All Hallows' Eve Special-Pumpkin Pie! Yum...

Wow, this turned out so, so good. Minus the filling being a bit more sloppy than the baked kind, it's pretty spot-on I'd say. This makes A LOT of pie, so half this recipe if need be, but serve it in a small pie pan if you're gonna do so. It will keep well in the fridge or freezer with some tin foil over it though.

For a Basic Pie Crust, you do something similar to my (un)cookies. This is really easy and doesn't take much work.
1 1/2 cups Cashews
2 Cups Dried, Pitted Dates
1/2 tsp Cinnamon

Pulse this in your blender/food processor until it's blended up nicely. It's gonna be chunky, but you want it to be well mixed. It won't take more than a minute'r two.

Now take this, and press it with the back of a spoon and your fingers into a large pie pan. The crust is sticky so this part is a little difficult, but it's not that bad. Stick it in the fridge while you make the filling.

Filling:
(I halved this and did each half at a time since I only have a cheap blender. If you have a food processor you can do this all at once and save yourself a lot of time, however.)

Approximately 1420 ml/6 Cups chopped pumpkin (small pieces)
240 ml/1 cup Ground Almonds
2 Tbsp Desiccated Coconut
4 Tbsp Maple Syrup
2 1/2 Tbsp Organic, Local Honey (Otherwise the Bees are treated in a manner that is very cruel and grotesque...eugh...)
2 Tbsp Provamel (or other rice milk/milk substitute)
1 1/2 Tsp Allspice
1 Tsp Cinnamon

This is tough work in a cheap blender, and might take some time, but pulse, stir, pulse, stir, ect until you get it well blended.

Topped With A Walnut, Just Because I Thought It Was Cute.

Fill your pie crust with your filling and smooth out the top with the back of a spoon. Refrigerate for 30 min to an hour and serve. Yum, yum, yum!

Moist Carrot Cake

mmm...

Cake:
4 Organic Carrots
240 ml/1 cup Desiccated Coconut
240 ml/1 cup Dried, pitted Dates
1 Cup Mixed Nuts
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/3 tbsp raw Carob Powder
1-2 tbsp Maple Syrup

Wash & finely grate the carrots into a large bowl. Tedious, but this recipe is well worth it, believe me. Grind (pulse, stir, pulse, stir...) Dates & Nuts together in a blender or food processor until they are a relatively smooth mush. Add this and the rest of the ingredients to your large bowl. You may whisk or stir this until it is very well blended, but I found it easier to just get in there with my hands and mix it up. Press the cake mix into a glass pan and even it out with your fist. Alternatively, you could turn these into cupcakes! Frost and enjoy. Will easily serve 4-6, or more...but not if you're hungry like we were when I made it. The two of us ate about half of it in one sitting. :))

Frosting:
About 1 cup Ground Almonds (you may grind them yourself in a food processor if you wish, but they were cheaper to buy pre-ground at Tesco's. Easier too.
4 Tbsp Maple syrup
2 Tbsp Desiccated Coconut
Rice Milk

Add all ingredients into a bowl & stir, add rice milk gradually until the desired consistency is obtained. Recipe may be doubled if you want a sweet cake or you just want some extra frosting for whatever else. Smooth onto the cake with a knife or the back of a spoon.

Butternut Soup and...Nutterbutt Ice Cream!

Creamy Winter Squash Soup:

About 240 ml/1 cup Butternut Squash, peeled and chopped
1 Small carrot
1/2 to one whole small leek leaf, depending how you want it to taste
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tbsp ground Black Pepper
2 tbsp Sunflower oil
2 tbsp Basic Cashew Cheeze
1 Tbsp Pine Nuts
1 Clove Garlic
1 tsp Fleur de Sel (which you can read about here, it is so good and loaded with minerals-I highly reccomend ditching your white salt and opting for this instead!)
240 ml/1 cup warm Water
Dash of Allspice, optional.

...You know the drill...toss it in the blender and mix on high speed until creamy and smooth. Serves 2.

Carob Nut Ice Cream

The bottom (round plump part) half of a Winter/Butternut Squash, peeled, seeded and chopped (I left about half of the mulch/pulp inside, but not the seeds.)
1 large handful of dried, pitted/stoned Dates
2 handfuls of nuts (I used 1 ea of Walnuts and a "Mixed Nuts" blend that contained Almonds, Peanuts and Walnuts)
3 Tbsp Maple Syrup
3 1/2 tsp Raw Carob Powder
1/3 tsp Allspice (I know, I use this stuff in everything...but it's so damn good!)
1 Tbsp Rice, Almond, Coconut or Breastmilk (for this particular batch I used Provamel's Rice Milk, which is one of the nicer milks I think)

It is important to note that this is not one of my easier recipes, so, I apologise in advance (but HEY, give me some credit, most of my things are pretty cheap and easy). This might not be the case however if you have a really good food processor, but if you are like me and are working with a cheap blender, be prepared to put in a bit of elbow grease.

Now. Chop up that squash into small pieces because otherwise you will do what I did and be stuck blending the darn thing a bit longer than you will like to. I put in very large pieces and was blending for ages. Toss the squash in with the liquid ingredients and pulse, stir, pulse, stir until you've got it into a chunky mush. Now add the dates and nuts and continue doing that pulse and stir thing until you have a consistency you are happy with, it should be like runny home-made ice cream with small chunks (I like chunks in my ice cream, don't you?) now add the powdered ingredients, pulse and stir a couple more times, and you can put this into a couple of plastic tubs and freeze it. I used two large hummous pots and managed to fill them to the brink, so in other words this will easily serve 4, or could just as easily serve only 2 if you keep it on hand in your freezer for those occasions, you know, when a friend needs you to come over pronto with a tub of ice cream...keep this on hand for just such occasions. What a favour you'll be doing them, bringing something so delicious AND giving their body to a raw treat... :) This has a very carob-y, nutty, ice-cream esque taste and consistancy and is just. YUM.

Apple Walnut Pie With Caramel Crust

More sweet, un-sugary, un-baked goodness for the harvest season. Yummy yummy!!

First, I made the caramel crust:

240 ml/1 cup Dried, Stoned/Pitted Dates
About 180 ml(3/4 cup) Nuts (I got a bag of mixed nuts at Tesco's for .50p that had Almonds, Peanuts and Walnuts and that is what I used here. Bargain!)
1 1/2 tbsp maple syrup
1/4 tsp carob powder

Mix all ingredients in the blender/food processor on high-speed-pulse, stir, pulse, stir, repeat until the dough is gritty and well mixed. scoop into a bowl and refrigerate while you prepare the apples.

Apple-walnut filling:

3 organic apples, peeled and diced
120 ml(1/2 cup) chopped walnuts
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp water
1/4 tsp allspice

Stir together the walnuts and apples in a large bowl. In a small bowl, stir together the maple, water and allspice. Add into the apple-nut blend and stir continuously until they are evenly glazed.

Pull the 'crust' out of the refrigerator and press as evenly as you can into a small round cake or pie pan. Spoon the apple-walnut blend on top of it and spread it out. Serves 3-4 (or less if you're feeling gluttonous...warning, this is very hard to put down!)

NOTE: This is quite sticky and a bit hard to serve (though surprisingly easy to clean out of the dish) so unless you are like me and eating this with someone you don't mind eating straight out of the pan with I recommend halving or quartering the dough beforehand onto separate dishes to make individual pies. :)

A Taste Of Autumn: Creamy Spiced Corn Chowder & (un)Cookies

Mm, mmm! Dinner turned out SO yummy...I LOVE my cheap blender.

Creamy Spiced Corn Chowder:

1 Tin of Green Giant Sweet Corn
Warm Water
About 3 big spoonfuls of Basic Cashew Cheeze
Fresh parsley
2 tbsp Olive Oil
1/4 tsp Allspice
Sea salt
Black Pepper

Empty the tin of corn, including the water in it, into your blender. Scoop in the cheeze and add the oil. Rip off a tiny handful of fresh parsley and toss it in. Add the allspice and put a few grinds each of black pepper and salt. Finally, fill the tin with warm water and add this to the mix. Blend on high speed until smooth and serve. Garnish each bowl with a sprig of parsley. Serves 2-3.

We ate this with carrots and hummous. Mm, mm! For dessert, we had...

Maple (un)Cookies

240 ml (1 cup) Pitted Dates
240 ml (1 cup) Cashews
1-1 1/2 tablespoons Maple Syrup
1/4 tsp Allspice

Place all ingredients in a blender or food processor and blend on high speed, pulse and then stir, pulse and then stir, ect...do this as many times as you can be bothered to do, basically. Then, form the dough into balls, mash flat in your palms and serve. These keep very well and taste great with a side of rice milk. Yum, yum!