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Raw cocoa & chia seed energy balls

October 9, 2014 By Nora 6 Comments

It seems, that -involuntary- I lied a little last week in one of my Facebook posts, when I promised that we would cook something this week. Finally, I came up with these nutritious raw cocoa energy balls, that require absolutely no cooking or baking of any kind, but are easy to make ahead and really versatile. 🙂
I’ve made energy bars of many flavors before, so I thought, it’s time for a change of shapes: little balls this time. Of course, I could have turned these into energy bars, just like before: as they are fairly low in carbs and high in (complete) protein and minerals, they also make a great snack on the go or vegan protein and energy bars.

Raw cocoa - chia seed energy balls

Did you know, that in a typical western diet, the most antioxidants are consumed in coffee and chocolates? I don’t refer to the might-contain-traces-of-cocoa kind of alpine milk chocolates, but the real dark ones with 70-80% cocoa content. All those antioxidants come from cocoa beans, that also contains precious minerals (e.g. iron, magnesium, manganese). Generally speasking, the less processed our food is, the richer it is in antioxidants: e.g. 30g of raw cocoa beans contain almost as much antioxidants, as a cup of fresh cranberries (source).

Raw cocoa - chia seed energy balls

Ingredients for approx. 30 pieces:
250g or 1 1/2 cups of dried figs
100g raw cocoa beans or 1 cup (raw) cocoa nibs
80g or 5 tablespoons of chia seeds
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (to taste)
120g or 1 cup of almonds

You’ll need a food processor to prepare these energy balls.

  1. At first, clean the cocoa beans of their thin skin: this is the longest procedure of this recipe. It’s best to carefully crack their skin with a mortar and pestle. Of course, the first couple of beans were shattered… It was a nice relaxing afternoon task, that I finally finished while chatting with visiting friends.
  2. Put the dried figs in the food processor. Start pulsing at first, then process continuously until a thick paste forms. Toss the cocoa bens, chia seeds and vanilla extract.
  3. If you have a high performance food processor, just add almonds to fig mixture and you’re ready! This paste is much more thick than that of the previous energy bars, my food processor wasn’t quite up to the task. So I shredded the almonds separately, and processed it with the fig mixture in portions.
  4. Take a tablespoonful of the mixture and roll it into a small ball gently with the palms of your hands. You can prepare these like the other energy bars: in a baking form lined with baking paper.
  5. When preparing these balls as a dessert or a snack for guests, you can roll them in powdered xylitol to turn them white or xylitol-cinnamon powder to spice things up. Chilli flavoured raw cocoa powder is also worth a try…
Raw cocoa - chia seed energy balls

This is also a pretty versatile recipe: substituting a part of the dried figs with e.g. dried cherries would result in a slightly sour flavour, and you can also use other nuts, e.g. walnuts insted of almonds.
What it’s like? Sweet because of the dried figs, crunchy thanks to the nuts, and it tastes wildly like cocoa, of course… These beans are raw, nut roasted: this flavor might be a big jump for alpine milk chocolate fans, but if you feel like youre ready to take the next step from 81% cocoa content dark chocolate toward cocoa, this is your thing.

About nutritional values. All this cocoa-chia yummyness contains approx. 150g of carbs, 60g of protein (at least 17g complete). If you cut this into 8 bars, that would mean 19g CH and 7,5g protein /bar. Not bad for a vegan energy bar! (For the sake of comparison: store-bought energy bars contain 15-20g of protein, but are usually based on some protein powder, e.g. whey isolate.) Chia seeds and cocoa beans add a lot of minerals to all this good stuff. The way I rolled them now, it’s approx. 5g CH/energy ball.

Raw cocoa - chia seed energy balls

Related posts:

Plum and walnut amaranth bars Coconut Yogurt Ice Pops with Balsamic Roasted Strawberries Homemade hazelnut spread (nutella) without sugar, dairy and all those bad fats Cherry chilli truffles that make you forget they’re actually sugar- and dairy-free

Filed Under: dairy-free, egg-free, gluten-free, sugar-free, vegan, vegetarian, yeast-free Tagged With: Christmas, dessert, energy bar, gift ideas, low glycemic, make ahead, on the road, paleo, raw, snack, sweets, truffles

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Anonymous says

    April 25, 2015 at 7:48 pm

    These look very good. Would you convert the grams of the
    following ingredients? There are other recipes here that
    have the grams (I think it's grams?) that would work if converted.
    250g dried figs
    100g raw cocoa beans
    80g chia seeds
    120g almonds

    Also, is there a type of cocoa that is a healthy option
    other than raw cocoa beans? Thanks!

    Reply
  2. Nóri says

    April 25, 2015 at 7:53 pm

    Hi, thanks for stopping by! I'm glad you like my stuff. 🙂
    Yes, I do my measurements in grams, but I'll try to convert them for you:
    1 1/2 cup dried figs
    1 cup cocoa nibs
    5 tablespoons of chia seeds
    1 cup almonds, whole

    You can also use cocoa nibs, they don't need to be raw, if you're not into eating raw – it's just an option.
    Hope you'll like them! 🙂

    Reply
  3. Fê says

    September 28, 2015 at 12:19 pm

    Hello! Thanks for posting the recipe 🙂
    Do you think you could suggest other ingredients to substitute cocoa beans /cocoa nibs? I don't think i have ever seen those in my town (i live in Brazil).

    Thank you for the attention given!

    Reply
  4. Nora says

    September 28, 2015 at 12:21 pm

    Hi,
    I think you could sub cocoa nibs with any nuts you like.
    Thanks for stopping by!

    Reply
  5. Liri says

    October 14, 2017 at 8:44 pm

    Hi
    There is an alternative option for the chia seeds?
    Thank you

    Reply
    • Nora says

      October 16, 2017 at 1:53 pm

      Flax seeds for example. 🙂

      Reply

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I'm Nora: creative foodie, ex-PCOS patient, mom of a little baby girl, scientist, coffee lover, avid traveller to name a few things that come to mind. More about me...

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