RECIPE: Green Tea, Beetroot and Chocolate Raw Truffles
Today I was thinking about cross purpose conversations. You know, the ones where two people can be having a conversation and be talking about totally different things without realising it? Well, first I would like to say that there will be no confusion about the absolute amazing flavour, or nutritional value of the following green tea, beetroot and chocolate raw truffles I am going to share with you. But it was a cross purpose conversation about truffles that inspired me to create this recipe.
In the culinary world the word ‘truffle’ has one universal meaning – pure indescribable deliciousness. But of course this could mean two different foods. An almost mythical fruiting body of a fungus, that is more expensive than gold and the go to ingredient for any aspiring chef looking for a Michelin star. Or it is a delectable round ball of chocolate ganache based treat, that is named because of its visual likeness to the aforementioned fungus. Or to be more precise, the word truffle derives from the latin word tuber, which essentially means lump.
So when I had a slightly confusing conversation with somebody about truffles – they thinking I was talking about the fungus and me thinking they were talking about the chocolate treat – we eventually worked out we were talking at cross purposes and moved onto the meaning the the word ‘truffle’. This got me onto the idea of beetroot, which incidentally is a tuber and therefore linguistically related to the word truffle – at least in my mind.
What better thing to do with it than pair beetroot with one of its favourite friends – chocolate and turn it into a our tuber friend the truffle. Both ingredients also match beautifully with orange, while green tea adds sophitication and cuts through the richness of the dish beautifully to make absolutely delicious green tea, beetroot and chocolate raw truffles.
The recipe is completely vegan and raw – using cacao powder as opposed to cocoa powder. Cacao is not roasted, which makes it less bitter, lighter in colour and more delicate in flavour than its roasted cousin, cocoa. But of course you could use cocoa if you wish. Just add a little extra coconut sugar to counteract the bitterness.
These little beetroot and chocolate raw truffle treats will leave you coming back for more and will easily help contribute to your 5+ a day. If you are a parepnt, you will find that this is a great way to get your kids eating their veg!
Beetroot and Chocolate Raw Truffles – Ingredients:
- 100g beetroot (1 small)
- 100g virgin cold-pressed coconut oil (4 tbsp)
- 100g ROAR cacao powder (4 tbsp) + extra for dusting the truffles later
- 100g coconut sugar (4 tbsp)
- 1 orange zest
- 50ml strong brewed green tea (made using 1 tsp green tea)
Beetroot and Chocolate Raw Truffles – Method:
The first job is to get the beetroot ground as finely as possible at the same time as removing most of the beetroot juice. I managed to do this very simply because I have a fancy oscar juicer which extracts the juice of the beetroot and spits out a fine pulp at the same time. But if you don’t have a machine to do this for you don’t worry. It can easily be done through other methods.
First peel the beetroot and grate it. Squeeze it in your hands once it is grated to extract as much juice as possible. You can do this using a cloth or tea towel by twisting the beetroot around and around in it if you don’t want to get your hands dirty. Although bear in mind your cloth will turn red. Then blend the grated beetroot up until it is as fine as you can make it. Squeeze it some more. Drink the juice if you wish – it is very good for you!
Grate the orange zest and brew the 1 tsp strong green tea in only about 50ml water. Leave the tea to sit for at 5 minutes to infuse. Melt the coconut oil over a bain marie or on a low heat in a pot. Add in the rest of your ingredients and mix them all together thoroughly.
Put in the fridge for 15 minutes to firm up. Depending on how much juice you managed to squeeze out of the beetroot you may have to adjust the recipe slightly if it is too sloppy. It should be the consistent of, well a truffle. If you aren’t sure what that is, then about the same consistency of the unmelted coconut oil.
Add more coconut oil, cacao powder and coconut sugar in equal quantities to firm up the mixture and then leave it in the fridge to firm up again. Repeat if necessary. Add more green tea if the mixture is too firm.
Roll into small balls about the size of a large marble – or a tablespoon full of the mixture. Leave in the fridge to firm up again for another 10 minutes and then roll each ball in cacao powder.
Serve the beetroot and chocolate raw truffles with freshly brewed green tea for a perfect match.
Hi, I am in the middle of making these, however the mixture seems far too runny and unlikely to firm up! Is there an ingredient missing from the list by any chance? There seems to be other ingredients in the pictures which arent on the list! Thanks!
Hello Lucy,
The problem you are having is probably because you haven’t managed to extract enough juice from the beetroot. The beetroot needs to be quite dry (see method). But don’t worry if it isn’t, you can up the quantities of the coconut oil, cacao powder and sweetener (e.g. honey) to firm the mixture up. Also you can leave out the green tea if you are still having problems.
With most raw food recipes you will find that the coconut oil is the ingredient that gives the dessert structure. So just add a little more if you aren’t getting the required consistency.
Hope that helps?
p.s. the other ingredient in the photo is mesquite powder which I mix with the cacao powder for a caramel like flavour. But it isn’t needed as I replaced the mesquite with the cacao in the recipe quantity.