Low FODMAP carrot cake energy balls
I first published this recipe in 2016. I saw energy balls appearing everywhere on Pinterest. But, I could never find a low FODMAP version of them. They always contained ingredients that were high in FODMAPs. I wanted to make something healthy to snack on and something handy to take with me on the go, so I decided to make my own energy balls or bliss balls. I ended up making low FODMAP carrot cake energy balls!
Low FODMAP energy balls without dates
My endless frustration with energy balls is that they always contain dates. 90% percent of the healthy snacks that I find on Pinterest seem to have to have dates or cashews or other high FODMAP ingredient. I wanted energy balls WITHOUT dates. So I made them myself!
Because I am a big fan of carrot cake, I wanted to do something with that. So two must-have ingredients for the energy balls were carrots ánd walnuts. First I wanted to use pecans, but because we ran out of pecans, I ended up using walnuts. In carrot cake recipes you often see raisins too, but because these are only very limited low FODMAP I left them out. Instead of raisins, I went for (this won’t surprise you) peanut butter. Hardly any day goes by where I don’t eat some peanut butter. I needed something to make my carrot cake bliss balls sticky and peanut butter is perfect for that.
Finally, I added some oats and flaxseed for the basis and a bit of maple syrup as a sweetener. The flaxseed also gives the balls a nice bite. They are super quick to make. All you have to do is add all ingredients together, pulse everything together with your food processor or knead it with your hands and form the mixture into balls. After that, you can keep them in the fridge or freeze them for later.
Low FODMAP carrot cake energy balls: ingredients and swaps
- Rolled oats: rolled oats are low FODMAP in a serving of 52 gram (1/2 cup) per serving. Use certified gluten-free oats if you have to eat gluten-free. You can replace the oats by any other kind of low FODMAP flakes, such as quinoa flakes or buckwheat flakes.
- Flaxseeds: the flaxseeds add some extra fiber to the energy balls and are a source of Omega 3. You can also replace these with other low FODMAP seeds.
- Walnuts: walnuts cannot be left out in a carrot cake recipe right! If you don’t like walnuts, you can also use another kind of low FODMAP nuts. Such as pecans. If you cannot eat nuts, you can also leave them out or replace them with some more low FODMAP seeds.
- Peanut butter: in this kind of recipes you often see creamy peanut butter. I, however, am a very big fan of 100% natural peanut butter. With peanuts and a bit of salt as the only ingredients. It took some time to get used to this kind of peanut butter because it is a bit drier in your mouth, but I love eating it now. Especially the version with chunks of peanuts in it. It just feels good to be eating peanut butter without any weird additives 😉 So that is the kind of peanut butter that I prefer to use in this recipe.
- Maple syrup: maple syrup is the sweetener of my choice for this recipe. You can also replace this with rice syrup.
These low FODMAP energy balls contain clean ingredients and therefore make a nice healthy snack! One carrot cake energy ball contains 8o calories.
Are you looking for some more inspiration for low FODMAP snacks? Then make sure to check out my blog with 80+ low FODMAP snack ideas for every day too!
Will you let me know if you decide to make the low FODMAP carrot cake energy balls? I would love it if you would share your creations with me using the hashtag #karlijnskitchen on Instagram or by tagging me at @karlijnskitchen
Low FODMAP carrot cake energy balls
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Servings: 12 1x
Description
Yummy low FODMAP carrot cake energy balls or bliss balls! A healthy snack with only 80 calories. Gluten-free, vegan and dairy-free
Ingredients
- 45 g (1/2 cup) oats
- 60 g (1/4 cup) peanut butter
- 40 g (1/4 cup) flax seed
- 35 g (1/6 cup) maple syrup
- 50 g (1 cup) carrot, grated
- 15 g (1/8 cup) walnuts (or pecans)
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ginger
- A pinch of salt
Instructions
- Grate the carrot.
- Put all ingredients for the bliss balls together in a foodprocessor and pulse a few times to mix everything together. If you don’t have a food processor, you can also put everything in a bowl together and use your hands to mix everything together.
- Take a bit of the mixture and roll this with your hands into a ball. Repeat this until you have used everything.
- Put the balls in the fridge for about half an hour so they can set.
Notes
If you want to make more bliss balls you can simply double the amounts of the ingredients.
You can store the balls for about 4 days in the fridge or freeze them to keep them longer.
A serving of two bliss balls is low FODMAP
- Prep Time: 30 min
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
- Calories: 80
- Fat: 5
- Carbohydrates: 5
- Fiber: 2
- Protein: 3
Together we go for a calm belly!
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18 Comments
Hi, I’d love to make these but I am a bit confused on the measurements! 1/2 cup is usually 125g, so how can 1/2 cup be 45g and 1 cup 50g? so the cup measurements seem to be pretty off! Shall I stick to the grams instead? Please advise 🙂 thank you!
Hi Veronika, this is because grated carrots are very light and they take up quite a lot of volume. Therefore one cup of carrots is not so many gram. Oats are heavier and take less volume. Therefore 1/2 cup of oats is 45g while 1 cup of carrots is 50g
Oh i see, thanks very much 🙂
Very yummy! However next time I’m going to leave the ginger out =)
Thank you!
Can I use something other than the flax seed or just leave it out all together?
I think replacing it by some more oats would work fine 🙂
I found these are hassle to make. Maybe next time I’ll double the recipe and do it in the processor.
Haven’t eaten them yet. Just popped in fridge.
Hi Sahaja,
You could easily put all ingredients in the food processor, that will make it very easy to make them 🙂
Any good suggestions what to replace oats with as I can’t eat oats. Miss bliss balls so much ?
You could try buckwheat flakes or quinoa flakes or maybe just gluten-free flour?
Can I leave out the walnuts or pecans? Or do I need to substitute something for them?
I think it wil work fine if you leave them out!
Hi just finished them tweaked slightly as I did not have maple syrup used golden syrup and also added bee pollen and sunflower seeds blitzed it in food processor now in fridge made smaller balls so got 18 out of recipe ?
Just made these and they are absolutely delicious. I did however tweak the recipe slightly by used chopped up dried apricot to sweeten instead of maple Syrup and I used an LSA mix instead of flax seed which has worked a treat. My almost 2 year old also approves 🙂
Swapped flax seeds for hemp seeds and walnuts for sunflower seeds. I also swapped out the maple syrup for honey (though careful if you can’t eat fructose!)
They taste sooo yummy but do you have a suggestion to make them less wet? (I don’t have a good procrssor so just hand mixed)
Hmm they shouldn’t be too wet normally. If you find them too wet, you can use a little less honey / maple syrup. Also make sure that the carrots are not too wet and drain and dry them if necessary.
Sarah,
Perhaps you could add more oats or more flax as they both absorb moisture well! Best of luck.