Sweet Dates with Nuts-Strawberry Smoothie Porridge Bowl

I am calling this smoothie porridge bowl "Sweet Dates with Nuts".  Hope you enjoy!

A FEW WORDS ABOUT DATES

In the Bible, dates are referred to many times, often in reference to their sweetness.  Dates continue to be grown and eaten in-- and exported from-- the Middle East.  Our North American grocery stores now also sell soft delicious Medjool dates grown in the USA.  Such a nice change from the hard cake of dates I knew as "dates" when I was a girl in rural Saskatchewan.

Dates also turn out to have the highest nutritional profile as a sweetener. They contain vitamin K, magnesium, selenium, antioxidants  and of course, fibre.  Early risers during the time of Ramadan (fasting all day) eat dates for breakfast as a chief way to get through the day.   

Date Syrup

Many Middle Eastern cooks make a date syrup-- dates and water-- as a delightful sweetener and for baking.  There are different methods, some more traditional methods with a 100% hands-on approach: soaking the dates, squeezing all the "juices" through cheese gauze, and then cooking the date juice down with constant stirring until a honey-like texture is obtained.  

I made a syrup by pouring boiling water over  2 cups of Medjool dates and letting them overnight.  Next morning I sieved out as much liquid as I could and boiled it down.  I mashed the leftover bits and they are a mass I can call "date butter"-- basically, jam. Very yummy.

The syrup I used in the smoothie porridge bowl, along with thin almond butter to represent "the nuts."  

So, here are the suggested ingredients:

*simple strawberry-water smoothie

*almond butter, thinned with a bit of H2O 

*date syrup (see above)

*coconut yogurt

*strawberries

*Hemp seeds

ENJOY!

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