You Can Have it All: Chickpea-Almond Muffins

For those of you who don’t know that chickpeas can do everything, fear not:

These are some damn good muffins. As an avid second breakfast eater, I’ve made/eaten a lot of tasty muffins in my day. And, for almost a year now, I’ve been honing/hoarding this recipe. I’m thrilled to finally share it. No, really!!

Inspired by incredible muffins from the Culinary Institute of America, these suckers are sweet but not cupcake-sweet, healthy-ish but not dry or boring. And hello, chickpeas! In the muffins! And nuts, and grain! Basically they are a complete meal unto themselves. (Also, they require just one mixer instead of multiple mixing bowls, and who isn’t a fan of less clean-up?)

All three of these are moist and nutty and cake-like. The blueberry ones are gorgeous and end-of-summer-y, the zucchini-apple ones smell like fall, and the chocolate-beet, ohhhh my god, they’re like gorgeous, delicious valentines. The color is reminiscent of red velvet cupcakes — it gets me every time. I hope you try one!

Just kidding. Obviously try them all.

Ingredients
1 ½ cup chickpeas (or one 15 oz can/container), drained and rinsed
½ cup ground almonds
½ cup flour (I used whole wheat flour in the blueberry and brown rice flour in the other two, which is why those have a smooshed top/less of a rise. I’ve also tried millet flour and spelt, as well as just adding more almond meal because I didn’t want to bother measuring another half cup of flour. Also, that would be a great gluten free option. Really, you can’t go wrong!)
½ cup sugar (I usually use light brown sugar or turbinado, or coconut sugar if I’m feeling fancy.)
2 eggs
¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons baking powder

For the Sour-Cream-Blueberry muffins:
½ cup sour cream
1 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

For the Zucchini-Apple-Spice muffins:
¾ cup shredded zucchini
½ cup apple puree
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon cloves
¼ teaspoon ginger
Extra tablespoon of sugar mixed with ½ teaspoon cinnamon for topping

For the Dark-Chocolate-Beet muffins:
½ cup beet puree
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

Directions
Preheat oven to 325.
Olive-oil spray or butter up your muffin tin.
In a food processor, puree your chickpeas til smooth.
Add in the rest of the ingredients and puree.
Add in the additional ingredients, depending on which muffins you’re making, and mix just until combined.
Scoop batter into the prepared muffin tins.
Cook for ~45 minutes, and let me know what you think!

Natalie Eve Garrett is an artist and writer, and the editor of The Artists’ and Writers’ Cookbook. Prints of her paintings are for sale here.