No bake, gluten free, vegan chocolate chip cookie dough balls, folks. Chickpeas form the base of these sweet, salty balls, which sounds weird but trust me – they’re delicious. They’re also high in protein, fiber, and iron, which has Brad flexing his muscles for you.
I’ve been trying to work more goji berries into my diet these days, which is why you’re finding them here. Goji berries (otherwise known as lycium berries or wolf berries) are widely recognized as a super food, and have been used in traditional Chinese medicine for over 2000 years. They contain all the essential amino acids, 21 trace minerals, loads of vitamin C and more carotenoids than any other food. The also have high antioxidant levels, and anti-bacterial compounds. Their list of reported benefits is long, including increasing eye health, helping to balance blood sugar, increasing metabolism, and some studies have even shown them to inhibit tumor growth. I’m in! That said, if you can’t find them or don’t want to drop the cash on them, this recipe will still be good without them.
According to Dr. Gregor over at Nutritionfacts.org, you can get goji berries at a great discount by shopping for them in asian grocery stores as Lycium.
On to the recipe!
Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Balls
- 2 cups quick oats or oat flour
- 1 15 oz can chickpeas drained and rinsed. Or two cups cooked chickpeas
- 1/2 cup soft fresh dates* (pits removed)
- 1/4 cup almond or peanut butter **
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup goji berries
- 1/2 cup mini vegan chocolate chips
- In the bowl of a food processor, fitted with the S blade, whiz up the quick oats to create a coarse flour. Skip this step if you’re using oat flour. Set aside.
- Add chickpeas, dates, nut butter and salt to food processor and process until smooth.
- Add oat flour, chocolate chips, and goji berries and pulse until well incorporated, scraping down sides as needed. If you’re using large chocolate chips, you may want to process a little bit more to break them up a bit.
- Form dough into small balls and chill! Best served out of the fridge or freezer.
* If you’re using hard, dry dates, soften them in warm water for 20 minutes before proceeding with the recipe.
**For a school-lunch friendly version, try substituting sunflower seed butter
How about some nuts in them…. Could you suggest another type of sweetner…Honey? I dunno. But I would like to try these. Have you ever thought about sample packs. We buy them from you…you send a few balls…the recipes and maybe a teaser about next time
You could definitely put some nuts in them! As to alternative sweeteners….my first choice would be maple syrup, but that could be hard to come by since you’re in KANSASS! 🙂 You could try raisins, maybe just give them a a quick soak. Dates aren’t too hard to come by though…you might be pleasantly surprised 😉