Here’s the other dish that I made for last night’s dinner. These were a big hit with the adults, but not so much with the kids. Well, my kid at least didn’t like the cardamom in them, but that just left more for us adults! This recipe doesn’t make a lot–probably about 12 slices.
(By the way, I stole this recipe from One Hot Stove–minus the cream and whole milk, that is! )
Date-Nut Slices
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Author: Susan Voisin, FatFree Vegan Kitchen
Serves: 12
Ingredients
- 1 cup pitted dates
- 1/2-3/4 cup soy milk
- 1/2 cup walnuts
- 1/4 cup almonds
- 1/2 tsp cardamom powder
- pinch of salt
- 1 tbsp toasted sesame seeds (optional)
Instructions
- Chop the dates coarsely. (I used a food processor to do this.)
- Chop the walnuts coarsely. (You may toast them if you wish, but I didn’t.) Grind the almonds to a powder (again, use the food processor).
- In a small saucepan, combine the dates and 1/2 cup soy milk. Bring to a boil and then simmer on medium-low heat, stirring often, till the dates break down and the mixture cooks into a thick consistency that leaves the sides of the saucepan. If it seems to be drying out before the dates break down, add some more soy milk, up to another 1/4 cup.
- Turn off the heat. Stir in walnuts, cardamom and a pinch of salt and combine well. Let the mixture cool almost to room temperature.
- Place the date mixture on a plastic sheet and form it into a long roll. Roll it in almond powder to get it coated.
- Place the roll in the freezer for an hour or more, then cut into 1/2 inch thick slices. Sprinkle sesame seeds on the slices if desired. (Supposedly you can store these in the freezer for a quick treat, but I wouldn’t know; they were all gone pretty fast when I served them.)
Nutrition Information
Serving size: 1/12 of recipe Calories: 99 Fat: 5.3g Carbohydrates: 12.9g Sugar: 9.7g Sodium: 1.8mg Fiber: 2.2g Protein: 2.3g
I will definitely make this again. E. will just have to get used to the taste of cardamom.
Thanks to Nupur at One Hot Stove for the great recipe!
SusanV says
Here are the post’s original comments:
Nupur said…
Can I just say that your slices look sooo much prettier than mine??!! Thanks for trying the recipe. I am going to try and write more vegan recipes…that is a direction in which I am headed too.
For people who don’t like cardamom, maybe we could experiment with other spices/flavors…cardamom and ginger spring to mind.
5:38 PM, January 29, 2006
————————
Jenni said…
Thanks for posting the Ethiopian dishes last week. I made the Ethiopian lentil stew from the PPK site, along with your potato and green bean dish. Yummy!
9:37 AM, January 30, 2006
———————
SusanV said…
Nupur, I thought your slices looked great! I particularly liked them paired with the orange slices. I think it’s great that you’re headed in a vegan direction, and I’ll keep checking your blog for more great recipes.
Hi Jenni–I’m so glad you liked the potato/green bean dish! I’m going to have to try the PPK lentil stew.
8:42 PM, January 30, 2006
————————
Michelle said…
I made these last night for my parents’ anniversary dinner and they were absolutely delicious. I was wondering, though, do you have any idea about the nutritional info for them? Thanks!
2:31 PM, September 15, 2008
Gabrielle says
i’m trying to imagine the taste of these with cardamum, does is stand out a lot, i do like the spice- but i want to make these as a dessert, would cinnimon work better for a more sweet cookie type taste?
SusanV says
I think cinnamon would be delicious.
Kathy Wilkinson says
Sounds yummy. I happen to have some almond flour–do you know how much you would use versus the 1/4 c. almonds before grinding?
Susan Voisin says
I would use a little less than 1/4 cup–probably start with 3 tablespoons and add more if it seems necessary. But, I really think they won’t be as good with almond flour because the texture won’t be the same.
Kathy Wilkinson says
Thanks for your reply. Looking forward to trying this recipe!
Cristal says
These look amazing! 🙂 I would just like to ask if it is possible to replace fresh dates with sun-dried dates for this particular recipe, because fresh dates are harder to find where I live than sun-dried dates.
Susan Voisin says
Dried dates should work fine.
Radhika Sarohia says
Bookmarking this for sure, I’ve got a huge box of dates in the fridge and this will be a perfect way to use some of them up before they go bad hehe
Lila says
A friend recently posted on Facebook a recipe containing a lot of dates, also maple sugar, touting it as “healthy”. I did the math on the grams of sugar in the dates and also Googled it. There are about 64 grams in 1/2 cup, making your recipe about 128 grams, which is equivalent to nearly 2.5 teaspoons of sugar per serving. I’d appreciate your take on how dates are better than sugar, aside from the obvious processing of standard table sugar. Sugar is sugar, right?
Susan Voisin says
From what I’ve read, naturally occurring sugars in dried fruit are absorbed into the blood stream more slowly than processed sugar, as they contain fiber to offset the sugar, so you don’t get the sugar rush, crash, or craving that processed sugar delivers.
More important than that, at least where this recipe is concerned, is that the dates ARE the dessert, the main bulk of the recipe. Try taking them out and replacing them with 2 1/2 teaspoons of sugar and you have a sloppy mess.
From strictly a calorie standpoint, you’re right–sugar is sugar. But there are people who avoid “refined” sugar who would consider a recipe like this sugar-free according to the principles of their diets. I don’t wholeheartedly agree with that–sugar is sugar–but then, all fruits and vegetables have some sugar in them, so then where do we draw the line? The sugar in this dessert comes from a whole fruit, and that’s good enough for me to call it sugar-free. As long as I give the nutritional info and people realize that it’s not calorie-free, I don’t see the harm in that. It’s a dessert, after all, so the sweetness has to come from somewhere.
Thanks for the interesting question. It’s good to re-think these issues once in a while.