Well gang! I am SO excited to share the beginning of a beautiful recipe series with you today! Cliona Byrne (@fuelingthefitlife on Instagram and her fantastic blog can be found here) is a good friend of mine, as well as a fellow blogger, trainee dietitian and Lululemon Educator. We are very like-minded gals, and share a love of healthy eating made delicious, and fitness of all kinds. So this summer, we decided it was HIGH time we collaborated on a recipe – and we got so inspired while brainstorming ideas that we decided to create a whole SERIES of recipes for you!

So here’s how it’s gonna go down. Cliona and I have picked FIVE key ingredients that we love to use in cooking, and we have created a sweet and savoury recipe with both! These ingredients are staples we use almost every day in our meals, and we love them so much we wanted to share what we make with you. The recipes are mostly (not exclusively) vegetarian, but are definitely plant-focused, because as a doctor and trainee dietitian combo, we want to emphasise in our recipes the vast benefits and exciting recipes to be got from using our ingredients.

Our FIRST key ingredient to kick off the series is CHICKPEAS! If you’ve been following my blog or my social media, you’ll know I literally LOVE chickpeas. They are an amazingly versatile food, and full of plant protein and fibre. Today’s recipe is the ‘sweet’ option, and we’ve gone for a good one – Chocolate Chip Chickpea Blondies! And your challenge, besides of course making these goodies, is to try not to eat the whole batch at once! Our ‘savoury’ chickpea recipe will be coming to you NEXT week – we’ll leave you guessing for now!

Recipe (Makes 12 Blondies)

Ingredients

• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tbsp melted coconut oil
• 1 medium ripe banana
• 50ml of Milk of choice (I use Alpro Almond Milk)
• 2 heaped tbsp Almond butter (I used Life Force)
• 3 tbsp sweetener of choice (I used agave but honey or maple syrup is perfect either)
• 1 400g can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
• 1 heaped tbsp milled flaxseed
• 50g oats, blended into flour + 1 heaped tbsp quick cook oats
• 30g raw cashews, roughly chopped
• 30g dark chocolate, roughly chopped into small chunks

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 175C (fan oven) and line an 8×8 inch baking tray (about 1 inch deep) with grease-proof paper or greased tinfoil.
2. Combine the wet ingredients – chickpeas, almond butter, sweetener, banana, coconut oil and milk in a blender or food processor, and blend until smooth.
3. Add your dry ingredients to a large mixing bowl – oat flour, cinnamon and baking soda – and stir together with a spoon.
4. Pour the blended wet ingredients into the bowl with the dry. Mix together until everything completely combined. Add a splash extra milk at this stage if you feel it is too dry.
5. Pour the batter into your baking tin, and bake in the oven for 35 – 40 minutes. A toothpick should come out clean at this stage! I recommend checking at 35 minutes and see how you think its shaping up.
6. Leave to cool in the tray for 15 minutes, then slice the brownies up and serve!

Enjoy guys! I hope you like this recipe – it’s one I’m admittedly a bit obsessed with, especially since it’s another example of the amazing potential of chickpeas! Tag me if you try it out – @theirishbalance on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook!

Ciara 🙂 x