happy day holiday
It’s Summer, it’s the Christmas holidays -cool creamy tropical treats are on the brain… first though, I better show you a slice of our Christmas festivities:
Christmas morn. Gday.
Ricotta Trifle.
First ice cream. Pandan flavoured. Yummo.
It was my first vegan festive season… yes it was a challenge to resist the buckwheat blinis with smoked salmon, prawn and mango salad, coconut fish and the likes, but I did pretty darn well with rice paper rolls, tofu skewers, mango and avacado salad plus my vegan truffles and fresh berries. Oh and of course, champagne. Not too shabby.
I think I’m going to turn into a block of tofu… I suppose it is the automatic assumption of most meat eaters – that tofu is the main source of protein for vegans. I love the stuff, yes, but too much is not that great for my tum. My digestive system needs a break from soy protein… I was tempted to make a tofu pudding, but coconut butter came to my delicious rescue.
Toasty Coconut Butter:
(vegan, nut and soy free)
- 2C fine dessicated coconut
- 1/4t sea salt
- 1/2 – 1t vanilla bean paste, depending on how ‘vanillary’ you want it
- Dry toast the coconut in 1/2C increments in a fry pan until golden brown – watch closely as it will brown very quickly. This step is not vital – you could make this raw, but I think the flavour of toasted coconut is too good to miss.
- Once cool, process in a food processor… this takes ages, depending on your machine. As the oils release the mix will start to clump up. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as you go. Eventually it will turn to a runny (ish) “butter” – be patient and give the motor of your machine a break every few minutes as you don’t want to blow it up (particularly if it’s your Mother in Law’s).
- Add in salt and vanilla bean paste. Taste and adjust salt and vanilla to your liking.
Vegan Mango Coconut Mousse:
- 2 mangoes
- 4T of the Toasty Coconut Butter
- 1/4t grated lime zest
- 2t lime juice
- 1/8t sea salt
- Blend all ingredients, pour into cups/glasses and chill in the fridge until ready to serve (the coconut butter makes it ‘set’ a little when cold).
Vegan. Delicious. Decadent even. Missing out? Nope, not me.
21 Responses to “happy day holiday”
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Vegan. Stay at home Mum of Misty. Yoga teacher in training. Passionate about REAL food - creating it, eating it, sharing it. I can never stick to a recipe.
Oooh, I’ve never toasted my coconut before making coconut butter! I AM SO IN. Also, pandan ice cream would be amazing! I’ve only recently had pandan for the first time but by golly I like it! And now I want to make pandan coconut butter….
Yeah, pandan is awesome… love the pandan soy milk you can buy from Asian grocery stores, yummo.
Toasting the coconut before making butter makes a huge difference flavour-wise…. I could never do the FULL raw thing, cooking creates flavour big time
oh i wish i could have been there! I love your vegan fest! Yummy. ANy tempeh?
No tempeh – tofu this time, but have been munching tempeh also (not as good as that AWESOME NZ brand though!) I think most people here think I’m a little crazy regarding my new vegan stance…. there’s a lot of chowing down on meats going on
Is my feed soming up in your reader OK? Still seem to be having issues, argh.
TOASTED coconut butter? I die. Totally need to try that. And I have no idea why your blog won’t come to my reader any more, but I subscribed via email so I can get updates because my brain is dumb and doesn’t remember things like it should, so it will be days before I realize I haven’t been here. That stops now!
So my feed is not coming up in Google reader? It works in mine? Argh! Any suggestions? I hate technology… but I LOVE toasted coconut butter, sooooo much more flavour…. yeeeeeeeeh.
Hi, Lou! A relatively new follower of your wonderful blog, here! Just wondering if anyone else mentioned about your RSS feed going wrong? Mine wasn’t updated for two weeks and I was wondering what was going on. I just checked just in case and whoa! I missed quite a few posts!
Anyway, hope you had a merry holiday
Hey Stephanie! Yeah, me and technology are not mates – I had to change my feed mid December… if you re subscribe it seems to be working in Google reader etc – so sorry for the muck up, I hope it is working now
Let me know if you have any problems with it – all this computer savvy stuff does not come easily to me – it’s like learning another language! Thanks for reading anyhow, and hope you had a lovely Christmas 
Always wanted to try toasted coconut butter – I bet toasting adds so much flavor, and I’ve never heard of Pandan ice-cream. Must look into that. Your blog is no longer showing up in my Google Reader, and I thought it odd that Lou hadn’t posted in so long. So, I came directly to your blog and looks like I’ve missed out on a lot.
Tried resubscribing but none of your posts since December 15 will show up. Weird.
Yeah, I’ve been having trouble with my feed – I changed it around Dec 15, so that may be why it’s not showing up…. let me know if you are still having trouble – it seems to be working in my reader now. Bah technology. You can usually buy pandan flavoured milk/ice cream from Asian grocery stores… I’ve found plain pandan extract which you can add to whatever you like, fun! Hope you guys had a great Christmas!
I am so jealous that your Christmas is during your summer. These eats look so good…I love when I can make something that is non traditional and either vegetarian or vegan that tastes GREAT!
Yeah, Summer Xmas is awesome… it would be nice to experience a Winter one though – something different is always fun. Xmas is not Xmas without the beach, swimming and beer!
Great artistry in your photos Lou. I love your Chrissy tree especially… I personally just hung an ornament on one of my succulents : P
(R) have a great new year!
Thanks Angie… it was my Mother in Law’s little tree – I would prefer a succulent! Happy New Year to you !!