Chocolate Avocado Pudding with Cacao Nibs & Raspberries

Last week I shared this recipe for Cauliflower Gruyere & Thyme Gratin that is perfect for those nights when you just want cheese for dinner. Well, this chocolate avocado puddings is the sweet-tooth breakfast version of that same feeling: for days when you just want chocolate for breakfast. 

Not only does avocado chocolate pudding come together in minutes, it's extraordinarily creamy, and pairs perfectly with fresh berries! Where as normal pudding might leave me in a sugar coma, I can eat this chocolate pudding for breakfast and feel just fine until lunch. So, basically, everyone wins. 

Chocolate Avocado Pudding with Cacao Nibs & Raspberries

Published October 5, 2017 by Caitlin Sherwood

Serves: 2   |    Total Time: 10 minutes

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Ingredients:

• 2 avocados (180g)
• 1/4 cup milk of choice
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 3 tablespoons cocoa
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Pinch salt
• For serving: raspberries and cacao nibs

Directions:

1. Slice avocados in half, removing pit, and scoop flesh into a blender.
2. Add milk, honey, cocoa, vanilla and a pinch of salt to the blender, and place lid on blender jar. Turn the blender on high and blend for 1 minute, or until the pudding is creamy and has no chunks. (See note below).
3. Use a spatula to scoop pudding into serving dishes, and top with fresh raspberries, cacao nibs, or other toppings of your choice.

Macedonia de Frutas (Chilean-Style Fruit Salad)

¿Quien Quiere Ser Millonario? (the Spanish version of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?) played on the little TV in the corner of the kitchen. My host mom stood at the counter, preparing ceviche, answering every trivia question before the multiple choice options were even displayed on the screen.  

Manzana. Pera. Naranja. (Apple. Pear. Orange.)

Tienes muchas paciencia, hija, you have so much patience chopping all of those fruits so small. I had just returned from a trip to Los Lagos region in Chile, where I, along with a heard of other students, had picked fresh oranges, visited a Mapuche village, and dined on food fresh from the Fagón. Dessert? The best damn fruit salad I had ever had.   

Fruit salad. Such a blah dish. It's the sort of dish your grandma served as a "healthy dessert" when you really just wanted a cookie (mine did at least). But this fruit salad. This fruit salad! You’d never see fruit salad the same way again. Served in a crystal goblet, it looked like something well beyond the fruit salad I knew. A far cry from the plastic container of pineapple, under ripe melon, and grapes you’d buy at an American grocery store. In Chile, fruit salad like this is called Macedonia De Fruta. 

The fruit was chopped so small, you could hardly tell what each bite contained. A hint of lemon. A bouquet of nature’s sweets. A medley of sorts. It must’ve had some effect on me, as the day I returned to my host families home, I volunteered to make the fruit salad for the asado (barbecue) happening that afternoon. I knew exactly what I was going to do.  

Slicing and dicing didn’t feel like patience. My mind was far away, the TV just a sound in the background. Chopping each piece of fruit was meditation. I could’ve zoned out for hours. 

Macedonia de Frutas (Chilean-Style Fruit Salad)

Published June 20, 2017 by Caitlin Sherwood

This fruit salad is chopped fine so you get a little bit of everything in each bite.

Serves: 4   |    Total Time: 20 minutes

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Ingredients:

• 1 nectarine 
• 1 banana
• 1 apple
• 1 pear 
• 2 kiwi
• 1 yellow mango 
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• Juice of 1/2 an orange 
• Sprig of mint 

Directions:

1. Chop fruit, removing pits and seeds as you go (remove peels from banana, mango, and kiwi), into 1/2 inch cubes. Place in bowl.
2. Sprinkle with lemon zest and squeeze orange juice over fruit. Toss to combine, and top with a spring of mint. Serve immediately or allow flavors to marinate together for 30 minutes, covered, in the fridge to prevent oxidization.

Pistachio Butter Chocolate Cups

Usually, pistachios just taste like nuts to me (roasted, salted, a bit crunchy) but when they are churned into smooth nut butter, they take on a whole new personality: slightly citrusy — or floral? - bold, and nutty. Pistachio butter isn't quite as thick as peanut butter or almond butter, lacking the "glue your mouth shut" characteristic you know well if you've ever eaten a PB&J sandwich. 

Still, it's rich and creamy, and pairs well with my favorite ingredient. Chocolate. 

Plus it makes chocolate cups so pretty when you bite into them!

I made these with Oliver in mind because he loves pistachios, but they're becoming my favorite chocolate nut butter cup quickly, too. In part because they are just different — not something you can find the store! It's a little unexpected, and feels special, knocking peanut butter cups out of the way and showing up almond butter cups with their bold green filling. 

I add a sprinkle of sea salt for good measure — it makes everything “pop” a little more, and adds a bit of sparkle. Perfect around the holidays!

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Pistachio Butter Cups

Published June 13, 2017 by Caitlin Sherwood

Pistachios make a colorful filling for these chocolate cups!

Serves: 12   |    Total Time: 15 minutes

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Ingredients:

• 12 small cupcake liners or 6 regular cupcake liners
• 3/4 cup dark chocolate chips 
• 1/4 cup pistachio butter (Make this by blending 1/2 cup shelled, unsalted pistachios in a high speed blender until creamy) 
• 1/2 teaspoon coconut oil
• Sprinkle of sea salt or fleur de sel
• Optional: 12 pistachios (shelled) for topping

Directions:

1. Melt the chocolate: place chocolate and coconut oil in a small bowl. Microwave for 30 seconds, and stir. Repeat 2-3 times, until chocolate is almost entirely melted (if small clumps remain, they should melt from residual heat). By heating for only 30 seconds at a time, you will avoid overheating the chocolate.
2. Spoon chocolate into the cupcake liners (2 teaspoons for small liners and 4 for standard size). Then, while the chocolate is still warm, tilt the liners one at a time from side to side so that the chocolate goes about half way up the sides of the liners. Place on a tray and transfer to the fridge to set.
3. When the chocolate is set, use a teaspoon to scoop pistachio butter into each chocolate cup (1 teaspoon for small cups, 2 for standard sized). Then, pour 1 teaspoon of the remaining chocolate over the pistachio butter and use the back of a spoon to gently spread it over the top. Sprinkle each cup with a small amount of seas salt and top with a pistachio. Allow to set in the fridge.