Less is so often more. I am amazed at how five simple ingredients can dance together to create cosmic alchemy in the kitchen. In today’s post, I am sharing a super easy, yet delicious carob bars recipe.These Cosmos Carob Bars are naturally vegan, gluten-free and without refined sugar, as you would expect from my kitchen.
They are energizing, and delicious endowed with super healthy ingredients.
(carob pods and carob powder)
Carob offers an excellent alternative to cacao or chocolate
Unlike cacao, carob is free from caffeine. This makes it an excellent alternative to cacao or chocolate. Carob is also high in protein, full of nutrients, and quite abundant in antioxidants.
I’ve found a couple of different types of carob out there. One is lighter and sweeter, whilst the other is darker with a slight bitter hit. I like both and use them interchangeably. Carob is available in any good health food store and easily available online.
Use whatever you have available to you and experiment.
Dates are the ultimate wholefood sweetener
Dates offer an abundance of gifts. Not only do they make a delicious natural sweetener, but they also work as the perfect binder for recipes like this. Unlike refined sugar, this natural sweetener is chock-full of nutrients that are really beneficial for our health.
With alternatives like dates, I’ve not needed to use refined sugar for the best part of 20 years. High fives for dates!
What else?
Well, not much else! Because they are simple. But the other three ingredients make for a delicious medley of texture, flavour, and nutritional goodness. I’ve added ground almonds for their naturally delicious flavour.
Shelled hempseeds for their superstar healthy profile, for that pleasant nutty taste, and also, quite importantly, that comos effect they make, scattering themselves through the bars like little twinkling stars in the night sky.
A touch of vanilla adds a little dance of delectableness too.
Cosmos Carob Bars Recipe Video
Come join me in my kitchen. Here’s a quick video tutorial on how to make them…
Let’s hear it for Carob Cosmos Bars…
Carob Energy Bars with Hemp Seeds
A super healthy energy bar using carob, dates, almonds and hemp seeds.
Ingredients
- 100g (1 cup) dates
- 75g (¾ cup) ground almonds
- 25g (4 tablespoons) shelled hempseeds
- 2 tablespoons carob powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- If your dates aren't already soft and slightly squishy to the touch, then you'll need to soak dates ahead of time for 30 minutes. Soak and then thoroughly drain off the water. If you don't have a food processor and want to make this with a hand blender, then I might suggest soaking your dates for longer, for about an hour (but bear in mind, your bars might end up a tiny bit softer than you want, in which case adding back in some extra ground almonds at the end might help. Play with it.
- Blend all ingredients in a food processor, until everything is mostly broken down. A few rustic chunks are fine. It should hold together nicely if you squeeze some of the mixture between your fingertips.
- Line a loaf tin (or similar sized container) with parchment paper and compact the mixture down really firmly. Take time to make sure it is pressed down to allow it all to hold together. This might take a minute or two and is quite an important stage to make sure you get firm bars rather than crumbly bars.
- Pop it in the fridge for about half an hour to let it firm up some more before chopping it into bars.
- Please check out my video for a quick tutorial on this recipe.
Have you made energy balls with dates? You’ll enjoy ththis super helpful guide too…
Pin Carob Cosmos Bars on your pinterest board for later…
Carob Energy Bars with Hemp Seeds
A super healthy energy bar using carob, dates, almonds and hemp seeds.
Ingredients
- 100g (1 cup) dates
- 75g (¾ cup) ground almonds
- 25g (4 tablespoons) shelled hempseeds
- 2 tablespoons carob powder
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Instructions
- If your dates aren't already soft and slightly squishy to the touch, then you'll need to soak dates ahead of time for 30 minutes. Soak and then thoroughly drain off the water. If you don't have a food processor and want to make this with a hand blender, then I might suggest soaking your dates for longer, for about an hour (but bear in mind, your bars might end up a tiny bit softer than you want, in which case adding back in some extra ground almonds at the end might help. Play with it.
- Blend all ingredients in a food processor, until everything is mostly broken down. A few rustic chunks are fine. It should hold together nicely if you squeeze some of the mixture between your fingertips.
- Line a loaf tin (or similar sized container) with parchment paper and compact the mixture down really firmly. Take time to make sure it is pressed down to allow it all to hold together. This might take a minute or two and is quite an important stage to make sure you get firm bars rather than crumbly bars.
- Pop it in the fridge for about half an hour to let it firm up some more before chopping it into bars.
- Please check out my video for a quick tutorial on this recipe.
Thank you beautiful Trinity for your recipe.
I recently moved to Mallorca and here they have carob “production”. I am changing my diet and looking for alternatives to refined sugar… and “accidentally” started talking to a man in a restaurant who owns a carob factory. According to what he told me about carob, and all youtube info on the subject I’m trying to find out why not everybody already is using carob instead of white sugar/Cacao/chocolate… especially like instead of sugar in coffee…
Besides the benefits you talk about in you video… it is also used to treat the gut if you have (sorry) diarrhea – so it is probably a much healthier, yummier and cheaper way to treat small stomach issues.
Thank you so much for sharing Helena. This sounds fascinating. I would be very interested to hear more if you find out more information as this fascinates me too. Very synchronistically I woke up this morning and was going to repost this recipe on facebook (but had forgotten lol!!!) – and then you post a message – very timely.
I’ve been to Mallorca before and would love to visit again. Perhaps we shall cross paths!
I knew you needed a reminder 🙂
I’ll keep you updated when I find out more about it… There must be some reasons why Mallorcans don’t use it for their coffee… not even in the most conscious restaurants they have it… I’ll dig into this… I guess it’s more expensive…
You should really come to Mallorca… The tourist season starts around april, and most residents prefer the period before that… during the tourist season it’s super crowded and last year was also super hot. I know you’re a HSP as me (since I’ve checked in on your webpage and the Openhand webpage for some years… )
Personally I’m not a vegetarian or vegan – at least not yet… but I’m moving in that direction… so I am “checking out” good restaurants.
There are a lot of concscious people here…
There is a very very super nice restaurant – Santosha in Palma. They are mainly vegetarian and also very conscious.I don’t know if you visit restaurants that are not vegan…
Also my favourite is a take away & delivery called Raw & Vegan. They have a few places to sit, and they helped me with a serious detox for my gut. They have structured water, and wheatgrass shots among other things…