My Acai Berry Recipes Inspired By Rachel Ray

I’m a big fan of Rachel Ray, and when she had the show where she talked about acai berry, I got very excited. The only thing I thought was missing was more acai berry recipes from Rachael Ray. So I thought that I might do some experimenting of my own and come up with a few new recipes. I’m not a professional chef or anything, but I do have fairly good luck with modifying existing recipes and having pretty good results.

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 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. 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.

I thought that surely I could come up with something that tasted better and was better for you. So the next recipe I came up with was a dip. I must say that it turned out a bit better than the chicken experiment. I used a whole container of plain non-fat yogurt as the base. I mixed in acai berry juice, about 1/3 as much as the yogurt, and mixed this well. I think if you wanted to use an acai shake or smoothy drink, that would work just as well. Then I pour this into a strainer lined with 2 sheets of cheese cloth, place this over a bowl, and leave in the fridge for 24 hours. At the end of 24 hours all the liquid will have drained off, leaving you with a cream cheese consistency mixture.

Once the yogurt has drained, I just peel/scrape the mixture off of the cheesecloth into a Tupperware and then into the freezer. After about 8 hours I have a wonderful frozen yogurt desert, that is not too sweet, and has all the acai berry nutrition benefits. If you like your frozen yogurt harder or softer you can adjust the time you leave it in the freezer to change the consistency.

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 to smoothies to add some invisible protein and fibre to your smoothie recipes.

So after all my experimenting with acai berry recipes, I am pretty happy with the ones that I came up with. I’m sure that I’ll do some more versions and will probably come up with a few more that I can use to keep me from getting bored of the same acai drink every day. I just wish that Rachel Ray would have another show about acai berry, because I’m sure that she could come up with some pretty delicious acai berry recipes.

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