Cacao Beans and Banana Balls

Once peeled, raw cacao beans can be enjoyed as they are or combined with your choice of nuts and dried super fruits. You can also grind them into a fine powder and add to smoothies, shakes and protein drinks or use in a range of yummy raw chocolate recipes such as these indulgent raw cacao bean and banana balls.

Ingredients:

- 1 cup of organic walnuts

- 1 cup of organic dried dates

- 1/2 cup of raw cacao powder (from ground cacao beans)

- 4 tbsp. of organic banana powder

- 1 tbsp. of coconut oil

- A pinch of fine Himalayan pink salt to taste

- 1 small handful of cacao nibs (optional)

Instructions:

First pop 3/4 of a cup of walnuts into your blender and grind into a fine flour. Then remove the pits from your dried dates, cut into chunks and add to the ground walnut. Blend the mixture once more until it is a nice course mass. Next add the raw cacao powder (from your ground raw cacao beans), 4 tbsp. of the banana powder, 1 tbsp. of coconut oil and a pinch of Himalayan salt and blitz for a further 30 seconds. Now pour this mixture onto a plate. Roughly chop the remaining walnuts, add to the mixture and knead into a firm dough. For an extra cacao hit, chocoholics can add a handful of crunchy cacao nibs at this stage. Finally, create small round balls from the dough (and as a final option try rolling them in shelled hemp seeds, for that extra texture). Arrange them on a plate and place in the fridge to chill for approx. one hour prior to serving.