Halva
Servings: makes about 20 pieces of halva cut in small squares, like fudge
Traditional halva recipes are often full of sugar and gluten flours. The bars in health-food stores are unfortunately the same.
This recipe makes a rich, delicious, chewy, and slightly crunchy dessert or snack. It needs to be chilled and stored in the refrigerator to get a fudge-like consistency.
Note that you may want to start soaking the sesame seeds and flax meal the night before you want to make this dish (soak for 8–12 hours and see instructions at the beginning of this chapter). Soak the sesame seeds and flax meal in separate containers. After soaking and rinsing the seeds, put them in your oven at the lowest temperature and roast them (about 10–15 minutes). Alternatively, you can dry them in your food dehydrator at 115° for about 2–6 hours.
The recipe itself takes about 15 minutes to prepare once the seeds and meal are soaked and the seeds are roasted.
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup organic ghee or raw butter
3 cups organic tahini
1 cup presoaked, roasted organic unhulled sesame seeds
4 cups presoaked flax meal
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1½ tsp. sea salt
Sweetener options:
The recipe tastes the same warm or cold, so add the amount of sweetener that works for you. Choose ½–1 tsp. stevia (or you can customize to taste; if you like the taste, stop adding stevia), ¼ cup raw honey, or 20 Medjool dates.
INSTRUCTIONS
:
In a saucepan on low heat, add 1 cup of tahini with the ghee or raw butter, stir in flax meal, and gently heat while stirring constantly, until light brown. Then add the rest of the tahini.
Add sweetener and sesame seeds and mix well. If using dates, either make a date paste by soaking them in hot water for at least 30 minutes, draining and mashing up with a fork, or mash them up in your food processor. Once you’re done making this, taste it to see if it’s to your liking. You can add additional sweetener, sea salt, vanilla, or ghee if you want to shift the flavor to satisfy your taste buds.
Pour into a greased glass container with tall edges or a silicone bread-loaf pan (grease very lightly with raw butter, ghee, or coconut oil). Put in the refrigerator to chill, and cut as soon as it’s solid enough. It will have the consistency of fudge.
The halva is best when kept refrigerated. Store in the refrigerator for up to 1 week, and in the freezer for up to 2 months.