These gluten free vegan cookies, aka Dark Chocolate Pecan Love Bites, are a healthy family favorite, and hard to keep stocked in the cookie jar! They’re also low FODMAP & are quick and easy to make~perfect for whenever the chocolate craving hits!Be still my beating heart!
I’m thrilled to be sharing my own heart healthy recipe for Dark Chocolate Pecan Love Bites with you today, as we continue our Gluten-Free & Heart Healthy 2013 event this week.
Big hug to Lexie Croft at Lexie’s Kitchen for creating this gorgeous gluten-free heart healthy badge!
Before I divulge my recipe, I thought I would share some of my favorite foods for keeping your ticker in tip-top shape!
Heart Healthy Foods and Nutrition Tips
- Fruit and veggies, the more the merrier~especially citrus and apples which are high in soluble fiber to help decrease LDL cholesterol, and polyphenol packed berries, which may lower blood pressure and raise level of good {HDL} cholesterol.
- Beans, beans, the musical fruit! Like certain fruits and veggies, beans are a great source of soluble fiber, and also contain a variety of flavonoids which help prevent heart disease by lowering blood pressure, improving circulation, and preventing abnormal clotting of blood platelets.
- Seedy stuff! Flax, chia, and hemp, all provide plant sources of omega-3 fatty acids, which, although not as powerful as seafood omega-3’s, may also help with heart health. In addition, flaxseed contains phytoestrogens called lignans, which may also help prevent cardiovascular disease.
- Get your fish on…Fatty fish such as salmon, mackeral, sardines, tuna, anchovies and trout all provide 1 gram of more of heart healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3’s provide cardiovascular protection by lowering triglycerides, decreasing inflammation, reducing blood clotting, and lowering blood pressure. To choose fish that are not only heart healthy, but are also environmentally friendly and low in contaminants such as mercury and PCB’s, bes ure and check out the Monterey Bay Aquarium Seafood Watch website.
- Chocolate~the darker the better! Rich in flavonol, the main type of flavonoid in cocoa and chocolate, research has shown that {a little} dark chocolate {choose chocolate with at least 70 % or more cacao} can be a heart healthy choice.
- Cheers to a glass of vino! What’s even better than a square or two of dark chocolate? A glass of red wine {if you choose to drink alcohol} to go along with it. Another heart healthy polyphenol, resveratrol, makes red wine {in moderation~up to 2 drinks/day for a man or up to 1 drink/day for a woman} another heart healthy choice by helping prevent damage to blood vessels, reducing LDL cholesterol, and helping to prevent blood clots. In addition alcohol, in general, {again, in moderation}, has been shown to raise good, HDL cholesterol, thereby helping to reduce the risk of heart disease. Salud!
And now on to these scrumptious gluten free vegan cookies!
After looking through my posts from the last two months, aside from my Gluten-Free All-Star buddies’ spectacular sweets, I haven’t shared a proper dessert with you in over 2 months.
Heck, I didn’t even make any holiday cookies for you last December 🙁
So, clearly you are way overdue for something sweet and decadent.
Oh, and super heart healthy to boot.
How’s that sound?!
My inspiration for this recipe comes from these fabulous peanut butter chocolate chip cookies over at Texanerin.
If you like peanut butter, you MUST make them.
My version, is equally delicious, yet features a different sort of heart healthy nut~pecans.
Oh, and there are beans and dark chocolate too…
Plus a little maple syrup, and some ground flaxseed…
Gluten-free heart healthy ingredients…
Didn’t I tell you they were healthy???
But, healthy without delicious doesn’t exist in my kitchen, so I promise you they will make your heart beat for joy 🙂
Chocolate Pecan Love Bites
Ingredients
- 1 cup raw pecans
- 1 cup garbanzo beans, canned, or dried and soaked
- 3/4 cup dark {70 % or more cocoa} chocolate
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 3 tablespoons ground flaxseed
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, plus extra, if desired, for sprinkling on top
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Combine pecans, garbanzo beans, maple syrup, ground flaxseed, vanilla, baking powder,and sea salt in a food processor, and process until smooth, or ~8 minutes.
- Meanwhile chop dark chocolate in to chunks, then stir into pecan/garbanzo mixture. Form dough in to 12 ~ 1-inch balls and place on parchment lined baking sheet. Press lightly on dough with the back of a spoon, and bake for 10 minutes.
- Remove to cool, and sprinkle with sea salt, if desired, before serving.
Notes
Nutrition
Start with the dough, which, BTW, tastes amazing “raw” by the spoonful if your power goes out or you just don’t feel like baking. It happens sometimes 🙂
After you’ve mixed in the dark chocolate chunks, press out your cookies on a parchment lined sheet…
After you take them out of the oven, try with all your might, to let them cool a smidge before poping one in to your mouth!
Enjoy to your heart’s content!
What are your favorite heart-healthy foods? Have you ever used beans in a sweet dish before?
