CHICKPEA CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

I'll be the first one to say that, as much as I love a good chickpea salad, I do think it's a bit weird to use them in desserts. But after seeing a few recipes online and people raving about it, I decided to give it a go and test it myself. After all, who can say no to healthy cookies? 

I loved them, my family loved them, my friends loved them. Everyone loved them, even those who are not a fan of my healthy baking. 

So, even if you don't usually are one to try healthy desserts you should give this a try. They are soft, sweet and do not taste like chickpeas. Trust me. 

Ingredients

1 can (15oz) of cooked and drained chickpeas

1/2 cup brown sugar 

1/2 cup wholewheat flour

2 tbsp vanilla extract

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 tbsp olive oil or coconut oil

Chocolate chips to taste

How to

Preheat the oven to 200 degrees celsius.

Start by cooking and draining the chickpeas. Using a food processor, process the chickpeas, vanilla extract, olive oil, salt and baking powder until it's smooth.

In a medium bowl, add the flour and the sugar. Fold until everything is mixed. Finally, add the chocolate chips and mix. You can also add nuts or dried fruit, or basically anything you like in cookies.

On a lined baking sheet, scoop the dough and flatten the cookies a bit using wet fingers as the cookies won't expand much by themselves. 

Bake at 180 degrees celsius for about 20-25 min, until the top of the cookies begins to crack and the edges are dry to touch.  

OUT AND ABOUT: 24 HRS IN MENORCA

It seems like all I do lately is waking up at ridiculous times, but it’s always worth it. Last Wednesday, I had to get up at 3:15AM to go to the harbour and take the ferry to Menorca which, for this of you who don’t know, is a little island near Mallorca in the Balearic Islands (Spain). The journey was only about 2 hours and it was one of the prettiest things I’ve ever seen as we got to watch the sun rise from behind Menorca. 

We took a bus to Ferreries, where we spent the morning. There we joined the town festivities which revolve around horses. Riders, dressed in 19th-century costume, exhibit the horse’s abilities accompanied by traditional music. Unlike 90% of the population, I am not an animal lover at all so I wasn’t too excited about that. However, I did have a great time and it wasn’t as boring as I was expecting.  

At around noon, we took a bus to Ciutadella where we spent the rest of the day. After eating one of my favourite dishes ever, Caldereta de Marisco which could be described as a seafood stew, we walked around the city and explored its streets. We also visited the pier, which we accidentally found. On our way back to the ferry, we stumbled upon a little beach which I think looked very cool because it almost looked like a river rather than the sea. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to swim as we didn’t want to miss the ferry. We didn’t visit any of the stunning beaches in Menorca because they are very similar to the ones we have in Mallorca but if you ever decide to go and you like crystal clear turquoise water (who doesn’t), you should definitely go to one!