These vegan chickpea chocolate chip cookies are the ultimate secretly healthy dessert. Soft and chewy on the inside and loaded with gooey chocolate chips is hard to believe that there made from a whole can of chickpeas! Free of refined sugar and a no peanut butter option, these cookies are made with simple pantry ingredients and come together in less than half an hour.

Ever since I made these delicious Chickpea Cookie Dough Bars, I have really wanted to try baking the dough just to what would happen. With a few tweaks and pretty low exceptions, I made a half batch fully prepared myself to be disappointed. But amazingly, my first go was actually… good? I mean it wasn’t perfect, but still, cookie made out of chickpeas were possible! Three attempts later and I ended up at the perfect chickpea chocolate chip cookie.

I am actually so surprised every time I take a bite of one of these vegan chickpea chocolate chip cookies. They’re so soft and chewy on the inside, a little crispy on the outside and just loaded to the brim with chocolate chips. Especially fresh out of the oven… so good. And don’t worry, you can’t taste the chickpeas!

What You’ll Need to Make Vegan Chickpea Chocolate Chip Cookies

Chickpeas: The main ingredient for this recipe, chickpeas add lots of plant-based protein and are mild in flavor, so no weird aftertaste. I use canned chickpeas just to keep things simple, but feel free to use homemade from dried if you’ve got them! 1 15 oz can is about 1 1/2 cups. Make sure you drain and rinse your chickpeas before proceeding with the recipe.

Nut or Seed Butter: Here’s where you can get creative. I wanted to keep these nut free, so my go to for this recipe is tahini, which is made from sesame seeds. Tahini does have a pretty strong flavor so if you would like something a little milder or don’t mind using nuts you can replace it with your nut or seed butter of choice for a slightly different flavor.

(Note: If you choose to use sunflower seed butter, your cookies might turn green due to a chemical reaction that happens with baking powder and the naturally occurring compounds in the sunflower seeds! Don’t worry, its totally safe to eat, just caught me a little off guard the first time it happened. 🙂

Maple Syrup: This is the sweetener for the cookies. Try to find real, high quality maple syrup for the best taste.

Apple Sauce: One of my favorite ingredients to use in vegan baking, apple sauce helps keep the cookies super moist and chewy while they bake. The first few times I made this recipe, I left it out and the cookies ended up dry and crumbly. Nowhere near as good as the final ones with the added apple sauce. Make sure you use unsweetened applesauce so your cookies don’t end up too sweet.

Olive Oil: Using just a little of this heart healthy fat makes these cookies truly taste like a traditional chocolate chip cookie. Olive oil is my favorite because it’s mild in flavor and loaded with good fats, perfect for our secretly healthy chickpea cookies.

All Purpose Flour: I have not tested this recipe with any other types of flour, but my guess is they won’t turn out the same if you sub in something else.

Baking Powder: Helps our cookies to rise in the oven. Make sure your baking powder is very fresh and hasn’t expired, this will cause dense, hard cookies.

(Full ingredient list with instruction in the recipe card at the end of the page)

How to Make Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

Blend the wet Ingredients: You’ll need a food processor for this recipe to make sure the chickpeas become nice and smooth. Simply blend your drained and rinsed chickpeas with the maple syrup, tahini (or other nut/seed butter) olive oil, and apple sauce. Blend for at least 1 whole minute until.very smooth, scraping down the sides as needed.

Add the dry ingredients: I like to transfer the wet ingredients to another bowl to make mixing easier. Go ahead and whisk together the baking powder, salt and flour then add to wet ingredients. Careful not to overmix or the cookies will be dense. Use a spatula to fold in the chocolate chips.

Scoop and bake: I use a pretty big cookie scoop to place the dough on the baking sheet. You should end up with about 12 large dough balls about the size of a golf ball (maybe slightly bigger). Roll the dough to smooth then very lightly press down with your fingers or the back of a measuring cup. Don’t flatten too much, we want the cookies to be nice and thick. To get a crispy top, I like to brush the cookies with olive oil or melted vegan butter before baking, but this is optional.

Bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes on the center rack of your oven. They won’t spread too much but the tops should become golden brown. Careful not to over-bake.

Let Cool: The cookies will continue to firm up as they cool, so as difficult as it may be, you’ll want to let them cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes before serving.

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How to Store Vegan Chickpea Cookies

Once completely cooled, these vegan chickpea chocolate chip cookies can be stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days. I personally haven’t tried freezing them before, but you should be able to freeze the baked cookies in a sealed container for up to 2 months. To reheat, wrap in a paper towel and microwave until warm and melty.

More Vegan Desserts to Try:

• Chocolate tahini oat cups
• Orange scented oatmeal cookies
• Sweet potato blondies

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Made this vegan Broccoli Cheddar Soup? Tag @wandering_chickpea on Instagram to be featured in my stories and follow along on Pinterest for more delicious recipes!