So many times I see people struggling to get into one of nature’s finest bounties: young coconuts.

Even if they’ve been taught the ‘correct’ way to get them open with a cleaver, using the heal of the blade to bust them open, it can still be intimidating to actually do.

In this video I show you an easier way to get one of these babies open, but with a bonus…

You have a really nice and very impressive and unusual bowl to serve soup in, wowing your guests.

Thanks to Moi, aka “Big Moi” for turning me on to this way of opening coconuts.

Let me know what you think in the comments below and make sure you ‘share’ and ‘like’ on Facebook, and retweet to your Twitter followers if you think they’d find it useful.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For more information take a look at the my other Raw Food Recipes.

Coconut kefir is one of my favourite drinks. I always notice a feeling of well-being after drinking a glass and then a couple of days of drinking it I notice a difference in my hair and skin.

In this video I’ll show you how to start with a very small amount of water kefir grains and grow them into a larger amount do you’ll never need to buy them again.

I’ll also then show you how to make kefir from coconut water.

One thing I need to mention is that the fermentation should be done at room temperature, then when you have a finished drink you should store it in the refrigerator.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Water kefir grains cannot be grown from scratch they have to come from a donor. The good news is that you only need a very small amount to start growing them from that first batch.

Here are the instructions for growing kefir, we use maple syrup because it has a high amount of sugar for the grains to feed on.

Growing kefir grains

2 – 3 tablespoons water kefir grains
1 quart pure water
¼ cup maple syrup

• Place all ingredients in a glass jar and seal.

• Allow to stand at room temperature for up to 48 hours.

• Strain the liquid and reserve the grains.

• The resulting water can be drunk as is or added to smoothies for an extra boost of probiotics.

• You should notice a small increase in the volume of the kefir grains that came out.

• Repeat this process until you have enough grains to keep this process going and also make coconut kefir.

Young coconut water doesn’t have enough sugar to actually make the kefir grains grow very fast, but it does have enough sugar to make the coconut water ferment into kefir.

When you team up the previous process of growing the grains with the next instructions on how to make the actual kefir, you should be able to provide your daily kefir requirements on a ongoing basis.

For coconut kefir

¼ cup kefir grains
1 quart young coconut water

• Combine the water kefir grains and the coconut water in a jar.

• Allow to stand for up to 48 hours at room temperature. You can check every 12 hours to make sure the fermentation isn’t going to far. You’ll know if it’s strong enough by taste testing (the longer you leave the more pungent and sour it gets). After you’ve made a few batches you’ll get a feel of how you prefer it. The rule of thumb is that the more grains you have in the water, the less time it will need to develop. Warmer room temperature will also result in quicker fermentation.

• Strain the coconut water kefir from the kefir grains, reserve the grains for another batch or to grow more. Set the coconut water kefir aside for a second stage fermentation.

Second Stage Fermentation

Coconut kefir
½ to 1 cup juice of your choice

• Combine the coconut kefir and juice in a jar.

• Leave to stand at room temperature for 48 hours. This will cause a second stage fermentation where the kefir will break down the sugars in the juice and go fizzy.

• If your kefir is already quite fizzy or you just like the taste of the kefir with the juice without actually fermenting for that second stage, then you can simply add the juice and put in straight in the refrigerator which will slow the fermentation down.

For more information take a look at the my other Raw Food Recipes.

It’s now easier than ever to make your own non-dairy raw nut cheese to satisfy that cheese craving. Whenever I make one of these cheeses it’s usually gone within hours.

But rather than just eat it all on its own there’s some really nice additions to the cheese that can be served with it that make the most of the flavour and texture.

Some of these additions bring sweetness to the acidity of the cheese – a perfect balance. Others are there for texture.

In this video I’ll show you what to plate with the cheese and, of course, hwo to make it look great, should you want to serve to friends and family.

My homestudy course shows exactly how to make raw nut cheeses click here for details of the course.

Enjoy the video and be sure to leave me a comment, and ‘retweet’ on Twitter or ‘Share’ on Facebook if you think your friends would like to see this too.

Click here to view the embedded video.

For more information take a look at the my other Raw Food Recipes.

Seeing as there’s a lot of conversation going on about whether agave has a place in a healthy right now, I’ve made a little video showing you how to simply make a whole food sweetener from just dates and water.

I get asked about my views on agave fairly often and the aim making this video is to provide an alternative for those people that want another option. It doesn’t mean I am saying agave is or isn’t ‘good’ or ‘bad’, that’s for another conversation.

I think there’s more conversation to be had about agave and with that said, here’s another great whole food alternative.

Remember to leave me a comment under the video and, if you’re on Twitter, ‘retweet’ or if you’re on Facebook click the ‘Share’ button :)

Click here to view the embedded video.

For more information take a look at the my other Raw Food Recipes.

From Issue 21 of News From The kitchen

Serves 1 – 2 people

5c (500g/1.2lb) small broccoli florets
2 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon tamari

- Mix all ingredients together a in large bowl and massage with your hands until the broccoli becomes softer, then leave to stand for 10 minutes.

- Transfer the broccoli to a non-stick dehydrator tray and dehydrate for 4 hours at 105 degrees F. You may find it useful (but not essential) to turn the tray around halfway through as the broccoli closest to the fan will dry quicker.

For the sauce

1/4 cup tahini
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon yacon syrup or agave
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
3 teaspoons tamari
1/2 a garlic clove
1/2 a small de-seeded chili
1/2cm cube of fresh ginger

- Blend all ingredients in a high-speed blender.

- Mix with dehydrated broccoli when ready to serve

- Serve with the parsnip “rice”

For the parsnip “rice”

1.5 cups (275g/10oz) peeled parsnips
1.5 tablespoons pine nuts
1 tablespoon macadamia nuts
1 tablespoon light miso
1 tablespoon cold-pressed sesame oil
3 spring onions, finely chopped

- Grind all ingredients, except the spring onions, in a food processor until fluffy and rice-like.

- Transfer to a bowl and stir in the chopped spring onions

For more information take a look at the my other Raw Food Recipes.

***Feel free to post this video on your own blog or website using this link***:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1oAXbqRKt2s

Click here to view the embedded video.

For more information take a look at the my other Raw Food Recipes.

From Issue 20 of News From The kitchen

Flax Cracker Base

Either use your own flax cracker recipe, flax crackers you already have, or use this recipe.

1/2 cup flax seeds
1/2 cup flax meal
6 medium tomatoes
1 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked 2 hours or more
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 cup fresh basil
3 tablespoons dried Italian herb mix
3 medium onions
1 clove garlic

• Grind all ingredients in a food processor

• Spread evenly and thinly over 2 Paraflexx dehydrator trays, right to the edges and then use a knife or spatula to score into individual squares .

• Dehydrate at 105 degrees for 3 hours then invert onto another mesh dehydrator tray to finish drying in the dehydrator for a further 10 – 18 hours.

Pine Nut Cheese Spread

1/2 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup macadamias
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons nutritional yeast
1/4 cup water

• Grind all ingredients in a food processor.

Tomato Sauce

4 medium tomatoes, de-seeded
1/4 cup sun-dried tomatoes, soaked 2 hours or more
1 soft date
1 clove garlic
2 teaspoons olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh basil
1 tablespoon dried oregano
2 teaspoons lemon juice

• Blend all ingredients in a high-speed blender until smooth.

Pesto

2 cups basil, tightly packed
1 tablespoon minced rosemary
1/4c pine nuts
1T olive oil
1/4t salt
2t lemon juice

• Pulse all ingredients in a food processor until broken down, but leaving some texture to the finished pesto.

Assembly

• Start with the flax cracker as a base to which you’ll add a layer of the nut cheese spread.

• Next comes the tomato sauce and then top off with some pesto.

• Garnish with olives, capers and a sprinkle of Italian seasoning.

Variation: This recipe works great using marinated whole mushrooms as a base instead of flax crackers.

• Marinate 12 mushrooms in 1/4c tamari and 1/4c olive oil for 2 hours or more.

• Fill the mushroom caps with the nut cheese, tomato sauce and pesto. Going heavier on the amount of pesto works really nicely with mushrooms.

• Once the mushrooms are stuffed, place in the dehydrator at 105 degrees F to warm through for 1 – 2 hours.

For more information take a look at the my other Raw Food Recipes.

From Issue 19 of News From The kitchen

Click ‘more’ for full recipe.

For the base

1/2 cup cashews
1/2 cup pecans
1 tablespoon coconut oil
1 tablespoon melted cacao butter
1 teaspoon agave
1 teaspoon lemon juice

- Pulse all ingredients in a food processor until they bind.

- Press into a 9” springform cake pan and place in the fridge to set.

For the filling

1 cup Irish Moss paste*
1 cup cashews
1 1/2 cups cacao powder
3 cups grated or chopped cacao butter which has then been melted
1 cup agave nectar
1/2 cup water
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon tamari
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

- Blend all ingredients in a high-speed blender until smooth and pour on top of the base.

- Leave in the fridge to set.

*Irish Moss paste can be made by soaking 1 cup Irish Moss in water for 3 – 5 hours and rinsing THOROUGHLY until rinse water turns clear (there’ll be a lot of sand in the moss). Then blend the rinsed moss with 2 cups pure water in a Vita-Mix until completely smooth. Leave to set in the fridge if not using straight away.

Chef’s tip: Add 1 drop of peppermint essential oil to the filling mixture for a mint chocolate variation.

For the cream topping

1 cup cashews, soaked for 2 hours or more
1/2 cup water
3 tablespoons Irish Moss paste
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup agave nectar
1 teaspoon lemon juice
Pinch salt
1 tablespoon macadamia oil (optional)

- Blend all ingredients in a high-speed blender until smooth.

- Serve with chocolate torte and fresh berries.

For more information take a look at the my other Raw Food Recipes.

From Issue 18 of News From The kitchen

Click ‘more’ for full recipe.

For the marinated vegetables

3c portabello mushrooms
1 1/2c aubergine (eggplant), peeled & diced small
1c peas
1/2c broccoli, cut from the stem into 1cm mini-florets
6 medium tomatoes, diced small
1T lemon juice
2T tamari
2T olive oil
2T curry powder
2t salt

• In a large bowl mix the mushrooms, aubergine, peas, broccoli and tomatoes in lemon juice, olive oil, curry powder, and salt.

• Spread onto a dehydrator sheet and dehydrate for 2 – 3 hours at 105 degrees F.

For the curry sauce

1 red pepper
1 clove garlic
1t lemon
1/2T tamarind pulp*
1cm cube of fresh ginger
1/2c fresh coriander
1T curry powder (try to get curry powder without salt in it)
1/2c fresh coconut from a brown coconut
1/4c water
Salt to taste, depending on whether your curry powder had salt in it. Start with 1/4t.

* Tamarind paste can be made by soaking tamarind in water until it goes soft (the seedless type you can buy in a packet in fine for this) and straining through a sieve. If you don’t have any tamarind available, simply leave out.

• Blend all ingredients in a high power blender until smooth and creamy. You may need to add more water depending on what type of coconut you used.

• Mix the softened dehydrated vegetables with the sauce and return to the dehydrator in a large covered bowl to warm before serving.

For the parsnip rice

2c peeled fresh parsnips
3T mac nuts
3T pine nuts
1T olive oil
2t agave nectar
1t lemon juice
2 pinches salt
1T white miso

• Pulse in the food processor until rice-like.

For the spiced mango chutney

2 medium mangoes
2 pinches salt
2t lemon Juice
1t apple cider vinegar
1t minced ginger
1/2t cumin

• Finely dice one mango and set aside.

• Blend all remaining ingredients in a high power blender.

• Add the diced mango to the blender and blend on low for a few seconds.

For more information take a look at the my other Raw Food Recipes.

From Issue 17 of News From The kitchen

This recipe was heavily inspired by these. This time the cacao part is much more ‘crackly’ and the whole thing is very reminiscent of the choc-ices I used to have when I was younger.

Click ‘more’ for full recipe.

For the ice-cream

1 1/2c cashews
1/3c agave
1 vanilla pod, insides scraped out
3c almond milk
3T maca root powder
2t lemon juice
Pinch salt

• Blend all ingredients in a high-speed blender until smooth.
• Pour into an ice-cream maker. Alternatively you can pour into a container and place in the freezer to set hard. Once it’s frozen, cut into chunks and run through a juicer with the blank homogenising plate on. This gets rid of any ice crystals that may have formed.
• When ice-cream is soft enough to work with shape it into a cylinder (a metal ring is great for this) and re-freeze.

For the cacao crackles

1/2c cacao butter
1/4c cacao powder
1/4c agave
3T cacao nibs

• Blend all ingredients except the cacao nibs in a high-speed blender.
• Use a spoon to drop small amounts of the mixture onto a non-stick surface, such as a Paraflexx sheet, to form circles only slightly bigger than the ice-cream cylinders.
• Leave to set hard.

Assembly

• Take the ice-cream cylinders from the freezer and let them soften slightly for a few minutes. That way the next stage will work better.
• Sandwich each of the cylinders between 2 pieces of the cacao crackles. You may want to return them to the freezer at this point so the whole thing freezes together as one.