By Lucy Corkhill
25th June 2013
They don’t require cooking and a big batch can be rustled up in no time and stored for when you need them. They make a fantastic addition to lunch boxes, and are perfect for elevenses instead of sugary cake or biscuits. Have some on the go to placate hungry home-comers at any hour of the day.
This recipe is for Bliss Balls (don’t you just love the name? Puts a whole new spin on Beckham’s notorious moniker, I think I might start calling my DH Bliss Balls). These are a traditional Aryuvedic snack with ingredients that promote health and wellbeing. The ingredients listed are the Aruyvedic ones, shared with me by a yoga teacher, but the best thing about the recipe is you can adapt it to your tastes, and play around with different ingredients. Try it with dates instead of raisins, coconut oil or nut butter instead of ghee, different seed combinations, or with nuts instead of seeds (soak them overnight), try desiccated coconut, cacao nibs, goji berries…the options are endless.
The measurements are in American cups; I tend to use a small child’s drinking cup as an equivalent but you can buy measuring cups easily from cookware stores, M&S, Amazon etc.
Ingredients:
2 cups sesame seeds, toasted
1 cup raisins or ½ cup dates (if using dates, soak overnight)
3 teaspoons ground cardamom
3 teaspoons ground cumin
3 teaspoons ground ginger
3 thumb-size pieces of fresh ginger, peeled and diced
5 tbsp ghee
How to make bliss balls:
1. To toast the sesame seeds, heat them in a frying pan. Use a spatula to move them regularly until they are lightly browned.
2. Keep a small amount of sesame seeds back to coat the finished bliss balls.
3. Place all the ingredients in a food processor and roughly blend.
4. Tip the mixture onto a clean dry surface and roll into balls. You can choose how big or small you want to make the balls, lots of little ones are very tempting in a Frero Roche-style tower!
5. Roll the finished balls in the remaining sesame seeds, or you can use desiccated coconut instead if you’d prefer.
These little treats are packed with goodness:
Cardamom is known to be helpful in balancing all three Aruyvedic ‘doshas’ in the body. It is a digestive aid and has detoxifying properties.
Ghee is clarified butter. Revered in India for its healing properties, it has long been used to heal wounds and create healthy brain cells: good for memory and learning. Google ghee to find out more about this ‘wonder fat’.
Sesame seeds and oil are considered warming and are used in the Aruyvedic diet to improve digestive health, promote healthy teeth, and stimulate the mind. Sesame seeds are eaten to lubricate and protect body tissues, moisturise hair and skin, invigorate the eyes and liver, fortify the immunity, and promote breastmilk production.
Ginger is basically an Aruyvedic medicine chest. This incredible root is used to stoke the digestive fire, whet the appetite, improve the assimilation and transportation of nutrients to the body to boost immunity, and increase energy. It is also used for joint pain and motion sickness amongst other things.
