From my kitchen · Lisa Melvin
Cacao, cherries
& little rituals.
Two favourites from my kitchen: a cacao and cherry smoothie, and a coconut-kefir chia pudding.
You often ask me what goes into them, so here are the recipes in my own words. My interest in food has grown through following Dr William Li and Dr Rhonda Patrick, and these are two of the little routines I enjoy at home.
First, the almond milk
A little help
from my MioMat.
I use my MioMat for plant-based soups and homemade almond milk. For the milk, it is simply two MioMat scoops of almonds and filtered water from our Quooker tap, filled to the mark on my machine. I select the milk setting and it makes about a litre.
Once it has cooled, I pop it in the fridge. That chilled almond milk is the starting point for my smoothie below.
Find the settings for your MioMat ↗From the blender
My cacao
& cherry smoothie.
Rich cacao, a generous handful of cherries and a little pomegranate.
This is the smoothie that starts so many conversations in the studio. I love the combination of chocolate and cherries, with the chilled almond milk bringing everything together.
Cherries are rich in polyphenols, including anthocyanins, the plant pigments behind their deep red colour. These compounds have antioxidant properties, which is part of what makes cherries so interesting to me, alongside the polyphenols in cacao and matcha.
Into the blender
- 500 ml chilled homemade almond milk
- ½ teaspoon amla powder
- ½ teaspoon ceremonial matcha
- About 250 g PACK’D frozen cherries
- About 1 tablespoon frozen pomegranate
- 3 dessertspoons organic cacao powder
- 1 dessertspoon hemp protein powder
- About 1 dessertspoon chia seeds
- Optional ground flax seeds
Then I simply blend.
I put everything into the blender and blend until smooth. With the fruit and the other ingredients added, my 500 ml of almond milk gives me roughly 750 ml of smoothie.
If you prefer it a little thinner, add a splash more almond milk or water.
The extras I add
I also add 1 dessertspoon of collagen powder, around 3 g of L-glutamine, 3 g of Creapure creatine, ½ teaspoon of spirulina and ½ teaspoon of beta-glucan powder.
These are optional extras in my own routine; the smoothie works without them. Collagen is animal-derived, so leave it out for a vegan version.
For frozen fruit, use ready-to-eat fruit or follow the pack’s preparation instructions before blending.
Made in a jar
My cherry–cacao
chia pudding.
Coconut kefir, juicy cherries and cacao. Something to eat with a spoon.
This is my other favourite. The chia seeds thicken the coconut kefir into a soft pudding, with cherries and cacao stirred through. A little extra virgin olive oil adds richness.
I make this one by eye, so it is easy to adjust to the texture you enjoy.
Into the jar
- Chia seeds
- Coconut kefir
- PACK’D frozen cherries
- About 1½ dessertspoons cacao powder
- A little extra virgin olive oil
Mix, chill & enjoy.
I mix everything together in a jar, using enough coconut kefir to give the chia seeds room to swell. Give it another stir as it starts to thicken, then cover and leave it in the fridge until the chia has softened and the cherries have thawed. Prepare the fruit as directed on its pack.
Add a little more kefir if you like a softer pudding. It is a lovely, substantial bowl in its own right, with the cherries bringing their flavour, colour and polyphenols.
Why I keep coming back to them
Good ingredients.
Little everyday pleasures.
The interest for me is in the mixture: the polyphenols in cherries, cacao and matcha; the fibre and plant omega-3 fats in chia; and the protein from hemp. Then there is the pleasure of making something I look forward to, whether it is a glass from the blender or a pudding waiting in the fridge.
A little further reading
Cherries and their polyphenols · Plant compounds and antioxidants · Chia seeds