An important part of our BE Food Program mandate is helping to make healthy living easy for everyone. As part of this endeavour, we’re pleased to share our recipes online! To get things off to a delicious start, here’s the recipe for the date squares that Joyce demo-ed at our recent Open House:

Raw Vegan Date Squares

Yields: 16 squares

As Joyce mentioned during her demonstration, this base can be used for countless variations. Once you’ve got the process down, feel free to add or subtract ingredients according to your own taste!

Organic Ingredients: Crust
1 cup brazil nuts
⅓ cup walnuts halves
1¼ cups shredded coconut
1 cup honey dates, pitted, roughly chopped (or any soft date of your choice)
½ teaspoon ground vanilla bean or vanilla extract
Himalayan salt to taste – optional

Making the Crust:
1) Using a food processor with S-blade, process nuts into small pieces, transfer to mixing bowl along with coconut
2) Add dates and vanilla to food processor and masticate until a ball is formed. If dates are dry add a splash of water. Transfer dates to nut mixture and hand mix evenly distributing the sticky date paste throughout so nuts and dates easily stay stuck together
3) Press ⅔ of the mixed crust flat into an 8X8-inch pan. Set remaining 1/3 crust aside.

Organic Ingredients: Date Fig Filling
2 cup honey dates, pit and roughly chop
1 cup dried mission figs, roughly chop
Zest from a medium orange
1/4 tsp ground vanilla or pure vanilla extract
Himalayan salt to taste (optional)
¼ cup water

Making the Filling
1) Add all ingredients to your food processor and process until smooth.
3) Using a spoon or a spatula, transfer and spread filling onto crust layer.
4) Sprinkle the remaining crust crumble on top.
5) Cover and transfer to the refrigerator to chill overnight or for 8-12 hours. This will enable the squares to be easily cut and served.
6) Cut into 16 squares.

These raw date squares will keep in the fridge for 10 days, or up to 4 months in the freezer!