KITCHEN CURATIONS: SWEET POTATO TAHINI COOKIES

I’m so excited about these cookies because for one, they're delicious. But that's a given. I also love them because I find that tahini rarely gets a chance to shine when it comes to desserts, and I just I don’t think it gets the attention it deserves. There are tons of recipes with peanut butter, almond butter, and even sunflower butter, but a sweet dessert with tahini is hard to come by. Behold: these sweet potato tahini cookies!

The great thing about tahini is that while it provides the amazing texture of other nut and seed butters, it has a very mild flavor so it doesn’t overshadow the rest of the ingredients. In fact, it’s got a subtle bitter flavor that pairs really nicely with the sweetness of the sweet potato, banana, and maple syrup. But if you’re still skeptical, you can totally substitute the tahini with any nut/seed butter, and I’m sure it would still be delicious.

Now aside from how good they taste, the texture is HEAVENLY! They are so fluffy and yet so moist you would never be able to tell that there was zero butter or oil in this recipe. To be honest, their texture is more cake-like than cookie, but I shaped them like cookies, and it just worked so I went with it. And, it totally helps with portion control, which is always a plus! (Trust me, you're gonna need it with these!)

INGREDIENTS:

1 ripe banana
1 cup of steamed skinless sweet potato
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
¼ cup maple syrup
½ cup tahini
½ cup oat flour
½ cup almond meal
1 tsp baking powder
¼ tsp cinnamon
¼ tsp sea salt

DIRECTIONS: (makes 22-25 cookies)

Preheat the oven to 375
Mash banana in a bowl.
Add sweet potato, vanilla, maple syrup, and tahini to the banana and mix until mixture is mostly homogenous, with as few clumps as possible.
In a separate bowl, combine oat flour, almond meal, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
In thirds, add dry ingredients to wet ingredients, stirring each time the dry ingredients are added, and making sure that ingredients are fully combined.
Scoop out mixture (either using a spoon or a cookie scoop) and form into balls on a lined and greased cookie sheet, flattening the balls slightly.
Bake for 20 minutes, or until cooked through, but still moist.

**These cookies are vegetarian, vegan, and gluten-free!**