Weekend Cooking: All about dates

I ate dates only once in my lifetime, a few years back where it was served as a b-day snack. That was until last week when I picked up a package of dates to try. I found out that I like the sweet taste of this fruit and that I want to eat this more often.

Dates are a good fruit to eat if you are vegetarian because it contains various types of B-vitamins. They are a good source of dietary potassium and also contain proteins and fiber. The sugar content of ripe dates is about 80% so it is a good sweetener too. There are a lot of different types of dates and depending of which type you have, they are softer and sweeter. The most common one is Deglet Noor, and it is said that these aren't very sweet. These are the ones that I bought but I find them pretty sweet. I am curious about other, more sweeter types of dates now. The only thing that I dislike is that dates are always have to be imported. I like to eat locally and with the seasons, but some things like bananas, avocados and now dates are just too good to pass. I did find out that the also grow dates in Spain, so I might have to look for those because Spain is closer to home than most Arabic countries, where dates usually come from.

The thing is that I am a bit lost on how to use dates and therefore I would like to ask you for suggestions! I only used them in combination of cream cheese on my bread and I tossed some in a smoothie. I have included a Mr. Linky on the bottom of this post and I would love it if you would share any vegetarian date recipe you have tried. It doesn't matter how long ago you post it, just share it here :) I do have an idea to try to include dates in a sweet type of sushi in combination with cream cheese.

Edit: I can't get the Mr. Linky to work. It worked before but now it doesn't. Anyway, please just leave the links in the comments :) Thanks!

This post is part of Weekend Cooking. Make sure your check out the other participants. It is always a lot of fun!!

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