After six months of traveling around the world, our life has now finally settled back to normal. And that is when we realize that we don’t know what normal is anymore. Even though me and Luise have been living together for a couple of years, it feels like our life as a family starts now. Just like Elsa, we are taking our first trembling steps towards our new family life. Right now we have no idea how that life will turn out, how we will find a balance between work and family, or even in which country our life will take place during the next couple of years. You might say that we have some figuring out to do. One thing that we do know, is that we will keep on sharing our favorite recipes with you. Like these Chai & Hazelnut Brownies that Luise made the other day. We would be lying if we called them healthy, but they are at least vegan, raw and gluten free. And they taste – pardon my french – fingerlickin’ good!

Before moving on to the recipe, we want to give you some basic tips when baking with dates.
1. Always use fresh dates. They should be dry on the outside, and very soft and sticky on the inside.
2. If you have to use dried dates, you need to soak them in drinking water a couple of hours before baking with them.
3. If you can’t find dates at all you can try using raisins, figs, dried plums or dried apricots (remember to always soak dried fruit first).
4. When you blend dates they should turn into a very sticky paste, so you need a strong food processor or blender.

Raw Hazelnut & Chai Brownies (adapted from the danish cookbook “Raw Cake”, by Caroline Fibæk)
Makes around a dozen brownies

What makes this cake special is that it is spiced up with chai spices, it gives it such an unique taste! Use normal tea bags, cut them open and just pour them in the dough, isn’t it easy? -and you can choose green, black or herbal chai tea!

2 cups (5 dl) fresh medjool dates, remove the seeds
4 tbsp coconut oil (room temperatur)
2 tbsp maple syrup
6 tbsp raw cacao powder, or ordinary cocoa powder
1 tsp vanilla powder (not sugar) or 1 vanilla bean
3 chai tea bags, cut them open (we use Pukka or Yogi)
2 tbsp grounded flax seeds (you can buy grounded or use a coffee grinder)
two pinches of sea salt
1/2 cup (1,2 dl) hazelnut, roughly chopped (you can use any kind of nuts or seeds)

Put all ingredients, except the hazelnuts, in a high speed blender. Add the chopped hazelnuts and work the dough by hand. Take a brownie tin or a plate, cover it with plastic wrap and press down the dough to whatever thickness you prefer (ours are about 1/2 inch high). Rub a bit of coconut oil on your hands to prevent the dough from sticking on them. Put the cake in the fridge and let it set for a least half an hour.

Slice it up in pieces, sprinkle with cacao powder and garnish with whole hazelnuts.

Photos by: Johanna Frenkel.

And so we have left San Francisco. What a great time we have had in this city. Everyone has been friendly to us and we have found ourselves having long conversations with complete strangers on the streets and in food stores numerous times (which never happens in Sweden). We have constantly been eating good food and we even met a couple of new friends. And when we thought that the city couldn’t be sunnier or happier, the San Francisco Giants won the World Series in Baseball. Such a perfect ending.

Now we have rented a car and started driving down south. Highway 1 is beyond beautiful and we have made our first stop is Santa Cruz, but we’ll tell you more about that in our next post.

Before we left, we made this chocolate cake filled and topped with blackberries. Actually it’s not very difficult to make a normal chocolate cake, you can probably find 5 zillion good recipes on google and at least 70 on Martha Stewart. But our cake is made without eggs, butter, sugar and flour, which made everything a little bit more challenging. We tried three different versions of this cake before finding the right balance between fruit vs chocolate, sticky vs dry and sweet vs dark and rich.

In the end it feels like we nailed it. This cake is sticky on the inside, has got a quite fruity taste and a rich chocolate spread. It’s gluten free and it’s vegan. I wouldn’t go as far as saying that it’s healthy, but it is definitely more nutritious than your regular Martha Stewart cake.

Chocolate & Blackberry Cake

1 1/2 cup walnuts
15 fresh dates
5 tbsp cacao powder (unsweetened)
1 tsp cinnamon
3 tbsp coconut oil or olive oil
4 tbsp apple sauce (unsweetened)
2 cups blackberries (use 1 cup in the cake and the rest on top of it)

Chocolate frosting:
150 g dark chocolate (dairy free or regular)
1/2 avocado
1 tbsp agave syrup
a pinch of salt

Place the walnuts in a food processor and mix them until they get the consistency of a crunchy flour, add the dates and pulse for a minute so that they get mixed with the walnuts. Add cacao, cinnamon, oil, apple sauce and pulse everything for a couple of minutes. Add the blackberries and mix them shortly (you want them in pieces but not completely dissolved). Pour the mixture into an 8-inch non-stick spring pan and bake it for 40 – 50 minutes at 325° F / 175° C.

Let the cake cool off after it is baked. Meanwhile you can prepare the chocolate frosting. Melt the chocolate, pour it in a blender and mix with avocado, agave and a pinch of salt. Spread the frosting on top of the cooled chocolate cake. Decorate with the blackberries before serving. Enjoy!

Who would have known that you can experience so much by concentrating on doing nothing at all.

We could tell you a million stories about this week. About how crazy beautiful the weather has been, how many great places we have found in our neighborhood, how we have been taking long walks up and down and up and down and up and down (phew) the hills of San Francisco, how Elsa made the funniest face ever with fresh sprouts all over her mouth. Or the story about when David was helping a sweet old granny by carrying her blanket to her car from Dolores Park, and was offered a bag of pot! as thank you (it’s a true story).

But the story we will focus on this time is when we on a beautiful day decided to have a picnic at the beach.

As we wrote in our recent post, our kitchen is very simple. We found salt and black pepper when we moved in, any other spices we have had to buy. And since we are only staying here for another week we have been cutting corners, making it easy for ourselves and been trying to use the same ingredients in several dishes.

On this picnic we made a salad with brown rice leftovers from yesterdays dinner, adding a bag of trail mix and fresh pomegranate that we also use on our breakfast yogurt, and seasoning it with organic peanut butter that you apparently can’t live without in the U.S. Even though it’s kind of simple, this salad is really nourishing and tasty.

We made frozen fruit sticks covered in chocolate and pistachio and brought for dessert. Chocolate covered fruit is almost too easy to blog about, but the pistachios made it too good (and pretty) not to mention. Just imagine the combination; sweet fruit, bitter chocolate and salty pistachio. Yum.

Ocean beach is not like most other beaches. It’s kind of windy, at times it can be quite foggy, and honestly, as soon as the sun starts to set it becomes really cold.
Still, it’s a 4 mile long and beautiful beach that you during October can have almost for yourself. Take bus #5 way out west (they will let you bring the stroller if you beg the drivers nicely). Bring a sweater. Bring a friend. Be there while it is sunny. Watch the brave surfers (the currents are strong, the water is ice cold). And have a picnic.

Brown Rice & Pomegranate Salad
Serves two persons

3 handfuls mixed baby leaf salad (rinsed)
2 small leaves green kale (chopped)
1 cup brown rice (cooked and mixed with olive oil and chopped parsley)
1/2 fennel (sliced)
1/2 cucumber (chopped)
4 small plum tomatoes (sliced)
2 avocados (chopped)
2 carrots (sliced)
1 pomegranate (seeds)
1/2 bag trail mix (seeds, nuts and dried fruit)

2 eggs (hard boiled)
4 tbsp peanut butter

Put salad and kale in the bottom of a box. Pour over the rice and top it with cucumber, tomatoes, avocado and carrots. Drizzle over the pomegranate seeds and the trail mix. Toss it around lightly with your hands. Cut the eggs into quarters and put them in one corner and the peanut butter in another or in a little box.

Frozen Fruitsticks with Chocolate & Pistachio

dark chocolate 80% (melted)
mixed fruit (we used bananas, plums and strawberries)
salted pistachio (chopped) or coconut flakes

Chop the fruit in big pieces. Put a toothpick or a small stick into each piece and put in the freezer. Melt the chocolate. Dip the fruit into the melted chocolate, drizzle with chopped pistachio and put in the freezer until you pack it in a box.

We have several reasons to celebrate today.

Number one. We started Green Kitchen Stories for exactly one year ago! It has been an unbelievable year, during which we have learned to know food loving people from all around the world. We are so incredibly grateful for all your cheering e-mails, tweets and comments. And even though we don’t answer all of you (shame on us), we read every single comment (more than once), and almost all the time they make us soooo happy (sometimes – very rarely – they make us a little bit sad and confused). So keep letting us know what you think about our recipes and stories and we will keep sharing healthy treats and vegetarian dinners.

Number two. Today is the first day on David’s paternity leave. And in less than two days we start our around the world trip! It’s such a perfect timing since Elsa becomes happier and funnier for every day that goes by. She is the kind of baby that never wants to sit where we put her, she always tries to stand up and look around, so we are quite certain that she will enjoy traveling.

Number three. We have decided where to go after 2 ½ months in USA. It’s pretty exciting. We just bought tickets to Beijing, Vietnam and Thailand!

It seems like we deserve a cake today, right?

Since we are leaving, our kitchen cabinets look pretty empty. We did find a bag of pumpkin seeds and a couple of dates, and that was all we needed to make these super easy mini cakes. We also made two different mousses and topped them with a fig. You could have any kind of filling on these, and since the cakes are quite sweet you don’t even have to add sugar to it.

Pumpkin Seed Cakes
Makes 8 mini cakes

1 cup pumpkin seeds
8 fresh dates

Divide the pumpkin seeds into three equal piles. Add the first pile into a blender and blend for 20 seconds. Add the dates and the second pile of the pumpkin seeds and blend until it becomes a sticky dough. You might need to help the blender by stirring around with a spoon. It gets easily stuck to the blender. Add the rest of the pumpkin seeds and blend for a short while, the point is to get a crunchy structure with seeds in diefferent sizes. Make 8 small balls with your hands and press them until they are 1/2 inch thick and 3 inch wide. Put in the fridge while making the mousses.

Raw Chocolate Mousse
1 avocado
1 ripe banana
3 tbsp raw cacao powder
1 tbsp raw cacao nibs
1 tbsp blueberries

Mix all the ingredients in a blender for about 45 seconds.

Lime Yoghurt Mousse
½ cup quark (or greek yoghurt that you’ve strained through a coffee filter for 30 minutes)
½ lime, juice
½ vanilla bean

Put the yoghurt in a bowl and whisk in lime and vanilla.

2 fresh figs for decoration, cut in boats.

Arrange the 8 mini cakes on a plate, put a dollop of mousse on each of them and decorate with a fig. Serve cold.

Yes, you read it right, we used beans and brownies in the same headline. And we don’t mean cacao beans or coffee beans. No, these brownies are actually made on black beans and garbanzo beans instead of flour, which makes them gluten free and much more nutritious than your ordinary brownies. Pretty cool, right?

If you follow a lot of food blogs this combination might not come as a total surprise to you, there are a couple of different bean & brownie recipes out there. And if you travel around in Asia you might come across a couple of desserts based on red or yellow lentils. But you still have to admit that it is pretty mind blowing that you can use one of the most nutritious food ingredients in one of the least nutritious cakes.

And how is the result, how beanie do they get? The truth is that they don’t taste beans at all, and I used quite a lot of beans in this recipe. I even brought them to work, and no-one could guess the secret ingredient. They do however taste a little bit different to an ordinary brownie recipe. The beans makes them a little bit more dense and they have a very rich taste, which basically means that you can’t have 10 of these at the same time, but that’s only a good thing, right? The agave syrup makes them sweet, but maybe not as crunchy as with sugar. In all other aspects they are similar, and depending on which dark chocolate you use you will get a variation in taste.

Bean Brownies Adapted from 101 cookbooks
makes 16 squares

125 g butter
180 g dark chocolate, roughly chopped
1,5 cup cooked or canned black beans & garbanzo beans (chick peas)
3 tbsp cacao powder
3 tbsp coconut flakes
1 cup walnuts, roughly chopped
a pinch of sea salt
3 eggs
2/3 cup agave syrup

Preheat the oven to 325°F and line an 11-inch square baking pan with parchment paper.
Melt the butter on low heat in a medium size pan, break 150 g of the dark chocolate into small pieces and add them to the melted butter. Stir around until the chocolate mixture is completely melted.
Put beans, cacao powder, coconut flakes and 1/2 cup of the walnuts in a blender or a food processor. Blend for about two minutes, then add the chocolate mixture and blend for one more minute.
In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs with an electric mixer for about 3 minutes, add the agave syrup and whisk for one more minute. Save four spoonfuls of the egg mixture in a separate glass and pour the rest over the chocolate and bean mixture. Add the remaining walnuts and dark chocolate and stir everything gently with a spatula until the whole mixture has the same color.
Pour into the baking pan. Drip the remaining egg mixture on top of the chocolate mixture and use a toothpick or a knife to create a marble effect. Bake for 30-40 minutes. They might still feel a little bit loose in the middle when you take them out, but the trick here is to wait until they cool off completely (I know, it’s hard, but it’s totally worth the wait). Enjoy!

I’m in love, yes with David and yes with baby Elsa, I’ve always been in love with avocado, I love that we have this blog, but now I’m also in love with another blog.

It’s called My New Roots and Sarah is the women behind it. David recently showed me her blog with the words: “You will love these recipes, and she has been studying exactly the things that you are always talking about”. So true! Sarah has studied holistic nutrition and the benefits of organic food, and her blog is full of wise words, cool facts, good vegetarian recipes and a sense of humor that I really like. She is the kind of blogger that makes two different soups in one bowl because “they look totally groovy together”. And she also came up this raw chocolate shake.

If you have been cooking a lot of vegan or raw food you’re probably familiar with avocado in desserts. We have heard and read about it, but we never actually took the step of trying it ourselves. Until we tried this recipe. And let me just say, it’s great! This shake has no ice cream, no cream, it hasn’t even got any milk in it. But it’s still super creamy and really delicious!

Since it’s summer we added a couple of strawberries to it, and a couple of raw cacao nibs that made it a little crunchy. If you want to read about all the benefits of cacao I suggest that you stop by My New Roots. Sarah actually claims that this chocolate shake is good for your body. Now how many chocolate ice cream milkshakes can claim that!?

Raw Chocolate Shake (Adapted from My New Roots)
Serves 2-4, depending on how big glasses you use

1 1/2 tbsp hemp seeds (or soaked almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds etc)
3 tbsp raw cacao powder
1 tbsp raw cacao nibs
1 avocado
1 very large frozen banana (not completely frozen if you’re afraid that it will ruin your blender)
5 fresh strawberries
2 tbsp agave, raw honey or maple syrup
a pinch of sea salt
1 cup water
4 ice cubes

Blend all the ingredients until smooth. It’s kind of thick so you can add water if desired. Top it with some chopped strawberries and drink it while it’s cold.

Chokococonut pyramids
Makes around 12

10 fresh dates (seeds removed)
75 g dark unsweetened chocolate (roughly chopped)
30 almonds (25 g)
3 egg whites
1 tbsp coconut oil
200 g coconut flakes

Preheat the oven at 360°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Mix dates, chocolate, almonds and egg whites in a blender for about a minute and set aside. Melt coconut oil (can be replaced with butter) in a pot on medium heat. Add the coconut flakes and stir around for about a minute. Add the date and egg-mixture and stir until everything is mixed well. Use your hands to form small pyramids (or hearts) and put them on the parchment paper. Bake for 10-12 minutes.

The amazing thing with this mousse is that it is only made on bananas, cacao powder and some almond butter! And it only takes about 2 minutes (maybe less) to make.
I know we will upset some chocolatiers out there by calling it a chocolate mousse. Of course it’s more of a banana-cacao mousse, but it actually tastes a lot like chocolate mousse (it is both bitter, sweet and creamy). And consider this once again: No heavy cream. No chocolate. No eggs. No butter. Just your everyday banana and 2 minutes of your time.

You can vary this recipe in a million different ways. We’ve added soya milk to make it creamier, coffee to make it stronger, vanilla powder to make it sweeter, peanut butter instead of almond butter to make it more american …
Oh, and remember not to use black bananas! If they look a bit old they will taste too distinct.

Chocolate Mousse (adapted from danish ‘Kernesund‘)
4 small portions (or 2 large …)

2 bananas
4-5 tbsp cacao powder (unsweetened)
4 tbsp almond butter or hazelnut butter

Mix it all in a blender until it becomes a mousse. Pour into glasses and put in the fridge before serving.

Espresso & Oat Truffles
Makes around 20

15 fresh dates
4 tbsp rolled oat
2 tbsp dried coconut
2 tbsp coconut oil
2 tbsp cocoa powder (unsweetened)
½ tsp vanilla powder (not sugar)
½ tsp cardamom
1 shot espresso (cold)

Mix all the ingredients in a blender (or food processor) for 1 minute. Form 20 small round balls with your hands. Roll some of them in rolled oat and some in dried coconut. Put in the fridge for a while before serving.

Cinnamon Chocolate Nuts
Makes 200 g

200 g blanched almonds and roasted walnuts
100 g melted chocolate (we used a 85% dark chocolate)
1 tbsp cinnamon
0,5 tbsp cocoa powder (unsweetened)

Put the chocolate in a small bowl and put it in a pot with water, melt it slowly on low heat. Roast the walnuts and blanch the almonds. When the nuts are dry and cold put them in the melted chocolate, just a couple at a time. Put the chocolate covered nuts on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Place it in the fridge so the chocolate can set. Mix cinnamon and cocoa in a small plastic bag, add the nuts and shake until all nuts are covered.

A snapshot of the Cinnamon-&-Chocolate-Covered-Nuts thief…