Summer Chick Pea and Kale Salad

This is a great blend of flavors for a Summer Salad. Many interesting salads are also found in Tastes & Treasures cookbook. Enjoy the tastes.


Summer Chickpea Kale Salad with Feta, Olives and Basil
Ingredients:

4 cups cooked chickpeas* (2 - 19 oz. cans)

2-3 cups packed green curly kale, minced
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1/3 cup kalamata olives, pitted & minced finely (about 20)

1/2 cup cubed feta cheese

1 clove garlic, minced

1/4 cup minced red onion (optional)

4 tbsp olive oil

 2-3 tbsp red wine vinegar

1 tsp salt (or to taste)
black pepper to taste

1 pint cherry tomatoes

fresh basil leaves (6-8 leaves)

Directions:

Combine the beans, chopped kale, olives, feta, garlic & red onion and toss gently together. Stir in the olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper and adjust to taste. Mix all gently to incorporate the dressing. Halve the cherry tomatoes and toss them in just at the end, reserving a few to leave on top for color. Just before serving, tear a generous amount of fresh basil leaves and scatter over the top.

Kale tastes MUCH better raw when you 'massage' it first. Just work it with your fingers for a couple of minutes. The leaves will turn dark green and the flavor becomes very mild.

Peanut Butter/Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites - Grain free

Grain-free Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Bites
Who doesn't like chocolate? This is a grain free recipe that is delicious. We also love Chocolate Peanut Treats from Tastes & Treasures cookbook page 162.
Ingredients:
1¼ cups canned chickpeas, well-rinsed and patted dry with a paper towel
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
½ cup + 2 tablespoons natural peanut butter, SunButter Natural or almond butter - room temperature
¼ cup honey or agave or maple syrup
1 teaspoon baking powder
a pinch of salt if your peanut butter doesn't have salt in it
½ cup  chocolate chips (use vegan and dairy-free chocolate chips, if needed)

Directions:
Preheat your oven to 350°F / 175°C. Combine all the ingredients, except for the chocolate chips, in a food processor and process until very smooth. Make sure to scrape the sides and the top to get the little chunks of chickpeas and process again until they're combined.
Put in the chocolate chips and stir it if you can, or pulse it once or twice. The mixture will be very thick and sticky.
With wet hands, form into 1½" balls. Place onto a piece of parchment paper. If you want them to look more like normal cookies, press down slightly on the balls. They don't do much rising. Bake for about 10 minutes.

Notes:
Don't even try with regular peanut butter! They'll come out oily. You MUST use natural peanut butter.
If you need grain-free baking powder, you can use 1 part cream of tartar + 1 part baking soda + 2 parts arrowroot.

Chickpea cookies! Chickpea cookies with no flour, no oil, no white sugar. These are just full of chickpeas. And they’re my very favorite healthy cookie so far! I don’t know if they really classify as cookies so I’ll go with cookie dough bites. And as a bonus, they’re grain-free, gluten-free, dairy-free and vegan. Just in case that matters to anyone out there! And if you’re worried about the chickpeas, don’t be. I don’t like chickpeas and won’t eat them but that didn’t prevent me from inhaling these.

These need the chocolate. Don’t go making them without the chocolate and then tell me that they weren’t sweet or gooey enough! These would be incredibly boring without the chocolate. And for some weird reason, these cookie dough bites do not taste yummy in dough form. Baking them somehow brings out the sweetness and peanut butter flavor. Or maybe it’s just all that melted chocolate.

These aren’t the most beautiful cookie dough bites, but fresh out of the oven, with all that gooey chocolate, I bet you can’t tell that these are made with chickpeas. Or are grain-free. But cold? Yuck. These need to be warm! You can either freeze the balls and pop a few in the oven whenever it’s on, or simply put them in the microwave until they’re warm and gooey again.
Please read the following before asking a question! It will probably answer your question.
Tons of people have posted the nutritional analysis for these. They’re supposedly anywhere between 80-130 calories, which seems like a huge range to me. Please use a recipe analyzer like on CalorieCount if you need more information.
You can use almond butter, sun butter, or whatever nut butter like you.
The peanut butter should be the kind with only peanuts and salt. No added fat or sugar. Be careful because there are some “natural” brands out there which aren’t really natural. I find that this peanut butter is usually expensive so I make my own. You can make your own in only 5 minutes with a food processor. Check that out here.
Chickpea flour won’t work. I don’t think plain hummus will either.
I haven’t tried anything other than chickpeas but others have used butter beans, navy beans, red kidney beans, great northern beans, and lentils with success. I generally don’t like goodies made with those types of beans but I love these cookies made with chickpeas. Please use chickpeas unless you have an allergy!
Doing this in a blender (unless it’s a Blendtec blender or something equally powerful) won’t work and might kill the blender.
For a totally sugar free version, use 30 drops of Stevia and cacao nibs.
For a vegan version, you can’t use honey. Use agave. Also be sure to check your chocolate chips! I’ve used these Enjoy Life chocolate chips and they are amazing!

Thanks to Texanerin.com for this recipe.
Prep Time: 8 min
Cook Time: 10 min
Ready in: 18 min
Yield: 14 1" cookies

Crunchy Chickpea Snacks

Tasty, crunchy, spicy, healthy - works for me.  Love it when I have little helping hands to make them and also enjoy them later. They’ll stay crispy for a few days stored in a resealable bag at room temperature.

Another healthy snack the kids love is Granola from page 19 Tastes & Treasures cookbook.

Crunchy Chickpeas

Ingredients:

2 (15-ounce) cans chickpeas, also known as garbanzo beans
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/2 teaspoon sea salt

Directions:

Heat the oven to 400°F and arrange a rack in the middle.

Thoroughly drain and rinse (about 3 cups) the chickpeas. Spread on kitchen towel and rub to remove outer skin. You may need to hand rub them to remove all the skins.

Place the chickpeas in a large bowl and toss with the remaining ingredients until evenly coated. Spread the chickpeas in an even layer on a rimmed baking sheet and bake until crisp, about 30 to 40 minutes. Store in tightly covered container or plastic bag to keep fresh.