These Carrot Cake Energy Balls need only 10 minutes to prepare for an easy vegan protein snack—all the flavors of carrot cake without the hassle of baking for hours.
As the wife of a vegan ultra-runner, I am always on the lookout for new easy vegan protein ball recipes that can be easily grabbed after a workout, like my Pumpkin Energy Balls, Nut-Free Energy Balls, or Coconut Energy Balls.
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Carrot Cake Energy Balls
Ingredients
- 1 cup Carrot - peeled, chopped (2 medium carrots)
Dry ingredients
- ½ cup Walnuts
- 2 tablespoons Flaxseed Meal
- ⅔ cup Desiccated Coconut
- 1 cup Oats - instant or rolled oats
- ¼ teaspoon Fresh Ginger
- 2 teaspoons Cinnamon
Wet ingredients
- ½ cup Soft Pitted Dates - Deglet or Medjool
- ¼ cup Almond Butter - or peanut butter
- 1 teaspoon Vanilla
- 1 tablespoon Maple Syrup - optional, add if you want the balls sweeter
Instructions
- Place the peeled, chopped carrots in the bowl of your food processor with the S-blade attachment.
- Pulse a few times until it forms tiny pieces of carrots. Set aside in a bowl.
- In the food processor bowl again (no need to clean it!), add all the dry ingredients and blend on high speed until the nuts, oats, and coconut turn into a fine ground/flour. It shouldn't take more than 1 minute.
- Add the almond butter, vanilla, maple syrup (optional, only for a boost of sweetness), the carrot pieces from step 1, and the soft pitted dates. If your dates are slightly dry, soak them in hot water for 10 minutes before using them in this recipe. Drain well before adding to the food processor to avoid adding water.
- Blend on high speed again until it forms a sticky dough.
- Scoop out dough and roll between your hands to form golf size balls. You should be able to shape about 16 balls.
- Roll each ball into unsweetened desiccated coconut.
- Place each ball onto a plate covered with parchment paper.
- Refrigerate 15 minutes to firm up if desired or eat straight away.
Storage
- Store in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 1 week or freeze and defrost them 2 hours before at room temperature.
Notes
Nutrition
What Are Carrot Cake Energy Balls?
Carrot Cake Energy Balls are bite-sized snacks loaded with natural proteins and healthy carbs to fuel up before a workout or recharge after.
And vegan protein balls often mean energy bites with dates!
Dates are wonderful nourishing dried fruits for raw baking, adding iron, magnesium, and potassium to energy balls.
Ingredients and Substitutions
All you need is a food processor and these simple ingredients:
- Carrots – no surprise, this is a raw carrot cake ball recipe, so you need fresh carrots.
- Dates – any dates work. Deglet Nour dates are usually cheaper than Medjool dates. If your dates are too dry, soak them in hot water for 10 minutes before using them in this recipe. Drain well before adding into the food processor to avoid the addition of water that could soften these carrot cake balls too much.
- Walnuts – with 15g of protein per 100g, walnuts are great for making high-protein ball recipes without using expensive protein powder.
- Flaxmeal – with 18g protein per 100g, flax meal is another great vegan protein booster that is often cheaper than nuts.
- Unsweetened shredded coconut
- Oats
- Almond butter – while peanut butter works too, almonds contain less saturated fat and more proteins with 21g/100g.
- Cinnamon and ginger – this brings out all the carrot cake flavors! A pinch of allspice or nutmeg will be a great addition.
How To Make Raw Carrot Cake Protein Balls
Great news, there is nothing easier than making those carrot cake protein balls. Plus, you don’t need vegan protein powder for this vegan protein ball recipe. In fact, you can source your vegan proteins from many different nuts and seeds. So, let me show you my trick to make affordable vegan protein balls with dates!
Storage
No-bake cookie balls or energy bites with dates can usually be stored for up to 3 weeks in the fridge. But, for this carrot cake energy bite recipe, I recommend storing them for no more than 1 week in the fridge. In fact, this recipe contains fresh carrots, and therefore, the carrot cake flavor and taste alter after 7 days. This is why I recommend freezing those carrot energy bites in an airtight container. They defrost in only 2 hours at room temperature for a quick, handy post-workout vegan snack. If you love energy bites, I recommend you also try my no-bake pumpkin energy balls.
Thank you for always sharing delicious tasty yummy and healthy recipes
Thank you for making them too!
Love your recipes…
What would you suggest as a substitute for the coconut, as I avoid due to the saturated fat?
Many thanks.
You can use more oats, seeds like sunflower seeds, hemp seeds, sunflower seeds, almond flour
These look amazing! I am not a fan of dates, texture and sweetness thing, so I am wondering what you recommend using in place of the dates in this or other energy ball recipes. Thank you!
I have plenty of date-free energy balls recipes. You can try my peanut butter oatmeal balls, or banana energy balls.
do you have nut free recipes or substitutes for nuts. Son has a 100% nut allergy
Yes, if you click here, you will only see my nut-free recipes. Also, in recipes using nuts, you can always swap them for seeds like sunflower seeds, or pumpkin seeds. When I am using peanut butter, you can always swap for sunbutter. Finally, for recipes using almond flour, you can always swap for same amount of sesame flour.
Love the idea of these! Are the dates necessary? IF I can’t skip them, what would you recommend subbing?
It won’t stick and hold together without dried fruits I am sorry.
Hi Carine. I made these carrot cake balls last Friday. They are really tasty. I subbed the walnuts with mixed nuts as that was what I had at the time. I will be making more in the future to share with friends as well. My daughter loves them.
I hate coconut. Is it necessary to include in energy balls? Is there anything else that they can be rolled in?
No you can skip the coconut if you prefer.
we liked it
Can you use date paste instead of pitted dates. I’m thinking instead of 1/2 a cup pitted dates, maybe 1/4 cup? Since paste is more condensed than the putted dates?
I haven’t tried date paste, but yes, I’m sure it’d work. Indeed I would half the quantity!
Any substitutes for nut allergies??
You can swap walnuts for seeds you love pumpkin seeds for example. Replace almond butter by sunbutter. Enjoy.