These Vegan Black Bean Brownies are seriously fudgy, rich and indulgent and are the best healthy dessert!
Why you’ll love these Vegan Black Bean Brownies:
- you’ll definitely never notice the black beans
- they’re fudgy, gooey and tender
- they’re seriously indulgent but secretly healthy
- they’re packed full of protein and fibre
- they’re perfect for satisfying sweet cravings
- they’re undetectably vegan and gluten-free
- they’re refined sugar free and date-sweetened
- they’re grain-free
- they’re oil-free
- they’re easy to make
- they’re ready in 30 minutes
- they require just one bowl (food processor) to make!
How to make these Vegan Black Bean Brownies
Scroll down to the bottom of the post for the full recipe (including measurements and full instructions).
- First, start off by adding the black beans, soaked and drained dates, cocoa powder, almond butter, salt and plant-based milk to a
food processor or
blender.
- Once you’ve whizzed that all up until it’s completely smooth, add the ground almonds (almond meal) and baking powder.
- And blend again briefly to combine.
- Transfer the batter to a
square baking tin.
Tip: Line the tin with greased 
- Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes – be very careful not to over-bake them!
- Leave to cool slightly before cutting into squares!
Substitutions you can make to this recipe:
- you can use any type of nut or seed butter – almond butter, peanut butter, cashew butter, sunflower seed butter etc
- you can use any type of plant-based milk – almond milk, cashew milk, soy milk, rice milk, oat milk etc
- you can substitute the ground almonds with ground hazelnuts or ground walnuts.
How long do these Vegan Black Bean Brownies keep for?
These Black Bean Brownies keep covered in the fridge for up to a few days – the taste or texture remains unchanged which means they’re great for meal prep and making ahead for entertaining.
More vegan chocolate recipes:
- Chocolate Cookie Ice Cream Sandwiches (also made with black beans!)
- Mississippi Mud Pie
- Chocolate Truffle Cake
- Chocolate Baked Donuts
- Chocolate Truffles
If you try out this recipe or anything else from my blog, I’d really love to hear any feedback! Please give it a rating, leave a comment, or tag a photo @rhiansrecipes #rhiansrecipes on Instagram! Thank you.
Vegan Black Bean Brownies (GF)
Ingredients
- 170 g pitted dates soaked overnight in cold water or 10 minutes in boiling water
- 400 g tin of black beans , drained and rinsed
- 35 g cocoa powder
- 2 tablespoons smooth almond butter (or sub peanut butter)
- 175 ml unsweetened almond milk (or sub any other plant-based milk)
- Pinch salt to taste
- 135 g ground almonds (almond meal) (or sub ground hazelnuts or walnuts)
- 2 teaspoons baking powder (ensure gluten-free if necessary)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius (350 degrees Fahrenheit)
- Drain away the water from the soaked dates and all to a food processor or blender with the black beans, cocoa powder, almond butter, almond milk and salt
- Blend until completely smooth, mixing it around a couple of times if necessary
- And the ground almonds and baking powder and blend briefly just to combine
- Transfer the mixture into a square or rectangular baking tin lined with greased baking paper
- Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes. They should be slightly cracked at the top and slightly firm inside but still quite gooey - be careful not to overcook!
- Leave to cool before cutting into squares
- Keeps covered in the fridge for up to a few days
Disclosure: This posts contains affiliate links to Amazon. If you click through and purchase any of these films, a small percentage will come to me, with no extra cost to you! This income will go towards the running of this blog – thank you.
Laurel
These brownies look AMAZING! Can’t wait to give them a try.
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much Laurel, I’m so glad you like them! Please do let me know how you get on if you do try them 🙂
Mary Zdrojewski
Ooh! I’m going to make these asap! I can’t get canned adzuki beans where I live. If I cook them from dry, how many cups would that be? About 3.5?
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much! Yes around 3.5 cups sounds good. You can always taste the mixture once you’ve blended it and add more cocoa powder for chocolate flavour or dates for sweetness if you think it’s necessary. Hope this helps and please let me know if you have any other questions 🙂 Thank you!
Gerry
Thankyou so much for this delicious recipe! ? Its so amazing that something so chocolatey good is packed with beans! Just wondered about the consistency of the recipe – I used 500g cooked adzuki beans (cooked from dry) and I certainly couldn’t “pour” my mixture into the baking tin as it was more like a dough. Am I missing something or should their be some liquid added somewhere?…… Otherwise how does one get a “pourable” mixture from beans and dates? And also I couldn’t swirl in the caramel at the end as the mixture was too thick! ? Thankyou in advance for clearing up my confusion! ?
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much, so glad you like it! I didn’t find it necessary to add any liquid as the adzuki beans and soaked dates I used were already quite liquidy when blended. If it’s looking quite thick then I’d say add a small amount of any kind of milk (or water) until you get a thinner consistency that you’d be able to swirl the caramel into. I hope that helps and sorry you had some problems with the recipe!
Anonymous
Really easy to make and tasted amazing. Love that it contains lots of protein and fibre too.
Rhian Williams
Thank you!
Karla
I made them today and was very excited. After the first try I was absolutely dissapointed. They are disgusting. Nobody likes them, not even my little son who eats pretty much everything. They taste like beans with cocoa. Almost no sweetness, though I used more dates. I hate throwing away food, but I really can’t force them down.
Too bad about the beautiful dates, they are so expensive here.
Rhian Williams
I’m so sorry to hear you didn’t like the recipe, and sorry about the waste too.
Montse Sarrión
Hi!
I’m just wondering, why did you put baking powder and bicarbonate if there is not any flour in the dough, nothing is going to raise, do I’m wrong?
Thank you.
Rhian Williams
Hi! The baking powder and bicarbonate help to keep the mixture light and it will rise slightly whilst baking. However as there is no flour involved, the recipe will still work if you omit these. Hope that helps!
Suzanne
Can the dates be substituted by monk fruit or erythritol? Thanks.
Rhian Williams
Really sorry I haven’t ever cooked with either…would love to hear how you get on if you try anything though. Thank you!
Leslie LaCava
I notice that many of your recipes are in metric measurements. But then they also contain some American measurements. Is it possible that you can publish a conversion chart or begin to include both measurements in one recipe?
Rhian Williams
Hi – you can switch between US and metric measurements if you click the buttons at the bottom of the ingredients list that let you switch between the two. I’m currently going through and updating all my recipes so that readers can switch between metric and US measurements using the buttons rather than having them both on one row. Hope that helps and sorry it was unclear!
Moby
Some of the moistest vegan brownies I have ever made!
Rhian Williams
Thank you so much!
ROKENIA WELLS
Hey ..I made these the other day and they were amazing. My son who isn’t gluten free nor vegan loved it also. Keep the recipes coming.
Rhian Williams
Aw yay thank you so much, so happy to hear that!
Leah
Can I substitute cocoa powder for cocao powder, or would I need to add more or less of something else?
Rhian Williams
Yes you can substitute with cacao powder, I would recommend using a little bit less cacao powder than cocoa powder as it’s a bit stronger but it won’t change the recipe otherwise!
Julia
Hey Rhian,
I just made the brownies… they taste AMAZING & they are healthy – I am SO greatful for ur recipes as they make my life as a vegan very easy.
I get a lot of inspiration on here!
I made the brownies for a birthday party & no one knew they were vegan or contained beans – everyone loved them – they coulnd´t believe when I told them about the ingredients. Btw. I used kidney beans and it worked out very well!
Also a BIG plus is – kids can eat them without having to worry bout refined sugar etc.
Thank you Rhian !
Rhian Williams
Hi Julia, thank you so much for your feedback! I’m so glad you liked the brownies! Great idea to use kidney beans, thanks for sharing!