Want to make a smoothie? Add cacao. Want to make a dessert? Start with cacao. Want to make a savory pasta dish? Recipes with cacao powder to the rescue!
What’s the difference between cocoa and cacao powder?
There must be no way cacao powder is good for you if it tastes so amazing, right? Wrong. While the word may sound like the cocoa powder for baking you buy at the store, the two are quite different both in processing and in nutrition. They both come from the cacao plant but cacao is closest to the raw state after harvesting the seed while cocoa has been processed with high heat. Now the cocoa powder you know and love still contains great nutrients, just not nearly as many as raw cacao does. Cacao contains a high concentration of phytochemicals, the potent anti-cancer compounds found in plants. The most abundant antioxidants in our diet today come from flavonoids. Lucky for you and me, these anti-inflammatory gems help combat damage by free radicals and improve cardiovascular health, thus preventing chronic disease.
Can you use cacao and cocoa powder interchangeably?
Not always, but in my recipes it’s a sure YES, so feel free to use cacao in all the below recipes! If a recipe calls for dutch processed cocoa, I would not sub cacao. Eat more plants. Decrease inflammation. Reduce risk of disease. Easy! Moving on from all that science stuff… I always buy this cacao powder because it’s organic, affordable, and because Terra Soul is a family run company that I love. Time for recipes with cacao powder!
Recipes with Cacao
If you’d like sweeter frosting, use vanilla yogurt. You can also beat in 1 tablespoon of powdered sugar at a time. Adding more maple syrup will make it too runny.
