That time I tried to make Luna Bars...
Soy Protein Bars are from back when Luna Bars were popular. It's 2021 and it seems like soybeans are a little bit harder to find. At least for me. I know of one health food store in town that sells them, but I haven't seen them at Whole Foods or Sprouts. TVP is still pretty easy to find, though (Bob's makes it). Anyhow, this is a no-bake recipe where the main ingredients are soybeans, TVP, rice cereal, peanut butter and brown rice syrup.
Old Notes: I pasted the nutrition information which I got from a program called "Mastercook" at the bottom. The 7 grams of protein per bar seems pretty good to me, though I'd like to whittle down the fat content a bit. Reduced fat peanut butter would fix that little problem, but for this version, I used full fat peanut butter. With a bit of chocolate drizzled over them these would be rich enough for dessert. As they are, they are a good breakfast treat or snack. They hold together very well after being chilled.
At some point I'd like to make these again and post better photos, but it will probably be a while before I round up soybeans and TVP. If you make the homemade soy protein bars, please let me know!
Recipe
Quick and Easy Peanut Butter Soy Protein Bars
Ingredients
- ½ cup roasted soybeans bulk bin
- 1 cup brown rice crisp cereal
- 1 cup textured vegetable protein Bob's Red Mill or bulk bin
- 1 tiny pinch about ⅛ teaspoon salt
- ⅓ cup peanut butter
- ⅓ cup brown rice syrup
- 2 tablespoons sugar or evaporated cane juice sugar bulk bin or date sugar
Instructions
- Line an 8 inch square pan with foil or parchment paper and spray with cooking spray.
- Place soybeans in a food processor and pulse to chop. Alternatively, you may leave them whole or crush them slightly in a bag.
- Combine soy beans, brown rice crisp cereal and TVP. Toss with salt.
- In a microwave-safe mixing bowl, combine peanut butter, brown rice syrup and evaporated cane juice (or sugar). Heat on high in microwave for 1 minute, stopping to stir halfway through.
- Dump crunchy soy mixture into peanut butter mixture and stir until well coated. Press mixture tightly into pan.
- Chill for at least 2 hours or until firm. Score into 8 bars.
Lina says
Try making em with almond butter or tahini- those both have more protein than peanut butter per tablespoon.
Great recipe, btw. 😀
Bella says
Looks yummy! I have to try! (especially since they look so easy to make in my dorm room!)
What do soy nuts taste like? I haven't tried them yet. I wonder what these bars would taste like with almonds instead of soy nuts. More fat, possibly 🙂
Anna says
You could give it a try! I think the best bet for reducing fat would be to use reduced fat peanut butter. I don't see why it wouldn't work :).
Anna says
Hi Dani,
Boy, I don't know the answer to that. My guess is the bars would be kind of gross -- but then I'm not a big fan of soy nut butter! I think almond butter might work, but the bars not might hold together as well. One reason. I don't think natural peanut butter would work very well either because the bars, in my opinion, wouldn't be sweet enough.
Dani says
You are probably right - peanut butter is stickier than soynut butter (as far as I know) I just thought it would be a way to reduce the fat amount (even though soynut butter has only 4g less fat than peanut butter)
Dani says
I wonder how they would turn out if you would use SoyNut Butter instead of the Peanutbutter....
Anna says
Peabody, I think they'd keep your blood sugar pretty stable.
Veuveclicquot, I hope you like these. Feel free to jazz them up. They taste good this way, but are still a blank slate.
Alison, I eat breakfast bars every single morning, so I am creating them mainly for variety. And like you mentioned, I am trying to keep the calories low and the protein relatively high. It's tricky to get the proportions right and come up with something that still tastes good. I think the proportions here work, but I need a second opinion.
veuveclicquot says
I love all type of enercy/granola bars, so this is a definite "must-try." Thanks for sharing the recipe!
peabody says
These might be good before hockey.