My First Attempt At Acai Berry Recipes
Rachel Ray acai berry recipes are hard to find. After searching off and on for a number of days I gave up searching but I hadn’t given up hope. I decided to experiment in my own kitchen. Often some of my favorite recipes are those I’ve stumbled across when I’ve had to switch one ingredient for another in a pinch.
One of the best things I can think of to do with different juices is to make a chicken marinade. The best recipe I have is one I learned in Central America, and is a combination of citrus juices, garlic, white pepper, a little sea salt, and some chicken stock. Occasionally I add some soy sauce or Bragg, but with my acai berry version I’m going to leave that out.
I cut the chicken breast into strips and pour acai juice and some extra virgin cold pressed olive oil over the pieces. In an effort to cut the sweetness, I added some sea salt and crushed capers. The result was interesting and got fairly good reviews. I didn’t like it as much as my stand by marinades so I won’t be likely to repeat this recipe. Also I ended up tossing much of the acai goodness down the drain which entirely defeats the health benefits of acai berry juice. Additionally, acai is more expensive than lime juice or orange juice so it was a slightly expensive experiment.
So my next recipe was a variation on another favorite of mine, and I hoped it would turn out better than the chicken experiment. In fact it did meet with very positive reviews. This is my own version of acai berry frozen yogurt. Mix acai berry juice with a non-flavored low fat yogurt. Then set a strainer and cheese cloth in a bowl, pour through the yogurt, put it in the fridge and let it drain through the yogurt for a day. Once the yogurt has drained, you are left with a cream cheese like mixture, which in fact is quite good as a spread or dip at this point.
I continued with the frozen yogurt recipe and peeled the creamy acai berry yogurt from the cheesecloth into a plastic container. Whip the yogurt with a whisk for several minutes to lighten it up, and then throw it in the freezer. After 8 hours it should be frozen enough to try. I just loved this recipe! It was a perfect mixture of the acai berry juice and frozen yogurt so that it wasn’t overly sweet like ice cream would be. I think a good variation would be to put the yogurt mixture into Popsicle cups so you have individual servings ready to eat on the go.
Last but not least, I wanted to make a recipe for the tried and true fruit smoothie, except make it an acai berry special. In a blender add ice, a frozen banana (this makes the smoothy extra creamy by allowing you to add less ice), some plain yogurt, and 3/4 cup of acai juice. If you want to make a great all around breakfast smoothie, add some wheat germ to get a bit of extra fibre and protein.
So as you can see, it’s not all that hard to find some interesting dishes to make with acai, so you can get the health benefits from this very popular new super food. As you can see, I was able to make a breakfast (the smoothie), snack and main dish all using acai berry. Maybe I should write in to Rachel Ray and see if she has any actual recipe ideas. Until then, I’ll just keep experimenting.