3 Healthy Holiday Desserts | Ayurveda By Siva

Here are 3 desserts with an ayurvedic approach, to impress your family and your tummy.

By: Laura Plumb

To make the crust, toast the pecans until they are very lightly brown. Put them aside. In your electric blender, macerate the dates. Add the coconut oil and spices and mix. Toss in the pecans and pulse lightly three times, just enough to break up and integrate with the dates, but careful not to turn this into pecan butter.
Press the crust into a pie dish. Cover with a plate facing up so the slight bowl of the plate presses into the crust and so that the crust is entirely covered. Place in your refrigerator if you have a few hours before filling, or into your freezer if you don’t.
To make the filling, start with the dates. Blend on high speed until they are completely mashed. Juice your lemon and set aside 1 tablespoon for later. Add the lemon juice, almond butter honey and spices to the dates and blend well. Slice your apples and add. Blend until the mixture starts resembling a very chunky apple sauce. Add the chia seeds. Pulse a few times to blend thoroughly. Pour this mixture onto the pie crust. Spread evenly. Cover (I turn the plate that was sitting on the crust over and use to cover) and place in your fridge. Allow to set at least four hours.

By: Meredith Klein (pranaful.com)

Serves 8

A peach cobbler that is simple to prepare, and contains no gluten or added sugars.

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly oil a 9×13” baking dish. Arrange peach slices in even layers in pan.
Add dates to a food processor with S-blade, and pulse a few times to begin to break up dates.
Add oats and quinoa flakes and continuing pulsing until dates are uniformly crumbly and incorporated.
Transfer date mixture to a medium-sized mixing bowl, and add melted butter and salt.
Stir well, then place date-oat mixture on top of the peaches, using a rubber spatula to smooth the topping evenly.
Bake cobbler 35-45 minutes, until topping is golden brown. Let cool at least 15 minutes before serving.

By: Laura Plumb

1/2 teaspoon fresh nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cardamom
1 apple, chopped
1/2 cup coconut flakes
1/4 cup pecans
3/4 cup dark chocolate chips
1/4 teaspoon clove powder
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup ghee or coconut oil, melted
6 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup maple syrup (Drisana substitutes half the maple syrup for molasses ‘to add iron and potassium’)
1/2 cup pumpkin puree, cooked
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup coconut flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.Melt the ghee/coconut oil in a small saucepan and set aside. Grease a bread pan, or muffin tins.
Crack the eggs into the bowl of an electric mixer or into a large mixing bowl. Beat with your mixer or wire whisk. Add in vanilla, maple syrup, pumpkin, and mix until thoroughly combined. Sift coconut flour, ghee or oil, spices, salt, and baking soda. Slowly add the dry mixture to the pumpkin mixture and beat, or whisk, until there are no lumps. Stir in the coconut flakes, chopped apple, pecans and chocolate chips. Pour the batter into your baking dish or muffin tins. Bake for about 30 minutes for bread, or 15 minutes for muffins – in any case it is done when a toothpick comes out clean.
Remove the cake from the oven and turn onto a wire rack to cool. To make the frosting, beat cream cheese, honey and vanilla in the bowl of an electric mixer until fluffy. Spread on cooled cake and enjoy!