Carrot cake chickpea balls. Here’s a healthy vegan recipe that we know your family will love, using chickpeas, carrots, peanut butter, and raisins. Makes a great snack for kids.
We’re always experimenting with new homemade healthy snacks for our kids, and we love sharing them with you!
This one is a slight alteration to our Blueberry Chickpea Cookie Dough Balls. It changes out only a few ingredients, but gives a totally different flavor.
Like our other no-bake recipes, you’ll blend the ingredients, roll into balls, and refrigerate until ready to eat. Easy!
Toddlers and older kids (…and parents) love the carrot cake flavor of these, making them the perfect combination of naturally sweet and healthy.
Chickpea balls also travel well, making them easy to toss into a to-go container and take along with you, without a mess.
They’re naturally sweetened with Medjool dates, packed with iron from the chickpeas and raisins, and provide healthy unsaturated fat from the peanut butter.
The carrots are full of fiber, vitamin A, and antioxidant-rich carotenoids, and the oats provide soluble fiber for little tummies.
Start by placing the oats in a food processor or high speed blender and pulsing until they reach a flour consistency.
Toss in the chickpeas, peanut butter, pitted dates, vanilla extract, and salt (optional). Keep pulsing until a sticky dough forms and starts to pull away from the sides of the processor.
Finally, add the carrots and raisins, and pulse again a few times to incorporate them.
Using a spatula, remove the dough from the food processor or blender and place it in a bowl or on a clean counter top.
Use your hands to roll it into balls, approximately 1-inch in diameter.
Place the balls in a flat, airtight container or on a plate covered with plastic wrap, and store in the refrigerator. Here, they will firm up a bit.
Find the full printable recipe below.
Carrot Cake Chickpea Balls
Equipment
- food processor or high speed blender
Ingredients
- 1 cup oats
- 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
- 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
- 8 Medjool dates, pitted
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 tsp sea salt (omit for babies under 1 year old)
- 1/2 cup raisins
- 1/2 cup shredded carrots
Instructions
- Add oats to a food processor and pulse until flour consistency.
- Add chickpeas, peanut butter, dates, vanilla extract, and salt.
- Process until a sticky ball forms.
- Add raisins and carrots, and pulse a few times until they're incorporated.
- Roll into balls and store in the fridge.
Carrot cake chickpea balls. We think you’ll love this healthy vegan recipe using chickpeas, carrots, peanut butter, and raisins. These make a portable, great snack for kids.
Chime In: Have your littles tried any chickpea ball recipes yet? Let us know what they thought!
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I accidentally added all the ingredients at once and processed them all together and it still worked great! These are delicious!
My 8-month old loves these! Salt would be a nice compliment to the sweet for older kids and adults, but they’re delicious without, too! I pulsed a bit longer after adding the carrots and raisins for my younger babe and they turned out perfectly. I’m going to bring these along for a road trip. Thank you for the recipe!
Hi, we have been enjoying these energy balls. I’m wondering how long they will last in the fridge and if they will freeze alright?
They freeze great! You can keep them in the fridge for ~5 days
I saw your video on Instagram while you were making these with your son and just had to try them. They are good! Not too sweet, just really good! I added a little bit of unsweetened coconut. Thanks for sharing!
These are so yummy! I made them for my 15 month old (pressed into a tray and sliced to serve as bars), and she loved them! Me too! I was worried they’d be beany, but they don’t taste like chickpeas at all. I added cinnamon, like in your IGTV, but it seems that isn’t in the recipe here. I definitely think it was a good addition. Thanks for the recipe, hope to try the blueberry one next.
Hi! Do you think cannelini beans or another legume would make a decent substitute?
Yes! White beans should work. I haven’t tried them, but others have and said they worked.
My daughter who has only been liking carrots juicy (aka in a soup) loves these!
Assuming the dried fruit (dates and raisins) are ok for baby? Have only heard to stay away from dried fruits, but am happy to be told otherwise!
Are the round shape of a ball ok for a 9month old?
Thanks
Hi Laura, we’d stay away from whole raisins/dates for baby as they are choking hazards, but well pulsed and softened into dishes they are OK. For a 9 month old, we’d serve these in very small bite size pieces.
Has anyone tried these with a different type of nutbutter? Cashew more specifically?
Cashew would likely work– the one that might produce a different flavor is almond or sun butter
I dont have any dates on hand…is there anything else I can use to sweeten these like honey or maple syrup? Thank you!
Hi Natalie– those may work, but you’ll have to likely add in more oats as the dates are solid compared to the maple syrup and will be stickier.
Just made these today and they are so yummy! I subbed half almond butter/half peanut butter since that is what I had. But also wanting to make these school/allergy friendly so I will try with sunbutter or maybe even tahini (although that may make them a bit bitter?). Can’t wait to try the blueberry ones also!
Hi, my son is allergic to peanuts and all tree nuts. What would you recommend in place of the peanuts? I am interested in all your nutrious ball receipes but noticed most have nuts.
HI Raj, yes, unfortunately many of our recipes do contain nuts. What about sunflower seeds? Or tahini?
My 13 month old loved these! As did I 🙂 I added in 1/2 cup of freeze dried mango for some vitamin C. Love your bean ball recipes, keep those variations coming 👏🏻👏🏻
This was great! I made it into a double batch. One batch I used chickpeas and the other I used white beans. Both turned out great and tasted the same!