Coconut Pumpkin Seed Energy Balls

These healthy coconut pumpkin seed energy balls are an easy and tasty keto treat. They are sugar free, high protein, no bake and take little time to make. Eat one or two of these nutritious snacks as a snack or even as dessert to meet all your macros. Each pumpkin energy ball has 2.1 grams net carbs and 5 grams of protein.

You might also like these keto chocolate peanut butter protein balls.

This is just a quick post for you today. Recently I’ve been making and playing around with sunflower seed butter and pumpkin seed butter. I really, really love it. So I was looking for something to satisfy my sweet tooth after dinner but is also healthy. Also to up my protein intake. I came up with this simple keto snack recipe of toasted coconut pumpkin seed energy balls.

I just love these no bake healthy snacks and thought you all might like them too. They only have 5 ingredients, are sugar free, nut free and high protein. They also take little time to make so you can whip these up for a quick snack or dessert. They help me with my macros when I want to add more protein to my day. Each one has 2.1 grams of net carbs and 5 grams or protein!

Recipe ingredients I used and substitutions.

The 5 simple ingredients I used for this recipe is pumpkin seeds, coconut oil, sweetener, shredded coconut and protein powder.

Pumpkin Seeds (pepitas)
I used roasted pepitas (which are the kernels of pumpkin seeds) from Aldi. You can also use raw pepitas if you want. I would toast them in a dry skillet first and let them cool before processing. That’s what I did originally but couldn’t find them this time. These also have salt so that adds more flavor.

Note you could also make these with sunflower seed kernels or any kind of nuts. It’s essentially grinding the nuts or seeds to make a butter then adding the other ingredients .You could also just use almond butter or already made seed butter.

Coconut
I used unsweetened coconut that is shredded for the coating. You can find this easily on line but it’s a bit harder to find it unsweetened in stores. You can make so many keto recipes like this keto coconut shrimp or these keto chocolate with unsweetened coconut so it’s worth buying. If you don’t care about carbs you can use the unsweetened or just eliminate it.

If you eliminate it you still want to use something to roll these in so they keep their shape. you can try crushed nuts, hemp seeds, finely chopped seeds, etc. Or just spread it into a small baking dish and eat it like a fudge.

Coconut Oil
Originally I used butter in these protein bites but today I remade them with the coconut as it has a lot of nutritious properties and I thought it would give the pumpkin seed bites a bit more coconut flavor. If you don’t have coconut oil you can use regular butter.

Swerve Sweetener
I like the Swerve brown sugar sweetener in this recipe as it has just good flavor and the combination of the ground pumpkin seed butter tastes a bit like chocolate chip cookie dough to me. However you can use your favorite sweetener even if it’s white sugar sweetener.

And if you don’t care about carbs you can use regular brown sugar or coconut sugar. I would not use maple syrup or honey because it might make the batter too runny.

Ispopure Protein Powder
I used Isopure Zero Carb Vanilla protein powder because it has no carbs and I like the taste. I know you can buy it online but sometimes Target sells it. However you can use any kind of vanilla protein powder you want. I would stick to a vanilla flavor though if you can.

How to make these toasted coconut pumpkin seed energy balls.

Step 1: Start by adding the roasted pepitas or pumpkin seeds to a food processor. I love this mini food processor for jobs like this one. Pulse and grind until you get the seeds to be a sticky ground mixture like the picture below.

If you are using raw pepitas you might want to add them to a dry pan and toast them a bit and cool before doing this step. I just used an already roasted package from Aldi.

Step 2: Next add in the Swerve brown sugar and pulse to mix. Then add in the rest of the ingredients and pulse until it looks like a smooth nut butter. It might look a bit gritty in texture but don’t worry about it. It will taste delicious when done.

Step 3: Spoon the pumpkin seed mixture into a bowl and freeze for about 10 minutes so the mixture hardens enough to handle. You want to make them into round balls so it needs to harden a bit. Depending on how thick your mixture is check at around the 7-8 minutes to see if solid enough and if not put it back in the freezer until it is.

Step 4: While that mixture is in the freeezer, toast the coconut. Take out a small skillet and heat to medium heat. Add the shredded coconut to the pan and toast until golden brown. Watch to make sure it doesn’t burn. Once it is about 75% golden brown take off the stove and pour into a paper towel or plate to cool.

When it has cooled put into a small bowl.

Step 5: Once the energy bite mixture is solid enough to roll into a bowl, take it out of the freezer. Use a tablespoon or small cookie scoop to take some of the mixture and carefully roll into a bowl then drop into the bowl of toasted coconut.

Roll it around in the coconut to make a ball and then place it on a plate. Continue to do this with all of the mixture and then place the plate in the freezer for an hour.

Store these pumpkin energy balls in an air tight container either in the freezer or refrigerator. If they seem too hard when you take them out of the freezer, just let them sit out for a few minutes and they should be fine. Most likely they will be soft enough though.

Please scroll down to view the printable recipe card for these healthy treats.

More low carb high protein snacks to try.

I make these high protein keto snacks all the time and store them in the refrigerator or freezer. They keep longer there and it also keeps me from eating too many of them. Here are a few similar keto snack recipes that you might like. 

• keto coconut cake protein balls
• low carb chocolate coconut protein balls
• keto peanut butter banana fudge
• low carb banana bread granola
• low carb birthday cake whipped cottage cheese

I hope you like these low carb toasted coconut pumpkin seed energy balls as much as I do. I also make these with sunflower seeds and toasted sesame seeds instead of coconut.

I love that there is no baking involved and of course the taste. Plus they are the perfect snack for me to up my protein intake. Enjoy!

The nutritional information for 1 ball is: 112 calories / 9.8g fat / 2.9g carbs / 0.8g fiber / 5g protein = 2.1g net carbs