Acai Berry Recipes

Rachel Ray acai berry recipes are impossible to find. Every body tells me that she did a show focusing on these recipes but I can't find mention of it. After searching off and on over a number of weeks I gave up searching but I hadn't given up hope. I decided to experiment in my own kitchen while sending out messages in cyber land asking others for Rachel Ray acai berry recipes.

With respect to acai ingedients there are essentially 4 different things I can use. They are as follows:
1. pure acai berry juice,
2. acai berry juice blends,
3. flash frozen acai berry pulp;and
4. acai berry flakes.

The acai berry juice blends are the least expensive ingredient so I limited my initial experimentation to the juice blends.

The first thing I tried was an acai berry juice marinade on chicken breast. This is just a variation of an orange juice and white pepper marinade I picked up in while looking at real estate in Nicaragua or the lime juice and soy marinade I had been using for years. I should note that I always marinade for at least six hours as any less time doesn't do much for me.

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. I found that it had a bit of a mole taste. This would work for people who enjoy the chocolatey flavour of mole. Also I ended up tossing much of the acai goodness down the drain which entirely defeats the health benefits of acai berry juice. Strike two. Additionally and lastly, acai is more expensive than lime juice or orange juice so it was a slightly expensive acai berry recipe experiment.

I thought to myself, surely Rachel Ray would use acai more sensibly! The next recipe I tried was acai frozen yogurt and it was a much bigger success. I added acai berry juice to plain low fat yogurt. I poured the mixture into a screened drainer lined with two layers of cheese cloth. I then left the mixture in the fridge to drip into a bowl for 24 hours. After 24 hours the acai yogurt mixture was the texture of cream cheese. It was perfect to spread on bagels or crackers at this point.

I peeled the acai/yogurt mixture off the cheese cloth and into some Tupperware. I then froze the mixture for 8 hours. It was delicious! It was tangy from the yogurt and had the rich berry and chocolate taste of acai. The amount of freezing depends on how you like to have your frozen yogurt. I prefer it softer rather than harder and therefore 8 hours worked well for me.

|The next recipe I tried was also a dessert. I reduced an acai berry juice blend by two thirds. I used the remaining acai syrup in a bananna split. The results were split. I thought it was really good but the rest of my family said the result was not worth the effort. It also turned out to ber a fairly pricey syrup. At times like now when fresh berries are easy to come by this acai berry recipe is not worth it.

The last and most obvious recipe was an acai berry smoothie. I added ice, two frozen bananas, some plain low fat yogurt, and 1.5 cups of acai berry juice to the blender. Predictably, it was excellent. Smoothie recipes are almost fool proof. Don't forget to add a little wheat germ or flax meal to smoothies to add some invisible protein and fibre to your smoothie recipes.

With a little imagination acai can be incorporated into many different recipes. Without much thought I was able to create a main course, desert and a smoothie. Although Rachel Ray acai berry recipes do not seem to currently exist, I will continue looking and in the meantime I will be creating and writing about my own recipes.

Please add a comment to this blog if you have any of your own acai berry recipes you would like to share.