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Nutty Vegan Choc Bites

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Today I want to share a super quick and easy raw vegan chocolate recipe I think you will love. It is my “go to” recipe whenever I’m craving chocolate. It is delicious and very satisfying, chewy and tastes a bit like coconut-rough.  There’s something distinctly nostalgic about these beauties.

This recipe only has six ingredients and requires no cooking. You just need to make sure the coconut oil is in liquid form. If the oil is solid, you will need to heat it slightly either using a small pan over the stove or in the microwave.

I’ve made this a few times, already, using a variety of nuts and sweeteners, and they’ve all worked. Just keep in mind that you will get more fudgy texture when you use syrup or dates as opposed to sugar.

If you’re of the experimental mindset then you’ll love the recipe. It is quite foolproof so feel free to experiment with the sweetener/oat/nut component. Perhaps use desiccated coconut or quinoa flakes, instead of oats, or even a mixture of both. Or use cashews, macadamias or walnuts instead of almonds, or a mixture of your favourite nuts. The sky is the limit.

Nutty Vegan Choc Bites

A super easy and quick recipe for deliciously nutty, raw, vegan, chocolate bites.

  • 1/2 cup cacao powder
  • 1/2 cup coconut oil (melted)
  • 1/4 cup of your favourite sweetener (coconut sugar, coconut nectar, maple syrup, dates, stevia, Natvia, Norbu, etc)
  • 1 cup rolled oats*
  • 1/2 cup raw almonds (or your favourite nuts)
  • 1/4 tsp sea salt
  1. Process the oats, almond, sweetener (maple syrup, coconut sugar or dates) and salt in food processor until crumbly.
  2. Mix melted coconut oil with cacao powder. Add to the oat nut mixture and process again until combined.
  3. Scoop chocolate mixture into silicone mini muffin mould and flatten the surface using the back of a teaspoon. Alternatively, you can also pour into a baking pan (if you use a pan, make sure to cut them into squares before cooling).
  4. Pop in the fridge for at least 20 minutes to set.

You can really creative with this recipe: swap oats with desiccated coconut, rice puffs, or quinoa flakes and use your favourite nuts instead of almond.

If you make this, I’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment below or find me on Instagram and share your creation. Don’t forget to tag me @passionatelykeren so I won’t miss your post.

Keren x

Smooth Chocolate Festival

Smooth Chocolate Festival – Sydney

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What do you get when you have lots and lots of chocolate in the one place? Lots and lots of people. The Smooth Chocolate Festival saw foodies, families and chocoholics alike swarming the Rocks and Circular Quay areas for some chocolatey deliciousness. I couldn’t believe the amount of people at this festival – it seemed to be in the tens of thousands. It’s incredible how far the humble cacao bean has come since its discovery four thousand years ago (note: The True History of Chocolate is a great book if you want a detailed examination on the history of chocolate from it’s earliest pre-Columbian roots to modern times).
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We just love our chocolate.

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It was my first time at the Smooth Chocolate Festival. The festival was first hosted last year and according to a friend, this year’s edition was actually bigger and better – I don’t know how much better it was this time around, but it certainly was bigger than what I had in mind.

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To be honest, I didn’t have huge expectations of the event, or for any mainstream food event for that matter. For those living a plant-based lifestyle, it’s often hard to find vegan-friendly foods in these sorts of events. But, on this occasion, I was able to try quite a lot of foods and chocolate at this festival so I was fairly happy.

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It was a lovely day in Sydney, the weather was definitely on our side (I think God is partial to chocolate, too) and I thoroughly enjoyed the different arrays of food businesses at this event. The event was spread out over eight different locations: First Fleet Park, Circular Quay Way, Tallawolladah Lawn (the lawn in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art), Chocolatier’s Quarters in Cargo Hall of the Overseas Passenger Terminal, Campbell’s Cove, Atherden Street, Argyle Street, and Playfair Street.

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I started my festival escapade strolling along Argyle Street, sampling a number of 80 Raw 20 Paleo granolas, and treating myself to a huge smoothie, a.k.a. ‘The Hulk’ from The Smoothie Co  before venturing down to Circular Quay.

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There were over 90 individual stalls so there was no way you could physically check out all of them. There also was a queue at some of the stalls, especially the The Lindt Lounge and the Chocolatier’s Quarters. I didn’t go to the Lindt Lounge but I did go to the Chocolatier’s Quarters, and it was my favourite section of the whole event. I was mind-blown by how many delicious, high quality, vegan friendly chocolates there were.

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There were Little Zebra Chocolates offering sugar-free chocolate made with Xylitol (all their dark chocolates are vegan); Girl Made Chocolate which gives Pana Chocolate a run for their money in the raw, vegan, organic chocolate bar space (their chili chocolate is amazing); Cacaoette (simply amazing artisanal organic chocolates, also with plenty of vegan options); and Chocolate Tea (a revolutionary tea made of cacao bean shells which taste like you’re drinking chocolate), and many more noteworthy stalls.

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There also were some incredible chocolate arts on display: pastry chef Dean Gibson created a pumpkin head scare-crow and an echidna using chocolate, and artist James Patrick created a painting using Lindt chocolate balls and wrappers (check out James’ behind the scene clip in his YouTube channel).

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On the side, there also were plenty of what I would call ‘supporting’ stalls, because one cannot not live on chocolate alone (okay, perhaps one could, but why would one need to?) There were savoury food stalls such as Fratelli Fresh, Gourmet Gozleme and Thaiinabox, and beers and ciders galore (Bilpin Cider Co. Garden Bar deserves a special mention with the coolest garden bar setting).

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Overall it was a thoroughly mindblowing event, both in its very large scale and many different features and attractions. There was something for everyone, even for the most discerning chocolate connoisseur, a health conscious foodie, or in my case, a vegan with an alarmingly sweet tooth.

“All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn’t hurt.”― Charles M. Schulz

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P.S. This is is my Day 1 and 2 of the #300wordsaday challenge which I’m doing throughout the month of October with Sydney Passion Bloggers. We’re essentially a community group for bloggers who resides in Sydney (though you don’t have to live in Sydney to join). Me and a few other bloggers re doing this challenge to cultivate daily writing habit. It’s challenging (especially in weekends), but I’m enjoying it so far. Check our our group Sydney Passion Bloggers on Facebook to find out more about what we do and this particular challenge.