This week's steemit iron-chef competition theme is to elevate a vegan dish. Being a vegan and posting a dish every week, I try my hardest to elevate vegan food so that it is appealing, I started this journey a few years ago but only became fully vegan this year. One thing that took me on this journey was the desire to eat food that wasn't contaminated and cruelty free. I didn't know how I would live without chocolate though and I discovered that it's possible to make delicious vegan chocolate at home. Making this chocolate really helped me on my vegan journey and I wanted to celebrate this ingredient in this challenge.

I had a real desire for truffles and never actually tried making a vegan ganache, I thought i'd give it a whirl. I looked up a few different way it could be made and I settled on using coconut milk but unfortunately I find it quite hard an expensive to buy a good quality coconut milk here, so that's what brought me to make my own by blending coconut meat shavings with a little water in a blender until creamy. Then I melted cacao butter and sieved some carob powder, which I have been using alot in replace of coacao powder to make the chocolates lighter and sweeter... and so moorish! I also added some hazelnut oil in the mixture and whisked it all up using a whipping blade for my blender. Next step was to leave it to set in the fridge over night.

I recently brought an ice cream scoop and used it to form the truffle balls, first I had to let the ganache warm up a bit out of the refrigerator. Once the balls were formed I dusted them with more carob and finally sprinkled them with a little maqui berry powder, crushed hazelnuts and cacao nibs.

Oh and a pinch of saffron powder dusted on top. One of my favorite but rare flavors!

I hadn't eaten chocolate in a while and the sensation is really euphoric, this is my kind of elevation really takes me on a happy high, you can see how it was used a spiritual medicine for the ancient Aztecs. Forget michelin stars, I was seeing stars after eating these truffles!

The texture of the ganache is so soft , decadent and rich, I decided to plate the truffle with homemade red cherry puree, the two flavors bounce of each other and create a flavor explosion.

Thanks again to @progressive-chef for running this contest + @donkeypong, @canadian-coconut and @sjennon for supporting the contest

🥑 🍎🥝 🍉 🍇 🍐🍓🍈🍋🍑 🍍🍊🍌🍏

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