This vegan cookie dough energy balls recipe is the perfect quick and easy home made snack to munch on. Whether it’s on the go or at home, it’s a pure bliss to satisfy a sweet tooth during your day, all while replenishing you with a bunch of healthy nutrients including lots of plant based protein. This snack used to be my best option during my long travels to Hawaii. Traveling and finding the right food when you’re on a vegan and gluten free diet is quiet a challenge. That’s why I’ll always come up with travel friendly recipes to make sure you can prep your food and feel your best wherever you gotta go !
INGREDIENTS AND EQUIPMENT
I love this snack because it uses the same ingredients I use over and over to make a bunch of different treats. Most of these ingredients are also decently cheap especially if you go to CostCo! Usually, protein packed recipes with a peanut butter base are very high in peanut butter content, so very high in calories. But this recipe is well rounded and uses only 1/4 cup peanut butter and yields 14 energy balls.
I use the following ingredients for this recipe:
Creamy peanut butter you could use crunchy peanut butter for extra texture in the energy balls, but I never tried! You can definitely substitute peanut butter for any nut butter or even seed butter. I want to give them a try using tahini sometimes. If you do try to use another ingredient than peanut butter, let me know how you liked it in the comments!!
Gluten free oat flour (just blended oats) ; you can absolutely go for non gluten free oats if gluten has no side effect on you
Maple syrup or agave syrup or any liquid sweetener really. If you are not vegan, you could use liquid honey!
Vegan vanilla protein powder I use the brand Orgain, you could totally make it work without protein powder as well. I do like the vanilla touch in these energy balls though.
Almond milk or any plant based milk such as soy, oat, cashew. I wouldn’t use coconut milk for this recipe
Chopped almonds
Chocolate chips (ideally refined sugar free, but sometimes I just get regular dairy free chocolate chips that do have refined sugar in it. As much as I can, I try to be very mindful of my refined sugar consumption).
Note that you’ll rarely find vanilla extract in my recipes because I believe it’s crazy pricy, but I usually add vanilla flavour to my recipes with protein powder.
Regarding the equipment, you’ll just need a mixing bowl and a spatula if you buy oat flour. If you have unblended oats, you’ll need a blender or food processor to process those.
HOW TO PREPARE THESE VEGAN HEALTHY ENERGY BALLS
I love this snack because it uses the same ingredients I use over and over to make a bunch of different treats. Most of these ingredients are also decently cheap especially if you go CostCo!
Usually, protein packed recipes with a peanut butter base are very high in peanut butter content. But this recipe is well rounded and uses only 1/4 cup peanut butter and yields 14 energy balls.
This recipe could also be super fun to make with kids because it’s dynamic and safe because it doesn’t need any heating.
- Bring all ingredients to a large mixing bowl (except chocolate chips and chopped almonds).
- Mix with a spatula to start, and then kneed with your hands until you have a well combined dough.
- Add chocolate chips and chopped almonds.
- Form about 14 little balls out of the dough, rolling them into your hands to give a round shape.
- Store in the freezer or the fridge (if you store them in the fridge, they will have softer texture. I prefer freezing them for better consistency). If using the freezer, let them rest at least 20-30 min before enjoying. If using the fridge, I’d say double time, 1-2 hours. It is all raw and edible though, so it’s really a matter of personal preference here.
HOW TO SERVE
Cookie dough flavour is sooo good having a little glass of plant based milk on the side to dip it in. That definitely is yummy to consume these cookie dough energy balls this way. But most times when I eat those, I am kind of in a rush or on the go. When I was traveling with them, I’d put them in a zip lock bag. Even when out of the fridge/freezer for hours, they did just fine! But the best best is when they just come out of the freezer. If you do travel with them and know they’re gonna be out of the cold for a while, make sure you prepare them the day before so they can chill overnight and get nice and cold.
REST TIME
My favorite way to consume them is when they just got out of the freezer after chilling for at least 30 minutes. But as mentioned above, it’s really a matter of personal preference. The dough is safe to eat raw! You can lick the spoon safely!
I hope you will love this easy and quick recipe. Leave me a comment below to tell me how it turned out for you 🙂
– Nati
Vegan cookie dough protein energy balls
Equipment
- 1 Mixing bowl
- 1 Spatula
- 1 Blender if you need to break down oats into oat flour
Ingredients
- 1 cup oats I use GF
- 1/4 cup peanut butter
- 1/4 cup almond milk or any plant based milk, except coconut
- 2 scoops vegan vanilla protein powder
- 3 tbs agave syrup or maple syrup or any liquid sweetener
- 1/4 cup dairy free chocolate chips
- 1 handful chopped almonds
Instructions
- Combine all ingredients to a mixing bowl (except chocolate chips and chopped almonds).
- Start to mix with a spatula, once it looks half way combined, use your hands to kneed the dough.
- Add chocolate chips and chopped almonds.
- Take a little bit of the dough in your hands and roll it into a small energy ball.
- Repeat until no more dough.
- Let the energy balls rest in the fridge for at least an hour, or in the freezer for at least 30 min before enjoying (for best results).
- Store them in the fridge up to 1 week and in the freezer up to 2 weeks.
