Matcha Coconut Lime Balls

Last time I was here on Rubies and Radishes, I showed you how to make a quick and easy peach sorbet that would help satisfy sweet cravings without making you feel guilty. Today I’m going to add another easy recipe to your sweet, healthy snacks repertoire. These matcha coconut lime balls are simple to make and are even autoimmune paleo safe!

There’s something about the combination of lime and coconut that I’ve always loved. I’m one of those strange people who doesn’t like coconut with chocolate, but I love coconut paired with citrus fruits and pineapple. This time I decided to add in some matcha powder for an antioxidant punch and exotic flavoring, but if you don’t share my taste for the exotic, you can easily leave it out and make plain coconut lime balls instead.

These little treats are naturally sweetened with organic dates, which also help hold the mixture together. Keep in mind that the recipe that I’m providing is just a guideline, because you may need to add more dates to either further sweeten them to your liking or to help bind the ingredients. Some dates, like medjool dates, are larger and stickier, and you won’t need as many when using them as you would a smaller, drier date.

If you are looking to use less dates to keep the amount of sugar to a minimum, you’ll need to process the coconut for longer in your food processor to turn it into more of a coconut butter consistency that will help bind everything together without needing as many dates.

I’ve been making myself treats using shredded coconut and dates for quite some time now. You may have seen the very basic coconut date balls recipe that I shared on my own blog a couple of years ago. Without the addition of lime juice, the coconut date balls will last for a very long time (probably months). I like adding in the lime juice to pair with the matcha, but keep in mind that adding liquids like lime juice affects the shelf life, and I’d recommend eating them up within a week or so if using lime juice. Hopefully, they’ll be so tasty that that isn’t a problem for you, but if you need a longer shelf life, you can leave out the lime juice and add a little more lime zest for flavoring. See, this recipe is highly adaptable!

The coconut/date combination isn’t just for healthy balls/bites recipes. It also makes a great crust for something like my Easy, No Bake, Paleo Strawberry Cream Pie and the Paleo Key Lime Pie recipe that I shared here on Rubies and Radishes! (The strawberry cream pie is one of my family favorites, so I recommend you go check it out!) Hopefully I’ve given you some ideas for mixing up some of your own paleo friendly treats.

For now, though, I’ll share with you the recipe for these matcha coconut lime balls!