From veteran cookbook author Dreena Burton comes Dreena’s Kind Kitchen, a collection of 100 dependable and delicious plant-based recipes that everyone will love. Including this incredible-looking recipe for Dreena’s Nanaimo Bars.
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While I haven’t met Canada-based cookbook author, Dreena Burton in person yet, I feel as if I know her personally through her social media posts and her wonderful cookbooks. With Dreena’s cookbooks, you will feel that she is in the kitchen alongside you.
Dreena Burton has been creating plant-based, whole-food recipes for more than 20 years. Her well-tested recipes are detailed so they work every time. We can all trust her recipes to turn out wonderfully delicious! With her newest book, she has created this one-stop resource for making kinder, more compassionate food choices, for other beings, for the planet, and for yourself. Whether you need weekly staple meals for your family or want a dish to wow your friends for a special occasion, Dreena’s Kind Kitchen has you covered with these reliable, flavorful, and healthy recipes.
You’ll find a variety of breakfasts, salads and dressings, small bites, soups, entrées, and sweets. All the recipes plus a super informative troubleshooting section will help you boost your kitchen skills. Dreena’s guidance on techniques, time-saving tips, and suggestions for repurposing leftovers into delicious new dishes make this book dependable in your own plant-powered kitchen.
Dreena has agreed to offer a giveaway to one reader, so be sure to enter. You’ll find the giveaway following the recipe. U.S.A and Canada only.
Dreena’s Nanaimo Bars
Originating out of Nanaimo, British Columbia, this traditional Canadian no-bake dessert bar has a crumb base, a creamy middle layer, and chocolate ganache on top. Conventional versions use a great deal of white sugar, along with butter and eggs. This Kind Kitchen version is gluten-free and nut-free, and no vegan margarine is needed! (Not “health food” exactly, but quite an improvement on the original—and readers tell me they taste better!)
Dreena's Nanaimo Bars
Ingredients
Base
- 1 ½ cups pitted dates
- ½ cup rolled oats
- ¼ cup cocoa powder
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- ¼ cup raw pumpkin seeds or almond meal
- ¼ cup unsweetened shredded coconut
Middle
- ¾ cup coconut butter
- ¾ –1 cup natural icing sugar see note
- 3 tablespoons vanilla nondairy milk or full-fat canned coconut milk see note
- ½ teaspoon pure vanilla extract or 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla bean powder
- ¼ teaspoon ground turmeric optional
- ⅛ teaspoon sea salt
Topping
- 1 cup chopped nondairy chocolate bar or chocolate chips
- 2 ½ tablespoons full-fat canned coconut milk or other nondairy milk see note
Instructions
- Line an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment paper.
- To prepare the base, put the dates and oats in a food processor and pulse several times, until they start to come together and get slightly crumbly. Add the cocoa powder, salt, and vanilla and process until the mixture starts to become sticky. Add the pumpkin seeds and coconut and process until the mixture is very sticky and holds together when pressed with your fingers. Press the mixture into the prepared baking pan. Chill in the refrigerator while you proceed with the next layers.
- Add all the ingredients for the middle layer to a mini processor (see note) and pulse until just combined and smooth. Try not to overblend, as the mixture will heat and become oily. Transfer to the baking pan, spreading the mixture evenly over the base layer. Place the pan back in the refrigerator.
- Prepare a hot water bath to make the topping: Fill a small saucepan with several inches of water and heat it over low heat. Put a heatproof bowl on top of the saucepan to hover over the simmering water (be sure it fully covers the top of the saucepan to prevent steam from entering the bowl). Put the chocolate and coconut milk in the bowl and heat gently, stirring occasionally, until the chips are totally melted and the mixture is smooth.
- Pour the chocolate topping over the top of your bars, and refrigerate until set. To serve, cut into 16–20 bars. Leftover bars can be frozen, if they last that long!
Recipe Notes
Icing Sugar Note: Natural icing sugars are blended from unrefined cane sugar and are less processed than standard icing sugar. If you don’t have a ready-made natural icing sugar, you can pulse coconut sugar in the blender until it’s very fine; it will give the filling a natural caramel color rather than the traditional yellow. Using the full 1 cup sugar makes a thicker, slightly firmer center layer. My recipe testers and I agreed that the ¾ cup version was sweet enough for us!
Milk Note: I really enjoy the subtle flavor of a vegan eggnog at the holidays, using either almond, soy, or coconut nog.
Food Processor Note: My food processor has a 16-cup capacity, so I break out my mini-processor to make the middle layer; it’s hard to get the right consistency in a big processor. If you used a smaller food processor to make the base, you can use the same one to make the middle layer; just to clean it out in between.
Dreena’s Kind Kitchen Giveaway
This contest is open to residents of US and Canada Only. The winner will be contacted via email following the close of the contest on September 25th. The winner will have 48 hours to respond and provide a mailing address or a new winner will be selected.
I would like plant-based advice for holiday meals. When there’s a feast, people often expect meat to be the centerpiece and see plant-based dishes as “sides.” Thanks,
Linda
Linda,
Thank you for your thoughful question. We have so many choices of vegan mains today. Vegan roasts, stuffed squashes and pumpkins, borites.ig stuffed portobellos are some of my favorites.
All best,
Fran
I need kids friendly , quick dinner ideas!
Hi Jennifer,
You’ll find plenty of kid friendly, quick dinner ideas in Drenna’s book. How old are the kids?
Good luck!
Take care,
Fran
Thanks for hosting this giveaway, Fran! I could always use more ideas for healthy snacks.
Hello Hannah,
Thank you for entering the giveaway. Healthy snacks for all.
Yours in vegan desserts!
Fran
Savory breakfast ideas…
Good morning Renee,
While the majority eats apples, pears, berries with their morning cereal- for me that is always a bowl of steel cut oats, I like a savory bowl, adding cooked kale or other greens too. In colder months, I enjoy a bowl of miso soup, lots of veggies and edamema or tofu. And then there is the ever popular tofu scramble.
Do you have some dishes to add to this list?
All best,
Fran
For me I need recipes that are low sodium and sugar, or ways to convert them without losing flavor.
Hi Lydia,
That’s a common request. There are lots of tips and recipes in the Rouxbe courses. Are you WFPB?
Use lots of spices and herbs and you won’t miss the salt. There are many desserts that are no sugar added. You’ll find these recipes on my website.
Take care.
Fran
I definitely need more plant based tips for making desserts! Thank you
Hi Jenny!
Well you’ve come to the right place! I’ve got lots of tips for making great vegan desserts in my blogs and newsletter, on the website and in my books. Of course there is the best place to learn,Essential Vegan Desserts.
Thanks for writing. Good luck!
Fran
Definitely breakfast & snacks.
Yes!!!
Easy dinner for one (I share a kitchen)
Hi Karen,
I’d like to know what you like, but for starters. OI suggest you batch cook and store if you have room in your fridge and freezer, grains and beans. Roast, steam some veggies.
Then you have the fixings for all kinds of dinners. I like to make bowls. Find a dressing you like, tahini, carrot-ginger and you are good to go.
Or SOUPS! With some nice whole grain bread.
Eat well, stay happy and safe
Fran
OMG!!! These are to die for!!!! Made them for my honey, for Father’s Day! He has died and gone to heaven!!!!
This is exciting and not surprising- that you loved the bars.
I’d love to see a photo if you have any–Tag #francostigan #dreenaburton.
Now, I need to make some asap.
Revive your honey!!
Fran