Make Date Paste!
(for use in marinades, salad dressings, sauces, baked goods)
Dates have become the new cauliflower.
You can use them in all kinds of crazy ways to sweeten your food without adding a lot of sugars!
Whole 30
It all started with me doing another Whole30. I love Whole30 and have done it 3 times because I like the discipline and I like challenges. I’ve done a couple other “Whole14” and such, because I didn’t stick with it, but that’s another story 🙂
If you don’t know what Whole30 is, it is basically a 30-day period where you cut out 5 things : 1) sugar, 2) grains, 3) alcohol, 4) dairy, and 5) beans & legumes.
There is a whole philosophy behind it, it is generally only meant to do for 30 days, and it just cleans you out of all the sugars and other lovely foods that can cause hardships on the body. More on Whole30 later, but for now, it was the inspiration for me learning to make date paste out of dates. Click here to get Melissa Urban’s book, It Starts With Food, which explains the whole thing and is a really fascinating (and funny) read on human nutrition in general.
So I’m doing a Whole30 and wanted to make Italian-Marinated Steak for my friends that weekend. I was doing an Italian-inspired theme dinner to thank my friend Brooke, for helping me pick colors to paint my living room. I planned the steak and a Homemade Caesar Dressing that is truly AMAZING, try them both!
However, the steak marinade I wanted to use had honey in it, which is a No-No on Whole30. All sugar of any kind is off-limits because regardless of how hippie healthy it is, it still all looks the same in your bloodstream. So I searched for an alternative to honey in recipes and found that you could use dates.
A few weeks before, I had bought those delicious, plump Medjool dates that show up in Whole Foods and Trader Joes around the holidays. The ones linked here are delicious and are priced well, but any organic dates are great.
My grand ambition was to make the Bacon-Wrapped Goat Cheese-Stuffed Dates with Rosemary Honey, from Teighan Gerard’s Half Baked Harvest Cookbook. However, I have 3 crazy boys and I tend to over-extend myself, and well….the fancy “Stuffed Dates” appy never happened. The dates just sat there for weeks staring at me and I never made them into the bougie appy they were destined for….so instead….they became my substitute for honey in my steak marinade!! A more humble destiny, but useful all the same!
- Now given that they had been sitting there for awhile, and they were a little wrinkly and dried out. NO worries! If your dates look like a Florida grandma on Fourth of July, just dunk them in some warm water and let them sit for about 30 minutes….shwooop….they plump right up!
- Next, dig your fingers in there and get out the pit. It is about as big as a Hot Tamale candy and about the same size! Toss pits, then put your date flesh into a high speed blender or food processor, or whatever you got that is close. Add 3/4 cup water for every 1 cup dates and let ‘er rip!! Leave the processor going until you get a smooth paste, add more water if too thick but this ratio should work out well. And that’s it!
Use the amount you need as a 1:1 honey substitute in your marinade, your salad dressing that calls for honey, or sweet baked goods (more on substitutions for sugar later).
Spoon the remaining mixture into ice cube trays and freeze. This way you can pull out 1 Tablespoon at a time for your next marinade or dressing without having to go through the whole thing again.
Enjoy this little tidbit to make your family’s food a tiny bit healthier, and you a tiny bit more of the Super-Mom/Dad that you are.
Whoot!
Date Paste
- Total Time: 10 minutes
- Yield: 1 cup 1x
Description
Date paste is a great substitute for honey or sugar in marinades, salad dressings, sauces and baked goods.
Start by soaking your dates in warm water to soften them up.
Ingredients
- 1 cup pitted dates
- 3/4 cups water
Instructions
- Soak dates in warm water for 10-30 minutes to plump them up.
- Dig out the pits and discard.
- Add dates and date water to blender or food processor and blend until smooth.
Notes
- Use as a 1:1 substitute for honey or other sweeteners like agave or maple syrup.
- Freeze in ice trays for easy-to-use cubes. Add to sauces, marinades, dressings for sweetness.
- Prep Time: 10
What do you think?