Chocolate, Cherries And Ice Cream Plus A Fancy Summertime Salad

After purchasing our new ice cream maker over the 4th of July weekend, we couldn’t resist another weekend of experimentation. Wow! We had a lot of fun with these two ice creams! The cherry mango ice cream and crusts are a recipe from Russell James (details below). The chocolate cherry ice cream is my own recipe. I am excited to share my recipe as it was a huge hit with my wonderful husband Scott!

My own Decadent Chocolate Cherry Ice Cream recipe:

• 1 cup of cashew pieces. (soak them for 4 or 5 hours)
• 1/4 cup of packed, pitted dates cut in half. (soak for 30 minutes )
• 1/2 cup of reserve water from soaking the dates
• 1 1/4 cups of pitted and coarsely chopped fresh cherries
• 1 cup of firm young Thai coconut meat (I used one large coconut)
• 1 cup of coconut water
• 1/2 cup and 1 tablespoon of agave syrup
• 1 scraped vanilla bean
• 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract (or 2 vanilla beans)
• 2 pinches of sea salt
• 1 tablespoon of coconut oil
• 1 capful of cherry extract (Boyajian brand)
• 2-3 tablespoons of raw cacao powder

Add all the ingredients into the Vitamix and blend until smooth. Pour into a container and chill in the fridge until nice and cold (several hours or overnight).

Pour the mixture into the ice cream maker (according to the manufacturer’s directions). It takes about 30 minutes to reach a nice soft serve consistency. Stick ice cream into the freezer for a couple hours for a firmer texture that you can scoop with an ice cream scooper.

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Joyce’s Notes: Scott absolutely loved this ice cream!!!! I believe this one might have topped the strawberry crumble cake for him. (I had some beginners luck here!) He was very excited about this luscious ice cream especially since cherries are his favorite! It didn’t last long at all. He finished this ice cream for breakfast this morning! I thought it was really good too. It tasted sinfully rich and definitely NOT healthy :-) Yet this stuff is incredibly nourishing. This could even stand up to all that gelato we ate in Italy last year! No kidding! Let’s say it out loud, raw food is awesome!!! :-)

One quick note: Definitely try and find some of the cherry extract. The Boyajian brand I use is from Natural Provisions health food store in Williston, Vermont. It’s strong and a little goes a long way. I thought this made the ice cream really delicious with the fresh cherries. It’s probably not raw but I am happier not being a purist ;-)

Here is a photo taken right after the ice cream was done in the ice cream maker. It was like that of soft serve ice cream. We enjoyed a small bowl and stuck the rest of the ice cream into the freezer.

Cherry Mango Ice Cream Cup. Recipe is by the famous raw food chef, Russell James and found on his blog. CLICK HERE for the recipe and Russell’s own photo.

Joyce’s Notes: This is another good recipe and creative dessert by Russell James. The crusts were very good and complimented the cherry mango ice cream. They also worked well with my chocolate cherry ice cream recipe. Scott and I both liked the cherry mango ice cream. It’s very good but not as sweet, rich and decadent as the chocolate cherry ice cream. You don’t need an ice cream maker for this, but you do have the option to use it. This recipe also didn’t have young Thai coconuts which makes it feasible for those who can’t find these coconuts easily.

The mango cherry ice cream consists of cashews, coconut oil, lemon juice, vanilla extract, sea salt, agave, water, fresh cherries and fresh mango. (I doubled this recipe) This all gets blended up in the Vitamix. I did grind up the unsoaked cashews in the food processor first. I also melted the coconut oil in the dehydrator. These two steps made it easier on my Vitamix. Because there are no young Thai coconuts, this recipe calls for a bit more coconut oil which is fine. However, next time I might add a bit more agave, some Thai coconut meat and much less coconut oil.

The crusts were very good. They consist of cashews, agave, vanilla extract, sea salt, lemon juice and dried coconut flakes. (I doubled this recipe also) Everything gets ground up in the food processor. I used four 3 1/2 inch tartlet molds. The crusts got dehydrated for most of the day. They were a bit soft and sticky but Scott liked them that way. I would have left them in longer to get more dry and crispy.

How about a delicious salad that is just gorgeous for a July evening!

Tomato, Fennel and Avocado Pressed Salad with Caper Dressing, Pistachio and Mint. Recipe is by Sarma Melngailis and found in her new book, Living Raw Food.

Joyce’s Notes: Now this is a very lovely salad that was enjoyed by both myself and Scott! We felt this one deserved a white tablecloth and nice cloth napkins. It turned out to be really pretty and fun to photograph. And it tasted as good as it looks! I love big filling salads in the summer months. This was perfect and hit the spot!

The salad consists of sliced fresh fennel bulbs, vine ripened tomatoes, shallots, pistachio nuts, fresh mint, fresh basil, lemon juice, macadamia nut oil, avocados, sea salt and black pepper. Sarma uses heirloom tomatoes but they are hard to find here in Vermont. I doubled the pistachio nuts which was 1/2 cup. Next time I’d add even more. Sarma uses pistachio nut oil but gives the option of macadamia or olive oil. I couldn’t find pistachio nut oil but Natural Provisions is going to try and order some for next time! (they are great folks)

The caper dressing was really good and very flavorful! It consists of olive oil, crushed up capers (not raw), lemon zest, fresh chives, and black pepper. I thought it looked so good drizzled around the salad.

To get the nice shapes, I used a glass storage container that was 4 1/2 inches wide. A ring mold or sides of a small springform pan would have worked too. I pressed the salad into the container, placed a plate on top and carefully flipped it all over. Then I removed the container which came off very easily.

Overall I highly recommend this salad from Sarma’s new beautiful book. It’s a perfect summertime recipe. Even though there are a lot of fresh ingredients to prep, it’s worth the time and effort. The one good thing to point out is that you don’t need a Vitamix or food processor or any special kitchen tools for this recipe which is a nice change of pace.

A couple Vermont summertime scenes since we did see a bit of sun this weekend:

Thanks for visiting my blog and have a lovely week! Let’s hope we’ll see more sunshine and less rain this week!