Raw Vegan Brownies

Okay, well...

Blog#2.  I've been tossing this idea around for a while now, and a few friends have been hounding me to start one, so hey...I'm unemployed, I might as well start a food blog, right?  I make very little in the way of promises that I'll keep this up, or that you'll even want to eat the kinds of foods I like to cook, but I like cooking, and I like photography, and I like taking photos of my cooking.  

It just means I'm going to start using my dSLR instead of my iPhone.  

I really do love cooking.  I cook all the time.  When you're lactose intolerant, vegetarian, a bit of a health freak, and currently not consuming sugar and wheat, you kinda have to like cooking.  

Or frozen vegetables.  Take your pick. 

Anyhow, here's the first of a few recipes I'm going to streamline right off the bat.  I'll be making each recipe a post in its own, as that makes looking recipes up later in the recipe index far easier.  I recently started listening to this podcast called 'The Rawitarian', and the episode I listened to was about how to cook raw vegan brownies.  And I'll have you know, I listened to this podcast at the gym!

It's sugar-free, gluten-free, oil-free, no-bake, and vegan (duh!).  

Raw Vegan Brownies adapted from source

• 1 cup pecans 
• 1 cup medjool dates
• 5 tablespoons dark cocoa powder
• 4 tablespoons shredded unsweetened coconut
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1. Place pecans alone in your food processor and process until the pecans become small and crumbly.
2. Pit dates, and then add them to the raw brownie recipe and process again until the mixture sticks together and the dates are well processed.
3. Add the remaining ingredients to this raw brownie recipe and process again until the mixture turns a lovely dark chocolatey brown. Stop processing before it gets too buttery. (There should still be air between the small bits so that you will be able to press them down into your brownie pan.)
4. Dump the mixture into a brownie dish or small cake pan and press down firmly using your clean hands.
5. Refrigerate this raw brownie recipe for a couple of hours. You do not have to refrigerate it, but it is much easier to slice when chilled. 
6. Store this raw brownie recipe in the refrigerator. (I actually keep mine cut into tiny one-inch squares in a bag in the freezer)

*Note: If you're a die-hard vegan, you'll notice there's honey in this recipe, and that's not strict vegan.  You're probably enraged.  It was in the original recipe, posted by a raw vegan site, and I happen to like honey.  I also happen to not be vegan.  That's how life works sometimes, non?