A dairy-free, low-fat dessert made with a fruit-sweetened blood orange sauce, layered with a dairy-free lemon cream.
Ingredients
Blood Orange Sauce:
160 grams of peeled blood oranges (2 medium)
50 grams chopped apple, skin removed (1/2 medium)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 cinnamon sticks
3 whole cloves
Zest from ½ lemon
Zest from ½ blood orange
Dairy-free Lemon Cream:
¾ cup cooked white “navy” beans (1/4 cup dry)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon honey or coconut nectar (to keep vegan)
1-3 teaspoons non-dairy milk
1 teaspoon melted coconut oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
Zest from ½ lemon
2 small pieces of fresh mint, optional
Instructions
Completely remove the rind from the blood oranges with a sharp knife. As the picture above displays, you’ll be left with a skinless orange. Then, break into it’s natural segments and remove the flesh from the skin. Once you’ve removed the flesh from the skin, place in a small saucepan and continue with remaining segments. Once complete, add remaining sauce ingredients to the saucepan and bring to a simmer on medium-low heat. Cook uncovered for 8-10 minutes, stirring frequently, until apple pieces are soft.
Remove from heat, mash with a fork or potato masher, remove cinnamon sticks and cloves and set aside to cool completely.
Meanwhile, add dairy-free lemon cream ingredients to the bowl of your food processor or blender. Begin with 1 teaspoon of dairy-free milk. Blend until smooth. If the cream needs a bit of thinning out, add extra milk. The amount if milk needed will vary depending on the type of beans used – home cooked, or canned. Even canned varieties differ in consistency so it's better to start off with 1 teaspoon and work your way up. For my homemade batch of cooked beans, I used 3 teaspoons of non-dairy milk.
Once the sauce is cooled, grab two small cups; I used a tea light candle holder for one of my parfaits, and add a layer of cream to the bottom of the cup. Follow with the sauce, then top it off with cream. Smooth out the layers as you go.
Serve immediately, topping it off with a sprig of mint, or allow to chill for a couple of hours before serving.
Notes
Feel free to use 160 grams of any fruit of your choice. Regular oranges, extra apples, or berries work nicely. Navy beans are recommended because they're very silky in texture. Honey can be replaced with whatever liquid or granulated sugar you have on hand. Coconut oil can be replaced with the same amount of grape seed oil, almond oil or macadamia nut oil. It helps the cream maintain its richness.
Recipe by Healthful Pursuit at https://www.healthfulpursuit.com/2013/03/vegan-cream-and-blood-orange-parfaits/