Protein Balls
It’s great to have a lot of easy options for snacks, crag food and hiking treats, so I often make my own protein balls. The best thing about these (aside from how easy and healthy they are) is that you can make small changes every time so you don’t get tired of them, or to suit your personal taste preferences. You just need a food processor!
Ingredients:
2 cups total nuts (I like to mix peanuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, walnuts, cashews, almonds and/or pecans: note that the first four have the highest protein content)
6 dates (preferably Medjool, remove pit and cut into a few pieces)
6 figs (preferably Calimyrna, cut into a few pieces)
1/3 cup unsweetened soymilk
½ tsp vanilla
¼ tsp salt
½ cup assorted protein powder (I often like a mix of Gnarly vanilla powder, pumpkin seed powder and pea powder. Hemp powder is great too, and there’s an endless array of powders available. If you want the balls less sweet, use only the natural, unsweetened powders.)
Blend the nuts in a food processor until they are well crumbled (you can either go all the way to powder or leave them a little chunky). Put the nuts in a mixing bowl. Put the dates, figs, vanilla, salt and soymilk in the food processor: I always drape a towel around the mixing bowl at the start in case any of the liquid flies out. Blend well, then scrape into the bowl of nuts and stir by hand with a wooden spoon. Roll small balls with your hands and put into another container. I store the balls in the fridge until I need to take them out with me.
If you make 40 balls and use ¼ cup each of all 8 nuts and seeds, each ball should have about 2.5 grams of protein. If you make 40 balls and use only peanuts, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds, each ball should have a little more than 3 grams of protein.
I researched the protein in each type of nuts, and here’s what I found for 1/4 cup of each which is what you’d use if you split your 2 cups of nuts equally among them all:
peanuts 10 grams
pumpkin seeds 10 grams
sunflower seeds 7 grams
sesame seeds 7 grams
almonds 5 grams
cashews 4 grams
pecans 3 grams
walnuts 3 grams
There’s a pretty big difference in protein levels between peanuts and pumpkin seeds versus pecans and walnuts! So you can make choices about which ones you use, depending on what you like.
Don’t be afraid to experiment!
