Life-changing black bean chocolate brownies (no flour, vegan, gf + refined sf)

 
One thing I’m compulsively obsessed with is finishing things. That tube of toothpaste. That last bottle of olive oil. The expensive wonder-serum I hoped would magic give me celebrity-type skin.
 
I’m leaving Mexico in two weeks after having lived in a port-town in the central west coast lapping at the Pacific Ocean for the past year and a half. And I’m finishing things.
 
Today’s story, specifically, is about finishing a bag of black beans I had bought more than 6 months earlier but never got around to using. Beans… legumes in general… and I are not particularly close. They generally are hard on my rather delicate digestion and so I avoid them.
 
However, I also have a hard time eating enough protein and we all know that beans are an excellent source of protein and well… it’s all a conundrum where every couple of years or so I try to trick myself into loving beans.
 
Except, this time, for the very first time ever, it has worked. I soaked the beans overnight, slow-cooked them for bicarb soda (I read somewhere that it helps remove the stuff that makes beans hard to digest) for an hour and turned them into life-changing chocolate brownies. That I now eat for breakfast.
 
They are genuinely so delicious.
 
Here’s how to make them.
 
Put into a blender: 3 cups of black beans / 1 cup of honey or maple syrup / 1 cup of instant oats / 1 teaspoon baking powder / let everything soak together / melt 2 tablespoons coconut oil and 4-5 tablespoons cacao paste in a saucepan / add to the blender and blend until smooth / preheat oven to 180°C / grease pan / pour mixture into pan / bake for 20 – 25 minutes.
 
If you have a basic blender as I do, you might have to blend in two batches. Let them cool before trying to cut them. I found they were still a tiny bit gooey inside but after a night in the refrigerator, they were perfect and even more delicious so…
 
Also, 2 things:

1. You can obviously use canned black beans instead of cooking your own.
2. If you can’t get cacao paste you can use 2 tbsp cocoa powder and mix in 1/2 cup to 2/3 cup chocolate chips at the end to get that chocolate consistency right.

 
Enjoy!