food | very veggie

Healthy Halvah

October 25, 2011 by

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Very Veggie features a weekly recipe that showcases the best in vegetarian, sometimes vegan, dishes, with helpful cooking and ingredient tips and tricks.

Halvah is a traditional, sweet, Middle Eastern dessert. The main ingredient is usually sesame seeds, which are loaded with calcium, iron and fibre. They are pungent and nutty, and they have a unique flavour.

Ingredients:

1 cup sesame seeds
1/4 cup dates
1 to 2 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp vanilla bean powder or carob powder

Directions:

1. Grind sesame seeds past meal-stage, into a seed butter. Add in the dates and honey. Process well until it becomes one sticky mass.
* For chocolate halvah, mix in raw carob powder, but don’t mix well—allow it to become marbled.
* For more vanilla flavour, add 1 tsp vanilla.
2. Line a square tray box with waxed paper, and press in the mixture.
3. Put box in the refrigerator to chill for an hour or so.
4. Remove from refrigerator, and slice into cubes.
5. Makes about 1 dozen 1-inch cubes.

This recipe stores for 2 months in the freezer, and it only takes 20 minutes to prepare. Keep these four simple ingredients in your kitchen, and you’ll never have to buy halvah again.

photographer: Joseph Saraceno | art direction: Pencil