Raw Vegan Carrot Cake Balls

Happy Sunday!  I meant to post a “Gratitude Tuesday” dedicated to my yoga practice earlier this week, but my phone had other ideas and actually deleted the whole thing before I was able to save it.  Oopsie!  Oh well.  I suppose one benefit of practicing yoga is the calm mind that allowed me to shrug it off and say, “well, I guess I’ll start over another day”.  I really did NOT feel like starting it over that night.  Trust me. 

So, instead, I’ve decided to give you a little healthy recipe for the weekend.  I always loved carrot cake growing up.  Not kidding, it was a toss-up between that and German chocolate cake every birthday.  I could never decide.  Being a vegan these days, the traditional carrot cake featuring cream cheese icing, is off the table.  Honestly, I have serious ethical issues with dairy these days.  I’ve written a whole blog post about it.  But now that I know a thing or two about making delicious raw desserts, I’ve created my version of an on-the-go bite-sized snack ball that reminds me of one of my favorite cakes.  These are soft, gooey, sweet, with just a hint of spice.  And did I mention that they’re raw, vegan, and sugar free?  Yep, I’d say they’re just about perfect.  But I’ll let you be the judge…

RAW VEGAN CARROT CAKE BALLS

4 medium carrots, peeled and roughly chopped

1 cup soft dates (I used medjool.)

¼ cup hemp seeds (walnuts, pecans, almonds would all work if you don’t have hemp seeds.)

1 ½ cups oats (I try to always use the gluten-free kind)

Thumb of ginger

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp cinnamon

2-3 tbsp unsweetened coconut flakes

Start by adding the roughly chopped carrots to a food processor and pulsing until you have rice-sized pieces.  Then add all other ingredients and process until they form a sticky dough.  Sprinkle the coconut flakes into a shallow dish.  Take 1-2 tablespoon-sized globs of dough and form into balls, then roll them in the coconut flakes.  Refrigerate for at least two hours to firm them.  Enjoy! 

I actually had three of these AFTER my morning smoothie this morning.  You know, because I obviously needed dessert.  Ha!  That’s the best part about guilt-free foods.  You can have them any time you feel the need. 

I’m still tweaking this recipe and may try adding raisins next time for a little more intense flavor.  I’ll let you know how that goes.  Have a fantastic weekend, and eat something green!