Paleo Raw Pistachio Halva

Oh my goodness I LOVE HALVA!!! Like I really love it, and I kind of miss it. Now, I have made a Paleo halva before, a real one where you cook up some syrup and combine with tahini, but I always feel like it is just that bit too sugary. I mean, I am constantly battling with my weight and my training goals so I am starting to try and make everything as clean as I can possibly make it.

This tastes like the real thing, although a lot more on the bitter side than the authentic stuff so if you want to make it sweeter then simply add more raw honey, I personally wouldn’t go over the 100ml mark if I were you as that is just asking for trouble. When I made mine I actually used around 50ml as I am making a conscious effort to cut down my sugar intake. If you want to keep to the authentic texture then you will have to eat this pretty much from frozen, the longer this is left out the softer it gets, although don’t worry you won’t end up with a mucky paste on your hands.

This Paleo Raw Pistachio Halva can be made in no time whatsoever and it totally removes the faff of heating up a syrup to a certain temperature. All you need is a food processor, or if like me your food processor has broken – an electric hand whisk, yes really!

If you do make this gorgeous treat please promise me that you will eat this alongside a gorgeous cup of coffee infused with cardamom… just do it!!!

Prep Time: 5-10 minutes

Setting Time: 30 minutes to 1 hour

Ingredients:

240g jar light tahini
75ml raw honey
3 tbsp ground almonds
50g pistachio nuts (of which 1 tbsp is to be ground)

Method:

1. Place your tahini, raw honey, and ground almonds into the bowl of your food processor and pulse a few times before processing on full speed. Blend until a nice thick paste forms and begins to ball together.
2. In a pestle and mortar grind 1 tbsp of your pistachio nuts and add to the mix in the food processor. Give it a quick blitz.
3. Stir in your remaining pistachio nuts. You may want to crush them first or leave them whole. I like to do a bit of both to give it a nice variation in texture, I did this by just pulsing the pistachios in a few times.
4. Transfer the mixture into a greased glass dish or lined brownie pan. I used a Pyrex dish like this one. Press it all down with the palm of your hand and then gently smooth out whilst ‘knuckling’ it in. Place into the freezer until set.
5. Remove and slice into squares or diamonds. Carefully lever and lift out the corner pieces using a butter knife before removing the rest. Enjoy with a gorgeously hot and steamy cup of coffee!