SALTED PEANUT BUTTER CARAMEL BARS
from Dada Eats Love to Cook It

It's so rare to find someone who really understands you down to your core. Luckily, there's peanut butter. Here, peanut butter is used along with Mejdool dates and coconut sugar to create a silky date caramel that rests on a shortbread crust. To top it all off, the dark chocolate coating brings everything together in a way that you almost ask yourself, am I worthy of this?
But you are, obviously!

SHORTBREAD CRUST

⅓ coconut oil, softened
¼ cup honey
⅔ cup almond flour
⅔ cup coconut flour

PEANUT BUTTER CARAMEL FILLING

6 large Medjool dates, pitted
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons coconut oil honey
3 tablespoons coconut sugar
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup plus 2 tablespoons unsweetened almond milk
¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter

CHOCOLATE LAYER

½ cup chocolate chips extra-virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon coconut oil
2 Flaky sea salt, for sprinkling

Preheat the oven to 350°F and prepare an 8-inch square cake pan by lining it with parchment paper. Ensure that some of the parchment paper hands over the sides of the pan so you can use the flaps to lift up the bars when you're ready to enjoy them.
MAKE THE SHORTBREAD CRUST: In a medium bowl, combine the coconut oil and honey, and mix until smooth. Add the almond flour and coconut flour. Fold together until everything is fully incorporated and you have a nice malleable dough. Press the shortbread dough into the parchment-lined cake pan and pack it in tightly, flattening it with your hands until the crust is evenly distributed throughout. Bake for about 10 minutes, until the edges are nice and golden brown. Let it cool completely in the pan.
MAKE THE PEANUT BUTTER CARAMEL FILLING: In a high-speed blender or food processor, combine the dates, coconut oil, coconut sugar, salt, almond milk, and peanut butter. Blend until completely smooth. Try not to eat the entire thing.
Once the shortbread crust has completely cooled, pour the Peanut Butter Caramel Filling over it and smooth it with the back of a spoon until it reaches the edges and is evenly distributed throughout the pan. Place the pan in the freezer and chill for 30 minutes for the caramel to firm up. While it's in there, you can prepare the chocolate layer.
MAKE THE CHOCOLATE LAYER: Melt the chocolate chips and coconut oil together, either in a double boiler or in a microwave oven in 10-second increments, stirring after each increment, until the mixture is melted and glossy.
Remove the pan from the freezer and pour the chocolate on top until it completely coats the caramel. Sprinkle with some sea salt and place the pan in the freezer once again. Freeze for 1 hour, until the chocolate has completely hardened.
Remove the bars from the pan by lifting the parchment paper flaps. Cut into bars and serve! Store any extra in the freezer for up to a week (but if you are one to make them last that long, I'd like to understand you).

Get Your Copy Now

Dada Eats Love to Cook It

Samah Dada

A healthy vegetarian cookbook featuring inventive takes on beloved Indian dishes, indulgent desserts, and more, all made with whole foods and anti-inflammatory ingredients—from the Today show’s resident foodie

“When I’m looking for something quick that doesn’t use refined sugars and refined flour, Samah is the person I turn to. I can’t get enough!”—Giada De Laurentiis, New York Times bestselling author of Eat Better, Feel Better

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST COOKBOOKS OF THE YEAR BY FOOD52 AND LIBRARY JOURNAL

Samah Dada doesn’t buy into the all-or-nothing mentality of healthy eating. By using real, unprocessed ingredients in surprising ways, she shows you how to have your cake and eat it too—because it’s actually made out of chickpeas.

Samah knows that eating well doesn’t mean eating boring food. She uses only the most nutritious ingredients, not because she’s cutting out food groups to follow the latest fad, but to create drool-worthy meatless dishes that are mostly vegan (with options for dairy and eggs), mostly gluten-free (with easy substitutions to go entirely gluten-free), and all helpful in reducing inflammation. She reinvents Indian cookbook staples—and other classics—with recipes such as:
• Sweet Potato Aloo Tikki
• Creamy Black Lentils
• Spicy Eggplant Masala
• Chocolate Chip Tahini Cake with Chocolate Frosting
• Cauliflower Cacio e Pepe
• Masala Mac and Cheese
• And more!

With Dada Eats Love to Cook It, you’ll discover how to use healthy ingredients for maximum flavor and joy.

Grain-Optional. Gluten-Flexible. Mostly Plant-Based. Totally Inclusive.

Buy Now

READ AN EXCERPT

How can I adequately sum up what it means to me to be here, sharing with you what is not just my food, but my heart? On one level, food might look like my job. It manifests as a carrot cake with a peanut butter frosting, or hummus so smooth you get emotional. It can disguise itself as tahini used with a heavy hand right to the edge of social acceptability. It is undoubtedly all of these things. But reducing food to just a merging of ingredients would be doing a disservice to myself and to you. For me, food is not simply the end result. It is my hobby that accidentally turned into a career. It is the language I taught myself so I could be better understood. It’s how I share myself with others, and ultimately how I became more, well, me.

My parents immigrated to the United States from India when they were in high school, bringing their values and respective parents’ recipes with them. Sometimes I wonder how they grappled with raising my sister and me in California after experiencing an upbringing that was so wildly different from ours. Though they instilled...