Cranberry chocolate chickpea bites
A snack made with wholesome ingredients including fiber? Yes, please!
I'm a fan of packing lots of wholesome and nutritious ingredients into food whenever possible. Think about how many times we eat.
Each time we eat is a new opportunity to make nutritious choices.
I love the concept of thinking about adding nutritious foods instead of thinking about removing unhealthy ones. The more we eat wholesome food prepared in delicious ways, the more our bodies crave them and removing the unhealthy foods ends up being a natural process.
I love fresh cranberries.
I love chocolate.
I love chickpeas.
Aaand... I love these cranberry chocolate chickpea bites!
I won't call them cookies because they don't really set like cookies, the texture is softer and may crumble a bit depending on how dry the dates and the peanut butter are, but I'm really happy with the flavor result.
They are lightly sweetened by dates with little pieces of fresh cranberries and chocolate.
If you're not a chickpea fan I'm not sure you will like this, the chickpea flavor is really mild but might be very distinct for those not into chickpeas.
But if you're a chickpea fan you'll probably love these! And as a bonus will be adding some plant protein and fiber to your snacks by eating more chickpeas.
This was my second attempt making these bites, the first time I didn't add enough cranberries and used tiny chocolate chips, the result didn't have enough flavor, but this time with more cranberries and larger chocolate chips they came out delicious.
🌿 3 cups chickpeas (if using canned make sure it's unsalted)
🌿 ½ cup peanut butter (see note below)
🌿 1 cup pitted dates (see note below)
🌿 1 tsp vanilla extract
🌿 ½ tsp baking powder
🌿 1 ½ cup fresh cranberries
🌿 1/3 chocolate chips
✋🏾 Preheat oven to 350 F.
✋🏾 Add chickpeas, peanut butter, dates, vanilla extract and baking powder to a food processor. Process until well mixed.
✋🏾 Add cranberries and chocolate chips. Pulse a few times until they are incorporated into the mix but make sure to leave chunks in.
✋🏾 Bake for 25 minutes.
✋🏾 Place the bites over a cooling rack for a few minutes (if you don't have a cooling rack, just let them cool down in the pan)
✋🏾 Store them in the fridge for a few days.
Peanut butter note: Jarred peanut butter often has salt and oil added, make sure to check the label to know what you're buying. I used one that did have salt but no oil. If using unsalted peanut butter, add a pinch of salt to the mix.
Dates note: The cup of dates should not be packed, it's about 8 medium to large dates. For a sweeter result a couple more dates can be used or adding a couple Tbsp of maple syrup could be an interesting choice.
Here's a video for a visual of the process:
https://cinnamon.video/watch?v=457793230306543166
More cranberry ideas:
Maple roasted brussels sprouts with cranberries, apple & pecan
More recipes using chickpeas:
Cíntia