In the video below, Russell James (The Raw Chef), demonstrates how to create date syrup – a nice raw whole-food alternative to agave syrup. In my opinion, high-quality organic dates (such as organic sun-dried Medjools or Hunzas) are a quality sweetener – they are extremely versatile and a whole-food (extremely important!). There is a lot of conflicting information about raw agave syrup, enough so that I use it sparingly (if at all) and only in those recipes where I have yet to find adequate alternatives (e.g., because the resulting texture using date syrup is not satisfactory). I do not want to go get into a discussion here about the pros and cons of various sweeteners used by many people following an organic living food diet, but rather provide you with an easy sweetener option that you can try in various dishes.
Date Syrup Recipe
Makes approximately 1.5 cups
Equipment
- Blender, ideally a high-powered blender like a VitaMix or BlendTech
Ingredients
- 1 cup pitted organic dates. If using a standard blender, you will need to soak the dates through before blending.
- 1 cup filtered water
Directions
- Blend pitted dates and water in your blender until you reach a nice thick syrupy texture (like in the video above).
- Use immediately or store in an air-tight container in the your fridge.
- Enjoy!
[...] lifting off so the crepe doesn’t break. Serve with minced fruit, berries, syrup (such as the Date Syrup in the previous recipe), and/or nut cream (such as the Dreamy Almond Puree in the following [...]
Thankyou for this! I too have been concerned about the whole agave thing – exactly as you said, enough to make me use very infrequently. It’s hard to get info regarding date syrup – hadn’t heard of it until recently – but you’ve now put my mind to rest on that one.
Great tip! I too do not like the taste if Agave and am trying to find a tastier alternative. Here’s another tip..soak the dates for an hour..it makes
a nice syrupy juice..drain the juice from the dates and save to use in other recipes. I just made a delicious pineapple, mango smoothie and used the date juice as an added sweetener…delicious!
Hi, Dee,
Thank you for mentioning soaking the dates and collecting the soak water for use elsewhere.
Something else to keep in mind: you can change the taste of the syrup by using different varieties of dates or even mixing in things like vanilla bean, cinnamon, berries, etc.
Have a great day!
M.E.B.
Just for accuracy there are no varieties or cultivars of date called hunza and dates are not grown in the Hunza region. Anyone selling dates under this name is being deliberatly misleading.
No way that would keep for a week ~ Try 2 minutes =P I’d just drink it straight away. But its a great alternative to honey or other refined sugars.