Chickpea Cookie Dough Balls
Cookie Dough. Five main ingredients. Oats, peanut butter, dates, chickpeas (shhhh!) and chocolate chips. A little vanilla and salt for depth, and you’re in business!
Talk about instant gratification! This is way faster than going to a drive-thru. And no drive-thru sells chickpea cookie dough! I know, right?! Major oversight there.
I mean, if you can eat health foods AND eat cookie dough, too, why wouldn’t you?! I can’t even remember the last time I made a cookie without beans or vegetables in it. Legumes add fiber, protein, iron, zinc, folate, and phytates. Eating chickpeas is associated with lower weight, regulation of blood sugar, insulin and cholesterol. They reduce the risk of stroke, depression, and colon cancer.
It is recommended that we eat beans/legumes every day. In fact, three servings every day. It’s pretty easy to do–a 1/4 cup of hummus, some tofu, peas, lentils, or….cookie dough!
Just pulse the dates in a food processor, then add the remaining ingredients. Roll into balls, and enjoy!
If you want to make them low-fat, you can use powdered peanut butter (which is de-fatted) like PB2 instead. If you don’t eat chocolate or can’t find high-quality chocolate chips, you can just omit them for peanut butter balls. You might want to increase the dates and peanut butter in that case.
If you like sneaking legumes in your desserts, boy are you in the right place!
These Chocolate Protein Blender Muffins have lentils in them!
Secret-Ingredient Chocolate Chip Cookies (the baked version of these balls)
A few simple, healthy ingredients make delicious little cookie dough bites!
- 10 large, soft medjool dates
- 1.5 cup chickpeas (1 can, rinsed and drained)
- 1/3 cup peanut butter (or powdered peanut butter for low-fat)
- 3/4 cup rolled oats
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup dairy-free dark chocolate chips
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If your dates are hard, soak them in hot water for about 10 minutes, then drain.
In a food processor, pulse the dates until they are fine and clump into a ball.
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Add the remaining ingredients and pulse until well-combined. You can add the chocolate chips before or after this, depending on if you like them chopped up or whole.
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Roll into balls,. Makes 20-30, depending on the size. Enjoy! Keep in the fridge.
You can add nuts, hemp seeds, coconut, dried cherries or other fruit, if desired.
Frozen balls are yummy, too! Mix frozen pieces into nice cream for a cookie dough ice cream/milk shake!
Mmm, mmm good! We went hiking with a group and took these cookie balls. I had rolled the balls in finely shredded coconut. They were attractive and delicious and were snapped up in no time!
Umm…. I love these. Especially when refrigerated on a hot summer afternoon. They are so satisfying and refreshing. I tried both blending the chocolate in the food processor and just mixing in chocolate chips when rolling them into balls. Both ways are fine and yummy, but I prefer mixing in the chips. (Makes it look more like cookie dough). I’ve made these for family, friends, and other guests and everyone liked them. Thanks for the recipe!
Yay! That’s so good to hear. 🙂
It’s been a while since I made these, whipped some up for dessert tonight and my very picky 3 year old gobbled them up. 🙂 Thrilled to sneak some nutrition in as dessert!