I love guacamole and have often felt disappointed when fancying a lunchtime snack of guacamole and nachos only to find pre-prepared guacamole can contain sour or double cream.  Making guacamole from scratch at home, is so simple and quick, I now love having access to Dairy Free Guacamole which suits all my dietary requirements.

Dairy Free Guacamole Ingredients: (serves 6)

• 3 avocados
• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• 3 ripe plum / vine tomatoes, finely chopped
• 1 red chilli, finely chopped (optional)
• Juice of 1/2 lime
• Salt & pepper to taste

Dairy Free Guacamole Recipe:

Peel and stone the avocadoes, roughly chop the avocado flesh into pieces and add to a mixing bowl.

Finely chop the red onion, red chilli and tomatoes and add to the bowl.

Squeeze the juice of 1/2 a lime and add to the mixture.

Mash the avocadoes using a fork, mixing in the red onion, chilli, tomatoes and lime juice.

Taste and season accordingly with salt & pepper.

Cover and chill in the fridge until ready to serve.

Dairy Free Guacamole is a tasty and healthy lunchtime snack served with Toasted Corn Tortillas and crudites or spread on Herb Oatcakes, Corn Thins or in a sandwich. It is also a delicious, cooling and creamy accompaniment to chilli con carne, fajitas and burritos. Yum!

Acai Berry

From the Brazilian rainforest Acai Palm (referred to as “tree of life”), the Acai Berry is now vastly recognised as the dominant antioxidant among all food groups. Dietitian’s and nutritionists are now even recommending Acai Berry as the fruit of choice to help fight against disease and sickness.

Treasured for centuries by the Yanomami Indians, who believe it gives energizing sustenance, it seems they might well have been onto something. Studies done on the acai berry show it has great antioxidant properties. Researchers say that the Acai Berry contains about 300% more antioxidants than blueberries or grapes. In fact, it is thought to have the highest antioxidant capacity of any known edible fruit.

However with all this excitement what is the Acai Berry actually made up of:

• Nearly 50% of the Acai Berry is fat – with 74% of the fat coming from healthy unsaturated fats such as Omega 3, Omega 6 and Omega 9
• 7.59% of the weight of the Acai pulp is from amino acids (building blocks of protein), which equates to 8 grams of protein in a 100 gram serving of Acai.
• Three plant sterols (or photosterols) have been identified in Acai – B-sitosterol, campesterol and sigmasterol. Photosterols have been shown to have numerous health benefits for maintaining healthy heart and digestive function.
• Vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, C and E are all present in Acai. In fact, Acai contain as much Vitamin C as blueberries and has over 1000 IU of Vitamin A for every 100 grams of Acai. In addition, potassium, calcium, magnesium, copper and zinc are all found in Acai.
• For a fruit, the Acai  Berry has a strong fiber profile. There are about 14 grams of fiber in every 100 grams of freeze dried Acai powder.

Check out Acai Berry products on sale at Goodness Direct.

Finding out what the Acai Berry is, has really got me intrigued to try some, its said to taste of a berry and chocolate flavor that’s delicious and can be used in smoothies, deserts and can also be eaten by itself.