Everyone loves the tart citrus flavor of lemons, especially in desert form.
These raw vegan lemon balls have a smooth, creamy texture, and are low in refined sugar, making them not only tasty, but also guilt-free.
Best of all, there are multiple ways of preparing these treats – they can be rolled in almond flour or placed overnight in a dehydrator until they’re slightly hard on the outside while still being soft on the inside.
They’re grain-free and gluten-free, making them great for potlucks or group dining situations where one or more people may have food sensitivities.
Coconut-Lemon Meltaway Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cup almond flour
- 1/3 cup organic raw coconut flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 to 2 tablespoons organic maple syrup
- 3 organic lemons
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup coconut oil, melted
Instructions
Juice the lemons using a hand juicer and combine it with the other ingredients in a food processor.
Process them until they’re well combined into a smooth paste.
Take the paste out one spoonful at a time and roll them into balls using your hands.
You can leave them plain, or roll them in shredded coconut flakes or almond flour.
Place them in the refrigerator and let them chill for between 10 and 15 minutes.
How It Works
It’s rare for a dessert to be so good for you, but lemon juice has been shown to contain polyphenols that suppress diet-induced obesity in mouse models.
“Body weight gain induced by the high fat diet was significantly reduced by feeding with the diet containing lemon polyphenols,” a study on the subject explains.
“Supplementation with lemon polyphenols significantly decreased the epididymal, perinephric, and mesenteric visceral fat pads and inguinal, subcutaneous fat pad.”(1)
When combined with regular exercise, daily lemon ingestion has been shown to have a positive effect on blood pressure.
“For 101 middle-aged women in an island area in Hiroshima, Japan, a record of lemon ingestion efforts and the number of steps walked was carried out for five months… As a result, it was suggested that daily lemon intake and walking are effective for high blood pressure because both showed negative correlation to systolic blood pressure.”(2)
So don’t feel guilty about consuming these treats regularly, and pair them with a daily 20 minute walk – the recommended minimum daily amount of exercise for American adults – and you’ll have plenty of reason to feel good about chowing down on these snacks.
[mks_toggle title=”sources” state=”close “]- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2581754/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4003767/