I love that I’m about to jump on the new year’s resolution band-wagon and there’s a picture of chocolate tart attached. But is it? We’ll come back to that...

I’ve always subscribed to the theory of ‘why leave ‘til tomorrow what can be done today’ and not because I am driven by being a super organised and efficient person, but for the simple fact that for the most part a whole day of ease always follows a day of effort. And ease equals more time to lounge about eating delicious things which brings me quite nicely to why I began my ‘new year’s resolution’ at the beginning of December last year. Damien went to Peru to hang out with shaman in the Amazon for a month and I felt the need to do something radical too! I thought a month of raw food would fit the bill nicely on all levels. The whole raw food thing had been skipping around in my sphere for a while and it makes complete sense to me, but I’ve always been a little discouraged by the time needed to prepare things, the difficulty in finding all the right bits and bobs needed for a recipe, and to a certain extent how eating raw food would impact on my social life - it’s enough to be vegetarian at a dinner party, throw raw food vegan in and I can imagine the phone would be completely silent!

My brother actually introduced me to raw food in Bangkok a couple of years ago and I distinctly remember pooh-poohing the whole idea because I pictured fake meat treats abounding. I’m so embarrassed at my crazy judgement now that I know how unbelievably delicious raw food is. And the energy it gives you. Whoa Mumma. It’s good stuff.

I’m not going super hardcore on this though, so don’t think this blog is about to morph into raw food mania, but I’ve really loved adding more rather than less raw food into each meal so I figured that was worth sharing. And this raw chocolate tart that I made for new year’s eve could convince anyone to start a new year’s resolution - one of kindness and health in the most delicious manner. Not some rigid, punishment based diet that removes all fun and flavour. We’re so not up for that kind of thing in 2011. Happy, happy new year!

Raw Chocolate Tart with Coconut & Date Crust

serves 8-10

For the chocolate filling: (which is super yummy as a mousse on its own too)

1/2 cup pitted organic medjool dates, soaked in water

1/2 cup agave nectar

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

1-1/2 cups mashed organic avocado

3/4 cups unsweetened organic raw cacao powder

For the base:

1 cup unsweetened shredded, dried coconut

1 cup raw organic almonds

1/4 tsp Murray River salt, or similar salt flakes

4 pitted organic medjool dates, not soaked

4 pitted organic prunes

Put the dates for the filling into some room temperature water to soak for at least 30 minutes.

To make the ‘pastry’ for the base, combine all of the ingredients in a food processor and blitz until they just come together. Don’t make a peanut paste consistency though! I pulsed my food processor until I got the mix to a stage where I could press it between my fingers and thumb and it would hold together. You can add a sneak of water if you like but I found the moisture from the dates and prunes was perfect.

Without any need to butter the pan, pour the base mixture into a tart tin with a removable base, I used a 20cm tin. Then with your fingers, press the mixture firmly up the sides and across the base of the tin, as evenly as you can.

Pop this into the fridge to chill while you make the mousse filling.

Drain the medjool dates and put into the food processor. I have especially suggested medjool dates because in my first attempt I went with ‘supermarket’ dates and they were just too dry and didn’t give the velvety texture that medjool dates do. It’s really worth hunting medjools down for this recipe I think.

Put the avocados, without skin nor seeds into the food processor, along with  the dates and the remaining ingredients, and blitz until smooth.

Take the base from the fridge and pour the filling into it, smoothing the top with a spatula. Put the tart back into the fridge to set for about an hour and devour anytime after that. So good with fresh cherries.