Healthy Date and Almond Bites

The other day my sister challenged me to make something for her mid-morning snack. These were her conditions:

1. It should be nutritious. 

2. It should be small enough to politely eat in office. 

3. It should be delicious, because she was sick of the roasted peanuts and sprouts and other foods that are typically recommended as healthy snacks. 

4. It should be relatively easy, in case she wanted to make it herself later.

With these conditions in mind, I scoured the internet for recipes. One of Tarla Dalal's recipes stood out to me - Date and Almond Balls. While simple enough, it tasted of just dates, as they overpower everything else.

So this is my slightly altered and renamed recipe and it's full of iron, vitamins, antioxidants, minerals and dietary fibre. Yayyy for your immunity and haemoglobin! And yes, my sister was very happy. :)

Ingredients: 

1 cup seedless dates, chopped 

½ cup roasted almonds, chopped 

½ tsp cardamom powder 

½ tsp cinnamon powder 

pinch of salt (to enhance the flavour but don't add too much) 

2 tsp ghee (oil is okay but ghee is preferred) 

½ cup desiccated coconut

Method: 

Heat the ghee in a nonstick pan. Add the dates and let them cook for five minutes on low heat. 

Add the roasted almonds, cinnamon powder, cardamom powder and salt. Stir well and turn the heat off. 

Let this cool for five to ten minutes. Shape the mixture into small one-inch balls when still warm, and coat them with desiccated coconut. 

And done! These are tasty and very healthy, plus you can customise according to your preferences.

Yeah, we pretended they were marbles and played a little game! :D

Tips:

You can coat them in melted chocolate too, just before coating with the coconut. Keep them in the fridge to set the chocolate properly. Yummmm!

You can add cashews, peanuts, walnuts, etc if you want. Make sure they're roasted because otherwise the dates will overpower the taste of the nuts.

Store in an airtight container. I have no idea how long they last (because we finished them the same day) but I'd imagine at least a week.