I love anything chocolate, and these black bean brownies made with unsweetened organic cacao powder hit the spot for a guilt-free chocolate fix.
These brownies make a wonderful pre or post workout snack and are a wonderful way to sneak healthy food into your children’s diets and make sure they get their daily source of fiber.
The bananas are also really beneficial for maintaining a healthy gut and offers high levels of potassium, which nourishes your muscles.
I prefer to use raw cacao instead of cocoa, which is more processed and devoid of nutrients, but of course, you can use cocoa if this is what you can get your hands on.
Raw cacao is a rich source of antioxidants, some of which are anti-inflammatory; is an amazing source of magnesium, which boosts and regulates mood levels; is the highest plant-based source of iron, and contains more calcium than cow’s milk!
Your dessert options can be plant-based:
- Chocolate Peanut Butter Brownies
- Avocado Tofu Chocolate Mousse
- Spicy Molasses Bars
- Mint Chocolate Smoothie
- Strawberry Ice Cream
These decadent little brownies also have banana (used in place of eggs), cinnamon, vanilla extract, regular or non-dairy, semi-sweet chocolate chips (you can also use antioxidant and vitamin-rich carob, chopped walnuts (optional), instant oats or oat flour (made simply by blending oats in a food processor).
Can these brownies really be good, you ask? I can’t believe it – they are awesome. So easy to make and you can feel good knowing that these are free from refined sugar.
You can decrease the amount of (natural) sugar by using less maple syrup or using a bit less banana (though you do want at least one banana as this is essential to thickening, as a replacement for egg.
These are so yummy, you won’t know beans are in these! Try this recipe, and see for yourself. And if you are feeling extra decadent, serve warm and top with Banana Nice cream! Talk about a decadent treat….
I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below for this Black Bean Brownies recipe! If you have a photo, post it on my Facebook page, tag me using the hashtag #plantbasedcooking
Black Bean Brownies
Equipment
- Measuring Cups and Spoons
Ingredients
- 1 (15-oz.) can low-sodium black beans drained and rinsed (or or 1 1/2 cups homemade)
- 2 medium ripe bananas
- 1/4 cup maple syrup
- 1/4 cup coconut or date sugar
- 1/4 cup unsweetened cacao.
- 1/2 cup instant oats or oat flour made in a blender or food processor from raw oats
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tbsp Ceylon cinnamon*
- 1 tsp vanilla extract non-alcoholic preferred
- 1/2 cup vegan chocolate chips or mini vegan chocolate chips
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly coat an 8×6″ pan with cooking spray or use parchment paper. For thicker brownies, use a bread pan and cook a little longer.
- Combine all ingredients, except oats and chocolate chips, in a food processor. Blend until smooth.
- Stir in the oat flour / oats until blended well. Fold in chocolate chips and nuts. Pour batter into the pan. Bake 30-35 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. They will be soft but firm up as they cool.
How many grams in a serving. I have found the calorie counta hard to asses without an approx a mount per serving
Hi, I’m sorry it’s taken me some time to respond. I’ve been looking into your question and I’m taking a guess that the brownies are about 3 oz. per serving which would be about 85 grams. But, I’ve decided to make a batch today and, indeed, weight them. Look for my response soon 🙂 Hi again, so I made a batch today and a serving was 2 brownies per person, 12 brownies total. For two brownies it is about 75 grams.
How is this plant based if you want 1/4 cup sugar? Can we skip the sugar and just use the maple syrup?
Yep, I think maple syrup will work. Date or coconut sugar might work, too, so I think I’ll put that into the recipe instead. Thanks for pointing that out.
All sugar comes from either – sugar cane or sugar beet. Yes after that is element of processing- but sugar is plant based.
Hey Jen, You’re right, sugar is plant-based. As you’re probably aware, a whole food, plant-based diet recommends staying away from processed food and I think that’s more what the comment is referring to. Any sugar substitute isn’t much better in terms of nutrition and what it does in our bodies, though…
Can you clarify, ate you supposed to use 1/4 cup maple syrup and another 1/4 cup of date/coconut/maple syrup for a total of 1/2 cup? It’s confusing as maple syrup is listed twice. Thanks
Yes, I see that is confusing. I haven’t made the recipe in a while so I’m going to test it tomorrow as I just made some black beans. 🙂 The original recipe has 1/4 cup maple syrup, however, after a little research I see that many recipes use 1/2 cup. The bananas also help with sweetness. It may depend on how sweet you like your desserts. Luckily, we can taste the batter to see if it’s to our liking. Start with 1/4 maple syrup, then add more depending on taste. I’ll have more feedback for you tomorrow after I’ve tested the recipe. 🙂
Hello, did you ever test the recipe to see if it needs 1/4 c. maple syrup plus another 1/4 of maple syrup or another sugar? Thanks.
Hi Jeannette, I did make the recipe recently and felt like it needed a little more sweetness than just the 1/4 cup of maple syrup. I updated the recipe to reflect that so instead of only 1/4 cup maple syrup OR 1/4 cup coconut or date sugar, it now has both with the option to decrease if desired for less sweetness. I hope that helps.
Hi, can you provide more feedback please? Also is the calorie count correct? 368 for one ?
Hey, Jane… I’m going to check the calorie count again and let you know. And, what other kind of feedbacck do you need?
Can we use dates in place of sweetner?
I think dates would work well, but I haven’t tried it. Let me know how they turn out if you do this. It’d be great to list it as an option.