This beautiful recipe is by Hannah from Kinder Kitchen, who is a holistic nutritionist and plant-based recipe developer. Her vegan cashew date 'eggs' are a delicious and nutritious alternative to the more traditional cream egg. They are fun to make and a joy to eat!
Ingredients:
- 1/3 cup cashews, soaked overnight in room temperature water, or for at least half an hour in boiling water
- 2-3 tablespoons of your choice of plant milk
- A dash of vanilla extract, or equivalent form of vanilla
- 2 teaspoons maple syrup or coconut sugar, or to taste
- 1/2 teaspoon ground organic Ceylon Cinnamon
- Pinch of good quality sea salt
- 1 tablespoon melted coconut oil
- 1/4 teaspoon Wunder Golden Turmeric, or until desired depth of orange colouring is reached - be mindful of taste, taste as you go to avoid overpowering the cashew cream
- 2 tablespoons orange zest or a dash of orange essential oil
- 6-9 Medjool dates, stone removed (or as many as you want to make, you will need to adjust the rest of the ingredients accordingly. Having too much isn't necessarily is a bad thing, in fact it's a very good thing as you can add a spoonful of leftover cashew cream and a drizzle of leftover chocolate to your porridge, pancakes, toast and smoothie)
- Around 70g dark chocolate
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
Method:
- Soak cashews either overnight in room temperature water or in boiled water for at least 30 minutes
- Drain and rinse the cashews
- Add the cashews to a high-power blender with the plant milk, vanilla essence, maple syrup or coconut sugar, cinnamon and sea salt. Blend until smooth and creamy, then add to melted coconut oil, which will make it even smoother and creamier
- Remove 3/4 of the cashew cream from the blender and place in a bowl, then add the turmeric and orange zest to the blender. You may need to add a dash more plant milk and a little maple. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides and blend again. You can just use a spoon to mix through any unblended turmeric if you're having trouble blending it
- If you haven't already, removed the stone from the dates and gently open them up. Try not to cut/pull them in half as they are easier to fill when still intact along one side
- Use a teaspoon to fill your dates with the cashew cream, first the white blend and then a smaller amount of the orange blend - to look like a cream egg. You can add a pinch of orange zest at this stage too. Don't overfill them as they will be harder to coat in chocolate. Close the dates as much as you can, it doesn't matter if they don't fully close as they will soon be encased in chocolate! Put them on a lined baking tray and pop them in the freezer to harden a little while you melt the chocolate. Any leftover can be stored in a sealed container in the fridge for up to a week
- Melt the chocolate with the coconut oil in a pan over a low to medium heat, stirring gently to prevent burning and sticking. Be careful as this happens easily and will spoil the taste of your chocolate
- When the chocolate has melted, remove the pan from the heat and get the dates out of the freezer. One by one, place the dates in the pan and use 2 tablespoons to coat them in chocolate. Be gentle so that you don't pull the dates apart or dislodge the filling. Any leftover chocolate can be kept in the fridge and re-melted in future cooking
- Gently put the chocolate covered dates back in the freezer for another 10 minutes or until the chocolate has hardened. Remove from the freezer, top with a small amount of cashew cream and any other pretty toppings you have to hand. Orange zest, baked orange peel and cacao nibs work well
- Enjoy!
Recipe and image by: Hannah from Kinder Kitchen.