Make peanut butter and coconut cookies

Our fellow Mothers Meetings friend Rachel Boyett has launched her new cookbook Little Veggie Eats packed with vegetarian family friendly recipes. Rachel is a mum of three and lifelong vegetarian. We've chosen our favourite recipe from the book to share with you to help your little ones to love vegetables and have fun cooking together. Get your copy now for more veggie recipes your little ones will enjoy. Available now.

Peanut butter and coconut cookies

PREP: 5 minutes
COOK: 30 minutes
MAKES: 24 cookies

1 x 400g can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 banana
8 tbsp peanut butter
4 tbsp desiccated coconut (plus more to decorate)
2 tbsp coconut oil, melted
2 tbsp milk of your choice

When I was developing these cookies I tried various different things to get a texture I was happy with. In the end it was the least expected ingredient that worked the best. So I present peanut butter, coconut and CHICKPEA cookies! Yes, that’s right, chickpeas are amazing in a cookie!

With chickpeas and peanut butter these cookies are packing in the protein, mono- and poly-unsaturated fats, iron and zinc. They are also great for little hands to grab so suitable for younger babies too.

For older children (or even just for you), I’d totally recommend stirring in a handful or two of dark chocolate chunks. I tend to make half a batch without chocolate and half a batch with.

Preheat the oven to 180 ̊C/160 ̊C fan/350 ̊F and line a baking tray with baking parchment.

Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until the mix is smooth. Spoon the mixture onto the baking parchment (you need around 1 ½ tbsp per cookie, to make 24). Use a fork to flatten and shape each cookie (they don’t spread when cooking so try to get them to the shape you want now). Sprinkle a little more desiccated coconut on top.

Bake for about 30 minutes until the cookies are crisp and golden on top.

The cookies are best (and crunchiest) when they are first cooked. They go softer as you leave them. They’ll keep for 2–3 days in an airtight container.