vegan coconut bars

In my quest to find calorie friendly vegan snacks, I’ve been scouring blogs, YouTube and social media pages in search of inspiration of any kind. Unlike my partner, I don’t have a big sweet tooth so other than one little taste, cakes and cookies are mostly consumed by him. And my mother-in-law who comes with her own love of all things sugary.

Then I stumbled across this recipe from Honey It’s Plant Based, and I fell in love.

This recipe is easy, it’s fast and it’s totally vegan!

When I say this vegan snack recipe is easy, I mean it!

All you’ll need is a scale, a food processor and a casserole dish. Parchment paper optional.

Ingredients:

Cashews (I used raw & unsalted because the flavors are clean and toasted them a little)
Dates (pitted & chopped)
Coconut flakes
Lemon juice & zest
Vanilla

That’s it, pop the cashews into the food processor (this is mine!) first and run until are fine-ish, almost like a meal.

Then add the dates because these suckers are sticky and you want them to break up enough to provide the binding for your vegan bars.

Finally, add the remaining ingredients until blended and then press into your casserole dish like the top photo.

Refrigerate until firm. If you’re too impatient to wait, they’ll crumble apart as soon as you cut into them. Cover and keep in the fridge until the container is empty, or freeze the leftovers.

The bars were not too sweet but very delicious. They would have been better but I didn’t have enough coconut as the recipe required, but I highly recommend anyway.

And the best thing about these bars is that I already have a few ideas to make different types of vegan snack bars to enjoy! In fact, my partner thinks these are pretty great pre-workout bars, though he only eats half when that’s the case.

If you make these, or any other of my vegan recipes, tag me on Facebook at The Spicy Spatula or on IG at indyjaxn!!