Janella Purcell’s Super Natural Food Bars

You don’t have to use this exact recipe, it’s more of a guide. Never again do you need to buy a muesli bar, not now you know how to make these little bars of goodness. Plus the added benefit of no packaging. Soaking the nuts and seeds not only soften them to make them easier to digest, but soaking also removes some of the hard-to-digest enzyme inhibitors from the skins of the nuts.

INGREDIENTS

1 cup pitted dates, or dried figs
1 cup almonds
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
1/4 cup hemp seeds
1/4 cup of superfood green powder of your choice
1/4 cup sunflower seeds
1/3 cup cacao nibs
1/2 cup coconut shredded
2 tbsp maca powder
1/4 cup coconut oil
1 tsp cardamom, ground
1 tsp cinnamon, ground
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

METHOD

Cover the dried fruit, nuts and seeds in clean water and soak for at least 8 hours, which softens them up. I soak them in the morning and then make these later in the day or overnight and do them in the morning. After soaking, rinse them in a colander and let them drain. Place the soaked dried fruit and nuts/seeds in your food processor and whiz for a minute to get a chunky paste. Then add in the remaining ingredients. You may need to add a little water to get it to a nice puree, scraping down the sides once or twice. At this point you should have a thick paste that kind of looks like granola. If it’s too dry, add in 1/4 cup more coconut oil and process again. The processing will heat the coconut oil enough to help it blend everything else together. You could also make these into bite-sized balls or scoop the mixture out into a large glass pan and press it down firmly with a spoon to even everything out. Freeze for 30 minutes or refrigerate for one hour to harden the bars or balls If you make these as bars, cut them with a knife and package them individually.

These will keep for one week in the fridge and 1 month in the freezer.

Variations