I’m a big fan of peanut butter! But I have to admit it, I don’t like eating it on a traditional way: on a piece of toast with jam. Nope, sorry! But I do like it in smoothies, energy bars, even just spooning it from the jar. But it has to be the most natural, unflavoured and unsalted peanut butter: no preservatives, no added sugar and no palm oil. Well, you might ask how is it possible to buy this peanut butter. And the answer is: most zero waste shops sell freshly made peanut butter. It’s literally, just the toasted peanuts, that go into the grinder they use and the fresh, all natural peanut butter comes out. You must try it to believe it, just how much better it tastes compared to peanut butter off the supermarket shelves.
So I had peanut butter from my zero waste shop and thought I should make some treat with it, but didn’t want to bake – so I settled on Vegan Puffed Quinoa and Peanut Butter Energy Bites.
Now the best thing about home made energy bites and bars, that you can add a lot of things to them – or not, depending what do you have at home. They can always do with some sort of a nut butter, sweetener, seeds or nuts and dried fruit, but it’s entirely up to you what you add.
Energy bite ingredient ideas
Nut butter
- peanut
- almond
- hazelnut
Seeds
- pumpkin
- sunflower
- hemp
- chia
- seasme
- hulled linseeds
Natural sweetener
- maple syrup
- agave syrup
- coconut sugar
- molasses
- fruit jam
- banana purée
- apple purée
Nuts (toasted or not)
- almonds
- hazelnuts
- peanuts
- pecans
- brazil nuts
- cashews
Dried fruits
- Dates
- Figs
- Cranberries
- Sultanas
- Apricots
Bulking agent
- Oatflakes
- Cereal/Muesli
- Puffed quinoa
- Granola
This time I chose puffed quinoa and peanut butter as main ingredient. The rest is just what I had at home: mixed seeds and nuts, dates, dried cranberries, some maple syrup and chocolate. You can even add chocolate chips.
I’m not saying this Vegan Puffed Quinoa and Peanut Butter Energy Bites are low in calories… of course they aren’t but then you only need one to satisfy a craving of sweet but healthy treat.
Enjoy!
Vegan Puffed Quinoa and Peanut Butter Energy Bites
- 30 g puffed quinoa
- 100 g smooth peanut butter
- 10 large juicy dates
- 50 g organic sunflower seeds you can also mix in pumpkin seeds
- 50 g mixed nuts any chopped nuts
- 1 handful dried cranberries optional
- 100 g maple syrup or agave nectar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 pinch of salt
- 100 g vegan chocolate melted
-
Preheat oven to 180 Celsius and toast the seeds and chopped nuts for 5-8 minutes. I normally just use a heatproof ceramic dish instead of using a baking liner.
Soak the dates in hot water for 10 minutes before chopping them. It makes them juicier in the energy bites. Chop them roughly, each date into 3-4 pieces.
Whisk together the peanut butter, agave nectar or maple syrup and vanilla.
Fold in all the remaining ingredients.
With your hand, form a little smaller than a golf ball sized balls.
Add the dark chocolate to or small glass mixing bowl, then place the bowl over a saucepan of hot water and bring the water to a gentle simmer on a low heat (the water shouldn't touch the bottom of the bowl). The chocolate will melt in quickly in -4 minutes, stir it occasionally. Remove the bowl from the heat. Dip the energy bite balls into the melted chocolate (you can sprinkle or just dip half of the energy bite balls - this is up to you, in this case you'll need less chocolate).
Place them on a tray and let them set in the fridge for about 2 hours.
They should last about a week in the fridge.
If you like this vegan treat, check out my other recipes too:
Vegan Date and Chocolate Chip Cookies Recipe
Super Simple Vegan Brownies Recipe
Best Vegan Banana Bread Recipe
