Vegan Chickpea Blondies

These vegan chickpea blondies are the perfect fudgy dessert that is close to having a deep dish cookie. Easy to make and only 9 ingredients!

Vegan chickpea blondies cut into even squares.

When I first became a dietitian, the first thing I learned to do was to make a chickpea cookie dough dip with basic ingredients. It was okay from what I remembered, nothing I would write home about. I remember trying it at the insistence of my preceptor, but even I had to admit that there was still need for improvement when it came to adding beans to something sweet. I sat on that idea for a long time and have seen many variations of this idea, but wanted to give my own variation a try. These vegan chickpea blondies totally hit the mark when it comes to the perfect chewy, fudgy and perfectly sweet dessert.

Adding Beans To Desserts

These are better-for-you blondies. Blondies that still taste rich and decadent, but are dairy free and egg free. They even include a fun ingredient that you likely won’t be able to detect if you try it. These blondies are loaded with chickpeas! It can sound really weird, but with the right balance of ingredients, you can mask the flavor of bean.

Adding chickpeas to this dessert actually helps to take the place of some of the flour and eggs normally in this dessert. As a result, you get more protein, fiber and satisfaction with each bite. But this swap in does more than just add in health benefits. The chickpeas blend with the peanut butter to give a chewy and delectable cookie, fudgy consistency. It is literally the best combo!

Tray of chickpea blondies out of the oven and ready to cool.

Key Ingredients and Substitutions

  • Rolled Oats: You can use quick oats as an alternative as well. If you want to keep this recipe gluten-free, make sure to use clearly labeled gluten-free rolled oats.
  • Brown Sugar: The brown sugar helps to give more moisture and fudgy like consistency. If you’d like to swap for coconut sugar, I would recommend adding 1 teaspoon of black unsulfured molasses to keep the moisture.
  • Maple Syrup: Adds great sweetness and flavor but enough liquid to blend the batter smooth.
  • Peanut Butter: I used peanut butter to help bring the cost of these blondies down. If you don’t want a strong peanut butter flavor, you can also make these with cashew or almond butter. You can also try with sunflower seed butter to make it nut-free.
  • Dairy-Free Chocolate Chips: You can also add additional mix-ins if desired. Other chopped nuts like walnuts work really well or pretzel pieces. Just make sure to mix at the end.

How to Make Chickpea Blondies

Process your oats to make sure that they are blended into a flour. Add the remaining ingredients except chocolate chips. Process and blend until batter is as smooth as possible. Feel free to scrape down sides to make sure batter is smooth.

Once smooth, fold in chocolate chips. Spoon the batter into an 8 x 8 pan. Feel free to add additional chocolate chips on top for decoration.

Bake in the oven at 350F for 20 minutes. Allow to completely cool before cutting into pieces.

Expert Tips

  • You can use home cooked chickpeas or canned chickpeas for this. Using canned chickpeas is also a major time saver compared to using cooked from scratch chickpeas. Canned chickpeas also tend to be a lot softer, which is perfect for blending. No need to skin the chickpeas, just rinse and drain before use. If using home cooked chickpeas, 1 15.5 oz can of chickpeas equals about 1 1/3 cups chickpeas cooked.
  • Line your baking tray with parchment paper for easy clean up. I like to cut two long pieces and cross them over each other to fit the mold of the pan. This makes lifting the blondies out of the pan super easy.
  • Allow the blondies to cool off before cutting into them. Allowing the blondies to cool allows for them to set, which prevents your blondie from crumbling around the edges.

More Desserts with Added Nutrition to Try

Stack of vegan chickpea blondies.
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Vegan chickpea blondies cut into even squares.

Vegan Chickpea Blondies

5 Stars 4 Stars 3 Stars 2 Stars 1 Star 5 from 3 reviews
  • Prep Time: 10 minutes
  • Cook Time: 20 minutes
  • Total Time: 30 minutes
  • Yield: 9 pieces 1x
  • Category: Dessert
  • Method: Baking
  • Cuisine: American
  • Diet: Vegan

Description

These vegan chickpea blondies are the perfect fudgy dessert that is close to having a deep dish cookie. Easy to make and only 9 ingredients!


Ingredients

Scale
  • 1/2 cup gluten-free rolled oats
  • 2 tbsp organic brown sugar or coconut sugar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 15.5 oz can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup peanut butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
  • 1/3 cup dairy free chocolate chips plus extra for topping

Instructions

  1. Set oven to 350F. Place all oats, sugar, baking powder, and salt into a high speed food processor  or blender and process it into a flour.
  2. Add in chickpeas and remaining liquid ingredients except chocolate chips into the food processor or high speed blender with tamper and process until batter is smooth.
  3. Scrap down sides to allow even blending.
  4. Once the batter is smooth, fold in chocolate chips then spoon out the batter into a 8×8 baking tray and place in the oven for 20 minutes.
  5. Allow blondies to completely cool before cutting into them.

Notes

You can sub out the peanut butter for an allergy friendly option or a different nut butter. Opt for natural nut butters that have a runny consistency for best results.

Feel free to leave the vanilla extract out if you don’t have it on hand.

Feel free to swap out maple syrup for a different liquid sweetener.

I have not tested sugar substitutes in this recipe, so test at your own discretion.

If you tried this recipe or any other recipe on the blog, then let me know what you thought in the comments below! And if you loved it, don’t forget to rate it too. Feel free to follow on Instagram, Pinterest, and TikTok for the latest nutrition tips and recipe videos.

 Catherine

This post contains affiliate links which means I will make a small commission if you purchase from those links. I only recommend and share products that I know, trust and personally use myself!

8 Comments

  1. So good!! Made these with sunflower butter because we have a nut allergy in our house, and they turned out great!

  2. Delicious! These were great served warm as a gooey treat with a bit of ice cream on top, or cold out of the fridge when they have a texture more like fudge. Thanks for the recipe!






    1. So so glad you enjoyed these! And yes, they are so good with ice cream on top. Thank you so much for making these!

  3. OMG…I made this tonight. I added butterscotch chips. I have a real sweet tooth & this blondie hit the spot. Thanks for the recipe!!

    1. Comments like this make my day! Thank you so much for making this. And love the fact you used the butterscotch chips. I have a similar sweet tooth. 🙂

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