Say hello to Autumn with a raw banana date log

So Summer is officially over and the long bright afternoons are getting shorter by the minute. I always look forward to Autumn even though I am a Summer girl through and through; I hear the mountains call me and I find myself spending a lot of time from March onwards making little trips to Leura and Blackheath, or further over the crest if we have a day of exploring planned.

But by the time my birthday rolls around at the end of July I'm well and truly over the cold and painfully counting the weeks till Spring again. 

Early Autumn, however, is the happy medium. Although mangoes are getting scarce and avocados have doubled in price, bananas are still in sweet, plentiful supply. So plentiful I had a bunch of them going soft and decided to squish them into this lovely log.

Raw banana date log

1/4 cup buckwheat groats
1/2 cup walnuts, plus a handful extra
1/2 cup dates
1 medium banana (around 100g)
1/4 cup quinoa flakes
2 heaped tablespoons coconut flour

Pop the buckwheat and 1/2 cup walnuts into your high speed blender and pulse till you have a coarse chunky mixture (you'll want to leave quite a bit of crunch in the buckwheat). Add the dates to the blender and pulse till they are roughly chopped.

In a bowl, mash the banana then add the quinoa flakes, coconut flour and the mixture from the blender. Stir in the handful of whole walnuts and fold the mixture till it comes together in a sticky play doh like consistency.

Tear off two large pieces of glad wrap and shape the mixture into a log in the centre of the wrap. Roll it up, patting it into a sausage shape as you go, and twist the ends tightly to compress the log. I put a couple of bulldog clips on each end to stop it unrolling before I put it in the fridge for an hour or so.

When it has become firmer after spending some time in the fridge, unroll the log and cut into thick slices.

Store in the fridge - mine was still delicious after 3 days but had changed colour due to the banana oxidising.