Beetroot baked oatmeal with raw cacao powder (gluten free)

This week’s habit is all about eating more chocolate. Oh yes! But not the typical chocolate from the store. We’re going to check out how amazing it is to eat raw cacao powder so we can take advantage of a wondrous superfood that is one of the most nutritionally complex foods on the planet. Cacao contains over 300 important compounds, including protein, fat, certain B-vitamins and minerals such as calcium, sulfur, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, zinc and copper.
(Another reason why this week is quite special for me – I can’t believe this is my 100th post on The Confidence Kitchen! Thank you to all my wonderful readers for all your support. I love hearing from you on the comments and over on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. This healthy community means a great deal to me, and really enriches my life.)

Cacao can improve your mood, help you lose weight, protect your heart and cardiovascular system, and affects almost every body system in very positive ways including some lovely protection against premature ageing.
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What’s the difference between cocoa and cacao?

Cacao pods are large football-shaped fruits that grow off the trunk and limbs of the cacao tree. Cacao beans are found inside the pods. The beans are harvested, fermented and dried. If the processing stops there, it is often sold as “raw cacao powder”.

Unfortunately the cocoa powder you buy at the supermarket has been taken through several more processing steps that turns cacao into “cocoa” which has fewer health benefits. So whenever you have a choice, choose raw cacao powder.

There is a large volume of research supporting cacao’s strong health benefits. One 2012 meta-analysis found that eating chocolate could slash your risk of cardiovascular disease by 37 percent and your stroke risk by 29 percent.

You’ve probably already heard that eating dark chocolate is good for you. The thing that isn’t often communicated is whenever we eat cocoa or cacao powder combined with milk (aka chocolate), the dairy and sugar actually inhibit the absorption of antioxidants from the raw cacao. Sadly most, but not all, store bought chocolate is quite useless from a health perspective. But we love chocolate, so one of the best ways we can still enjoy that yummy chocolate taste (and exceptional health benefits) is by mixing raw cacao into easy home baked treats.

After oral intake of cocoa, both the flavanol content and the total antioxidant capacity in plasma increase. These effects appear to be markedly reduced when cocoa is consumed with milk or if cocoa is ingested as milk chocolate” – Cocoa and Cardiovascular Health, Contemporary Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine

A prospective study of 34 489 postmenopausal women (known as the Iowa Women’s Health Study) who were free of cardiovascular disease and had completed food-frequency questionnaires over 16 years, found that foods rich in flavonoids were associated with a decreased risk of death caused by coronary heart disease. Furthermore, a borderline significant inverse association was noted between cardiovascular mortality and chocolate intake (ie. less mortality with more chocolate intake, woot woot!)

The Dutch Zutphen Study of 470 elderly men showed that cocoa intake was inversely related to blood pressure, and in a prospective analysis, intake was associated with a reduction of cardiovascular and all-cause mortality.
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How much cacao should you eat?

General guidelines seem to recommend frequent, smaller amounts of chocolate so that you keep the nutrients flowing steadily in your bloodstream. Studies even show  that people eating tiny amounts of chocolate 5 times a week have lower BMIs (Body Mass Indexes). Most experts agree that the recommended “dose” of dark chocolate is approximately 30g to 60g/day (roughly 1 to 2 ounces).

So if we reach for a typical 100g bar of very high quality, organic, dark chocolate, then we should nibble roughly a third of it every day (as an example, something like this Green and Black’s Organic 85% Cacao Bar would work).

Choose a dark chocolate with more than 70% cocoa powder or cacao solids (the higher the better)
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Here is a indication of the different chocolate types and what % of beneficial cocoa solids they contain:

Name of chocolate Percentage of cocoa / cacao Health Benefit
Unsweetened dark chocolate 85-100% cocoa powder YES!
Bittersweet 65-80% cocoa powder YES! Stay on the higher side of 70%
Semisweet 35-60% cocoa powder NO! The sugar and dairy inhibit the absorption of most of the moderate amount of cocoa flavanols that are there
Milk Chocolate 10-20% cocoa powder NO! The high sugar and dairy inhibit the absorption of the tiny amount of cocoa flavanols that are there

Incorporating raw cacao powder into healthy recipes

One of the ways that I like to increase my healthy chocolate intake is via, ahem, cakes. Something I realised this past autumn is that the baked oatmeal recipes I’d been making, always seem to end up in the consistency of a cake.  I started to not only eat the baked oatmeal for breakfast, but found that I liked to have a slice with tea in the afternoon too as a healthy snack. Nice! You’ve got to work with what you have, right?

Healthy habit for this weekSo this week’s habit is going to focus on increasing our raw cacao intake. There are so many ways to do this, including simply purchasing raw cacao chocolate bars, adding raw cacao powder to your morning smoothie (great with bananas!) sprinkling it over your oatmeal or of course, baking a chocolate cake!
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How baked oatmeal can morph into chocolate cake

I’ve included a recipe below that will help you (sigh – it’s sooo tough!) to eat a few slices of special chocolate “cake” this week so you can ingest a good amount of raw cacao powder.

This isn’t like most chocolate cakes you find in the store. There is no refined sugar or flour here. It’s gluten free, and lower in sweetness than most people are used to. I’ve included the recipe for a banana based frosting that will help to raise the sweetness profile for those who have a sweet tooth. Even if you find that you need to add a little bit of raw honey or maple syrup to the frosting to make the cake taste even sweeter, this cake will still be far healthier than most chocolate cakes out there.

I find that for such a healthy creation, it tastes great and gives you an energy and mood boosting hit of chocolate.

Technically this is a baked oatmeal

Baked oatmeal is such an awesome thing. You can make it for breakfast and serve it with the frosting drizzled on top (and/or with slices of bananas – mmmm!) But you also get the feeling of the full chocolate cake baking experience, so let’s just say this is a cake that you could also eat for breakfast, and be done with it! 😉

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Beetroot baked oatmeal with raw cacao powder (gluten free)

One of the ways that I like to increase my healthy chocolate intake is via, ahem, cakes (OK, baked oatmeal!) Something I realised this past autumn is that the baked oatmeal recipes I'd been making, always seem to end up in the consistency of a cake. I started to not only eat the baked oatmeal for breakfast, but found that I liked to have a slice with tea in the afternoon too as a healthy snack. Nice! You've got to work with what you have, right?
Course Breakfast, Desserts
Cuisine Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Nutrient Rich, Refined Sugar Free
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 35 minutes
Total Time 45 minutes
Servings 8
Author Laura Livesey

Ingredients

  • 2 cups finely shredded raw beets about 2 medium beets
  • 1 can coconut milk roughly 2 cups
  • 2 ½ cups organic oats gluten free preferred
  • ¾ cups raw cacao powder
  • 10 dates pitted
  • 2 eggs OR 2 chia eggs: mix 2 Tbsp chia seeds with ½ cup water - let sit 10 mins before using
  • 1/4 cup maple syrup
  • 1 Tbsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp sea salt
  • 1/4 cup hazelnuts or walnuts

  • Optional: ¼ cup cacao nibs and/or a handful of chopped dark chocolate of your choice the latter adds little pockets of melted chocolate which is really lovely!


TOPPING

(Optional to drizzle on top for extra sweetness)

  • 1 banana
  • 1 Tbsp coconut oil
  • 1 Tbsp maple syrup
  • 1 Tbsp raw cacao powder
  • 1 Tbsp almond butter

Instructions

  1. Preheat oven to 175C (350F)
  2. If you don't have eggs, then you can quickly prepare your “chia eggs” by mixing the chia with water and then let it firm up by setting it aside for about 10 mins (skip this step if using eggs)
  3. Grease a small baking dish with coconut oil
  4. Grate your beets (I suggest doing this using your food processor)
  5. Add all of the wet and dry ingredients into your food processor (except hazelnuts)
  6. Run food processor on high for about 30 seconds
  7. Pour the mixture into your greased baking dish and press down using a spoon or a spatula, so you have a smooth even surface
  8. Scatter the nuts across the top, then press them down into the mixture a bit with your finger
  9. Bake for 35 minutes, then check. If not totally browned, cook for a few more minutes and you’re ready to serve! It will feel firm to the touch.

Recipe Notes

Notes for eating
1. Because this is a baked oatmeal recipe, the interior will always be a little bit gooey this is part of the charm of baked oatmeal cakes!
2. If you want to eat it as oatmeal, then you can attack it with a spoon right out of the oven, and drizzle the topping on top!
3. If you want to eat it as a cake, then let it cool completely before cutting into slices, and then spoon your topping on top!
4. Another topping that I love on this is "Coyo" coconut yogurt

 

 

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