Home-made vegan Sports gel: success

I want to thank Matt Frazier for the vegan Sports Gel recipe in his great book, "No Meat Athlete" which I made over the weekend and used on a long run for the first time this morning. 

Not only was the gel REALLY easy to make (I used a hand blender but any blender will do), but it was also tastier than ANY other sports gel I've tried. That is not an exaggeration either. Usually sports gels make me gag a bit, so I'm sure it helps that you can make this gel to a consistency that suits you.

I followed the recipe exactly, except as I didn't have any molasses I swapped this out for golden syrup (which has been in my pantry for ages, so really just needs to be used up). When I finish that I'll definitely go looking for some molasses which will increase the health value of the gel even more.

Usually I am NOT a fan of medjool dates either (the key flavour ingredient of the gel), however apparently when you mix the dates with salt and lemon juice then this makes the dates not just palatable, but downright delicious! When I returned from my run I diluted the remaining gel with water to drink the rest - I didn't want to lose any of it.

The recipe made the perfect amount to fit in my 6oz. Fuel Belt gel flask; originally I was a bit stumped by how to get the gel into the flask, but a home-made piping bag (made out of baking paper) fixed that.

Thanks Matt! :-)