snacks:

tahini and chocolate chickpea blondies

Published 13th July 2020

With school aged children, the need for nut-free snacks is imperative.

I have been seeing blondie recipes pop up everywhere lately, especially chickpea blondies, which I love. The only downside is that they all use either peanut butter or almond meal, which is not at all conducive when you can’t send your child to school with nuts (not that school-friendly snacks really matter when you’re schooling from home!!!). So, I have done some experimenting and have come up with these Tahini and Chocolate Chickpea Blondies.

Don’t let the inclusion of chickpeas put you off as you really cannot taste them. Instead, your body just reaps the rewards of including a member of the pulse family in the diet. Chickpeas provide an excellent source of prebiotic soluble fibre. Prebiotics are the ‘food’ that feed the trillions of good bacteria (also called probiotics or microbes) that reside in your gut, which make up the microbiome. When fed adequately, these microbes flourish and produce short chain fatty acids, which control the permeability of the gut, ensuring that molecules stay inside the intestinal tract, where they belong, rather than leeching out and causing inflammation in the body. Inflammation in the body is an underlying cause of many chronic health conditions, so minimising it is very beneficial to overall health and well-being.

 
 
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One of the best things about this recipe is that you can pop everything into the food processor and blend it together, meaning only one bowl needs to be washed. Do make sure that you store these blondies in the fridge. One of the batches I made, I left at room temperature and within a couple of days they went mouldy, due to the moisture content of the chickpeas.

If you don’t love the taste of tahini and have no need for these to be nut free, then you can substitute the tahini for peanut butter, which has a milder flavour than the tahini. The chocolate is an optional extra, but I highly recommend including it. I have just sprinkled it on top here, but it can be folded through the mixture just before adding it to the pan.

Enjoy xx.

 
 
 
Tahini and Chocolate Chickpea Blondies.jpg
 
Tahini and Chocolate Chickpea Blondies.jpg

 

Ingredients:

  • 1 cup rolled oats

  • 1 x 400g tin of chickpeas, drained and rinsed

  • 1/3 cup of hulled tahini

  • 1/3 cup maple syrup

  • 2 medjool dates, pitted and roughly chopped

  • 2 eggs

  • 1 tsp vanilla extract

  • 1 tsp baking powder

  • 50g dark chocolate, chopped or 1/3 cup dark choc bits

 

Method:

  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C and line a square baking tray with baking paper.

  2. Place the oats into the food processor and pulse 3 or 4 times to break up the oats.

  3. Add the chickpeas, tahini, maple syrup, dates, eggs, vanilla and baking powder and blend until a smooth, yet slightly lumpy consistency forms. You may need to stop the food processor to scrape down the sides.

  4. If you want the chocolate to be evenly distributed throughout the mixture then fold in the chocolate, otherwise pour the batter into the prepared pan and sprinkle the chocolate on top.

  5. Place into the oven and bake for 20-25 minutes or until firm to touch.

  6. Allow to cool before slicing. Place into an airtight container and store in the fridge.