In her new cookbook “Hot Date!,” Brooklyn-based chef Rawaan Alkhatib explores the many uses of dates, a fruit she calls a “powerhouse plant.”

Drawing from her Middle Eastern and Indian heritage, Alkhatib describes the book as a love song to the ingredient.

The date has “occupied a place in the imagination and on the table of humankind for millennia,” Alkhatib writes, calling it one of the most “revered” and “elemental” foods.

In an interview on “Mornings On 1” Monday, Alkhatib further highlighted the fruit’s historical significance.

“We've grown with dates for over 7,000 years. That's a really long time for humans to have deliberately planted these foods,” she said. “They're sweet, they provide energy, they provide nutrition, and they've carried humanity through—they've built civilizations.”