Medium | Servings: 24 | Ready In: 15 minutes + 1 hour to Set | Yield: 24 bars
Healthy, whole ingredients like almonds, dates, and whole grain oats come together in this easy no-bake recipe. Fresh lemon, shredded coconut, and poppy seeds create bright, delicious flavor. These gluten-free, oil-free vegan bars are kid-friendly and great for a pre-workout snack.
Ingredients
- 1 cup Almonds* (4 oz)
- 1 ½ cup Dates (300g)
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
- 1 lemon, zest (and juice from only half the lemon)
- 2 teaspoons Poppy Seeds
- 1 ½ cup Rolled Oats
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup shredded Coconut flake, unsweetened
- 2-4 tablespoons water, as needed
How It’s Done:
To make the Lemon Poppy Seed Bars: In a food processor, combine the almonds and dates. Puree until well-chopped and starting to stick together. This might take a good 1-2 minutes, depending on the dryness of your dates.
Add the vanilla, lemon zest and juice, poppy seeds, oats, and salt. Puree until the mixture starts to come together. While the food processor is running, stream in 2 tablespoons of water. Remove the lid and feel the bar mix to check the consistency. You want the mixture to be sticky and clump together. If the mixture is too dry, place the lid back on and stream in water, 1 tablespoon at a time, until you reach this consistency. I usually end up using about 4 tablespoons of water. Add in the coconut flake and puree just 2-3 seconds to incorporate.
To press and set your No-Bake bars: Line a 9×9 square pan with plastic wrap. Place the bar mixture into the pan and use your fingers to press it all the way to the edges. Cover the top with another layer of plastic. Place another 9×9 pan on top and weigh it down with a couple of heavy cans.
Place the pans in a freezer for 1 hour.
When the bars have set, remove them from the pan. Cut into 24 bars and enjoy!
Yield: 24 Bars
Chef’s Tips:
Unrefined Tip: There’s no cane sugar, coconut sugar, maple syrup, or other type of refined sweetener in this recipe. Whole dates are used to provide natural sweetness. Dates are loaded with fiber which helps your body regulate blood sugar and satiety better than any refined sweetener or syrup
* Truly Raw? Almonds sold in the US are pasteurized, for food safety reasons, meaning they aren’t truly “raw”. You can swap them out for raw nuts like brazil nuts, macadamia, or cashews.
Maximum Lemon Flavor: Use the zest of the entire lemon for maximum lemon flavor. A microplane works best for removing the zest without getting any of the bitter parts of the peel.
Nutrition Facts
Serving size: 1/24 of a recipe (1.3 ounces).
Calories 166.27
Calories From Fat (49%) 81.81
- Total Fat 15.44g 24%
- Total Fat 9.78g 15%
- Saturated Fat 6.19g 31%
- Cholesterol 0mg 0%
- Sodium 52.8mg 2%
- Potassium 207.11mg 6%
- Total Carbohydrates 18.43g 6%
- Fiber 4.22g 17%
- Sugar 8.05g
- Protein 3.67g 7%
- Calcium 0.68mg <1%
- Iron 28.23mg 157%
- Vitamin A 1.23IU <1%
- Vitamin C 0mg 0%
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