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Hi everyone, I have a super recipe to share with you today!

I absolutely hate to waste food so whenever I make home made almond milk I’m always wondering what I can do with the leftover almond pulp. I’ve made cookies with it, used it as a skin scrub (FYI, it works really well and leaves your skin very soft!) and added it to smoothies and cereal. This time I decided I wanted to make some energy balls but I was stuck as to what flavour I fancied. Then I had a light bulb moment – why not add chai flavour with chai tea?

Chai Almond Energy Balls (makes 13 balls)

• 6 Medjool dates, pitted
• 1 cup of almonds, soaked for a few hours (or the almond pulp leftover from making almond milk)
• 2 chai tea bags (I used Clipper Indian Chai Tea) 
• pinch of salt

Using a food processor, process the soaked almonds until they become a rough meal and set aside (or skip this step if you are using leftover almond milk pulp). Open the tea bags and add the tea leaves to the food processor along with the pitted dates and process until the mixture becomes clumped together and sticky. Add the almonds and the pinch of salt and process again until the mixture is combined. Take small handfuls of the mixture and roll into balls. Refrigerate or wrap in foil and store in the freezer, defrosting when needed.

These taste wonderful! The chai flavour is just lovely and is well complemented by the sweetness of the dates. Each ball is about 135 calories and with the fast release simple carbs from the dates and healthy fats from the almonds plus the small amount of caffeine in the tea, they will make a brilliant pre workout snack. I have stored mine in the freezer – for morning workouts I’ll just take it out of the freezer and place in the fridge the night before, or for evening workouts I’ll just pop one in my bag and by the time my workout comes round it should be defrosted.

I love these ‘balls’ (haha, get your mind out of the gutter!) recipes as they are so versatile. You can go with any mix of dried fruit, nuts and flavourings – I adore my Cherry Bakewell Babies too! Of course you don’t have to make these as balls, they can be formed into bars or different shapes.

What would be your ideal mix of flavourings for a raw energy ball?

I love the idea of dried blueberries and raw coconut shreds! Hope your week is off to a great start, I’m off to eat some raw chocy, have a great one!