Quinoa berry bars

As I said in yesterday's blog post, my plan yesterday afternoon was to make some "present glo bars" from Angela Liddon's new cookbook.   But then I realized I didn't have the necessary ingredients so, not to be deterred,  I changed things around a bit - quite a bit, in fact, as I only kept 1 ingredient the same (the pepita seeds!)!  So here are my quinoa (lingon)berry bars, inspired by Angela's recipe.

1/2 cup walnuts
1 cup flaked quinoa
1 cup crisped/puffed quinoa
3/4 cup crisped/puffed rice
1/4 cup pepita seeds
1/4 cup wild lingon berries (or other dried berries)
1/4 cup yacon syrup
1/8 cup date syrup
1/8 cup water
1/4 cup walnut butter

Obviously you can alter the ingredients, use different sweeteners, grains, fruits, nut butters etc and amounts, while keeping ratios similar of wet to dry ingredients.


Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix.
Heat the syrups and walnut butter and water in a saucepan until just bubbling.
Add the syrup mixture to the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.
Line a square cake pan with parchment paper with enough overlapping so you can lift it out.
Transfer the mixture to the cake pan and spread it out evenly.  Pack down using damp hands or the end of a rolling pin or glass jar so it is firmly packed and even.
Place in the freezer for 10 minutes, uncovered.
Remove and lift out the whole mixture on the parchment paper. Place on a cutting board and cut into 12 bars using a pizza slice or serrated knife.
Wrap the bars and store in an airtight containers in the fridge for up to 2 weeks or in the freezer for 1 month.

They are a nice crispy crunch.  Make sure you squash them down well so they hold together.