Red Velvet Chickpea Donuts (made in the Food Processor!)

These red velvet chickpea donuts are ultra-healthy, made of canned chickpeas, almond flour, almond butter, and applesauce. They taste delicious, soft and tender with the addition of cocoa powder and chocolate chips, and great for those on a gluten-free, vegan or high-protein diet. The best part? All you have to do is blend these ingredients in a food processor and bake!

Ingredients used to make this

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• Chickpeas (aka Garbanzo Beans) – Rich in fiber, vitamins and minerals such as folate, iron, phosphorous, chickpeas have a satisfying nutty flavor and great additions to a healthy diet. I used canned chickpeas but you can also use chickpeas you’ve cooked yourself.
• Almond flour – I used blanched almond flour. But you can also make your own by blending raw or blanched, slivered almonds in the food processor and sifting them through a sieve.
• Tapioca flour (flour but also called tapioca starch) - Arrowroot starch and Potato starch can also be used instead. I can't recommend using cornstarch for this.
• Almond Butter - like this one. You can also use other natural nut butters like pecan butter, walnut butter, cashew butter, mixed nut butter, or even seed butter like sunflower. So many choices!
• Applesauce – preferably unsweetened. The pectin that’s naturally found in applesauce helps bind the ingredients together without the addition of oil or egg.
• Salt – Pink Himalayan salt is what I have at home, so it’s what I use, but you can use any kind for this recipe.
• Coconut Sugar – You can use any granulated sugar of your choice, but coconut, date and maple sugars are less processed sugars I would recommend. Honey and maple syrup should also work, but I have not yet tried. For keto options, you could also use stevia (but be sure to convert according to package instructions).

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For the Add-Ins I used

• Red Food Coloring
• Semi-sweet chocolate chips - regular or chocolate chips with no added sugar
• Cocoa Powder – regular cocoa powder or dark

Texture Notes

• These donuts are tender and soft, and cake like

Recipe Variations and Optional Add Ins:

• Even though the red velvet donuts are great on their own, there are so many ways you can spice up or dress up these donuts. For example, you can add some nuts, dried fruits or mini chocolate chips to keep this cake interesting.
• Coffee Chocolate Chip donuts! Just add a teaspoon of coffee extract or espresso powder. If you love coffee flavored desserts as much as I do I would add more.
• Add some natural flavoring / extracts for a flavor boost. Feel free to add a teaspoon of vanilla extract (I didn't feel like it was essential so I left it out in this recipe), or other flavorings or extracts, such as cream cheese extract
• You can also use different nut butters. Instead of almond butter you can also use pecan butter, walnut butter, cashew butter, mixed nut butter, or seed butter like sunflower or pumpkin seed butter.
• You can also bake this in a muffin pan instead of a donut pan.

How to Make this Healthier

• Make this even healthier by adding a handful of nuts, seeds and old-fashioned oats to add texture and nutrition.
• Want to increase fiber? You can add a Tablespoon of ground flaxseed to the recipe with 1 Tbsp of water or almond milk.
• For a protein boost, you can also add 1 Tablespoon of protein powder of your choice, with 2 Tbsp of water or almond milk. I've tried using an unsweetened plant-based protein powder. You can also use chocolate protein powder 
• You can also reduce the sugar by half (to make this less sweet), or substitute the sugar with a sugar-free substitute.

What are some ways you can eat these?

• Plain and warm
• Frosted with my 2-Ingredient Almond Butter Frosting , or this Healthy Powdered Peanut Butter Chocolate Frosting
• Dusted with powdered sugar or sugar-free powdered sugar. Just make sure you use a sieve to sift the sugar on top!

How to Store

• You can store these donuts covered at room temperature for up to 24 hours. For longer storage, you can place them in the fridge for up to 4 days, or freeze up to 4 months.

Final Tips

• Use batter right away after prep. They will deflate over time, so I've found that you don’t want the batter sitting out on the counter for too long.
• Baking time (as well as serving size) will vary based on the size of your donut pan, the material (silicone vs metal) of the pan, and how thick you pipe your donuts! Bake the donuts until the color is slightly-browned on the top, or until a toothpick comes out clean/dry when poked into the middle.

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