Are you looking for a healthy snack that can give you plenty of energy, especially during the slump in the middle of the afternoon? Well, we are going to prepare a recipe that only requires 4 ingredients to make the perfect healthy energizing snack! Matcha energy balls!!!
Click on the video right above to follow the recipe while I am making them or continue reading to find the recipe written down!
What is matcha?
Matcha is a type of Japanese green tea that has been grounded into a powdered form. Unlike with normal green tea, you actually consume the whole tea leaf here, so you have even more health benefits!
Matcha tea benefits
Here are a few of its health benefits, matcha tea is:
- very rich in antioxidants
- helps you fight fatigue
- it increases your brain function, your attention and memory
- helps you to lose weight
- may prevent cancer
- and more!
Matcha energy balls recipe
These matcha balls are raw, vegan, paleo and gluten free! They are healthy but also really yummy, so get cooking!
Also, if you enjoy healthy Japanese food, you can learn how to make homemade miso paste, how to prepare natto and how to heal your gut with fermented Japanese foods!
Ingredients
- Shredded unsweetened coconut: 1 cup
- 10 pitted dried dates
- Matcha powder: 2 tbsp
- Chocolate or nuts such as pecans or walnuts
This batch will make 12 matcha balls!
You will also need
- a blender
- a container with a lid
- a measuring cup
- 1 big bowl
- 1 medium bowl
- a plate or a second container
Instructions
- The night before you want to make these, you will need to put your dates in a container with a top that goes on it. Put warm water on your dates and then put the lid over your dates.
- You can also put your dates in warm water for a couple hours before making the matcha energy balls. Though, I prefer putting them in the water the night before, like that I am sure that they really soaked up the water as much as possible and when I put them afterwards in the blender, they become liquid super easily. But be careful to not let them stay in the water for more than a day or not their taste starts going bad.
- If you want to put pieces of chocolate in your mix, you can either buy some chocolate chips. Or you can do like me, because I try to eat chocolate with at least 80% cocoa in it and the only chocolate chips I can find are full of sugar with very low cocoa content, so I just take a knife and start cutting tiny pieces or you can shred it. If you are using nuts, then you can crush them into tiny pieces. Put these in a bowl and keep them on the side for now.
- Now that your dates have absorbed the water, you’re going to put them in the blender with a little bit of the dates liquid, but just enough so that they blend well. Don’t throw away the rest of the juice just yet, keep it aside. Now mix them on high speed until your mixture is liquid.
- Then, pour your shredded coconut into your measuring cup until you have 1 cup.
- Pour your shredded coconut into a big bowl.
- If you are obsessed with matcha tea and you don’t mind the bitter taste, you can add some extra matcha powder in your coconut mix. But this is optional.
- Add your chocolate or nuts.
- Now, add your blended dates onto the shredded coconut and mix!
- Put your matcha powder into a small bowl.
- Take some of the coconut mix and start making a ball between your hands.
- Then, roll your coconut energy ball in the matcha powder, so it’s completely covered in matcha and place it on a plate or in a container.
- Now all you need to do is to put them in the refrigerator for at least an hour! But I would advise to let them for several hours, because they taste better when they’re more firm. And then eat up!
Enjoy your matcha energy balls!
If you want me to make a video or an article about matcha tea, like its benefits or how to prepare the tea or something else, just leave a comment below!
If you haven’t watched the video to this recipe yet, click here!
Have a super energetic day!