Chocolate Chickpea Nicecream: Dairy-Free Delight

This stuff is addictive! Try this rich, unctuous and melt-in-your-mouth recipe if you or your kids love chocolate ice cream and are seeking out a protein-rich and lower-sugar version. You would never know that the secret ingredient in this creamy ‘nicecream’ is chickpeas!

Date pieces add a lovely caramel flavour and a gorgeous texture to this super-smooth dairy-free ice-cream style pudding.

Benefit from the gut-loving fibre and mighty minerals iron, zinc and magnesium in the chocolate, dates, chickpeas and peanut butter. This recipe is naturally plant-based, dairy-free, egg-free, soya-free and gluten-free. Find the nut-free option in the notes below.

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Chocolate Chickpea Nicecream

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Prep Time 20

Freezing time 6

Total Time 6 20

Course Puddings, Snacks & Treats

Servings

Suitable for Special Diet (or adaptable) Dairy-free, Egg-free, Gluten-free, Grain-free, Low-sugar, Sensory, Vegan, Vegetarian

Ingredients

140 g Chocolate (dark, dairy-free with at least 65% cocoa solids)
6 Dates (ideally medjool, de-stoned)
210 g Chickpeas (from a jar, drained)
140 g Peanut butter (smooth)
250 ml Milk (almond, hazelnut, cashew or oat)
1 tsp Vanilla Extract
1 tbsp Maple Syrup

Instructions

Break the chocolate into a mixing bowl and set over a pan of simmering water (or use a bain-marie). Melt the chocolate gently then set aside to cool. Meanwhile destone and chop the dates into small pieces and set aside.
Put the drained chickpeas, melted chocolate, peanut butter, milk of choice, vanilla extract and maple syrup into a blender. Whizz until smooth which will take around one minute, sometimes longer.
Pour the mixture into a freezer-proof container. Add the chopped dates and stir them through.
Put the container into the freezer and leave to freeze for a minimum of 6 hours.
When ready to serve, remove from the freezer and leave to soften at room temperature for around 20 minutes, or until you can use an ice-cream scoop to easily form balls. Serve straight away!

Notes

This would be a wonderful recipe to make in an ice-cream maker or Thermomix, if you have one.

Nut-free: Use sunflower seeds or tahini (sesame paste) instead of nut butter. If it is just peanuts you need to avoid then try hazelnut butter or cashew butter.

This nicecream stores in the freezer for up to 3 months.

Per serving. Nutrition content in food is never consistent, so take these estimates with a pinch of salt! Also, our recipes tend to use low-GI carbs and sugars, so these values are not directly comparable with shop-bought UPFs.

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