Many of you may have twigged on that I’m a fan of raw food. Whilst I do not eat strictly raw I am always looking for ways to incorporate it more into my weekly diet at home. I am inspired by those take both veganism and raw food more seriously. Recently when I was out for breakfast at Harvest Espresso I tried a raw macaron made by Raw by Chris and fell in love on the spot.
A sugar free, dairy free, raw, living macaron! After devouring it eagerly I was prompted to contact Chris directly. I was interested to see if she wanted an help to formulate some fructose friendly raw sweets. Most raw food desserts are sweetened naturally with dried fruits which is a big no-no for us fructose malabsorbers. Imagine how happy I was not only was she enthusiastic about the concept, she also wanted me to be her guinea pig…..receive free raw food samples that are both gluten free and fructose friendly? How could I refuse such an offer?
Raw by Chris offer “Raw baskets” for purchase filled with a number of raw food goodies and delivered straight to your front door. The baskets cost $60. My basket of fructose friendly goodies contained the following:
● Coconut vanilla chia pudding with seasonal fresh fruit
● Dessert FM friendly cheesecake
● Four berries superfood jam
● Coconut butter
● Raw vegetable stock powder
● Bread crisps
● Marinated mushroom spread
I started eating my way through the ready-made food first before thinking more creatively how to devour the rest. The coconut vanilla chia pudding was a huge serve with enough in there for two greedy people or more modest servings for 3-4. Buried in the pudding were large chunks of fructose friendly fruits including orange and tart raspberries. There were subtle hints of spices and a gentle, natural tasting sweetness without being bland or flavourless. It was very filling.
The dessert was a fructose friendly raw cheesecake of which I had already been a tester for an earlier prototype. Incredibly it had an almost cheesy taste to it despite it being totally vegan. The berry cheese layer was thick and smooth with the pistachio nutty layer and textured coconut giving some alternate textures without overpowering the luscious cheesy taste.
I liked how there was a combination of dishes that are ready to eat in addition to items that encourage you to create your own masterpieces in the kitchen. The marinated mushroom spread was good enough to eat on its own but I resisted and smeared it generously onto the raw bread crisps. Paired with some fresh tomato, avocado, basil from the garden and a dash of sea salt these tasty snacks were snuffled up at record speed.
Before flying out for our holiday to Vietnam, I was dreaming of coconuts so the night before we flew out I made us different type of raw vanilla coconut pudding without using chia. I used the Raw by Chris Coconut Butter in addition to the Four Berries Superfood Jam which was made from a mix of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, goji berries, chia seeds, banana and spices.
You can find the easy recipe for my raw vanilla coconut pudding here. Its gluten free, dairy free and fructose friendly. And it’s delicious.
Whilst I understand my opinion is a little biased as I’m already a fan of Chris’s work, I love how her raw bundle of goodies included a variety of sweet and savoury things, in addition to some useful items you can use in your own food preparations. The bundle makes a great gift but in all honesty if I get one again it won’t make it back out of my kitchen!
Disclaimer: I received the Raw Basket from Raw by Chris for free. Despite all these raw delights costing me nothing I would happily have paid for them and look forward to checking out another different round of treats from Raw by Chris in the future. See her website for more or head over to her beautiful blog Tales of a Kitchen.
I’m so glad you enjoyed your treats! Such a challenge to make everything FF, but awesome to see it ended up tasty. xx
You did an amazing job, thank you so much! xx
Yum! This all looks amazing. Thanks for sharing all those beautiful photos.
Thanks Adrianne! Chris does some amazing things!
All this food looks fantastic. Great pics! Have been researching the raw food diet for the last few weeks and have been trying to find as many recipes as possible and I’m glad I have finally found some that include a dessert menu without just being a handful of fruit!
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I completely missed this post before, not sure how. It’s great to read through this after reading about your cleanse basket from Raw by Chris! What a challenge… she tackled it incredibly and I’m definitely wanting to try more of Chris’ delicious inventions! Yum (the coconut pudding you made – oh my!) xxx