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Our Vegan + Zero Waste Easter Recipes
TURNING EASTER IN A LOW WASTE AND HEALTHY HOLIDAY (OR ENJOYING HOME MADE CHOCOLATES ALL YEAR LONG)
I find that making chocolates myself makes this holiday even more special. I am not Catholic, and although I respect that this is a religious holiday, to me, it's always been more about the chocolate egg hunt in the backyard. But easter chocolate is always packed in colorful paper foils and single plastic wrappers.
As this year we are all stuck in with this quarantine, I thought I would go the extra mile and make our chocolates this year. These three recipes are vegan, healthy and zero waste.
We are very lucky here in the South of France to have access to zero waste stores and bulk sections in supermarkets. Every ingredient used for these recipes was purchased using our reusable coton bags and for that, I am very grateful. If you do not have access to bulk shops, don't worry. My tip would be to try to shop for the biggest container you can find, for example we have those 2kg chocolate chip bags here, helping us to minimise the packaging.
No matter what kinds of stores and amounts of waste you can make, know that it is much better to be aware and try to reduce your waste, even though it is still very hard to do in most places around the globe.
The fact that you are trying makes all the difference !
MAKING NEW TRADITIONS WITH TESE VEGAN + ZERO WASTE EASTER CHOCOLATE RECIPES !
1. Dark Chocolate Mendiants
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Mendiants are super simple to make and look beautiful. They are just little circles of chocolate on which you drop nuts, dried fruits and seeds. If you want to make them a little more fancy, you can add some brittle caramel or roasted nuts.
To make 12 chocolates :
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1 cup dark chocolate
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Toppings of choice
Melt the dark chocolate in a double boiler system (put a pot of water to boil and place a bowl with your chocolate on top, so that the steam from the hot water can melt your chocolate very slowly).
Then on a piece of parchment paper, using a tablespoon, drop a little bit of chocolate and spread it to make a circle. There is no need to make it very thick.
Then you can put pieces of nuts such as hazelnuts and almonds or walnuts and pine nuts, some dried fruits as raisins, cranberries or crunchy pieces of banana chips, coconut flakes, sesame etc.
Simply let them drop onto the little circles of melted chocolate and let them harden. Once completely dry, you can remove your mendiants from the paper and eat them straight away or keep them in the fridge for weeks !
2. Rice Crispy Peanut butter Balls
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These little treats are super delicious, crunchy and healthy.
To keep them zero waste, we've used crispy or puffed rice that we get in our local organic shop from the bulk bins. We did the same for the dark chocolate chips, putting them in our reusable cotton bags.
If this is not an option for you, you can get a big box of puffed rice (careful with the amount of sugar already present in them if they are not natural rice puffs). They are often packaged in plastic bags inside the cardboard boxes, so getting a bigger box reduces the amount of plastic.
To make about 15 :
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3 cups puffed rice cereal
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1/2 cup unsalted, natural peanut butter
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1/3 cup pure maple syrup
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1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips
Melt the dark chocolate chips in a double boiler system (see the first recipe if you're not sure what that is). Then removing from the heat, add the natural peanut butter and maple syrup.
Stir well until you get a nice paste. Add the puffed rice making sure not to break it.
At this stage, you can spoon the cereal mix onto a board, shaping balls as best you can using two spoons. pop them in the fridge for 15min, as they harden, the balls will hold on their own perfectly. They keep perfectly in the fridge for a week.
3. Dark Chocolate Cups With Hazelnut Cream
This last recipe is possibly my favorite. It is incredibly easy and damn is it delicious. Hazelnut butter is quite expensive, and if it's not in your budget, you can replace it with tahini, peanut butter or any nut butter you have laying around the house. You can also substitute it for some coconut cream, adding shredded coconut to the mix to let it hold a little better, for a nut free version.
Basically, these little cups work like a chocolate sandwich, you can put whatever you want in the middle !
To make around 25 chocolates :
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1 cup of dark chocolate chips
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1 tbsp coconut oil
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3/4 cup of natural hazelnut butter
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2 tbsp of maple syrup
Melt dark chocolate and coconut oil in a double boiler system (see previous recipe for details). Using a silicon mold (for cupcakes or madeleines or whatever small single cake molds you have), spoon some melted chocolate at the bottom of the mold, making sure it goes up on the sides as well (about 2 cm), and let it set for 5 minutes in the freezer.
In the meanwhile, mix together the maple syrup and hazelnut butter in a bowl, adding a bit of water if the mixture is too sticky and hard to spread.
Then get your chocolates from the freezer and spoon a little bit of nut butter at the center of each cup, spreading it a little so it fills the bottom.
Pour some more melted dark chocolate over it, making sure it covers the nut butter entirely and pop it back in the freezer for 5 minutes.
Then all you have to do it turn the molds upside down and help the chocolates shimmy down.
They keep perfectly for a couple of weeks in the fridge (not that they will last that long..)
I find that in making chocolates, you can be as creative as you want, playing around with shapes and tastes. It has been so much fun creating those recipes, and I hope you all had a lovely Easter weekend !
Sending love to all of you beautiful humans out there xx
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