I go to Trader Joe’s a good amount. There are things I buy there that I wouldn’t buy anywhere else, like tofu and bread. However, there are ALSO many things I buy there that sit in my pantry because I’m not sure what to do with them. Fig butter comes to mind. So when I caught wind of a new vegetarian cookbook about Trader Joe’s products I was excited to get some inspiration! This new book is called The I Love Trader Joe’s Vegetarian Cookbook: 150 Delicious and Healthy Recipes Using Foods from the World’s Greatest Grocery Store, and it’s all about using all of those things you pick up along your excursions through the aisles of Trader Joe’s. What’s also great about this book is there is a vegan option given for every recipe.
I started with the pistachio cookies. Admittedly, I do have a jar of TJ’s green olive tapenade that I could have started off with, but after seeing the ingredients in these cookies I had to start there. What a nice positive kick off to the book. The cookies were great! Chewy, chocolatey and just sweet enough. Like most oatmeal cookies, the dough can be a little hard to form, so I just picked the dough up with my hands and rolled it up into a ball. Much easier to get them to stick together that way.
Reprinted with the author’s permission
Ingredients:
¾ cup unbleached all-purpose flour
½ cup ground Trader Joe’s Dry Roasted Unsalted Pistachio Nutmeats
½ teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
¾ cup Trader Joe’s Organic Brown Sugar
1 egg (I used a flax egg – 1 tbsp of flaxmeal mixed with 3 tbsp of water)
¼ cup mild vegetable oil (I used sunflower oil)
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup Trader Joe’s Rolled Oats
⅓ cup chopped Trader Joe’s Dry Roasted Unsalted Pistachio Nutmeats
½ cup semi-sweet chocolate chips (I used vegan)
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Grind the pistachios in a small food processor or clean coffee grinder. In a small bowl, combine the flour, ground pistachios, baking powder, and salt. In a large bowl, whisk together the brown sugar, egg, oil, and vanilla until well incorporated. 
Add the flour mixture in two batches. Add the oats in two batches, adding in the pistachios and chocolate chips with the second batch. Mix well and let sit to allow the oats to absorb the moisture, about 10 minutes.
Scoop out tablespoons of dough and lightly flatten, placing them about 1 inch apart on the baking sheet. Because of the nature of oatmeal cookies, they might crumble a bit on the edges when you do this, but just go ahead and gently shape them back together.
Bake until the edges are set, but not browned, 8 to 9 minutes. Let the cookie sheet cool on a cooling rack for 15 minutes, before transferring the cookies directly to the rack to finish cooling. Makes 2 dozen cookies
Love this recipe! Will be linking back to this in my upcoming post
Thanks Marla, I love this recipe too!