A Dinner Menu to Wow and This Week’s Yummy Recipe: Chocolate Cardamom Mousse

Healthy entertaining… this sounds like a bit of an oxymoron, I know.  We tend to associate entertaining our friends and family with excess and extravagance on the food and booze front.  Out comes the wine, the cream, butter, sugar, the meat or fish and cheese.

What I know from my years of eating and entertaining with raw food is that people are surprisingly open to trying it, even when they don’t know what raw food is.

And, luckily for everyone, with the right recipes a raw dinner party can be just as extravagant, decadent and delicious as any cooked extravaganza!

Taste Sensationalista!

The flavours in raw recipes are so alive and vibrant that it’s hard for anyone who likes food, cooked or otherwise, not to appreciate their richness and sophisticated taste.  This is all the more true if the raw flavours are international: Italian, Indian and Thai raw recipes will wow any lover of good food 🙂

Whether you opt for a main meal and a pudding or go the whole hog with a starter, main and dessert, keeping a consistent international flavour theme will hold your meal together.  You also have the added joy of how beautiful and colourful raw foods are.

Cooked

When I’m entertaining in the raw I tend to do mostly raw with a small amount of cooked food, usually in the form of carbs like rice, potatoes or a mix of raw courgetti pasta and cooked wheat-free spaghetti.  If you prefer animal protein you can add in some cooked eggs, prawns, fish or chicken to raw dishes instead, or make a side dish of protein that people can add to their plates along with the raw dishes.

I find that a bit of cooked food gives at least one element of familiarity for people who aren’t used to eating all raw.  An entire meal of raw can be a bit daunting, not to mention instantly detoxifying, if your guests have never encountered it before.  An element of cooked food will help your lunch or dinner party to flow seamlessly.

Two Modern Raw Food Menus for Entertaining

Here are two delicious menus to wow your friends and family with, one Thai and one Italian…

Thai Menu

(click on the images below for the recipes 🙂 )

Italian Menu

This Week’s Detox Recipe: Chocolate Cardamom Mousse

I am a massive fan of cardamom, and here it lends a sophistication to this dairy-free, sugar-free, egg-free recipe.  Who couldn’t love a chocolate mousse that’s actually good for you!!  I’ve even been known to indulge in it for breakfast 😉

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 medium, ripe avocados
6 – 8 dates, soaked in 200 ml / 7 fl oz for 2 – 4 hours or overnight
5 heaped tsp raw cacao powder
½ tsp cardamom seeds (the seeds inside green cardamom pods)
1 pinch mineral salt, such as pink Himalayan or unrefined sea salt
½ tsp vanilla essence

1 tsp cardamom seeds or pods for garnishing (optional)

Method

Crush the cardamom pods in a spice grinder, with a pestle and mortar, or with the back of a wooden spoon on a chopping board.

Blend the avocado, soaked dates, date soak-water, ½ tsp cardamom seeds, mineral salt and vanilla essence until the mixture thickens and is creamy and smooth.

Spoon into glasses. Chill in the fridge for 1 – 2 hours.

Garnish with a sprinkling of cardamom seeds before serving.

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