Gluten-Free Vegan Desserts, February 26
The theme for this month's workshop was showing people how to use alternative ingredients in a way that's super easy, delicious and guilt-free! Because of the nature of our sinfully sweet evening, we asked that people bring savoury dishes for the potluck, and that they did - there were heaps of chickpeas, greens and quinoa everywhere that also provided a nice balance to the second half of the night.
Once we moved on to dessert, our workshop leaders Sondi and Tami shared their experiences of how they cut out gluten and dairy products from their diets due to serious health issues. Because of this they were forced to take a closer look at what they ate and make changes to not only their diets but their relationship with food.
The happy news is that going gluten-free and vegan does not mean sacrificing flavour or fun. In fact those things can be enhanced, as long as you're open to trying new possibilities like making chocolate pudding out of avocado! It's easier too, since for all three desserts the most technically challenging step we took was figuring out how to use the food processor. At the very end, we diced up some fruit, built our own three-tiered parfait and devoured all evidence of the chocolate pudding, fig & tahini truffles and cashew cream.
It's a good sign when you see people licking spatulas and bowls all around you. You've got to try these desserts - they're effortless, impressive-looking, healthy, and best of all spatula-lickin' good!
