Tasty energy balls:

date, cocoa & pumpkin seed

By: Jamie Oliver

   SERVES 12     COOKS IN 25 MINUTES    DIFFICULTY: NOT TOO TRICKY

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Ingredients

• 70 g pumpkin seeds

• 20 g puffed brown rice or puffed quinoa

• 50 g whole almonds

• 80 g Medjool dates

• 1 cm piece of fresh turmeric or ½ teaspoon ground turmeric

• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1 heaped teaspoon quality cocoa powder

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• ½ tablespoon manuka honey

• 1 orange

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Method

1. Blitz 40g of the pumpkin seeds into a fine dust in a food processor, then decant onto a plate.

2. Place the remaining pumpkin seeds and the puffed rice or quinoa in the processor with the almonds and dates (destone first), then blitz until finely chopped.

3. Peel and finely grate in the turmeric, if using fresh, or add the ground turmeric, along with the cinnamon, cocoa powder and a pinch of sea salt.

4. Blitz again until finely ground, then add the vanilla, honey and half the orange juice.

5. Blitz for another 1 to 2 minutes, stopping to scrape down the sides a couple of times, and adding an extra squeeze of orange juice to bind, only if needed – it takes a while for the mixture to come together, so be patient and let the processor work its magic.

6. With wet hands, divide into 24 and roll into balls, dropping them into the pumpkin seed dust as you go.

7. Shake to coat, storing them in the excess dust until needed. They’ll keep happily for up to 2 weeks in an airtight container.

Tips

Medjool dates have the double benefit of being high in both fibre and chloride, a nutrient that helps our digestion, and we get a hit of copper from the pumpkin seeds.