Healthy & Delicious: No-Cook Berry Crisp
Editor's note: On Mondays, Kristen Swensson of Cheap, Healthy, Good swings by these parts to share healthy and delicious recipes with us. Take it away, Kristen!
[Photograph: Kristen Swensson]
Sometimes, the planets just align for a certain dish.
An old college friend posted the link to No-Cook Berry Crisp on Facebook last week. I remember thinking, before I was distracted by the Old Spice Guy, that it looked pretty decent.
A few days later, berries went on mega-sale at the local supermarket.
The day after that, I found a long-lost gift card to Sahadi's in Brooklyn (the world's greatest specialty food store). The day after the day after that, I spent the afternoon running a garage sale on a hot driveway in the blazing sun, which both sapped my will to move/live and made cooking nigh-unthinkable.
Given that fortuitous (and rather warm) confluence of events, I had no choice but to revisit that fated Facebook link. Happily, everything worked out like gangbusters. A simple, seasonal, vegan-friendly treat devised by the good people at Whole Foods, No-Cook Berry Crisp is suitable for either breakfast or dessert. A dollop of yogurt will orient it more towards the morning, while a scoop of vanilla would make it nighttime-appropriate.
While its rawness might turn off folks more accustomed to traditional crisps, the lack of added oils and processed sugars makes this recipe especially welcome on hot July and August nights. This is to say nothing of the health quotient, which is pretty significant.
Ultimately, fate gets big props for this dish. Maybe free will have more of a say in the next one.
No-Cook Berry Crisp
Serves 8.
Adapted from Whole Foods.
Ingredients
- 6 cups mixed berries, such as blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and sliced strawberries
- 1 tablespoon pure maple syrup (more if the berries need sweetening)
- 2/3 cup raw pecans
- 1/4 cup raw walnuts
- 1/2 cup pitted dates, roughly chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Procedures
-
1
Combine pecans, walnuts, dates, and cinnamon in a food processor. Pulse until coarsely ground.
-
2
Sprinkle nut/date mixture evenly over the berries. Eat a.s.a.p. or store in the fridge for a few hours.
5 comments:
If you leave it a little while, the berries will sort of release some juice and make a no-cook syrup....so good!
katrina at 3:25PM on 07/19/10
Any alternatives for folks with nut allergies?
proncis at 3:38PM on 07/19/10
@proncis: I think some of the reviewers on the Whole Foods site suggested using ground oats. I might log on and rifle through.
Kristen Swensson at 4:58PM on 07/19/10
@proncis: How about crumbled graham crackers or oatmeal cookies (safe of course). It seems to me that the whole point of a berry crumble (or most berry desserts) is to fool yourself into thinking your dessert is healthy!
JoeDeNivo at 8:06PM on 07/19/10
I was out of walnuts and used oats as a substitute....it turned out really good. Tasted even better knowing it was wholesome and contained no butter. The dates are definitely the secret ingredient...they hold the crumbly mixture together. I love that it can work as both a nutritious breakfast or a sinless dessert. Thanks for this one!
Terinlikesfood at 10:25PM on 07/19/10