Cookie Dough Dip--What in the Hooh Hah is in a Name?

Rather than quote a lot of Shakespeare, or speak in meta-voice about how much I struggled to write this post (I didn't...I just began writing), I begin at the beginning.

What is in a name?

As I served this dessert that met the Health Starts Here standards for Wednesday's Foodie Call, I refined my description. "Sweet hommos" was a turn-off to a lot of people. Come on, foodies, you'd try garlic ice cream, right? Roasted garlic ice cream would actually be pretty tasty, methinks. "Cookie Dough" confused many people into thinking it was actually raw dough. Nope, it's the flavour. Kind of like "Birthday Cake" ice cream from Coldstone Creamery. It ain't cake; it tastes reminiscent of the real deal. I could go on, and I don't intend to insult the patrons' intelligence. I'll pacify myself with the platitude, "genius is usually misunderstood," wink wink. Anyway, I didn't scale up the dates enough when I used an entire case of beans to make enough, so the dip was not as sweet as it usually is. 


Also, this recipe is not my genius. I first encountered it on Chocolate Covered Katie's blog. Then my fashion-forward aunt forwarded me a similar recipe from FitSugar. By the way, FitSugar's workouts can kick some serious ass...or kick your ass into shape. Finally, from a search as I'm writing, FitBetty has a truly raw variation that looks quite tasty.

Whyyy is this so healthy? Well, let's talk about Health Starts Here. Health Starts Here, or HSH as the people in the biz call it, is Whole Foods Market's healthy eating program. It emphasizes a mostly plant-based, minimal or no processed food, low-sodium, whole food diet. Some of the major items it excludes or minimizes are salt, refined sugars, and extracted oils. Yes, I am vegan and gluten-free and I don't like to talk about what I can't have; I talk about what I can have.

I am all about minimizing the refined sugars right now. That, however, is a topic for Saturday's post.

So whadda we got here?

High-protein dessert. Bam. Using the magic word, "protein," I managed to entice more people to try samples from the giant bowl of "cookie dough" on the table.


Cookie Dough Dip

1 cup dates, soaked overnight, or 1/3 cup honey (not vegan if using honey because bees are sentient beings, too)

1 16-ounce can chickpeas, rinsed and drained (use no salt added for HSH)
1 16-ounce can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained (same note as above)
1/4 cup almond butter (no salt, no sugar added)
3 tablespoons-1/4 cup GF quick oats
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups chunks (I used zante currants, cacao nibs, and sliced almonds)

In a food processor or high-speed blender, blitz dates to make a paste. Add beans, almond butter, oats, vanilla, and baking soda and process until a stiff paste forms. Transfer to a large bowl and stir in the chunks. Chill before serving with fruit or crackers as dippers.



I eat it straight up so I served it straight up. Promise I’m not using my blog to justify my train of thought. If you don’t want to hop aboard, nobody’s missing ya.


You know you live on a late/closing shift schedule when you realize that you’re pushing midnight in your secondary timezone (PST).

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