Strawberry Protein Bars

Today, I have a new recipe to share with you all.

Say hello to these Strawberry Protein Bars. They're gluten-free, with no added sugar and can be made dairy free if you so wish.

I used to have a protein bar everyday, usually of an evening. It would either be a Quest bar or a Reflex Nutrition R-Bar. Both of these are sweetened with stevia, but they can be quite expensive if you want to have them regularly. For a box of 12, Quest bars can be anything from £19 to £30, depending on where you buy them. The R-Bars were slightly cheaper. Now, neither are dairy-free (they both use Whey Protein!) and have some questionable ingredients. I wanted to try my hand at making a nutritious alternative which would cost less.


These protein bars contain no protein powder, but this can be added if you want to increase the protein content. My recipe contain plant-based protein, excluding the yoghurt. They can be made dairy-free by substituting this for an alternative such as coconut or almond yoghurt. For gluten-free, simply use gluten-free oats. When baked, I found that the strawberries develop a delicious sweetness similar to jam. They can even be eaten raw, but I like the cake-like texture after baking.

Ingredients:

60 grams of oats
1 400g tin of chickpeas
3 tbsp of natural sweetener (I used Natvia)
2 tbsp of nut butter (Almond or cashew work well, but you could you any)
1 tbsp of thick yoghurt
1 tbsp of cinnamon
2 tbsp of freeze-dried strawberries, crushed (feel free to substitute with other freeze-dried fruit for different flavours)


Method:

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees C, if baking.
Line a baking sheet with parchment.

Drain the liquid from the tin of chickpeas into a jar. This can be used for vegan egg-free meringues or as an egg substitute in baking. For more information, see this Facebook page, Vegan Meringue - Hits and Misses.

Add all of the ingredients, besides the strawberries, into a food processor until the mixture is smooth. You should be able to mould the mix without it sticking to your hands.

Divide into 8-12 pieces and form into bar shapes. Place on the baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes until lightly browned. They should look slightly underdone, but they should firm up as they cool.

Leave to cool before eating or place in an air-tight tub and transfer to fridge. If you don't want them immediately, they freeze well.

As you can see from the images, I also experimented with a chocolate mint flavour. If you would like to try them, simply replace the freeze-dried strawberries with fresh mint or mint dark chocolate (I used Plamil No added sugar mint 72%) and add 3 tablespoons of raw cacao powder.

I hope you enjoy these natural and protein powder free bars. I would love to know if there are any other flavours you would like to see here. Please comment below if you have any questions.