Can you believe it? These 3-ingredient, no bake, coconut date balls are raw, vegan, refined-sugar free and paleo friendly too! Perfect healthy dessert for you!
Who doesn’t love festivals! They are a great way to meet friends and family, gift each other, spread love and joy, clean up the house (yes, that’s a legit reason!), and become a 20-pound heavier version of yourself (true story)!
How many times has it happened to you that you come out of a holiday season saying to yourself – Gosh, I feel so much fitter now! I bet never, right? And why is that? Well, masqueraded in all the love and joy and stuff, comes a high dose of sugar rush for all of us during holidays! And especially in Indian festivals, unless each of us gift bucket loads of sweets to whoever we meet, it’s not a festival well-celebrated, right?
Keeping this in mind, your culinary saviour has come back to your rescue! As you may have noticed, none of my recipes include any processed sugar, and on this auspicious occasion of Diwali, I thought, why not share one of my favourite refined-sugar free dessert recipes, which you could savor and share! So let’s get right into it, and oh yeah, Happy Diwali! May you have a scintillating year!
So you can make these mini coconut date balls with just three ingredients – coconut, dates and cashews (or any other nut that you like). All you need is a food processor, these 3 ingredients, and a little bit of coconut oil – and voila! you are done! Your vegan dessert, or as I like to call it, ‘coconut date energy bites’ are ready!
The inspiration behind these no bake coconut date balls comes from a traditional Bengali dessert – ‘Narkel Naru’, which is made with sugar or jaggery stirred with coconut over heat for sometime, making the jaggery and the coconut bind with each other well, which is then made into balls. I wanted to give it a healthy twist by transforming it into a raw dessert which is made in straight 15 minutes! All that you need to make sure is that you use good quality soft dates (I used Medjool dates). The better the quality of dates, the better these coconut date balls turn up.
So joining the league of my other refined sugar free desserts like Kesar Pista Mango lassi and Homemade Applesauce is this paleo dessert. You know what a sucker for coconut I am in my recipes, and I love sneaking coconut in all forms in my dishes, so my Diwali dessert had to had something with coconut in it!
These no bake coconut date truffles also are best to be packed in lunch boxes/as mid afternoon snacks and I bet your kids will absolutely love it!
Go ahead and make these coconut date energy bites for your friends, family and guests and celebrate any occasion with a dash of sweetness without any guilt after! Once again, here’s wishing you all a very prosperous Diwali! Be safe, people!
Can you believe it? These 3 ingredient no bake coconut date balls are raw, vegan, refined sugar free and paleo friendly too! Perfect healthy dessert for you!
- 12 dates pitted (Medjool)
- 1/2 cup desiccated or shredded coconut
- 1/3 cup cashews
- 1 tbsp extra virgin coconut oil
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In a food processor/ mixer, first grind the cashews. To this add the pitted dates, coconut oil and grind or pulse the mixture very well so that it turns into a granular sticky mixture.
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To this add half of the desiccated coconut and mix well once again in the food processor.
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Take bite size portion of this sticky mixture on your palms and roll them into small balls. If required add a drop of coconut oil on your palm.
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Once the coconut date balls are ready roll them over the remaining half of the desiccated coconut flakes to coat them well.
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Let these balls chill in refrigerator for a while and then serve.
- Pulsing the dates in the food processor to a fine sticky mixture is the key here. If you love coconut, you can increase the amount of coconut in these balls by adding more desiccated or shredded coconut flakes into the food processor.
- If you don't like cashews, you can replace them with almond or walnuts if you like.
- If you are allergic to nuts, you can also skip the cashews and make it only with coconut and dates.