Compost Fudge Bites

Homegirl knows how to reel you in with a title, eh?

Anyone with a juicer knows just how much pulp is generated by a modest pint of juice. Multiply this by the 5-7 juices I make every week and I’ve got many pounds of pulp on my hands. I confess: most of the time, it gets thrown out. I am but one person and simply can’t consume as much pulp as I do juice. I do, however, always have at least one juice’s worth of pulp in the freezer should I decide to do something with it.

And this week I did! [Pats self on back.]

I find leftover pulp to be most palatable when blended into smoothies or dehydrated into crackers. I also enjoy the taste of my pulp macaroons, but even those aren’t a treat I find myself reaching for after dinner. So it was that I turned to chocolate to elevate my juice pulp from trash to treasure.

Compost Fudge Bites

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup flax seeds
• 3 cups juicer pulp
• 1/2 cup agave syrup
• 6 tbsp raw cacao powder (or unsweetened cocoa)
• 1/2 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup water, or as needed

Directions:

1. Prep dehydrator…or do like me and preheat oven to 150*-200*.
2. Grind flax seeds to a powder in your food processor.
3. Add remaining ingredients except for water and process until thoroughly blended and fairly smooth, stopping to scrape down sides periodically. Add water if needed to get the mixture moving.
4. Drop by the tablespoonful onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet and “bake” for 1 hour. At that point, they should be rather firm to the touch but still fudgey inside. Bake longer if you want it drier all the way through.

Makes approximately 2 dozen

 

To be fair, this recipe is not going to fool any small child (or other cookie eater in your life) into thinking they’re eating some naughty treat when in reality they’re getting a serving of vegetables and enough fiber to blow their colon.

All I want from my pulp is a way to eat it that doesn’t remind me of something stuck to the bottom of my shoe. These little bites accomplish that. They’re tasty and—dare I say it—fudgey! Definitely dessert-worthy in my world.

What’s your favorite way to use juicer pulp?