XOXO: Vegan Chocolate Hearts with Strawberry Cashew Butter

Originally published in The Chalkboard Magazine

"THESE KINDS OF freezer chocolates and cacao truffles are so fast and so easy, they’re total life-changers once you get the hang of them. Imagine always having fresh healthy, vegan chocolates around for snacks and desserts.

The only downside to vegan chocolate tarts, truffles and treats like these? The receipt shock leaving Whole Foods with all those superfoods and raw nut butters! We’ve got two hacks for that.

The first is to make several recipes at a time that require a few of the same ingredients. For example, try integrative nutritionist, Jennie Miremadi’s strawberry hearts below and her raspberry cashew snack balls here.

The second is to learn to make simple staples like nut butter and freeze-dried strawberries from scratch. Last Valentine’s Day, we made these dehydrated berries in a snap. And cashew butter is as easy as blending raw or roasted nuts in your food processor til buttery (add roughly 1/2 teaspoon salt for every 2 cups of nuts)." -The Chalkboard Magazine

CHOCOLATE HEARTS WITH STRAWBERRY CASHEW BUTTER
makes 10 hearts

INGREDIENTS:

4 oz. stevia, coconut sugar or maple sugar-sweetened, vegan dark chocolate, broken into pieces
3Tbsp Nutiva coconut oil with organic buttery flavor
1/2 cup organic raw cashew butter
1 1.25 oz. package organic, freeze-dried strawberries
maple syrup and/or stevia to taste

Heart-shaped silicon mold (I used the Wilton 2105-4909 Easy Flex Heart 24-cavity Silicone Mold)

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