Black Bean, Chocolate and Fig Cookies

Preheat oven to 375°. Grind the pumpkin seeds or nuts into a coarse meal in a food processor. Transfer to a large bowl. Grind the chocolate into tiny pieces and add to the pumpkin seeds.

Drain the figs, reserve about 1/3 of them, chop and combine the rest with the beans, dates, cocoa powder, coconut oil, chia seeds, vanilla extract and salt in a food processor. Pulse several times to turn into a chunky puree. If you decide to use beets, add it at this time as well.

Add the ground pumpkin seeds and ground chocolate into the food processor. Process everything to combine well and transfer the mixture to a large bowl. Chop reserved figs, add them to the chocolate mixture and mix to combine.

With a small ice-cream scoop, scoop about 18 cookies on a parchment paper-covered baking sheet. Dip the scoop in water in between each cookie. Slightly flatten each cookie with a wet spoon. Bake for 15 minutes and let cool. The cookies are going to be very soft while still hot.

Keep refrigerated in an airtight container after the first day. They keep well for about a week.