Quinoa and sweet potato balls

Posted on November 4, 2013 by Laura

These balls are great with zucchini pasta for a main meal or with tzatziki for a snack. The quinoa and almonds make them high in protein so a great vegetarian dish and carnivores won’t even notice that the meat is missing!

Ingredients

•  1 sweet potato

•  1 cup quinoa (uncooked)

•   ½  bunch basil

•   1 cup raw almonds

•   1 clove garlic

•   ½ tablespoon coconut flour

•   ½ teaspoon salt

•   Olive oil

Method

1.       Peel sweet potato, cut into 4, place on a lined baking tray and bake at 180 for 30 mins, turning once. Set aside to cool.

2.       Rinse quinoa then place in saucepan with 1.5 cups water. Bring to boil then simmer with lid on for 10 minutes, return to strainer and drain out excess water (push quinoa with back of spoon to get water out).

3.       In your blender, blend the almonds then add the quinoa, sweet potato, garlic, salt, basil, coconut flour and olive oil until all combined.

4.       Form into golf ball sized balls (approx. 16 balls) and place on lined baking tray, drizzle with olive oil.

5.       Bake on 180 for 25 minutes, turning twice.

Serve with raw zucchini pasta (use a grater or peeler to make your pasta), tzatziki, lemon juice and olive oil for a meal or, dip into tzatziki at a party or picnic. Enjoy!

Guilt free "Bounty" bars.

I love Bounty’s so much.. They were probably my favourite chocolate bar as a child. The problem I find with Bounty’s nowadays is:
a) they are too small (does everything seem to be shrinking?)
b) they are too sweet (sugar is the number 1 ingredient which means they are more sugar than coconut).

I’ve always been a coconut freak. When I was little I used to persuade my mum to buy coconuts at the supermarket and then I’d make my dad open them (with a lot of effort and tools – think vice’s, hammers and nails) so that I could enjoy the delicious goodness inside. To me, the taste, smell and feel of coconut is just like being transported to an island in Fiji…..

I have to admit that I probably couldn’t live without ever eating a Bounty again..
Enter the healthy version!

This is surprisingly easy to make and only has five ingredients!

You will need:

Filling

• 2 cups desiccated coconut
• 200ml coconut cream
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup
• 3 tablespoons melted coconut oil

Chocolate

• 1 cup melted coconut oil
• 1/2 cup raw cacao
• 3 tablespoons maple syrup

To make:

1. Blend (I used my stick mixer) the filling ingredients to combine
2. Press the filling ingredients into a dish lined with baking paper (filling should be about 1cm thick)
3. Place in freezer for approx. 15 minutes until it starts to go firm

4. Blend chocolate ingredients to combine well (if using a blender, pour chocolate mix into a small bowl. If using stick mixer, remove the blade and leave chocolate in bowl)
5. When the filling is firm, remove from freezer and break into rough pieces.
6. Dip pieces into chocolate and place back on the lined dish
7. Put back in the freezer for 5 minutes
8. When set, remove and repeat steps 6 and 7
9. Once the chocolate has hardened you can transfer the bars into a container to keep in the fridge and enjoy as a guilt free treat 

Notes:
– These chocolates must be kept refrigerated because the chocolate will melt really easily.
– If your coconut oil goes hard in the jar, melt it by placing the jar under the hot tap (with the lid on)
– I had a little bit of left over chocolate mix so I made 8 little hazelnut butter filled chocolates. If you have filling left over, you can do the same