Today’s guest recipe is from Tawny at Nutrition is Medicine. Tawny’s take on the Carrot Cake Larabar is nut free and packed full of leafy greens and carrots, making it the perfect snack for those avoiding nuts or for kid’s lunch boxes (although we think everyone will love them just as much!).
As a variation, you could also form the mix into bliss balls and roll in desiccated coconut. Yummo! We can’t wait to try this recipe.
Tawny says: Larabars were my go-to snack when I first started eating paleo, but then I ended up having to eliminate nuts due to allergy. I found out I had an allergy to nuts by following the autoimmune protocol (AIP) for a few months and then reintroducing foods into my diet. After eliminating nuts my skin and digestive health both improved dramatically!
Needless to say, the reintroduction of nuts didn’t go so well! I used to eat nuts on a daily basis so I had to come up with some nut-free snack ideas. Larabars were out of the question because they all contain cashews, almonds, and/or peanuts. So, I ended up inventing my own nut-free Larabar recipe for those of us with nut allergies. They still contain seeds, but you can leave those out if you can’t tolerate them (or are following strict AIP). I even managed to sneak some greens into these bad boys; take that, Larabar!
I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I did!
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Carrot Cake Lara Bars – Guest Recipe
- Prep Time: 2 hours
- Total Time: 2 hours
- Yield: 20 1x
Ingredients
- 2 cups kale or chard
- 2 cups grated carrot
- 4 cups pitted dates
- 1/4 cup coconut butter
- 1/4 cup coconut oil
- 1 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp allspice
- 1 tsp ginger
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1/2 cup sunflower seeds
- 1/2 cup hemp seeds
Instructions
- Put oven on lowest setting.
- Chop kale or chard and lay on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and put in oven (or use a dehydrator if you own one).
- Grate carrot onto a separate lined baking sheet and put this in oven as well.
- Let these dehydrate in oven while checking on them every 30 minutes to mix so they dry evenly. Once most of their moisture has evaporated (they will be crisp) remove them from oven and let cool.
- Add the kale or chard to a food processor with the dates, coconut butter, coconut oil, cinnamon, allspice, and ginger, and process into a smooth paste. Remove this paste from processor and place in a mixing bowl.
- Add the dehydrated carrot, raisins, sunflower seeds, and hemp seeds to the mixing bowl and combine thoroughly (I used my hands).
- Line a small cookie sheet or other baking dish with parchment paper and press the paste flat into the dish to desired thickness (mine was approximately 1 inch thick and 12 x 16 inches).
- Let it set for a couple hours in the fridge.
- Once set cut into your desired bar size (I cut mine into 20 pieces).
About Tawny
Tawny holds a B.Sc. in chemistry and is now currently working towards becoming a Registered Holistic Nutritionist. Based in British Columbia Canada, she is the founder of the healthy living website Nutrition is Medicine, which focuses on whole foods, traditional diets, and the holistic lifestyle. With her work she aims to share her holistic knowledge and make good health an option available to everyone. Find more recipes and nutrition information from Tawny on her website, Facebook, or Google+.
Oh this is FAB, I think I’ll use my green juice pulp in these! Thank you 😀
Great Idea – let us know how they turn out!
flippin’ eck, these are tasty! Thanks for providing the recipe.
★★★★★
4 cups of dates??!!! That’s a lot of sugar for 20 serves.
It might seem so but have you tried measuring out dates in a cup? You can only fit about 7-8 dates. So think about how many dates that would be per serve in the end. Less than 2.
Can you freeze these??
My gut feeling is yes.
Any ideas on what you could replace the coconut butter and oil with? I have an allergy. Thanks!!
If you can tolerate nuts, I suggest to use some almond butter or cashew butter instead of coconut butter and olive oil or macadamia oil instead of coconut oil.
Hi Irena – would these bars turn out ok if one skipped the step where the kale and carrots are dehydrated in the oven?! In other words, what about all ingredients in the food processor and then into molds and into the fridge?!
Hey, I haven’t tried it this way but I imagine the moisture content would be slightly different. You might have to add some more of the drier ingredients. I also think they would last better with dehydrated veggies, so maybe keep them in the fridge.