No bake sugar free and dairy free energy carob ladoos

Ladoos are round sweet balls; they are a popular Indian dessert. This weekend for my food experiment, I tried making sugar free and dairy free energy ladoos. Unlike any desi (slang for Indian) ladoos, they are inspired by protein/energy bites which is something very prevalent in the US. This experiment was way different from my past experiments where I'd been using authentic Indian recipes and ingredients. However, given that this recipe has ingredients with all sorts of goodness and the fact that it was super easy, it was hard to forego it. Also, it gave me a chance to learn about carob, something that I've always been curious about. For this recipe I used Suspire's Vegan Carobs Chips. Carob is basically similar to chocolate, just like chocolate it does not have any unsaturated or trans fats. However, its texture and flavor is a bit different from that of chocolate. Carobs are naturally sweeter or rather less bitter than chocolate which makes it sometimes a preferable substitute for chocolates in dessert recipes. Apart from carobs, oat  and sesame seeds are a key ingredient in this recipe. Both aats and sesame seeds have a good content of dietary fibers and together is a great source of calcium, iron, magnesium, zinc and selenium. Hence, its great for our heart, immune system and also has cancer preventing qualities.

I got this recipe from one of my brother's colleagues wife (thanks Kim!). It's really simple, just requires throwing things together and then rolling them out into bite size balls. Based on the availability of the ingredients, I modified the recipe a little bit. The original recipe had flax seed powder, I substituted that with roasted sesame seeds, must say that sesame seeds added that desi ladoo taste to it!  And obviously, one of the major substitution was carob chips which I used instead of chocolate chips :) Also, I added raisins and sliced almonds to add more to the taste and nutrients, you can always exclude them if you want to...

I found these energy ladoos way more tasty than any protein or energy bites I've ever had from any whole foods or local foods store.... I mean seriously, is there anything better than freshly homemade stuff?!

I highly recommend this recipe to everyone and assure that you wouldn't be disappointed at all. Enjoy! :)

Ingredients :  
1 cup oats
1/2 sesame seeds (roasted)
1/2 cup carobs
1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup peanut butter
handful of raisins and sliced almonds

Method: 
Mix all the ingredients in a bowl and then roll them out into a bite sized balls and EAT IT! 

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