This recipe is gluten free, powerful, vegetarian, vegan-friendly, powerful, raw-friendly, paleo-friendly, nut free, soy free, corn free and just plain good. Did I mention powerful?
Ease level: 1 (super easy)
If you’ve ever attended an Art of Living silence retreat, you might have tried this delicacy.
This power-version was invented by me just last week, still longing for the taste, chew and crunch of a bliss ball I’d tried the day before. (Thanks, Sejal!) I didn’t have almonds or walnuts on hand so improvised this and found it to be good enough to share. This version is darker, seedier and imparts tons of energy.
So forget energy bars! Most of them are full of soy and bad sugar anyway. Roll these into balls and eat them as is, or flatten some of them into “bars” and store in baggies for a quick, high-energy snack. You can of course add almonds or walnuts if you like. I didn’t and they were good without, so I’m sharing this nut-free recipe with you as is. If you decide to add almonds, grind it all together. If you add walnuts, add them in at the end to leave some crunch.
Ingredients:
1 cup of pitted dates
¾ cup chia seeds
½ cup of coconut
¼ cup poppy seeds
2 tablespoons coconut oil, ghee or butter
1 tablespoon of maple syrup (optional)
Process:
Dump all the ingredients into your food processor with the regular blade. Run for quite a while: 3-5 minutes or until all the ingredients bind together into one ball flinging around inside. Open the food processor and roll the mixture into balls and set on a plate.
Lick off any bit from your hands that didn’t get onto a ball. Wash your hands before serving! (Spoken like a true hygiene freak.)
Note: This works in the food processor because it grinds all the ingredients together without getting too hot. If you don’t have a food processor, I would probably not use a blender or Vitamix. The Vitamix will get everything very hot (but would still probably work with the dry container, thought it may not be raw anymore) and the blender may not work at all. As a workaround, try borrowing your neighbor’s food processor in exchange for some of the balls!