These easy to make Ginger & Carrots energy balls are perfect for an afternoon snack or a little energy boost during the day. These, ‘no bake’ energy balls are simple to make and taste absolutely delicious!

With this recipe, I guess I was trying to recreate a healthy alternative to a carrot cake! It’s a lot more healthier, as these energy balls have plenty of protein, minerals and vitamins.

More healthy snacks you might like to try

Ingredients

Oats

I’m using proper porridge oats, like a steel cut, Scottish Oats. We are going to blitz them in the food processor anyway, but they have much more vitamins and fibre than instant oats.

Oats will give you energy over long period of time and they will also fill you up.

Dates

Dates, not only provide natural sugar, but they also hold everything together. It’s quite difficult to substitute them for something else that has the same consistency and texture.

Orange juice

You could use water, but I find that orange juice gives these energy balls extra vitamin C and lovely orange flavour.

Ginger

Ground ginger is a lovely warming spice. If you want to you can substitute it with fresh ginger or other spices such as cinnamon or mixed spice.

Walnuts

Going with my carrot cake theme, ground walnuts are perfect for finishing the energy balls.

Making your energy balls

You will need a food processor or food mixer to make this Ginger & Carrots Energy Balls recipe, as it’s quite important to get all the ingredients as smooth as possible. I start with the oats and raisins, then add the carrot and ginger. Finally you want to add the pitted dates and about half of the orange juice.

The dough needs to be firm enough to hold it’s shape, so if you see that everything is coming together well, don’t add any more liquid. The best way to test this is to stop the food processor and try to make the first ball.

Before you start to roll out your Ginger & Carrots Energy Balls, I’d also recommend to taste your dough first. Add more ginger or other spices if you feel it needs a bit more. Salt can also help to bring all the flavours together, so tiny pinch of salt (ideally dissolved in a bit of water) will help if you find the flavour a bit bland.

When you are happy with the flavour of your dough, roll out the energy dough into 12-15 energy balls. The size depends on your portion size and how big you want them to be.

One final thing, don’t forget that these energy balls are exactly that – a balls of energy! So please don’t eat them like if they are biscuits to go with your afternoon tea. You ment to have one after you finish a workout or come back from running or if you are really struggling for energy in the afternoon.

Storing energy balls

Because these are not baked, they have much shorter shelf life than baked energy bars or other snacks. If you keep them in an airtight container in the fridge, they should be fine for 3-4 days. If you know that you won’t be able to eat them in that time, it’s better to freeze them and then take out just what you need. To freeze your energy balls, place them individually on a tray, leave to freeze completely and then collect them to a suitable container. This way they will remain individually frozen and won’t get stuck to each other. They will defrost really easily, just leave them in the fridge overnight to defrost.

Eat one and if after 20 minutes or so you really need another one, go for it, but let your body guide you. You’ll be surprised how filling these are!

Hope you enjoy making these Ginger & Carrots Energy Balls and if you do, let me know in the comments bellow.

Magdalena