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Fudgy Lentil Brownies. High Protein Brownies that dont taste beany! Just process and bake. Vegan Gluten-free Recipe. Can be Nut-free
I love my Chickpea Peanut Butter Cookie Pie (you all do too, so many remakes!!). Currently, 1. I am on a break from chickpeas, 2. Chickpeas can tend to dry out. 3. I know black bean brownies are the rage, but the texture hasn’t worked for me. Enter lentils. Red Lentils.
The Quick cooking Lentils that dont have a skin, hence will not add the skin texture like beans. Cook the lentils, melt some chocolate, Process together with a bit of nut butter and the rest of the ingredients to make a batter. Pour into a pan and bake! Super Fudgy, Super Delicious!
These are not the usual brownie texture when they are just baked, but settle into a more fudgy state after cooling, esp chilling. For the regular super gooey, super chocolatey, super brownie Brownies, See the version in my book! There is a gluten-free option too.
There brownies are higher in protein with the lentils and nut butter, are gooey and chocolatey and perfect for the chocolate craving! Lets get to these.
More Fun Bakes from the blog
- No Bake Hazelnut Walnut Brownies. GF
- Vegan Pumpkin Brownies
- Brownie Cookie Dough bars. GF
- Gluten-free Brownies and Brownie Mix. GF
- Vegan Almond Butter Blondies with Chocolate Chips , GF
- Bleuberry Brownies!
- Coconut Flour Brownies GF
You can use cooked chickpeas in these brownies. Just bake them until set at the edges. If you make these brownies, do let me know how they turned out! 7+ gm of Protein per serve!
Cook the lentils.
Lentil Brownies
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup red lentils
- 3 tbsp oil
- 3 tbsp maple syrup
- 1/2 cup vegan semi sweet chocolate chips, ( or a mix of semi sweet and dark)
- 4 tbsp sugar, (1 tbsp more for sweeter)
- 1/3 cup nut butter (heaping cup), (I like cashew butter), Use sunflower seed butter for Nutfree
- 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup flour of choice, All purpose, oat or glutenfree blend for gluten-free (add a tbsp starch if using gf flour and not a blend)
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
- 1/4 cup vegan chocolate chips to top and mix in.
Instructions
- Line a brownie pan with parchment paper ( I use 8 by 8 inch). Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F/180ºc . 9 by 5 loaf also works
- Rinse the red lentils. Drain and add to a saucepan. Add 1.5 cups of water and cook partially covered over medium heat. Cook for 12 to 13 minutes or until the lentils are cooked (total time including coming to a boil). Stir once in between. Cool for a few minutes, then drain any excess water from the saucepan (there should be hardly any). Add to a food processor or blender. (For instant pot, pressure cook for 2 minutes then quick release after 5 minutes, drain well and use)
- Heat maple syrup and oil in a skillet over medium heat. When hot, add chocolate and sugar and mix. Take off heat. Continue to mix until chocolate is melted and well combined
- Add the melted chocolate and the rest of the ingredients(except 1/4 cup chocolate chips) to the food processor and process until a smooth batter. (Add 1 tbsp Dutch processed Cocoa powder for chocolatey brownies (highly recommended as chocolate chips vary in flavor). ***
- Pour into prepared brownie pan. Sprinkle 2 tbsp chocolate chips on top and mix them in. Sprinkle more to top. (I like to use mini chocolate chips to top). Bake for 32to 35minutes. Bake them a bit longer for more set and crispier edges. Check with a toothpick from the center if too soft/wet.
- Cool for 15 minutes before slicing and serving. Refrigerate for upto 4 days, freeze for later. The brownie texture improves after refrigeration for a bit.
Video
Notes
Add spices such as cinnamon if you like , or fold in chopped walnuts in the batter for variation. *** You want to process or blend while the melted chocolate is still warm so that the batter is flowy and easy to pour out into the pan. Blending with a blender is also easier when ingredients are warm. Nutrition is 1 of 8 serves (2 pieces)
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Great brownies! I made them last night with peanut butter/whole wheat flour and added cocoa powder. I left out all of the white sugar that was called for and they tasted amazing (you can’t tell they use lentils at all), so you’re probably fine to ditch it if anybody else decides to make them. Thanks!
awesome!
Do these have an alternative flavour? They look absolutely amazing and I’m desperate to try them! When the builders are out the house and I have an oven back (rather than cooking on the BBQ or with a microwave!) I’ll be making these.
I made black bean brownies once and they had such a strong bean flavour, I’m a little apprehensive :/
not really. add a bit more vanilla and cocoa to mask it even more. black beans are much stronger flavor in general. red lentils are mild and with nut butter, they become very nut buttery
Hi, do you think that I can use coconut flour? Or it is better to stick to oat flour? Thanks
Yes you can use coconut flour. 3 tbsp should be enough. You might want to add a tbsp of starch for binding as coconut flour has no binding.
Yum. Really nice brownies. For me the cooking time could have been less though as mine weren’t as gooey as I’d have liked. Maybe it’s just my oven though.
Great! Yes adjust that based on the oven, pan etc.
Red lentils, that’s a new one to me! I really wanna give this a try, I just wish ovens were a thing in Thailand, haha. It’s on my list for my oven binge once I return to Europe!
You can make the batter into fat pancakes i think. Add a bit more flour. Use a cookie cutter so that batter rises within in. and cook at low-medium heat.
Thanks for the suggestion, that’s definitely worth a try for my next chocolate craving!
Love that you used a bean that isn’t a garbanzo bean or black bean for a brownie! I love this idea. Red lentils are always amazing for anything that you’d need for a thick paste. Brownies are no exception! These look absolutely incredible and I bet they taste even better!
If I wanted to omit oil, how would you adjust recipe?
Chocolate chips have oil , so there is quite some oil in the recipe. You can omit the added oil and sub with 1 tbsp more nut butter
Perfect. Great suggestion, thx!
loved this! I used garbanzos with a few lentils cooked in since that’s what I had already cooked and you were right, they worked just fine! I made them this morning and they’ll be a surprise dessert to celebrate with tonight. What a nice recipe!!! (PS, I made them in a parchment lined loaf pan as I only have a big rectangle pan and some rounds…they seemed to work really nicely in terms of batter amount).
Perfect!!
Thank you for the great recipe! This became my favorite brownie recipe and I baked them more than 3 times.
My question is your brownies in the picture seem thicker than mine. Mine is pretty flat and I’m wondering if there’s any way to make it thicker?
I’m using the same size of the pan
Double the batter for a thicker brownie.
I put a tablespoon of ground flax to simulate a more eggy texture and add even more fiber. Came out very well. Baking time was less.
I am thinking about subbing some flour for cocoa powder. I would like them to be darker. Great recipe! Love the lentils.
Awesome! yes you an mix in 1 tbsp cocoa powder while processing. It doesnt add much dry to the recipe so the batter wont change much.
Why did you stop putting the “Jump to Recipe” button? Also, this is a very creative recipe, and I like it 🙂
Thanks! these are super fudgy! The button doesnt work correctly on the main page, so i add it later to the posts. (which i obviously tend to forget :)). I should set up a monthly reminder to update the posts.