Persimmon Pudding

Thick, creamy, silky, rich and unctuous, this little pudding got our tastebuds dancing!! I made this for our in house date night treat. When we feel like it’s been too long since we’ve gone on a date, we satisfy our need for connection with a little in house intentional time. It always includes a home made treat 🙂

It’s persimmon central at my house. I just can’t seem to ever buy enough at the farmers market, and just like bananas, when they start becoming too ripe to eat as is, there are so many fun recipes to create with them!!

This pudding was so easy and quick to make. A few ingredients, a blast of the blender and some spoonfuls later you are on your way to gastronomy heaven. And then, to really bring this dessert over the top, I added a square of some divinely tasty and healing chocolate. A Purified Life makes beautiful artisanal chocolates infused with healing and medicinal mushrooms. If you need an extra reason to eat chocolate other than the fact that it’s amazing, has numerous health benefits and lots of nutrients (antioxidants, calcium, magnesium, to name a few), eat A Purified Life’s chocolates, because she brings it over the top with her masterfully blended ingredients in order to provide us with the most satisfying cacao experience while healing our bodies at the same time.

http://www.apurifiedlife.com/superfood-chocolate/

While you wait for your chocolate order to ship, you should still whip up this pudding, add your own chocolate or eat it without.

Ingredients:

• 2 very ripe persimmons (hachiya or fuyu)
• 1/2 cup coconut water (or nut milk)
• 2 medjool dates (optional but oh so delicious!)
• 2 frozen bananas (not frozen is fine but I really love the texture that frozen bananas give)
• 1/2 cup coconut cream (the thick stuff in the can; or if you are up for it and have it on hand, replace that with fresh young coconut meat)

 

Steps:

• put first 4 ingredients in the blender and blend until smooth
• add coconut cream and keep blending until smooth
• pour in a glass or bowl, top it with fresh persimmon and chocolate if you like
• give a kiss to who ever you sharing this with and enjoy!!

 

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Persimmon Apple Muffins

The smell filling the house this morning is autumnally divine 🙂 The combination of the sweet persimmon puree, mixed with the subtle spice flavor from the cinnamon, nutmeg and coriander create a wonderful home for the soft chunks of apples that easily melts in your mouth. Add to that the occasional date bite surprise and you got yourself a beautiful fall muffin treat, healthy enough for breakfast, sweet enough for dessert.

I just thawed my last bag of muffins this week, so I had been pondering what muffin flavor I was going to start with to work on filling up my freezer again. While I had a few other flavors in mind, when I looked at my fruit rack this morning and saw the abundance of ripe persimmons, there was no doubt that was going to be the flavor of the week 🙂

For this recipe, either persimmons will work, but I used the fuyu, the small squatty ones that can be eaten hard. I had some soft ones so I used those. If you have some super ripe hachiya, those will work great as well, but just make sure they are super ripe. These are the tear drop larger ones. Those are pretty much inedible unless they are fully soft to the point of almost falling appart in your hand. I learned this the very hands on way. 

While I am typing this, it is quiet in the house as the kids are busy eating all the muffins that are barely cool enough to grab, but I made sure to put a large batch in a box out of reach. It makes me happy that my kids love my cooking this much, yet at the same time, it’s hard to not have them eat all the baked goods in one day!

 

 

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour (I mixed spelt, rice and teff. Don’t use spelt if gluten free)
• 1 cup small oats (regular works fine)\
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground coriander
• 3/4 cup coconut sugar
• 4 large dates chopped really small (I used medjool because I love how juicy and thick they are)
• 2 ripe persimmons, pureed
• 1 small apple, chopped small
• 1 cup water (or more if you find your dough too dry depending on what flour you use)
• 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
• 1/4 cup ground flax seeds soaked in 1/2 cup water

 

Steps:

• preheat oven to 350*F
• grind your flax seeds and put them in a small bowl in water, set aside
• mix first 9 ingredients in a large bowl
• blend the persimmons in order to make a puree
• add all the remaining (wet) ingredients in another bowl and mix well
• combine wet and dry ingredients
• grease muffin tins
• pour dough in tins and bake for about 10-12 minutes for mini muffins, probably around 18 minutes for larger ones, or until a toothpick comes out clean
• let cool in pan for about 5 minutes before transferring to cooling racks
• eat at will or store out of sight so you are not tempted to eat at will!!

 

Note this made about 56 mini muffins. I like to make mini muffins because it’s easier for the kids to handle and good to transport. Also, I make this many because I like to freeze some for later use so I can have an easy snack to grab, or a quick breakfast on the go.

 

 

Wilted Kale and Persimmon Salad

This is such a beautiful winter salad. All the flavors combine so beautifully together, that you barely need any dressing.

My good friend Samara made a version of this for me last week and it was so delicious I wanted to re-create it. Although I think it tasted better at her house, I am happy to be able to eat this at home as well. She had added some yam to the salad, which I think was a tasty choice, I just didn’t feel like eating yams this time around.

Winter salads are so comforting and make me so happy. Although I love this season with all the soups and stews, I really still love eating a nice salad.

Ingredients:

• 1 packed cup of chopped kale
• 1 packed cup of spinach
• 1/2 cup thinly sliced red cabbage
• 1 hard fuyu persimmon, sliced
• 2 large leeks, sliced and washed
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 TBS olive oil+ extra to drizzle on salad
• drizzle of balsamic vinegar

Steps:

• in a skillet, heat the oil and sautee the leeks
• in the meantime, put the kale in a bowl and gently massage it with a tiny bit of olive oil and a dash of salt, this will wilt the kale and make it softer to eat.
• add all the ingredients to a bowl and tops with some olive oil and balsamic vinegar