Berry Friendly Strawberry Raw Vegan Tartlets

I made these dessert cups for my mom and a group of her friends who were getting together the day before Mother's Day.  I wasn't there, but apparently the tartlets were a hit and everyone asked for the recipe, which of course my mother didn't have.  But now you do:

Crust -

• 1 cup raw almonds
• 1/2 cup raw cashews
• handful of dates, pitted and soaked
• pinch of sea salt

Filling -

• 2 cups raw cashews
• 1 cup strawberries, chopped
• 1/8 cup coconut oil
• 4-5 tablespoons raw sweetener (honey, agave, stevia, etc ...)
• 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (alcohol-free)
• pinch of sea salt
• water, enough to make everything blend
• 2-3 strawberries for garnish and filling (optional)

This is actually the recipe I used for my very first raw vegan cake!  That was an exciting day for me ... and for the people we had for dinner the next night.  This time I cut back a lot on the coconut oil because I found it a little too coconutty, and well oily as well.  The coconut oil is basically what holds the cake together, so instead of making a cake I chose to put individual servings in muffin cups.  That way it didn't matter if there wasn't enough coconut oil to hold it together.

You can't see it in the picture, but the crust is on the bottom.  Simply crush the nuts in a food processor until it's a powder.  Add the salt.  With the processor running add the dates one-by-one until the mixture begins to form a ball.  Press the crust into the bottom of the muffin cups.  Place in the freezer while you prepare the filling.

I used to think I could never blend a nice nut based dessert in my cheap low-speed blender, but that's so not true.  It just takes a little bit of extra work (and maybe more liquid).  Add a little bit of water in the bottom of your blender and about half the strawberries.  Mix until well combined and then add the rest of the strawberries.  It's important to have some liquid to help everything blend.  Add the cashews one handful at a time.  Stop the blender often and stir.  Make sure it's not getting too hot!  This is a raw tart after all.  Keep adding the nuts and then the rest of the ingredients and blend until it's smooth.  This took me about 20 minutes.  If you have a high speed blender it'll probably take you 5 seconds ...

Add a little of the filling into the crust.  I placed some sliced strawberries inside for a sweet surprise.  Fill the cup with more filling and garnish with a strawberry slice on top.  Place in the freezer overnight to firm up (since there's not much coconut oil).  Remove from the freezer 1-2 hours before serving. 

This recipe made 10 tartlets.  My mom was getting together with 7 friends, so you know what that means.  I had 2 tartlets to play around with myself.  Here's a peak at what I did:

That's right!  I added 1 heaping teaspoon of aromatic velvety smooth raw vegan cacao!  It's been so long since I've had anything with raw chocolate.  I'm trying to be a good yogi and stay sattvic, but I just couldn't resist.  And the cacao really helped to keep the filling firm.  I'm thinking of trying it with cinnamon next time.  I also put the crust in a cute flower shaped cake mold.   

Stay tuned for more raw vegan dessert recipes very soon ...