If you’ve seen my recipe for chocolate houmous (and if you haven’t then you should, it’s the perfect dip/spread/breakfast/lunch/dinner) you’ll know I’ve been foraying into chickpea-based sweet things. If you think that sounds weird, hear me out.

Chickpeas are a wonderfood. There’s not many foods where you’d eat them fried (falafel) with a side of them blended (houmous) all on the same plate, and this magic doesn’t just apply to savoury. Their amazing texture once whizzed up adds a seriously smooth and silky element into the mix…which when it comes to truffles, is just perfection. You also can’t taste them as the rich cacao and sweet maple syrup really take over when it comes to taste, so you don’t have to compromise at all to get that truffley texture.

Add to that that chickpeas are full of protein, and you’ve got yourself something protein-rich, paleo and a lot healthier than conventional truffles, all by a rather happy accident.

If you like, serve them up without telling people their secret ingredient. I bet you a batch of these that they won’t guess that what makes falafel and houmous so delicious is also working it’s magic in these truffles.

Ingredients

• 1 can chickpeas, drained
• 6 tbsp cacao powder
• 5 medjool dates
• 4 tbsp coconut cream
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 2 tbsp cacao butter, melted
• Pinch of Himalayan salt

For the chocolate

• 1/2 cup cacao butter or coconut oil, melted
• 6 tbsp cacao powder
• 2 tbsp pure maple syrup