We recently had dinner with friends at Departure – one of our favorite Portland restaurants. They offer a fantastic vegan menu, and we ordered several plates to share as a table, family style. Everything was amazing, and I left with the intent of recreating the dessert we shared – a pistachio cardamom kulfi.

Kulfi is a dense and creamy Indian dessert, similar to an ice cream. It is a perfect dessert presentation wise, as it takes longer to melt due to its consistency. I used one of my fun ice cube molds to make small square shaped kulfi – and now I really want to serve this to a large group of people!

When several of us were sharing our suggestions for the final letters of Meatless Monday A-Z, I was hoping W week would be walnuts, because I had an idea for my own take on kulfi that would be a great Vegan Valentines dessert as well.

Walnuts have many benefits – they are a great source of Omega-3, and rich in many minerals and phyto-chemicals. My notes from a recent class include walnuts, listing them as a potentially lowering risk of cancers, inflammation, heart disease, high blood pressure. A small handful of walnuts each day seems to do much good.

Traditional flavors of kulfi seem to include pistachios, cardamom, and saffron. These are all flavors I love, and I look forward to making more kulfi soon. I also have a few more unconventional ideas, as you probably could have guessed.

My Google search brought up a blog I love – Vegan Richa. She has a couple recipes for kulfi and many ideas for flavors – I used her pistachio almond kulfi as a guide.

Can I say? this is amazing.

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