Healthy Date Recipes

This almond milk is so creamy and flavorful, you'll want to drink it on its own. Store-bought almond milk is convenient, but homemade almond milk is relatively easy to make and less expensive too. Plus, making your own almond milk at home allows you to control sweeteners and other additives. Apart from the dates, which are inherently sweet, this recipe is unsweetened--add a little honey, maple or agave syrup for sweetness, if desired.

Brussels sprouts are roasted until just tender then simmered with dates in a reduced garlic/balsamic vinegar sauce.

This honey-sweetened, nut- and date-studded pumpkin bread gets bright taste from orange zest and juice.

The mix-ins in these homemade granola bars are inspired by ingredients commonly used in Middle Eastern cooking--dates, hazelnuts, pistachios, tahini and cardamom. But feel free to vary the dried fruit, nuts, seeds and/or spices to your preference. We tested several sticky sweeteners, including maple syrup and honey, but found brown rice syrup held the bars together the best.

Sweet, sticky dates act as the glue for these no-cook energy balls. Perfect for hikes or during sports, this healthy snack travels well.

Medjool dates are softer than their semi-dry Deglet Noor cousins and therefore, much easier to stuff with almonds. This healthy snack recipe can also be turned into an addictive appetizer by adding a little blue cheese to the stuffing.

This healthy date, carrot and lentil salad recipe is flavored with a spiced preserved-lemon dressing. While most salads taste best when freshly assembled, lentil salads appreciate time for the flavors to marry so try to make it at least a few hours ahead if you can. Bring the salad to room temperature before serving and adjust salt if needed.

If a compote of oranges with candied zest sounds like pure spa food, it becomes rich and exotic when paired with crisp, candylike bites of date-walnut wontons.

In this healthy pumpkin bread pudding recipe, whole-wheat bread, Vitamin A-rich pumpkin and toasted pecans come together for a praiseworthy dessert. To make individual bread puddings instead of one large pan, divide the batter among 12 small oiled individual baking dishes (about 8 ounces each). Cover with foil. Bake for 30 minutes, uncover, sprinkle with pecans and bake for 20 to 25 minutes more.

Jewel-like pomegranate seeds star along with bacon, tangy clementines and sweet dates in this mixed green salad recipe. To make it a dinner salad, top with chicken, shrimp or pan-seared salmon.

Like many Greek and Middle Eastern sweets, this date-walnut cake is infused with a honey syrup. Semolina flour makes it moist and dense.

A great complement for lamb, the bold dry rub in this recipe is a typical Tunisian combination of spices that includes cumin, caraway and crushed red pepper. Sautéed chard gets a twist with toasted pine nuts and sweet dates. We loved the sweetness of the dates in this dish, but we also tried it without and thought it was delicious. The choice is yours. Round out the meal with some whole-wheat couscous and a glass of Australian Shiraz.

Quick-cooking red lentils and bulgur team up to make this hearty fiber-rich salad. Tart lemon juice plays against the sweet flavors of dried fruits, mint and cinnamon for a distinctive Middle Eastern flair; serve alongside grilled lamb or chicken.

Here, graham cracker crumbs, dates and nuts are folded into beaten eggs and sugar to make a wonderfully chewy bar that's much lighter than traditional recipes.

These cookies are made sweet and flavorful by the addition of a generous amount of chopped dates.

Cookie recipes usually require you to combine the liquid ingredients in one bowl and dry ingredients in another, but for this gluten-free cookie recipe the dry ingredients are sprinkled right on top of the liquids so there's just one bowl to clean. Don't skip the step of refrigerating the dough. The oat flour needs time to hydrate or the cookies will be too dry and crumbly. Regular rolled oats work if you're not gluten-sensitive.

This whole-grain bacon (yes, bacon!) and date blondie recipe has half the amount of brown sugar and butter as a traditional recipe and is made with 100% whole-wheat flour. The results: scrumptious toffee-flavored treats with fewer calories and less added sugars per serving.

In this healthy oatmeal recipe, sweet dried dates, pine nuts, cinnamon and honey give your breakfast Middle Eastern flavor. Short on time in the morning? Try our overnight oatmeal variation.

The two-bite pecan tarts satisfy the sweet tooth with far less guilt than pecan pie.

Financial advisor Linda Croley was inspired by childhood memories of a family treat when she created these peanut butter-date cookies. “I get a great feeling when I bite into these cookies and think of my family who are around me today, and those whose memories I'll always cherish,” says Croley. Once you try them, you may never make an ordinary peanut butter cookie again.