By half past three most afternoons, someone in my house is standing at the pantry with the door open, announcing they are starving. Two kids, a partner who skips lunch more often than he’ll admit, and me trying to get dinner started. The pantry raid used to end in muesli bars and biscuit crumbs on the floor.
So I started making a batch of these energy balls on a Sunday and hiding them at the back of the fridge. They take about ten minutes, most of which is the food processor doing the work while I unpack the shopping. A tray of them sees us through most of the week, and they travel well in lunchboxes and gym bags.
The mix is cashews, walnuts and dates, with a little spirulina folded through and shredded coconut for texture. If you’ve been meaning to do a bit more on the nutrition front without adding another job to the list, this is the sort of small, repeatable thing that actually sticks.
Ingredients
- 250g of raw cashews
- 125g of raw walnuts
- 125g of dates
- 1 teaspoons of Spirulina
- 1/4 cup of shredded coconut
- *Tahini to bind
Method
- Combine all ingredients in a food processor until combined then add a little Tahini at a time to bind all the ingredients together.
- Roll into balls and then roll in desiccated coconut. Place in the fridge until set.
Makes approximately 12 balls. Make a big batch and freeze them.
A quick word on the tahini, since it’s the bit people fuss over. Add it a teaspoon at a time and stop the moment the mixture holds together when you pinch it. Go too far and you’ll be chasing a sticky paste around the bowl. The dates do most of the binding on their own, so the tahini is really just there to bring the last of it together.
Make-ahead, storing and a few swaps
These keep in an airtight container in the fridge for about a week, which is exactly how long I need them to last. For anything longer, freeze them on a tray first so they don’t stick, then tip them into a bag. They thaw in a lunchbox by morning tea, and honestly I think they’re better half-frozen on a hot day.
If walnuts are a problem in your house, almonds or pepitas stand in fine. No spirulina? Leave it out and the balls still work; it’s there for colour and a bit of green more than anything, and the kids barely notice it. A spoon of cacao or some grated lemon zest changes things up if the same flavour every week starts to wear thin. For a different texture I’ll sometimes roll half the batch in coconut and press the rest into a tin as a slice, which is faster when I’m in a hurry.
They sit nicely alongside a few of our other date and lime balls or breakfast balls if you want to fill a container with variety, and if it’s raw bars you’re after, the raw chia energy bars follow the same make-ahead logic. As a general rule I try to build snacks around whole foods and let the fruit do the sweetening, which lines up with the everyday advice from Nutrition Australia on choosing whole, minimally processed snacks. Nothing clever, just something I can make on repeat that everyone will actually eat.
— Nicole Barnes, Golden Door Living kitchen
