I've had a lovely week, it was my birthday and I was spoilt rotten with flowers, chocolate and Prosecco, three of my favourite things!
I have to admit the after effects of too much chocolate and wine are not great but sometimes worth it!  

So I thought I'd share one of my favourite healthy chocolate truffle recipes. These truffles are delicious, pretty much free of everything bad for you, incredibly quick and easy to make. In fact they are so delicious it's hard to believe they are packed full of healthy ingredients.
They are a perfect wee sweet treat to end a meal, and make a fabulous last minute Christmas gift for a health conscious friend.!

These truffles are vegan so dairy free, contain no saturated fat or added sugar.  All the sweetness comes from the dates and coconut, both natural ingredients with health benefits.

I love dates, they are deliciously sweet and although they are fairly high in sugar, they more than make up for it with the dazzling array of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and fibre, supporting health on so many levels.
The walnuts and sunflower seeds add protein, fibre, minerals and omega 3 fats so these truffles can definitely be enjoyed guilt free!

Medjool dates are the king of dates and are sweet, caramelly and moist and are always my first choice. Deglet Nour Dates are also delicious. Lidl are selling them for £1 a bag just now and they are also pitted which saves you precious time!  It's well worth having a few bags on standby. Some of the dates are really quite dry and need to be soaked before you can use them and they are never sweet or sticky enough, don't buy them!
You really need a food processor to make these. The dates need to be blitzed to a paste, although I guess at a push you could use a hand blender. Dates are so sticky though you would have to do it in batches and blitz the nuts and seeds first. Always make sure there are no stones in your dates, that could wreck your processor. Another point to note, for those of you lucky enough to own a Vitamix, don't use it for dates! They are just too sticky and there was a horrible burning smell from mine when I tried it
You have been warned!
If you have any sweet superfood powders like lacuma or maca, you can add a spoonful to up the health benefits even more. Chia seeds are also a good addition!
These truffles are best kept in the fridge to firm them up. I'm not too sure how long they will keep, ours are always scoffed within a few days, but I guess they would be fine for a week or so!
 
Preparation: 30 minutes
Makes: 20  bite size truffles
 
Ingredients

• 240g  pitted dates, Medjool or Deglet Nour
• 4 tbsp cocoa powder plus more for coating the truffles
• 4 tbsp desiccated coconut
• 50g sunflower seeds (if you don't have sunflower seeds just double the quantity of nuts)
• 50g walnuts or any other kind of nuts

 
Method

1. Put all the ingredients in a food processor and blend until well mixed
2. Take spoonfuls of the mixture and shape into bite size balls.
3. Coat the balls in cocoa powder or desiccated coconut
4. Put in the fridge to firm up for an hour or so
5. And enjoy :)

.                         ......your health in your hands......

This is one of my absolute favourite winter soups, its just so nourishing, creamy and delicious. I adapted the recipe from a macrobiotic one and it just ticks all the boxes for me on flavour and nutrition.
I served it last night to my guests at the launch of my Gourmet Vegan Supper Club and everyone thought it was delicious and much more interesting than leek and potato soup!

In Scotland, a soup thickened with oatmeal is called a ‘brose’. Oats can lower cholesterol due to the high amounts of soluble fibre and are easy to digest. Books have been written on the benefits of coconut but 3 key benefits are in lowering inflammation, boosting your immune system and boosting metabolism. Leeks and garlic fight infection and combined with ginger make this an inflammation busting super soup!  The addition of coconut and lime gives this soup an exotic twist and it tastes absolutely delicious! Give it a go and impress your family and friends!

​                         Ingredients

• 3 or 4 leeks, finely sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1 tablespoon root ginger, finely chopped
• 1 or 2 tablespoons coconut oil or rapeseed oil
• 1 x 400 ml can of coconut milk
• Juice of 1 lime
• 3 tablespoons pinhead oatmeal
• 750ml  vegetable  stock
• Freshly chopped coriander
• Sea salt to season

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large pot with a pinch of sea salt, add the leeks and sauté for 5 minutes until softened over a medium heat.
2. Add the garlic and ginger and saute for another few minutes.
3. Add the coconut milk, stock and oatmeal, bring to the boil then cover, lower the heat and simmer for around 30 minutes.
4. Add juice of a lime, sea salt and black pepper to taste.
5. Add more stock if the soup is too thick.
6. Serve sprinkled with chopped coriander.

                      ...........your health in your hands.........

I love soup, I love making it and eating it!! It's such a simple, delicious way to up your intake of nutritious veggies and anyone who knows me knows that I promote the eating of copious amounts of veggies, of all types and colours, for optimum health!
The other brilliant thing about soup are the endless possibilities of flavours and textures.  This particular soup recipe came into being last Sunday night when Jenna ( my lovely vegan daughter and awesome cook!) had a look in the fridge and cupboards to see what was left to use up, since we realised that we had nothing much for packed lunches on the Monday.  Soup features highly for lunch at our house and we quite literally make soup every day, especially when the weather turns colder.
So back to the soup! This one has leeks, frozen peas and sweet potato as its base with flavour and nutritional benefits added by turmeric, garlic, creamed coconut and Thai Green Curry Paste. You could easily add some spinach at the end to up the benefits. So although this soup has bags of flavour, there isn’t much chopping of onions, fresh herbs, chilli or ginger or grinding of spices, just add a spoonful of Thai Green Curry Paste! Doesn’t get much easier than that!
I’m always amazed at how delicious soup can be with relatively simple ingredients though in my opinion everything benefits from the addition of coconut. In this instance it’s Creamed Coconut which comes in a 200g block, which most supermarkets sell. It’s a great store cupboard ingredient and keeps for ages so I’d definitely recommend buying a few!
So here is the recipe, please leave a comment if you try it!

Ingredients
2 leeks, washed, and finely sliced, include the green bits too!
3 cloves of garlic, crushed or chopped
2 cups of frozen peas
2 small or 1 medium sweet potato, scrubbed and chopped into small dice
1 stock cube ( I use Kallo Organic Vegetable Stock Cubes)
100g creamed coconut
1 teaspoon turmeric
2 or 3 tablespoons Thai Green Curry Paste
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 tablespoon coconut or rapeseed oil
 
Method

1. Heat the oil in a large pan and add the sliced leeks and a good pinch of sea salt. Put the lid on and gently sweat the leeks on a relatively low heat for 10 minutes. This brings out the natural sweetness of the leeks and gives the soup a delicious base flavour.
2. Add 3 chopped cloves of garlic, the chopped sweet potato, coconut, turmeric and stock cube. Cover with water and bring to a gentle simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Add the frozen peas, Thai Curry Paste and simmer for a further 10 minutes, until the sweet potatoes are soft.
4. Blend with a hand blender, check the seasoning and add more water or stock if it’s too thick.
5. Enjoy!!

Like any soup, this will freeze well !

​....your health in your hands.........