These Salted Hazelnut Butter Chickpea Blondies made with GroundUp PDX’s Oregon Hazelnut Nut Butter are pure bites of gluten-free heaven.

Fudgy and soft, with big chunks of dark chocolate chunks, flaky salt, and hazelnut and almond butter in every bite, they’re truly a heavenly treat that you can feel good about nourishing your body with.

So, yes. This is a dessert made with chickpeas. I know, I know. But really, it works. For example these oldie but goodie vegukate recipes all use chickpeas, and they all taste amazing. These Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies, are made with almond butter and maple syrup, and are completely flourless and grain-free and these flourless Chickpea Blondies are truly amazing.

Once chickpeas are pureed with delicious ingredients and baked into treats, you’d never know they’re in there! Instead, these cute little pulses lend a soft texture, plenty of fiber, and nutrients to each and every treat – like these Blondies. Of course, chickpeas are a wonderful pantry staple food to have on hand. I love stocking up on BPA-free cans to add to salads, make into hummus, and crisp up as croutons. Chickpeas are a good source of digestive-regulating and satiety-promoting fiber, protein, folate, iron, phosphorus, manganese, and copper, among other nutrients.

This blondies have a wonderful flavor and taste thanks to the Hazelnut Nut Butter, vanilla, and maple syrup. Although having GroundUp’s Hazelnut Nut Butter makes these blondies taste absolutely amazing, you can swap out with any other nut butter you may have on hand. If you feel like stocking up GroundUp PDX’s nut butter, you can use the code ‘vegukate’ for 15% off your order!

Salted Hazelnut Butter Chickpea Blondies

Makes 9-12 blondies

Ingredients:

1 (15 ounce) can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
½ cup GroundUp PDX Oregon Hazelnut nut butter, or another nut butter of choice
1/3 cup maple syrup
2 tsp. vanilla extract
¼ cup oat flour
½ tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ cup dark chocolate chips, or a chopped up dark chocolate bar
½ tbsp. flaky sea salt, for sprinkling on top

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line a 8×8 pan with parchment paper.
2. To a food processor add chickpeas, hazelnut butter, maple syrup, and vanilla extract. Blend until smooth and creamy.
3. Add oat flour, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon. Process again until completely smooth.
4. Use a spatula to carefully fold in chocolate chips (or process for 5 seconds in food processor), reserve a handful of chocolate chips for sprinkling on top of blondies.
5. Bake hazelnut butter blondies for 25 minutes. Remove from oven and let sit for 20 minutes – a very important step, although it’s very tempting to dig right in! Once brownies are cool, slice into equal sizes and enjoy! Leftover brownies will keep in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week.