This summer, after falling victim to the freshman 15, a friend of mine went on a health kick. She tried out a ton of healthy recipes, some of which tasted pretty normal. One of the recipes she found online really freaked me out, though: chickpea blondies. Baking chickpeas into a dessert seemed to go against humanity. I tried them (reluctantly), but my opinion was tampered by the fact that I knew the secret ingredient.
Photo by Sydney Segal
I wanted to find out how people would react to these blondies without knowing what they were made with. I decided to bake both these blondies and black beans brownies. My Spoon chapter and my lacrosse team were my unknowing guinea pigs. I simply told them that I was trying out a new recipe and wanted their feedback.
Photo by Sydney Segal
The overall opinion of the blondies and brownies? Surprisingly tasty!
“Oooh, I like it!”
“It tastes different… good, but different.”
“I kinda wanna take another.”
“They’re good, but taste really healthy. Are they whole-wheat?”
One friend was confident that she figured out the secret:
“There is definitely Raisin Bran in these.”
When I revealed to my taste-testers that the brownies and blondies were in fact baked with beans and chickpeas, their reactions were mixed. Some of the samplers were happy; they liked that they had actually enjoyed a healthier dessert option.
“They’re good, especially considering what’s in them!”
“You would NEVER know!”
Others were kind of grossed out, confused as to what they had just consumed.
“WHAT?”
“Why am I eating this…?”
One tester’s reaction summed up the experiment beautifully:
“If you had told me what was in them, I definitely wouldn’t have tried them.”
If you’re looking for a healthy dessert, try these out. They’re tasty, a great way to get protein while satisfying your sweet tooth, and a fun way to freak out your kale-hating, anti-health food friend.
Photo by Sydney Segal