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This no-bake vegan chocolate and chickpea cake is a quick, simple and healthy dessert.
You heard it well, friends. Chocolate and chickpea. But don’t worry, this cake doesn’t taste like hummus. This combination may sound crazy at first, but believe me, the chickpeas here only give a wonderful, rich and creamy texture and no weird aftertaste. This oil-free, gluten-free and vegan cake is luxurious, velvety and extra chocolaty. It’s pure indulgence, and simplicity at its finest.
So here we are, I turned 27 last week (yeeeeeeah, happy birthday to me!), and oddly I had a birthday cake. It’s really unusual for me, I haven’t had one for years. Or I only had savoury ones. You know, not having a sweet tooth won’t just change for one day…..even if that day is your birthday.
However this year IÂ craved something sweet and delicious. And super chocolaty!
Since I absolutely suck at baking (plus because it was extremely hot here the last days), I didn’t want to turn on my oven. First I thought of making a raw chocolate cake, but I never really have success with those ones. I find that without a 600$ blender you can do whatever you want, your cream cheese is never going to be perfectly smooth.
So I needed something that could be just as creamy as those cashew cream cheeses. I was playing with the idea of sweet bean creams for a while and it was time to test it finally. Let me just say, it turned out better than I have ever expected. The chocolaty chickpea filling is so creamy, decadent and gives such an amazing texture (and protein, of course) to this cake, it’s almost unbelievable.
Oh, and did I mention, that this cake takes just about 15 minutes to prepare, is totally budget-friendly and you only need 7 ingredients for it!? Plus it’s totally customisable, so feel free to play with the recipe. Try to add cinnamon, mint, cardamom, ginger, maca, and orange zest or juice, or even nuts, fresh or dried berries, or good quality chocolate chip would be wonderful here. So just enjoy your not baking with this sweet and delicious chocolate and chickpea cake!
If you try this recipe, let me know! I would highly appreciate if you could leave a comment and rate it. Also don’t forget to take a picture and tag it on Instagram (use the hashtag #greenevi) or post it on Facebook! I love seeing what you come up with! ♥︎
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No-Bake Chocolate and Chickpea Cake
- Total Time: 15 mins
- Yield: 6-8 1x
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup of oats
- 1/2 cup of nuts (almond, walnut, cashew…)
- 1 cup of pitted dates
- 1 tbsp maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
- 1 can of chickpeas (preferably low sodium)
- 1 extra ripe banana
- 1,5 tbsp cacao or cocoa powder
- 2–4 tbsp maple syrup
- goji berries, cacao nibs or fresh berries to decorate
Instructions
- Add nuts and oats to your food processor and pulse into powder. Add dates, maple syrup and vanilla extract and process until you get a dough which sticks together.
- Press dough into a pie dish or a springform cake pan (I used a 20 cm/8 inch pie form) and put in fridge until you prepare the filling.
- Drain and rinse chickpeas very well, then add to the food processor with banana and cacao powder. Blend until completely smooth. Adjust sweetness with maple syrup.
- Pour onto your crust and let it set for a few hours in the fridge. You can also keep it in the freezer until serving. Decorate with toppings of your choice. Enjoy!
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: Vegan
Happy happy birthday to you, Evi!!! I love the creative use of chickpea here..an excellent nobake dessert.
Thank you, Angie 🙂
Happy Birthday!! I love quick desserts, and even though it takes 15 minutes it looks so elaborate and beautiful!
Thanks, Liora 🙂
Happy birthday Evi! Hope you had a lovely day! Wow this looks so immensely good I’m totally sold! I’m might try it with buckwheat or millet flakes instead of oats do you think it will work? <3
Thank you, Amy 🙂
I’m pretty sure it would work! Sometimes I only use either oats or nuts for raw cake crust, and they are always good. Last time I made one with puffed quinoa, it was great too.
Let me know if it worked, I have never used buckwheat or millet flakes before, now I’m really curious!
I think I’ll make this for my birthday in 2 weeks 😉 Beautiful and delicious!!!
(Happy birthday again!!) xoxoxo
Thank you so much, again!!!! 🙂
Can you clarify the amount of cocoa power needed in this recipe?
Hi,
I used here 1,5 tablespoons of it, but feel free to add more or less, depending on how chocolaty you like it. You get a little bit different taste with cocoa and cacao, but both ways delicious 🙂
You say you use 1,5 is that supposed to be 1.5 as in half a Tbsp? It’s a little confusing…
Hi Tracy,
1,5 is 1.5. Here in Germany we use comma as a decimal point.
“Great Britain and the United States are two of the few places in the world that use a period to indicate the decimal place. Many other countries use a comma instead.”
😛
Happy Birthday, Evi!!! You’re so tricky, just hiding it all casually in the post like that. 😉 I hope you had a wonderful, wonderful time celebrating. I won’t say that I wish you had a wonderful day, because honestly, you deserve a wonderful birthday MONTH! 🙂 I’m so happy that we became friends and have gotten to know each other, blogger-style. 😉 You’re as sweet at this beautiful chocolate chickpea cake! Is that cheesy? Well, it should at least be cashew-cream cheesy. Lol. Thanks for sharing this amazing recipe. You know I get all kinds of excited when you do sweet stuff! Hey, maybe once every five birthdays, you gotta make a sweet cake, right? Happy Birthday, my dear! Here’s me sending you a big virtual bouquet of shiny balloons and stacks of vegan cheese..! Or… vegan cheese tour certificates? 😉 Lol. Big hugs! And pinned, of course!
You are always the sweetest, thank you so much!
I surely had a great day and hopefully a whole month. Unfortunately I didn’t get any vegan cheese tour for my birthday, but I seriously got some cheese this year again 😀
Now I wish you could make me something sweet once finally! Coz you know what gets me excited? When you post sweet recipes 🙂
Oh geez, if I’m sweet, then you’re savory?? I think… or something. Lol. Whatever it is, you’re delicious! <–hmm, this sounds weird. I am loving the idea of you celebrating a birthday month! Anything special planned?
Cheese: So how did I KNOW that you were gonna get some cheese? Lol. I will definitely never forget the time you told us about your past birthday cheese presents. 😉 Alright, one year, the two of us have to go do a vegan cheese tour together.
If you lived closed by, I would make you a HUGE vegan sweets basket!! In the mean time, any special Halloween sweets requests? Yes, I am gonna start on them now bc Halloween is only like 5 months away. What else am I to do if I don't have you nearby to make birthday sweets for? 😉
Hahaha, savory, I like that!
Nothing planned for this month yet, I guess working – I know how to have fun 😀
I’ll definitely keep that cheese tour and sweets basket on my mind 😉
Halloween treats? OMG, you really work in advance! Anything with pumpkin would make me sooooooo happy!!!!!
Savory: you SO would! Lol.
Okay, as your friend, I have to tell you that working is not a verified birthday activity. Just sayin’. 😉 Go have loads of fun!
LOL. Now I feel silly. Oh well! Pumpkin–interesting! I’m gonna keep that in mind. xo
Don’t feel silly! I’m excited about your halloween pumpkin recipes! (Though I hope you will post some already before Halloween)
Happy Birthday Evi, hope you had an amazing one. Wish you a great year. And this chocolate chickpea cake is for real? Wow! This is a genius idea, Evi. I would have never thought of combining teo of my favorite ingredients.
Thank you so much, Anu!
I was so happy when I realised I can use chickpeas in sweets too, this means I can eat even more of it everyday 😀
Happy birthday! x The cake looks great, I like the combination, but I’m not sure my husband would be willing to try it. :)) Maybe I should make a small cake just for me.
Thank you, Anca!
Hahaha, I often have the same fear with my boyfriend. I first gave him a slice, telling nothing just that it’s a cake, he loved it and even asked for a second slice. Then I told him it’s with chickpeas, he raised his eyebrows at me, then ate on. He said it’s may be better not telling to others that it’s made with chickpeas, because anyway nobody would ever guess it and this way nobody will complain 😀
Wow… it is so easy to prepare… belated happy birthday… I am sure the cake is as tasty as it is healthy… having oats, nuts and lovely things(: will try the recipe for sure.
Thank you so much, Maria!
Let me know if you try it 🙂
happy belated bbgirl!! hope you had a wonderful bday! this cake seems like the most appropriate one for your birthday haha – healthy and vegan.
chickpeas is an interesting idea, i’d be curious to see how they turn out in this cake. thanks for sharing!
Thank you so much, Beverley!
You actually really won’t taste the chickpeas here, they only give a wonderful texture 🙂
What an amazing idea! Super envious you are a spring baby (Im a winter baby and hate it!)…..I hope you had an amazing day! This cake looks like the perfect way to celebrate!
Thank you, Lucy!
I am definitely lucky, I can always have strawberry cakes for my birthday. But I’m sure pumpkin or apple pies make amazing birthday cakes too! 🙂
Eben gelesen, sofort nachgemacht. Megasuperlecker!!!!!!
Ich freue mich so so sehr, dass die Torte dir schmeckt 🙂 🙂
Happy Birthday, Evi! Oh my gosh, you’re so young, not much older than Alex. I love the simplicity of this beautiful cake. I’ve used chicpeas in blondies and black beans in brownies so I bet this is really good.
Thank you so much, Linda!
I remember those black bean brownies, sound also crazy first, but they are amazingly delicious 🙂
I didn’t expect a lot from this recipe, but surprisingly it turned out delicious. Just as you said, it doesn’t taste like garbanzo beans. I really enjoyed it directry from the freezer. It was like an ice cream cake.
Thanks for the recipe, I think I’ll make it again the next days.
I am so happy to hear this! I was first also afraid a bit, since chickpeas normally have such a strong flavour, but luckily you really don’t taste them in this recipe 🙂
Hi, do you think that other beans might work too? I just cooked a large batch of black beans, but would hate to make something that’s not at all appetizing and to have to throw it all away. I have seen a recipe for black bean brownies before but I”m not sure they would work here…Thanks!
Hi Stef! I’ve never tried this recipe with black beans before, so I’m not sure how they would turn out. I’ve only ever made baked desserts with black beans, no idea how they taste in sweets without baking, sorry.
BTW I also always cook extra large batches of black beans, and I simply freeze them if I don’t plan to eat them in a week. 😉
Great recipe! I used coconut flour instead of oats, almond extract instead of vanilla, stevia instead of maple syrup, and added some espresso powder. I also doubled the cacao powder. I’ll be making this again!
I’m so happy to hear you liked it, Mike! Using espresso powder here is such a great idea, I’ll definitely try it next time 😉
Does the cake have any resemblance of banana at all when it’s finished? My girlfriend is not a banana fan but this cake just sounds so good!
Hi Amanda! I think it doesn’t have a strong banana taste, however if someone really hates bananas they might taste it out here.
I only ever tried this recipe with bananas, but maybe it works with other fruits as well (mango could be a good option). The consistency might get a bit off though, but I think it worth a try 😉
how long does this last in fridge can a make 2 days ahead thanks
Hi Pamela,
Yes, you can make this 2 days ahead. I would put it in the freezer, then place in the fridge for a few hours before serving.
Hope you will like the recipe 😉
hi could this be made two days ahead thanks
wow! i don’t know why it looks so heavy even the recipe doesn’t have anything like that! it may be healthy in eating evi you tell me how was it?
Hahaha, it’s actually a very simple recipe, definitely good for non-bakers 😉