, if it’s almost had it, chuck it in the freezer and use it later, I can’t bear to see food go to waste. If you haven’t tried freezing your bananas before, I can’t recommend it enough. There’s no going back once you’ve tried it. Just remember to peel them before you freeze them. I have admit I’ve made that mistake before.

Guilt free and packed with b vitamins and carbs to fuel you through your day. I managed a good six hour stint digging weeds at the allotment after eating half of this! If you don’t have a very powerful blender, just wait for the bananas to soften a little before blending. You can always pop it in the freezer to firm up.

Recipe (makes enough for two)

  • 4 frozen bananas (peel and chop your bananas into chunks, freeze overnight)
  • 2 pitted dates
  • 1 tbsp Organic Burst maca powder (optional)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp almond butter (plus a little more, for decoration)
  • 1/4 cup almond mylk
  • 2 tbsp cacao
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  1. Make your cacao sauce – mix cacao and maple syrup together well and set aside.
  2. Blend everything else together in a food processor or blender. Stop and pulse and mash things up to get it all going. Add a little more almond mylk if you need to, but go steady- too much and you’ll end up with smoothie. Blend until smooth and creamy. If you’d like it a little firmer, pop in the freezer for thirty minutes.
  3. Smear the cacao sauce and a little almond butter around your jar or bowl and layer in the caramel nice cream.
  4. Top with shredded coconut, edible flowers, blueberries and granola.

Cacao banana maca muffins

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cacao banana maca muffinsThese marbled muffins are sweet, moist and very delicious. Vegan (as always), refined sugar free and easily made gluten free if you sub the spelt flour for buckwheat or gluten free oat flour.

I included organic cacao powder and maca powder for an extra boost. Raw cacao is made by cold pressing unroasted cocoa beans. This process means the living enzymes in the cocoa are maintained but it removes the fat (cacao butter). Cocoa powder is made when raw is roasted at high temperatures. This changes the structure of the cocoa bean, reducing the enzyme content and lowering the overall nutritional value. Basically cacao means you can get the most health benefits from chocolate, which has to be a good thing! Maca is a great energiser, mood enhancer and balances hormones. It also has a gentle caramel flavour that really works in these muffins. I love the stuff!

I’d love to hear what you think if you try this recipe, it’s a firm favourite here!

Recipe – Makes 12 muffins

  • 3 large mashed very ripe bananas (about 1 cup)
  • 3/4 cup coconut sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 tbsp coconut oil, melted
  • 2 tsp Organic Burst Maca powder
  • 1/3 cup non dairy mylk (I used almond)
  • 1 1/2 cups spelt flour
  • 3/4 tsp baking soda
  • 3/4 tsp himalayan pink salt
  • 4 tbsp cacao powder
  • 6 tbsp boiling water
  1. Boil kettle and preheat oven to 180•c. Line or grease your muffin tin.
  2. Mix mashed bananas, coconut sugar, coconut oil, almond mylk, maca and vanilla in a large bowl until smooth.
  3. Mix spelt flour, baking soda and salt in gently. Don’t overmix- it’s okay if you can still see some flour.
  4. Put one cup of batter into a small bowl. Mix in four tbsp of cacao and three tbsp of boiling water with fork. Add another three tbsp of boiling water to the original banana batter and mix well.
  5. Put 2 tbsp at a time into each muffin case/tin until the mixture is evenly distributed. Swirl through a chopstick or knife to make pretty swirl patterns.
  6. Bake in your preheated oven for 20-22 minutes, or until a chopstick comes out clean. Cool and enjoy, or eat slightly warm with peanut butter (couldn’t help myself).

Strawberries and cream ice lollies

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strawberries and cream ice lollies coconut milk strawberry puree raw natural

A simple, healthy lolly that tastes of summertime. Feel free to try different frozen fruits, you can’t really go wrong with these. Icy, cold, creamy and refreshing. A smoothie in lolly form is always a good thing!

 

Recipe

  • 1 can organic coconut milk (400ml)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 cups strawberries (frozen or fresh)
  • 2 tbsp maple syrup
  1. Blend strawberries and maple syrup together until smooth. Pour into your lolly moulds, until each mould is half full.
  2. Rinse out your blender and add coconut milk and vanilla extract and blend well. Fill up your moulds and pop in your stick. Freeze for at least 6 hours.

 

Berry boost cookies

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I’ve just come back from a super relaxing break in North Wales. Eight of us stayed in a 17th century cottage and spent our days away from phones, wifi and civilisation in general and it feels like I’ve had a recharge. My head feels clearer and my soul soothed. Predicting we’d be going on lots of long hikes, I created these berry boost cookies, made with Organic Burst acai powder. They are vegan, raw, gluten free and packed full of healthy protein and nutrients to keep you fuelled for the day (or evening) ahead. The best thing about raw cookies is that you need little to no equipment (just a bowl and spoon in this case) and you just put them in the freezer to set! Easy, quick and healthy but still deliciously fruity and cookie like, these are real crowd pleasers.

Recipe – makes around 16 drop cookies

  • 1 cup desiccated coconut
  • 1 cup ground sunflower seeds (sub other seed or nut if you don’t have sunflower seeds)
  • 3/4 cup tahini
  • 3/4 maple syrup
  • 1/2 cup melted coconut oil
  • 1 cup mixed dried berries (I used goji berries, orange infused cranberries and sultanas)
  • 1 tbsp Organic Burst Acai
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • Pinch of sea salt
  1. Mix all ingredients together in a bowl.
  2. Form into walnut sized balls and flatten slightly with hands to make a cookie shape. Decorate with goji berries.
  3. Freeze for at least 30 minutes before enjoying. Best eaten straight from the freezer.

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Lemon nice cream with berry superfood sauce

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It’s seriously cold and wet here today. Perfect weather for a summery jar of nice cream right? It made sense at the time. I adore hot sauces in a jar of nice cream and this superfood berry sauce was a joy to swirl into the lemony goodness. I wanted to make it yellow, so I used a touch of turmeric (also incredibly good for you), yippee for natural food colourings! This is creamy, sweet, sharp and citrusy all at the same time.

Recipe

For the sauce –

  • 1 tbsp Your Superfoods Forever Beautiful Superfood mix (or 1 tbsp chia seeds)
  • 1 cup mixed fresh berries (I used raspberries and blueberries)
  • 1/4 cup water

Lemon nice cream

  • 4 frozen bananas
  • 1/8 – 1/4 cup almond mylk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp maca powder (optional)
  • 1/4 tsp ground turmeric
  • 1 date, pitted
  • 1 lemon, juiced and zested

 

  1. Make your berry superfood sauce. Add all sauce ingredients to a small pan over a gentle heat. Stir through and leave to simmer for ten minutes, stirring occasionally. When the berries and chia become jammy take off the heat to cool.
  2. Add bananas, a little of the almond mylk, vanilla extract, turmeric, date and lemon juice to a blender. Add more almond mylk as needed until smooth and creamy. Save the lemon zest for sprinkles.
  3. Smear berry sauce around and inside your glass. Spoon in lemon nice cream and top with raspberries and lemon sprinkles.