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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.
Love these. Have made them a few times now. Guilt free brownies. Quick and easy to make for a delicious sweat treat.Fantastic, I needed this recipe ,thank you.
🙂
fantastic. I have made this recipe 4 times already.I cant get enough , there so easy and delicious plus ,convinced my self they are healthy, Guilt free brownies. Love it
yay!
I read recently how good lentils are for us humans, and our environment. So I looked up lentil brownies. And here was your recipe.
Delicious!
Mine didn’t hold together well, probably due to the lack of a food processor or blender. Next time I might add a flax egg.
Thank you.
that would help! enjoy!
I made this for my husband for Valentine’s Day. He loves them! Knowing there are lentils inside makes us feel less guilty about having a chocolatey dessert.
Wonderful! So glad you both enjoy the recipe. 🙂
These are very good. I added an egg because I wasn’t paying attention. I added 1/8 tsp cayenne pepper, 1/4 tsp decaf coffee crystals. Baked as muffins. Made 16 small and baked 23 minutes. Next time I will add chopped nuts. The egg probably made them cakier but still good texture
Sounds yum!
I’ve made these a few times since I first stumbled upon this recipe and love them! They come out really fudgy! I’ve also frozen them on 2 occasions and they were fine after freezing!
The last two times I skipped the maple syrup (due to running out) and used half the recommended sugar. I used plain 90% chocolate (with hardly any sugar) and it came out great!
I don’t like it overly sweet so cutting down heaps on the sugar is what works for me! 🙂 Love the use of lentils + peanut butter – two of my favorite ingredients!! 🙂
excellent =)
Absolutely delicious! I used tahini for the nut butter.
In my convection oven (I live in Austria) i only had to bake them for about 23 minutes.
They turned out great!! Thanks for your awesome recipe that saved my cooking fail (i had accidentally added homemade simple syrup instead of homenade broth to my lentils… Lol)
glad that it still turned out!! sweet & savoury lentils
Fantastic. I didn’t have chocolate chips so used 1/3 cup cocoa and 1/4 cup sugar plus the maple syrup. I left out the oil so added extra water. Perhaps 1/4 cup. 20 minutes baking. So fudgy.
Awesome
This was easy and quick to make and the brownies taste pretty good! The brownie texture was uplifted by the chocolate chips on the crust. To the next iteration, I would:
– Add walnuts
– Stick to the recommended amount of sugar (we decreased it slightly and that may not have been the best idea)
Additionally, my SO who is vegan enjoyed the slightly grainy texture from the lentil which deviates from the normal brownie texture but is nonetheless enjoyable. Many cultures use lentils in their desserts and this recipe just makes a ton of sense.
Thanks! Blend longer and yes the sugar amount adds structure as well.
OMG!!! amazing!!! You would never say it has lentils on it. My family loved it!
Thank you
Excellent !! thank you