Courtney Uncooked Episode # 14 Darien’s Raw Jelly Date Rolls
Intro: Courtney…Courtney Uncooked. I’m Courtney Uncooked cause that’s how I like my food. The vitamins and the minerals, you know they all get through. Absorbed into the body so that nothing gets lost when you start eating raw of your health you’ll be the boss. Raw vegan for my health and you know that health is wealth. To help you stay your best, we will welcome special guests. So let’s go make a recipe and have lots
of fun, your healthy living journey has just begun cause I’m Courtney…Courtney Uncooked. Courtney… Courtney Uncooked.
Courtney: Hi everyone I’m Courtney Uncooked and this is my great friend Darien Aybar, and we are going to make Darien’s famous delicious raw vegan jelly date rolls today. I am so excited. He’s been vegan for almost 20 years. He is like the OG gangster of veganism. So I’m so glad to have him here and I actually have a little surprise for him. These are his jelly date rolls, but I redid your jelly and made a skinny version for the ladies that I think you’re going to surprisingly love. So I’ll show you my jelly, you’ll show me your date rolls, we’ll mix them together. It’s going to be delicious like a party in your mouth. That’s what we like here at Courtney Uncooked. So before we get started, please at home, remember to follow Courtney Uncooked on Instagram, like Courtney Uncooked on Facebook, and subscribe to Courtney Uncooked on YouTube and hit that notification bell so you get your free raw vegan recipe every week delivered straight to your inbox and you don’t have to do anything but try it and let me know what you think about the recipe. And of course, if you have a recipe you want to share with me if you want to be on the show or just send your picture in and I’ll make it for you, let me know. I always love to learn and I am always open. So take it away Darien, the Broketerian.
Darien: Hi guys, I created Broketerian because I’m very passionate about flavor.
Courtney: Very passionate.
Darien: I’m an ethical vegan and I went vegan for all of the reasons: environment, animals and also just as important human health. And I found over the years of being vegan and reaching out to people that one of the things that people don’t think about is flavor. And it’s my personal belief if you don’t have an open stomach, you’re not going to have an open mind. So we have to put flavor first and flavor is one of the best ways that you can showcase healthy recipes and get people to try vegan food. And once they try it they’re like, wow, this is pretty good. I never thought food could be like this and the secret to flavor is fresh spice blends.
Courtney: Yeah. He’s going to teach me today how to blend my own spices with the coffee grinder. So I am super excited.
Darien: We’ve got about a cup and a half of the dates. Deglet Noor dates are a little less sweet or more caramelly and the texture is perfect for the recipe we’re going to do. So I’m going to be just making the base of the jelly rolls.
Courtney: Take a cup of strawberries and mash the strawberries with a heavy-duty fork and then add one tablespoon of chia seeds that is all I did for my jelly. And look at my beautiful chia seeds, strawberry jelly, no added sugar, nothing in this. It does not get any easier than that.
Darien: Pretty good. Yeah, two ingredients. Super simple.
Courtney: So our jelly is already made and then Darien is going to instruct me, I think you said first I need to grind up this cinnamon. So are we looking for like a powder-like consistency?
Darien: Yeah, we’re going to get close to a powder-like consistency.
Courtney: What are you doing there? He’s taking all the dates and just making one big ball.
Darien: Yeah, so a note on the cinnamon, we have two types of cinnamon there. We have Cassia cinnamon and we have Ceylon cinnamon, which is called true cinnamon. That fireball heat and we’re getting a little bit at a sweet, we’re getting a full flavor profile. Look at that.
Courtney: That smells good. Is that good, is that done?
Darien: That is perfect. And we’re going to then add the rest of the spices there.
Courtney: Okay. So we’re going to add this star anise, which I had never heard of. Tell us a little bit about that, Darien.
Darien: So star anise has an almost licorice-like flavor, it’s amazing. And especially paired with the cinnamon and the clove that we have here.
Courtney: And like in the back you can tell it has like little seeds and that’s so cute.
Darien: Little pods, and we’re going to do it with the pods in there.
Courtney: You can be a star Darien, spice stars right here, spice channel. All right, so we’re going to add;
Darien: We’re going to add some cloves.
Courtney: What is this?
Darien: That’s clove, fresh clove, and then we have about a pinch of nutmeg and some allspice. All right. Yeah, it’s pretty good. Look at that so;
Courtney: I’m just going to put all this in the bowl.
Darien: There’s just no comparison of a fresh spice blinds, the aroma, the fragrance, the taste, the intensity and show them how much spice you have there.
Courtney: A lot.
Darien: Yeah. So it volumes up and it’s like really intense. So we’re now going to throw in the flax seeds and it’s important to use golden flax seeds because they tend to taste nuttier than the brown flax seeds. And again, guys, you can substitute with regular spices. If you can’t or you don’t have the accessibility, it’s okay. But for maximum health benefits, we want to do everything fresh.
Courtney: You also save money doing it fresh.
Darien: You save money. Yeah.
Courtney: I mean a bag of flax flower is going to be way more expensive than that.
Darien: And it’s not going to be as fine as well.
Courtney: So then I’m going to mix all these spices.
Darien: We’re going to mix it up and you’re going to take the coconut and throw the coconut in there as well, we’re essentially making a flower and we’re almost done here. As you can see, look at the texture of this, it’s more like a ball and this is why we wear gloves because it is incredibly sticky.
Courtney: All right.
Darien: All right, so what you do here, it’s really simple. We’re just rolling it in there.
Courtney: So you’re just going to keep doing that until all of that is gone.
Darien: Yes as much as we can, we’ll have a little bit leftover.
Courtney: So what was really cool about this is by the time he’s done rolling this all in, it didn’t even taste like dates to me. It was delicious, but it was no longer a date. Even though it’s like all dates, just the mixing of the fresh spices and the coconut. It just took it to a whole new flavor level that I’ve never even been before.
Darien: For sure.
Courtney: That’s really cool.
Darien: And with a lot of raw recipes we do use dates as sweeteners and sometimes it can get a little old, it can get a little bland when you’re just using dates and spices are a great way to get health benefits. A lot of these spices are good for our blood pressure. They’re antiviral, they’re antifungal, they’re anti-inflammatory and by the pound, spices are the number one source of antioxidants. We’re almost done here, so notice the texture here. It’s not as sticky.
Darien: Break off little pieces.
Courtney: I’m going to get started while you keep going at that. I’m just going to get you know, a heaping tablespoon here and my hands are very clean and roll it like a golf ball if you will. And then once I’ve gotten this rolled up, I’m going to take my very clean finger and finger this jelly date roll, making a nice opening, Darien, a very nice little opening here in my jelly date roll. And then I’m just going to scoop some very low glycemic high antioxidant strawberry.
Darien: Omega threes powered.
Courtney: I think I did a little bit too much, so that’s okay. I’m going to get another one. Just going to get a heaping tablespoon. Just making a little golf ball, using my finger to poke a hole in here, but not go all the way through and then flattening it out just a little bit and taking some jelly, putting the jelly right in there.
Darien: Oh, nice, that’s pretty.
Courtney: So you can refrigerate these for a couple hours and they’re delicious.
Darien: You can eat them right away.
Courtney: Or this is another thing, you can eat them right away. So I’m going to give it a try. You want to try it with me, Darien?
Darien: Yes for sure.
Courtney: Alright you wanna take a little break and try this and see what we got? All right, my friend to health and wealth. Thank you so much.
Darien: Yes, keeping it raw.
Courtney: Making jelly date rolls with boy Darien, this guy is so vegan, he hates aquariums. You’re gonna love my homemade jelly, all you’ll be able to say is get in my belly. The date rolls are tasty, a bit complicated, but they’re so darn good, you’re gonna be elated. No, you don’t need a stove or an oven to cook, just a blender, dehydrator and Courtney Uncooked.