Chickpeas in cookies may sound strange but trust me, it works. These cookies are the perfect morning or afternoon snack, with the decent protein and fibre content from the chickpeas and peanut butter balancing out the sugar to manage blood sugar levels. This is important if you want to be able to concentrate, support a healthy mood and avoid energy crashes, tantrums and tears – for both kids and parents alike.
The cookies are also made from whole food ingredients to ensure you get lasting energy and maximum nutrition while snacking. Real ingredients for healthy and happy bodies. These chickpea, peanut butter and dark chocolate chip cookies are also gluten and dairy free – if using dairy free dark chocolate and many are if they are 80% cocoa or higher – making them suitable for those avoiding gluten and dairy in the diet.
Dietary Suitability of Chickpea and Peanut Butter Cookies
Chickpea and Peanut Butter Cookies Food As Medicine
✓ Chickpeas
Chickpeas have to be one of my favourite prebiotic legumes for feeding a healthy gut. This is because they travel to the large intestine where they feed our good bacteria and produce beneficial compounds that support good gut health, blood sugar regulation, mineral absorption and can reduce inflammation.
Early research is also showing that chickpea consumption in the diet can boost a beneficial bacterium that lives in our gut called Faecalibacterium prausnitzii – fancy name for a good guy that has great butyrate producing activity needed for gut and microbiota health (1).
✓ Dark Chocolate
Dark chocolate, that is 80% or higher in cocoa solids, is high in proanthocyanidins – these are polyphenols that come from plant foods and can have beneficial roles in the gut. Proanthocyanidins are prebiotics that can encourage the growth of our beneficial bacteria such as Bifidobacterium species and Lactobacillus species. They also have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant and antimicrobial properties that can interfere with unfavourable pathogens in the mouth and stomach (2).
Chickpea, Peanut Butter and Dark Chocolate Cookies
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 12 1x
- Diet: Gluten Free
Description
Chickpeas in cookies may sound strange but trust me, it works. These cookies are the perfect morning or afternoon snack as they aren’t too sweet and the decent protein and fibre content balance out the sugar to manage blood sugar levels.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups of cooked chickpeas or 1 x 400g cans of chickpeas, rinsed well
- 1 cup of 100% natural peanut butter
- 1/2 a cup of coconut sugar
- 2 tsp of vanilla
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 a cup dark chocolate chips or broken up dark chocolate
- 1/4 tsp of salt (if peanut butter isn’t salted)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line a couple of baking trays with baking paper.
- Combine the chickpeas, peanut butter, coconut sugar, vanilla, baking powder and salt in a food processor and blend until smooth and sticky in texture.
- Add in the dark chocolate chips and mix with a spoon until evenly combined in the mixture.
- Spoon tablespoons of mixture into wet hands and roll into balls before placing on the baking paper.
- Press each ball of mixture down with the palm of your hand or let the kids get involved with pressing down lightly with a fork.
- Bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes. Remove when they are golden.
Notes
You can swap out the peanut butter for another nut butter if you don’t do well with peanuts. Almond butter, cashew butter or ABC butter (almond, brazil and cashew nut butter) would also work well.
You could also swap the coconut sugar for 1/2 a cup of honey if you prefer. I have opted for coconut sugar as is a sweetener with a relatively low glycemic index so it wont send blood sugar levels skyrocketing. Although honey is also a decent choice of sweetener as it has good prebiotic properties to promote the growth of those good guys in your gut.
We usually double the mixture to get a good amount of cookies as they generally don’t last long. Although if you are wanting to store they should keep well in an airtight container for a week or you can also pop in the freezer for a few months.
- Prep Time: 15
- Cook Time: 15