My sister (who is not a vegan) sent me a recipe for peppermint slice (which was vegan). She made it and then teased me by sending photos and text messages like “OMG this is so good!”. I knew I had to make it, but I had a few problems with the original recipe.
Firstly, it was tiring just reading the recipe. I like food to be simple. Forget those ten thousand steps that you need to make a dessert you will devour in ten seconds. So I may have just skimmed through it and made my own assumptions about how to make it.
Secondly, the recipe called for 2 cups of cashews. As much as I love cashews, 2 cups of those tasty little nuts cost a lot. While I may or may not have spent about $30 on ingredients for my birthday cake earlier this year (which was definitely worth every cent) I can’t really afford to spent heaps of money on food at the moment. So I racked my brains for something I could use that would be cost effective but also taste effective. Meanwhile I cooked some chickpeas to make some hummus. And then I realised, hey, haven’t I seen vegan desserts before using cooked chickpeas as a healthy base? I’m not sure if I actually have but I have definitely seen desserts using black beans, so I was sure chickpeas would work too.
It turns out chickpeas make a great substitution for cashews in this recipe. Even the rest of my family were unsuspecting that this vegan dessert contained chickpeas. The peppermint extract and rice malt syrup overpower the mild chickpea flavour, so you really cannot taste the chickpeas at all. I considered adding a little spirulina for colour but I felt it would turn the slice a weird blue-green colour rather than a light green colour I was imagining. Matcha powder might be ideal if you have some :)
- BASE
- 1 cup oats
- 2 tbs cacao powder
- 3 tbs coconut oil
- 4 large medjool dates
- PEPPERMINT FILLING
- 2 tbs coconut oil
- 2 tbs rice malt syrup
- 2 tsp peppermint extract
- ¾ cup shredded coconut
- 1½ cup cooked chickpeas
- CHOCOLATE TOPPING
- ⅓ cup coconut oil
- ⅓ cup cacao powder
- ⅓ rice malt syrup
- Line a small dish (approx 3x6 inches) with baking paper.
- Make the base by blending the oats in your food processor until fine.
- Add the cacao, coconut oil and pitted dates, blend until it comes together in a loose dough.
- Press the base into the dish.
- Next, make your peppermint filling by blending all the filling ingredients together until smooth. Make sure there are no chunks of chickpea.
- Smooth the peppermint layer over the base.
- Next, make the chocolate topping by stirring together the topping ingredients in a bowl.
- Smooth over the top of the slice.
- Refrigerate until firm (about 4 hours) then slice and devour.
Tell me…
- Are you a lazy cook? Do you hate following recipes exactly?
- Have you tried beans in desserts before?
- How much have you spent on ingredients for a special dessert?
I love the idea of using chickpeas instead of cashews here – definitely a cheaper option! One recommendation for the recipe list though – write the titles in caps lock so they stick out from the list. I have the same issue, can’t separate ingredients into separate groups. So I use caps lock to make sure that the different parts are visible and people don’t get scared by the seemingly super-long list :)
Thanks for your feedback Terje! I will edit the recipe to make it easier to read :)
It already looks a lot easier to grasp in a quick glance! I guess this wouldn’t be an issue with a paid recipe card, but I don’t have enough money to invest in all the things ever at the moment. So I’ve just developed some cheapskate tricks to make the most out of free stuff :D
Thanks Terje! Yes I think the paid recipe plugin would be a good investment for me too, it is the next thing I want to buy for my blog…eventually! For now, I’ll have to make do with cheapskate tricks haha :)