Four date recipes worth keeping in rotation. They are quick to make and work in a gym bag or on a dinner table, with no supplements or powders involved.
This page used to be sold as "aphrodisiac recipes". We make no claim that these recipes change desire or performance. If that is the question you came with, we went through the research in aphrodisiac recipes for men: what the evidence says. The recipes below are just good food.
This article is general information, not medical advice.
Date and almond energy bites
Pit 200g of Medjool or Ajwa dates and blend them with a cup of almonds, a tablespoon of cocoa powder and a pinch of sea salt until the mixture holds together when pressed. Roll into balls the size of a golf ball and chill for twenty minutes. Keep them in a closed box in the fridge, and pack a few in a small container when you need a snack for the gym or the office.
Stuffed dates with cheese and walnut
Slit a dozen large dates lengthwise, remove the seed, and press in a small piece of feta or a soft goat cheese with half a walnut. Serve on a board with olives and a squeeze of lemon. The salty cheese against the sweet date does most of the work, so there is no need for extra seasoning. Large Medjool dates are the easiest to stuff, simply because there is more room for the filling.
Date and oat breakfast bars
Simmer 250g of chopped dates with a splash of water until they break down into a paste, then mix through two cups of rolled oats, a beaten egg and a spoon of honey. Press into a lined tray, bake at 180°C for twenty minutes, and cut into bars once cool. Store them in a closed container.
Date, banana and peanut butter smoothie
Blend four pitted dates with a frozen banana, a tablespoon of peanut butter and a cup of milk or a milk alternative. It's thick enough to eat with a spoon if you blend it a little less, and it's the fastest of the four recipes when mornings are short.
Which dates suit which recipe
Texture matters more here than variety names. Medjool is large and very soft with a rich caramel taste, which makes it the easy pick for the bites, the bars and the smoothie, where the dates have to blend into a paste. Ajwa, from Madinah, is small, near-black and soft, so it works in the bites but gives you less room for a filling. Deglet Noor, from Tunisia and Algeria, is golden and semi-dry; chop it into the oat bars if you like a bit of chew. Mazafati, from Bam in Iran, is dark, very soft and moist and needs refrigeration, so keep it chilled until it goes into the blender.
For the price side, see our page on Kurma Ajwa price per kilo. If you're not sure which to start with, comparing the varieties a supplier carries before buying in bulk saves a wasted batch. Before you buy, it is worth checking that soft dates such as Medjool still feel soft in the pack, since the bites and the smoothie depend on it, and buying in person from a nearby kurma seller lets you see the dates before you pay.