Berrylicious Pie

With the 4th of July around the corner, I thought it would be an awesome idea to share one of my favorites white, red and blue desserts to make your celebration even more fun and tasty.

As a Nutritional Therapist, I can’t help myself from sharing bits and pieces of nutritional facts with each of my recipes. The reason I do this is because I want to empower you with knowledge so you can make wise decisions about the food you buy, cook and consume. We do better, when we know better, right?

So in honor of the Berrylicious Pie, let’s talk a little about fruits, shall we? 😉

I don’t always seat fruit but when I do, I eat berries.  I love the taste but I also like that they contain very low sugar in comparison to other fruits. Fruits, as well as veggies, are great sources of fiber and they provide lots of antioxidants and nutrients. The problem is that people tend to over consume fruits. I see kids sometimes eating a banana, orange and apple all at once, can you believe that’s almost 45 grams of sugar? Another example is the “Green Machine from Naked Juice.” It contains apples, banana, kiwi, pineapple and mango…. A 15 oz bottle contains 28 grams of sugar…Geez! That’s a lot of sugar!

I love fruit, don’t get me wrong, but everything in moderation. The body doesn’t differentiate between natural and fake sugars, they can still manage to disrupt normal blood sugar levels. Of course natural sugars provide lots of benefits, but they are still converted into glucose and excess of glucose is converted into body fat.

As a rule of thumb I prefer to consume 1/2 cup of berries a day with some sort of fat, like raw kefir, full-fat yogurt, nuts, nut butter or a piece of cheese. The reason for this is because many of the nutrients contained in fruits are fat-soluble (Vitamin A, D, E, K) which means that the presence of fat is necessary for proper absorption.

I love eating dessert, but I enjoy it even more when I know it isn’t hurting my health. When eating healthy, there’s really no need to sacrifice well-being to please the tastebuds. This Berrylicious Cashew Pie is an example of healthy-eating made delicious. It contains only 4 tbsp of coconut sugar, which you can replace with raw maple syrup or raw honey, and it serves up to 12 people. Feel free to adjust the sweetness because I like to keep mine on the low side.

I hope you enjoy it and have HAPPY 4th!!

Berrylicious Pie 

Serves: 12

Ingredients:

Crust:

• 1 1/2 cup almond meal
• 1 tbsp coconut sugar
• 2 1/2 grass fed butter

Filling:

• 2 cups raw cashew, soaked
• 3/4 cup coconut oil
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 3 tbsp coconut sugar
• 2 tbsp vanilla extract
• pinch of sea salt
• 12 strawberries, chopped
• 3/4 frozen blueberries

How?

1. Make sure to soak cashews overnight in filtered, room temperature water with some sea salt or lemon juice.
2. When you are ready to start cooking. Discard the water and set cashews aside.
3. In a food processor add almond meal, 1 tbsp coconut sugar and butter. Blend until a “dough” consistency has formed.
4. Press the dough on a 9 inch pie or tart dish.
5. In your food processor, add the filling ingredients. Blend until cashews are throughly pureed.
6. Divide cashew mixture into two. Pour the first half in a the pie tray with the crust.
7. Cover with chopped strawberries and frozen berries and pour in the remaining cashew mixture and using a spatula spread to cover the fruit.
8. Freeze for about 1-2 hours or until mixture becomes solid.