Caramel Date Sauce

Instead of sugar, use this wonderful caramel sweetener on your cereal, to top desserts or even ice cream.  The best news?  It comes with plenty of antioxidants and soluble fibre to lower an elevated cholesterol.  Plus, it’s cheaper than honey!

Ingredients

  • 300 g (about 2 cups) pitted, dried dates
  • 2 tsp lemon juice

Method

  1. Place dates in a bowl and cover with two cups of boiling water from the kettle.  Allow 5 minutes to soften.
  2. Transfer dates with their soaking water to a high powered blender e.g. Vitamix or food processor, add the lemon juice and puree until really smooth.
  3. Pour sauce into a glass jar with a screw top lid and store in the fridge for two up to weeks.  Makes about 2 cups or 20 tablespoons.

Serves 20

Tip
  • The lemon juice adds tang and helps preserve the puree.
  • For variation, use orange juice instead of the boiling water and soak dates for 4 hours prior to pureeing.
  • If you hear a crunch during processing from any date stones that were left behind (some occasionally escape the sorting process before packaging), put the sauce through a sieve before using.

Per serve: energy 182 kJ (44 Cal); protein 0.3 g; fat 0 g; saturated fat 0 g; cholesterol 0 mg; carbohydrate 10 g; fibre 1.5 g; calcium 7 mg; iron 0.4 mg; sodium 2 mg