Raw Lemon Bars

1 cup almonds

1 1/2 cups soft dates

1 vanilla bean or 1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract

Zest from one organic lemon (do not omit this, it's what gives it the lemony flavor!)

2 tablespoons organic lemon juice (ideally from the lemon above)

1 1/4 cups dried coconut

3/4 teaspoon celtic sea salt

The Rawtarian's Thoughts

Raw lemon bars recipes... How do I love thee? Let me count the lemony-coconutty raw ways...

Before I went raw I used to love lemon bars made with lemon and coconut. Lemon bars are so sweet and flavorful and I used to eat them quite frequently as a sweet snack.

So when I went raw I knew I needed a substitute. Surprisingly, these raw lemon bars are easy to whip up and the taste is pretty similar to the lemon bar recipes that I remember from days of yore!

This raw lemon bar recipe is pretty easy to make, you just need to food process almost everything, mix recipe together with your hands, and then press it down into a pan with your hands. The toughest part of making raw lemon bars is getting the dates to process well, especially if your dates aren't fresh.

Tip: Be careful if doubling this raw lemon bar recipe. You might want to make two batches right after one another instead of making one huge batch because it can be tough to get everything to move well in the food processor.

Tip: If your dates are rock-hard try softening them by soaking them in warm water for half-an-hour, then squeezing almost all water out of them before using in this raw lemon bar recipe.

1. Place almonds in food processor and process into a fine powder.

2. Add dates, vanilla, lemon juice (if using fresh squeezed don't let any lemon seeds go into the recipe!) and lemon zest to food processor.

A note re: lemon zest: Lemon zest is simply lemon peel. If you don't have a fancy zester, just do what I do: use a clean carrot peeler and "peel" the lemon with your carrot peeler and throw the big chunky peels into the food processor for processing. Done! Process again until well mixed. Depending on how hard your dates are this could be a wild ride!

3. Once everything seems pretty well processed thus far, set food processor lemon bar mixture aside for a moment.

4. In a large mixing bowl, place your dried coconut and salt. Mix with a spoon to distribute sea salt.

5. Now dump your food processor mixture into the mixing bowl. Mix everything together with your clean hands so that it's nicely combined and resembling a delicious lemon bar dough!

6. Transfer your raw lemon bar dough into your final dish. I like to use a glass brownie dish. Now press the mixture down into the dish with your hands so that the mixture sticks together nicely.

7. Ideally, you should refrigerate your raw lemon bars for about an hour so that they really stick together and are easy to cut.

Enjoy your raw lemon bars! Their lemony coconut flavor goes really well with fresh or thawed strawberries. They should be stored in the refrigerator.

Serving Size: 8 bars

Number of Servings: 8

Recipe submitted by SparkPeople user SBGARDENER.