The further I delve into healing work the more I find myself cleaning. I guess it’s really nothing new, as I tend to clean a lot anyway. I can’t work in cluttered environments and it feels like the clearer my mind gets the clearer I want my surroundings to be. A few times I year I get the strong urge to completely uproot and rearrange everything in certain spaces such as my room or the kitchen. Even if things are already pretty clean the act of completely rearranging helps to get rid of any stagnant energy I might be sensing in the space.
Sometime last week I found myself reorganizing the kitchen cupboards, which had truthfully become a slightly chaotic mess of bags of tea, lentils, flours, grains and other assorted things. As I was sorting through everything I found a few things that had been mostly forgotten about. Carob powder was one of those things. I honestly don’t remember the last time I used it…. I think it was at some point during the summer. I figured I needed to come up with something delicious to inspire myself to use my carob powder more often.
I don’t know if this recipe can really be called fudge when there’s nothing chocolately about it… but I’m terrible when it comes to recipe names. Besides, there really is no other word to fit these absolutely delicious, flavor-packed, melt-in-your-mouth squares of goodness.
If you’re curious about carob (what exactly it is, what it tastes like) I’ve talked about it in this post. But all you really need to know is that it is crazy delicious and alongside a few other awesome ingredients it makes amazing fudge (or whatever you’d like to call this recipe).
The smell of toasted sunflower seeds is one of my favorites (actually, anything toasted smells delicious—I love making granola simply for the way the toasty smell fills the whole house). There aren’t a whole lot of ingredients in these little squares of “fudge” but they are truly packed with flavor. The toasted nuttiness and depth of the sunflower seeds, the bitterness of tahini, the hint of sweetness from the raisins and mesquite powder, the taste rich carob. I could go on and on about the flavors, but you should probably just make this for yourself.
Toasted Sunflower Seed and Carob Fudge
Makes about 25-30 squares
1 cup raw sunflower seeds
1 cup raisins or dates (I used 3 large dates and the rest raisins)
1 cup full fat coconut milk
3 tbsp. coconut oil
2 tbsp. raw carob powder
2 tbsp. tahini
1 tbsp. mesquite powder, optional
½ tbsp. maca powder, optional
Dash of ground cinnamon and/or cardamom, optional
Place the sunflower seeds in a skillet over medium-low heat. Stir frequently for 3-5 minutes, until the seeds are lightly browned and fragrant.
Pour the seeds into the bowl of your food processor and pulse until broken into a very fine flour-like consistency. Add the raisins/dates and pulse again until the mixture sticks together. Add the remaining ingredients and blend until thoroughly combined.
Scoop the mixture into a lined pan (I used a round 9-inch pan, but any size/shape will work). Set in the freezer until solid (at least several hours, or overnight). Slice into squares and enjoy!
Note: the mesquite powder, maca powder and spices are optional but I find that each adds a wonderful depth of flavor to the fudge. If you don’t like them/don’t have them on hand that’s perfectly all right. Feel free to make this recipe as simple or complex as you like and play with any other add-ins you might have on hand!
Much love,
Lane
