Only Recipes, by Alessandra Zecchini ©

White button mushrooms are delicious raw, and they are vitamin rich, apparently they even have vitamin B12. These little savoury mushrooms 'macarons' make a tasty appetizer, and they look really fancy! All you need is mushrooms and some raw vegan nut cheese  (recipe here) . Remove the stalks from the mushrooms and peel off the top 'skin', the clean them well with a damp paper towel (do not wash). Fill with a little vegan nut cheese and close together like a macaron.   Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

This is commonly called Vegan cheese or nut cheese, although to me it feels more like a very 'intense' dip. Full of protein and spreadable, it stores well for a couple of weeks in the fridge. Ingredients: 120 g cashews 80 g macadamia 1 small shallot 2 tbsp lemon juice water (just enough to blend the nuts) salt and pepper to taste Soak the cashews for 4 hours, drain and place in a food processor (or use an immersion blender). Add the shallot, peeled and chopped, lemon juice and a little water. Blend until smooth, adding more water if necessary. Add salt and pepper to taste (I do this little by little while blending). Store in the fridge. Photos and Recipes by Alessandra Zecchini  ©

Chocolate and Macadamia Cookies I used a whole 250 g bar of Whittaker's Macadamia Block (please note that this is milk chocolate). The Whittaker's Macadamia Block is good value, it is full of nuts and you don't need to buy extra for these cookies (macadamia nuts are quite expensive!): with one block we made 30 good sized cookies! Ingredients: 250 g macadamia chocolate 100 g butter 2 eggs 100 g sugar 200 g self rising flour 1 tsp cocoa 1/2 tsp vanilla paste (ar a few drops of vanilla essence) icing sugar to roll the cookies in before baking Melt the chocolate with the butter, then stir in the eggs, sugar, self rising flour, cocoa and vanilla paste (or essence). You will get a very oily dough. Line a 90 cm baking tray (or two 40 cm baking trays) with baking paper. Make little balls with your hands (about the size of a heap teaspoon) and roll them in icing sugar. Place on the baking tray, remembering that during baking they will flatten and take a cookie shape, so leave enoug...