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I am always looking for ways to hide healthy ingredients in desserts. I am the first to cut the sugar in half, cut the butter in half, and use some whole wheat flour instead of all white. So when I saw this recipe come over my email from a colleague (thanks Julie!), I had to try it right away. Conveniently I had just made a curry that needed some thickening – so was able to use the leftover lentil puree in there.
Have I piqued your interest yet? Lentils. In cookies. YES!
The original recipe is by Michael Smith, PEI Chef, and can be found on the www.lentils.ca website. I have made some adjustments (I don’t believe any cookie needs 2 cups of sugar in the recipe!). Here is the revised recipe.
P.S. my kids just got home from school and are eating them now - they have no idea that there are lentils in there, and they are usually very suspicious that I have hidden something in everything I make (they are almost always correct in that assumption).
Ingredients
¼ cup butter
¼ cup unsweetened applesauce
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsp vanilla
½ cup lentil puree
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
¼ cup rolled oats (not instant)
½ tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup chocolate chips
Directions
Step 1: Puree the lentils in a food processor. Drain the can and pour the contents into a measuring cup. You need 4 parts lentils and 1 part water. Puree. Then measure 1/2 cup of the puree to use in the recipe.
Step 2: Using a stand mixer if possible, cream together the butter, applesauce and brown sugar. Beat in the egg and vanilla.
Step 3: Cream in the lentil puree.
Step 4: Add the flour, salt and baking powder. Cream together, then add the oatmeal.
Step 5: Stir in the chocolate chips.
Use two teaspoons to drop the cookies onto a Silpat or parchment-lined cookie sheet. Pinch a small crumble of sea salt onto each cookie. Bake at 375 degrees for 12 to 14 minutes.
If you are doing the Weight Watchers program, I calculated these to be 2 Points Plus points each. That would be for a yield of 40 cookies. Here is the other nutritional info (per cookie):
calories 86
fat 2.19g
cholesterol 8.38mg
sodium 109.42mg
Total carbohydrates 14.57g
dietary fibre 0.8g
sugars 6.8g
protein 1.76g
Happy eating :-)
